As some of you may know, I was not a fan of the ECA’s campaign to try and get the President to no longer refer to video games in his speeches (I’m paraphrasing, of course). The feedback was mixed. Some of you out there approved of my dissent, while others weren’t so happy. One of those who wasn’t entirely on my side was the ECA itself. After a couple of email exchanges, we were given the opportunity to ask ECA Online Advocacy Manager Brett Schenker a few questions.
Here are those questions:
Binge Gamer: First of all, thank you for your time. Before we get into things, your petition letter was published on your website about a week ago. Can you give us an idea of how many people have forwarded the letter to the White House email?
Brett Schenker: We’re very pleased about the response to this call to action. It quickly became our biggest action ever, exceeding our expectations with a lot of the people partaking being “first timers.†This is clearly an issue video game players care about, as evidenced by their enthusiasm to participate, the numerous blogs that spoke out in favor of the action, and the overwhelmingly positive comments on those blogs.
I think we can all agree that video games have unfairly become the “whipping boy” of politicians and the media. However none of the President’s statements about video games seem to be all that inflammatory. So I have to ask: What is it that the ECA’s issue with the President’s statements?
The issue the ECA has with the President’s remarks is that he continuously uses video games as a root cause of the issues he sites. It’s the framing of the issue we have a problem with, not what he’s trying to rally parents around. He’s pitting education and one’s health against video game playing. The ECA agrees that children need to be active and study first. Video games should be a part of a well balanced activity schedule.
That brings up an interesting issue. After all, there have been an increasing number of schools that have started using Dance Dance Revolution and recently Wii Sports. Do you see this trend expanding over the next few years?
I can definitely see the trend expanding. Video games have integrated so much into people’s everyday lives, to the point they don’t even notice how much it’s happened, and I don’t see a reason that it wouldn’t eventually happen in schools as well. ECA Institute (ECAi) has been working with some school districts on using video games in a variety of health capacities. Particularly during this global fiscal crisis, the thing that’d be most likely to hold their use back would be school budgets. Dance Dance Revolution and Wii Sports cost money to implement and upkeep, and staffing any new school programming also costs money.
Looking through comments on several websites, a lot of gamers seem to think that the ECA is arguing the position that video games don’t make people fat. Now obviously that isn’t the case but it does lead to the matter of what the ECA’s hopeful goal of this email campaign is. What would you like to see happen?
Video games don’t “make people fat.†A person’s diet and activity habits have a lot to do with that, as well as genetics and many other factors. But we’d like a couple of things to happen: 1) Help begin to put a more positive face on video game players and help spur the community to participate in that discussion continuing from the article ECA President Hal Halpin wrote for Industry Gamers, 2) Continue our push to politicians that video game players are done being the “whipping boy,†3) Continue to get gamers to be politically vocal about the issues they care about.
I don’t mean offense to World of Warcraft players out there, but people who spend eighty hours a week power-leveling their Tauren Shamans (For the Horde!) aren’t exactly doing much to break the stereotype that all gamers do is sit in front of their TVs/monitors. So even if the President sees that gamers aren’t happy about being labeled as ‘fat and lazy’, doesn’t at least some of the responsibility for the public’s perception of gamers fall on us?
A stereotype comes from somewhere, and at times our industry hasn’t put its best face forward. That’s a reason for this campaign, it’s just part of a bigger plan to change and combat that stereotype. It’s only one part, a component, of a much bigger plan around combating the misperception about video game players. Through this action, our chapters, and more to come, we’ll be doing our best to help fight these stereotypes.
What else can gamers do, apart from writing to the President, to break these negative stereotypes?
Gamers can be proud they play video games, and let their friends and family know it. Putting “faces†on communities does wonders for perceptions. I think sharing our enthusiasm for our pastime does go a long way.
The easiest thing to do is get those friends and family to join in on the fun. My dad loves to play poker on the Xbox when he visits, and he and my Mom play the Wii with their grandkids; and a lot of that has to do with just showing them that they can. I knew my mom would love Video Games Live, so I sent her the album through iTunes. She now thinks of music in video games in a whole different way.
As a whole, engaging in the community is a great thing for local groups to do. Volunteer days, charity drives, things like that build great relationships with their local communities and help demystify who we are. Those local groups might find some new members that they wouldn’t normally have thought of.
As gaming press I must ask: have we failed to effectively fight off some of these negative stereotypes by latching onto any and every negative gaming news story while seemingly ignoring the good deeds being done by countless gaming-related charities like Child’s Play and Fun For Our Troops?
Video games and video game players need to be contextualized. Nearly seventy percent of American households are video game consumers. As an industry and a consumer community, games-related endeavors have exploded to reflect some of our numbers. It is our responsibility to make the multiplicity of voices heard, which is why we have launched this campaign, and why we will launch others similar.
Can you elaborate on what these future campaigns may focus on?
As far as action campaigns, we recently re-launched our Gamers for Net Neutrality action with the introduction of new legislation in the House of Representatives. Additionally, at the federal level, there is currently a bill addressing “warning labels on games rated ‘T’ and up†and a bill to protect consumers from increased cost to Internet access due to broadband caps. At the state level, there are a few actions about taxes on digital goods and some others about restriction of sales. (more info here)
We’ll be adding actions as legislation comes up. There are also going to be next steps to this particular letter writing campaign, one of which will launch fairly soon. Finally, there are other initiatives that will launch this year that we’re already working on, but which are a little too early in the pipeline to talk about. You can join us on our various social networks to catch up with the latest news and happenings.
In my editorial I expressed the concern that politicians in Washington could take this campaign, spinning it into making it sound like all we were doing is whining about being called “fat” and use it as precedent to ignore the ECA on matters of importance. How do you respond to that?
I don’t believe that’s the case. First, this action only targets the President, not Congress. We’ve done quite a few campaigns on numerous other issues before this one and we have a number running right now. We as a community need to speak out and exercise our voice. If we don’t, we’ll be ignored. And as Hal’s article in Industry Gamers says, we need to take responsibility for negative stereotypes if we do not speak out to attempt to shatter them.
Second, we give numerous examples of the positive aspects of video games and video game players. Our government uses them in different and positive ways every day, so it could be perceived as hypocritical, in a way, to cast video games in this negative light. The President has used video games in a negative context in his speeches numerous times and we think it’s time video game players got the opportunity to speak up. It’s a deliberate choice by the White House team to use video games as the “fall guy.†If, through our silence, we acquiesce to the President “bashing†video games and video game players, it makes it ok for everyone else too.
Getting away from the Obama emails a moment, Sen. Leland Yee has appealed to the Supreme Court in an attempt to have California’s 2005 Violent Games ban “unconstitutional” ruling overturned. Do you honestly see this appeal succeeding and when, if ever, do you expect to see states stop trying to pass similar laws that are ultimately all ruled unconstitutional?
The Supreme Court hasn’t ever accepted Cert in any of the violent video game case appeals. If the Supreme Court doesn’t accept Cert, they will not hear the case, and the Appeals Court ruling that holds video games protected speech will continue to stand. The empowerment and positive images of video game players being put forth by our campaigns help change the landscape, where presently candidates and elected officials believe they can blame negatives on video games and players.
I want to thank the ECA for their time. While I don’t think the two sides will ever fully agree on this particular issue, there is no denying that they handled themselves with class and dignity. Which is more than I can say for most fanboys out there.
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/9dhys/interview_eca_on_obama_fighting_stereotypes_and/