04 Feb What If America Banned Violent Video Games?

This is a question I think about from time to time. Thought about it a lot in 2007 after the talk of it in the media because of the Virginia Tech Shooting, and again after other shootings until now. Ever since I realized the power of the United States government, I’ve really tried to envision what would happen in our country and this is what I’ve come up with. These are just my thoughts, and opinions…nothing of this is fact. I ask you now before I continue that you give your own version of what you think would happen because…well we may not be far from this happening.

The Law:

There are a few ways this “bill” or “law” will be expressed because of it’s wording, but lets just take the general idea of it. Since the main objective of people who are against violent video games is to get them out of the hands of young adults is to make a ban on violent video games being sold. This is because they can’t just decide ban them all, and make it illegal to own one…it doesn’t work that way fortunately. But they could ban future sales of them. So what would happen in this case is if the ESRB (Or a new formed organization) would review every game as normal but if it was considered too violent, then it would make these games onto the list of banned video games due to violence. (or something with a similar process). What does this mean for the guys who make video games?

The Video Game Industry:

We would see a lot of publishers and developers move their studios out of the country. Now this isn’t because it would be illegal to make them here, but for the sole reason that they would now be against America’s decision and would move out in order to take away any money they pay to the country I.E. Taxes, or show it as an example of protest. You would probably see every studio that is based on violent video games leave the country. These companies will speak very vocally if this is passed and they’ll just repeat what they have said before it was passed. Video games are a multi-billion dollar industry in which America benefits off of, maybe nothing huge but it is something. They’ll make the arguments that it provides entertainment to millions, and any other benefits to individuals, along with other political arguments to overturn this decision in any kind of way. Luckily the gaming industry has facts over apparent coincidences on their side. It has been proven that video games do not cause violence, they only cause slight aggression…and in very rare cases something a little more intense than slight aggression. Which psychologists believe this cannot be the sole reason for someone to harm, and has no relation to any killings. While the people against violent video games are spewing unchecked facts on the news. Luckily the people who are interested in this topic are people who are aware of finding the truth and not believing everything said on mainstream media

Lastly, they will be the voice of gamers all over the world…not just America. They have the money to spread the word to TV, radio and more, while most gamers only have the power of articles, YouTube, Podcasts, and social networking. This combined will only create an ultimate goal to get this seen on national television with hopes that people who were neutral on the subject speak their opinion, and take the few seconds to sign one of many petitions that will be available to sign, to have this decision by the American Government overturned and hopefully forgotten forever in time.

The Gamers:

This is probably the hardest one to think about because no one really knows how the gaming community will react. It’s really a question of how extreme will it get. Will we march in protest? Will we find underground gaming to do it behind the governments backs? Will we take more intense measures? I can’t really say. If you refer back to the last sentence of the first paragraph…this is the main reason why I asked that. But I did come up with something.

Gamers will create online communities to spread the word, make online petitions, harass our Congressional reps till something is done, protest in many different ways, and we may even see hacker groups go beyond and above of what they’ve already done. We may see kids as young as 10 years old protesting, we may see high school students protest by not going to school, college students organizing groups to protest, employees of the gaming industry protesting, Anonymous acting out as well.

That’s what I’ve come up with and I wish I could add more but I can’t. If you have your own version, please share it with us in the comments below, or email it to me at zookkz@thisordinaryguy.com and I’ll make a collaborative post. I’m not saying that my words are truth or in anyway…you may think that my idea of this is stupid, but it’s what I think and I want to hear your versions of it. “We as gamers all have the same voice, video games do not cause violence”.