Flit

COMPUTER GAMES NOT A VALID

COMPUTER GAMES NOT A VALID FORM OF EXPRESSION, U.S. JUDGE RULES

"[Computer games have] no conveyance of ideas, expression, or anything else that could possibly amount to speech. The court finds that video games have more in common with board games and sports than they do with motion pictures."

Judge Stephen "Help Me. I'm Too Old Fashioned To Operate the Door Out of My Office" Limbaugh of Missouri, upholding a St. Louis ordinance prohibiting the sale of M-rated computer games to minors.

Update: Judge Limbaugh made his decision by reviewing 4, count em, 4, computer/video games: Mortal Kombat (1992), Doom (1993), Resident Evil (which he calls "The Resident of Evil Creek") (1996), and Fear Effect (2000). Only one computer game from the last 5 years... I'm sorry, but a world where the book "A Bridge Too Far" and the movie "A Bridge Too Far" are valid speech, but the absolutely compelling historical reenactment of "Close Combat 2: A Bridge Too Far" is not because some judge doesn't understand it makes no sense to me. Limbaugh didn't just rule that the societal damage of violent games outweighed their educative or informative or entertainment value, he said that it is impossible by definition to communicate messages or information or story through the medium of a computer. The compelling and innovative stories of Half-Life, of Planescape: Torment, of System Shock 2, Crimson Skies, Oni... all just an overwrought form of Minesweeper, in his opinion. In Limbaugh's decision, none of them rise, in terms of the need for speech protections, to the level of the worst Kylie Minogue song, the most appalling Fox TV show, the most violent and pointless slasher movie... not even to the level of that dirty limerick you just made up. Those are all protected speech, you see. But if this decision is upheld on appeal, they will all be legally considered far superior to any and all kinds of computer-driven expression, no matter how artful. That's just wrong.

As others have already said, this decision has to be struck down, not because St. Louis minors have any sacrosanct right to play violent games, but for the ludicrous and dangerous reasons that this particular judge has given for disallowing them.

AN OFFICER AND GENTLEMAN OF

AN OFFICER AND GENTLEMAN OF MY ACQUAINTANCE

I haven't had the pleasure of working with Capt. Steve Roberts in a couple years now, but I love his new website. Good health to you, Steve: may those who live truly be always believed, and those who deceive us be always deceived...