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Leland Yee @ GDC: a missed opportunity
We attended the GDC panel entitled "Murder, Sex and Censorship: Debating the Morals of Creative Freedom." The panel was notable for the presence of Leland Yee (pictured above), Democratic candidate for California State Senate, and notable anti-game crusader who passed a law that makes it a crime to sell to minors any game in which a player kills, maims, dismembers or sexually assaults an image of a human being. Yee's fellow panelists included Brenda Brathwaite, Jason Della Rocca, and James Paul Gee. For the most part, though, the audience had assembled to hear Yee defend his position on games. I'll cut through the niceties and get to the meat of it: this panel was a missed opportunity. Jason Della Rocca, who should have been able to ask Yee some good questions, behaved petulantly and unprofessionally (at one point, he loudly sighed into his microphone while Yee was making a particularly nutty point). I expected more of the Executive Director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA). Get him some media and debate training, stat!
