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Campaign-Themed Video Games?

Posted by timothy on from the bread-circuses-joysticks dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes: "Gov. Jesse Ventura has come up with a 'great' way to get his campaign message to the younger demographics. 'The Ventura game -- or collection of games -- would be entertaining, 100-percent political and distributed free to voters as campaign literature, he says.' Wow, I can't wait, I haven't been this excited since Avoid the Noid from Dominos Pizza came out." Too bad video games aren't considered protected speech.

5 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Advertising in Video Games by Gizzmonic · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Avoid the Noid was hardly the most notorious fast-food marketing game on the NES. Let us not forget McKids, where you had to win Ronald McDonald's "magic bag" back from the Hamburglar, all the while collecting "golden arches" to gain extra lives. And yet, both games were pretty good as I remember.

    Nowadays, we have games that advertise for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson, boy bands, Britney Spears, etc. I think using video games in politics is actually a step up?

    PS: Does anyone know if Jesse Ventura is in the PS2 game "Legends of Wrestling"? This might mark his second video-game appearance...

    --
    (-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
  2. Story mistake? by SirNAOF · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Gov. Jesse Ventura has come up with a 'great' way to get his campaign message..."

    "In the meantime, the video game idea is still in its talking stages, and Ventura hasn't yet been approached with the suggestion."

    Shouldn't that say "...Ventura's campaign committee..."?

    Just a clarification...

    --
    Jeremy Baumgartner
  3. This is good for games as speach. by VenTatsu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This can become a great example for the next time games are challenged in court. Political speach is at the very core of what the 1st Amendment is intended to protect. By censoring or banning games courts would now be placing prior restraint on political speach.

  4. Think Positively, Please, Slashdot by GoPlayGo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    SlashDot writes "Too bad video games are not protected speech". Please don't put out negative, pessimistic vibes like that when it is way too premature, lest by propagating them they become true!

    Video games ARE protected speech. Just because a single judge two days ago makes an unsupportable ruling like that is not sufficient to make it so. That is not enough to be settled law! It applies only in that small jurisdiction (St. Louis) until it is overturned on appeal, and then it won't apply anywhere in the US! It may be true that governments can place restrictions on minors access to certain forms of video games, but they also do so on books, magazines, and films without denying that those are protected forms of free speech. One judge saying so does not make it so.

    So, project a positive strong attitude when it comes to our inherent rights, and don't let negative thinking undermine all the good work on rights you do here Slashdot!

    --
    The game of Go (Igo, Weiqi, Baduk) has the simplest concept and the deepest play.
  5. In other news... by karji · · Score: 5, Informative

    Judge rules games offer no conveyance of ideas, expression, or anything else that could possibly amount to speech