Postal 2 to be featured in Nobel Prize museum

That was in 2005 Dirty, but is actually more interesting than this.

Why?

I think Postal makes a much better example for such exhibit than any other controversial game, aside from Columbine RPG, Dirty mentioned.

But it's controversy for controversy's sake. There's no reason you can piss on people, or use cats as gun silencers (in the new one?); it's just there to whip up a media frenzy and in the process whip up sales figures.

A game that explores controversial themes as a device for wider social commentary or philosophical implications is far more worthy as an example in a debate on freedom of speech.

Well said, sir. Well said.

"It is generally the stuff we dislike that we have the hardest time making the argument that they are covered under free speech, but they will fail in the end because of the message they deliver."

Wait, I don't understand that sentence.

Anyway, yes, I do agree that free speech (and press, etc.) has no limits, unless of course someone is being forced into something against their will (like real-life child pornography).

Yeah, I was at work and a little rushed.

Generally, I was getting at the idea that, while it's difficult for us to defend something like Postal 2 under the auspices of "free speech" because we don't like it, the reality is that, if it's not worthwhile, it'll fail on its own - no censorship required.

That's about right.

And besides, I'd rather default to the "no censorship" side than risk any damage that could be done *with* censorship.

latter yes, former no

LBP comes to mind for the whole lyrics censorship thing. Decent, family friendly game, censored because of lyrics that maybe 0.001% of the games target audience could understand anyway. It wasn't a big deal until they made it a big deal, just like most of the things they've censored in the past (Hot Coffee for instance. You had to mod the freaking game to even see that mini-game, yet it caused a full blown recall at a cost of millions of real dollars.)

It's such a shame that stores absolutely will not carry AO rated games. Why should retail outlets be able to dictate what content I can and cannot see? It's crazy, especially considering that AO games flow out of Japan like candy, and their country hasn't gone mad with sexual hysteria yet (on the contrary....their birth rate is in a free fall).

I'm so annoyed that they chose Postal 2 of all games to be in the exhibit. Normal people would take one look at it, and think that the censors are right in what they are doing.

There's at least a billion muslims in the world - and some of the richest countries are muslim countries. Standard of living in the middle east, Turkey, and Afghanistan is high enough that a decent sized number of people might be targeted by this game. And as one that stands apart from violent or controversial themes, it's even more likely to be acceptable.

The thing is, to Muslims any transformation of the Koran into musical lyrics is forbidden. And if you realise that your game has the potential to break a religious law of a large chunk of the world's human biomass, recalling it is a fairly logical step.

Meh. Games have been known to assault my religion, and I've never thrown a fit over it.