Let’s Get Political: Gaming Industry Forms Lobbying Group
Gaming revenues around the world are soaring to record levels, making the gaming industry a real economic force to be reckoned with… and a larger target for criticism. No stranger to attack from the conservative side of the fence, the gaming community is now in a position to take real action against its critics. The New York Times recently reported that the Entertainment Software Association, the trade association of the computer and video game industry, is gearing up to establish a political action committee” by March of this year and plans to donate $50,000 to $100,000 to pro-games industry politicians. ESA president Mike Gallagher told the paper that they are mobilizing the more than 100,000 gamers who have joined the association’s Video Game Voters Network. “If I can walk into the office of a member of Congress and tell them we have 20,000 voters in their state who are already signed up to write letters and act based on game-related issues that concern them, that’s powerful,” he said. This news was particularly disturbing to The Parents Television Council, who issued a statement last week denouncing the ESA’s plans as an attempt to “buy political influence.”