According to details found in the Steam Database brought to light in this NeoGAF thread, the new patch that rolled out for Fallout 3 looks to have removed Game For Windows LIVE features from the game. According to the thread, variables with names like ShowCDKeyOnLaunch and LegacyKeyRegistryLocation have been removed, which is a good indication that the Microsoft gaming service is no longer supported by the game.

The battle in the court of public opinion continues between Bethesda and Interplay concerning who actually owns the rights to Fallout. Bethesda's Peter Hines claims they own it outright, while Interplay president Eric Caen claims that the rights will revert to them if Bethesda fights them on its MMO project.

It's a battle of he said he said on two different news outlets. On Eurogamer Caen says that if Bethesda doesn't allow them to make a Fallout MMO the rights to the franchise revert back to them after one more game. Meanwhile on VG247 Bethesda VP of PR Pete Hines states rather emphatically that his company owns Fallout:

The Fallout continues in court between Bethesda and Interplay over the deal that gave Betheda the rights to Fallout 3, Fallout 4 and Fallout 5.

According to a post on the Raging Bull forums by a user named frymuchan, Interplay has gotten a 10-day extension to answer a preliminary injunction filed by Bethesda. The crux of the issue seems to be that Bethesda is upset that Interplay started selling the original Fallout games after Fallout 3 was released. Interplay asserts that it retained those rights when it licensed out the future Fallout games to Bethesda.

Also, the post mentions that Interplay is countersuing Bethesda over assertions that Bethesda made to third parties in reference to the licensing agreement, hurting Interplay's business.

In regards to the Fallout MMO:

Interplay is stating that they fulfilled all rights of the agreement and told Bethesda such in a letter that posted prior to the agreement date in April of 2009, but Bethesda suddenly told Interplay, for no good reason, that they can no longer develop Fallout MMORPG. (Thus, Interplay is implicityly acknolwedging that they raised the requisite 35 million, which is very, very good news). Interplay was not allowed to sublicense the Fallout MMORPG out, as part of the original agreement, but Interplay craftily avoided this by not assigning any rights to Masthead Studios. Masthead studios is simply a technology and finance raising venture. Masthead does not get any rights to Fallout and was not sold Fallout MMORPG (sublicensing).

Frymuchan, who makes no secret that he is pro-Interplay, posted a followup as well:

What really blew me away was that Interplay argued in their court documents that Bethesda breached the contract and messed with Interplay every step of the way (such as sending letters to everyone that Interplay tried to sell the original Fallout games to) to such an extent that the contract is now null and void and therefore the former contract is in effect which states that Interplay owns the Fallout license and Bethesda sublicenses it and only has rights to Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 and Fallout 5. Instead of Interplay oweing Bethesda royalties from Fallout MMORPG, Bethesda should pay Interplay royalties from Fallout 3, in excess of 15-20 million (estimated) as well as damages to Interplay's name, etc. What an amazing, brilliant legal stroke that would be if Interplay pulled this off and REGAINED the Fallout license (AMAZING LEGAL SWITCHAROO) and to boot got a huge, huge settlement from Bethesda to use toward remaking their old games and/or toward Fallout MMORPG.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the courts, since there is obviously no love lost between Interplay and Bethesda, particularly given the huge success of Fallout 3 and the subsequent calmor over the revelation of the Fallout MMO. We'll continue to follow this once the 10-day extension is up.

With the Independence Day weekend upon us here in the United States, we note that News4U has posted its list of 5 Patriotic Video Game Moments.

The list is interesting and contains some games that will surprise you. The five patriotic scenes named come from:

• Freedom Fighters
• Animal Crossing
• Fallout 3
• Super Off-Road
• Bad Dudes

From the Bad Dudes (NES) description:

After rescuing the prez [GP: Bush #1], he says the most American thing the developers could think of: “Hey dudes, thanks for rescuing me. Let’s go for a burger…Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!” You’re then treated to a scene with the president eating a burger in front of the White House. Apparently it was decided to beef up security after the ninja incident, since there is a wall of Secret Service agents behind both of you as well. Oh, and of course Old Glory is showing her colors the whole time the credits roll.

Check out the video clip at left to see the Bad Dudes ending.

Following up on yesterday's report that Blindlight, a Hollywood firm which recruits voice actors for video game projects, had approached Bill Clinton for the role of the president in Fallout 3, Chris Morris of Variety contacted F3 publisher Bethesda, which seemed non-plussed by the news.

Pete Hines, VP of PR for Bethesda, told Morris:

Before they would pitch us on someone like Clinton, they may first go ask if he would do something like that. In no way, shape or form, did we say is President Clinton is who we want for this role or [tell Blindlight to] go chase him.

Fallout 3 was maybe the best game of 2008. Could an appearance by Bill Clinton have made it even more memorable?

In an interview with Edge Online, Lev Chapelsky, general manager of Blindlight, a Hollywood-based firm which connects actors, writers and musicians with game projects, mentions that he tried to recruit the former president for voice work in Bethesda's best-selling action/RPG:

Celebrity acquisition applies not just to celebrity actors but to sports figures, politicians – we’ve made offers to Bill Clinton for videogames and gotten great responses with attorneys who have said, ‘The former president will not participate in one of your videogame products, thank you very much’...

What project did you ask Bill Clinton for?

 

I think that might have been to play the president in Fallout 3. Wouldn’t that have been brilliant? You get to that point in game and you hear that voice in the ether coming from off-camera and you’re like, ‘I know that guy!’

Via: Fidgit

Over at MTV Multiplayer, Stephen Totilo suggests a unique way to gain perspective on the Washington, D.C. turf that is the site for Barack Obama's inauguration as America's 44th president.

If you can deal with the nuked-out look, Totilo recommends taking a virtual tour, courtesy of Bethesda's best-selling, post-apocalyptic, RPG Fallout 3:

Video games are an under-used tool for understanding current events. Let’s change that and use the most graphically realistic version of Washington, D.C. ever created to get an enhanced perspective of today’s Inauguration Day, shall we?

Slight problem: the best representation of Washington, D.C. and the National Mall in video game history involves a richly-rendered post-nuclear-war version of the nation’s capital circa the year 2277...

 

Here’s the National Mall as viewed from the top of a bombed-out Washington Monument...  “Fallout 3″ players can reach this location by traveling to the “Washington Monument” marker on the game’s map, passing a security checkpoint and taking an elevator to the top. In real life, the Mall, is currently filled with hundreds of thousands of people.

“Fallout 3″ gamers, if you have time today, walk in Obama’s steps. It’s an interesting experience.

Kotaku reports that a Fallout 3 side quest involving the possible detonation of an unexploded nuclear bomb has been edited out of the Japanese version of the best-selling game.

Developer Bethesda has made changes to the Japanese Fallout 3. The side-quest The Power of the Atom has been changed. Non-playable-character Mr. Burke has been taken out of this side-quest, removing the option of detonating the nuclear bomb.

 

That's not all, the name of a weapon was changed as it was deemed "inappropriate" for Japan. Smart money says the weapon is mini-nuke launcher "Fat Man" for obvious reasons. The online reaction from the Japanese users seems to be largely disappointment to these edits. Fallout 3 goes on sale in Japan this December.

Japan, of course, is the only nation to have been attacked with a nuclear weapon to date, so cultural sensitivities to the issue are understandable. The atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki at the end of World War II was nicknamed "Fat Man."

In unusually strong language, the editorial staff of video site GameTrailers.com has condemned the ESRB for forcing the removal of Fallout 3 trailers last week.

The comments were made in a podcast released Friday. GameTrailers editor-in-chief Shane Satterfield (left) and staffer "Grumpy" ripped the ESRB which, in addition to rating game content, enforces the industry's advertising standards.

The segment on the ESRB starts just after the 26-minute mark of the podcast. Here's a sample:

Shane: You may wonder why all the trailers ever released for Fallout 3 were removed from GameTrailers.com. Well the reason that happened is because of our good pals at the ESRB.

Grumpy: Wankers! ...I am just absolutely flabbergasted about the ESRB. They're a bunch of bleepwads sitting in Washington.

Shane: Hear, hear!

Grumpy: ...they get publishers to pull video footage. They assisted in getting the Fallout 3 ads taken out of Washington because some dumb bleepwit... on a bus got upset that they were showing images of decimated Washington...

Shane: Never watched a movie before!

Grumpy: Exactly. It's a futuristic, post-apocalyptic game. I am so sick of this nanny state... they are not a government organization. They are a body made up of unqualified nincompoops... unfortunately, they're taking the nanny state to the nth degree... They make the FCC look like a bunch of broad-minded, non-censorship individuals... It sucks that Bethesda had to pull all this Fallout 3 stuff, because it was bleeping good media...

Shane: All age-gated...

Grumpy: ...nobody could get at it. But because some little toe-rag at ESRB decides to get pissed off about something, all that good work is gone... Good job, Bethesda. It sucks that they have to kowtow to the ESRB...

Shane: I hate the ESRB... The week before that we had gotten an exclusive on a trailer... suddenly we get a call... and the publisher is telling us to take it down because of the ESRB... The ESRB can only regulate media that the publishers send us. Anything that we create in-house, as GameTrailers, they can't touch... we'll make our own violent-as-hell trailer that they can't do anything about. So we did. We put it up, it was huge... then we get a call from publisher X [who said] "...the ESRB is putting pressure on us and so that bleep is going to run downhill to where we can't work with you guys unless you do what the ESRB says" ...they are like the frickin' Mafia... These people have totally gone like a frickin' power trip...

GP: Thanks to GP reader Yukimura for the tip.

UPDATE: The ESRB has declined to comment on this story.

There has been some talk around the 'Net this week that the PC version of Fallout 3 is sporting SecuROM, the same intrusive copy protection scheme that caused so much controversy for Spore last month.

But a post on publisher Bethesda's blog claims that Fallout 3 only uses SecuROM to verify the disc:

For Fallout 3’s copy protection on PC, we use the same security model as we did for Oblivion - a simple disc check. We only use SecuRom’s disc check functionality for copy protection. We do NOT limit the number of installs. We do NOT use online authentication or any other SecuROM functionality except for a disc check when you install the game and when you launch the game. We do not install any other programs and we don’t have anything that runs in the background while you’re playing the game.

GP: Bethesda is clearly attempting to avert a consumer rebellion like the one waged against Spore. You know, the one about which EA 's CEO remarked that half of the complainers were pirates and the other half were too dumb to know any better.

Via: bit-tech.net

If you thought being permanently disbarred would cause Jack Thompson to ride off into the sunset, guess again.

The ex-attorney is currently seeing fire and damnation in Bethesda's recent recall of Fallout 3 trailer videos. A rambling letter from Thompson to the Federal Trade Commission accuses the ESRB of duplicity in the enforcement of its advertising guidelines:

The ESRB’s [advertising] Principles and Guidelines are not intended to protect the public.  They are obviously intended to protect the video game industry from the public backlash prior to a hyperviolent game’s commercial release.   The ESRB, by allowing such violence in games but not in the advertising is institutionally mandating the cloaking of a game’s real content from the public in advertising.

Thus, the ESRB is actively using its “watchdog” muscle to intimidate game developers into participating in the ESRB’s long-standing shell game by which it has tried to hoodwink Congress and the American people into thinking that the video game rating system is working, that the ratings are reliable, and that minors are being protected from the sale of “Mature” games... 

And, even though Take-Two has zilch to do with Fallout 3, Thompson cannot resist taking a shot at the GTA publisher:

Take-Two, for example, knows that if it adhered to “truth in advertising,” most of its Grand Theft Auto games never would have made it out of the warehouse.  Take-Two has figured out how to collaborate with the ESRB in this shell game by which false advertising cloaks the real nature of their games until the games are released, and then it is too late...

 

Bethesda’s only sin was that it advertised truthfully what its game Fallout 3 is all about.  The ESRB’s idiotic but telling response has fashioned a noose that I expect either the FTC or Congress to slip around the ESRB’s neck...

Full letter after the jump...

Sites which host game footage were advised by Bethesda yesterday that they must take down any trailers for Fallout 3.

With the highly-anticipated, M-rated game launching today, the move is ill-timed, to say the least. Maximum PC cites an e-mail from Bethesda VP Pete Hines:

In connection with ESRB's advertising guidelines, you are instructed to remove immediately any of our Fallout 3 trailers from your website, pending further notice.

Meanwhile, Edge Online speculates that a Fallout 3 trailer which shows an adversary's head exploding in slo-mo, might be at fault.

The ESRB maintains and enforces guidelines for game advertising. The content rating organization has occasionally intervened with game trailers in the past.

A man who rides Washington, D.C.'s Metro underground rail system has written to the Washington Post to complain about poster ads for Fallout 3 which appear in the Metro Center station.

Joseph Anzalone criticizes the ads as well as Metro management for accepting them:

In one ad, the Washington Monument and the American flags surrounding it stand ravaged, as if hit by missiles. In another, the Capitol dome is partially caved in, while the rest of the building and the city behind it lie in ruins.

The people of our city do not need a daily reminder that Washington is a prime target for an attack. We do not need a daily reminder of what our worst fears look like. Since any First Amendment objection would be irrelevant (the ads do not present a true viewpoint or political message and would therefore not be protected), there is no reason for these ads to be part of our daily panorama.

The ads should be removed, and the appropriate office at Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority should be directed to exercise better judgment regarding what can be displayed in our transportation system.

GP: Whether the ads are in poor taste is a matter of opinion, but Anzalone gets his constitutional argument wrong. The First Amendment protects more than "true viewpoints" and "political messages". That's why they call it free speech.

Citing "cultural sensitivities," GamingIndians reports that Fallout 3 won't go on sale as scheduled next week in India.

By way of explanation GamingIndians cites a terse statement from Microsoft India, which is - or was - handling Fallout 3 distribution there:

Microsoft constantly endeavors to bring the best games to Indian consumers in sync with their international release. However, in light of cultural sensitivities in India, we have made the business decision to not bring Fallout 3 into the country.

Only the Xbox 360 version was planned for the Indian market.

GP: It's a bit of a mystery, but if I were a betting man, I'd speculate that Fallout 3's post-nuclear apocalypse theme has something to do with the decision.

After all, India has been in a stare-down with neighboring Pakistan for decades. Both sides are nuked up and as recently as 2002, almost went to war.

Via: Destructoid

The Foo Fighters entertained the crowd at a private Fallout 3 launch party last night in L.A. and Entertainment Weekly reports that frontman Dave Grohl seemed close to dedicating Everlong to Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin.

It was just 10 days ago that the band issued a statement protesting the use of their tune My Hero at McCain/Palin rallies.

From EW:

Playing for several hundred videogame enthusiasts gathered to celebrate the much anticipated launch of the post-apocalyptic Fallout 3, the Foo frontman... [praised] the open bar at the downtown Los Angeles gig several times, and... toasted gamers everywhere.

 

"I'm proud of you guys," he said. "You're living the American dream. You get to drink free booze and play f----n' video games. Who knows, maybe someday you can be vice president!" While readying his guitar for the song "Everlong," Grohl segued from the V.P. reference into a near-dedication: "Speaking of that, I'm gonna dedicate this one to all the..." And then flinched. "Never mind." Whoa. To all the...Republicans? Several people in attendance certainly wondered if that was what the singer was thisclose to doing. Tongue-in-cheek perhaps?

Following in the wake of GTA IV, Spore and other high-profile releases, the much-anticipated Fallout 3 was apparently cracked and leaked to torrent sites yesterday, nearly three weeks ahead of its scheduled October 28th U.S. retail release.

gamesindustry.biz reports that the hack involves the Xbox 360 version and requires a mod chipped 360 to play. gi.biz comments:

Although a majority of console and PC games are leaked online before the official release, for a game to be distributed illegally three weeks before it hits the shops highlights the demand for pirated material from users - and the holes in security measures designed to prevent illegal copying of games.

Fallout 3 also reportedly went gold yesterday.

GP: Without knowing how many chipped 360s are out there, it's hard to determine just how much of a problem this might be for Bethesda.

It's ironic, as a GP reader pointed out yesterday in our ShoutBox, that Ubisoft is delaying the PC version of EndWar, claiming piracy concerns, while major console titles are regularly cracked.

With Fallout 3 launching later this month, Bethesda has placed ads for its post-apocalyptic adventure in the Metro Center station of Washington's D.C.'s subway system.

Some riders don't quite know what to make of the marketing campaign. digital metropolis reports:

In the four minutes I had to waste while waiting for the metro to come, I counted 37 people walk by, stop, and stare at this ad. For those who don’t know, Fallout 3 takes place in a post-apocalyptic DC, and word on the street is that you can play down in the metro tunnels in addition to roaming the streets...

 

Anyway, metro riders were transfixed by this ad. Unlike the “Fred, your ass is looking fat” hippo posters or the metro etiquette ads, the crumbling Washington Monument and mutated American flag caught a lot of eyes, and people STARED. Like, legit stared...

Meanwhile, Mike Musgrove of the Washington Post offers his own account:

Don't get too freaked out, commuters: It's just a video game.

 

Local game studio Bethesda Softworks has blanketed the advertising space in downtown's Metro Center Metrorail station with some dark and kinda disturbing images of DC landmarks, such as a bombed-out-looking Capitol building and Washington Monument, lifted from its upcoming game title Fallout 3.

Joystiq has more, including a photo gallery.

PC gamers can rejoice.

Bethesda spokesman Pete Hines has told Shacknews  that the PC flavor of the hotly anticipated Fallout 3 will use a simple DVD check for verification:

[Fallout 3 will be] pretty similar to what we did for Oblivion, which was--we basically don't do any [DRM]--we do the mildest form possible. I actually don't know if I even want to get into what it is that we exactly do, but we try to be really noninvasive when it comes to that stuff.

 

And it is a pain in the ass--it is a pain in the ass that we have to do it at all in the first place. But when you spend tens of millions of dollars, we don't think it's right to just put something out there and let everybody do whatever they want and pass it around...

 

But no, we're pretty mild about how we do it, and we try to do it in a way that prevents folks from exploiting and distributing our games that we worked very hard on... It's very important for us not to ruin the experience for the person who did buy a copy, so we try to be very careful... We want to remove anything that is a hindrance or an annoyance to the player, we're trying to just get to the game and have fun...

Shacknews also notes that Fallout 3 will have no install limit. You listening, EA?

Via: Big Download

Are video game publishers afraid to operate in a DRM-free environment?

They are, according to Michal Kicinski, CEO of digital distribution company CD Projekt and its GOG (Good Old Games) service. Kicinski told gamesindustry.biz:

We're trying to convince [game publishers] there is nothing to be afraid of. DRM-free, that is something they are really scared of, but on the other hand we can say 'all of those games are available pirated widely so it's better to sell them for small money than make the customer's life difficult and get some more revenues'.

 

...I think that if somebody is paying for the game then they deserve own it, not with a certain list of conditions and sometimes the list of conditions can be long... DRM makes customer's lives too complicated, and this is usually because of some corporate ideas, policies and trying to be smart, too smart, in how to get customers and how to keep them and no let them go somewhere else. We are believers in the free market and bringing freedom to customers.

 

Piracy in Poland is always much, much bigger here than in Western countries so we got used to living with piracy and we grew up in a surrounding where there was no help from governments to actually fight piracy. So we had to learn to compete with pirates...

GP: To be candid, I was not aware of GoG until I checked it out for this post. It's apparently not live yet, but is supposed to start up this month. And they've got Fallout and Fallout 2 displayed. I've been wanting to replay those with the new Fallout 3 coming out soon...

Yesterday, Edge Online broke the news that Fallout 3 would ship worldwide next week with the same gameplay edits that were made to clear censorship hurdles in Australia.

The issue for Australian censors was the game's ability to use virtual morphine as a health power-up. Down Under, of course, the highest rating is MA15+.

After posting about the news, I realized that last week's GamePolitics story which reported that the BBFC had rated Fallout 3 "18" for the U.K. market contained a huge clue that the Aussie edits had gone global (a clue that I failed to fully pick up on). Here's what I wrote then:

Fallout 3 has been cleared for sale in the U.K. with no content edits required...

 

Curiously, a "consumer advice" note posted with the rating decision does not mention the drug use which got Fallout 3 banned in Australia earlier this year. The only reference to content is "Contains very strong bloody violence and gore."

So, yes, I noticed that the BBFC hadn't commented on the game's virtual drug use but didn't make the connection that it might have been edited out. Doh!

Until a few minutes ago, only Australian gamers assumed that they'd be getting an edited version of the hotly-anticipated Fallout 3. However, Edge Online has learned that everyone will be getting what we might call "the Australian cut."

GamePolitics readers will recall that specific references to morphine as an in-game power-up initially caused Australia to nix Fallout 3. After changes were made, the game was authorized for sale Down Under with an MA15+ rating, Australia's most restrictive.

The EO report quotes Bethesda's PR exec Pete Hines:

We want to make sure folks understand that the Australian version of Fallout 3 is identical to both the UK and North American versions in every way, on every platform.

 

An issue was raised concerning references to real world, proscribed drugs in the game, and we subsequently removed those references and replaced them with fictional names. To avoid confusion among people in different territories, we decided to make those substitutions in all versions of the game, in all territories.

 

I didn't want people continuing to assume the version in Australia was some altered version when it's not. There are no references to real world drugs in any version of Fallout 3.

Nothing like waiting until the last minute, eh? Fallout 3 ships next week.

GP: Thanks to Just Chris for the heads-up!

Fallout 3 has been cleared for sale in the U.K. with no content edits required.

That's the word from the British Board of Film Classification, which yesterday stamped the much-anticipated Bethesda title with an 18 rating, meaning that it can legally be sold to those of that age and older.

Curiously, a "consumer advice" note posted with the rating decision does not mention the drug use which got Fallout 3 banned in Australia earlier this year. The only reference to content is "Contains very strong bloody violence and gore."

The BBFC, currently embroiled in a power struggle for control of U.K. game ratings, is best known to gamers for the outright ban it placed on Manhunt 2 last year. That decision was later overturned by Britain's High Court.

The product manager for Fallout 3 has told CVG that content restriction variations from country to country are frustrating.

Pete Hines (left) said:

The frustrating thing for us is that the standards and rules can be so varied across territories, that we work with five or six ratings agencies and each one has different 'hot buttons'.

 

In one place nudity is a big deal but violence is fine, and in another place drugs are a problem but nudity is fine. I guess that's the way of the world - not every country is the same. You're not aiming at one target, you're aiming at six different ones, worrying about how each one will feel about different things.

 

We just go through and make the game that we want to make. We have our eyes wide open, mindful of the things that could be flagged up and how we're going to resolve them if that becomes a problem.

As GamePolitics reported earlier this year, Fallout 3 was refused classification (i.e., banned) in Australia over in-game depictions of drug use. The ban was subsequently lifted following edits by Bethesda.

In 2006 Bethesda suffered through an ESRB re-rating of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the U.S. market following post-release concerns about the game's level of violence as well as a user-created mod which rendered female characters topless.

GP correspondent Colin McIness served up this terrific interview with Oblivion modder Maeyanie at the time...

GamerChip is reporting that the Australian government's ban on Fallout 3 has been lifted following edits to the game for the Australian market.

The site bases their story on information from a pair of game retailers:

...according to EB Games and GAME representatives, Australia will be receiving the game, albeit in a modified format. The new, friendlier version, will have the drug use removed that saw the game banned in the first place. Both EB Games and GAME are currently taking pre-orders for the title. One representative from GAME, contacted this Thursday night... said that he had read on their internal communications only an hour before that Fallout 3 would be released this year.
 

We note, however, that Australia's official censorship body, the Office of Film and Literature Classification, continues to list Fallout 3 as "refused classification" (i.e., banned).

Readers may recall that Australian gamers received a watered-down version of Grand Theft Auto IV after the game's hooker animations were removed to satisfy the OFLC.

While some Australian politicians want to ban mature-themed games and others don't even seem to realize that their nation has a rating system, at least one would-be legislator Down Under not only understands games, but is a hardcore gamer himself.

As reported by Kotaku Australia, ACT Democrats candidate Greg Tannahill makes no bones about his gaming. A press release issued this week says:

Affordable housing, quality education and comprehensive public transport are the issues that Greg sees as key to Canberrans, but gaming remains close to his heart.

 

"Politicians don't understand videogaming and aren't interested in learning", says Greg. "There's good reason for people to be angry about the way games are treated by our parliaments, our media, and our classification board. I think gamers want to see leaders who have real respect for what they are passionate about, both as a pastime engaged in by millions of Australians from all walks of life, and as a multi-billion dollar industry which our governments should be attracting and nurturing".

While Tannahill has a campaign website, he also maintains a game blog, where he describes last week's Q&A program as "frankly terrifying":

Censorship is odious because it removes community choice. Censorship says that the thought is the action; that the common person can't distinguish between depiction and actuality... Censorship says, "Let me decide who talks."

And games are talking. They're talking very loudly, to a great many people, in strong and clear voices. They're speaking in places that have never read a newspaper and in houses which have never listened to politicians. It's okay to be worried by what games are saying. It's okay to disagree. But it's not okay to stifle those voices. It's not okay to kill the game.