LucasArts Prez Talks Video Game Legislation

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.
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Comments

Submitted by hayabusa75 - August 8, 2007 at 6:52 pm -0500
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 - August 8, 2007 at 1:22 pm -0500
"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 - August 8, 2007 at 11:17 am -0500
@J-Guy

Oh please christ yes
Submitted by J-Guy - August 8, 2007 at 9:54 am -0500
^John
I'm still hoping they blame Shakespeare.
Submitted by John - August 8, 2007 at 7:54 am -0500
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 - August 8, 2007 at 5:31 am -0500
It was 31 people, and then himself, but yeah. Not much else to say but... "Yup."
Submitted by consoleer » Blog Archive » Walking On Eggshells: - August 26, 2007 at 9:20 am -0500
[...] Gaming exec assesses impact of technology, legislation [Miami herald via Game Politics] [...]

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Posted 11/07/09 at 11:33pm
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Posted 11/07/09 at 10:58am
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:56am
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:51am
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Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:11am
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:07am
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