Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

Well, I found this article link on PSO-World. Supposedly, a new law as has been passed in Tokyo, which will officially be in effect starting July 2011. The small story is that it will not be allowed to present any kind of virtual crime in said media, or anything that may hurt the youth growth.

http://www.gameinformer.com/blogs/membe ... assed.aspx

It seems that the revolution has already started in Japan, even though there's still many months before the law takes effect. What do you think about all that? What do you think it will mean for the world of video gaming, anime and manga in general. What is the line the japanese media will not cross anymore? Do a game like Atlus' Catherine will even be permitted with this new law?

0_o

Seriously? What the heck?

Well, I can kiss any future Ghost in the Shell instalments good bye then. Much of the series revolved around Section 9 solving cases involving cyber-terrorism and virtual crimes and stuff like that.

It might not be so bad, depending on how broadly the new law is applied. From
my understanding, the law isn't intended to ban any depiction of crime. It's mostly aimed at preventing adult and disturbingly violent material from being sold to underage children. Games like Atlus' Catherine will have a harder time selling, but they can still be sold. Just not to kids.

Don't get me wrong; I agree that there is potential for abuse and the law should not have been passed with such broad, unspecific terms. The law will hurt the industries involved as publishers attempt to avoid violating it, but I think the larger publishers will find ways to survive. This law applies only to Tokyo, so some of the larger publishers may just shift focus to other markets where the law isn't yet a concern.

I agree that there will be some way to get along with this law...still, I think the general terms of it is very vague. I agree that some kind of virtual crime should not be showed as much (mainly everything related to child pornography)...but right now, everyone in Tokyo seems to kinda freak out because they don't know what to expect next year. Maybe the board who passed this law should be more specific about the details and how the media will be judged as bannable

This sounds horrible! O_o I for one am really looking forward to Catherine. If the ban stays, I hope it stays in just Tokyo and other Japanese cities don't follow suit.

Ouch! Okay, I heard about this law only just this week from elsewhere. The persob who posted about it gave a bit better detailing though.

This speciffically applies to media that is aimed at or intended for sale to anyone considered a minor, which by Japanese custom is anyone age 16 or younger. So, something like the Ghost in the Shell franchise, which is aimed at the Japanese adult audience, and when airingin is in an after 10 p.m. time slot in Japan, shouldn't be affected by this.

Thank of this more like isolated rogue cities here in the U.S. passing unconstitutional scoff laws that ultimately only serve to prove the level of stupidty of the lawmakers and politcains who made and passed said laws. It's like San Franciso's banning of plastic bags. Or that city that recently passed a "law" prohibiting McDonald's from selling Happy Meals. Ultimately just stupid unjustifiable laws which will be challenged. And at the end of the day, the people of Tokyo will simply mail order or got out and buy the "illegal" goods from locations outside of Tokyo's city limits, proving just how useless it was to pass this law.

On the flip side of things, the law did get a few things right.:
- No media depicting minors involved in any sort of sexual situations.
- No media depicting or implying minors as being homosexuals.

Those were the two core things that the law was created to ban, but ultimately the lawmakers totally lost focus and broadened it into the stupidly vague law which was passed that we are now discussing.

Oops, double post.