Venezuelan government trying to ban the sale of violent video games
Following stories of governmental censorship of gaming in both Australia and Germany earlier this year, it seems that another country may be falling under the banhammer, as Kotaku is resporting that Venezuela is close to enacting a complete ban of all violent videogames.
The Bill for the Prohibition of Video Games and Toy Weapons was presented to the National Assembly yesterday, and was swiftly approved after its first debate. Under Venezuelan law, a bill needs to pass two debates, and then be approved by the President, before being passed into law.
Should it become law, it will be illegal to sell or distribute violent video games in the country, with offenders risking heavy fines if caught in violation.
It seems a bit ignorant to lump in videogames along with violent toy weapons, as even if playing games does make you more violent (Newsflash: It doesn’t.), you can’t do as much damage to some with a game case as you could with a toy sword or gun. Although throwing an original Xbox controller at someone could definately kill them. (Warning – This joke expired in 2003.)
Lets all hope and pray that this bill does not pass, as videogame censorship of any kind is something to be avoided whereever possible. But if it does happen, you can probably blame Mercenaries 2, which reportedly pissed off Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez by tasking players with overthrowing him.
4 comments ↓
Manu
August 26th, 2009
Like i said in the forum the problem is who is going to dictate what action or game is considered violent or not?, they can said that even mario is violent when he stumps over a gompa, man is sad, and if you ask me this will be approved shortly in a second round chavez has all the support in the congressment. What i sad day for me, and all the venezuelan gamers.
I recently bought batman arkham asylum, maybe it will my last videogame, i do only hope that a black market will be implemented i dont care if it cost 06 times more, for games like GOW3, Mario galaxy 2 , heavey rain and metroid prime im willing to make the sacrifice in my almost empty wallet
Manu
August 26th, 2009
I dont blame mercenaries 2 for this if i dont recall wrong even in the US have games that make fun of bush and they didnt ban videogames for this, therefore i do not blame the devs for this, sorry for the mistakes in the last post but im writing with a sore heart and i dont give a fuck about anything at this moment sorry folks.
Grilled Seabass
August 27th, 2009
keep up the good fight manu, I feel sorry for you. It’s sad day for gamers.
Manu
August 27th, 2009
Thanks grilled seabass, but right here we have the perception that we are fighting a losing battle right now im only waiting the law is approved in order to see it and verify what we can do about it i mean black market etc.