Oklahoma passes Games = Porn Bill

CptStern

CptStern

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Evil Avatar said:
IGN is reporting that the Oklahoma Senate has unamimously approved a bill that would essentially treat 'inappropriate' games as pornography, thus seriously limiting the retail options for any game designated as such.
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IGN said:
HB3004 seeks to amend an existing Oklahoma statute, and redefine what is considered "harmful to minors." Authored by State Rep. Fred Morgan (R), the bill would add "inappropriate violence" to the statute. In the actual wording of the bill, "harmful to minors" means: "the material or performance lacks serious literary, scientific, medical, artistic, or political value for minors." (But if Sony is going to have to demonstrate the serious literary, scientific, medical, artistic or political value of the latest Ratchet & Clank game, they may be in trouble.)

The effect of this legislation, if passed, would mean the Oklahoma government could designate certain games "inappropriate," and the games would then be treated like pornography—meaning it would be illegal for retailers to sell the game to minors. [you wouldnt be able to buy such a game at any of the usual retailers] What makes the Oklahoma Senate's unanimous decision particularly significant is that similar bills in other states have been killed time and time again, because of the same vague wording of HB3004's definitions of "inappropriate."
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the bill still has to pass signing by the governor before it's made into law, which it looks like it will, which then means that the gaming industry will have a 1st amendment fight on their hands
 
A big WTF at how they could possibly have unanimously approved that.

I seriously just pictured a bunch of 95 year old men still wearing British colonial era wigs going "rabble rabble rabble!" as their senate.
 
Well, see, it doesn't really matter, because as anyone knows, OKLAHOMA FUCKING SUCKS. It's nothing but white trash, religious zealots, and incestual farmers. I predict that their statehood will be revoked any day now.
 
I swear to God after I finish college I'm moving to England. I'll come back when all the old people who are passing these laws have died off.
 
Oh man, I am SO coming with. Parties with Angry Lawyer and Sulkdodds ftmfw!
 
JNightshade said:
Oh man, I am SO coming with. Parties with Angry Lawyer and Sulkdodds ftmfw!
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Dude, if we both end up going to the same uni, we're totally going to england and getting drunk with Lawyer/Badger/Sulky/Glenn and the rest.
 
:D!

But first, be sure to check out McGill in Canada. Great education for the price of UMass + drinking age of 18 + extremely low penalties for possession of weed + amazing city + general awesomeness = FTMFW.
 
The Governor isn't allowed to pass this, wtf o__o. THIS GOES AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION.
 
RakuraiTenjin said:
Hey I can't do anything about it it's Oklahoma's law.

edit: well I mean I understand you mean in activism but with this specifically I can't through any voting or anything.
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I thought it was pretty obvious I was asking you to move to oklahoma ....well? are you there yet?

:cheese:
 
Ikerous said:
why?
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Videogames are protected under free speech. This isn't the 1940s and 50s. I thought we had learned from our retardation, but I guess not :|
 
He's not banning them completely. Though, I fail to see how letting kids look at porn is violating anyone's rights.
 
DeusExMachina said:
Videogames are protected under free speech. This isn't the 1940s and 50s. I thought we had learned from our retardation, but I guess not :|
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They're not banning video games :/
They're just saying that some of them aren't appropriate for children
Just like they do with certain movies and books
I dont see how it goes against the first ammendment...
 
They're comparing it to porn. We already had effective ratings in place. E, T, M. The same thing happened in the 80s when DC wanted to plaster disclaimers on their comics "For Mature Audiences Only." Moore and Miller didn't stand for that BS.
 
Ikerous said:
They're not banning video games :/
They're just saying that some of them aren't appropriate for children
Just like they do with certain movies and books
I dont see how it goes against the first ammendment...
Click to expand...



it does ..it's the wording of the law:


"inappropriate violence" = "harmful to minors" which in turn means:

"the material or performance lacks serious literary, scientific, medical, artistic, or political value for minors."

therefore it is equated under the same laws that regulate the distribution of pornography which in turn limits it's retail distribution (no big retailer will carry it)

as of now games are protected as a form of free expression. This law infringes on that right
 
I can't see a problem with this bill. What they're saying is that games with violence are unsuitable for children, and that retailers shouldn't sell them to under 18s.

I agree. Whats the problem here?
 
Parrot of doom said:
I can't see a problem with this bill. What they're saying is that games with violence are unsuitable for children, and that retailers shouldn't sell them to under 18s.

I agree. Whats the problem here?
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why is it so hard for people to read the material they're presented? what they're saying is that games deemed "inappropiate" meaning those games that:

"..lack serious literary, scientific, medical, artistic, or political value for minors."

which puts it in the same catagory as Pornography; subjected to the same restrictions in distribution. Take any future GTA games as an example: if they deem it to be inappropiate to minors (which they shouldnt have access to anyway because the games are rated M) they'll slap it with an AO label (adults only or on the same scale as pornography) meaning no big retail chain will carry it making GTA a very hard game to come by in Oklahoma regardless of how old the person buying it is. Should more states adopt this tactic more and more publishers will have to force developers to curb violence/adult themes in ALL titles because of the restrictive distribution that could potentially lose them millions in lost sales
 
Pesmerga said:
He's not banning them completely. Though, I fail to see how letting kids look at porn is violating anyone's rights.
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Well, you do have individuals that think teaching kids abstinence is the best way to prevent young people from having sex. Not teach them about condoms or any of that.
Abstinence.

Sometimes I wonder why half of America hasn't blown up yet with all the nukes there :p
 
That's it. It's time to nuke Oklahoma. I mean these losers voted unanimously for this? How sad is that?
 
Beerdude26 said:
Well, you do have individuals that think teaching kids abstinence is the best way to prevent young people from having sex. Not teach them about condoms or any of that.
Abstinence.

Sometimes I wonder why half of America hasn't blown up yet with all the nukes there :p
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Well, there's still a 1% chance to knock someone up with a condom on :p. You're right, though, my country is effing retarded. Being the 'underdog' if you will, is so much better (a la Poland, any other civilized democratized nation that doesn't elect shitty leaders, hell even China is doing better as far as I know).
 
The only harmful thing about games is their ability to affect your grades or work.

I was too involved in games growing up, it affected my grades. But it didn't affect me adversely in any other way. Stupid bill.
 
They can affect people, but still...

I'm probably just going over somthing someone else has said but - Games can be bad, drugs can be bad and porn can be bad. But just because you don't understand them doesn't mean you have to shun them eveywhere.

As soon as the next generation get into government, the world might run a bit better.
 
They've gotten the law wrong. They shouldn't be banning video games. They should be banning stupid parents.
 
I'm going to propose a new law:

If a minor goes on a violent "rampage", harming one or more people- if video games are found to be in any way connected to the incident, the parent and the child will be jailed for an equal amount of time, to be deemed proper by a judge.

Actually, I'm not, because I don't know how.
 
At least you've written it down somewhere on the internet. That's a good first step.
 
Solution - everyone come to England for a huge pissup. The drinking age here is 18, so you all get your first (legal) taste of booze! And you get to see meeeeee! And I'll harvest your kidneys!

-Angry Lawyer
 
Angry Lawyer said:
Solution - everyone come to England for a huge pissup. The drinking age here is 18, so you all get your first (legal) taste of booze! And you get to see meeeeee! And I'll harvest your kidneys!

-Angry Lawyer
Click to expand...

You can go anywhere to get your kidneys harvested... but you can only go one place to meet Angry Lawyer!
 
Angry Lawyer said:
Solution - everyone come to England for a huge pissup. The drinking age here is 18, so you all get your first (legal) taste of booze! And you get to see meeeeee! And I'll harvest your kidneys!

-Angry Lawyer
Click to expand...

Will there be iced tea? Sugarless if possible n_n?
 
Iced tea? This is England. Tea, by default, comes with sugar and milk, piping hot.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Angry Lawyer said:
Iced tea? This is England. Tea, by default, comes with sugar and milk, piping hot.

-Angry Lawyer
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And in a mug :p
 
Scotch will be served on the rocks. Two ice cubes, to be precise, in a glass tumbler.

-Angry Lawyer
 
CptStern said:
why is it so hard for people to read the material they're presented? what they're saying is that games deemed "inappropiate" meaning those games that:

"..lack serious literary, scientific, medical, artistic, or political value for minors."

which puts it in the same catagory as Pornography; subjected to the same restrictions in distribution. Take any future GTA games as an example: if they deem it to be inappropiate to minors (which they shouldnt have access to anyway because the games are rated M) they'll slap it with an AO label (adults only or on the same scale as pornography) meaning no big retail chain will carry it making GTA a very hard game to come by in Oklahoma regardless of how old the person buying it is. Should more states adopt this tactic more and more publishers will have to force developers to curb violence/adult themes in ALL titles because of the restrictive distribution that could potentially lose them millions in lost sales
Click to expand...

But that game is quite clearly suitable only for adults. Therefore being 'adult only' should not affect its saleability.

If any chains refuse to sell it, then they would be doing so at their own cost. Besides which, if Valve can make a product like Steam work, what makes you think that other developers won't follow suit?
 
Originally Posted by Angry Lawyer
Scotch will be served on the rocks. Two ice cubes, to be precise, in a glass tumbler.
Click to expand...

...
That's it. I'm going.
 
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