White House "Gaming Advisor" Says President is Interested in Games

[TiberiusEsuriens]

Is he saying the ESRB rating system isn't adequate? What's so difficult about seeing a big "M" on a box and reading that it has "gratuitous medical gore" and "exposed rectums"!?

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. The ESRB rating are pretty damn clear cut. I don't see anyone complaining about MPAA ratings being inadequate.

Pretty much, but he sounds more to the point of "M rated games are marketed to kids, so why on earth would anyone care about the ESRB?" What the hell does "M" mean if 8000% of kids playing it are 13 or under?

The last sentence is pretty important: DeLoura believes there is a lot of confusion when discerning whether a game's content is appropriate for children, especially when advertisements target young players.

 

[kael013]

I'll be honest, I came into this expect doom and gloom, but this is actually alright. Except for that last paragraph 'cause we don't need a uniform ratings system ([i/]we have one dude[/i]), but because we need parents to learn to give a shit about it.

 

[Nghtgnt]

Maybe I'm just cynical, but I would bet money that the reason they started talking about gaming at the White House level is because of gun violence/gun control. It's nice to see that DeLoura is looking beyond that. Well, other then the fact that he doesn't seem to understand the ESRB and the big letters on the boxes...

As far as using games for education, with any luck someone will point him to this:


This is one of the many reasons why I think Civilization and Rome: Total War are some of the greatest games ever.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

If we started solving world issues with a game of Civilization, I think the world would be a better place.

... Or dead in two years. One of the two.

 

[Agayek]

The only president that got elected past the legal two term limit was FDR. That was because he got shit done.

You realize that the limit was only made legal because of FDR right?

Before that, it was simply tradition, one set by George Washington, to step out of the running after your second term as President.

 

[Tortilla the Hun]

Is he saying the ESRB rating system isn't adequate? What's so difficult about seeing a big "M" on a box and reading that it has "gratuitous medical gore" and "exposed rectums"!?

What I gathered (feel free to disregard this entirely if you feel it is necessary, as it is my opinion on the matter) was that he wasn't saying it is confusing, but that confusion is present, which at this point in time is truly a wonder that it is but go figure. Also, with those content labels, you wouldn't happen to be talking about Proctologist Simulator 2013, would you?

More on topic, I think it's good to see that more awareness is being brought up among those who don't really understand video games rather than the usual business of painting games in a bad light and using them as a scapegoat for criminals (which is odd considering, at least from what I've seen, it's media pointing the finger and not the criminals themselves).

 

[Epic_Bubble]

Doesn't every game have something to teach people? Sure the lessons aren't as strong as say typing of the dead or as creative inspiring as minecraft.

I like to think every game has something to teach us even if its something as small as "Kids dont do drugs" from your pal Trevor.

Oh and in before Obama nuke North Korea in Civ 5

(It is North Korea right? I can never remember who the bads one are.)

 

[RJ Dalton]

Don't we already have a uniform rating system for games? One that's more accurately and reliably applied and better enforced than the rating system for movies?

 

[Zipa]

Doesn't every game have something to teach people? Sure the lessons aren't as strong as say typing of the dead or as creative inspiring as minecraft.

I like to think every game has something to teach us even if its something as small as "Kids dont do drugs" from your pal Trevor.

Oh and in before Obama nuke North Korea in Civ 5

(It is North Korea right? I can never remember who the bads one are.)

There is no north and south Korea in Civ 5 , just Korea. There is most likely a mod for it out there though.

And north are the crazy ones we should be concerned about.

 

[major_chaos]

"senior adviser for digital media"? This is a position that exists? Presumably a well paid one? Good to see all that tax money is being well spent...

 

[weirdee]

"Some people do play games in the White House," said DeLoura. "I'm trying to find those people and collect them, Pokémon-style."

so, does that mean he's been going around the halls, throwing pokeballs at people?

come to think of it, that's actually an improvement compared to the past decade or so

 

[Sean951]

Well that and they actually amended the constitution after FDR died so that the president couldn't serve for more than two terms. Because apparently, actually accomplishing anything

is the most dangerous threat to our freedom ever proposed.Thomas E. Dewey, R-Governor of New York

...

Yes, because 3 terms of Reagan or 6 terms of Clinton is certainly something I'd have wanted to see. Not to mention that all accepted models of the GD show FDR's policies as either having no effect or causing more problems, and any growth seen during the WWII period was strictly a result of forcing unused resources, mainly women, into the job pool since many of the most productive young males were pressed into military service. This doesn't even get into the pressing of the courts on his part or the fact that three of the most appalling in structure supreme court decisions come from his presidency because of his threats.

Except you're wrong. Conservatives bring up studies that show that because it fits their narrative, and liberals bring up studies that show how much they helped because it fits their narrative. The important result of FDR, economically speaking, was what Krugman calls "The Great Compression" where income inequality in America dropped drastically as unions gained power and wages stayed relatively similar after the wage controls of WWII were lifted. Then there is the idea of a social safety net, his ability to shift the US in to war mode before we entered the war, and the public works projects, which put people to work and increased money circulation, which is what is needed when banks become fearful and don't want to lend money.

OT: I wanna see a Civ game played by White House staffers now!

 

[DiamanteGeeza]

Is he saying the ESRB rating system isn't adequate? What's so difficult about seeing a big "M" on a box and reading that it has "gratuitous medical gore" and "exposed rectums"!?

My thoughts precisely.

And, don't forget, the rating system is entirely voluntary on our part - we choose to agree, as an industry, to rate our games (we never get any credit for that in the press). Also, ESRB has no legal standing, so a game store can sell an M-rated game to a kid with impunity. Having said that, all game retailers (as far as I know) have signed an agreement to not do that, but there's not much they can do if the kid is standing next to (clearly-non-gamer) mom or dad when they buy a copy of GTA or CoD and then immediately hand it to 12 year old Timmy.

If anybody in authority really wanted to do something to stop underage kids playing M rated games, they would push for the ratings system to be both compulsory and legally enforceable with hefty fines, or whatever. That won't happen though, because if anyone tried, they'd have the gaming equivalent of the NRA on their asses to prevent it from ever becoming law because, as we all know, a large percentage of the online gaming community are.......

.... under 17. EA, Rockstar, Activision and the like would see a sharp dip in M-rated profits if this ever happened, and I don't think they'd like that very much...

 

[aelreth]

Just what we need more government meddling.

Except you're wrong. Conservatives bring up studies that show that because it fits their narrative, and liberals bring up studies that show how much they helped because it fits their narrative. The important result of FDR, economically speaking, was what Krugman calls "The Great Compression" where income inequality in America dropped drastically as unions gained power and wages stayed relatively similar after the wage controls of WWII were lifted. Then there is the idea of a social safety net, his ability to shift the US in to war mode before we entered the war, and the public works projects, which put people to work and increased money circulation, which is what is needed when banks become fearful and don't want to lend money.

Which he did by demolishing the private sector, devaluing the dollar by 75% and shackling the US to a debt that the taxpayer is still paying. He only doubled down on Hoover's central planning.

This war mobilization was only achieved after he turned to the private sector for help. The very same people he and his allies demonized ever since he took office.

 

[Sean951]

Devaluing currency is how you deal with debt crises. It allows exports to become competitive and the deficit spending gets the economy to spend money again as they suddenly HAVE money to spend. Yes, he continued on with Hoovers infrastructure, but Hoover was also a fan of letting the infamous "invisible hand" fix everything by maintaining the impoverished status quo that was America until WWII.

Roosevelt didn't dislike the private sector, he disliked robber barrons and bankers who engaged in irresponsible business practices that necessitated government intervention and the creation of the FDIC. But even during the war, the government controlled pretty much all wages and the prices of many goods, which is what created the boom of the later decades. But we are quite off topic at this point.

 

[aelreth]

Devaluing currency is how you deal with debt crises. It allows exports to become competitive and the deficit spending gets the economy to spend money again as they suddenly HAVE money to spend. Yes, he continued on with Hoovers infrastructure, but Hoover was also a fan of letting the infamous "invisible hand" fix everything by maintaining the impoverished status quo that was America until WWII.

Roosevelt didn't dislike the private sector, he disliked robber barrons and bankers who engaged in irresponsible business practices that necessitated government intervention and the creation of the FDIC. But even during the war, the government controlled pretty much all wages and the prices of many goods, which is what created the boom of the later decades. But we are quite off topic at this point.

Then FDR's plan would have worked in 1933 because that was the plan and it failed. Just like Japan did in the 1920s. Japan still hasn't bounced back after the slump in the 1980s.

Hoover was not a fan of the invisible hand, in the Coolidge and Harding administration he was the one calling for action. He went against the advice of Mellon and decided to intervene after the crash. He called in the captains of industry and demanded they raise wages to boost spending. They complied, the expected result failed to materialize and to keep the doors open businesses had to cut jobs. Then he looked to exports and noticed that food prices were low. He created the Federal Farm Board so he could artificially raise prices by offering incentives to farmers to produce less and thus diminish supply. Instead Argentina and Canada became the #1 exporter of grain. While the American public had to eat overpriced food. Then he moved onto bigger things and moved to tariffs and did to the rest of the economy what he just did to agriculture.

 

[Sean951]

Hoover was also afraid of going too far. It's also worth noting that FDRs plans did work. In the 30s. It was 1937, when the government began to scale back spending and raised taxes prematurely that the second wave hit. Either way, I'm done with arguing the validity of economic policy in a thread about the white house and video games.

 

[Billy D Williams]

DeLoura also addressed the issue of censorship in regards to the gaming industry. DeLoura feels the first line of defense for young players and their parents is a uniform game ratings system. DeLoura believes there is a lot of confusion when discerning whether a game's content is appropriate for children, especially when advertisements target young players.
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Man, if only there were such a rating system. I think EVERYONE can agree that there can agree that there are some games that are meant for ADULTS ONLY. We really need a rating system that classifies how MATURE a game's content is, we don't need games like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty played by people who are in their EARLY CHILDHOOD. Some games are even to much for the average TEEN! Well, it is so obvious that we need such a universal rating system for video games that it could be seen by EVERYONE 10 AND UP! To bad we don't live in such a world...

All joking aside, I'm glad there is at least some kind of person trying to give clueless politicians an idea of what the Hell they are talking about when they ***** about video games, so keep it up and good luck, sir.