The US senate bans violent games

What if the hardline moralist wings of the american society, with the help of activists like Jack Thompson and members of the republican party managed to passa bill banning violent games in the late 90s or early 2000s? Problably after Postal 2 and GTA III had been released?
 
The Gaming industry would still be big enough, it would merely move all its cash and workplaces to Canada, Japan and Europe ... at most it would be a small slump, As i frankly don't believe that they'd be all that good at policing such a ban, specially as i don't believe anyone but the moral guardians would give a rats arse about it, and the deep American pockets that funded the games would still do so, merely doing so though companies with their HQ outside US law.
 
The Gaming industry would still be big enough, it would merely move all its cash and workplaces to Canada, Japan and Europe ... at most it would be a small slump, As i frankly don't believe that they'd be all that good at policing such a ban, specially as i don't believe anyone but the moral guardians would give a rats arse about it, and the deep American pockets that funded the games would still do so, merely doing so though companies with their HQ outside US law.

Wouldn't such laws make selling of games illegal as well, not just producing them?
 
Game producers might try convice banning being unconstitutional and there will be case in Supreme Court.

Movie industry might be quiet worried when they ban violent movies and TV series.

And rest of world keep American legistators total nuts.
 
Wouldn't such laws make selling of games illegal as well, not just producing them?

When did that ever stop anybody? ... specially as we're just on the curb of digital marketing being a valid business plan as the broadband is getting up to speed (remember, this is just about the time where stuff such as Kazaa and Napster surfaced), and it would get to a organized state of proper online marketplaces faster if there suddenly is a relatively large market for whom its the best/only choice. After all ... OTL steam was launched back in 2003, even though for the first handful of years it was basicly valve games only as none of the other publishers joined up.

After all, while it might be illegal to sell it in the US, if the servers and companies are working out of foreign nations, US can't really do much than seethe, as its not illegal in their places, and prehaps actively try and make the digitalization slow down, which would alienate large parts of the industrial businesses, and maybe even the military.

Which interestingly enough might help the Music market as they can catch on to that slipstream, getting their digital distribution up and running faster, having the gaming industry trailblazing.
 
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Asami

Banned
Supreme Court rules such a ban unconstitutional as it violates the First Amendment.

The United States is once again upheld as not a true democracy by the world over, and the Republican Party may take a huge PR hit as many people question why such a ban is necessary and getting into people's homes and businesses and trampling all over the American Constitution. President Bush looks like a tremendous asshole right after 9/11; and would probably have to deal with damage control when people blame the Republican Party for censorship and violating the constitution.

Also, yeah, America suddenly sheds thousands of jobs as gaming companies hitch to Canada, Japan, Britain, Germany and other nations in Europe.
 
When did that ever stop anybody ... specially as we're just on the curb of digital marketing being a valid business plan as the broadband is getting up to speed (remember, this is just about the time where stuff such as Kazaa and Napster surfaced), and it would get to a organized state of proper online marketplaces faster if there suddenly is a relatively large market for whom its the best/only choice. After all ... OTL steam was launched back in 2003, even though for the first handful of years it was basicly valve games only as none of the other publishers joined up

Which interestingly enough might help the Music market as they can catch on to that slipstream, getting their digital distribution up and running faster, having the gaming industry trailblazing.

Well, it would still be illegal and people distributing such games would risk arrest and jail. It would also be (legally) impossible for companies to market in US and if they are still distributing it from outside would face prosecution and/or be banned from operating in US. How many comapnies would risk that?
 

jahenders

Banned
Agreed. There would be immediate legal challenges and they'd almost certainly win after dragging on for months/years.

We'd see lots of testimony on the news about the effects of violence on kids.

Ultimately, it would be politically costly to both sides and the gaming AND movie industries would take notice and step a little more carefully (for a while).

Game producers might try convice banning being unconstitutional and there will be case in Supreme Court.

Movie industry might be quiet worried when they ban violent movies and TV series.

And rest of world keep American legistators total nuts.
 
This must of been a Joe Lieberman sponsored bill. Honestly it would not hold up to a court challenge even a conservative court is not going let that fly.

Also it would need to be veto proof in 99/00 since Clinton will veto it.
 
Best possible time for anything like this to come about would be around the time of Night Trap and Mortal Kombat. This was the height of video game paranoia and if the industry hadn't come up with a strategy to counter it, you might see more government intervention although nothing quite like an outright ban unless things really got worse.
 
Well, it would still be illegal and people distributing such games would risk arrest and jail. It would also be (legally) impossible for companies to market in US and if they are still distributing it from outside would face prosecution and/or be banned from operating in US. How many comapnies would risk that?

As long as they don't intend to go to US i don't see anyone 'selling' their inhabitants for doing something thats not illegal where they're doing it, no matter if its 'in theory' possible that Americans have access to it ... If America have a problem with it, its their problem, not whereever they're making a living by legal means, just because its illegal other places...

US didn't try to arrest and jail Canadian shopowners that sold booze to persons (most commonly Mobsters admittedly) that happened to ship it across the border doing the prohibition did they?
 
As long as they don't intend to go to US i don't see anyone 'selling' their inhabitants for doing something thats not illegal where they're doing it, no matter if its 'in theory' possible that Americans have access to it ... If America have a problem with it, its their problem, not whereever they're making a living by legal means, just because its illegal other places...

US didn't try to arrest and jail Canadian shopowners that sold booze to persons (most commonly Mobsters admittedly) that happened to ship it across the border doing the prohibition did they?

I said something along those lines. Non US companies couldn't market to US or sell directly. So they'd have to rely on circumventing US laws and advertise to other countries in a way Us consumers would see it. Which would be problematic. Nor could they sell it there and would have to rely on smugglers, either distributors or individuals.

either way, not a good business model and would see large drop in sales because Us market would remain alrgely untaped.
 
With the rise of internet game downloading services like Steam in recently, It would be interesting to see how the US government would try to actually enforce these bans.

I do find the idea of prohibition-style "game-running" across the Canadian border to be quite amusing though:D
 
I said something along those lines. Non US companies couldn't market to US or sell directly. So they'd have to rely on circumventing US laws and advertise to other countries in a way Us consumers would see it. Which would be problematic. Nor could they sell it there and would have to rely on smugglers, either distributors or individuals.

either way, not a good business model and would see large drop in sales because Us market would remain alrgely untaped.

Marketing it from foreign (even if Canadian or British) websites, and selling it to the whole world ... Just as other webshops aren't legally forced to follow rules outsite of their country, neither would a theoretical digital distribution be here, and US would have to emulate the Chinese Great Firewall to keep it out, in which case its only a question of getting through to it via a proxy. In any case, they can't make it illegal for companies from other nations to sell the stuff (Free Markets and all that), at most they can make it illegal to buy it for Americans, and that would be devilishly hard to prove.

While they might have enough pull if a digital distribution got big enough, to ban it within them unless they followed their rules. Its practically impossible to blanket ban each and every Online distribution outlet, as there would always be Custumers not caring that its illegal, and shops willing to ignore US laws as they don't have to follow them, qua their existence out of another country.

the Internet while often defaulting to following US law either in terms of companies, or just as often duchebags citing first admentment for their right to be arseholes, there is nothing anywhere that forces them, specially not if they're not obiously aimed at US consumption.

But given that English is the international language, its impossible not to have places that caters to Canadian, British, Australian, or genericly multinational markets, selling stuff in English which US custumers could access with limited issue.

And i don't think that the drop in sales would be significant enough to stop much, specially not if accounting for a higher marketing aimed outside US.

Sony and Nintendo would probably stay around owning the console market as Mircosoft probably wouldn't be able to penetrate the market even with their big name.

...

tl;dr While US could certainly make it a law, I highly doubt that they would get anywhere close to having a snowballs chance in hell to actually follow through on it, without only being a annoyance to US companies, and a creative brain-drain to Canada and Europe.
 
The United States is once again upheld as not a true democracy by the world over

I think the response from traditional anti-American quarters might be a little muted, IF the ban was solely focused on violent games. These days, anti-Americanism tends to be more of a left-wing thing, and there is still a sizable contingent of left-wingers who are panicked about violent pop culture, especially when it's connected with the USA(Japanese manga tends to get a pass). Not that the old campaign to ban war-toys is still in full swing, but I think the basic anxiety is still there in a lot of quarters.

Furthermore, a lot of left-wingers are pretty dismissive of American-style free speech arguments, at least when those arguments are harnassed in defense of right-wing or supposedly reactionary parties, of which I think violent, militariistic video games would probably qualify for a lot of people.

And on the American side, if it was right-wingers pushing for the ban, they'd have to walk a pretty fine line. They'd have to say "All this violence in games is bad for the kids", without implying that it's bad when right-wing icons like Chuck Norris do the same thing on the big screen.
 
tl;dr While US could certainly make it a law, I highly doubt that they would get anywhere close to having a snowballs chance in hell to actually follow through on it, without only being a annoyance to US companies, and a creative brain-drain to Canada and Europe.

They would make import illegal. So before internet technology makes downloading feasible that would impact import of physical copies. High speed internet makes it feasible in early naughties, depending how fast it spreads and how fast and how much companies respond to it.

When it comes to preventing foreign companies from selling games US has option to threaten them with banning them from US market if they continue to sell violent games to US costumers. Sure, they can't make them stop the sales but will companies risk losing US market for all their products, including parent company if one of their subsidiaries keeps doing it? Or go even further and prohibit any and all US based companies from doing business with that company. Again, US can't force company to stop selling these games because they are outside US jurisdiction but can ban it from doing business in US jurisdiction. And which company will risk that?

Of course it's problem when it comes to determining whether game should actually be illegal unless each game is classified. If it's developed and produced outside US then it's outside agency that does the classifications (MPAA?) so this agency would need to examine each game and determine go/no go. And until it's not classified either way youcould argue it's not banned
 
BTW, the topic is ostensibly "The US senate bans violent games" How does the US Senate pass any laws on its own? I thought the House was needed, too...

And as I noted in a post above, such a ban *even with respect to minors* was founded unconstitutional by the Supreme Court by 7-2 in *Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Ass'n.*
 
BTW, the topic is ostensibly "The US senate bans violent games" How does the US Senate pass any laws on its own? I thought the House was needed, too...

And as I noted in a post above, such a ban *even with respect to minors* was founded unconstitutional by the Supreme Court by 7-2 in *Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Ass'n.*

And, like I said before, I think it's gonna be pretty hard to get the proper ideological line-up for this. According to the wikipedia article about Jack Thompson...

Thompson has also criticized a Christian video game based on the Left Behind series. In Left Behind: Eternal Forces, players participate in "battles raging in the streets of New York," according to the game's fact sheet. They engage in "physical and spiritual warfare: using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world." Thompson claims that the makers of the game are sacrificing their values.[113] He said, "Because of the Christian context, somehow it's OK? It's not OK. The context is irrelevant. It's a mass-killing game."[114] Left Behind author Tim LaHaye disagrees, saying "Rather than forbid young people from viewing their favorite pastime, I prefer to give them something that's positive."[113] The dispute over the game has caused Thompson to sever ties with Tyndale House, which publishes both the Left Behind books and Thompson's book, Out of Harm's Way.[114] Thompson has not seen the game, which he says has "personally broken my heart," but claims, "I don't have to meet Abraham Lincoln to know that he was the 16th president of the United States."[115]

Sincere kudos to Thompson for his consistency. But I don't think you're gonna find too many GOP senators or congressmen who are gonna stand up and say "When we call for a ban on violent games, that means the Christian and right-wing stuff, too!"
 
What if the hardline moralist wings of the american society, with the help of activists like Jack Thompson and members of the republican party managed to passa bill banning violent games in the late 90s or early 2000s? Problably after Postal 2 and GTA III had been released?

Dude, please put this as a WI next time.
 
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