Video Games Are Free Speech

[This link opens a .pdf file with the verdict.]

The Supreme Court of the United States has declared that California can go suck it video games(and certainly violent video games) should be protected as free speech under the constitution, like any other legitimate art-form. Let's all celebrate by murdering someone! =D




But yes, I think this is good news. Although dissenting opinions from two of the judges were kind of weird. Yeah, freedom of speech doesn't extend to speaking to minors without going through their parents first. But this is also true of books and movies parents buy for their kids. And usually a kid only gets access to stuff he shouldn't when he:

a.) Goes out of his way to obtain/steal it,

or:

b.) Convinces his dumbass parents to buy it for them, which they will oblige because they don't care and they just want the little shit to be quiet for 5 minutes, GODDAMNIT

Neither of which should hold video games themselves, or the people who make them responsible. Nor does it mean that they can't be protected under the first amendment, because this is not the same as obscenity. Nor does it mean that video games, or the people who make them, are actively trying to sell to/destroy the sensibilities of children.* Now all we need to do is start producing some titles in this medium that aren't just about chainsawing a dude in half.


*-Unless you are one of the rapists working at EA.

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~A.H.