ECA, ESA chide California leaders over game law appeal

Both the Entertainment Software Association (representing the game industry) and the Entertainment Consumers Association (representing the public interest of gamers) have issued statements on the state of California’s attempt to appeal a decision by the state’s courts that a Leland Yee sponsored bill was unconstitutional. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which in February struck down a state law preventing the sale and rental Arnold Schwarzenegger of ultra-violent video games to children. Today Attorney General Jerry Brown (D-Oakland) and Governor (R-Los Angeles) are attempting to compel the courts to appeal that ruling.

ESA president and CEO Michael D. Gallagher, and Hal Halpin, president of the ECA, were quick to issue statements chiding California’s top politicians for wasting taxpayers’ money and pushing for a bill the is unconstitutional.

“California’s citizens should see this for what it is—a complete waste of the state’s time and resources, said ESA president Gallagher. “California is facing a $21 billion budget shortfall coupled with high unemployment and home foreclosure rates. Rather than focus on these very real problems, Governor Schwarzenegger has recklessly decided to pursue wasteful, misguided and pointless litigation.”

“We are confident that this appeal will meet the same fate as the State’s previous failed efforts to regulate what courts around the country have uniformly held to be expression that is fully protected by the First Amendment,” he continued. “California’s taxpayers would be better served by empowering parents and supporting the ESRB rating system.”

“I was disheartened to hear that Governor Schwarzenegger is petitioning the Supreme Court over labeling and sales of video games, especially given the fact that nine similar pieces of legislation have been overturned on First Amendment grounds, costing the respective cities and states much-needed taxpayer funds,” said ECA president Hal Halpin, in a prepared statement. “Coupled with California’s $21B economic crisis and the fact that the Governor is about to lay off teachers en masse, it’s shocking to the conscience. This was a frivolous political football back when the state had money to burn. Now it’s out-and-out irresponsibly politicized.”

My gut tells me that it is highly unlikely that the appeals court of California will overturn the lower court’s ruling and that the Governor, Attorney General and the state’s representatives will have to start from scratch. We’ll continue to follow this story as it develops.

Triangle Game Conference Names Speaker Lineup

If you’re in the game industry or looking to break in and you live somewhere within driving distance of Raleigh, NC, you might want to start making plans to attend the Triangle Game Conference (TGC), set to debut April 29th and 30th at the Raleigh Convention Center and Marriott City Center. The TGC is currently being pushed as “the East Coast forum for networking, career building and sharing gaming industry expertise”.

To that end, the TGC has just announced its lineup of tracks and speakers for its inaugural conference. The conference will cover a range of topics, including subjects like game technology, design and production, games and media, and the business aspects of the game industry. Speakers on tap for the TGC include Entertainment Consumer Association president, Hal Halpin; Epic Games senior Artist, Chris Wells; Insomniac Games Art Director, Chad Dezern; and Destineer Studios creative director (and Red Storm co-founder) Juan Benito.

In addition to scheduled lectures and panels, the Triangle Game Conference will also feature an “Expo, Career Lounge and Game Development University”, a student-oriented exhibition to help aspiring game developers tap into educational resources and make connections with industry leaders.

It sounds like the TGC is shaping up to be something definitely worth checking out for anyone in the area looking to break into the game industry. If you’re looking for more information and want to attend the TGC, head on over to http://www.trianglegameconference.com/ to find out more and to register for the event.

The Top 21 News Stories of 2008

(Contributors:  Victor Lucas - Electric Playground, Adam Oldakowski - Managing Director GOG.com, Hal Halpin - ECA President, Tom Ohle - CD Projekt RED, Rich Carlson - Digital Eel, Eric Holmes - Radical Entertainment, and Game Trust members Evan Narcisse, Gus Mastrapa, David Chapman and James Fudge)

On the eve of 2009, Crispy Gamer is proud to present to you the Top 21 News Stories of 2008. We have chosen what we believe are the top news stories of year, though deciding on which were the very best proved to be an exercise in compromise, because there were so many interesting and powerful choices this year.

We watched the interactive entertainment industry grow - and then later - retract as the global economy wreaked havoc on every kind of business you can imagine; players got their first taste of WiiWare, Home and the New Xbox Experience; we watched as the big three slugged it out for North American supremacy in the latest round of console wars and we saw Blizzard dust off its classic franchises and move million of copies of its Lich King expansion. To quote that Dickens’ classic: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

2008 was not without its fair share of triumphs, disappointments, joys and sorrow. Here are the stories that moved us, made us angry, scared us and made us think about the industry we cover.

We begin at the very bottom of the pile until we climb to the glorious #1 news story of the year. So it opens with Top News Story #21.

My Dinner With Halpin

A fireside chat with Entertainment Consumer Association president Hal Halpin.

In July 2006, Hal Halpin founded the Entertainment Consumer Association, an advocacy group to champion consumer rights and issues. Since that time, the organization has done its part to give gamers a voice on a variety of issues and has gone out of its way to highlight — and with the help of its members — defeat unconstitutional state and federal anti-consumer legislation all over the United States.

But the waters have become a whole lot murkier since 2006; study after study attempts to pin the ill behavior of a small segment of society on video games, the video game industry’s trade associations have lost their way and a brave new world of uncertainty awaits publishers and developers in Washington. Halpin has his work cut out for him.

With these challenges in mind, we talk to the ECA president about what the road ahead looks like. Our conversation after the break.

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