With the 2008 election finally over we have gamers wondering about what the new president will mean for their industry. He could be a turning point for video games, the end of video games or he could mean absolutely nothing.
Obama has expressed interest in the video game industry. He has said that today’s youth spends too much time in front of the television and with controllers in their hands. He states that this correlates to the underachievement of children today. He also wants the video game industry to give out a more specific rating system for parents to judge what games their children should play. He does not want to actually censor video games as that would be against the First Amendment.
"I would call upon the video game industry to give parents better information about programs and video games by improving the voluntary rating system we currently have. Broadcasters and video game producers should take it upon themselves to improve this system to include easier to find and easier to understand descriptions of exactly what kind of content is included. But if the industry fails to act, then my administration would.... And even if the industry does do some responsible self-policing, there's still a role for the federal government to play. We need to understand the impact of these new media better." –Barack Obama
Although the last video game Obama played was Pong nearly thirty years ago he still sees the bright side in modern video gaming. He placed advertisements for his campaign in 18 different video games, including Madden 09 and NBA Live 08.
In Xbox Live’s Rock the Vote poll, Obama took a win over McCain with a 43% to 31% difference. Over 100,000 people put in input which is more than the Gallup, NBC and CNN polls combined. It is also nearly a pure representation of the youth vote because most gamers are between the ages of 18 to 35. Obama also received large donations from several video game industry leaders. He received money from Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick, EA’s CEO John Riccitiello, and Sam Houser, the producer of Grand Theft Auto. This shows that these big names have confidence in Obama to positively influence their industry.
In Xbox Live’s Rock the Vote poll, Obama took a win over McCain with a 43% to 31% difference. Over 100,000 people put in input which is more than the Gallup, NBC and CNN polls combined. It is also nearly a pure representation of the youth vote because most gamers are between the ages of 18 to 35. Obama also received large donations from several video game industry leaders. He received money from Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick, EA’s CEO John Riccitiello, and Sam Houser, the producer of Grand Theft Auto. This shows that these big names have confidence in Obama to positively influence their industry.
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