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Barbarians at the Gates
ILuvJoesMom writes "Hot on the heels of Wednesday's news story, Warcry has an editorial up with strategies for defending the video game industry from the oncoming hordes. 'If you're sick of hearing politicians kvetch about video games, make it worth their while to stand up for them by voting for them and supporting them. Given the choice between a hundred thousand overprotective moms with ballots in hand and a million gamers at their computers, I'm going 'mom vote' every time, and I imagine any politician hoping to stay a politician feels the same. This is that 'elected' thing I was talking about earlier. If you're over 18 and not a felon, then odds are you have the right to vote, and that's more powerful than a thousand 'I think Congress sucks, who's with me?' threads on the message board of your choice.'"
...but will I get uber-leet epic gear in-game afterwards?
No??!?
Nevermind then. I'm busy.
The greatest victory of many lobby groups and political parties has been to persuade the average voter that their vote does not really matter.
It does and no vote is wasted .
If we want our views heard then we need to need to shout them out and make sure that they know we are not alone . These lobby groups have realised this , unfortunately many have also realised (as i said above) that making making people believe it doesn't is a great way to get your ideas through .
If you feel an injustice in government then you need to make your voice heard.
beat the self fulfilling prophecy .
One well voiced eloquently spoken opinion can change the course of world events for years to come , let's just make sure that the voice is of the Masses and is well informed.
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
I was hoping this was a review about a new game that would send rampaging hordes of congressional oversight comities against the feeble defenses of the break room of your game development headquarters.
As you defend your territory and caffeine sources from governors, senators, and congressmen, you would work your way to the end level bosses: the Special Interest Groups. Concerned Parents would invade and attempt to use the 'Think of the Children' bombs to EMP blast the gaming community into the stone age.
But I guess it wasn't about that.
/sig
You realize the difference between lobbying groups and "citizens actions groups" is that lobbyists have this thing called MONEY?!
If you've never found it worth your while to vote but the fear of video game regulations spur you to the polls...please stay home and don't vote. Really. Just stay at home.
If war, taxes, social security, the looming spectre of Supreme Court nominations, national defense, freedom of the press, a sense of civic duty, job creation, prison overcrowding, welfare, seperating church and state, defending your Constitutional rights, metropolitan transit, energy policies, trade policies, and being a decent human being weren't enough to make you cast your ballot, well, fuck off and don't vote.
Thanks.
I'd mod the entire blurb as +1 Obvious, except that for some reason so many people fail to get the point. During the last presedential election there were far too many people arguing about how voting doesn't matter, usually in regards to voting for third parties. Meanwhile in related news the entire electronics industry is unable to figure out how to lobby half as effectively as Hollywood.
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Im not sure what the problem is here. When I was a kid I was stealing the games, I dont see how game ratings would have affected me back then. I dont worry about copy protection because everything I play is already cracked. So here I am playing free and unemcumbered games (music, movies, and tv shows too) while there are people walking the straight line and getting fucked for it.
One game I dont play - their's.The white collar black market my friends - kick back, relax, and enjoy!
If you're sick of hearing politicians kvetch about video games, make it worth their while to stand up for them by voting for them and supporting them.
Sorry. I tried to play that game once before and there were too many glitches and crashes with it. It clearly had not gone through a proper QA cycle and I am not going to bother trying that game again until a solid patch has been released.
The Republican who's using videogames as a scapegoat, or the Democrat who's using videogames as a scapegoat?
"Do you expect me to talk?" "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!"
Vote 'em out then.
Will Wright.
He already knows how to manage people, cities, farms, islands, ants, life, and Earth.
Sorry, but I'm a lot more worried about a group that votes based on video game legislation than a congressman that proposes it.
Right now, the people in congress are about 1-3 generations away from the original Atari/Nintendo generations. The voting base of their constituency is likely even older than that.
As the years go by, things will settle down and our generation will be in power- likely condemning the moral inadequacies of our youngers in mediums that we'll never be able to understand.
If you think video games get a bad rep these days, take a look at what rap music has had to go through over the last decade or so. It sorta puts these things in perspective.
And as far as political leaders go, their opinion on video games is down there at the bottom of the list of priorities. I'm not going to cast my vote for some neo-facist idiot just because his otherwise austere opponent decried some pixelated titties.
If there's ever a time when I pick the lesser of two evils based on their video game opinion, I'm done with democracy.
Why doesn't /. start a political party?
The +5 informative department could gather things that sort of looks like facts.
The +5 Insightful & Interesting departments reinforce each other in the debates, while ruthlessly moderating the opposition down.
The +5 Funny & Offtopic departments could crack jokes if things are starting to look bad.
The +5 Flamebait & Troll departments could work together distract and smear political opponents.
The Chair Corp. comic(*00-12)
If you've never found it worth your while to vote but the fear of video game regulations spur you to the polls...please stay home and don't vote.
Nope. If fear of regulation of anything spurs you to the polls...please vote a Libertarian ticket (or foreign counterparts). As for welfare and Social Security's survivor and disability programs, insurance companies in the private sector may do a better job of giving their customers a safety net.
freedom of the press [...] defending your Constitutional rights
Precisely. Keeping the FCC away from the content of video games is potentially a free press issue.
I have no statistical influence
Live according to the Categorical Imperative. If the Categorical Imperative tells you not to live by it... ignore it
Here's some free, complimentary clue: nowhere in the definition of democracy does it say "but vote only on the issues cornface deems important."
t he-day and not with trivial matters like our censoring the press and awarding ourselves extra powers.")
The whole _real_ point is to elect the people who best represent _my_ interests, whatever those interests might be. If enough people thought their most important issue is having quicksave in all games, or subsidizing implants for porn stars, that's it. Democracy means they can and in fact should see to it that those issues get heard.
The whole idea in a real democracy is that it's the people who decide for themselves what's important for them, and what's not.
Having one elitist asshole in an ivory tower telling you what should you concerned with, and what you should trust Big Brother with unquestioning, that isn't democracy. That's how democracy breaks. That's how your rights get taken away: by waving around strawmen you should be concerned about, if you were a good upstanding citizen, in stead of the real issues. ("If you were a real patriot and a good citizen you'd concern yourself with combating terrorism/imperialism/drugs/whatever-strawman-of-
Plus, hey, it happens on my tax money anyway. So please don't tell me that you've already decided for me what my money should be used for, and that I shouldn't vote if my opinion doesn't match yours. It's simply not your decision to make. If I decided that I'm ok with my money being used on welfare, but I'm not ok with it being used to censor the media (including movies, games, comics, etc), I should jolly well have a chance to vote just that.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
FTA:"If you're over 18 and not a felon, then odds are you have the right to vote, and that's more powerful than a thousand 'I think Congress sucks, who's with me?' threads on the message board of your choice.'"
Not exactly true. Elected representatives have staff members who monitor public opinion in many, many media venues. Sure, the newspaper editorial section is more important to them than message boards, but they are still looking at the boards.
Plus, if you vote based upon prior decisions, you're still stuck with those decisions.
Your vote is not the only way to impact votes on the Congressional, state, and local levels. Politicians do listen to their constituency. Furthermore, what do you do about an elected official with whom you agree on only some issues? So, besides voting with the issues, you have to let your elected officials know how you want them to vote.
Write a letter (hand-written counts for more). Place a phone call. Send a fax. Send an email. In that order -- not all communications are created equal.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
20 to 30 year old gamers may not have a lot of political sway, but guess what, 40 to 50 year old ex-gamers do. The crusade against gaming will blow over, like all other crusades, as the population of gamers age and become parents, politicians, judges, and so on, and by then we will realize that GTA and Doom didn't lead to the downfall of society. Of course by about then there will be some new-fangled invention for us all to get worked up about, so the whole cycle can continue for the next generation.