Stephen Totilo, one of the MTV’s bloggers, wrote yesterday about how Obama’s communications department, made up mostly of guys in their twenties and thirties, used weekends to drink beer together and play the video game “Rock Band” at a group house in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.

Apparently they live out their rock-and-roll fantasies mastering guitar, bass, drums, and vocals :).

Jumping from this article to another I have encountered an answer of the new USA president Barack Obama to some questions about game industry and safe-kids digital environment:
- Would Obama support the legislation to keep violent games out of kids hands at a federal level
- What other strategies would support Obama to keep the video game industry and other media companies from marketing and selling inappropriate content to children?

Obama’s answer was straight to the point.

We need to give parents the tools and information they need to make choices about what programs their children are watching or what video games they are playing. As we move towards a digital environment, there is a golden opportunity for the industry to do this on their own—to use the latest in technology to give parents more information and more choice. For example, this technology could make it possible for parents to create their own family tier just by programming their television to block certain channels, block certain genres of programming like dramas, or block television at certain times of the day. The same can be said of video games, especially as we’re moving into an era when they can be downloaded as easily as today’s movies and television shows.

I would call upon the video game industry to give parents better information about programs and video games by improving the voluntary rating system we currently have. Broadcasters and video game producers should take it upon themselves to improve this system to include easier to find and easier to understand descriptions of exactly what kind of content is included. But if the industry fails to act, then my administration would.

And even if the industry does do some responsible self-policing, there’s still a role for the federal government to play. We need to understand the impact of these new media better. That’s why I supported federal funding to study the impact of video games on children’s cognitive development.

* Sources:
- Team Obama Plays ‘Rock Band’
- What Barack Obama’s Win Means For Gamers
- Rock Band - The Game
* Foto credits: dailymail.co.uk

Tags: Barack Obama, game industry, Rock Band