LucasArts Prez Talks Video Game Legislation

August 8, 2007

Jim Ward, president of game publisher LucasArts, spoke about the political side of the video game business in a wide-ranging interview with Mike Antonucci of the San Jose Mercury-News.

Ward also serves as the current chair of the ESA board. His thoughts:

What we wanted to do was focus the ESA on that No. 1 issue, which is governmental, state and local legislation against games. In a macro sense, maybe he's right. But my concern, quite honestly, is that as we enter this political cycle, we become a hot potato...

And, by the way, at any moment, if some kid in West Virginia goes and blows away 32 people, and they find out that he played a video game, guess what, we've got a problem again. Just as if he had watched a movie and then done that. Or just as if he had read "Catcher in the Rye" and blamed it on J.D. Salinger...

Most importantly -- and this is a belief system that you either buy into or not -- you have to believe in the sanctity of First Amendment rights. We believe you have to protect that, no matter what.

Posted in E3 2007 Games & Culture People Politics & Legislation Video Game Industry/Economics

Comments

Submitted by hayabusa75 (not verified) on Wed, 08/08/2007 - 19:52.

I never thought about the war on games as all coming down to a belief system, but that's one hell of a point. It's been said many times that the only thing to really do is keep fighting until the older generation is in the ground, and that comment really solidifies that idea, at least for me.

Submitted by Archgabe (not verified) on Wed, 08/08/2007 - 14:22.

"Most importantly — and this is a belief system that you either buy into or not — you have to believe in the sanctity of First Amendment rights. We believe you have to protect that, no matter what."

Spot on!

Submitted by John (not verified) on Wed, 08/08/2007 - 12:17.

@J-Guy

Oh please christ yes

Submitted by J-Guy (not verified) on Wed, 08/08/2007 - 10:54.

^John
I'm still hoping they blame Shakespeare.

Submitted by John (not verified) on Wed, 08/08/2007 - 08:54.

Meh he was close enough. Though I would love to see a murderer come out and blame hemmingway,, Remarque, or salinger. Then maybe we could read something different in our schools

Submitted by Kajex (not verified) on Wed, 08/08/2007 - 06:31.

It was 31 people, and then himself, but yeah. Not much else to say but... "Yup."

Submitted by consoleer » Blog Archive » Walking On Eggshells: (not verified) on Sun, 08/26/2007 - 10:20.

[...] Gaming exec assesses impact of technology, legislation [Miami herald via Game Politics] [...]

Shout box

Uncharted NES: Critics: 'Left Behind' game glorifies violence- http://tinyurl.com/wu64s02/12/2012 - 4:34pm

Zen: I felt Brutal Legends was a funny & beautiful look at the world of rock from Double Fines point of view. The only parts I wasn't hot for were the RTS bits as it felt forced. Otherwise fantastic.02/12/2012 - 1:34pm

DorthLous: Passed 1.5M$. And I'd also say that Brutal Legend is far from being a bad game. I just think it was a few levels under what people expected from the people working on the project.02/11/2012 - 8:25am

Technogeek: Brutal Legend wasn't bad so much as "marketing had no idea how the game actually played", causing it to suffer accordingly.02/10/2012 - 10:38pm

RedMage: It looks the CIA's website has been DDOS'ed. Anon?02/10/2012 - 7:52pm

RedMage: Brutal Legend.02/10/2012 - 7:52pm

ddrfr33k: Has anything Tim Schafer ever made been of crap caliber? I'm struggling to think of one...02/10/2012 - 7:37pm

Guamish: I think it is in good hands. Tim did a game for the GDC award show and that was fun for how short it was.02/10/2012 - 12:22pm

Andrew Eisen: It'll be tragic if the game ultimately sucks.02/10/2012 - 12:17pm

james_fudge: $1.3 million02/10/2012 - 11:32am

Uncharted NES: Germany Says It Won't Sign ACTA [Update: ... Yet]- http://tinyurl.com/7r2twrg02/10/2012 - 11:21am

Andrew Eisen: Damn. Double Fine's Kickstarter fund has already passed a million dollars.02/09/2012 - 8:16pm

Andrew Eisen: Audrey didn't quote the sassy parts. Here's IGN's article: http://wii.ign.com/articles/121/1218359p1.html And here's my original post: http://tinyurl.com/7y68a3902/09/2012 - 7:50pm

james_fudge: I hope you some said something sassy! Where's the link?02/09/2012 - 7:46pm

Andrew Eisen: Hey, neat. IGN quoted a blog I had writen only two hours earlier. I certainly timed that one pretty well.02/09/2012 - 7:38pm

Andrew Eisen: Toki Tori has been added to the Humble Bundle for Android.02/09/2012 - 5:11pm

james_fudge: Thanks for the heads-up DorthLous02/09/2012 - 4:33pm

DorthLous: Will do, my apologies.02/09/2012 - 4:14pm

Andrew Eisen: I appreciate the heads up but please keep typo alerts to the specific article's comments or PMs.02/09/2012 - 3:33pm

DorthLous: The title says 30, but in the article, the developer says it's like a 20% net tax http://www.gamepolitics.com/2012/02/09/developers-call-facebook-currency-transaction-fee-thirty-percent-tax02/09/2012 - 2:43pm

All shouts

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