NYTimes.com - Video Games and Free Speech.
Even if the interest were legitimate, the state could have used less restrictive methods. The video game industry, like the movie business, has a voluntary rating system that provides buyers and sellers with information on the content of specific games, including age-specific ratings, ranging from “early childhood” to “adults only.” The government could do more to promote the use of voluntary ratings by retailers and parents.

California lawmakers may have been right when they decided that video games in which players kill and maim are not the most socially beneficial form of expression. The Constitution, however, does not require speech to be ideal for it to be protected.

Wolfire Games Blog - Another view of game piracy. Thanks Mike Martinez via Slashdot.
Does this also apply to PC (Windows/Mac/Linux) gamers? Many PC game developers find that about 90% of their users are running pirated copies -- does this mean that piracy is killing PC games? Let's try our alternative explanation, and see if these statistics are possible even if only 20% of worldwide PC gamers are pirates. The average PC gamer worldwide only buys about three games a year, and plays them for a long time. I buy many more than that, and you probably do too, but again, we are not average gamers! On the other hand, game pirates might download a new game every few days, for a total of about 125 games a year. Given these numbers, games would see 90% piracy rates even though only 20% of gamers are pirates.

Bonus EXP - Gameplay - Chapter 1: Freedom. Thanks Sugoi x2.
What we experience in games today is not true freedom, it is a freedom created and controlled by game developers. Sometimes a game will feel extremely limited and other times the possibilities set before us can seem endless. Developers create by hand the possibilities and choices within a game, or by permitting the player to use in-game tools to potentially create solutions never dreamt of by the developer. But sometimes a developer will rein in freedoms, artificially limiting what a player might otherwise do.