Slashdot Mirror
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.
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
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
10: SIN 20: GOTO HELL
Exactly my thoughts as well. A gaming industry PAC will eventually be just as (more?) concerned with copyright protection and IP laws as free speech laws. I understand why this is necessary for the game the industry, but I fear for the fruits of their lobbying and the likely collateral damage into non-gaming IP law. Frankly, I trust the courts to protect free speech and fight censorship a lot more than I trust a gaming industry lobby. Gaining a lobby who fights for free speech in games at the cost of more absurd IP laws doesn't sound like a very good trade to me (for a consumer).
So, good for the gaming industry, they need and are entitled to a lobby (obviously). But this isn't a win for consumers.
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?
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.
Yes, because bribing politicians for hand-picked regulations instead of making competitive products is always better... or what?
Game companies doesn't necessarily want to create more games, they want money. If they can get that by forcing people to pay more for less by limiting competition in the field, then forming an alliance like this is a good way to do it.
c++;
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.
To Anonymous Coward (with misdirected attentions towards terrorists),
I think that ending "The Global War on Terror" (more like "The Global War of Terror") is a valid point. Just because you disagree about someone's opinion of the American Government's policies, does not give you the right to claim they support terrorists. There are laws against defamation for a reason, and with America being so enthusiastic about rooting out terrorists, it might (slight chance) be dangerous.
When the person you were quoting said "and the economy", he wasn't talking about ending it, but saving it. When he used the word "ending", he was only referring to "The Global War of Terror".
I am sorry to any readers who do not like this, because it is irrelevant and off-topic. But I feel a need to reprimand people who write with such ignorance.
Yours truly,
Lord Nerevar.
I piss, shit and eat; therefore I am.
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!
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.
I'm pretty sure AC was just being critical of parent post's grammar. Sheesh.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some idea balls to remove from a manatee tank.
it would be very stupid to rely on 13 year old kids, especially when the common gamer is nearly 30 years old.
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
"HAHA! We're coming for you obsolete clowns."
The idea that generational die-off will lead to more "freedom" is questionable. Every generation brings with it replacement "rabbit people" who want to restrict all sorts of things that frighten them.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
I will cast my vote for any Presidential candidate that can get Duke Nukem Forever released within their first 100 days of taking office.
"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
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
Driving
Reading a Book
Computer Programming
Writing a Book
Watching a movie
Playing piano
Going to class
Cuddling
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?????
I don't know where you get better value for your entertainment dollar than in a PC or video game.
You could begin with Half-Life and continue on through its sequels, spending maybe $60 for the lot, retail boxed. $1 an hour or less on game play before you even begin with multiplayer, mods and total conversions.
But the competition at this level is always going to be limited.
You need a good idea.
You need a game engine and all the tools needed to use it effectively.
You need writers who can script 100 hours of dialog and action. You need the guy who can create the formulas and illusions that the player sees as an artificial intelligence. The open, infinite world of the game.
You need motion capture, character animators, effects animators. Background artists, model builders. Voice actors. Foley artists. Composers. Musicians.
You need production designers, art designers, who can think in terms of both levels and stage sets - what an environment should look like, feel like, and how it should advance the game. Do it right and you get Rapture.
You need someone who can pull all this together, finance the project, and keep everything on track.
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?
Yeah, but cuddling can lead to other things, which are known for burning calories. Not that the average user of slashdot (and I include myself here) is very knowledgeable about that area...
Unless you get bored instantly with those shallow shooters.
Everything you say above is relative. I've been playing ADOM for years, and I'm still not bored of it. It doesn't have any illustrations, sounds, or animations at all.
Also, no one says that even if you need all those people, that they have to get paid. I just got hooked on Battle for Wesnoth, a completely free fantasy strategy/tactics game, involving around 400 volunteers doing music, graphics, and code. Very polished.
Finally, it's quite obvious that you can make a lot of money doing video games, involving all these people and paying them good wages, since otherwise we wouldn't have had a flourishing industry for over 20 years, producing a massive amount of games every year, selling them for outrageous prices, in a world of rampant piracy.
c++;
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.