The Voting Game: Massively Multiplayer

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Okay, so last night (March 4) did not decide the democratic presidential candidate.

We know the democratic issues, where they stand, their slogan, and we have their non-stop sound bites.

Let’s come down the ladder of priority and look into a lighter way of choosing our candidate. Obviously McCain, Clinton and Obama are all qualified to lead this country and for those that don’t agree… blame Bush (he has clearly lowered the bar for the next President).

Since all candidates are concerned about the economy as are the voters, let’s talk about the leading industry in salary and employment growth… the 17.9 Billion dollar gorilla, the fastest growing industry--faster than the US economy itself—I’m talking about the PC & Video Game Industry!

So if we were to vote primarily on keeping the economy afloat (passing the ball to the hot hands), we would have to see who is for the Game industry and who is about limiting it’s growth potential. Read more to see how the candidates match up.



Here are the 3 candidates:

Hilary Clinton

1. Proposing legislation that would penalize retailers for failing to enforce the ratings rules of the ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board).
   
2. Formed the Family Entertainment Protection Act (FEPA), a joint effort by senators Clinton, Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Evan Bayh (D-IN). FEPA would have effectively criminalized the sale of adult-rated games to children and created an independent committee to monitor the ratings themselves, but was ultimately struck down as being unconstitutional for attempting to circumvent the First Amendment by passing off the findings of a private entity (in this case, the ESRB) as federal law.
   
3. Believes there is a link between violent games and violent kids, blames the industry

Barack Obama

1. Came out several times on the side of technological freedom, particularly in the cases of Net Neutrality and changes to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
   
2. Did not accept a $500 donation by former Entertainment Software Association president Doug Lowenstein, although he never cited a specific reason.
   
3. Believes the industry can do a better job policing itself.
   
4. He would call upon the video game industry to give parents better information about programs and video games by improving the voluntary rating system we currently have (ESRB), but if the industry fails to act, then his administration would.
   
5. Less convinced of the causal relationship between violent games and violent behavior and proposes further study

John McCain

1. For years he has been a somewhat polarizing figure in the violent video game debate by routinely criticizing the industry as a whole.
   
2. Affiliated with Joe Lieberman (see Clinton 2)
   
3. Specific plans for the video game industry remain murky