The Videogame Voters Network [VGVN] are running this wall of protest thing to oppose government regulation of videogames. Except, instead of a wall, they’re using flickr.

There are a few problems with this, I think.

First, if you want to make a ‘wall of protest’, I think a literal wall is far more noticeable and…better for use in protests, don’t you? Yeah, I know that the wall of the missing [or whatever it was called] has disappeared into a small office in a building somewhere, hidden down several corridors, but when it was actually outside, it was noticeable. It got on TV, and it was impressive. Except maybe not really, because a really, really impressive thing kept getting repeated on TV with it.

Second: I’m taking this about as seriously as an e-petition, and I think that most narrowminded governmental grownups are going to see it the same way.

The seriousness of it is probably the biggest overall problem. So big, I’m not even sure I can give it a number. Instead, I’ll just cram it in right here.

The seriousness. It’s just not there. The MS Paint is, and the pictures of peoples animals. And also the shame. But no seriousness. This is, as Serious Cat said, serious business. Only, hopefully, with less funny misspellings. Except I think there are funny misspellings, and outright ‘leet’. Not appropriate.

Game legislation isn’t exactly a funny, funny joke. Okay, maybe sometimes it is. And the people around it are sometimes living, breathing parodies of actual human beings, but that really doesn’t mean that the gaming community should put itself out there as everything from ‘what you think we are’ to ‘why god why?’

Go on. Look at the site. At the time of this writing, there are two chinchillas and what might be a Bichon Frisé asserting their constitutional rights to protest. And one of the chinchillas’ pictures is actually named ‘Roxxor Chinchilla has something to say!’

Now, I haven’t checked lately, but I don’t seem to remember chinchillas being given rights as full citizens in the ‘good ol’ US of A’. I suppose it could’ve happened. This might be why everyone says the rest of the world hates us. I don’t really ever watch the news, so I probably missed that one.

Wait…I’ve got it. It’s the 9th amendment that does it with the whole ‘the enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.’ This is where people also get their ‘right of never being offended by anything, ever [or else], which supercedes your right to free speech which otherwise means you can say whatever you want, whenever you want.’ I’ve heard those Constitution-writing people were real idiots and couldn’t even write a sentence in a proper and comprehensible way, so I suppose that the ‘by the people’ part could include various small rodent-like things sold on the exotic pet trade. Sugar gliders probably have the right to protest, too.

Honestly, I’m all for that. But I draw the line at Bichon Frisé rights.

Some of the pictures are okay. Some of the people look like the respectable sort who wouldn’t go out for the crazy protests that involve peace signs, breasts, and eventually firehoses and teargas.

For example, at the time of this writing, there’s a guy in the top row in the new BDUs. I could probably take him seriously, even with that little moustache, but the guys on either side of him? One of them has a barely readable sign on a piece of paper, and what looks like a retardedly huge open-mouthed grin on his face [although it might just be him yelling at the camera, what with the raised fist], and the other has what looks like an elaborate tinfoil hat, which makes me think that maybe his ‘let me play my games in peace’ means ‘without all those nasty mindcontrol rays, kthx.’

I already mentioned MS Paint and Shame, right? Would adding ‘Myspace’ and ’emo’ and ‘ih’ be redundant? Because a lot of these pictures look like myspace pictures reworked with MS Paint. And there’s some emo. And at least one mullet. And a lot of ih.

By ‘ih’, I don’t mean ‘I don’t want to look at that because it is terribly unattractive’, but ‘I don’t want that representing me in a gamer protest.’ The ‘funny typos and leet are appropriate in this area’ people, and the ‘not-so-veiled-threat’ people [Leave my games alone. I’m warning you. from Jewiki The Anomaly, for example], and the funny-face-attempting-to-glower people. And let’s not forget the ‘using someone else’s shit and ‘shopping’ in our comments people, which Mr. Terminator Poster ‘the ESRB pwns the MPAA’ might be a part of.

…and then there’s the people in costume.

More later. And I really mean that. I’m going to post more about this later.