Video game bans are coming back into the zeitgeist

So video game bans are coming into vogue again with GTA V's release onto PC looming. Lots of things in my newspapers about banning 18 rated games. I've noticed more and more these people who want everything banned. I live in the UK with silly weapon laws that don't make sense, can't buy a sword with a curved blade unless its hand forged. Well all swords worth buying are hand forged and curved blades aren't any more dangerous than a straight edge sword. With daft laws about knife carry also plaguing me its only right we should worry about imaginary weapons and the ability to hit rover with a tank. But here's a rundown of things I've seen groups here get rattled about banning:

Ban weed, alcohol, knives, swords, martial arts, guns, fireworks, parties, bonfires, loud music, fighting, skydiving, swimming in the sea, gays, meat, large fizzy drinks, unhealthy food, sodomy, contraception, hunting, bungee jumping, rallying, surfing, parachuting, wingsuit gliding, motor racing, video games, violent movies, porn, kitchen knives, barbeques, haggis, black pudding, sex toys, hammers, certain kinds of electrical appliances that use more than 900 watts, banning websites, I've even heard one nut going on about banning computers in general.

and I could go on but I think you get the point. Notice something? All these things are related to fun things that might be dangerous to hobbies that might be dangerous to things that are just generally fun that depict danger, and then things that are simply a good time. If you enjoy something then it seems there's someone who wants to ban it and video games especially get them frothing at the mouth. A lot of things on the above list are things I like to do or want to do, so all these bans would ruin my fun big time. Does anyone else get the vibe that the "ban everything and especially video games" crowd is doing it to be malicious?

anyway, if we ban video games, should we ban books? They depict the same gritty content but the difference is you can cut yourself on a book and I know these boring nutcases who like banning things would only love to give up books for a greater cause. Christ knows thats the only thing I know they use for entertainment.

 

People are rather keen on banning things, and always have been, really. It's just that they're a bit more visible these days.
In the end, the people whining about things that should be banned are generally those who are ignorant of the things in question, and thus fear them due to their ignorance. The type crying for the banning of videogames because they cause violence, for instance, when no scientific research even remotely supports that statement.

I motion that we ban banning things, personally.

 

Banning should be banned.

 

Men aren't allowed to watch porn online, women can read the fuck out of it (50 shades of grey)

 

These are people who wish to inflict their worldview on others as it's the only right one. Would I ever do heroin? No. Do I have any problems with those who want to? Well, it's their life. Who am I to tell them what to do with it? There should just be some compulsory education about the risks before going in. They aren't a major detriment to society and the only reason things tend to turn violent or bad frequently when involving illegal drugs is because they're illegal. Think, would the AIDS epidemic have been as big of an issue if you could go to your local pharmacy and buy sterilized hypodermics at a reasonable price? Would we have as many black market dealers shooting people up if people could just buy from Walgreens? Alcohol prohibition in the U.S. is another good example. Were the barfights prevented really worth the concrete shoes administered by the illegal alcohol distributors? Not like domestic abuse stopped as those who were bad enough to be abusive found other ways to obtain their booze. Not to mention all of the taxpayer money being wasted keeping these minor offenders under government watch when they themselves could be paying into the system and working blue-collar jobs. The same extends to all of the other things that Hati listed. If more trouble for society will come from attempting to enforce these bans than the actual item being banned, don't do it. Granted I do have issues where someone's actions directly harm another human being, like rape, murder, torture, etc.

 

Hell the way I see it, if they legalized weed then thats something else the government can tax for more income. Nobody likes tax, but rather than spending money combating weed, why not make money from it?

 

Plus even with the tax it'd probably still be cheaper than obtaining it illegally.

 

And it would be controlled rather than coming from out of somebodies arse and mixed with god knows what else (applies more so to things like heroin rather than weed, but you never know)

 

The only thing that should ever be banned is people who want to ban other things.

 

Coming back into the wat??? Y u use biggy smart people words?

 

I can understand the banning of drugs but I don not support it. If used correctly not by some crackhead, they are just basically alcohol.

 

Because he has a working brain. You should get one sometime.

 

Violent mentally unstable people are violent and mentally unstable. Games are games.

 

I like the conclusion actually, ban bans.

 

Oh i think it applies to Weed.
Some stupid girl on Facebook though she was purchasing Weed until i saw this status. ( I couldn't stop laughing )

She literally purchased grass

 

Buying weed legally is more expensive than buying illegally. They tax the fuck out of it.

 

Trust me, the world is fine compared to Australia. Holy shit our laws are crazy. Our censorship board is the pickiest in the world. There was (and still is) so much bitching about how GTA is bad for the children and stuff. It is quite sad in my opinion. Pretty much every game in Australia has been changed to a low violence version. GTA IV, GTA V, L4D, L4D2, Watchdogs, The Last of Us, Metro Last light etc.

I honestly think Weed should be legal in Australia.

 

If only to cope with the censorship... I'm liking how weed was the one you guys picked on the most despite the topic being mainly game related.

I wonder something, how do you guys get around the forced pussification of games over there, cut content and altered textures etc? I've never really had to deal with that sort of thing (yet). Suppose downloading a simple mod would do it but there's a way it pisses up online play

 

The best thing to do is just not to play the other versions of the game. Stops us from feeling bad.

 

Banning games is stupid, if i can't do stupid things in games to get it out of my system, i would just do it in real life.