"It's not about games, there's a perception issue. We can be a part of that solution, and we're ready to do that."
- Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello responds to an analyst questioning whether recent backlash against video game violence following last month's Sandy Hook massacre might have an effect on game sales.
Riccitiello's statement echoes the warning that Vice President Joe Biden gave video game researchers and representatives at a meeting earlier this month (that's Riccitiello sitting next to Biden at the meeting in the photo above). According to Biden, research will only go so far -- in order to stop being vilified for gun violence, the video game industry has to have public opinion on its side, and that requires cleaning up our image.
It looks like Biden's message got through to him.
For more on the game industry's perception problem, don't miss our extensive op-ed from game researcher and Grand Theft Childhood author Cheryl Olson.
Time for the big boys to start tackling the "indie problem." Indies will be the ones hurt by regulation. If any Moe, Larry or Curly cannot just "easily" make a product and release it without jumping through regulation barriers, that hurts indies.
We don't need regulation, we just need advocacy, education and awareness.
I'm old enough to recognize the "money game" and social behavior doesn't change "for the greater good". This aside from the problem that EA is 1 company among thousands and not the main "problem or problem solver". This is a "media wide" issue ~ not "video game tycoon" issue.
You think they're going to change Battlefield 3 into paintball and puppies? Or do anything more than add some "warning labels"?
I also am not saying this ~ you shouldn't believe in making a difference because 'we're all doomed", "life sux". This is not a declaration of personal goals, this is a declaration that the head of a corporation is going to publicly "do their part", just like cigarette companies "do their part".
This isn't change, this is "playing the game" ~ trust me.
If they wanted REAL change, Biden would go first and foremost after the networks, but the networks pay their paycheck. And who will blame them, they are indivisible? We as American people don't want a better society, we want a "tolerant" society, a "nice" society Taking a bottom up atheistic materialism belief system and disregarding actual compassion.
Because we're all too smart now...
I don't know if it will correct itself in such a fashion myself. As the industry ages the more the industry pushes the limits of questionable content injected. For myself, I understand the ESRB ratings and know better, but there are already many parents I know that played games growing up that don't realize the industry really do pump out this sort of content as games seeming they stopped playing themselves years ago.
By perception problem, do you mean the perception of games as valueless time wasters for fat nerds that live in their parents' basement? That's the real danger for the game industry. I couldn't care less about violence or sex.
@ Dave Smith - Riccitiello may be referring to the latter, but personally and considering how different people think, I have to say that the perception problem has to do with both factors. Having said that, I do agree with you that the first factor, which is the perception of games as valueless time wasters for fat nerds that live in their parents' basement, is the real danger in comparison to the other factor (the perception of violence and sex). The first factor is what tends to prevent a lot of people from even trying to play certain games, making them hostile toward games instead.
We don't need regulation, we just need advocacy, education and awareness.
You think they're going to change Battlefield 3 into paintball and puppies? Or do anything more than add some "warning labels"?
I also am not saying this ~ you shouldn't believe in making a difference because 'we're all doomed", "life sux". This is not a declaration of personal goals, this is a declaration that the head of a corporation is going to publicly "do their part", just like cigarette companies "do their part".
This isn't change, this is "playing the game" ~ trust me.
If they wanted REAL change, Biden would go first and foremost after the networks, but the networks pay their paycheck. And who will blame them, they are indivisible? We as American people don't want a better society, we want a "tolerant" society, a "nice" society Taking a bottom up atheistic materialism belief system and disregarding actual compassion.
Because we're all too smart now...