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ESA Pushing for Gamers to Vote

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wed Sep 13, 2006 01:43 PM
from the just-make-it-a-last-man-standing-fps dept.
United States Government Entertainment Games Politics
Grooves writes "The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has announced the first voter registration drive aimed at gamers, called 'Play for Real: Gamer Voter Drive'. The drive is being managed by the ESA's Video Game Voters Network, an attempt at growing a grassroots community around the issue of games legislation. From the article, 'Lowenstein would like to boost these figures by convincing younger voters that their voice will have an influence over issues they care about, particularly efforts to create new laws restricting video games.'"
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  • I can just see the bumper stickers... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ackthpt (218170) * on Wednesday September 13 2006, @01:44PM (#16098043) Homepage Journal
    I can just see the bumper stickers...

    • I'm a Guild Member and I vote
    • End Violent Game Player Discrimination
    • If I Don't Rule The World With An Iron Fist, Who Will?
    • Virtual People Have Rights, Too
    • Kazola For President
    • "A PS2 in every living room and a rusting bicycle in every garage"
    • Elect Jack Thompson - Then Impeach His Ass
      • Keep Politics Out of Games
      • Keep Games Out of Politics
    • Speak Softly And Carry A Bat'leth
    • My Child Is 60th Level In World Of Warcraft School

  • It bears repeating (Score:5, Funny)

    by mcmonkey (96054) on Wednesday September 13 2006, @01:45PM (#16098056) Homepage
    If voting worked, it would be illegal.
    • So true...

      Or:
          Democracy - A human and 2 wolves voting on what to eat for dinner.
      • I always liked Winston Churchill's view of Democracy: "Democracy is the worst form of government except from all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."
  • I bet ya this will fail miserably just like the Vote or Die campaign aimed at youngsters. The vast majority of this age group just don't care enough to vote.

    • Re:Vote or Die, P-Diddy (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mordors9 (665662) on Wednesday September 13 2006, @01:50PM (#16098104)
      Well no wonder. I am 45 and can barely stand to vote for most politicians. Most elections in the last 14 years have been votes for the lesser of evils as I saw it. If I struggle to relate with them on any level, how much success is an 18 year old going to have.They haven't gained a sufficent level of cynicism at that age. Although God knows our society is trying to beat them down until they do.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by fmobus (831767)
        there is a solution [wikipedia.org]
        • Seems people have enough people voting for one person with one box to tick / hole to punch / whatever. Can you imagine the horror of diebold's software with ranked voting?!
      • Most elections in the last 14 years have been votes for the lesser of evils as I saw it.

        Well, yeah.

        If you want the candidate that is the perfect mirror image of your own views, the only solution is to run yourself.

        Otherwise you go with what you have. You sign the petitions. You vote in the primaries. You join the party, You stuff envelopes and work the phones. You make a real commitment of time and money.

        • Well personally I think that both the Libertarian and Pirate parties represent my views fairly well... but most people in that situation are torn between voting for the party they'd really like, knowing full well they have little to no chance of actually getting that party elected... or making a "lesser of two evils" vote to help keep "generic big party scumbag" out of office.

    • Re:Vote or Die, P-Diddy (Score:4, Interesting)

      by HTH NE1 (675604) on Wednesday September 13 2006, @01:58PM (#16098171)
      I bet ya this will fail miserably just like the Vote or Die campaign aimed at youngsters.

      Or backfire. The typical voting in gaming is whether or not to boot troublesome players out of the game whereas in politics you vote someone into office that (you think) would be better than (typically) the incumbent you want out.

      Primetime TV game shows perpetuate this (voting someome off the show).
      • boot troublesome players out of the game whereas in politics you vote someone into office

        I think this is a legitmate problem in today's politics. If you ask the majority of voters, I bet you they will tell you that they're voting for Candidate X just because they can't stand Candidate Y. Shouldn't they be only voting for sombody because they agree with them???

      • Re:Vote or Die, P-Diddy (Score:5, Funny)

        by russ1337 (938915) on Wednesday September 13 2006, @02:07PM (#16098222)
        The typical voting in gaming is whether or not to boot troublesome players out of the game
        I'd LOVE to see the kick-vote system in politics...

        Dick Cheney has initiated a Vote to kick George (Press page-up to Vote Yes, Page Down for No)
    • I like Frank Zappa's advice to the kids: run for something. School board, city council, etc.
    • I don't remember hearing that the vote or die failed. In fact I heard more younger voters voted in 2004 as well as older voters.

      This could work if they used it like a lobby group. Keep all gamers up to date on issues and how it will effect them. Then organize some places to protest and see if anyone shows up.

      Maybe make a game called "Protester" where your character has to protest in different parts of town. Then if it doesn't work they get in a car, a la GTA, and chase down the politician in a limo

  • Voting rules (Score:5, Funny)

    by robpoe (578975) on Wednesday September 13 2006, @01:47PM (#16098075)
    Yeah, and the cheat code for the voting booth is

    Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, VOTE

    That way the machine will access it's hidden firmware and convert ALL the votes to the person of your choice..

    • you forgot to mention the easy way of doing it, ie. unscrew it and change the flash card, it would probably be quicker

  • Money (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ludomancer (921940)
    The problem I see with this is that the only reason there is any movement for pushing gamers to vote is so the industry doesn't lose out with money. No one involved in this cares about the issue as much as it's threat to their pocketbook.
    I am a member of the IGDA, a developer, and I don't want to see free speech be limited any more than the next person. But when the IGDA directors started spamming my inbox last year trying to rally folks to fight against legislation for limiting game sales to minors, it d

  • Huh? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by MojoBox (985651)
    Vote? Based on games? Why? The right would ban GTA because it's violent, the left because it's racist.

    Besides, I've allready joined the "Re-elect Nobody" campaign.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by paranode (671698)
      The left would ban it for both. See Tipper Gore.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by LGagnon (762015)
        If you think the Gores, Clintons, or Liberman are on the left, you haven't learned what the real left is like. Kucinich, Feingold, Nader and others like them are on the left. Tipper and her ilk are just centrists posing as leftists.

  • Port Halo to the Diebold voting machines.

  • Who would they vote for? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MikeRT (947531) on Wednesday September 13 2006, @01:56PM (#16098157) Homepage
    Both major parties are anti-video gamer. The Democrats are actually even worse here on "morality" than the Republicans, but the bottom line is that neither party is a good vote on this issue.

    If you want them to make a difference, have them en masse vote Libertarian at the local level. That's where most of the "decency" legislation is really passed and enforced.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by NineNine (235196)
      If you want them to make a difference, have them en masse vote Libertarian at the local level.

      You're right. Unfortunately, my state (NC) has decided that it's illegal [lpnc.org] to either be a registered Libertarian or to put Libertarian candidates on the ballot.

      Unfortunately, this country is so completely corrupt, and the government is so powerful, that it's really too late for voting to be any more than an empty gesture.
      • What. The. ??. I'm in NC. The state didn't decide it was "illegal" to put Libertarian candidates on the ballot, the state has ballot access requirements that apply to all parties. We're not being singled out because we're libertarian, we're singled out because we can't get 2 percent of the voters to agree that we're a party worth voting for. If we're less than 2 percent, then why the hell should we be on the ballot?

        (Note: this is only my opinion as applied in the insanely stupid current election method of p
    • This is the fundamental reason why I haven't voted since Bush, Sr.: lesser of two evils.

      Whoever gets elected, regardless of party affiliation, they will be corrupt, owned by the big dollar lobbyists (petroleum, pharmaceuticals) and basically just a puppet for the congressmen.

      Now voting on the congressional level CAN make a difference, but so many of them are only there to push their own agendas and approve their own pay increases that it's pointless.

    • "..have them en masse vote Libertarian at the local level."

      great way to waste a vote.

      Libertarianism is anti-society.
  • Voting doesn't work anyway. The Illuminati makes all the decisions about who's in charge. And if they votes are different than what they want, they create "voting errors".
  • What would be a great addition to this would be to publish a list of politicians (senators, house members, district members, judges, goveners, etc...) that are on one side or the other of this debate.

    -Rick

  • voting (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 13 2006, @02:05PM (#16098206)
    votekick bush

    if that fails, we might be forced to:
    votemap canada

  • Get those polls to the gamers! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Dutchmaan (442553) on Wednesday September 13 2006, @02:11PM (#16098257) Homepage
    Now if you could vote from your game!!! now that would work!

    Quest Giver...

    !

    Vote
    Election magistrate wants you to collect information on 6 candidates and return them to him!

    Candidate Information 0/6

    Rewards:
    Voter registration Card

    • Sometimes I feel like getting the truth about a candidate/issue is like some kind of covert ops mission. And sometimes while I'm searching for any shred of honesty, I get irritable and just want to shoot someone working on the campaigns--just like in a game when you can't find the secret door, so you start shooting the innocent civilians to vent.

  • Play For Real (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Digital Vomit (891734) on Wednesday September 13 2006, @02:16PM (#16098286) Homepage Journal

    I tried playing that game a couple of time before. I keep dying a few levels in.

    There are two unlocked characters to play from the start, but they're virtually identical. There are other characters, but I've yet to be able to unlock any of them. And there is no way to switch characters between levels, which would've been nice.

    The controls are sluggish; it seems to take forever to get anything done in the game. There appears to be a controller glitch because the characters often do not go in the direction you are pressing. The Jump and Fire buttons work sporadically, and sometimes switch for some reason. It seems the only thing you're really meant to do is turn the game on; the controls are that bad.

    The graphics are really flashy, but the story-line is pretty shallow and cliched. It's not much fun at all.

    My rating: 2/10

  • Unfortunately for folks in middle the money seems to lie on the far left and right ends of the spectrum and money gets votes. The middle where I truly believe most people's beliefs lie are largely ignored. I still vote, mostly libertarian but usuall just the person I feel is best for the job but even I know that im basically pissing away my ballot.

    What we really need is a "grassroots" party without the crazy people.
  • Thats the problem with getting people to vote, first they need some education on who/what to vote for.

    And with the republican/democrate duocracy, you always vote for someone evil. Both want to ban your rights, but for different reasons. Its a shame, we need more independants and other parties to start winning...

    And top it off, all the bi-partisan politics, no progress ever gets made.

    Tis a sad state of affairs.

  • Here's to the effort put into getting this age group to vote. It's been tried numerous times though. Rock the vote was the most recent. Voter turnouts continue to plummet and obviously something is not being done to change this.

    Getting gamers to put their voice in their vote isn't guaranteed to work. There is a disconnect between youth and voting and the underlying issues aren't being addressed.
  • 12 year olds can't vote in the US.

  • The Democrats, who want to place restrictions on games for various "social issues" reasons, or the Republicans, who want to place restrictions on games for religious reasons? I guess you go with the Democrats, because you can at least reason with them...?
  • In the late 80's or early 90's, Nacogdoches, TX was a dry town. It's also the home of Stephen F. Austin University. Students living there, on campus or just in the town, are able to vote if they register in that county. The student population is about the same as the residential population.
    The city had an election of whether or not the city/county should remain dry (no alcohol sold outside of private clubs) or become wet (beer, liquor, stores, restaurants, etc.)

    Almost all of the SFA students registered an

  • Don't blame me, I voted for dod_colmar.
  • I don't get it. Does the European Space Agency allow gamers to drive its huge Ariane rockets with joypads?
  • While I think the gaming/geek crowd could be a vocal threat to dumb legislation (just look at the response any time DRM, RIAA, etc. stuff is posted here), but I just don't trust voting and think maybe there's a much simpler solution.

    If there are concerns about sex, violence, or language in games being sold, maybe publishers could release a santized version to stores that could be unlocked (with some kind of low-hassle age verification, like a $1 credit card charge) online later. I know, it wouldn't work
  • I just tried to register in Colorado (I haven't registered yet and live in Colorado, so this makes sense) but came across a slight problem or two:
    a) last four of SSN is selected as the prefered option but the colorado form indicates that you must use drivers license if you have one
    b) you can not use drivers license because the form won't accept a license of the proper length
    c) there is no contact informatino for the maintainers of the site (not easily accessable at least) to inform them of such issues.

    What'
    • a better method would be to form a lobby group and buy off a few key politicians

      The key politicians, the committee chairman, the party leaders, the presidential hopefuls, have bigger fish to fry.

      Quickly, now:

      Show me a conressional district in which the video game industry is important. as an employer. as a taxpayer. a cultural icon. a magnet for business.

      Now show me a district where the anti-GTA vote is not strong. No evangelical churches, No soccer moms. No ethnic or racial inner-city minorities. No pl

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