video_games

Video Games

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There is ongoing interest in the government's role in regulating video games. I don't see this as being different than the discussion of any other form of government regulation of free speech. Namely to say: for the most part, people can make their own decisions about what speech they want to experience and that's good enough for virtually all situations.

It might seem like video games are different than movies and books and plays and anything else. But you still have to *choose* to play the game. And that means its only words and moving pictures [1] which can't harm you. You wanted to play, so it's basically all on you.

The bigger issues in video games is things that are problems most everywhere: labor practices, contract enforcement between large actors and individual creators, privacy concerns, and so on.

Please don't clutch those DRM-locked, DLC-acquired digital pearls. I think we know what we need to do with video games.


[1] Here's a good example of regulation most people are good with: content warnings about flashing lights for people with epiliepsy. Who could be against that? But it also turns out that this is maybe a few thousand people in the entire world. So should everyone in the world have to see this warning or can those people be made aware through other means?

video_games.txt · Last modified: 2023/10/31 20:42 by rslaughter