# Gamers' Voice - a video gamers lobby group?



## Kid_Eternity (Nov 9, 2009)

Not sure if the urban gaming community has seen this little Keith Vaz inspired storm in a tea cup over Modern Warfare 2?



> It started this morning with a story in the Daily Mail about the violence in the 18-rated game. The Mail said critics had accused the creators Activision of being irresponsible - but the only critic named was Keith Vaz, the Labour MP for Leicester East, who said this: "I am absolutely shocked by the level of violence in this game and am particularly concerned about how realistic the game itself looks."
> 
> Mr Vaz has been a long-term critic of the games industry, and plans to raise his concerns over Call of Duty in the Commons this afternoon in questions to the culture secretary and his team.
> 
> But within hours another Labour MP Tom Watson had hit back. Mr Watson is the former minister for digital engagement, and a prolific blogger and social networker who has shown a willingness to go on the attack over issues like cutting off illegal filesharers since he left the government in April.


Tom Watson has started a Facebook group called Gamers' Voice. It's already got 2000 members already despite being created only this morning; it's basically discussing the idea of a gamers lobby group/campaign to counter negative headlines or myths about video games/gamers.

I personally like the idea, one that has gamers involved rather than the usual big game publishers press release response to counter the bullshit politicians like Vaz spew about games.

Thoughts?


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## Awesome Wells (Nov 9, 2009)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Not sure if the urban gaming community has seen this little Keith Vaz inspired storm in a tea cup over Modern Warfare 2?
> 
> Tom Watson has started a Facebook group called Gamers' Voice. It's already got 2000 members already despite being created only this morning; it's basically discussing the idea of a gamers lobby group/campaign to counter negative headlines or myths about video games/gamers.
> 
> ...


I'm assuming Vaz, a twat at the best of times, is referring to the level where: SPOILER!






you go undercover in a terrorist massacre at a shopping mall involving the indiscriminate slaughter of hundreds of civilians.

It is the most disturbing thing in a video game, but it is a game and it hasn't made me want to do the same thing. It is also entirely germaine to the storyline and the player is warned beforehand, and can skip it at no consequence.

Perhaps Mr Vaz might like to show the same level of outrage over the very real events in Afghanistan and not a work of fiction that is rated 18 accordingly.


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## Pingu (Nov 9, 2009)

nice idea

shit he would have had kittens over some of the goings on on the "rescue the hostages" maps we played on the u75 clan server. hossies used to get killed delibertely all the time.

so far i havnt pointed a deagle at anyones head in a hostage situation and thought "fuck it its only - 25 points"


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## Kid_Eternity (Nov 11, 2009)

11,000 members on the FB group now! Lively discussion about games, policy, affecting media narratives, what to do taking things forward.


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## kyser_soze (Nov 11, 2009)

Ah nuts, I meant to join this today at lunchtime.

I'll have to remember all the way home now.


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## Kid_Eternity (Nov 27, 2009)

Bump as things are starting to move forward with this. There's a meeting on December 9th at the House of Commons organised by Tom Watson for members to gather, discuss and agree a way forward (most likely a mission statement and something about organisational structure for any related campaign).

Tom Watson put forward the following as a basis for a short outline/beginnings of a mission statement:



> We call upon MPs to:
> 
> 1. Take time to play and understand videogames.
> 2. Recognise the educational, cultural and economic value of the UK video games industry
> ...


To which at least one response seemed to flesh stuff out:



> Ok, here's my feedback, point by point:
> 
> 1. Definitely. Whilst reviewers and the like obviously play games to completion and understand the medium, MPs especially but also a lot of journalists don't take the time to experience the subject matter first hand. If someone has a moral issue with a game then that's fair enough, but if they've only based their opinion on hearsay rather than firsthand experience of the game then their argument loses a lot of weight and can easily be seen as "jumping on the bandwagon" or “fear mongering” so to speak.
> 
> ...


Which was simplified thus:



> A lot of this has probably already been said, but for what it's woth I would simplify our mission statement to a few bullet points:
> 
> * To promote videos games as a valid form of art
> 
> ...


Further discussion on the Facebook group here.


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## Kid_Eternity (Nov 27, 2009)

Just spotted this update too:



> Hello all, three weeks in and it feels like we've been going a year. This note is to update you one progress:
> 
> 1. First Meeting on 9th December. There's a separate discussion thread on this but I'd be grateful for your ideas, particularly on how the organisation should be structured and what our future programme should be.
> 
> ...



From the Facebook group.


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