Youth Votes, Console Sales, Demographics, Hillary's Probe, and Comics.

[aden_nak]

Democrats are worried that the number of young voters has been steadily declining since it was first cataloged in 1972.

http://www.civicyouth.org/Map.htm

Sicne January of 2003, there have been roughly 27 million video game consoles sold in the United States.

http://forum.pcvsconsole.com/viewthread.php?tid=11067

The average age of a video game player is now 29 years old.

http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.asp?article_id=8540&filter=myturn

Hillary Clinton recently called for a massive probe into video game content.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-07-14-clinton-game_x.htm?csp=15

The issue has received a fair amount of attention from the gaming community.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php?date=2005-07-20&res=l

And the political participants have been looked upon quite unfavorably.

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=158

Discuss.

[meegbear]

1. So all the gamers are gonna become * worshipping repugs?

[bspence]

4. If that's their issue, then I'd guess so

I first became aware of how politics could effect my day-to-day life when people got angry about video games. I also noted the history of how comics were burned, investigated in the senate, and almost effectively censored out of existence. The censorship of comics is the reason why comics are associated with superheros, funny animals, and bad writing. Because we had to "make them safe for the children."

I will fight tooth and nail to keep video games from enduring the same fate, even if it means endorsing a repug.

[aden_nak]

5. Nope, but they will lose interest in politics if both voices condem them.

[bspence]

2. I hate Hillary

and you don't have to be a Republican to join me.

I've been saying it ever since she got on this bandwagon, she's hurting our party. She needs to just go away. All she's doing is jumping on a perceived hot button topic, but it's killing us with kids.

It used to be Republicans that were for censorship, but now it sounds more like Democrats are leading that charge.

Thanks for the links. MUCH appreciated.

[aden_nak]

9. Well, there have been a few notable Democrats who were pro-censorship.

Joe Lieberman comes immediately to mind, and just look how far THAT took him in the Presidential races! Tipper Gore, while not a politician herself, was very much involved in music censorship. Lesser known to those outside of the California area is Assemblyman Leeland Yee (Google him sometime).

[bspence]

14. I agree, there have been Dems that are pro-censorship

But for the most part, they like to get along with Hollywood. That, in my mind, put them on the anti-censorship side of things. Most tallies of Dems put them on the side of anti-censorship, AFAIK.

[aden_nak]

18. A number of network lobbiest have helped sponsor gaming censorship.

The prevailing opinion amongst many television executives is that gaming has stolen away their most desirable market (18-25 year old males). Look into it.

[skids]

3. Lies, damn lies, and statistics.

The truth is the youth do vote. The way the age groupings in the exit polls are arranged, and the way the ripples from the baby boom have affected population, it makes the number of "youth" votes look much smaller than it actually is.

Hillary not only trampled on the prospect of increasing Dem youth turnout, she also flew, at her own peril, in the face of a significant number of active voters (like me, a 33 year old owner of GTA3 SA.)

[aden_nak]

7. I just don't know who she thought she was pandering to.

The only people that would really get behind this kind of piddlepiss legislation aren't going to be voting Democratic in 2008. I'm not saying she should have come out in defense of Rockstar, because it was just sloppy work on their part leaving Hot Coffee in. But she could have used that valuable floor time talking about something useful.

Iraq. Darfur. Plame. Oil Dependency.

You know, something that matters.

[bspence]

6. What about comics??

You mention comics in your subject. I'm thinking we're on the same wavelength with the Dr. Wertham/EC Comics thing.

[aden_nak]

8. I was referring to Penny Arcade and VGCats commenting on the situation.

Though now that you point it out, it does bear a striking resemblence to what they did to the comic book industry way back in the day. In fact, that industry is just now starting to recover. Of course, it didn't have the kind of marketing muscle or comunity organization that fuels the gaming industry today, but it's certainly a worthwhile parallel.

[bspence]

11. right-o. Thanx

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. HM so Marvel puts out crap (read between the lines

with the X-Men and the messages on racism and intolerance)... have any of you ever been to a COMIC Con Convention? Most importantly has any of you read I don't know any new series from Independent Comic Producers (Red Star is highly recommended, so is 100 bullets). If you do, you will soon realize that comics are not what you remember.

That said is any of you vote for a repub over this, you deserve eternal war, bad economy, and the censorship that is sure to come.

There was an agreement between the game producers (Castle Falkestein was the reason for it) and the Feds to basically self regulate. If labels bother you folks, and you confuse that with censorship, go ahead vote for a repug, and enjoy your trip to Iraq, and the continued race to the bottom

[aden_nak]

12. For one thing, I would never vote for a Republican in 2008.

I'm not talking about some personal vendetta here. I'm trying to have a serious discussion about how the Democratic party just might be alienating a large voting block by making itself, well. . . indistniguishible from the Republican party. I'm all in favor of the ESRB, I don't think 4 year olds should be playing GTA, and I don't mind that kind of regulation. What I do mind are bills being proposed that suggest any title with a rating of M (the movie equivelant of an R rating) must be kept behind the shelf and out of sight of the public. Go ahead and try to pass that law concerning DVDs or videos. It'd be unthinkable.

The real point, though, is this "probe" is a huge waste of money, a huge waste of time, and isn't going to earn Hillary one single damn vote. But it may earn her an "out of touch with people under 30" reputation, and that can cost her votes. Big time.

[bspence]

13. It'd have to be a really, really moderate republican...

...but the possibility is there. Most likely, I simply wouldn't vote for the position that Dem was running for. If Hilary gets nominated, I'd just leave that spot blank. It's more than just a censorship thing with me, I think it speaks to character. They're just bandwagon jumping assholes.

Labels do bother me, and they are censorship. Why do you think most movies are PG-13 these days? Because an R rating will kill the box office. Movie studios pander to the kiddies by self-censoring their content. Political pressure is indirect government sponsored censorship, and that's what Hillary, Lieberman, and these other Dems are doing. They know how to make publishers stop putting out adult content, even if they don't do it directly.

Don't believe me? Look how they got Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas out of stores within a week. An AO rating means the game is gone, and might as well not exist.

[Progressive420]

15. I think most people underestimate the power of the youth will have

we that are considered the "youth vote" pay alot more attention to politics than previous generations and a lot more than most older people would actually give us credit for. The youth vote did turn out for Kerry last year and if the Democrats can play their cards right they will continue to in the future. The problem is most politicians don't offer anything that really appeals to youth voters and they certainly don't target them enough when trying to turn out the vote.

[bspence]

16. EXACTLY

What's going to appeal/repulse youth voters than something that would effect their daily lives? This is so bad, it's disgusting.

[aden_nak]

17. It's more than just the immediate effect.

It's a matter of association and memory. It's a matter of distinguishing yourself from the Republican (and typically "pro-censorship") candidate. It's the difference between knowing about "the internets" or not. After the second Presidential debates "the internets" became a huge, HUGE subculture joke, and the entire gaming comunity took a moment to laugh their asses off at how inept and out of touch Bush was with their lives. THAT'S what matters. Seeming out of touch and disinterested in peoples' lives.

If you want to, think of this gaming issue as being a comunity-specific local issue. And all politics are local.