DennisMccauley
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The Political Game: Video games made me do it
Each week Dennis McCauley contributes The Political Game, a column on the collision of politics and video games:Ladies and gentlemen of the Joystiq jury, I direct your attention to Independence Day, 2004. On that morning, Cody Posey, just an average 14-year-old boy, picked up a gun, walked into his home and gunned down his stepmother in cold blood.The video games made him do it.Cody's dad, Delbert, a caretaker at ABC newsman Sam Donaldson's New Mexico ranch, heard the shots and came running. Cody shot him dead, too, along with his 13-year-old stepsister, Marilea. Sam Donaldson actually discovered the crime scene and called the police. The adolescent killer was arrested, tried, and sent away. Cody Posey, average American teen, had become a homicidal maniac.The video games made him do it.
The Political Game: Who will save gamers? [update 1]
Each week Dennis McCauley contributes The Political Game, a column on the collision of politics and video games:Despite an uninterrupted string of constitutional defeats, politicians continue to seek ways to legislate video games. In state capitals from Salt Lake City to Albany, political Captain Ahabs are poring over court opinions, seeking the Great White Legal Loophole. Elected officials and culture cops are tweaking the legalese and experimenting with new tactics – such as equating violent games with pornography. For all their bluster, however, they haven't yet been able to pass even a single law that has survived judicial review.And they probably never will. The First Amendment, it's a powerful thing.
The Political Game: The blame game
Each week Dennis McCauley contributes The Political Game, a column on the collision of politics and video games:Wednesday's tragic shooting spree at Montreal's Dawson College has prompted yet another media feeding frenzy over violent video games. Word that 25-year-old shooter Kimveer Gill played Super Columbine RPG, a non-commercial game design, was enough to push the video game angle into lead paragraphs in newspapers from London to Washington, D.C. to China. Hell, it even made the Drudge Report.To be sure, the clearly unbalanced Gill was no stranger to games, especially first-person shooters. His blog on VampireFreaks.com names Half-Life 2, F.E.A.R. and Call of Duty 2 among his favorites. He also played some of the commonly-cited poster children for game violence, including Manhunt, Postal and the GTA series. Gill also played less controversial titles like Warcraft III, Need for Speed Underground and Command & Conquer Generals. But Super Columbine RPG is the sound bite here, and it's no surprise that the media has jumped on that angle with both feet. Think about it -- a game based upon a horrendous school massacre being played by a lunatic who then commits his own deadly school shooting. If you're writing headlines, it's practically irresistible.
The Political Game: The Virtual Candidate
Each week Dennis McCauley contributes The Political Game, a column on the collision of politics and video games:Is it youthful and hip -- or just geeky and weird -- for a major political candidate to shake hands with a furry or kiss a baby avatar in the virtual world?We'll find out in 2008.When presidential hopeful Mark Warner visited Second Life last week, it represented a milestone for both online gaming and American politics.For the online game community, the former Virginia governor's Second Life stop was a definite boost. Most notably, it marked the first time anything but negative political attention -- violence! addiction! -- has ever been paid to an MMO. Moreover, Warner's visit was a tacit admission that there is something worth tapping into within the Second Life space -- that, despite the game's virtual landscape and offbeat avatars, SL is a real place, populated by gamers with genuine concerns, and, most importantly, gamers who vote.
The Political Game: Anti-game candidate works the crowd
Each week Dennis McCauley contributes The Political Game, a column on the collision of politics and video games:Picture a crisp Saturday morning in early November, 2006. Elections are only three days away. A flatbed truck draped in red, white and blue bunting cruises slowly through the parking lot of a busy shopping mall. A four-piece brass band, its members seated on bales of hay, belts out John Philip Souza tunes from the back of the truck. Signs on both doors read "Mike Hatch for Governor."It's a campaign stop. A middle-aged man dressed in a pinstripe suit works the crowd of shoppers near the mall entrance. He is the candidate."Hi, I'm Attorney General Mike Hatch and I'm running for Governor of Minnesota.""Hi, Mike, my name is Dave and I'm a gamer."
The Political Game: The circus comes to Louisiana
Each week Dennis McCauley contributes The Political Game, a column on the collision of politics and video games:If you think back to this time last year, you'll surely recall the State of Louisiana being ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Traumatized residents there are still trying to rebuild their lives. These poor souls need all kinds of help - loans and subsidies, jobs and infrastructure repairs. So the Louisiana legislature gave them a video game law. Just why a state that is best known for its annual, drunken, boob-flashing street party felt squeamish about, of all things, video games has never been clear. But Rep. Roy Burrell, a Louisiana Democrat, harbored strong feelings about the issue. Apparently frustrated by the failure to get his first effort passed in 2005, Burrell called in a legal gunslinger from out of town: Jack Thompson.
The Political Game: A brief history of video game legislation
Each week Dennis McCauley will contribute The Political Game, a column on the collision of politics and video games:A well-known philosopher – I think maybe it was Doug Lowenstein – once said, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." How true. Since this a brand-new column about the politics of video games, it seems like a good idea to kick things off with a short history lesson on video game legislation in the USA. That way, if I get canned, some geek can collect these columns for the Wikipedia and they'll have a logical starting point (today's column) and a logical ending (a future Joystiq e-mail with the subject line, "You're fired"). So, pay attention. This means you, Jack Thompson.
GamePolitics: Congress should grill Take Two
Dennis McCauley, the big cheese over at GamePolitics, is running an op/ed at industry-site Next-Gen.biz (the .biz is how you know they mean business!) about why, if he had his druthers, Take Two would be the ones in Congress' hot seat and not "intermediaries like [the ESA's] Doug Lowenstein and [the ESRB's] Patricia Vance."The idea is simple: Take Two and Rockstar Games are, by and large, responsible for the increasing backlash against violent games thanks to a little bit of wayward code we've all come to know and love. Yup, Hot Coffee. Point is, instead of extrapolating this one case out to represent the the entire gaming industry, Congress should isolate their investigation on this one instance. Even notable game designers like Warren Spector have called Rockstar out for their irresponsible behavior and Take Two's bungling of the controversy (lying ... eh, not such a great idea) only exacerbated the issue. McCauley's even made a list of questions for prospective congress-peoples just to get 'em started: Who conceived the Hot Coffee idea? Who created the animations? Who eventually decided to nix it from the final version? Why it wasn't removed from the disc entirely? Did insiders realize the active and highly-skilled GTA mod community would find the sex animations? Why did Rockstar and Take-Two lie about Hot Coffee when it was revealed? Why did they try to blame the mess on their biggest fans, the GTA mod community? Ouch! Those are sure to leave some bruises. So what say ye? Should Take Two and Rockstar be taking the beatings for all this anti-gaming hysteria?See also:ESRB: Lie to us, pay up to $1 million in finesTepid Coffee: Take-Two gets foreboding slap on wrist by FTCSpector clarifies GTA comments
