Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming: Here come the stormtroopers ...

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Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming (Subscribe)

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Here come the stormtroopers ...

And no, not the fun, first-Trilogy, Star Wars fire teams.

I'm thinking more of references to World War I's precursors to shock troops, or maybe I'm thinking of World War II's Gestapo.

And U.S. Congress People are holding the door open for them.

These are great days for gamers. The market and medium is going in new directions for interactivity, accessibility, pervasiveness, and popular acceptance.

These are also important days for gamers. There are new challenges and (I know it sounds a bit "high-horse") important battles for basic freedoms.

So today's post is more serious than usual -- please read the whole thing, and act if you feel led.

Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Joe Lieberman (D-CT), and Evan Bayh (D-IN) have put forth the "Family Entertainment Protection Act", geared to "empower parents by making sure their kids can't walk into a store and buy a video game that has graphic, violent and pornographic content," (according to Clinton). Ostensibly the bill is set up to to penalize retailers for selling games to under-age consumers.

But that's just the beginning.

The bill calls for fining the managers of retail outlets caught selling games rated "M for Mature, AO for Adults Only, or RP for Ratings Pending to children under the age of 17" (ignore the fact that games don't ship with "RP" ratings).

Under the bill, store managers can be fined up to $1,000 (or 100 hours of community service) for the first offense, with $5,000 or 500 hours for each subsequent offense. They can avoid this if they can prove they were shown identification they thought was valid, or if they "have a system in place to display and enforce" the ratings system which passes muster (which smacks suspiciously of "guilty until proven innocent").

The bill would also expand the powers and responsibilities of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), including requiring an independent annual analysis of the ratings system, create an additional conduit to accept consumer complaints about "misleading or deceptive game ratings", investigate the prevalence of inappropriate hidden material not reflected in a game's rating, and do at least annual secret shopper audits of retailers to see if they're towing the line.

Clinton has cited similar bills in Illinois, Michigan, and California signed into law as precedent, but failed to mention the Illinois laws have been declared unconstitutional, and a District Court judge has ordered the Michigan law temporarily blocked (and "unlikely to survive strict scrutiny").

This law is dangerous precedent. It gets in the way of responsible, concerted industry efforts already underway to self-police the issues, and involves government in a way that doesn't even have a parallel for DVD or music sales (but, interestingly, does have parallels for alcohol and cigarette sales to minors). It has the potential to penalize unintentional violators who can't afford it -- for example, the part-time holiday staff that move the majority of titles for any given year.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) already exists as an independent ratings association, and aggressively rates and markets ratings and related information for parents, developers, publishers, and retailers. Most retailers, including "The Big Three" in the video game space (GameStop/EBGames and Wal-Mart, the latter of whom moves as much as 33% of all video game units) already diligently make use of ESRB materials to appropriately sell -- or restrict the sale -- of video game titles (they already "have a system in place to display and enforce" the ratings system). Oh, and the FTC has twice praised the ESRB, saying, "there is much in the game industry's rating disclosure requirements that merits duplication by others."

And shame on the National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF) for recent inaccurate news, slipping value to its constituents, a seriously flawed and sensationalistic 2005 edition of its "Video Game Report Card", and undermining mission partners like the ESRB (they recently claimed in the 2005 report card, "the present rating system is broken and can't be fixed").

And double-shame (yeah, I said it) to Take-Two Interactive/Rockstar Games, for their irresponsible hiding of the sex mini game in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, that set off the most recent firestorm (leading to this pending legislation), and in some ways arguably set the industry's self-policing back to just after the Doom days.

There are others, too, but the truth is games (other than GTA) that make sensationalistic headlines and get the NIMFomaniacs (apologies; that was low road) up in arms don't do well. I seriously question Midway's refresh of it's Narc franchise (who thought a badly done, non-sexy budget "M"-rated title involving heavy drug use as a gameplay device was a good idea?), but the game tanked. Likewise, the refresh of Leisure Suite Larry stroked conservative ire against the games industry, but ultimately, did play out well on a revenue scale. Playboy: The Mansion was evidently a sub-parr Sims-clone game that sold badly, and reprehensible title The Guy Game was recalled after legal action was taken against the company for inclusion of under-age girls.

And the industry (and the ESRB) responds. Thanks to Rock Star, they have now made it mandatory for developers/publishers to admit and submit any hidden or ancilary game content. Self policing works, without Big Government involvement.

In any industry, there are going to be irresponsible offerings. There are also going to be edgy offerings as developers and publishers fish for the Next Big (revenue) Thing. But for every Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas irresponsibility, there are several hundred great games; or at least a handful of great, elevating, inspiring games (like Shadow of Collosus, Beyond Good and Evil, or even the edgy Game of the Year, Resident Evil 4) and a ton of innocuous (but safe) games.

As an aside, according to the ESRB, fewer than 1% of the approximately 1,000 ratings per year are rated "AO" ("Adults Only"), and fewer than 12% are rated "M" ("Mature").

As a further aside, I'm curious as to what -- if any -- effect this will have on political demographics. Gamers are growing up and the "MTV Generation" makes up a cogent voters block. Do the recent, repeated (and largely Democrat-sponsored) anti-game bills sway or galvanize this block? Dunno, but it's something I find interesting to think about.

I said earlier "act if you feel led." I'm writing letters to Clinton, Lieberman, Bayh, and my state officials. Do the same if you "feel led".

Going here makes it easy to do that.

Now, back to your recreation ...

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming (Subscribe)

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Here come the stormtroopers ...

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