IGDA Reports Results of Game Violence Summit

According to the IGDA, the summit's main goal was to get feedback from a handful of game developers in order to help set the direction of a dedicated committee to address developers' roles in the creation and marketing of this content. "We believe in age-appropriate marketing and we support the ratings system and open lines of communication," said Justin Chin, president, Infinite Machine. "However, we are not here to debate whether violent games result in violent behavior. The Committee came together to work on building awareness and creating an overall understanding of the issues." Some of the goals of the Violence Committee are to build greater awareness of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) ratings system among game developers, explore ways to best coordinate efforts with the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) and work to provide recommendations on the ESRB ratings. The Violence Committee will primarily be made up of representatives from the game development community including 3DO, Electronic Arts, Infinite Machine, LucasArts, Konami and Ronin, as well as those from other relevant disciplines such as renowned media studies professor, Dr. Henry Jenkins of MIT. Those interested in learning more about the Violence Committee are encouraged to visit the dedicated web page at the IGDA site: http://www.igda.org/Committees/violence.htm. The full scope of the committee's work will be set forth in this charter, due in February.