For those who didn't know, the Supreme Court of the United States recently ruled, in a landslide decision of 7 to 2, that a California Law prohibiting/banning the sale of video games with mature content to minors, was Unconstitutional, violated The First Amendment, and had to be struck down. The court ruled that, with the exception of explicitly obscene material or material that specifically incited violence, neither The States, nor The Federal Government has the right, under The Constitution, to ban minors from purchasing games like those that were in question.

Any thoughts as to how this ruling might effect the gaming industry, and things like nudity and violent content in Skyrim and future ES games?

Not in the slightest.

Looks like some youngsters are going to be breaking the law in California when Skyrim comes out. Never mind. Read it wrong.

I don't see what's the point of rating a game mature if you're going to let minors buy it? But anyways I doubt it will have any effect on ES games, I'm pretty sure Bethesda does what they want

Eh? The law has been repealed...

While it won't affect TES (at least any time soon), this'll be good for the industry as a whole. Having the same legal protection as films, music, books, etc can only be a good thing.

They're just reiterating the use behind the ESRB.

Notice it says explicit use of obscene material or use of violence.

So, video games with violence and nudity/crude material still cant be sold to kids under the rated age minimum.

Kids will still need their parents to buy Skyrim.

What? This just means things stay the way they are, ergo, no change.
So nothing will change, and this effects nothing.

Just the Opposite. They WOULD have been breaking the law, or at least, vendors who sold said games to them would have been doing so, prior to this ruling. The Supreme Court, however, has the final say in what Laws are in the land, based upon The Constitution. Their finding that this California law ( and any like it ) violated The Constitution, effectively strikes down the California law. In Essence, the banning law was itself illegal and therefore has been invalidated.

I'd bet on how this ruling effects Skyrim being "Not in the slightest." It's not like Bethesda's been falling all over themselves to push the boundaries in their last couple of TES games, now is it?

That, plus- their design/content decisions have to take more into account that just the area over which the US Supreme Court has authority, see.

You have to be 18+ to purchase M rated games in the first place, unless that has changed or something? I remember I bought Call Of Duty: Black Ops, at nineteen years of age, with a goatee no less, I was still carded for an age check. I definitely don't look like a younger teen, so obviously the loose end that needs to be brought up is the parents. Parents need to check up on the content of the games they're purchasing for their growing children. It isn't the job of state, or federal governments to decide what is and isn't right for you and yours. People seem to need the babysitting of the government, left and right all the people want to do is ban violent video games, but keep violence in shows and movies. :tops:

I know. I read it wrong. Thought OP said that it was now banned. Either way, it's not going to change sales.

I hope it will lead to a sort of "Maning Up" if you will of the gaming industry, by which I mean that they are no longer afraid to have everything censored and will push the envelope a bit more creatively. Games need to start pushing the Envelope like television shows such as Sons of Anarchy, True Blood, A Game Of Thrones( Yes I know, the books are way better), etc.

Also, Gaming needs to Grow the [censored] up and realize that the Spike Video Game Awards are the laughing Stock of the world of Artistic Media. There is NO reason videogaming can't have something moderatly sophisticated like the Emmys, Grammys, Academy Awards, etc.

As a Voice Actors in Training, I want videogames to be something I'm proud to lend my talents to.

(This has nothing to do with Skyrim and most likely won't happen, but I just Had to Rant)

No, I haven't time to quote all the specifics here, HOWEVER, neither nudity nor standard violence fall into the category of "explicitly obscene or inciting to violence," Basically, as long as it is not XXX hardcoe pormographic material, or an incitement for teens to go out and burn down government offices in their area, then it cannot be banned.

Justice Antonin Scallia specifically commented that the protaganists in Hansel and Gretel push their captor in an oven and bake her, Dante's Inferno features naked sinners being pawed over by a giant Cerberus, etc. and that while reading Dante's Inferno certainly has more intellectual benefit for a young person than playing Mortal Kombat, it is not the business of legislators to decide which has more intrinsic value and to make laws related to it.

I should have clarified myself a bit more. You can use nudity in statues and in artistic ways, that is not explicitly obscene. Explicitly obscene nudity is showing people having intercourse, or using said nudity to a degree that would be considered erotic or provocative which would create the sense or pormography.

Explicit obscene violence is like Postal 2. Lighting people on fire and running around urinating on them. Im sorry, but that is hardly artistic expression. Fun? Sure.

Another example of explicitly obscene violence would be a game designed specifically around sick ways to kill people, like manhunt.

M rated games are 17+ not 18+, same as R rated and NC-17 rated movies. R rated movies actually used to be 16+, which made more sense, as the age for legal sixual consent in most states and most Western nations is 16. But laws often aren't concerned with making good common sense. ? Oh well. Whatever, right.

A change for the better.

Restoring sanity.

So, you can have six, but you can't go see Freddy vs. Jason. Oh, I love the logic behind it all. :tops:

Just like you can fight and die for your country, but you can't drink beer. (At least in the U.S.)

Same issue brought up with the voting age a long time ago. If we try, we probably could get the drinking age brought down to 18. But who would want that? :shrug:

Not at all!

They've stated before, they're just making the game, the ratings will rate that, they're not aiming for anything.

If they don't want to add nudity and six or whatever, it's because they don't want to.

End of story.

Well, Freddy and Jason is Violence vs. six. An apt anology would be, you can have six, but you can't go see Showgirls. LOL.

The second bit brings to mind that old dike Gregory quote, "so the young people were going around picketing and protesting, saying 'if we can be sent to die at 18 we demand the right to vote at 18.' I said don't be no damn fool. If you can be sent to die at 18, you'd better fight to be able to vote by 17!"

I don't know how, in the midst of all the prostest for voting rights, they didn't get drinking etc. thrown into the bargain. You can smoke at 18, and that's much more detrimental on individual health.

The way I see it, kids are going to drink regardless of an age limit. Would there be much of a difference between 18 and 21? Not really. :tops:

Some people seem to think that violent video games were apparently illegal before this ruling.

the game rating system is more to tell the buyers what is in the game and more of a guide for the parents. plus all this means is that the government cannot regulate games. but the sellers can still not allow minors to buy mature games. still i do not believe it will change the ES games. in fact im pretty sure it wont affect any games at all.

No, it most likely won't have any effect at all. Todd has stated time after time that he doesn't care for ratings and that the game is simply made the way he wants it. So if Skyrim bans nudity, that's simply because Todd prefers it that way.


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