Denied!

Wal-Mart recently told Green Day that, unless they offer a censored version of their new album, 21st Century Breakdown, they would not stock it at all. Green Day said, "Fine, but we're not going to censor our music. Don't stock our album then." Wal-Mart is the biggest music retailer in the country (and maybe the world... not sure on that). Green Day debuted at #1. Hmm.

There are no "edited versions" of games... yet. Will there be? I don't think so. Game companies won't make games that would receive an AO rating because major retailers refuse to sell them. However, the M rating is being stretched further and further, much like the MA rating on TV. Ever since South Park used "the S word," it has seeped into other networks like FX (see: Nip/Tuck and Rescue Me). Nip/Tuck is also practically softcore porn! It seems like nowadays the only thing you can't say on cable TV is the F-bomb and you can show most of the butt, just no nipples or full frontal. But that will change eventually. Our society is degrading at a rapid pace, and it's taking us all down with it. I think South Park would love to be the first show to use the F word - it'd be like receiving an Emmy for them.

Games have swear words, yet it doesn't make them more "adult." It just makes them more vulgar. Remember GTA III? Not a single F-word. GTA: Chinatown Wars? F this, F that... it's the only word these pixelated gangsters seem to recognize. And then there's House of the Dead: Overkill... sigh. Without Wal-Mart editing our art, who's going to save us from our fragile, vile selves? Our parents? Nah, they had their chance. Maybe the government should step in! Weeee!

"Department" Stores

Florida has a Department of Citrus. It seems random and obscure, but the truth is that oranges and other citrus-y things are so important to the economy of Florida that it needs an entire governmental angency to make sure the input and output stay consistent enough that the state's economy keeps going. That's some powerful fruit. According to the stats I could find right on the suprisingly easy-to-navigate site, Florida made over $3.6 billion during the 2007-08 season on orange juice alone. In 2005, video games made over $10.5 billion, and that number has grown every year since then. Where are the government agencies protecting/regulating video games?

Certainly there's enough business generated by games to justify one. Seattle has Nintendo creating jobs and aiding the economy. And Silicon Valley has been the geek center of the universe for decades. We have, what, the ESRB? Woo. Instead of a group trying to help increase visibility, sales, and acceptability as an art form, gamers are left with nothing more than a glorified censoring agency. Instead of helping the world recognize the kind of innovative games we should be playing, we have a group pointing out all the things that are wrong with our favorite pastime. This self-regulation is not even good enough to prevent government interference, because every once in a while a Hot Coffee scandal makes every parent in the world fear for their children's innocence. Here's an idea, moms and dads... play the games your kids are playing first, or play them with them, to understand exactly what it is you are condemning. A game won't teach morality any more than a TV show will, and it's true - both of those things have some degree of power over the impressionable minds of children (otherwise, why would there even be Biblical programming attempting to teach morality lessons?). Don't use PlayStations and TV's as babysitters. There's nothing protecting games from people that would misuse them besides the parents. Scanning the buyer's driver's license barcode (Target) only goes so far. Jack Thompson is lurking in the shadows! He's disbarred, but he's not declawed, and neither is the rest of the world.