Debate on Game Censorship Touches on Weighty Topics

Last night a debate hosted by the XFire gaming chat/social network service went into depth on the subject of game censorship. Participants included notables like Entertainment Consumers Association President Hal Halpin, Sacremento Assemblyman Leland Yee, Escapist Editor Russ Pitts, and GamePolitics blogger Dennis McCauley. Transcripts are available of the discussion both on and off the main floor, and both make for some very interesting reading. From the Escapist post on the event: "On the whole, it would seem that everyone, from the senator on down, is concerned about adult-themed content in games and how to preserve the gamemaker's rights to create such content while simultaneously keeping it out of the hands of minors. The devil, of course, is in the details. Exactly how to go about doing that - and defining the types of content to be restricted - is where we all seemed to disagree wildly."

Comments

Look at the box.

[Toonol]

Is there any widely-published videogame in recent history that a parent couldn't make an informed decision about by simply checking the rating, and examining the pictures and text on the box? Nothing could be simpler than that.

On the other hand, if the goal is to keep the games from being passed from kid to kid while on the school bus, well... good luck, but you aren't going to put a dent in that. Nobody has ever stopped adult magazines from being passed around.