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Denver, 10:52 AM
Thu Nov 12
55 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/08/09
1) with 98% of the videogames in Venezuela being selled as pirated games, honestly i dont think that people care that much; i mean u can still going to the same place and find ur pirated games as usual but a little expensive.
2) The real affected people are Arcade owners (the few left in Venezuela) some in cities like Acarigua and Maracaibo has choosen to go with most children games because of this law.
3) U can still go to stores and find violent videogames, its not like the authorities are behind gamers or sellers like the FBI, searching the guiltys. just go to your old game store and ask for the "M rated games"
4) With my 30 years old, i played since ATARI and NES era and my life have been influenced by Videogames, in fact i learned english because my love to play and try to understand what says in games like Castlevania 2 so its sad that a goverment like ours just bash a law without major resistance or debate from the videogamers sector.
5) This law is laughlable. im playing gears 2 right now.
6) We are living in a mad world, Venezuelan Goverment invest a lot money in Tanks, guns and others to defend their ideology, but in the Capital city dies 45-50 ppl every week (just in that city) others cities like Valencia, Maracay and Maracaibo have similar numbers.
7) I think this law will become just another forgoten law in the future thats the Venezuelan goverments nature.
thanks for read. #politics
11/07/09
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11/08/09
Taxes aren't technically banning, but they are a way to punish those who do things that you think they shouldn't. Notice the recently discussed junk food tax and soda tax. Cigarette taxes are absurdly high. Etc, etc. #politics
11/09/09
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11/07/09
IT'S A SLIPPERY SLOPE PEOPLE! A SLIPPERY SLOPE!!!!
eyeroll #politics
11/07/09
EDIT: More specifically, i'm a liberal and WTF. It is a slippery slope! Whether it's anti left or anti right, when something is wrong, it's fucking wrong!
11/07/09
Y'all are pretty dumb and probably don't know anything about Venezuela other than that 1) no violent videogames (which is a terrible idea), 2) it's a socialist tyranny and Chavez is responsible for every single bad thing that happens in Venezuela (stupid untrue shit spouted by corporate news & right-wing pundits because Chavez's policies cut into their sponsors' profits). People here probably don't actually understand what Chavez's policies are or what's right/wrong with them and probably confuse Venezuela with Cuba. #politics
11/08/09
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11/07/09
And another thing I'd like to bring up is the 7-year old. Even if games were okay where he lives, I doubt he would have a similar experience growing up with games like the older brother, because out of the very few games for his age group (I know there are morons here who think kids should play M games out the womb, fuck off), only a handful are good, and the rest suck, unless he grows up strictly on portables and downloadables until 12. #politics
11/07/09
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11/07/09
this "law" work like this
if u sell, promote, or have any violent game or a bellic toy or weapon, they take it from u, and u must pay 2000 or 3000 credits , i dont know how to say it mmm but its called "unidades tributarias" and u pay it to goverment on every fail, . well lets call it credit, each credit cost around 56 bsf , its like mm 28$ each credit,
-.-
and why this happen
oh beacuse on mercenaries 2, the crappy version of venezuela insulted the noob-no-brained-stupid-goverment-chavez....
chavez shouldnt be on the president charge , for god of sake he was a stupid military, and his mind its so closed, so fking ashole..
well we can say he bough his follower, because they are extreme really poor people , and for a low amount of allowance, food , and crapy sanity services ,they admire him, the worst thing is this, all the fking money incoming form the petroleum he dont make it work on the country, he give it to around countrys, -.- to buy a relationship
well recently , we are going on the cuba ways
the video games was the first thing
now, they limit the electricity each day they cut off for like 1 or 2 hour,
also water -.-
now they want to ban the air conditioner -.- OMG
they are so assholes, why not think on bio energy , solar panels, the eolic energy... no they solution its restrict
well and the opposition isnt united yet . i think about oppotition parties they are like 5 or 6 dam it why they dont have just 1 ...
well i think there is not a diplomatic solution ,, chavez must be killed :D
if i had the oportunitie i do it, i dont care if i die . #politics
11/07/09
BTW, stop spreading FUD. Cutting off and limiting electricity? Whiny liar. #politics
11/08/09
11/07/09
WOULD THEY!!!!!????
O_o #politics
11/08/09
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11/07/09
On another note the I thought the essay was written well, making it not about the video games, but more about the corrupt government its self. #politics
11/08/09
11/07/09
I can honestly see this happening here if the Obama Admin and Neo Liberal Dems continue to remain in power. They already took dodgeball out of schools, are trying to segragate school lunch tables for kids that are allergic to certain foods, putting a tax on trans fat foods, trying to get rid of the grading system because letters like "D" and "F" are too harsh for today's sissy children to deal with.
Yeah, I feel bad for this guy. I hope the rest of you that read this story and happen to be American citizens take notice because there's a strong possibility that some type of regulation or ban on certain videogames is going to occur in this country if things continue down the scary path we're treading.
And for the record, fuck Fox News and all of those fanatical scare tactitionists like Beck and Hannity. They speak a lot of truth but they go well far out of their way to scare people to get their message out there. The problem in the USA is that all the uneducated people are the ones getting out and voting, and sadly, they're in the majority right now. #politics
11/07/09
Secret prisons, violating human rights... scorning the notion of equality and justice in favor of theocratic dominion... no thanks.
I for one am a liberal that opposes such legislation. I believe in freedom and justice. That's what being a liberal is about to me, to believe in liberty. The far left is very scary but so is the far right. When you take any side to an extreme it's disgusting. I believe in warning labels, but when the object in question is not causing physical harm warning labels is as far as it should go. As far as I'm concerned "refusing classification" is as much a violation of free speech as outright banning as well. If I don't like it, I don't have to buy it or see it, and I shouldn't have the right to keep something totally harmless from others.
It would do all of us better to criticize such anti-freedom legislation no matter who it comes from rather than try and lump the opposition into a hated group that supposedly doesn't value freedom. I can respect the Republican goal of fiscal responsibility (despite the fact that hasn't happened when Republicans control the federal government for a very long time) I'd never flat out say I think the Republican party doesn't value freedom, but it's hard for me to accept a party that courts so many with theocratic agendas and at times outright embraces glorified hate groups that hide under the banner of being "family" supporters.
I think it's more fair to say when you go further left or further right you get lunatics that want to reduce freedoms "for the greater good" and you need to watch out for those people. I just so happen to think in the USA at the moment the right is FAR more eager than the left to strip away those freedoms. I've met too many people on the right that think "freedom" means nothing more than being able to subjugate others under the Bible. That scares me far more than any video game legislation.
And no, as a liberal I do not like Chavez. I think socialism is a very wonderful idea, but unfortunately it seems to go hand in hand with an attack on freedom and that is unacceptable. The best system is probably a happy balance but always freedom needs to be protected... and that means for everyone. Freedom doesn't mean freedom to use religion as an excuse to subjugate others.
11/07/09
Why is it always whenever someone disagrees with the current administration they are labeled as a Bush-supporter?
Eitherway, labels such as Liberal are so misconstrued today. As much as Conservative is. A classical Liberal is closer to a modern day libertarian while a traditional american Liberal is more so closer to a Socialist. #politics
11/08/09
Don't censor my ass. #politics
11/07/09
Anyway, the situation in Venezuela is scary as hell and that's putting it lightly. I can only hope that Venezuelan citizens find a way to fix their government. I wish I could say that the American government should step in but after seeing the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, it would probably be best if Venezuelan citizens rejected their government by themselves. Any action taken by the U.S. government would probably be seen as another step toward imperialism because of Venezuela's resources.
It's a shitty situation and I wish I knew a way to help the people the Venezuelan government abuses but being in a country that their government hates anyway, I'm sort of shit out luck on the political end of things. All I feel I can do is show vocal support, which leaves me feeling pretty half-assed and empty.
11/07/09
Other countries ban some violent titles, yet you don't see people whining about "the evil governmeeeent".
11/07/09
It just so happens that in this case not only do they ban the violent games but also criminalize it to the point where it is penalized worse than giving a child a gun.
As for the problems Venezuelan opposition faces, I'm not going to touch that because I don't know about their party system.
@ostartero: I'm also liberal, but the idea of people having even MORE drugs accessible to them that alter their state of mind seems dangerous. A lot of people die from drunk driving, so what's going to happen when you start giving people hallucinogenics? I agree that some of the drugs that are illegal should be legalized and taxed, but you can't deny that some of the reasoning behind the restrictions isn't sound.
@Psychopathic: I have ADHD, so I know how awful Ritalin is. I would not recommend it be used on children simply because they may or may not have it. The side effects of Ritalin meant I had a lot of trouble putting on or keeping weight and I couldn't sleep until late into the night.
ADD/ADHD is not something I feel is so debilitating to a person's lifestyle that they need drugs to cope. Or perhaps my symptoms weren't severe enough to warrant it. I don't know.
Random note, but why was I not informed that there were replies to my comment? It was giving me notifications before. #politics
11/06/09
well guess what? im from Venezuela too.
This law comes from the great ignorance that reigns in my country and specially in the people ruling it.
Here are the facts: My country only has around 33million people, we're a country that rely a 100% on the sales of oil, we dont even produce enough food to cover for everyone so we have to import it from other countries.
So as you can guess, the majority of the people from my country lives in poverty.. maybe not as extreme as people in Africa, but around 80% of the people can only afford for food and maybe go to the movies once a month.
There's a lot of corruption here on all ambits.. from police corruption to government corruption and this isnt like some secret under the table operations.. its stuff everyone knows and sees.. but theres nothing you can do (you cant call the police remember?).
So in this little country where a lot of money goes in but the people actually never get to see.. and filled with corruption, a socialist government won the elections almost 11 years ago.. this is good right? They'll work for the people right? WRONG.. they're trying to bring the types of comunism that failed trough history. And just tipping the poor with low quality medicine and free food. And guess what? after 50 years of democracy thats the best they've seen.. FOR REAL.. so people keep voting for this "socialism" that gives them free rice, milk and bread and they think they're in heaven.
Ok about the law, its still very confusing to everyone and we're not sure exactly how will it work.. all we know is that you wont be able to buy violent games.. so does this mean we can buy TEEN rated games? no one knows.. they want to keep the people as confused and ignorant as possible (to maintain the power).
I have bought many original games (Valve silver pack, cod4, SF4 among many) but most of my consoles and games have been pirated.. i download them and play them on my PC or xbox.
I guess im safe unless they decide to raid my home (not likely to happen).
Well thats it.. oh btw i also learend english while playing video games (FF most of all), and i know its still not perfect but please bear with me :P . ty
/xzero #politics
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11/06/09
Honestly, I have no idea why Venezuela is banning violent video games this time. Maybe it's because they want to censor violence, maybe it's Hugo being Hugo, who knows? (I'm putting my money on the latter.)
Guido, you are da man. The fucking man. Thank you for risking imprisonment from the authorities over there just so that you could tell us your story. That took a lot of courage for you to do, and you obviously have that courage in you. Thanks.
Anyways, if there are anyone else being affected by this law, feel free to speak up here in the comments. We need more people talking.