Australian kontroversey spills into US; 8 states ban M-rated games [April Fools’ Day]
Hold it right there!
In a completely unprecedented move by US courts, the governments of eight states -including Wisconsin, Illinois, and Vermont- passed temporary measures last night to prevent the release of Mortal Kombat (Xbox 360, Playstation 3) over concerns of the graphic, violent content it contains. Citing the series gruesome fatalities and disturbing mutilation, several state senators have called Mortal Kombat “the worst game our nation’s children have seen since Mortal Kombat (1992).”
While the proposed legislation does not directly ban M-rated video games, the wording refers to “gratuitous gore or personal harm for the sake of inflicting personal harm” as gaming elements that could cause roadblocks for future releases.
Of course, for everyone living in Australia, all of this will sound familiar. Earlier this year, Mortal Kombat was declassified and thus banned from sale throughout the country. Video game advocates stateside have always assumed gaming violence would be protected under free speech ruling, as it has been for nearly 25 years.
While Netherrealms is fighting the passage of these rulings on a case-by-case basis, several governors, including Florida governor Rick Scott, have asked state courts to issue temporary injunctions that could prevent the sale of all M-rated video games until further notice. While online and digital download services like Steam will probably not be affected, it’s also possible that in the long term, such platforms may be restricted by regional encoding or other barriers to prevent online circumvention.
God Bless America.
Why Mortal Kombat? I mean really? Resident Evil, Manhunt, Left for Dead, Dead Rising, Dead Space, Meat Boy (you play the game WITH gore) all these games have gore all the time, but Mortal Kombat has it after every match. There are breaks in the goreness. We are becoming pansies. Children in other countries enlist in armies by the age of eleven. I’m not saying every child in the world must play this game, but it is no worse than any other title on the market today. We will eventually be the society in Demolition Man, three seashells here we come.
K so trolled I was, and trolled I b lol, but hey there is some scary facts if you look into this article. Arnold Schwartzanaigerer (you know) fought to have M-rated games banned in California, and numerous other countries already have bans in place. Piss poor timing to worry about how audiences are effected by violence Arnie. But good one, just took it for real. (Still think we’re headed for three seashells).
From what I could gather when that shit was going down, no one was lobbying to get M+ rated games banned but they wanted to make it so you had to be of a certain age and present ID to buy games of a certain rating. I could be horribly wrong in thinking that was the situation but honestly, I wouldn’t find that to be unreasonable.
Also, getting serious for a minute, saying that children in shitty situations in turbulent countries enlist in the army and that means that the rest of us are becoming pansies or we’re too protective of children is a pretty weak thing to say especially when you consider that a number of those children didn’t actually join the army by choice.
Now everyone get back to putting cling film over the toilet seat.
Yes, I went to the extreme with the military thing, but my point in using that was we as Americans protect our children too harshly when it comes to the real world sometimes. Then suddenly they are flung into it be it after high school, or during, or middle school and no they didn’t ask for that either. I didn’t ask for the peer pressure everyday at school, or the bullies I had at me everyday. Life is hard, and unfair at times. I played any game I wanted growing up, and I was a very passive child not prone to violence even though it was all around me. I’m still a very passive person. I’m sorry you think it was weak of me to say that and I admit I could have used a better analogy, however, children have no voice anywhere, adults make the rules, and pull veils.
i agre with the ginger noob viking jk sorry i had to say that u r awesome
look at the date. APRIL FOOLS!
Suddenly, Brazil is diamonds.
Canada= 18 billion dollar deficit. IN ONTARIO ONLY.
We don’t time to ban M+ rated games. We too poor
baning m-rated games is a waist of time and think about the children what r they going to do play shity teen games
Well we all know that games of a lower rating are never played nor are they popular so we may as well just make ALL games M rated, right?
I think that was sarcasm. The only games that people play that aren’t M are racing games.
i do not get this game oh MORTAL KOMBAT i mean what the hell
I know i comment a lot but this is a good websight (and my teacher gives me extra created) go top tier tactics