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The Video Game Industry Goes Political
An anonymous reader writes "The video game industry is finally forming a PAC by the end of March to get some political clout. A story in The New York Times yesterday reports that the video game industry has finally woken up and realized that in order to stay strong going forward, it can't rely on 13-year-old pimple-faced kids to promote its agenda."
They've decided to form an organization to pool resources and pay off politicians.
Now videogame companies can join the big leagues and buy politicians and legislation just like the big corporations! I wonder how long the gamer crowd will make excuses for them before they realize that power corrupts...
How is this going to solve anything? I'm all about (internet) vigilante justice and hate mymycity as much as the next guy, but doesn't this just do the same thing as the other trolls?
Or maybe I have been duped by another mymycity troll...
Gone!
Make sure that the supply of invincibility stars and 1-up mushrooms doesn't fall into the wrong hands...
On the one hand, I hate the idea of PACs, on the other hand it's for an interest I support and is currently underrepresented. On the third hand it's not really that important compared to things like (ending) The Global War on Terror TM and the economy. I guess PACs are just part of the current system, standing on principle and thinking that money shouldn't have a say in political decisions is far too wishful even for me. Playing within the system might be the best way to get it changed at this point.
Looking at the entities behind this PAC--"Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo"--I doubt they're going to be fighting for the rights of gamers so much as the rights of game producing corporations. So issues that are important to ME (less censorship, rating restrictions, not using games as a scapegoat for school shootings) might take backseat to interests that are important to the industry from a business stand point (DRM/copy protection, criminalizing mod-chips, less regulation, certain taxes). That's the whole point of a PAC though I suppose, and what's good for the industry is good for people who play games in that more games can be made. In theory at least. I'd be happier if EA made less games, or stopped entirely.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
You mean like Greenpeace and NOW?
That's exactly what's wrong with the industry. Or rather, people's views of the "users" of the industry's output.
Hands up. How many here are above 18? Eligible to drive, drink liquor and (most of all) vote? Ok, hands down again, I can't see the opposite wall anymore.
I think it's a good step. It's time the politicians see that it might not be a good idea to use games as the scapegoats anymore, because gamers vote. Computer games ain't for the 13 year olds anymore. Computer games aren't just for kids who don't matter because they can't vote. 20 years ago, computer games were a teenager pastime, today, more and more computer gamers are well above 18, many are interested in politics and many take their games, and their freedom to play the games they want, serious enough to consider it and the stance politicians take towards games important enough to have it influence their decision who to give their vote to.
There is a reason why politicians have no problem blaming every single thing that goes wrong with today's youths on games, but surprisingly few blame TV and movies. The reason is simple: TV and movies do have a political lobby.
While I'm not really a fan of political lobbying (it is so close to political bribing), it seems to be a necessity in today's political climate.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It's unfortunately the latter my friend.
Control is an illusion, order our comforting lie. From chaos, through chaos, into chaos we fly
"That's the whole point of a PAC though I suppose, and what's good for the industry is good for people who play games in that more games can be made. In theory at least. I'd be happier if EA made less games, or stopped entirely."
Or you can start your own company and be part of the solution. Or you can complain on slashdot and we all know how effective that is. PACs as in power equals numbers plus opinions means change. If it's good enough to bring the RIAA,MPAA, etc, etc down, then it's good enough for us.
"I guess PACs are just part of the current system, standing on principle and thinking that money shouldn't have a say in political decisions is far too wishful even for me."
Why? Money influences every other decision in our lives, from what car we drive to what jobs we work? Even the women we date. Why should politics run on principle when all the rest doesn't?
Go git 'im, Dubya!
if there was a hell I'd tell you to go there but since there isn't- we much make yours on Earth a close approximation.
10: SIN 20: GOTO HELL
How many years until they start to suing kids and grandmothers?
Ah, satire at its finest.
With a CAPTCHA of 'rustled'
Is someone who is in this PAC known as a PAC-man?
Seems like a good idea to me.
Money is the root of all evil?
The video game industry is finally forming a PAC by the end of March
Are they gonna call it PACman?
Table-ized A.I.
Notice Hillary Clinton's nomination in New Hampshire? She's been an anti-video-game crusader from day one. The timing of this move may not be coincidental.
Crap, you stole my joke. I did a search for "pacman" to make sure it wasn't already taken, but that damned slash ruined my text search and dooms me to "redundant" mod. Oh, the humanity of the slash.
Table-ized A.I.
Article 1: The X-Axis and Y-Axis shall always be independently invertible. This inversion shall carry through into any minigames. Failure to do so earns the developers a punch in the balls.
Article 2: There shall be *copious* save points in RPGs always close to the player. Note: 45 minutes away across the Chasm Of Despair and on the other side of Mount Doom is not "close". Failure to do so earns the developers a punch in the balls, and another one 30 minutes later.
Article 3: Games should not be subject to bad voice acting. There's thousands of decent local and community actors across the land who'd probably love the experience of doing some voice work. Failure to do so earns the developers a punch in the balls. Developers who claim it was "intentionally bad" get second, harder punch.
Article 4: The industry is too advanced to still inflict bad camera angles on gamers. Developers who release a game with bad cameras face multiple ball punches from bad angles when they least expect it.
Article 5: Any game developers who think it's wonderfully dramatic to strip my FPS character of all his or her carefully rationed weapons and ammo in the middle of the game will face summary execution.
Article 6: If the player fails to get past a tricky part in 25 tries, give him the change a fucking variable somewhere, would you? Is it THAT hard to adapt things to a player's skill? Make his bullets a little stronger for a while or something. Sheesh. Oh yeah, ball punches.
And so on.
This is hardly the first indication that gamers are not all 13-year-old pimple-faced kids. PAX comes to mind.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
"You have lost the lead!"
"1 vote left!"
Obligatory blog plug: http://www.caseybanner.ca/
That the way it should be. However, more time and money is spent trying to ban games completely, edit content or hold game manufacturers responsible for society's ills. None of these lawmakers, parents and other "concerned" groups direct their attention towards the parents of those whose criminal actions have brought so much negative attention to the gaming community over the past several years.
I have two young boys (age 1 and age 3) who like to watch me play nearly any videogame I throw in (they're big fans of the Katamari series). Frankly, their perception of any violence or other supposed influences at this point is moot, considering their attention span is near zero at this age.
Ever think there might be a causal relationship behind that complete lack of an attention span?
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
From what I've seen there's a lot of push to have a legislated ratings system that's legally enforced (Hillary and Lieberman endorsed a measure to ban the selling of M rated games to minors). There have been a few single cases where people proposed complete bans of games. Chuck Schumer of NY, there have been a few other cases of trying to ban games that in any way glorify the killing of police officers, similar to the Body Count/Cop Killer case of the early 90s. These aren't going to succeed pretty clearly on the basis of the first amendment, as illustrated by the Body Count case -- in fact that never even reached the courts as it was voluntarily pulled from shelves by many retailers.
Anyway, I don't think the case for banning/editing/etc games is as strong as you say -- it's more that many parents and legislators are waking up to the fact that games aren't ms pac man and galaga anymore.
"Orthodoxy means not thinking--not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." --Eric Blair
Especially since I, for one, had seen no mmc links for several days now.
But I guess they started again. And adopted the words of some Slashdotter who started the screwmmc page.
Ah, well.
Ignore this signature. By order.
I wonder how gamers think it will fare better than the MPAA and RIAA. This association will promote antipiracy laws, outlaw P2P and favor big editors. Mark my works.
Add games industry to the list of things that they've screwed up by mixing it with politics.
Because a lot of people still claim that Washington (and all politicians therein) are ordered around by giant corporations.
Whereas we can see the opposite thing happen with new industries : they think they can get by without dedicate lobbying and then suddenly get screwed (or realize that they are close to getting screwed) and only at that point do they start to make themselves known politically.
Of course, once the danger has passed they'll ask for (and often get) massive subsidies and pork that we all pay for, which certainly does suck.
Does this mean I'm not alone and am not the only nearly 40 pimply born-again gamer? OLD NERD POWER!
Its about time we force-fed the kids into playing games we like instead of hiring them to create games other kids will play.
it would be very stupid to rely on 13 year old kids, especially when the common gamer is nearly 30 years old.
...and has never seen a vagina in real life.
Then everything becomes political. This is just another sign of the fallout of tyranny.
"Anyway, I don't think the case for banning/editing/etc games is as strong as you say -- it's more that many parents and legislators are waking up to the fact that games aren't ms pac man and galaga anymore."
Waking up? I'm too young to have been in the absolute first wave of gamers...I was damn close (I'm 33), but just a touch too young for Pong. At that, I'm old enough to have gone through college, and had a kid who would be 12 by now. In the next 10 years, whenever you "Think of the Children" you're going to be thinking of the children of people who can hum the theme music to Super Mario Brothers. People who were in high school or college when Doom came out.
Jesus, I remember playing galaga on those table top machines, when I was too young for my feet to touch the floor...A good quarter century ago. No one who can vote and has kids younger than 30 is "waking up" to first person shooters for the first time, unless they're Amish.
Don't mistake it. The people who are against games right now, know exactly what they're crusading against. Ten years from now, all of them but the diehards will have moved on to things that they care about more, like dentures.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
If you look at movies, just because kids watch movies doesn't mean -only- kids watch movies. Some movies are made for adults.
The same goes for games. Just because kids play games doesn't mean -only- kids play games. Some games are made for adults.
To the people with their panties in a bunch,
I'm not going to play the My Little Pony video game so you don't have to worry about your precious little snowflake playing a game with nudity or violence. If they do, it's your failing as a parent. The games industry makes games for me. They rate them "M" so you know they aren't kids games. Don't buy them for your 10 year old. Pay attention to what your kids are doing and try being a parent instead of expecting the government to do it for you.
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
I will cast my vote for any Presidential candidate that can get Duke Nukem Forever released within their first 100 days of taking office.
You sure that isn't the real Ron Paul? How can you tell when someone is satirizing him if he likes to hate the african american community?
"On the one hand... on the other hand..." I see this comment all over this post; there will be less censorship and more DMCA! This is a double-edged sword! Yes, but there is also a knife in the gut.
What I think people are failing to note is that right now you're picking the issues that will be publicized by the PAC, and the political organizations that support or oppose it. Do you support the PAC because you hate censorship? Or do you support someone else because you hate the DMCA? Either way, the rest of the industry and the rules and regulations that are affecting it will be totally ignored.
Why? Because they're not going to have anything to do with gaming, per se. Tax cuts for the major game studios (we can't, after all, have them decide to hire game developers for way less than other industries would pay the same talent in another country), regulatory breaks for those same companies, and a million other little things that save large companies their bottom line at the expense of a thousand less wealthy individuals.
PACs are about the centralization of power and keeping the flow of influence and power through the hands of a few. This will help the 'game industry' if you consider the measure of health to be the economic well-being of that industry. However, do not expect it to either increase the quality of games nor the health and wealth of the common worker in that industry. Personally, I see this as a bad thing, because they're going to use the few major issues (Censorship, DMCA) that have little actual impact on their money to make a thousand far more insidious changes that will negatively impact everyone else who are too busy paying attention to only those selected issues that the politicos are fighting about.
[Ego]out
I see the blogger's point of view, however the items which he chooses to backup his views are stupid.
He said something about "Brain Age" to prove that video games don't make you dumb. First of all, I haven't heard of this game, and even if I had, one game among the thousands of games that promotes learning doesn't make all video games learning experiences.
Secondly, he fights the claim that video games cause obesity by pointing out fast food restaurants. It may be true that fast food helps cause obesity, but so does lack of physical activity. There is not only one possible cause of obesity.
I hope nobody thought that I am against video games, because I love them. I don't play them to learn. I also realize that if I don't exercise, I'll get fatter. This is the kind of crap that destroys the credibility of video game supporters. The argument is valid. Use your head to put together a well thought-out argument.
Doom defined the first person shooter.
The game play was intense and - in a loose sense - "addictive." It let you move in a plausible pseudo-3D environment. You could modify the game, introducing your own environments, characters and weapons.
What Doom did not have was a story or narrative that "framed" the action in anything but the most minimal sense. You goal is to shoot everything that moves.
The tactical or stealth shooter like S.W.A.T or Rogue Spear introduced concepts like rules of engagement, collateral damage. You couldn't go rogue and win.
There were and are mods for Doom based on schools and other real-world settings. You could - however crudely - caricature real people. This is potentially dangerous ground and I think the gamer-geek should admit that much.
Is this anything like the "gay agenda"? Because I've yet to receive a pamphlet on it...
8==8 Bones 8==8
I really hope either the spokesperson or chairman of the committee gets the title of PAC-man
"Teach a man to build a fire, and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life."
The distinction isn't between who gets to play the game but who gets to buy the game - anyone who has ever been maneuvered into buying a keg for his kid brother knows that much.
But, just for laughs, let's pretend that you have something serious to say here.
As a practical matter, you have to draw the line somewhere.
The alternative is "anything goes" or intense and intrusive physical and psychological testing.
Licensing the video game player, much as you license the student pilot. The aero-geek who still has to wait out clock and calendar until he reaches that magic age when he can solo.
...tomorrow: Mario/Luigi 2008!
Doom is a game where you kill the undead. GTA is a bit different.
"Orthodoxy means not thinking--not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." --Eric Blair
The Gaming Industry Association of America should be referred to as:
"GIAA" or, in gamerspeak, "Teh geyer!"
Hmm. Perhaps we may want to rethink that one.
I can see it now. Games lobbying their way into the 'education' system.
Oh, you folks thought that a political action committee's purpose was to help citizens?????
To you and me. Jack Thompson and his ilk would class them all as murderer-trainers.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
6:00: go to the gym
7:00: start getting dressed
9:00: go to work
17:00: work towards the destruction of western civilization, the seduction of impressionable youth and the downfall of morality
22:00: hot chocolate and bed
If you haven't made a developer cry, you've wasted a day.
I thought the political (sic) wing of the video industry was the army. What's up? Is army support not enough anymore?
Actually, I love niggers. No idea how this vicious rumor got started.
Sincerely,
RON PAUL
The comic book industry in the 50's was in deep trouble, losing older readers to the 25 cent paperback book. "My Gun Is Quick." The kids were watching TV.
The crime and horror comic was the quick-fix solution.
The first problem was that the industry had no legitimate adult marketing channels.
The horror comics would appear on the same drugstore racks with Casper, Archie and Scrooge McDuck and in the cigar stores alongside the soft core bondage of Detective Stories and the hard core stuff being sold out of the back.
The second problem was that the product was bottom-feeder sludge.
While the newspapers were publishing strips by Eisner, Walt Kelly, Milton Caniff, Al Capp, the young Charles Schulz.