Question of the Day, October 5, 2010

[emeraldrafael]

I'm gonna say no and paraquote (paraphrasize-quote) the line from Extra Credits about killing an idea. Hell, if you can still let Neo Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members exist I dont see why you should ban a videogame for any reason.

 

[Luke Cartner]

I guess the thing is it isn't the medium that make something art, is the content. By the same measure that some content is not art on canvas or in video not everything that could be put into the computer game format would be art if it was.
In all cases some deeply objectionable content should banned, regardless of medium.

The rub ofcourse is who decides what is deeply objectionable...

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Not all video games are works of art but, I don't see why any game should be banned. All those porn games we don't have outside of Japan for example, have a right to exist but, they shouldn't be sold to minors. On the other side of the coin, the T rated games featuring wise-cracking animal mascots shouldn't be denied the children who really, really want them.

I voted that I don't care though.

 

[JWAN]

For the 124 people who voted "Only if it is in incredibly poor taste.", who decides what that is? It's too easily abused.

The people who would choose to ban video games are the same socialist, politically correct enforcing jackasses who want to get them banned now.

Socialism has nothing to do with it. In fact, socialists, like myself, tend to be more liberal and open-minded and are more likely to be gamers. The people to blame are the 60 and up Conservative Christians (most of Faux "News"'s viewership) who think all new media are evil. This post was going to be much bigger, but the rest of it was spent cussing you out and calling you a moron.

you tell yourself that, but remember who invented the term "politically correct". As a hint if you got caught being politically incorrect you ended up a a train headed for Siberia to be worked to death.

 

[justnotcricket]

It's a sensitive subject this one...I don't think all games are art, to be honest. Some of them aren't even purporting to be and would laugh (albeit good-humouredly) at you if you tried to call their games art, I expect. I'm thinking of games like DoA and Bratz. Making games is an art, but not all the products of this art are 'art', if you know what I'm trying to say. It's just like movies.

Should games be banned? Only if they exceed the bounds of even the most general definition of good taste. I don't want to see games in my local retailer that amount to interactive paedophilia, for example. Not because I believe that it will turn a generation of youngsters into paedophiles specifically, but because it would tacitly legitimise the action, and that should not be allowed.

 

[rekabdarb]

None of these answers are mine. it should say NO, that's removing the freedom of speech that we as AMIERUCAISN hold so dearly (since teh escapist is an american company)

 

[Thorvan]

Individual games, sure. I don't think you can put all video games under the umbrella of "art". Some of them (probably most of them) are not "art".

There are movies that are not considered "art," but these aren't banned. Because once you start banning one part of medium because of the subjective quality of "poor taste," you open the floodgates to having everyone with power jump on banning games based on what they find to be their own "poor taste." It becomes a mosh pit of restrictions, and the medium is choked and dies.

Games (and all art/forms of media) that set out to promote hate and violence towards a race/creed/gender/etc should be banned. Games like Ethnic Cleansing. The game has very clear views and is obviously aimed at a certain type of person, but it promotes nothing positive and I doubt its artistic merits which I'm sure some people would try say it has.

No, even games like this should be protected. The snowball effect is often a hard one to see coming. And besides, like Jedoro said;

If something's truly in bad taste, the community won't buy it and developers won't make it anymore.

Problem solved.

 

[Srkkl]

Censorship makes the world blind.

 

[MikailCaboose]

I don't think they should ever be banned. Personally, it's like books: Don't like it, then don't buy it! It's that simple.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I answered the first one, but only because it was the closest to my opinion. For I am one of the people who care not if something is regarded as art. I believe that games as a media should never be banned unless in the most extreme circumstances.

 

[Seth Smith]

Custer's Revenge, or whatever it's called, is a game I wouldn't mind having banned.

 

[jamradar]

I find it strange that this question is being asked on a site where majority if not all people on here are gamers.

 

[Estocavio]

Think of it this way: Movies are allowed to do it, so why shouldnt games.

The end

 

[Apocalypse Tank]

Like literature and art, video games are never banned under a perfectly capitalist, democratic government (which is NOT the US, the US is however a close candidate).

However, I will support bans, be it art, literature, games, etc, if it serves the overall efficiency and productivity of a nation.

I suspect the poll results will change dramatically if a videogame can cause political/religious/economic upheaval, because its effects are akin to Martin Luther's 95 Theses.

 

[feeback06]

I can't think of any reason why they should be.