hitheremynameisbob said:
And I'd refer you to my previous post about the porn industry versus Hollywood. One of those two can regularly make movies with multi-million dollar budgets, and the other can't. You're saying that because the porn industry is still technically profitable that this is "good enough" for games, as well, but when was the last time anyone working in porn made a profound artistic statement that was also a financial success? You can't just say "as long as they make one dollar it's all good" - the more profitable the industry is the more they'll be willing to RISK on projects that aren't necessarily mainstream or the "same old thing". When a business makes more money it can gamble on some less-than-sure things, and this is how innovation takes place. Porn isn't going anywhere new or exciting, but games still can, if the industry continues to grow unfettered by censorship.
Really?
I think the porn industry is incredibly diverse and constantly exploring new things.
Kidding aside, yes, saying that it won't affect the industry was a little short-sighted, but the comparision with the porn industry is rather exaggarated. The porn industry is having a hard time not because of its negative stigma, but because noone cares about professional porn. There are thousands of sites on the internet where you can watch porn for free, so why would you take on the embarassment of buying a sex tape in a store?
The video game industry won't suffer the same problems just because it recieves a similar stigma. Surely there will be repercussions, but the extent won't change an awful lot. It will scare off new customers to a certain extend, but most new customers use casual games, which will be unaffected, as a gateway anyway.
Still, no repercussions are obviously better than a few, so let's continue to hope for the best.
Any by the way, a lot of art is also considered obscene, so maybe we'll get somewhere after all
hitheremynameisbob said:
EDIT:
As for the link between calling violent games "obscene" and decreased profits - again, refer to my previous posts. I don't know about where you live, but here Walmart, Target, and Best Buy don't carry porn. These retailers move a huge amount of the industry's product, and if they stop carrying games (which they may if doing so exposes them to legal repercussions), then profits will take a substantial hit.
Then there's the issue that you yourself bring up - the image of people who play violent games is further degraded. That means less people will be willing to try them out, especially when you combine that with making them more difficult to find in stores. You're talking about inhibiting growth, and some current players may even quit thanks to the change. It may just be a small dip in profits, but it's there nontheless.
Edit: Even if games are considered obscene or anything retailers will still be allowed to carry them. They'll only have to control kid's IDs whenever they buy something rated M or above. At least it's that way all over the world where a rating system is considered mandatory.
Well, I'm obviously not a supporter of this system, so allow me to also tell you why I think it really sucks:
Cencorship.
Not in the traditional sense of the word (though mandatory ratings often go hand in hand with a "maximum amount of violence"/"so obscene it is now illegal"), but meaning that devs will tweak games to get a lower rating.
Mainstream integration of "more hardcore" (i.e. everything above farmville) games
Should be obvious, if games are considered even more of a niche they won't get far on that front.
Shifting focus of development
A decline of the FPS genre is a likely event, same thing goes for some RPG subgenre.
Hm, that's it already, I can't think of any more arguments against ratings. Though I don't think that these are minor things.
I could say a few more general things (like how Japan has heavily enforced ratings but is doing just fine) on this matter, but I'll just stop for now.
