The Political Game: The 2006 Political Mix

Each week Dennis McCauley contributes The Political Game, a column on the collision of politics and video games:

It's game over for 2006, the craziest year ever in video game politics. And that's saying something, given the Hot Coffee hoopla that plagued 2005. Here are some of the major political stories that rocked the video game world in 2006:

Jack Thompson's failed Louisiana video game law: the controversial Miami activist attorney convinced the Louisiana legislature that he had crafted a piece of video game legislation that would withstand the inevitable industry legal challenge. The reality was, he hadn't – not even close - and things got ugly between Thompson and the Louisiana attorney general's office by the time Federal Judge James Brady tossed Thompson's bill onto the scrap heap of history.

Minnesota's nutty "fine the buyer" law: The Minnesota legislature must have been suffering from a collective case of cabin fever when it passed State Senator Sandy Pappas' bill, which called for $25 fines against underage buyers of violent games. That would be the same Sandy Pappas who told GameSpot that, "Legislators don't worry too much about what's constitutional." Obviously, since the bill survived for about three seconds once Federal Judge James Rosenbaum got his hands on it. By the way, His Honor tried out Jade Empire on his clerk's Xbox while considering the case. Pretty cool for a guy who wears a long black dress to work.

Mark Warner Visits Second Life: In the end, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner opted not to jump into the 2008 presidential mix. But his whistle stop appearance in Second Life marked the first time a major political figure had acknowledged the potential for social value and community interaction in games.

Jack Thompson Tries to Bully Rockstar: The game-hatin' barrister was at it again as he tried to get a Miami court to declare PS2 hit Bully a public nuisance. Unfortunately for Jack, Judge Ronald Friedman found only one nuisance in his courtroom and it wasn't a video game.

Super Columbine Massacre RPG: A lot of people found indy filmmaker Danny Ledonne's game-based examination of the Columbine shootings creepy. Others saw value in Ledonne's use of the medium. The merits of the project were the subject of intense debate – and that was before we learned that a 25-year-old nut job who shot up a Montreal college campus was a big fan of Super Columbine Massacre RPG.

Christians love the Left Behind game. Oh, wait. They don't: Ever since the success of Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ, many in the game biz assumed there was a market for Christian-themed games. And what better subject than the uber-popular Left Behind books series, which has sold over 60 million copies? Didn't work out that way, though, as many Christians – and Muslims and Jews as well - rejected the game's religious violence and "convert or die" play mechanic. Theological considerations aside, game reviewers pretty much agreed that Left Behind just sucked.

John Edwards Cuts the PS3 Line: Hey, if you're running for president, you need a PlayStation 3, right? Edwards, the former North Carolina senator, suffered a major embarrassment when media reports revealed that a staffer tried to score a launch-day PS3 on Edwards' behalf from a Raleigh Wal-Mart. Edwards, a huge critic of the big box retailer's labor and business practices, wound up with egg on his face and no PS3 in his hands.

GTA Ads Banned in Boston: If you ride the Green Line in Boston, you might see ads for booze, marijuana reform, or slasher movies. You won't see any ads for M-rated video games. The local transit system bowed to political pressure following the posting of an ad for GTA Vice City Stories in November and now treats M-rated games like they were porn flicks.

I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a legal ruling today: Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich dragged his feet on paying a half-million dollars owed to the video game industry. The money represented legal fees spent by the game biz defending against the Guv's unconstitutional "Safe Games Illinois Act." Federal Judge Matthew Kennelly had to order Blagojevich to pay up.

Hillary cozies up to the ESRB: Politics truly makes for strange bedfellows, and none more surprising than the recent m�nage-a-trois between the ESRB and Senators Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman, both longtime critics of video game violence.

What happens in Vegas: Sin City Mayor Oscar Goodman (that's him in the picture) built his legal career on defending mafia guys. He filmed a liquor ad while serving as the mayor. He rules over a city which has raised degenerate gambling and debauchery to an art form. And he's outraged by a video game? Yes, His Honor thinks it's terrible that the latest Rainbow Six title is set in Vegas. Might give the town a bad name...

Dennis McCauley is the Political Editor for the Entertainment Consumers Association (www.theeca.com), tracks the political side of video games at GamePolitics.com and writes about games for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Opinions expressed in The Political Game are his own. Reach him at