The Political Game: Stand up and be counted
Each week Dennis McCauley contributes The Political Game, a column on the collision of politics and video games:
The video game industry finally stood up for itself this week when Electronic Arts called Fox News out over the network's lies about Mass Effect.
It's about time.
The theme of this column, in fact, was going to be a rant about game companies laying low and relying upon gamers to defend the industry against such controversies. By stepping up, EA ruined that column idea for me, but I'm glad they did.
It was great to see VP Jeff Brown pull no punches in protesting Fox News' Mass Effect hatchet job. Brown got it exactly right, pointing out that Live Desk anchor Martha MacCallum and guest Cooper Lawrence were dead wrong in their characterization of the game as, essentially, interactive porn. Brown also took Fox News to task for institutional hypocrisy. As the EA exec pointed out, Fox lambasted the critically-acclaimed Mass Effect over a single, tastefully done love scene, while nightly serving up far more suggestive fare on prime-time shows like Family Guy and The O.C..
The Mass Effect porn smear campaign has been going on for more than two weeks, in fact. As I wrote on January 11th at GamePolitics, it began with an outrageous report from the Cybercast News Service, a conservative outfit founded by Brent Bozell, the same guy who started media watchdog group the Parents Television Council. Within days the theme was picked up by conservative author and radio host Kevin McCullough. By Monday, Fox apparently decided the story was sufficiently lurid for its national TV audience.
Until Jeff Brown's letter to Fox on Wednesday, gamers and bloggers stood alone on the frontline of the Mass Effect battle. And that has been too frequently the case as far as the video game industry is concerned. Publishers and their lobby, the ESA, generally remain tight-lipped, apparently hoping criticism will simply fade away.
Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. But that's not the point. Look, when someone trashes a game like Mass Effect, it stains not only the game but its fans, as well. As gamers, we've grown weary of the stereotypes placed upon us by non-gaming society: nerdy, weird, obsessed, desensitized, perverted, violent.
During the first two weeks of the Mass Effect incident the industry sat on its hands while a few bloggers (yours truly included) ranted about the unfair coverage. Gamers, not game companies, posted comments and bombarded Kevin McCullough with e-mails and calls to his radio program. And guess what? McCullough relented. He apologized. In response to Monday's Fox report, gamers tracked down Cooper Lawrence's book on Amazon and tagged it with one-star reviews. Hey, I can't condone that kind of behavior, but I understand the frustration that led to it. Because Lawrence slammed Mass Effect without having played it, some gamers apparently felt empowered to ding her book without having read it. The e-mails, the radio show call-ins and the bad book reviews represent a new kind of guerilla activism that says gamers don't intend to be societal punching bags any longer.
But the industry needs to show that respect as well. When culture cops launch their outrageous attacks on video games – and, by extension, on gamers – the suits need to stand up and be counted. It looks like EA's new boss John Riccitiello plans to do just that.
It's about time.
Dennis McCauley is the Political Editor for the Entertainment Consumers Association (www.theeca.com), tracks the political side of video games at GamePolitics.com and writes about games for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Opinions expressed in The Political Game are his own. Reach him at
It's about time.
The theme of this column, in fact, was going to be a rant about game companies laying low and relying upon gamers to defend the industry against such controversies. By stepping up, EA ruined that column idea for me, but I'm glad they did.
It was great to see VP Jeff Brown pull no punches in protesting Fox News' Mass Effect hatchet job. Brown got it exactly right, pointing out that Live Desk anchor Martha MacCallum and guest Cooper Lawrence were dead wrong in their characterization of the game as, essentially, interactive porn. Brown also took Fox News to task for institutional hypocrisy. As the EA exec pointed out, Fox lambasted the critically-acclaimed Mass Effect over a single, tastefully done love scene, while nightly serving up far more suggestive fare on prime-time shows like Family Guy and The O.C..
The Mass Effect porn smear campaign has been going on for more than two weeks, in fact. As I wrote on January 11th at GamePolitics, it began with an outrageous report from the Cybercast News Service, a conservative outfit founded by Brent Bozell, the same guy who started media watchdog group the Parents Television Council. Within days the theme was picked up by conservative author and radio host Kevin McCullough. By Monday, Fox apparently decided the story was sufficiently lurid for its national TV audience.
Until Jeff Brown's letter to Fox on Wednesday, gamers and bloggers stood alone on the frontline of the Mass Effect battle. And that has been too frequently the case as far as the video game industry is concerned. Publishers and their lobby, the ESA, generally remain tight-lipped, apparently hoping criticism will simply fade away.
Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. But that's not the point. Look, when someone trashes a game like Mass Effect, it stains not only the game but its fans, as well. As gamers, we've grown weary of the stereotypes placed upon us by non-gaming society: nerdy, weird, obsessed, desensitized, perverted, violent.
During the first two weeks of the Mass Effect incident the industry sat on its hands while a few bloggers (yours truly included) ranted about the unfair coverage. Gamers, not game companies, posted comments and bombarded Kevin McCullough with e-mails and calls to his radio program. And guess what? McCullough relented. He apologized. In response to Monday's Fox report, gamers tracked down Cooper Lawrence's book on Amazon and tagged it with one-star reviews. Hey, I can't condone that kind of behavior, but I understand the frustration that led to it. Because Lawrence slammed Mass Effect without having played it, some gamers apparently felt empowered to ding her book without having read it. The e-mails, the radio show call-ins and the bad book reviews represent a new kind of guerilla activism that says gamers don't intend to be societal punching bags any longer.
But the industry needs to show that respect as well. When culture cops launch their outrageous attacks on video games – and, by extension, on gamers – the suits need to stand up and be counted. It looks like EA's new boss John Riccitiello plans to do just that.
It's about time.
Dennis McCauley is the Political Editor for the Entertainment Consumers Association (www.theeca.com), tracks the political side of video games at GamePolitics.com and writes about games for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Opinions expressed in The Political Game are his own. Reach him at
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Knight Marquise @ Jan 25th 2008 12:12PM
I never thought I'd hear myself saying this, however;
"Good job, EA"
Todd @ Jan 25th 2008 1:17PM
QFT
GoldenS1104 @ Jan 25th 2008 11:54PM
@ Todd
Your last two comments have been simply "QFT"... spam much? If you're gunna post, have something to actually add to the conversation. Not to mention, you technically didn't even quote him, you replied to him, so QFT doesn't even make sense.
Anyway, to get on topic, I'd like to say FOX News sickens me. Although, as is clear from the article, the media in general is terrible. They are for the most part biased, and they dole out any info that makes a story interesting (even if it's not true). They also like to bend things to make things seem worse than they are. The majority of the major media reports on gaming have to do with violence or sex (i.e. GTA:SA, Manhunt 2, Mass Effect, etc.), which probably gives the non-gaming public the impression that that's all gaming is. A lot of the gamer stereotypes, IMO, are not that common. There are a few that stand out, like nerdy and obsessed, which tend to be more common, but all of the gamers I know personally, and most of the ones on forums and whatnot, are not violent, perverted, or desensitized. The exception being some of the people you meet on Xbox Live (don't even get me started on those tools).
StarFoxA @ Jan 25th 2008 12:12PM
FIGHT THE POWER
sifer2400 @ Jan 25th 2008 12:59PM
YEA FUK COOPER LAWERNECE and her shitty no talent book
jmtb02 @ Jan 25th 2008 12:13PM
I like how Fox News can say anything they want as long as there is a question mark at the end. "Se"xbox? Are video games really the work of the devil? Makes their point without legally making it.
FidliousWong @ Jan 25th 2008 12:29PM
Actually, they can say whatever they want legally. You forget, Fox News officially won the right in a Florida court to lie by essentially saying the News is protected under Freedom of Speech.
GoldenS1104 @ Jan 25th 2008 11:56PM
@ FidliousWong
Wouldn't that be Freedom of the Press?
t_m @ Jan 26th 2008 6:45AM
Freedom of the press != right to lie
Klink258 @ Jan 26th 2008 10:33AM
@ FidliousWong :
But this isn't lying now, it's slander.
So EA could (read: should) sue
Savok @ Jan 25th 2008 12:21PM
Well this is what happens when you piss off something as large as EA. I honestly don't think they've quite grasped the scale of the industry yet.
Dustin @ Jan 25th 2008 12:40PM
That's what I was thinking... Does the news not realize how big we are? I mean, seriously... are they just ignoring us until they want to slander us further?
"gamers don't intend to be societal punching bags any longer."
That struck home, Dennis. Great article! There's just no reason gamers have to continue taking all of these hits and not do anything about it.
J @ Jan 25th 2008 12:21PM
Rupert Murdoch sucks Satan's cock.
BigD145 @ Jan 25th 2008 12:26PM
I can hear Bill Hicks' rendition now.
Korova @ Jan 25th 2008 12:27PM
Satan must have absolutely no taste.
baby sea tuna @ Jan 25th 2008 12:36PM
"I can hear Bill Hicks' rendition now."
Suckin Satan's pecker...come on, nuzzle on up!
David @ Jan 25th 2008 12:22PM
Let's not forget the developers, who spent months of their own time to create such a wonderfu piece of fiction. The media is insulting them too, by saying a game that they've toiled on is nothing more than a porn simulator.
The Artist formally known as Jesus @ Jan 25th 2008 12:34PM
I like your avatar
a lot
David @ Jan 25th 2008 12:44PM
Thank you!
James @ Jan 25th 2008 12:51PM
me too.
xFenixKnightx @ Jan 25th 2008 12:22PM
Way to go Jeff Brown. Hmm...EA has earned itself a little more respect in my book =)
John Caboose @ Jan 25th 2008 2:22PM
Try Fifa Street 3 (It's on XBL) it'll make that respect go away.
Nate @ Jan 25th 2008 12:22PM
It's about time the gaming industry stopped letting the rest of the country push it around. It's a multi-billion dollar business, start acting like it!
Leobebes @ Jan 25th 2008 12:23PM
I think it is also important the we police ourselves and if we have a jackass among our ranks who threatens violence, or says demeaning things about those who criticize us we need to weed them out. If you want respect you must be cordially civil in your retort or else we risk being exactly what the pundits or critics say we are.
J @ Jan 25th 2008 12:34PM
sorry... "penis". Rupert Murdoch sucks Satan's penis.
Shagittarius @ Jan 25th 2008 1:13PM
Or we can browbeat them into complacency. The internet seems best for browbeating, let the sucking commence.
Robotochan @ Jan 25th 2008 12:24PM
Lets give Sensationalist news items a big ol' "Woo!"
Fox News is one of the world news channels I've ever watched. So incredibly biased and sensationalist that it has lost it's credability for me anyway. Long live the BBC!
Robotochan @ Jan 25th 2008 12:27PM
How did I say "World" and not "Worst" is beyond me.. I guess both are true but I prefer the latter...
NeverSage @ Jan 25th 2008 12:25PM
I want more. I want Ubi in on this too. I want law suits! I want to FORCE the truth out there.
xFenixKnightx @ Jan 25th 2008 12:26PM
Also, on that pic...for a minute there I thought that
was Geoff Keighley from the Bonus Round lol!
Slaziman @ Jan 25th 2008 12:30PM
That IS Geoff Keighley lol!
xFenixKnightx @ Jan 25th 2008 12:33PM
Ohhhhhhhh, ok then that would make sense, oops.
LMAO!!
Co @ Jan 25th 2008 2:58PM
God Fenix,
This is a perfect cherry on top of the crap cake you've been spitting at me all morning on the Wii 8 to 1 tie in ratio article. You are the ultimate fail.
xFenixKnightx @ Jan 25th 2008 4:10PM
Co...
You little turd you just wont flush away will you? lol!
Are you that hurt or something, get over it already you little Wiitard. Sheesh!
Co @ Jan 25th 2008 8:26PM
Lol you're a joke kid.
DangerMouse @ Jan 25th 2008 12:27PM
Sex sells. Both parties are using it here, so i don't see what's so bad. Yeah, it's a smear, but let's say it does have "porn" in the game...it's still bearing the "M" rating on it, thus making it fall into the category of the 17 years or older. Tack another year on there, and the consumer can legally buy the most hardcore porn available anyway. What 18+ year old game player is going to boycott the game for themselves because they're disgusted by Mass Effect? Probably a person who wouldn't play Mass Effect in the first place.
Basically it boils down to parents who buy "M" rated games for their children, and their ignorance about the daily life of their own kids. They shouldn't be playing it anyway, so if this news cast keeps the game out of children's hands, then so be it. It won't keep an adult away, who it's made for. If anything, it'll sell more.
FidliousWong @ Jan 25th 2008 12:36PM
Well here's the danger in that. If a game is rated AO, a difference of only a year, suddenly the console manufacturers will not allow it AND stores will not carry it. Were you aware that the Director's Cut version of Indigo Prophecy was ONLY available throgh Dell's website?
What the industry needs to use, essentially to counter this stigma AO has (kinda hard to sell a game like Indigo Prophecy when it would share a rating with Water Closet) is to make an NC-17 equivelant rating. Like more mature than Mature rating (because apparently the M logo fucking baffles parents when shopping for lil billy) but still safely outside the zone of Virtual Jenna Jameson and Red Light District.
umm....hello??? @ Jan 25th 2008 2:38PM
The AO/NC-17 ratings are practically pointless. On paper they mean EXACTLY the same as Rated M/R (ages 17+).
The difference lies in the connotation that AO/NC-17 contain MOSTLY M/R content (generally explicit nudity/sexual themes) rather than just a FEW scenes with aforementioned content. But technically anyone under the age of 17 would not be allowed to watch/play the movie/game, REGARDLESS of M/AO or R/NC-17 ratings. Before NC-17, it was XXX and XXX was 21+ years of age.
Zoot Suit Jedi @ Jan 25th 2008 12:30PM
The Fox network is to idiots what Lifetime is for women. The people who believe any of the trash that spews forth from thier ever decaying mouth are narrow minded bigots whose opinions will not be swayed by thing like "facts" or "evidence." Unbiased news on televison is like the fabled Griffin - non existent. Like anything in politics or media, videogame publishers need to start with the tug jobs before reports, like this one, air.
Jack @ Jan 25th 2008 12:30PM
Replied at GP but I figure I'd do it here too...
Great post on Joystiq. I actually feel like the community is starting to stand more and more together as the RIDICULOUS lies about our favorite pastime get worse and worse.
Korova @ Jan 25th 2008 12:31PM
I wouldnt exactly say he pulled no punches. He wrote a polite letter. That's nice, but he could have sued, he could have issued a press release etc.
Still, the move is working out really well for EA. You know, I wonder if the sex scene is in there to cause just enough controversy to keep the game in the spot light. Gamers buy controversial games more anyway (see GTA) and Fox News audience wouldnt touch an xbox with a ten foot crucifix, so call me cynical, but I think this is a very calculated and manufactured controversy to promote the game.
James @ Jan 25th 2008 12:57PM
So? Who wouldn't want to have hawt dirty full on uncensored sex with a fucking sexy blue alien?
It's called good marketing xD
Corbo @ Jan 25th 2008 1:02PM
Maybe he did pull a few punches but, more importantly, he carefully planned the ones he did hit with. He pointed out the errors, he pointed out the hypocrisy, he asked for an apology and he did all that in a calm and thoughtful manner.
Basically, he got his point across and managed to appear far more reasonable and intelligent than anyone involved in Fox News.
As for the manufactured controversy... it's possible but I doubt it. The sex was always a minor part of the game that caused a few giggles among gamers when first revealed but it took a while for any controversy to appear.
If it was manufactured, it was either extremely carefully planned by the PR guys or has gone out of control.
Korova @ Jan 25th 2008 1:45PM
I'm not knocking the smurf-love. I just have an allergy to manipulation.
However, since it looks like Mass Effect really does treat the subject of sex and love in a mature and positive way, I don't mind them benefiting from the controversy, especially because it looks like it is poised to weaken a major stereotype of video games being misogynist and desensitizing.
Cooper Lawrence disclosure: I havent actually played Mass Effect.
chuma @ Jan 25th 2008 8:28PM
He could have issued a press release, but the internet has done it for him. Infact I think he was shock by just how much press coverage it has gathered, mainly because we are all sick and tired of idiots, out of touch republicans and religious zealots using games as a means of air time (I don't actually think it is anything more than that).
Pizza Pasta @ Jan 25th 2008 12:39PM
Haha, Cooper Lawrence set her MySpace profie to private! Is anyone bombing her radio show?
Slaziman @ Jan 25th 2008 12:44PM
UGG, now I had to see the ugly and smug face of the Cooper bitch again.
Great post otherwise.
VASH THE STAMPEDE @ Jan 25th 2008 12:45PM
I don't know what they are talking about. Satan doesnt have enough time to ruin childrens minds with video games. He's too busy pushing stereotypes and developing ignorance within the Fox News Room. All Kidding aside I have completly lost all faith in cable news channels... there was time when they actualy reported news and checked there facts, but todays media focuses too much on celebrities and bashing things that they don't understand. I have seen too many news stories that report rumors or "stretched truths" as fact to make their points. I would seriouslry like to see them site their sources for this material. because all of the dialoge and "facts" in the fox news clip seems to be directly quoted and cited from the blog of Kevin McCullough. I also did not like how they scoffed and laughed that microsoft has parental controls and errouniously said that children can get around it. If parents are truly concerned and took the time to be parents and set the parental locks this would be a moot point. Plus as I work in the industry you tell me what retailer doesnt check id's on M rated games. We try to self regulate as much as possible so that the government doesnt get involved.
ugg.tryptophan @ Jan 25th 2008 10:22PM
thats why i watch BBc News, no bs about an optional scene of 30 second alien buttcrack
BANDIT @ Jan 25th 2008 12:51PM
Actually, and I know a million gamers will ping me for this but I think EA may have found its new "cashcow" If you cant milk gamers on rehashed titles go over deflamation of character and loss of profit suits over erroneous info like this. Yes its actually possible despite free speech.
Think about it, this was presented as information and fact which it clearly was not. EA can make a fortune off of stories like this!