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Sunday Comics: Dead Island As the US Supreme Court battle for free speech in video games closes in, conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh is adding his support for video games as art.
What’s the most cruel, unfair, downright evil thing you’ve done in a game? Bitmob polled some industry types with the question. Hal Halpin was a real jerk in Mario Kart 64; Todd Howard created a suicide squad in X-Com.
If President Obama’s rhetorical flogging of video games has you in high dudgeon, the ECA’s built a form letter enabing you to point out to the White House how “video games can empower and educate.”
In a wide-ranging interview with Crispy Gamer, Hal Halpin, the president of the Entertainment Consumers Association, calls Senator and gamers’ preferred punching bag Joe Lieberman “largely misunderstood and painted with a very broad brush.”
The Entertainment Consumer Association today celebrates 24 months of consumer advocacy on behalf of gamers nationwide. The ECA was actually formed back in July of 2006 by industry veteran and former president of the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association Hal Halpin, but I guess they were just dicking around for those first couple of months. Over the past two years the ECA has been sticking their noses everywhere on our behalf, from fair use to violent game studies, piracy to government video game legislation, with varying degrees of effectiveness. It’s kind of nice to have them there.
Along with a lengthy list of everything they’ve accomplished over the past couple of years, the ECA used some of their press release space to announce the eventual availability of membership cards online via Walmart.com and Amazon.com,along with a partnership with MMO service provider K2 Network to help raise awareness of their various services, and indeed their very existence. Hit the jump to see what the ECA has done for you while you weren’t looking.
In a move I would like to think was spurred on by my startling revelation about the giant ice spider threat yesterday, the Entertainment Consumers Association has announced that they ware opening up memberships to Canadian members. The consumer advocacy organisation, which already provides numerous opportunities and benefits to its U.S. members, will soon unveil plans targeted specifically towards consumers based north of the American arctic arachnid defence grid. “With a thriving gaming community already present and growing in Canada, we are proud to extend the opportunities and benefits that our U.S. ECA members have been enjoying over the years,” said Hal Halpin, president of the ECA. “Canada is an important area of growth for us and we are excited to welcome Canadian gamers who are interested in community and any issues that affect gamers.”
Interested Canadians can head over to the official ECA website to sign up for membership. Good luck and god speed, brave neighbours to the north.
The Entertainment Consumers Association, an advocacy group representing gamers, has joined up with nonprofit Connected Nation in support of universal broadband. The effort benefits gamers, says the ECA, because high-speed internet access for everyone supports access to online games and the growth of that industry.
Jennifer Mercurio, the ECA’s government affairs director, said that it created the Gamers for Universal Broadband initiative in response to “member outcry” over internet access limitations interfering with games.
Through the joint initiative, the ECA joins Connected Nation’s advisory committee. Full details follow the jump.
