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The Video Game Industry Goes Political

Posted by samzenpus on from the president-diablo dept.

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."

6 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Why not state it plainly? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They've decided to form an organization to pool resources and pay off politicians.

  2. Conflicts by sqrt(2) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:Conflicts by DarthJohn · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Don't you think that EA et al. would like the politicians to stop telling their potential customers that their products will turn their children into mindless killers?

      I agree that there are likely to be bad things that come from this, mod chip prohibition and such. There are also likely to be good things, like less censorship, or at least less sensationalized crusading for the "think of the childrens" b.s.

  3. Re:"13 year old pimple faces" by secretwhistle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As a 33-year old gamer and father of two and 1/2 children (I have a step-daughter), I'm sick of politicians and other professional hand-wringers telling me how to raise my children.

    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.

    My 10-year old stepdaughter I tend to look out for more carefully. She watched a few hours of Bloodrayne and had nightmares so the horror games get played while she's at school. She likes to kill time playing any of the GTA series which I have no problem with. In fact, I usually have to kick her off the system because she's boring the shit out of me. She won't steal cars, hurt people, or open fire on unarmed civilians. She doesn't want the police to come after her and tends to wander the streets aimlessly on foot or joyride on top (yes, on the ROOF) of CPU vehicles.

    I can take care of my children and control what I think they should view and participate in. I would rather keep it this way and somehow I think that a PAC, while helping get some pols on our side, will ultimately be a net loss for gamers. You cannot legislate personal responsibility.

  4. How about a Gamer's Bill Of Rights? by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  5. MAFIAA again by BESTouff · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.