ECA urges gamers to go green

The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) today announced an initiative motivate gamers to contact their government representatives to support a pair of bills that would make gaming greener. The two bills are “S.1397″ (Electronic Device Recycling Research and Development Act), which would research ways to deal with the proper disposal of electronic devices; and “S.1696,” (the Green Gaming Act of 2009), which would require the Secretary of Energy to conduct a study of videogame consoles’ energy efficiency.

To read the full letter and to learn more about this initiative, go to the ECA’s action center at action.theeca.com.

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.

GameStop’s Possible Sleight of Hand

Is the country’s largest retailer of video games playing a sleight of hand game with used and new games and possibly violating laws in multiple states? This story on Kotaku sheds some light on some questionable policies that throw fuel on the fire about used game sales and their detriment to the games industry as a whole.

The report points to GameStop’s “check-out” policy, which basically allows employees to “take home” new products. The problem is that these products get opened and are considered used by most standards. So what does GameStop do with those products? According to the report they resell them anyways as new products under what multiple anonymous GameStop employees have called unplayed display copies. Unplayed displayed copies are disc taken out of the packaging so they can be displayed safely without the fear of the product being stolen off the shelf. If you have ever been to a video game store, you already know that this is a common practice.

So the problem is that you have all these used games that are not marked down for a discount but are sold as brand new or display units.

GameStop didn’t have a lot to say about this policy:

“We do not comment on corporate policies that are competitive in nature,” said Chris Olivera, vice president of corporate communications, in a statement to Kotaku. “As your questions relate to company training, operations and discounting practices, I would not be able to provide feedback.”

The point of all this? If GameStop is allowing this practice to happen at all of its stores nationwide, they may be engaging in large scale deceptive advertising or marketing. That is a matter for the Federal Trade Commission to decide.

We’ll keep an eye on this story as it develops.

ESRB President Issues Open Letter to Utah

ESRB president Patricia Vance has written an open letter to Utah Lawmakers and parents in a last ditch effort to appeal to some common sense - as she sees it. The letter is response to a law that was drafted with the help of Jack Thompson, who has shifted seamlessly from game hating ambulance chaser to full fledged anti-gaming campaigner.

This probably marks the first time in many years that Thompson has successfully helped produce something that could affect consumers and game makers. The legislation fines retailers and movie theaters that knowingly provide M or R rated products to minors. Yes, we know that the language of the law is vague.. ESRB President Patricia Vance’s letter after can be found after the break:

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