With the election of Democrat Barack Obama, both gamers and the industry have speculated as to the future of games regulation under his administration.

"We need to make sure that all of our children have access to these technologies and we must teach our children how to harness the huge potential of this technology. I want to make sure my children are protected from the dangers of the new media world, but I also want to make sure they reap the benefits of it," said President Barack Obama, in late 2007.

But what, if anything, does that mean for us?

Many of the decisions facing Obama will influence the games industry. With California's overturned ban of video game sales to minors very likely heading to the Supreme Court, his appointments are not insignificant in terms of gaming legislation.

That being the case, Dennis McCauley doesn't seem too worried about an Obama administration jumping to legislate media right off the bat. 

"To be honest, I think that when politicians get around to legislating video games that will mean that they're feeling comfortable with some of the more important issues," he says. "Right now there's so much on President Obama's table: the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I can't see his administration prioritizing video game content legislation."

And while we very well might not see much legislation over content, maybe it is time to pay more deliberate and informed attention to video games. With a sinking economy, maybe we can find clues in countries like Korea -- not just in how government can work to promote a strong gaming sector and gaming culture internationally, but perhaps also in how a country can come together to better understand, balance and make use of the media all around them.

Though looking into other countries probably won't provide a magical codex of good legislation and societal understanding, it could at least give more of an idea of what to expect.

Some of the laws and studies being created in other countries will eventually make their way around the globe. International legal cases on major issues can create imperatives, especially when domestic courts are desperate for any basis of comparison.

It's a more than likely scenario. Much of what happens, especially with online interaction, user generated content and the like, has no existing basis for comparison. Much of it confuses our sensibilities about who gets to regulate what and how they get to do it.

Increasingly online gaming technology is just one of many platforms injecting American nationals in America, who have a constitutionally bequeathed freedom of speech, into the very same social spaces as Chinese nationals in China, who do not have the same rights to speech. The rules that govern those kinds of spaces, and who gets to decide on them, are being tried on in different forms right now.

Game players and game creators both rightfully watch the future of video game legislation with an interested, sometimes anxious eye. The choices made by legislators and governments around the world may have the power to influence how games are crafted and experienced.

Even if a government stops short of imposing strict time limits on play, or draconian content limits, self-censorship is a much more subtle, more dangerous beast. Government pressures on rating boards, and their subsequent pressure on "appropriate" or "marketable" imagery, may already affect a number of gaming companies internationally.

So it's important to note that some of the game crafters and the game experiencers also have opportunities to shape forthcoming laws. It may not be that every gaming law threatens freedoms, profitability and/or the potential of games generally.

Some regulation, done correctly, is part of the deal. It may even be that not every regulatory body capable of unconstitutional censorship or economic mischief is governmental in nature. If regulatory bodies were the only barriers between the artist's vision and a shipped AAA game title, what a world that would be.

But legally, there is also an imperative. This puzzle, our international mishmash of laws, is being pieced together right now. Do forthcoming laws work to preserve culture and creativity, property and privacy, or don't they?

Knowing that, will gamers and the developers from different parts of the world be well enough informed and motivated to preserve their burgeoning form of art?

Maybe, but probably not. These are just games.

Trifles. Kid's stuff.