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This is one of the reasons I started this blog: today, slashdot covered a story about a game being banned in Australia because it had painting graffiti as one of its main features, so obviously the Australian government thought it would encourage people to go around the city with spray paint and deface everything.

So, my question to them is, "Why didn't you ban Gone in 60 Seconds or Need For Speed: Underground for encouraging street racing? Or Call of Duty or Saving Private Ryan for encouraging FRIGGIN' WAR? Why? Hmmm?" You know just as well as I do, they won't have a good response.

My theory: books, movies, music, and most other media have gone through the gauntlet. The generations that thought they were evil are either out of power or dead. Video games being new and now very profitable throw them into the public eye quite prominently. So, when family values fundamentalists or something-to-prove politicians see a game that they can silence without much backlash, they do it. This game happened to be just that. They wouldn't silence games like Call of Duty for its violence and war or Need For Speed: Underground for its streetracing because they're backed by publishers with tons of capital (Activision and EA, respectively). And I'm sure some of that money is exchanging hands through lobbyist groups and campaign funding.

Do you honestly think that they actually believe that a game would promote people to do something they weren't already doing in real life? In San Andreas I've sky dived out of helicopter over LA and purposefully not opened the parachute just to see how the physics engine would handle my body hitting the pavement from a high altitude. Am I about to go do that in real life? Or, for that matter, if I'm rewarded for putting graffiti around the streets in a game, am I going to start tearing up the neighborhood with my block letters?

The lesson: censorship is evil. It doesn't matter what form it takes or who's censoring what. Video games will not make anyone do anything they wouldn't already do any more than a book or movie or song would. I bet the leaders who banned this game have watched at least one movie about someone having an affair. Shouldn't they be concerned that it will be the reason for some Australian's infidelities, or even their own?