[Editorial] Why Gamers Should be Concerned About the Censorship of Porn

It might seem like an odd thing to suggest, but the recent banning of certain types of pornography in the UK should worry us all as gamers, especially those of us living in the UK. In fact, it should worry us all as members of the human race that a western political party is, in the 21st century, telling us what we should and should not be turned on by, but the issue hits out at the heart of all producers of entertainment because it has set a very disturbing precedent.

This ruling has basically said that if some members of the UK government aren’t interested/excited/entertained by a particular piece of art, they can make it illegal for anyone to produce it in the UK. And that, my geeky friends, is what happens in a dictatorship. There is no other word for it. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya famously kicked all of the Italians out of his country because he didn’t like them very much, Kim Jong-Un banned One Direction from entering North Korea because he doesn’t like their hair-styles and now the Tories have banned spanking in porn because they apparently only like it missionary-style.

So how many of these inept fossils in the British parliament do you think are into video games? My bet is not many of them. What happens when his holiness, David Cameron, prime minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland catches on to the fact that computer games are another thing that leave his libido un-piqued?

You may think I’m sounding a little paranoid. After all, hard-core dungeon porn is a far cry from Minecraft, although I am now issuing the challenge to the modding community to make the dungeon porn texture pack (it’s honestly all I want for Christmas.) But it actually hits closer to home than you may think. You see, while the ruling specifically applies to VoD (video on demand) services, providing streams and downloads of what is referred to as ‘video work,’ the BBFC actually changed their definition of what can be classed as ‘video work’ back in 1994, to include video games. As you probably know, there are now multiple ways to stream and download your games on both console and PC. Therefore, legally speaking, there is nothing to stop a talented lawyer from at least attempting to claim that this ruling can also apply to video games. You may find that to be a real stretch of logic but when rich people have agendas, they can (and often do) bend the meaning of the law to their will.

As an indie developer and as someone who is currently working on a comedic game set in hell, it has crossed my mind that I might want to make a joke or two about the obvious connection between kinky porn and the traditional torture of eternal damnation, along with visual elements. I now have to consider whether or not to make the jokes that I want to make, in my own game, because my own government has potentially criminalised me for simply referencing it. What about open World games like DayZ? Pretty much anything can be acted out in that game? The ramifications of this ruling are at best, slightly stifling for game designers and at worst, potentially career-ruining.

Nobody is obliged to approve of what other people enjoy, nor is anybody obliged to purchase or view it. But tolerating the diverse needs of a nation’s people is key to maintaining the liberties and artistic freedom that has brought us all of the awesome games that we love so much. Personally, I’m not turned on by the systematic removal of benefits from severely disabled people and their subsequent ever-increasing death toll, but I’m not going to try to get the tories arrested for it, because…actually, why aren’t they being arrested for that? Anyway, the point I’m making is that if we allow a government to say what we can and cannot be excited about, we run the risk of criminalising diversity, of making perfectly normal people with slightly eccentric tastes feel marginalised and cast-out, which isn’t good for the psyche of anyone. Ironically, when you take people with perfectly normal tastes and repeatedly tell them that they are criminals, perverts and evil for liking the things that they like, you will mould them into perverted criminals or drive them to make very bad decisions.

Perhaps I’m blowing this out of proportion. I certainly hope that my concerns are unfounded. But you only have to look east, towards North Korea, in order to see what can happen when you allow a government to control your urges and desires. In a week when a film about the life and death of Alan Turing, one of computing's most respected figures, is currently winning critics over for it's heartfelt depiction of a man who was criminalised for his sexual attraction to other men, I find it heartbreaking that we are still doing it to this day.