Venezuela passes anti video games law. Scrabble fans rejoice.

On October the 30th the Venezuelan Government passed legislation that effectively banned the sale, promotion or use of video games.

The law, which also placed restrictions on the sale of toy guns and artificial firearms, was established to reduce the access of youth to games that depict or embelish war and violence.

Those who choose to sate thier pixellated bloodlust do so at their peril. The new law is intended to:

"prevent the manufacture, importation, distribution, sale, rental and use of videos, games and war toys of a violent nature"

Those caught breaking the law face harsh prison sentences of three to five years.

Gamers in New Zealand can rest assured that there are no such moves by our own parliament to criminalise epic fragging or leet kill streaks.

However, the Venezuelan move has interesting parallels to the debate over game classification in Australia.

Australia has no R-18 or equivalent rating, which has caused some serious headaches for gamers and developers. The lack of an R-18 rating skews Austrlian's gaming access.

Games can be given low ratings compared to other countries - for example Halo 3 was classified as MA-15+ as opposed to New Zealand which classified it as R-16 - or games that are deemed to be too violent are banned completely, when in reality an R-18 classification may be more appropriate.

Everyone still remembers the confusing debacle that was Austrlia's nation-wide banning of Manhunt after it had originally received an MA-15+ rating.

Moves to implement a higher age restriction have been building, however a nation-wide implementation is being blocked by South Australia's Attorney General Michael Atkinson who withdrew his support for a review of the classification system.

The reform of New Zealand's own censorship and classification laws is also beginning to be suggested. The current system is being described as outdated and unworkable. Victoria University Law Proffesor Stephen Price said:

"It's difficult to say restrictions are justified in one case and not in another, and that's where you're going to strike Bill of Rights issues. It's becoming increasingly untenable to keep this system."

Any changes to the current classification system would effect the way computer games are classified in New Zealand.

Keep it Locked to NZGamer.com for the lastest gaming news.

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On 8 November 2009, 10:25AM Posted by p-nutt3r

What the....?

That's a little harsh. Sucks to be a gamer over there, but who would be stuck indoors with all those beautiful women around, lol.

 

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On 8 November 2009, 10:41AM Posted by Koopa18

Ahaha. Sucka's

 

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On 8 November 2009, 01:18PM Posted by Donutta

Haha, oh it's Aro Video having a whinge again. I don't think we need to worry about video games in New Zealand. Armitage only wants fees lifted so he can import niche DVDs for his store. :P

 

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On 8 November 2009, 02:43PM Posted by Oliver

Seems a little harsh. What kind of government does Venezuela have?

 

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On 8 November 2009, 07:22PM Posted by guitar93

Last time i thought about Venezuela was when i played Mercenaries 2...

 

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On 8 November 2009, 08:07PM Posted by Conrad

Reply to guitar93 8 November 2009, 07:22PM
Last time i thought about Venezuela was when i played Mercenaries 2...

There is that great first mission in Rainbow Six:Raven Shield as well :P

 

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On 8 November 2009, 11:34PM Posted by guid0

This video game prohibition won't work. Before you know it an underground network of "video game sharers" will crop up using some sort of "distribution network" to transmit / deliver games to each other thus completely bypassing the now censored retail channels! I don't know if this sort of thing is possible but I bet there's some great minds in Venezuela working on it as we speak!! They could call it G2G for "games to gamers" or something like that?! Yes, this kind of prohibition prohibition just forces normal law abiding citizens to become criminals.

 

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On 9 November 2009, 05:20PM Posted by cortez72

Browser games are going to become the class B drug, with game sharing the digital 'crack' to Venezuelan youth.

 

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On 9 November 2009, 10:12PM Posted by SpawnSeekSlay

Reply to guid0 8 November 2009, 11:34PM
This video game prohibition won't work. Before you know it an underground network of "video game sharers" will crop up using some sort of "distribution network" to transmit / deliver games to each other thus completely bypassing the now censored retail channels! I don't know if this sort of thing is possible but I bet there's some great minds in Venezuela working on it as we speak!! They could call it G2G for "games to gamers" or something like that?! Yes, this kind of prohibition prohibition just forces normal law abiding citizens to become criminals.

Yeah they may stop it in retailers but its not hard to download any game from P2P for free and play it. Or get ya mate from Columbia to just send it to ya by post. It wont work, no way.
They ban video games because of violence, but they keep movies like Saw and Hostel? Totally contradictory!