It has been plastered all over many popular Gaming news sites like: Kotaku and IGN. It even made it to mainstream (non-game centric) news sites like Drudge (AP news Story). This story has gotten so much press that you would think something historic just happened. Something on the scale of the Kennedy assassination or Nintendo announcing that they were done whoring out Mario to the lowest bidder. You would think history just happened... but then, you would be wrong. David Jaffe, Co-founder of Eat Sleep Play best expressed my sentiments about this whole story when he said:

"...to be perfectly frank, the game media's coverage- presenting the situation as if it were such an important issue for gamer's rights and then trumpeting the headline today when the bill was struck down as if they were announcing that man hand landed on the moon - only serves to embarrass our hobby. Gamers and the folks who write about games are much too smart to fall for this sort of nothingness draped in the clothes of import." -David Jaffe

After reading all the celebratory articles and endless blog posts all trumpeting the ruling over and over again (Kotaku was by far the worst offender... We get it Kotaku! "We won"... YAY for us...pats on the back all around). I am reminded of big game hunters standing around a fresh kill, posing for the camera. Everyone wants to take credit for the kill and no one wants to admit that they really didn't actually pull the trigger or stop to question whether they really should have. What are we left with now? A system controlled by an industry that only stepped up to protect minors in the first place because they were deathly afraid that the government would do it for them:

"Citing the video-game industry's voluntary rating system, the Court argues that the California law does not "meet a substantial need of parents who wish to restrict their children's access to violent video games but cannot do so." Ante, at 15. The Court does not mention the fact that the industry adopted this system in response to the threat of federal regulation, Brief for Activision Blizzard, Inc., as Amicus Curiae 7–10, a threat that the Court's opinion may now be seen as largely eliminating. Nor does the Court acknowledge that compliance with this system at the time of the enactment of the California law left much to be desired6-or that future enforcement may decline if the video-game industry perceives that any threat of government regulation has vanished." -Justice Samuel Alito

Now that that monster has been slain, why should the industry fear anything? What is stopping them from ditching the whole ESRB system or discouraging retailers from carding kids who buy games? The sad truth is...nothing! This verdict, from the highest court in the land, basically gives them carte blanche to stop supporting something they didn't want to support in the first place, until they were forced to.

The ruling yesterday wasn't historic because it was a long time coming. Prior to California coming before the supreme court the odds where already stacked against them. Turn on a TV, Download a Movie (legally of course) or open up a magazine and you will find a common, re-occurring theme... SEX and VIOLENCE permeates our culture. For better or for worse, it is everywhere. Ask any parent who tries to raise a child in modern America and they will tell you the same thing. We are a culture that is over-sexed and obsessed with violence.

So, what should we do about that? Should we try to hide the reality from ourselves and our children by creating an artificial micro-society (M. Night Shyamalan's The Village style) and close our eyes, pretending that the big bad wolf doesn't exist? Or do we fight tooth and nail to take down the beast, as California was trying to do, and ultimately end up broken by the monster's jaws? Are these really the only two options?

I believe there is a better way to address the concerns parents have over their children being exposed to games that depict sex and graphic violence while giving many adult gamers what they want; games that depict sex and graphic violence. First, we need to acknowledge the world that we live in. The real world and not the village we want to create. We need to acknowledge the fact that, as a society, sex and violence are now (and always have been) part of our culture and they are not going away. We need to Acknowledge that there are some games: crude, violent, naked, aggressive games; that adults want but kids should not get their hands on. We need to acknowledgement that, while no system is perfect (the one we have now certainly has some flaws), we need to have something in place to protect kids who have inattentive parents, from getting their hands on mature games. Lastly, we need to acknowledge that a fantasy world, where everything is perfect and our kids never see anything violent/sexy/disturbing, is not possible and the best way to protect our kids from seeing/playing things that they are not mature enough to handle is to talk to them about it. We need to be involved in their lives and what they are playing. Like the Anti-drug campaign says: "talk to your kids about drugs because, if you won't, someone else will". Talk to your kids about mature games and be engaged in what they are playing because, if you don't care, no one else will.

The headlines tell you that this is a brave new world but it really isn't. This is the real world. The world we have always lived in but never wanted to acknowledge. From cave paintings to modern video games, sex and violence has been a re-occurring theme. This is the way we are wired and it is time we started to act like it. The Supreme Court simply brought everyone back to reality. Back to the only outcome to this argument that could occurred and has occurred with respect to every major type of media from books, to television and movies. No system, whether setup by government or business, will prevent a violent video game from falling into the hands of a child who is determined to get it and unsupervised at home. This is what the natural world teaches us. Animals who nurture their young have less young because they are better able to protect those young. Animals who abandon their young to the wild (like fish, sea turtles, insects and frogs) must spawn many young to ensure that their genes are passed on. This is because their offspring are not protected by them and therefore have less chance of avoiding death and succeeding in spawning their own offspring; thereby continuing the cycle of life.

I am not going to celebrate this decision but I am also not going to bemoan the defeat of California's bill. Instead, I want to leave the game industry with a simple warning. Should they fail to continue to support the ESRB or fail to pressuring retailers to uphold it's rating system, the monster defeated today will be weak compared to the beast that will be unleashed in the future. And parents, let me also offer you some sage advice. Leave your kids unsupervised and I guarantee they will get their hands on violent/sexy video games (whether the government regulates the sale of those games or the industry does). Even with supervision, they might still might get their hands on violent/sexy video games. But, if you are involved in their lives and conscience of what games they are playing (and the content of those games) I promise you, that it will be much less likely that your kids will get their hands on those types of games. And if they somehow still get their hands on games they shouldn't be playing, they will be better adjusted and able to cope with what they have seen. This is reality. Welcome back! I missed you.

-Master Blaster