Time to sit and address a question that I feel is fair... though one that anyone really following my adventures with any attention to detail should already know. A few people have asked me why I, a person who is so quick to jump to defending video gaming when the mainstream media or a political leader blames it for the ills of society, has been mostly quiet about what they term as harassment and attacks from the games press on gamers I could note that I see it differently, as I dont feel an editorial is an attack any more than the opinions of those who hold a different opinion. I also could point out that I have the freedom to fight the fights I choose to, not what others expect or demand of me. But this really is a more detailed reason that is worth chatting about. When the mainstream media, political leaders or major lobbyists scapegoat video gaming as the cause of violent acts, obesity and loss of social skills, it has a far deeper impact than just being words that I, and many others, would disagree with. The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that video games are a form of free speech. Despite that, we have politicians all over the country on every level from local mayors to the Vice President of the United States that feel that extra taxes on inappropriate video games would at least be okay... if not necessary. We also have major tax proposals that have included the idea of stripping tax breaks from video game studios that produce violent video games and other politicians that still wish to label or even regulate them like cigarettes. To me, THIS is the outrage. These taxes, tax break strips and regulations are essentially elected officials attempting to influence freedom of speech. I feel this is a VERY big deal. I also feel the attempts to label and or regulate would hurt the industry on a large scale. Even if one small town did it, it would have a domino effect, causing some retailers and/or regions to cease sales of them. These attempts by elected officials... from both major political parties... are also something I feel is a waste of taxpayer dollars. The State of California, for example, had to pay back millions in legal costs after their regulatory attempt failed. These elected officials are paid by taxpayers, yet many of them are busy pushing their proposed taxes or what not while earning that taxpayer paycheck rather than fixing important issues. All of this is fed by the mainstream media reports that often like to point at a video game as the cause of a violent act, despite the fact that studies on the topic vary in conclusion all the time and despite the fact that there are far more pressing issues in these matters. For example, when a 5 year old child shot and killed his grandma after seeing Grand Theft Auto, the press and even the local police department blamed the game... rather than the huge, huge question of how a child that age had access to a loaded firearm. To me, this stuff is far more important of a fight than what someone said on Facebook or Twitter or in some editorial on a video game news site. People can ignore social media or websites... but everyone is impacted by the actions of their elected officials, and what many of them continually try to do would be far, far, far more harmful to the industry if one managed to get through. Wasted taxpayer dollars pursing an invisible enemy created my mainstream media misrepresentation > Words someone disagrees with on a computer screen. Totally different kinds of fights, in my opinion. This is why Ive teamed up with the Video Game Voters Network and #RockTheVote. I feel that ethics in politics and the mainstream media are far more important than ethics in games journalism.... and getting gamers to the polls is far more effective of a way to use their voices and make an actual difference in something. As I said at the beginning... any true followers of what I do should already know this. For those who somehow did not, there is it. videogamevoters.org/
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 16:02:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015