Members of the Supreme Court talked free speech this week when they debated a California law that would ban the sale of violent videogames to minors. The justices made some bloody good points — both for and against the law — that could hint at their final decision, which is expected before June.
Justice Antonin Scalia's remarks were particularly clever and entertaining, even as he pondered the serious issue of whether upholding Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association might lead down the slippery slope of censorship.
"You are asking us to create a whole new prohibition which the American people never ratified when they ratified the First Amendment," Scalia said. "What's next after violence? Drinking? Smoking? Movies that show smoking can't be shown to children?"
Here at Wired.com, we don't understand what the fuss is all about. In order for a game to be regulated, the law would require it to have no redeeming social, political or cultural value. We did some brainstorming and found that even the most violent videogames are simply bursting with redeeming values, so none of them can be banned. Here's the proof.
Above:
Fallout 3
What it is: An action/role-playing game set in a nasty, post-nuke apocalypse.
Most violent moment: Thanks to Fallout 3's Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System, or VATS, players can target and shoot specific parts of enemies' bodies. These attacks are rendered in slow motion, leading to some strikingly graphic cases of blood spattering, particularly when people get shot in the head.
Why it has redeeming value: Fallout 3 tells a story of war. How it affects us as people. How it never changes. How even after a nuclear catastrophe that devastates the world, humankind is still fighting for religion and territory and belief systems that are all ultimately irrelevant, but drive peoples' decisions nonetheless. What's particularly interesting about Fallout's violence is that it's not necessary — players can feasibly go through the whole game without shooting all that many people. You might have to kill some mutated animals, but peoples' conflicts and quests can usually be resolved through peaceful dialog, computer hacking or mental manipulation. By choosing to blow peoples' brains out — which usually looks disgusting if not downright disturbing — the player is picking the easy way out. You can choose violence, Fallout 3 says to players, but the results might be messy. —Jason Schreier
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