Gearbox Talks Supreme Court Videogame Trial, Says Gaming's “Bullies” Need to Step Aside

Posted 10/25/2010 at 8:48pm | by Nathan Grayson

19

Comments

Print

For those who've been out of the loop for the past few months, videogames have come under fire again. Shocking, we know. This 4858272052nd verse, however, isn't quite the same as the first. See, the stakes are a fair deal higher. It's the gaming industry versus Arnold Schwarzenegger round two, and this time, we'll be trading blows and ogling ring girls in the hallowed halls of the Supreme Court. Positive precedents or not, the worst case scenario here could result in mature games essentially being labeled as pornography – in all likelihood a one-way ticket off retail shelves, permanently.   

Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford, of course, knows a thing or two about mature games. As a result, he's of the opinion that we need to send these gaming industry “bullies” packing once and for all.

“Seriously, things like Duke really aren't offending anyone. But some people need to act like they do, for some reason,” he told CVG. “Sometimes people will say: 'You know what, that offends me.' And that's fine. If something offends you, you have to decide how to deal with the the best way you can.”

“But it's when people decide: 'Well that offends me, so now it should offend everyone else. And, in fact, because I think it should offend everyone else, I believe that we should make a rule about such things.' Those people just need to get the f*ck off the bus. That attitude is not helpful to any of us - for anyone to think that they should impose their own morality on anyone else in this world. Those guys just need to go away, and just stop,” he explained.

“Unfortunately, those are the bullies, and we tend to let bullies bully. We need to stop them. We need to get away from those people - certainly take the keys away from them. Do not let them play with the sharp objects.”

Among other things, the ECA's hosting a rally in Washington DC on the day of the hearing. If you're in the area on November 2, it'd be well worth your time to attend. Whether or not it ends up having any effect, you'd still be doing something. Sad to say, this is one battle we can't win by sitting at our computers and clicking on our enemies until they die.