Games outfit gets political

AMONGST ALL THE CHATTER about the latest US political results on Saturday, an interesting footnote to the campaign trail seems to have been mostly missed - the fact that the video games industry in the the States is about to start getting political.

The Entertainment Software Association, which is the industry group across the Atlantic representing games publishers (and also serving a dual role as the consumer's self-censor) is preparing to start writing cheques to the political campaigns of Senators and Presidential candidates prepared to listen to the views of the electronic industry.

Talking to the New York Times, the ESA's chief executive says, "This is an important step in the political maturation process of the industry... This is about identifying and supporting champions for the game industry on Capitol Hill so that they support us".

The ESA is taking something of a public-relations risk taking such an open stance - the theme of this year's national candidacy so far has been the corruption of politics by special interests and the rejection of 'old' money-buys-influence practices in the Capitol.

But that doesn't seem to be deterring the ESA, which has gone so far as to hold a reception in Wasington in November, where politicians were able to come and play games - including the Wii, which turned out to be very popular.

"We had one member of Congress who tried gold on the Wii... we couldn't get it out of his hands for 20 minutes." It seems that, despite the 'Change' rhetoric on the campaign trail, old politics might still hold some sway for the ESA. µ