Are video games covered by freedom of expression? If so, why is Slamdance getting away with banning the Columbine video game entry just because it's controversial? By Joyce Schwarz, blogging at www.hollywood2020.blogs.com. You may have already seen my blog on the Slamdance/Columbine videogame controversy and the reaction of the competition's judges, sponsors and other developers. SLAMDANCE VIDEO GAME COMPETITION'S FUTURE IN DOUBT & MORE . 
Blogger note: The Slamdance festival, Jan. 18-27, is separate from but runs at the same time as the Sundance Film Festival , also in Park City, Utah.
WHAT IS HAPPENING TO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION?
At first this may look like just a decision by a private game competition at an alternative film festival pro-actively trying to avoid controversy and avoid potential sponsor flack. BUT, I don't know about you, but I could not go to sleep thinking about the real potential danger to our freedom of expression in the USA.
CHECK OUT Newsweek's online coverage: which asks Is it Art? Or is it Just Offensive: Disable Fly-out
Newsweek's reporter Jonathan Mummalo notes, "At its heart, this is a dispute over the limits of artistic expression and the boundaries of good taste. The protests are a reaction to a decision last week by festival president Peter Baxter, who pulled the game Super Columbine Massacre RPG! from the list of finalists."
Disable Fly-out Newsweek -
So when he was chosen as a finalist in Utah’s Slamdance Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition for his game, Braid—which took nearly two years to develop—he was ...
WHAT WOULD THE LAWYERS SAY? Of course, it's a holiday weekend across the country and that means Monday is a legal holiday in honor of Martin Luther King. How ironic, that this controversy should spill over into this week. At Hollywood2020.blogs.com, Joyce Schwarz put calls into several of the parties involved in this controversy and quotes some on her previous post. BUT what we don't have is an opinion by a lawyer or precedent by the courts on such an issue.
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND VIDEOGAMES:
So we researched "freedom expression" and "videogames" online and came up with this entry, that may be relevant. The author Carmen K. Hoyme appears to be a law student at the University of North Carolina. It's a fascinating paper.Take a look:
PDF]
Freedom of Expression and Interactive Media: Video Games and the ...
| File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML Freedom of Expression and Interactive Media: Video Games. and the First Amendment. Carmen K. Hoyme*. I. NTRODUCTION. Twenty-first century video games are a ... www.falr.unc.edu/volume2-2/Hoyme.pdf - |
KOTAKU.com broke the Columbine/Slamdance story originally and has been following it extensively, here is a link to their most recent coverage:
Developers Protest Slamdance Game Festival
8 Jan 2007 by Kotaku CHECK OUT RALPH KOSTER's piece on this -- Raph Koster has spoken up on the subject. it's a smart, cogent look at what's happening surrounding this controversy: here is the excerpt from Koster's piece that Kotaku chose to run. I also think his comments about SERIOUS games is a very timely perspective: Dismissing the game "on moral grounds" essentially argues that it is exploitative; yet we do not necessarily consider clearly issue-driven films or books as exploitative. Rather, the sensitivity of the subject seems to be what is pushing the needle here. ....... while there may be discomfort as we get the games that seriously tackle uncomfortable issues and fail at it, hopefully we will also see those games that do so and succeed, and thereby open new horizons and justify all the discomfort. Discomfort’s just a daily fact of life; new ways to make art and get more insight into ourselves, those come along but rarely...... Were its RPG plot excised and written out as a book, would anyone raise an eyebrow? Probably not. WHERE IS THE ACLU ON THIS ISSUE? WHERE IS THE ESRB? HOW COME SOMEONE IS NOT FILING A LAWSUIT against Sundance? What do you think? |
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