Yet another anti-violent-game law...

[techbear]

This link on gamasutra:
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=9681

talks about a new Oklahoma law that restricts the display and sale of violent games.

We've all discussed this topic before, of course; I didn't post this to rehash it. I just wanted to make two observations.

1) this fits neatly into a thread I started a while ago, http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=5875

2) their definition of violent game seems to cover every Shmup going back to Space Invaders:

"This definition considers inappropriate any game which “lacks serious literary, scientific, medical, artistic or political value” and which features glamorized or gratuitous violence; uses that violence to shock or stimulate; features violence that is not contextually relevant to the material; has violence so pervasive that it serves as the thread holding the plot of the material together; trivializes the serious nature of realistic violence; does not demonstrate the consequences or effects of realistic violence; uses brutal weapons designed to inflict the maximum amount of pain and damage; endorses or glorifies torture or excessive weaponry, or depicts lead characters who resort to violence freely."

[Coyote]

A similar bill was quietly allowed to expire here in Utah (it was sponsored by a state rep from here in my town... he's a neighbor I will *not* be supporting in his bid for State Senate this year). In fact, almost identical.

So - if you sell a game with violence to someone in Oklahoma, you may now (or at least after November 10th) be a pornographer, and run the risk of being jailed or fined as such.

Joyousness.

[Anthony Flack]

Hmm, I think my game falls into that category, too. It has violence so pervasive that it serves as the thread holding the plot of the material together and depicts a lead character who resorts to violence freely.

Fortunately, it possesses great literary and artistic value.