Gamers in China already lead a life where they are required to verify their identity in order to game online at all. Not just to reach certain types of content. Because gaming time and online access are regulated in China, gamers have to verify their identity more often than not to game at all over there. Now western gamers are getting a taste of this medicine in rapid-fire machine-gun fashion. Serves them right; the growth of amoral behavior and spread of social decay in the west is weakening our society from within, contributing to institutional corruption and the erosion of civic virtue. OK, LOL, maybe not all that, but we do have our share of problems.
It is interesting that western gamers seem to be getting caught in a pincer of moral warfare rules involving everything everywhere all at once. Already caught up in the whirlwind of a rogue Master Card policy that has been weaponized by the moral patronage, gamers have seen the loss of gratuitous content on Steam and itch.io; or at least the overt visibility of that content on those store fronts. But additionally, as VGC reported yesterday, Steam and Xbox are now going to require age verification due to the roll out of laws meant to ostensibly protect minors online in the UK.
While VPNs and using selfies of Sam Porter Bridges appear to be a way around many of the implementations of these policies, it is daunting that we are in a new era of Comstock Laws revisited. Funny that those were also propagated by an effort to chase the Victorian-era moral reforms of the UK. And so here we go again. People coming up with and enforcing these policies should also remember the outcomes of the Comstock Laws. Social backlash, but more importantly clandestine circulation.
As Ian Malcolm said, “Life finds a way”. The Comstock Laws pushed some conversations out of the public into semi-clandestine distribution. This led to the rise of black markets to circulate porn and contraceptives, amongst other things. If the internet should have taught us anything, it is that kids (and adults) will find ways to access sexually explicit content. And in almost every case, some of the methods and markets that spring up as work-arounds to access this content will be decidedly less safe for minors and less security-conscious adults.
Truthfully, we should just let people have access to the content. The erection of roadblocks will almost without question wind up making things worse.
Rounding Off Infinity 