"Copyright" was spelled wrong in the credits.
Megawizard said:
Since when did Yahtzee care about stuff in the US? Usually he just bashes us to hell without knowing the entire story.
The reason is known by several names; the most recent being called globalization, however, for quasi-humorous reasons, I will use the paranoid, red scare Cold War term: the Domino Effect.
You see, the theory goes that when one country adopts a practice, neighboring or associated countries will be inclined do the same. This can be seen with early democracies, popular culture (globalization), English (to a certain extent), and, of course, Communism. Once America stops making good video games, Canada will follow. Then France; England; Spain; Lichtenstein; Russia; until the WHOLE WORLD IS DEVOID OF FPSS, GTA, RTSS, MMORPGS, RPGS, FPRTSS, TPSS, OMGWTFBBQS, AND... Well, ANYTHING THAT IS FUN AND HAS AN ACRONYM!
"Bullshit!" You say? Well... Ok, yeah it sort of is, but think about this:
Video games are a business.
Businesses want to make money.
If a product can't be produced and shipped all over the world due to a regulation the company doesn't get money from there (see GM).
This makes said company change their products so they will fit the requirements of said regulations.
Making a game requires resources, many of which are limited.
In other words: no violent video games in US means the ratio of bloodless, "family friendly" games to violent, fun games being produced is higher meaning less fun for everyone.
It is my belief that people in the US tend to believe that all countries are separate entities that have nothing to do with each other, which isn't really true for economics (but is, for EVERYTHING ELSE). They also make a lot of generalizations. Now, how do I know this about Americans?
'CAUSE I'M AMERICAN, LIVING IN THE BESTEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. DUH.
[/insanity]