The record in this case includes scripts and story boards showing the storyline, character development, and dialogue of representative video games, as well as excerpts from four video games submitted by the County. If the first amendment is versatile enough to “shield [the] painting of Jackson Pollock, music of Arnold Schoenberg, or Jabberwocky verse of Lewis Carroll,”
Hurley, 515 U.S. at 569, 115 S.Ct. 2338, we see no reason why the pictures, graphic design, concept art, sounds, music, stories, and narrative present in video games are not entitled to a similar protection. The mere fact that they appear in a novel medium is of no legal consequence. Our review of the record convinces us that these “violent” video games contain stories, imagery, “age-old themes of literature,” and messages, “even an ‘ideology,’ just as books and movies do.”
See American Amusement Mach. Ass'n v. Kendrick, 244 F.3d 572, 577–78 (7th Cir.2001),
cert. denied, 534 U.S. 994, 122 S.Ct. 462, 151 L.Ed.2d 379 (2001). Indeed, we find it telling that the County seeks to restrict access to these video games precisely because their content purportedly affects the thought or behavior of those who play them.
See Preamble to St. Louis County Ordinance No. 20,193 (Oct. 26, 2000).