Greece bans all electronic games!
Posted by MelSkunk (Melissa Drake) on Fri 6 Sep 2002 - 12:41
The headline should really be "Governments are @#$%&#ing stupid!" Since the Grecian government admitted they cannot tell the difference between innocuous video games and illegal gambling machines, they've banned ALL games played on an electronic device. Though the headline makes it sound like just violent shoot-em-up games are banned, any game is included.This means internet chess. This means Minesweeper on your Windows. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if MUCKs might be a borderline game. Major fines are being levied against any person, tourist or local, caught playing an electronic game or even simply owning the software or console to play one.
Fight the power, play Super Mario...
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MelSkunk (Melissa Drake) — read stories — contact (login required)a student and Skunk from Toronto, ON, interested in writting, art, classic cars and animals
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My idea:
Hack into all *nix boxes in Greece and redirect all command-line commands to console Tetris, so that anything you do causes you to be playing a game and therefore arrestable.
You could also rig up a version of Klez or Melissa that would invade Outlook Express and pop up FreeCell every minute or so, and maybe also take a screenshot of the game being played and email it to the police.
My idea:
Hack into all *nix boxes in Greece and redirect all command-line commands to console Tetris, so that anything you do causes you to be playing a game and therefore arrestable.
For added evil - did you know that you can specify a different binary as the shell for Windows 9x/ME? Set it to Solitaire.
In practice, this law will be like the "pi = 4" thing. An obviously spectacularly bad idea that will be repealed PDQ.
I find it extremely hard to believe that this isn't a joke. So, I guess if I visit greece, no Crash Bandicoot or Gran Turismo (my two favorites) on playStation, or no Yahoo games on my laptop. I guess they couldn't allow any of those games, I mean, an electronic bandicoot, or a computer generated image of a Camaro from Gran Turismo on a screen could mean you are a hardned criminal. I'm still laughing. lol
It's hardly new. I understand the Philippines banned video games back in the 80's. A Filipino exchange student I knew said it was because the government decided they took time away from things like studying. When I think of how many kids I see in the local game parlor after school (from 'just after' to 10-11 PM), I have a hard time faulting their logic.
Ardashir
If it's a joke, it's one that a number of different and reliable news/technology sites fell for, including C|Net.
Truth is dumber than fiction. I'm just a little surprised and worried that everyone is up in arms about an overseas country banning videogames while in our own country much more troubling things are taking place...
-Feren
"We use them for divine retribution."
Greece has done other dumb things, so I don't know if it WILL be repealed just because it was stupid. (The planespotters incident comes to mind)
Well, let me inform you my friends tha this IS NOT A JOKE! I am from greece! Alla the internet caffs have removed all their games. I have seen also one or two in my town that they have removed the microsoft windows games too! Today we had the Law court of Thessaloniki found the two owners of internet caffs that were arrester NOT GUILTY! They are free now. But this law is not a joke! Out own goverment has gone MAD! There is a site where you can read all about this! http://www.netcafe.gr It has an english version too... As for last. Remember, if you come to greece, bring you gameboys, cellphones, game consoles, pc games with you! Remember to visit all the net caffs, install net games and wait for the police to arrest you! You should be set free soon. Do not be surprized! A few days ago, a farmer's horces where fined by a police officer in a village in greece just for hanging around in a empty old road cause he thought the animals were stopping alla the trafic!!!(Where did he see the cars??) Thats all. Come in http://www.netcafe.gr and protest with us!!!
I heard on the The Screen Savers TV show today that a judge struck down the law as too broad. Anyone else have any further information about this?
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