Today’s videogame news come from one of the most unlikely of sources, The Wall Street Journal, a newspaper that I read every Monday and Friday to keep up on the stock market happenings and what is going on Economically around the world. There is a few cases in the journal that show up and peak my interest such as the Article titled “Videogames as Free-Speech Issue” (Wall Street Journal Marketplace Front page). Tomorrow the estimated $10.5 Billion dollar videogame industry will be presented with a threat coming from the highest court of the land The Supreme Court. The case The Supreme Court will be taking on will ultimately decide the fate of free speech in violent videogames. If the Supreme Court deems it, the protection of Free Speech will be ripped away from videogame developers of violent titles such as Fallout, Gears of War, Call of Duty etc. The heads of many game developers have come out swinging saying that the Rating System already in place on M rated titles which is more than effective in deterring under aged children from purchasing titles with the M rating. Even the movie business and other media industries have concerns as California brings Videogame restriction law to The Supreme Court, saying that a broad restriction of videogames may open the door to restrictions on their media as well.
In the past with other such cases which have only reached federal courts in San Francisco and have been thrown out due to lack of credible research showing that playing videogames harmed minors, was also found to be an unconstitutional effort “to control a minor’s thoughts.”
The Journal quoted Steve Papoutsis head of programming and writing of the M Rated title “Dead Space 2” “We are being questioned at a level where these other forms of media are not.”
With tomorrows Supreme Court Case looming I can’t help but think what will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and we see more restrictions on media.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, Monday November 1, 2010, Marketplace Section page B1
No comments:
Post a Comment