Articles > Playing Politics (November 2007)

Playing Politics, Part II

By Hal Halpin
EGM, November 2007

For years my fellow game lobbyists and I have been saying that there's a clear generational gap between those in Generation X, Y and Z and the Babyboomers when it comes to understanding and respecting games as media. Its part of the paradigm that we all know will change as we mature and they, well, aren't with us any longer. At the heart of the matter is the fact that we grew up playing games, ingesting them as part of a broader entertainment diet which also included music, movies et al. They experienced games as something that their children, grandchildren or others played - and viewed them as toys as a result. It's there that there's a tangible rift, and there - only by making them look, honestly, objectively and seriously - that we can ever hope to make them see our perspective. The question was always, "how?"

It was a question answered by a brave Indiana teenager named Jesse Vetters last August. A passionate gamer who heard the viral video call from CNN and YouTube, decided to put the Republican presidential candidates in the hot seat. Along with the weighty, but expected video questions submitted about health care, the environment, the war and taxes, Jesse posted his: questioning what the candidates' position was on violence in videogames. Jesse ignited a firestorm. For the first time in the game industry's history, true grassroots activism was taking place. Gamers were speaking up, tired of their rights being threatened and their hobby being misrepresented.

ECA-affiliated website GamePolitics.com covered the story, and we jumped in to fan the flames - offering a free ECA T-shirt from our recently-completed design competition to every person who posed a games-related question to the candidates. Jesse had inspired a dozen others in the next few days alone. Submission after submission, gamers talked on message boards and helped each other improve each reiteration. Lighting tweaks here, audio there. Over the next week the movement began capturing the attention of the national media, who are watching and waiting to see how it all plays out.

In hindsight, my only regret was that we didn't think of it in time for the Democrats as well. But as reporters interviewed us about gamers redefining themselves - where the mass media thought us lazy or apathetic before - we bubbled over with pride. Will the gamer questions make it into the national debates in November? We'll have to see. But even if they don't, we've proven some valuable credible points about who we are and what we're willing to do, individually and collectively, about our rights. And Amen to that!