There are many lists out there. A list of leaked questions from a videogame company. A list of top selling titles for the month of November. And so on. You can ask me now who I think is the best person in the world and the answer I will give you is my girlfriend. While you may not agree with me, the point here is that everything is just a matter of perspective.

So for today, we'd like to share with you the perspective being held gaming site NextGen regarding the top 25 people of the year. According to them,

This list is not a ranking of the best, most powerful, most talented, most amazing people in the industry. It is a ranking of the people who, we at Next-Gen feel, have made positive, significant and noteworthy contributions to gaming and the game industry through 2006.

 

Among the personalities who made it in the list, there are a couple of faces that made me think twice. Take for example the case of Patricia Vance of ESRB. According to NextGen, Vance has helped the industry keep control of a system that is proven to be effective. While I have no issues with that, I can't help but remember some of your comments regarding this organization. Again, at the end of it all, everything is just a matter of perspective.

Of course, the gaming site provided a few explanations about their list. It's quite a long read but if you are interested, you can access it via the read link below. But if you just want to know who made it in the said list, here's the short version. Please feel free to speak your mind.

See the list after the jump!

It is human nature to find strength in numbers. When faced with great adversity, people stand side by side to meet the common enemy head on. With that said, it seems that various segments of the society have been viewing the gaming industry as the common foe. And not only that, it looks like they are so keen on trampling these "evil weed."

Accordingly, a new alliance has been formed to combat ill effects of videogames to kids, beginning with educating parents about game ratings. The alliance, if we might add, is looking formidable indeed. It is composed of Senators Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman and ESRB President Patricia Vance. Surprisingly enough, Best Buy President Brian Dunn and GameStop President Steve Morgan complete the "Power Rangers."

Senator Clinton maintained that the renewed movement is in light of the coming Holiday season. It is needless to say that sales for gaming software and hardware will skyrocket during this time of the year. Clinton explained:

We all share in the responsibility of making sure our children play age-appropriate video games, and I'm pleased that the ESRB and retailers are working together to educate parents about the video game ratings and make sure they are enforced.

The group's first action included sending public service announcements to 800 TV stations nationwide, as well as radio and print ads. The PSAs are intended for parents, instructing them to regulate the games their children play. Senator Lieberman seconded:

I have long said that the ESRB ratings are the most comprehensive in the media industry. There are many age-appropriate games that are clever and entertaining. Parents should understand and use the ratings to help them decide which video games to buy for their families.

Over the past few weeks, ESRB was able to come up with various announcements regarding their plans to intensify enforcement of ratings for videogames. In the meanwhile, a big contrast is happening overseas, with some countries considering self regulation for the industry.

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board has been under fire lately. Even here at QJ, we just couldn't ignore ESRB-related news bits that concern everybody in the industry. Recently, the board announced the various steps it is taking to keep up with the young videogamers of today. Despite these efforts however, some are still finding ways to replace them.

ESRB might have just found an unlikely ally in Activision as the latter released the results of its newly conducted online survey. The study, titled "Ratings Are Not a Game," proved that 80% of the parents find the ESRB system effective and are actually following them.

Activision Executive VP Robin Kaminsky announced that they are very delighted with the survey results. "But it was even more gratifying to see that such a large majority of parents are aware of, researching and active in their children's videogame purchasing and playing," Kaminsky added. ESRB on the other hand, just couldn't help but be happy. According to its president Patricia Vance:

Video game ratings can only be effective if consumers understand the ratings and use them when making purchasing decisions for their families, and this study shows that parents greatly rely on and value the ESRB ratings in helping them decide which games to allow their children to play.

A total number of 1,014 players, ranging anywhere between 8 to 24 years old, together with their parents were used in the study. The breakdown of the results are as follows:

• 84% of parents cited an awareness with the ESRB system
• 65% of children cited an awareness with the ESRB system
• 79% of parents said they paid close attention to games their children play
• 68% of the parents believed the ESRB system is effective
• 56% of the parents said that rating was the top influence in determining whether to buy a game
• 52% of parents said they actively researched games before buying them
• 74% of parents said that video gaming was part of their family
• 52% of parents said they play games themselves

This October 20-21, the National Institute on Media and the Family and Iowa State University will be holding a summit to discuss the growing problem of sexual and violent content in videogaming.

During this upcoming National Summit on Video Games, Youth and Public Policy, these groups hope to tackle the growing trends in videogame rating systems in light of the government's own policies, and the accuracy of independent game ratings groups.

The organizers hope to be able to create a 10-year action agenda based on the findings in this summit.

They've invited ESRB president Patricia Vance as they did Congresswoman Betty McCollum of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, and speakers from prestigious schools such as Harvard and Yale.

And for those of you asking: No, Attorney Jack Thompson is nowhere in the list of speakers.

Given what's been happening lately in the field of gaming politics such as the recent legislation by congress and the revelations on ESRB's inner workings, we're hoping this summit will foster a greater degree of awareness for the concerned parties, and hopefully offer a more sensible means of studying the gaming industry on their part - it's not all bad.

The summit will take place at: University of Minnesota Continuing Education and Conference Center, 1890 Buford Avenue,
Falcon Heights, Minnesota.

As for time skeds per day:

• October 20: 8:00AM to 5:00PM
• October 21: 8:30AM to 1:00PM

More details can be found in the pdf file found on the source link.

It might come as a shock to you, but there are women in this industry of gaming. In fact, there's a good chance you've either played something they've designed or marketed, learned something important about the reality of the industry from them, or got massacred by a team of them during an FPS battle.

Over at Next Generation, they've decided to take an accounting of this and made their own list of 100 most influential women in the games industry, and you might be surprised at what they're doing. Since we can't go over all 100, let's take a good cross-section of the women featured, and give you some insight into just how important they are for games in general, and the future of the industry in particular. Click on the Full Article link below and read on!

Just this summer, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) launched a new initiative that would definitely strengthen its video game ratings system: the "seal of approval" and its mystery shopping program were initiated.

Not only will these new programs strengthen the ratings system, it's also supposed to boost public awareness regarding games and their ratings - or at least that's what they're hoping to happen.

Included in these new programs by the ESRB is dubbed "Commitment to Parents." This will require retail stores who have signed up for the program to agree to train their sales staff about the board's rating system, promote the said game rating system and set up a system for complaints made by consumers regarding sales violations.

ESRB's programs may have been implemented during this crucial time that the gaming industry is under scrutiny by a lot of politicians and parent groups. Some people though are considering this move by the board a mere show as their rules regarding the sales of games are voluntarily being heeded by most retail stores.

Rocky Mountain News conducted its own mystery shopping experiment where they used a 15-year old kid to try and buy Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas from five major stores - Wal-Mart, Best Buy, GameStop, Circuit City and Target. He wasn't able to purchase the game, meaning these major retail stores are enforcing these ratings.

According to ESRB's president, Patricia Vance, since most stores already respect the rating system for games, it's up to the parents to respect (or voluntarily follow) the ratings. Vance said that most of the time, the parents are the reason how underage kids get their hands on games with a 17 and above rating - thus, the "Commitment to Parents" program.

Let's just see if these new programs help in getting politicians' and concerned groups' eyes off the gaming industry soon.

ESRB president Patricia Vance (pictured left) told the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection that "after a game ships, if disclosure [of content in the game] is found to have been incomplete, recent enhancements to the ESRB enforcement system will soon allow for the imposition of fines up to $1 million."

Vance hopes that the newly implemented fines combined with the enormous cost of recalling the re-rated product will "serve as a tremendous disincentive for any publisher to even consider not disclosing all pertinent content." These efforts were created to prevent another Hot Coffee fiasco.

Not all people at the meeting agreed with what Vance had to say. Cliff Stearns, the hearing's chair, challenged the fact that the ESRB is mostly made up of game publishers, a case which Stearns calls a "conflict of interest." Stearns also went on further, complaining that the organization did not completely play through the games before giving them a rating. Vance tried to defend the arguments as best as she could.