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Honduras Bans All Violent Games & Toys

Posted by timothy on from the yeah-that'll-work dept.

DaytonCIM writes "Honduras has issued a blanket ban on all violent videogames and toys, which is set to come into effect next June - giving retailers in the country a six month grace period to clear stocks of the games from their inventories. Among the banned games named are Resident Evil, Shadowman, Street Fighter, Turok, Perfect Dark, Quake and Doom. Read more here."

10 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. So it's gonna be peaceful now? by GuyMannDude · · Score: 5, Funny

    I always wondered why Honduras was such a violent place. Guess it was all those videogames, huh? Well, now that the problem has been solved, I guess I'll take the Misses to that now-peaceful paradise for a second honeymoon...

    GMD

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    watch this
  2. I wonder if they.... by HotNeedleOfInquiry · · Score: 5, Funny

    Banned chess.

    --
    "Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
  3. only games ? by SpiritC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    why not movies ? comics ? ads ? news ? etc, etc, etc

    --
    Smile... tomorrow will be worse.
    1. Re:only games ? by sweetooth · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When removing video games and toys doesn't work the other things will go. It's a gradual progression so that people don't care as much.

    2. Re:only games ? by SAN1701 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The Bible also has some horrendous violent stories (like killing all mankind, children included, except for one family in a boat). Will they have the guts?

  4. Devil's advocate... by 3-State+Bit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We live in a society in which there is a large population of people who think it perfectly natural to do a risk/gain analysis of the idea of murdering someone, threatening to murder someone, etc.

    This does not need to be the case...while a huge number of people are willing to beat up other people, cut or stab them, or shoot them, there are very very few people who are willing to gauge someone's eye out.

    Our art and media does not portray eye-gaugings, and the very thought is sickening to people.

    Well you know what? I think that if the very thought of what is portrayed in violent materials made us feel the way we feel about eye-gauging, that is, if we weren't desensitized to it, then it would not even occur to people to do a risk/gain analysis. (However irrationally).

    You can really hurt someone by gauging their eyes out and letting them continue to live. There are a lot of people who want to hurt other people, who don't know any other way to live.

    As long as our art shows us what it means to do x, in a context that does not sicken us, there will be x.

    Policy-makers should look closely at the work of sociologists in Honduras over the next generation, looking especially at the ways in which violent crime changes.

    Let me reiterate my main point: There are certain things in society that people don't think to do, because they are, and by rights should be, disgusting and wrong actions.

    Violence and carnage should be one of these.

    Honestly, I can get just as worked up over an abstract game (tetris, space invaders) as one in which I see the human form maimed and injured.

    Look outside yourself for a moment: Do you think it is possible that we can redefine our ethos such that certain thoughts are sickening to people, and that among these thoughts there could be all actions violent?

    1. Re:Devil's advocate... by matthewn · · Score: 4, Funny
      Why are you so damn worried about people getting their eyes measured?

      (see gauging vs. gouging)

    2. Re:Devil's advocate... by redfiche · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Violence and carnage have existed as long as man has. There is a dark side to human nature, and repressing it will not make it go away. Look what happened in Victorian England. I think we need to understand and accept the dark side of human nature, release our baser instincts in ways that are not damaging to society, and teach our children self-restraint, as opposed to self-denial.

      There will always be people who "think to do ... disgusting and wrong actions." The Nazis didn't need video games or movies to help them think up the holocaust. Jack the ripper didn't have hollywood to spur him to his madness. It's always been there, and blaming society is missing the point entirely.

      --

      Brevity is the soul of wit

      -- Polonius

    3. Re:Devil's advocate... by GigsVT · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't like your example. Shooting someone with a gun is fairly clean, hands-off, from a distance. You could even be up to a mile away. Contrast that with the close up and personal contact involved with gouging someone's eyes, blood spattering all over you, squishing noises, etc, etc.

      One in inherently more involved and personal that the other. Of course one is going to be more repulsive than the other. I don't think your argument is very strong based on this example.

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      I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
  5. Societal problem. by Em+Emalb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When you have a social situation where the majority are scraping by, the minority are rich beyond belief, as well as living in gated communities with body guards, guns, etc., you will have this problem.

    Lack of apathy breeds violence.

    In this situation, if you banned all guns, knives, and machetes, you'd have people dying from being stabbed to death by forks.

    If there is no hope and you have nothing to lose, then murder and violence is bound to happen.

    Ban the recreational stuff, but make sure those guns are still easy to get.

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    Sent from your iPad.