The Right Spin

I was listening to the PC Gamer podcast and heard about an interesting site: Game Politics.com. The editor of the site, Dennis McCauley, was interviewed and seemed like a fair man, though those who did the interviewing did not. That is to say I felt they were too pro-video games.

After looking over the site it would appear PC Gamer decided to interview someone who pretty much shared their views. That's unfortunate. I believe gamers and the video game industry itself isn't doing nearly enough to call to the made game developers who cross the line. Instead they spend most of their time attacking elected officials and private citizens who react against such hot button issues as the "Hot Coffee" mod.

So, everyone is busy reacting and no one is actually trying to fix the problem in an intelligent way. There's a problem that needs to be addressed and the video game industry and its supporters are more interested in wrapping themselves in the 1st Amendment than actually trying to address the concerns of parents who, for whatever reason, are often woefully ignorant of the video game medium.

I did e-mail Mr. McCauley about my concerns and replied thusly:

Hey, Kevin...

Good points.

There was some condemnation of Rockstar/T2 for lying in the game community. Here at GP we gave it to them with both barrels...

Personally, I think there is a lot of private resentment and anger in the game community at R*/T2. However, since they are paid-up members of the ESA, the industry won't be taking them on anytime soon.

Warren Spector criticized them publicly late last year, but no one else is saying much for the record, which is a shame. Understandable, in a way, I guess. This is still a relatively small industry. No one wants to burn their bridges. Which is why the media exists, to get at the truth.

Best,

-Dennis

For those who don't know:

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the U.S. association exclusively dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of companies that publish video and computer games for video game consoles, personal computers, and the Internet.

This is taken directly from the ESA's own web page. So, when Rockstar messes up the very group that is suppose to represent the industry in the public won't cendemn them because they help pay the bills. Kinda like most unions.

I'm glad Mr. McCauley agrees with me that the industry itself has work to do in presenting itself to the, what I'll call, "parenting" public. I only wish video game developers and their throngs of supporters would reconize the same.