Caught myself doing a double take on Slashdot | Illinois Ban On Explicit Video Games Is Unconstitutional when I read:
… the game tracks the Homeric epics in content and theme. As we have suggested in the past, there is serious reason to believe that a statute sweeps too broadly when it prohibits a game that is essentially an interactive, digital version of the Odyssey.
Nevermind about the inane attempt to ban video games, who knew God of War was based on the Odyssey? Thank the gods for public domain material, eh? Now that I think about it, I vaguely recall reading this before.
When I first read that I thought it was Gears of War they were talking about. My brothers were playing Gears of War over turkey day, but this is talking about God of War. War … War … God, Gear … Wario … Whatever!
Anyhow, banning video games is silly. First off, these laws are passed because lawmakers can pretend they are tough even though they know the laws will get struck down. It’s a feint. They get to appeal to voters while having someone else clean up the mess of a bad law. It seems pointless, but it’s a way for a politician to gather votes without actually accomplishing anything real. Now that I think about this that’s the way a gamer plays the system, in fact, by figuring out how to make the rules of the game work for their benefit even if that means working the rules in ways that might seem unethical within the framework.