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“Video Game Decency Act” Introduced in Congress
A Michigan congressman has proposed federal legislation which would make it illegal for game developers to hide content in the hope of gaining a less restrictive ESRB rating... [Game Politics]

So, first you stole from me the promise of stories in games. ("I just want to skip all this story crap!")

Then, you took from me the adventure game. ("It was all just hunt the hotspot bullshit anyway.")

Then you took away the RPG. ("No I swear it's an RPG, it's just like Diablo, but first person...")

Now you want my fucking Easter Eggs? Well, you can have them. You can have them when you pry them from my cold, dead hands...

OK, I know they're worried about Hot Coffee, but come on. Be real. You have to break the law to play the Hot Coffee content... It's not so much hidden as disconnected from the game. It's takes a player hacking the game and "hooking it back it up" to see it. It wasn't "stashed away to hide from the ESRB" or anything equally malevolent. That's absurd. The fact that people would even consider that possible speaks to the prejudice we game makers and players have to live with.

You all think games are toys. You all think games are evil little things corrupting your children. You all nuts.

All this law is going to do is contribute to the already obvious chilling effect on our ability to innovate and express. And no, I'm not talking about games as art. I'm talking about games as entertainments. Not every entertainment is kid-friendly. Nor should they be. Do not punish those people who wish to be entertained by games for adults. Do you punish people who like to watch law and order? Or gangsta films? So why do you punish people who play the video game equivalent?

Won't you, just once, think of the children?!

Parents of the world, keep your kids away from games you don't want them to play. Watch them. Police your own kids. I'm not your babysitter and my games are not nannies meant to keep junior occupied while you and your friends nip into the kitchen for some quick tequila shots.

Besides, if you do the, forgive the term, parenting here that will leave us game developers free to do what we do best - make games. Interactive entertainments for a menagerie of age ranges. The less time I spend worrying about what the law is going to think of my game, the more time I have free to make games to appeal to new and different groups of people. Who knows, maybe when your kid is old enough and he's out there looking for something to inspire his life, you'll be happy I was free to make a game about exploring moral choices and their consequences in the shadow of a horrible and morally ambiguous war... Or maybe all you'll have is "Osama Hunt 2k20" because that's all the government deemed appropriate.

- Snipehunter