November 6, 2007
MarkBernstein.org
 

Censorship and Games

At Play This Thing, Greg Costikiyan from Manifesto Games identifies what's really at stake when fundies want to censor games to protect children.

"Free men must be permitted to think and say what they wish, or they are not free; it's not a matter of "constitutional liberties

This isn't some vague threat of a dystopian future; it's already difficult or impossible to buy games that attempt to address sex with the seriousness of, say, the proverbial dimestore romance. This doesn't solve Bernstein's Challenge: my grandmother knew that the modern novel could deal with serious themes and owned a smuggled-from-Italy first edition of Lady Chatterly to prove it. What's on your game shelf that your grandkids that aspires to match it?

Still, that which we are, we are. And Costikyan has the question: "How polite is one required to be to fascists?"