Intresting. Gamers in senate.............................


BTW, it's my 16th birthday:)

*will only

Yeah, and some people just "believe" that censorship needs to be done, while completely ignoring the facts and the law. Stupid...

Unfortunately, a lot of "active" voters like censorship. It hits all points on the political spectrum: Many voting Conservatives like censorship to promote religious beliefs, Liberals for political correctness, etc.

Even those who claim to be "all about" non-censorship are often prone to jump on the bandwagon when an opinion they don't like finds a voice...

I'll try signing up next month. It looks good. Anyone using the private fourms yet?

- Warren Lewis

Hey Dennis, I was just voicing my concerns as a parent and in my role as GamerDad. I certainly wasn't suggesting that you've been a poor consumer advocate at all. I believe you've received an email or two from me voicing my support and I am running your newsfeed at GamerDad because I think it's just great.

Happy New Year!

Brer - you mean like when GP went after EA Sports for its price-gouging Madden monopoly? Or when we called out Microsoft over its support of Net censorship in China? Or when we ripped the ESA a new one after they tried to bully some game blogs recently?

It's important to note that I focused on the POLITICAL aspects of Hal's interview with the Advocate because this is GamePOLITICS.com... I didn't say or imply that was all that the ECA would be doing on behalf of consumers.

But the bottom line is, if you want to take a wait & see attitude, by all means, do that. You've never heard me push anyone to join.

GP's job is to keep cranking out the news about the politics of games, with a dash of game culture thrown in - like always. I'm not in any way involved with the operational side of the ECA and Hal doesn't get involved here with the news.

As a consumer, I encourage you and others to express your concerns about what you'd like to see from the ECA and how it might best serve your needs.

The thing is, it was once explained to me that if I wanted to find out how politicians managed to walk over such a massive consumer force as Video Gamers, just log onto BF:1942 for 20 mins and read the chat. Without some kind of external 'glue' to organise us, gamers are like cats in bags regarding computer games.

Look at it this way, if there was legislation to ban Halo 3, within 20 posts, I could be pretty sure there would be at least one argument about whether Halo 3 was going to be any good, or whether Halo 2 was better than UT2K4 etc, it's our nature to debate beyond the point of action. Someone needs to be able to stand up and say 'I speak for everyone', and know that they can actually rely on the backing of everyone.

When people like Thompson say that he is going to do far more about gaming than we are, at the moment he is correct, he doesn't have to consult or argue the matter out with 15 differing viewpoints, he has only his own to worry about, it's his biggest strength when starting these things, and the main reason why they fail.

From a consumer/politico point of view, the ability to carry some weight at at local level counts for a lot. The ECA can never tell gaming companies what to do or tell shops what to charge, as such, but with the weight of as many gamers behind them as there are in the US, they can certainly make politicians think twice before looking for a scapegoat, and that benefits the consumer from a content point of view, in fact, you'd probably see a huge reduction in the number of violent games if the politicians stopped. Much like Gangsta Rap faded back from the foreground after all the hype had died down, whilst people were finding 'Cop Killer' or 'Look at the size of my Peanuts' songs offensive, they were all over the place, once the media lost interest, so did the artists.

So yes, I think the ECA is a good idea, because Gamers need a unifying force if they want their opinion heard, it could very well put gamers in a position to do far more as a group than people like Thompson could ever do as an individual.

So is GamePolitics owned by the ECA, or just an ECA partner?

Dennis, of the three issues you mentioned only one is actually related to game consumers (that is, to improving the experience of someone exchanging money for games and game-related goods and services), and frankly articles on this site (as much as I enjoy them) don't constitute much in the way of aggressive activism. Also, all of those are issues you would have covered before association with the ECA, netting them zero points in my book. I may not believe in guilt by association, but I don't believe in credit or praise by association either. Your bona fides are established, so far. Until the ECA does something to visibly benefit -all- game consumers, theirs are not.

As far as the article, I understand that it was focused on the political aspects of the ECA (something I take issue with on philosophical grounds, but I'm pretty much alone in thinking that the entire point of democracy is undermined by groupthink political organizations, parties, unions, PACs, and so on and so won't argue the point). But so far that's the only news or activity to come -out- of the ECA, making their goals as a -consumer- organization suspect.

It's been a tough and lonely battle since gamers have been getting kicked in the cajones since the release of "Night Trap". You have your politicians spouting off about things they're not even acquainted with and the only reason they're even bringing this to light is because of some stuffy political org that thinks they can tell the US what they can and cannot produce for entertainment. If they had only stuck to pr0n...

I gave my cash for the year to back this endevour. But it hardly seems like enough to cover the expenses of a political org. Hopefully, as word gets out, other gamers will get involved with the realization that the opposition has a lot more money and a lot more guns than we do.

I really dont see the ESRB as the "RIAA" of games. I see them more as a ratings body for games like the movies have. You're not 18? You can't by a copy of Bully, the exact same way movies are restricted. Unfortunatly as Lewis Black says : "We have to do something before the Christian right finds out and $%^&s all over it." I think the ESRB's doing a great job of handling the rating of games (even in lieu of the hot coffee scandal).

In reply to Soldatlouis, ECA seems to be a US political body. Although, I'd love to see the ECA branch out into other countries too. Places like GERMANY needs an organization looking out for the intrest of gamers over there too. I've read about all the turmoil over there and I'm not surprised that the government is trying to pin shootings on games again. Looking everywhere else but where the blame should be...on the parents not paying attention to their children.

Keep the faith, ECA. Gamers are behind you.