VG247

Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Gamasutra and SavyGamer have all blacked out in protest to SOPA this morning.

 RPS‘s John Walker announced last night on the site it was to join the protest today, which has seen several big websites, including Wikipedia, Mozilla and Google, take part in some form.

A message now greets users attempting to access the site, along with a video explaining the situation surrounding the SOPA and PIPA acts.

“We’re sorry if this frustrates or angers you. Really. But it’s nothing compared to what could happen were the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act to succeed in the US,” it says on the RPS homepage.

“Under those new rules, a single errant comment left by a reader could see RPS invisible in the United States, removed from search engines, ad revenue frozen, and thus destroyed. And despite Monday’s news that SOPA is temporarily shelved, PIPA is still planned to be rushed through, and just as dangerous.”

Full service will resume tomorrow at 9.00am.

US trade publication Gamasutra has also vowed to go dark from 8.00am PST (4.00pm GMT) until 8pm PST (4.00am GMT), with EIC Kris Graft saying that, while noting the news on Monday that the vote on the SOPA and PIPA bills would be delayed until a consensus is found, both were still a “clumsy attempt” at removing copyright and trademark infringement.

“The bill is still all about internet censorship that’s akin to the kind used in countries like Iran and China. For our non-U.S. readers who think this won’t affect you, think of how much of the internet’s power lies in the U.S., and the kind of precedent this could set for other governments,” he said in a post on the site.

“SOPA is a particular threat to video game companies and their fans who partake in user-generated content, such as mods, videos and screenshots. In general, SOPA would place a chilling effect upon many ways that game companies interact with and foster their communities, and judging how the games industry has been taking its products online and worldwide for years, and positioning games as services, that’s a bad thing.”

Bargain site SavyGamer, headed by IndieGames contributor Lewie Procter, has also gone down in protest. Destructoid had already vowed last week it would also go dark.

http://www.vg247.com/2012/01/18/sopa-blackout-rps-gamasutra-savygamer-go-down-in-protest/

I was very surprised and pleased when I saw destructoid & gamasutra following the blackout. I hope VGC also shows their support. Wordpress is also down and providing an app to show support, I going to update my website asap as well!

It has begun!

eh, not much, but every little is a help. Wikipedia is the big one, since they're doing it more prominently than Google and many people who might not be aware of the danger are going to go there

Google is half assing this blackout big time.

It's all about the money, you know? Wikipedia, being free, is not bound by the same constraints

Though i would wish Google would be a bit more upfront about it

Twitter should have shut down. -.- That would have really caught peoples attentions.

Twitter and Google are communication channels. It doesn't help the cause to shut down sites that allow people to talk about SOPA/PIPA.

Yes, but it would be as affective to shut it down than to let people talk about it, maybe even more. 

Doubtful. My Facebook, Twitter, and G+ feeds are abuzz with people sending links on how to contact your representatives, find out where your reps stand on the issues, and other assorted stuff regarding the bills. Without that, many people would probably just go work on something.