Gaming Banned in Greece

[cisco]

Edited by [user="2065"] @ [time="1036219768"]

Actually, this law bans ALL electronic games, both public and private. Click here for an article on it. I think that this is one of the stupidest concepts I have ever heard off, seeing as they are doing this for economic reasons. Don't they realize that this can only harm their economy? Obviously it will hurt their tourist industry, entertainment industry, and completely wipe out their electronics industry.

[[CL]Slayer]

OMFG LOL thats hilarious gaming is warping our minds LOL

thats prolly why they banned it. LOL our minds are being controlled by CS LOL Buyer Beware LOL

[mapes]

xep wrote..

"Doesn't work", surely. War on Terrorism didn't/doesn't work.. Hmmm. Let me think about that one for just a second. The Taliban has lost its role in the Afghanistan government, the country is no longer run by terrorists, many prime Al Quieda members were killed/captured, and they havn't been active since the War on Terrorism began. What didn't work? Maybe because Bin Laden is still alive? That doesn't matter at all, what danger is a snake if it has no fangs (unless it can strangle you, but that's besides the point)? I hardly see the War on Terrorism as a work of rampant stupidity fueled by conservative idealogy.

It's not the fact that we did or did not bomb the Taliban back to the stone age. What he is talkking about is the loss of rights due to the fact that the FBI has increased wiretapping and survailence powers now.



I work for a major cell phone equipment manufacturer (who shall remain namless) in a subsidary that makes network encryption/security appliances. You would do well to look at some of the contraversy over DES when it first came out. Or look into cell phone law requiring the ability to locate the cell user to within a fifty foot radius for E911 uses....Hmmm no thanks.

[solace]

gotta be boring living in greece ;/



tv's probably pretty boring too



anyone for hopscotch wut wut?

[-Aragorn]

lol, this is on the Greek Embassy's webpage describing the Greek consitution:

the need for free expression and for democratic procedures in all sectors of the country's life had become very urgent for the Greeks.

Suuurrreeeee.....

[hargo332]

Well Greeks aren't the sharpest tools in the shack, viva Turkey, the closest country with a gaming sanctuary. Muhahaaha.

[-Aragorn]

I can see it all now....



"Psshh, kid, want some of this good stuff over here?" (looks around). "It's called CS, I even have a CD-Key for it!! Only $70 bucks, man!"



Good thing it will never happen in America. All those millions of dollars we payed for America's Army will go down the drain.



Why would Congress allow the military to churn out their own free computer games, when Congress is planning to ban games sometime in the future?



Also, our Republic holds to the Constitution more than countries like Greece. At least, I'd hope so.



But all the facts point to the fact that games in America will not be banned sometime in the future. Congressmen can bash games all they want - they will never get a majority. Especially with the military making games.

[evil_sheep]

Edited by [user="2040"] @ [time="1030752514"]

Xep, you don't think the government has the power to ban violent computer games? They've already restricted a large amount of them to minors, like you mentioned.



Why is the war on terrorism something that doesn't work? Because it physically attacks the terrorists themselves without addressing the root problems behind it. Even if you kill all of Al-Queda and Osama bin Laden and replace all the governments in the world with US-friendly leaders, there will always be more people to step up to continue to commit terrorism because the root causes haven't been addressed. Problems like the US government nonchalantly making war anywhere, problems like first-world nations exploiting the rest of the world's nations and peoples, problems like most of the countries in the world full of poverty, starvation, famine etc while countries like the US are busy exploiting them and living in comparative fortune. A lot of factors such as this have caused a lot of people around the world to hate the US. Combine this with religious fanatics who believe that commiting terrorism on the US is the highest ideal and it is easy to realize that commiting a war on terrorism really just inflames the situation.



Yeah, so the ESRB puts a nice rating on the box for concerned parents and "technically" helps prevent minors from getting mature games. The problem is now you have a bunch of game developers afraid to put out anything controversial and always worrying if they will get a rating that says they're too violent. Although it is a matter of opinion, I believe there have been very few really good games put out recently. Seriously, what are you playing? Counter-Strike? A 4 year old game? If CS hadn't come out, I bet it would have never come out today because developers would be too afraid to make a game about terrorism which even includes real-life guns and Arabic terrorists. If you ask me, that's not helping the gaming industry at all. Many people consider GTA3 to be the best game released recently (I haven't tried it) and it is one of the only games to supposedly feature so much graphic violence and destruction. Whoever released it obviously wasn't very afraid of controversy over their game, but most other game developers are. Instead, they just continue releasing sequels, expansion packs and bullshit games. I'm not saying there hasn't been any good games recently, just very few.



oh yah, mapes has a really good point too which I overlooked (I really wasn't thinking about that consequence of the war on terrorism), but it is an even better point than mine.

[`loki]

wow. i feel very sorry for them. lucky i dont live in greece. :P

[-Aragorn]

evil_sheep wrote..

Problems like the US government nonchalantly making war anywhere,

How about some examples?



WW1: Fairly obvious.

WW2: Again, fairly obvious

Vietnam: We had a treaty we had to fulfill. When America makes an agreement, you'd hope they would do it. That's what we did.

Korea War: After Japan's surrender in WW2, North Korea became supported by the Russians, and South by the Americans. Once North Korea decided to invade the South - do you expect America to suddenly withdraw all support from a country about to be invaded just becuase we wanted to avoid a war?

War on Terrorism: Embassies bombed, WTC attacked, etc.



Sure, they hate us. But a major factor of that is becuase when they were kids they were told to hate America by everyone around them.



And they didn't learn to hate us becuase of the political issues, they learn to hate us by our way of life. Burgers, games, stock market, luxeries, etc. etc.



Go ahead and give all that up, maybe then they won't hate us anymore.



But I doubt you would want to do that.

[Brutus]

evil_sheep, I have never heard of a movie being banned on a national level, if you have please tell me which one. The movie industry is self regulating and the classifications given to movies are at the discretion of the board that handels that, it is not a law.



People that think that this will not happen in America are not ignorant, they just have a better understanding of how laws in America work.



You know that Advisory label you see on most CDs now days came to pass? Tipper Gore, then a member or chairperson of an orginization ( I forget the name now ), tried to use sponsors against the record industry. The industry fought it until they relized that the label would help sell CDs (Which it did). They also tried to take of "Married with Children" by pressuring that shows sponsor, once again it backfired. Al Gore was a Senator at the time.

[xep]

evil_sheep, so what do you suggest we do to fix the "root" of the Terrorist problem?



What does game developers being afraid to release something too violent have to do with the ESRB protecting the gaming industry? I don't blame game developers for being afraid to release something too extreme, would you let your son/daughter play a game where you, a terrorist, go on killing sprees on innocent victims? Depending on how mature the child is, I don't think it's a good idea for children to be playing these sorts of games, or even Counter-Strike for that matter.



As of right now, the only game I play is Counter-Strike, so I havn't really been concerned with what's being released otherwise. You say game developers are too afraid to release games with "real Arab terrorists". Well, look at what happened to Rizzuh a week or so ago with the American Militia thing. That would probably happen all over again if the CS creators had left the Arab model in the game (instead of the 1337 Krew).



Yes, our media is a bit uptight and hypocritical about what can be seen/heard by the public, but it makes me wonder why they won't allow people of a certain race to be depicted negatively in a game, but they can allow minors to purchase Maxim magazine, or something equally provacative.

[TunkeyMicket]

I think y'all need to read what was banned. They banned gaming in Internet Cafes and not in homes. You can still play games etc. Rizzuh now I know you know better than to troll. Greece only banned gameplay in Internet Cafes due to fear of violence, etc. Oh well.

[stevedave69]

The problem is now you have a bunch of game developers afraid to put out anything controversial and always worrying if they will get a rating that says they're too violent.



Question to all: Are developers really afraid to make controversial games? This seems rather unrealistic to me.

[Brutus]

A quick run down on how it would go in the U.S.



Gov. passes law saying no more games. (Lets assume that the bill has been passed through the house, etc, etc.)



Gaming Industry sues the Gov. for an injunction against the law.



Law is not in effect until all avenues have been sought out and it ends up in the Supreme Court. (I will assume that they would hear this case).



Supreme Court, interpiting the constitution, decides that the law is un-constitutional and it is revoked.



Lets assume that they all smoked a big fatty and said that it was ok.



Election time, the President, and all members of Congress that voted for the law are not re-elected. Gaming industry lobbies for the law to be revoked.



This is also assuming that State, who are allowed to govern themselves, didn't put up with a national law like this. And since they can't make a Federal Drinking age law they are not going to be able to pass a national law for something like this.



Individual states may say no more gaming, but what does that mean to the states? No more tax revenues from people buying games, re-election would be hopeless, since 18 - 25 year olds would come out of the wood work, etc.