Digital Cream

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth District has ruled that a California Law that would require stiffer penalties for minors purchasing violent video games and more stringent labeling requirements is unconstitutional.

“We hold that the Act violates rights protected by the First Amendment.” – The Honorable Judge Callahan.

Once again another court joins to rule that games are a form of protected speech. Read more about it here at the Video Game Voters Network.

Though this only affects Australia, I still want to highlight the issue as a global one and urge people to take action. I wrote about this in a previous post and unfortunately, nearly three years later, this beast lurches on. In a nutshell, the current coalition (led by the Labor party, the main left party here in Oz) wants to impose two layers of ISP-level net filtering. I fully oppose one and partially oppose the other. They are discussed well at the EFA and the blog Somebody Think Of The Children; I will summarize here. (continued »)

Gday me heartys! So it be that on Talk Like A Pirate Day a story swings upon me decks. Though ‘t be a sore burden t’speak o’ video game laws in this gamesome tone, the laws o’ the sea be the laws o’ the sea, and speak like a landlubber may I not.

Grab yer tankard and roll a barrel to the foredeck as I give ye the news from Oklahoma, far over the rollin’ waves in the New World. It just so happens that a right wise wig-wearin’ man o’ the law there, deemed he a stop t’a law forbiddin’ young scalawags from buyin’ certain video games. (continued »)

Video games, like movies and books, are a nascent but promising form of artistic speech and as such must remain outside the power of any state to outlaw them by a different standard. This kind of law has been defeated on unconstitutional grounds in many states. Pursuing this kind of law wastes taxpayer money and defuses the impetus to take real, effective action against the serious problems of youth violence and antisocial behavior, both at home and in society at large.

Californians, please consider visiting this site opposing this video game law and pass it to other Californians. It helps you urge the governor to give up on his efforts to pass a law making it illegal for minors to purchase certain categories of games.

I posted to an IGDA discussion group something about video game addiction, its relationship to drug addiction and the use of the term “addictive” in the game industry. In the course of this I rabbited on a bit about drug law and treatment. I think it’s worth sharing, as the discussion led me to more nuanced opinions and a lot of new things to think about. (continued »)

Interestingly, my research has revealed that “M15+” games, which IMO closely map to M games in the ESRB system (that is, not suitable for those under 15), can in fact be sold here in Australia to those over 15 or those who are in the company of their parent or guardian (in Queensland, only has to be an adult). So my earlier assertion was wrong.

I wonder if this was a recent (and quiet) change. I’m not very fond of the requirement that an under-15 needs to be accompanied– so I cannot give my son money to go buy a M15+ game at the mall; I have to be there with him as he buys it, the requirement of which I feel abrogates my role as a parent– but that’s not high on my list of injustices to rectify. At least I was able to get Crackdown for my Oz 360, and it is a M15+ game. I think this used to be different; in 2001 GTA3 was not sold here because it was deemed to hot for MA15+ but now the GTAs are sold as MA15+. I’m not sure if they got toned down by Rockstar or the rating definitions flexed a bit.

I previously vowed to discuss and link to studies on both sides of the games and violence issue, and I’m now making good on it. An AMA report summarizes and has links to resources; I have read a few of these articles. In short, the report finds some apparent causal relationship between consumption of violent games and aggressive behavior immediately afterward.

Given my review, I now concede that some amount (perhaps large, perhaps small) of consumption increases aggressive affect and behavior in the immediate period following play of violent games. (continued »)

Video Game Voters called on developers to write a testimonial for lawmakers to read, so I posted a response. (continued »)

The leader of the major Left party in Australia, Labor, advocates making it the law that Oz ISPs by default block certain kinds of offensive material, unless otherwise requested by the ISP customer.

I think this is horrid and I oppose Labor’s stance. I am eager to get citizenship so I can speak out on this kind of thing but in the meantime I’ll just try to yammer on to you Aussies who can take action. (continued »)

I was interviewed for an MSNBC article about parenting and video games by Thomas Loftus. Most of what I have to say is in a sidebar article alongside the main article. Thanks to Jason Della Rocca (IGDA president) for the referral!

Do you think I should someday write a book such as “The Gen-X Parent’s Video Game Survival Guide”? Leave me a comment or drop me a line if you think I should move it toward the top of my to-do list…

Here are the full notes I sent to Mr. Loftus, which talk a lot about my approach to video games in my home, as both a father and as a game developer. (continued »)