Last weekend I visited the Game On exhibition of video game history at the Barbican. The exhibition itself is recommended for anyone who has ever played (or wanted to play) a video game. I was a bit disappointed that the Space War-playing PDP-1 was not booted, but it was a great exhibition nevertheless. Mainly because most games on display were playable by the public.

Having managed to never have gone to the Barbican before, I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the urban space surrounding it. It somehow evoked Hong Kong, but also utopian modernist urban visions - only this manifestation of them seemed to work. Concrete, green, and water: yum.

While the Barbican celebrated video game history, the Greek parliament, in a Talibanesque move, has voted in a law banning video games altogether. The legislation (available here in Greek) prohibits the use and installation of all electrically or electronically supported games in any space, public or private.

This, the result of misdirected efforts to clamp down on internet gambling, has interesting implications: Obviously, there will be no more game arcades in Greece. Internet cafés providing LAN games are now also illegal. But, I suppose, so are bowling alleys, as bowling is supported by both electric machinery and electronic scoring and controlling equipment. Playing chess against a computer in your own home can now land you three months in jail, a €10k fine, and confiscation of your computer. Most interestingly, the installation of Microsoft Windows is outlawed, since Minesweeper and Solitaire are installed as part of it.

Talking dollies and electric train sets are banned too. Another brilliant legislative brainwave.