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Editorial Entertainment Games

Barbarians at the Gates 51

Posted by Zonk from the not-bill dept.
ILuvJoesMom writes "Hot on the heels of Wednesday's news story, Warcry has an editorial up with strategies for defending the video game industry from the oncoming hordes. 'If you're sick of hearing politicians kvetch about video games, make it worth their while to stand up for them by voting for them and supporting them. Given the choice between a hundred thousand overprotective moms with ballots in hand and a million gamers at their computers, I'm going 'mom vote' every time, and I imagine any politician hoping to stay a politician feels the same. This is that 'elected' thing I was talking about earlier. If you're over 18 and not a felon, then odds are you have the right to vote, and that's more powerful than a thousand 'I think Congress sucks, who's with me?' threads on the message board of your choice.'"
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Barbarians at the Gates More

Barbarians at the Gates

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  • Yeah, I'll Vote... (Score:3, Funny)

    by SolarCanine ( 892620 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @06:39PM (#13580973) Journal
    ...but will I get uber-leet epic gear in-game afterwards?


    No??!?


    Nevermind then. I'm busy.

  • Power to the People (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FidelCatsro ( 861135 ) <fidelcatsro&gmail,com> on Friday September 16, 2005 @06:54PM (#13581097) Journal
    The greatest victory of many lobby groups and political parties has been to persuade the average voter that their vote does not really matter.
    It does and no vote is wasted .

    If we want our views heard then we need to need to shout them out and make sure that they know we are not alone . These lobby groups have realised this , unfortunately many have also realised (as i said above) that making making people believe it doesn't is a great way to get your ideas through .
    If you feel an injustice in government then you need to make your voice heard.
    beat the self fulfilling prophecy .

    One well voiced eloquently spoken opinion can change the course of world events for years to come , let's just make sure that the voice is of the Masses and is well informed.

    • Perhaps this is admirable if overblown rhetoric, but it isn't true. U.S. voter turnout has gone up substantially in the last decade. And at a grass-roots level, lobby groups and political parties are basically in the business of getting out the vote.

      If you've ever known anybody who works for a political campaign, basically that is what all the interns and volunteers will do. If you had ever participated in the political process, at any level, you would know this.

      • I was campaigning in the last election. We were calling all the Kerry supporters, making sure they did indeed support him, and then calling the day of the election to try to get them to vote.
        I've found that a lot of people don't think their one little vote will amount to anything, so why bother?
        They do have a point, in that one little vote really won't change an election, but if you really care about something, then you really should campaign for it, and try to get as many votes as you can. If you work hard
    • One vote really is worthless - only when that vote is one of many, many thousands backed by a group with enough money to convey the groups message does it have any power.

  • No Barbarians? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Mondoz ( 672060 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @06:57PM (#13581125)
    I was hoping this was a review about a new game that would send rampaging hordes of congressional oversight comities against the feeble defenses of the break room of your game development headquarters.

    As you defend your territory and caffeine sources from governors, senators, and congressmen, you would work your way to the end level bosses: the Special Interest Groups. Concerned Parents would invade and attempt to use the 'Think of the Children' bombs to EMP blast the gaming community into the stone age.

    But I guess it wasn't about that.

  • Public Service Announcement. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cornface ( 900179 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @07:17PM (#13581243)
    If you've never found it worth your while to vote but the fear of video game regulations spur you to the polls...please stay home and don't vote. Really. Just stay at home.

    If war, taxes, social security, the looming spectre of Supreme Court nominations, national defense, freedom of the press, a sense of civic duty, job creation, prison overcrowding, welfare, seperating church and state, defending your Constitutional rights, metropolitan transit, energy policies, trade policies, and being a decent human being weren't enough to make you cast your ballot, well, fuck off and don't vote.

    Thanks.

    • If you've never found it worth your while to vote but the fear of video game regulations spur you to the polls...please stay home and don't vote.

      Nope. If fear of regulation of anything spurs you to the polls...please vote a Libertarian [lp.org] ticket (or foreign counterparts). As for welfare and Social Security's survivor and disability programs, insurance companies in the private sector may do a better job of giving their customers a safety net.

      freedom of the press [...] defending your Constitutional rights

      • As for welfare and Social Security's survivor and disability programs, insurance companies in the private sector may do a better job of giving their customers a safety net.

        Private insurers demand premiums in proportion to the risks you represent. That becomes a problem when you are unemployed, elderly, chronically ill, or physically disabled.

        Insurance companies are notoriously quick to retreat from such low profit, high-risk markets.

        Historically, private insurance has always been organized around the nee

        • Private insurers demand premiums in proportion to the risks you represent. That becomes a problem when you are unemployed ... chronically ill, or physically disabled.

          That's why in a libertarian world, parents might carry insurance against the event that a child becomes unemployable in a covered way before the child becomes employable, in much the same way as health insurance.

          elderly

          Everybody eventually becomes elderly. Planning for retirement and medical expenses in a libertarian world is the job

    • Re:Public Service Announcement. (Score:5, Funny)

      by Richard Frost ( 18848 ) on Saturday September 17, 2005 @03:16PM (#13586012)
      If you've never found it worth your while to vote but the fear of video game regulations spur you to the polls...please stay home and don't vote. Really. Just stay at home.

      If war, taxes, social security, the looming spectre of Supreme Court nominations, national defense, freedom of the press, a sense of civic duty, job creation, prison overcrowding, welfare, seperating church and state, defending your Constitutional rights, metropolitan transit, energy policies, trade policies, and being a decent human being weren't enough to make you cast your ballot, well, fuck off and don't vote.

      Alternatively, go ahead and vote just to piss this guy off.
    • Here's some free, complimentary clue: nowhere in the definition of democracy does it say "but vote only on the issues cornface deems important."

      The whole _real_ point is to elect the people who best represent _my_ interests, whatever those interests might be. If enough people thought their most important issue is having quicksave in all games, or subsidizing implants for porn stars, that's it. Democracy means they can and in fact should see to it that those issues get heard.

      The whole idea in a real democrac
      • Yes! Bread and circuses for everyone! Hoorah! Hoorah!

        Let us eat cake and sip hot coffee.

        Democracy at work!
      • Here's some free, complimentary clue: nowhere in the definition of democracy does it say "but vote only on the issues cornface deems important."

        The hard truth remains that only a handful of issues rise to the surface in any election. These may not be the questions you want to see decided, but they are the only questions which can be decided.

  • I'd mod the entire blurb as +1 Obvious, except that for some reason so many people fail to get the point. During the last presedential election there were far too many people arguing about how voting doesn't matter, usually in regards to voting for third parties. Meanwhile in related news the entire electronics industry is unable to figure out how to lobby half as effectively as Hollywood.

  • Ha! (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by Jukashi ( 240273 )
    Im not sure what the problem is here. When I was a kid I was stealing the games, I dont see how game ratings would have affected me back then. I dont worry about copy protection because everything I play is already cracked. So here I am playing free and unemcumbered games (music, movies, and tv shows too) while there are people walking the straight line and getting fucked for it.

    One game I dont play - their's.The white collar black market my friends - kick back, relax, and enjoy!

    • Re:Ha! (Score:1)

      by Seumas ( 6865 )
      Hah! Totally. That's how I ended up with my copy of Populous! It wasn't the thing I'm most proud of doing at the age of 11 or 12, but... wait - yes it is. But the important thing is, while I may have stolen it - I didn't pirate it!

      Sorry Peter M.!

      I've spent thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars on legitimate copies of games since then though. :)

  • NO WAY! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Seumas ( 6865 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @08:05PM (#13581523)
    If you're sick of hearing politicians kvetch about video games, make it worth their while to stand up for them by voting for them and supporting them.

    Sorry. I tried to play that game once before and there were too many glitches and crashes with it. It clearly had not gone through a proper QA cycle and I am not going to bother trying that game again until a solid patch has been released.

  • So who do I vote for? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Toddarooski ( 12363 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @08:20PM (#13581599)
    The Republican who's using videogames as a scapegoat, or the Democrat who's using videogames as a scapegoat?

    • Re:So who do I vote for? (Score:4, Informative)

      by dasunt ( 249686 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @10:37PM (#13582163)
      The Republican who's using videogames as a scapegoat, or the Democrat who's using videogames as a scapegoat?

      Its nice how your assumption results in a world where you don't have to get off your lazy ass and vote.

      Btw, here is a list of the 19 democrats and 2 republics in the house [house.gov] who voted no against H.RES.376 [loc.gov], a resolution to call upon the FTC to investigate Rockstar Games over the 'Hot Coffee' mod. Unfortunately, not any of my state's representitives voted no. :( YMMV.

      That's at the federal level. Obviously, it seems that you didn't know that. Perhaps if gamers like you paid more attention to issues that concern you, we'd have less problems.

      Of course, at the state and local level, you have even more power. But perhaps that would require just a tad too much effort.

      Get off your ass and vote, damnit. Why are the republicans and democrats voting for legislation like this? Because the people that elected them want legislation like this.

      • Because the people that elected them want legislation like this.

        Thats funny, last time I voted, that spot on the ballot where you get to type in what you want your elected representatives to do didn't show up.

        Damn you Diebold! This is all your fault!

  • Write On Candidate (Score:5, Funny)

    by iridium_ionizer ( 790600 ) on Friday September 16, 2005 @09:26PM (#13581888)
    Will Wright.

    He already knows how to manage people, cities, farms, islands, ants, life, and Earth.
  • Sorry, but I'm a lot more worried about a group that votes based on video game legislation than a congressman that proposes it.
  • Right now, the people in congress are about 1-3 generations away from the original Atari/Nintendo generations. The voting base of their constituency is likely even older than that.

    As the years go by, things will settle down and our generation will be in power- likely condemning the moral inadequacies of our youngers in mediums that we'll never be able to understand.

    If you think video games get a bad rep these days, take a look at what rap music has had to go through over the last decade or so. It sorta pu
    • And as far as political leaders go, their opinion on video games is down there at the bottom of the list of priorities. I'm not going to cast my vote for some neo-facist idiot just because his otherwise austere opponent decried some pixelated titties.

      If there's ever a time when I pick the lesser of two evils based on their video game opinion, I'm done with democracy.

    • It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea. -- Robert Anton Wilson


      • It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea. -- Robert Anton Wilson

        In today's political climate I see a strong tendency towards conservatism. So the opposite might be true: It only takes 20 years for a conservative to become a liberal without changing a single idea. -- Robert Anton Wilson
        20 years ago, what conservative politician would have dared to attack things like freedom of press or say a preemptive attack is good?

        • You're falling into the trap of thinking that thing stay the same. The Conservatives we see today in government have very little to do with the conservatives of the past. Add to that the fact that most politicians do what they must to stay re-elected, and you'll see why Bush and his Cronies are 'Neo-Conservatites.'

  • Slashdot party? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by PromANJ ( 852419 ) on Saturday September 17, 2005 @08:14AM (#13583856) Homepage Journal
    Why doesn't /. start a political party?

    The +5 informative department could gather things that sort of looks like facts.
    The +5 Insightful & Interesting departments reinforce each other in the debates, while ruthlessly moderating the opposition down.
    The +5 Funny & Offtopic departments could crack jokes if things are starting to look bad.
    The +5 Flamebait & Troll departments could work together distract and smear political opponents.


  • I have no statistical influence
  • FTA:"If you're over 18 and not a felon, then odds are you have the right to vote, and that's more powerful than a thousand 'I think Congress sucks, who's with me?' threads on the message board of your choice.'"

    Not exactly true. Elected representatives have staff members who monitor public opinion in many, many media venues. Sure, the newspaper editorial section is more important to them than message boards, but they are still looking at the boards.

    Plus, if you vote based upon prior decisions, you're
  • 20 to 30 year old gamers may not have a lot of political sway, but guess what, 40 to 50 year old ex-gamers do. The crusade against gaming will blow over, like all other crusades, as the population of gamers age and become parents, politicians, judges, and so on, and by then we will realize that GTA and Doom didn't lead to the downfall of society. Of course by about then there will be some new-fangled invention for us all to get worked up about, so the whole cycle can continue for the next generation.

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