February 21, 2008
Florida Attorney Larry Walters told an audience at the Game Developers Conference yesterday that the game industry should prepare to defend itself against "junk science."As reported by Gamasutra, Walters was on hand at GDC to discuss video game censorship. By way of background, the attorney offered an overview of court cases involving game legislation and predicted that those who would regulate games can be expected to keep on trying:
The concept of protecting children from inappropriate material always gets some traction. Look at the list of legislation at the federal level -- the number of bills that have the word 'children' or 'protect' in them is staggering...
In the court cases, the government keeps looking for evidence... to show that video games harm kids, but they have not been successful so far.
The morality and media types are forced to take a step back recently, and figure out what they're going to do and regroup a bit and maybe come up with another line of attack...
Walters advised the game industry to prepare its defense against what he termed "junk science" research used by critics to attack video games:
This is what you're up against. You have people who will accept anything that the junk scientists try to present as fact, and try to create legislation upon it...
The video game industry needs to clearly and overwhelmingly debunk these theories with its own extensive research... To the extent that the industry can develop a research bank... it should do so before it needs it and not at the 11th hour.
Holding that the struggle between game developers and would-be censors is as much a public relations battle as a legal one, Walters counseled GDC attendees to be sensitive to consumer concerns without gutting their own creativity:
This battle can't be won in the courts. It's really a battle for the hearts and minds of consumers.
Comments
Anyway, on topic, I agree.
while i agree with that it needs to be debunked, i do not see that industry research in any field paid for or performed by that industry is very credible to begin with
THats all well and good, but I still say until the industry uses the courts to hold accountable the media, that battle is forever lost. Until such time as the industry has the lies and bullshit silenced in the media, then your happy world of "Counter Science" means nothing. Facts don't mean shit if you can't force the Media to report them. Look at jack thompson. he's Living proof of that.
The Game Biz has big money to hire intelligent lawyers, not ones who would try to argue that porn is good or something but people who will cause Thompson to be thrown out of the courtoom just by standing next to him.
We also need to seek a lot of support from celebrities and other prominent figures. The PR front is important and it shouldn't be difficult to one up Faux Nooz, Cooper Lawrence and Witty Jack.
But if the people of the legislative districts know that video games don't harm kids, they can get better involved in the law making process and stop these bills from even getting far enough that the courts is an option.
I have said this myself on numerous occasions.
John Bruce says he is winning. If you look at his tract record in court, no he isn't. But if you talk to people on the street about what they think about games, his is.
You can take out the leadership of the opposing army, but if they are trained to hate you and do, you still have not won.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
Random Tower: Game News and Commentary
JT and his feverbrained/harebrained croneys are the only ones being heard.
Its ok for us on these websites reading about the industry, but for average Joe, and average mum and dad all they see is JT and school shootings.
We need a real, honest, believable face of the industry so that media can show both sides.
Here in the UK we get alot of media where the opposition sit next to each other in the studio and are questioned directly. We need more of that, so that the lies and 'psudo (sp) science' and outright lies can be debunked in full view of our Countries.
Of course, when it comes to the hearts and minds of people, the most effective person to reach them is the person standing next to them. So, all of you, be good gamers. Show everyone around you that you can be a normal, social person who they wouldn't want to pass legislation against. If you know anyone who thinks all vidja games are murder simulators, politely disagree and attempt to show them our side of reality.
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Papa Midnight
JT's winning the hearts and minds of people, despite losing in court.
It won't be long until he convinces the public to gas us or cut off our heads.
I think we've just found Jacko's new arch-nemisis.
In other news, something good finally comes out of Florida. :D
@KayleL
Nah, Larry Walter obviously went to a college with higher graduation reqirements than Jack's college (as if it wasn't blatantly obvious already :P) !
No, JT is winning the minds of the ignorant and the stupid. Those with a brain or knowledge of the subject see him as the self-aggrandizing little liar that he is.
..Do all suits in Florida look like JT?
I swear he's probably from some Bizarro world, where JT's actually one of the good guys.
you gotta at least make some kinda stand in the courts and stop the media (and a certain lawyer) from publicizing KNOWN LIES.
How on earth can you educate parents, if they are being told different things at the same time. At least spend the time to get rid of this problem, and you wont have to constantly struggle uphill to get the facts heard.
nice suggestion
it would actually be nice of the ECA had a dedicated spokesperson perhaps, who's sole job was PR related, so whenever an asshat got on tv spreading lies, they could a) get the lies retracted and the truth heard, or at least B) appear as a relevant participant in the main broadcasted debates to make sure our side was fairly heard.
I'm shocked to see we don't even have a big "voice" out there. The game industry is so damn big.
Hell, I've seen what little people know about us. It's sickening to see some of them to be on the side of these garbage-spewing morons. Though, I am glad to see that some people out there who isn't familiar with this topic is rather fair and objective...able to understand the difference between lies/slander and the truth.
Granted...that's few and far between...
Also, I think the reason that there seems to be more school shooting recently is a mixture of two things.
One, if this kind of thing happened before, it would be hushed up to prevent any copycat scenarios. I know for a fact this was done with suicides in our area.
Two, you are now getting the copycat scenarios they were worried about before. These people become famous, they are all over the TV's and newspapers for weeks. Any notes they left get put on the air, any tapes they record get put on the air. They are given so much air time that anyone who is going to kill themselves and wants to leave a note might as well take some people they don't like out with them.
"Junk Science" studies do show unequivocally that playing a violent game increases one's violent thoughts and desensitizes them. The researchers leave it at that and let the media and the politicians work it out.
The question that remains: What does that mean?
So what if have a more violent attitude? Does that mean we will become more violent. Instead, we have people like Jack Thompson outright lying about CAUSAL relationships between video games and violence, when the nearest they have is correlational. People believe this, mostly due to the fact that the APA response was hardly noticed.
Until the research can say that violent media has little effect on a person's actions and will not make them a crazy, psycho killer, people like Jack Thompson and legislatures will have ammunition to argue for censorship and whatnot.
I'm trying to work a way to test these things for my MA thesis, but I am encountering so much resistance from professors that it is nearly impossible to get any headway.
The problem with real science is that it cannot get into the mainstream media as easily as junk science. The rational has a problem trying to overcome the sensational.
Negativity is overblown in the news. What do you hear in a typical day? "One person found dead in a car accident." "Two banks robbed in crime spree" "Stock markets plunge." The only chance you would hear good news would be in sports or in scattered in brief spurts, as with charity events.
My point is, the game biz shouldn't try to push counter-points to the media. Instead they should just work on it "behind the scenes" and take legal action successfully. Besides, a big legal turnover would make more headlines than a scientifically-correct study on video games.
- Dough Lowenstein spent his entire term with his head in the sand. This new guy hasn't done much either.
- Bioware didn't say shit over the Fox News report. EA only issued words, and not actions. They seem to have let it go now.
- Gamers are the ones defending videogames. Its utterly bizzare that the consumers are more vocal in defense of an artform/product than the actual producers. WTF?
I have little doubt that the games industry will be regulated content in the US- the christians have too much influence...and the liberal socialists here are just as bad.
When that happens, it is the fault of the games industry for being a bunch of weak-willed PANSYS.
Thanks for all your insightful comments.
The game developers are gonna have to challenge the claims of the media through the courts and force them to either use real science or STFU.