Utah: bill that equates games with pornography may pass

[CptStern]

Personally, I think its a great idea.

Nope, not a typing error, I did say its a good idea.

The ripple effect would be painful to the status-quo, but beneficial overall. Publishers have shown no sign of wanting to tackle the 18+ market as a genre in of itself, for fear of losing money. It might seem more than that but in the end, the decisions of corprations always come down to profit and loss.
When they know that the audience is going to be as likely to be under sixteen as it is to be over twenty, they have no motive to match adult content to adult expectations.
Not every kids film can be expected to have generation-spanning appeal - that would be putting too much pressure on film makers surely - but every "mature" game has an unwritten agreement that it will pose no obstacle to entertainment once the purchase has been made, regardless of the consumers age bracket.

I am getting old waiting for the industry to begin serving its 18+ audience a different dish, rather than continually serve all of us sugar all the time. Im prepared to bet that if developers are forced to consider projects as "mature" (sorry,I hate that phrase as well as you) from the first cycle of development, then we would all benefit.

Of course it will never happen outside of Utah, the ramifications for realistic war-games would be too far-reaching.
And we all know how important those little nuggets of culture are going to be in the coming years, dont we ?

you have valid points. Yet I cant help but think that because it is a profit driven market (one that has tight margins where few games make profits) publishers may take a "why bother" attitude when pitched a game that may only appeal to a small segment of gamers. Publishers are ever increasingly funding development of games that are cross platform. The developers usually take a lowest common denominator approach when creating games cross platform. I expect this to transfer over to content so as to reach as wide an audience as possible. So a tactical pc fps becomes an arcady shooter stripped of the tactical element (I'm looking at you rainbow six/ghost recon) so as to appeal to a wider audience

Traditional "adult" games like rts, sim, rpgs may actually see an upsurgenace in popularity (which I think is already in full swing) while fps see a dip in sales as more gamers migrate to consoles for their fps fix


It is a reality in the mac gaming world where few developers bother with a mac version even when approached by willing publishers. Even long time mac developers have moved into pc games ..Bungie and Aspyr probably being the best well known. The former ports console games to pc (mostly B quality) and we all know what the latter's been up to since leaving macs behind

that said, I think developers who are circumventing publishers all together and publishing online may actually revitalize pc gaming. As costs drop developers may be more willing to take more risks because the stakes arent as high. Perhaps these developers will see beyond the need to interpret "adult" as meaning gratuitous violence/nudity and cater to those of us who want something more out of gaming

 

[CptStern]

*UPDATE*


First Amendment Scholars Weigh in on Utah "Games as Porn" Bill

"...the right issue and the wrong solution."

That's the conclusion of noted constitutional law experts Clay Calvert (left) and Robert D. Richards in a review of Utah Rep. David Hogue's notorious "games as porn" bill, now before the state legislature.

Writing in an op-ed for today's Salt Lake City Tribune, credit Hogue for being concerned about youth violence, but take issue with his proposed solution.

The pair, who happen to be co-directors of Penn State's Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment, see clear First Amendment problems for Hogue's bill. Reminding readers of the sorry history of such legislation, they write, "The weight of judicial precedent.. is overwhelmingly against Hogue's bill, which would be caught up in an expensive taxpayer-funded legal battle to defend it in court were it to become law."

Calvert and Richards also question Hogue's focus on video games.

"Even setting aside the trampling upon parental rights and the fatal First Amendment flaws in Hogue's measure, any such law would be entirely ineffective in accomplishing its purpose. Minors are bombarded with violent images from myriad sources, including movies, music, books and even continuous coverage of war-related devastation and terrorist torture tactics on television news."


and the most important part:


"The lesson for the Legislature, then, is that some issues are better dealt with in the home rather than the House."

 

[Quixoticism]

I'm a resentative of Utah. This place is so boring and lame.
Sad too. The highschools suck and are filled with drugs and baby stollers.

As for this, it's the first time I've heard of it. I do think it's rediculous that they're trying to put games on the same plane as pornography. Yes there are some pathetic games that got publicity that had such material, such as Leisure Larry, which I am totally against, but in general games don't have junk like that, and it's a completely unfair attack on video games.

The film industry should be the one under attack here. There hardly isn't a film out that doesn't have a sex scene of sorts now days.