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"Play for Real: Gamer Voter Drive" - One Gamer Can Make a Difference |
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Written by Thomas "CigDangle" Balistreri
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Tuesday, 12 September 2006 |
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![[OpEd]](/v2/images/stories/insight2.png "[OpEd]")
The Video Game Voters Network kicked off the first ever "Video Game Voter Registration Drive" yesterday, and I’m sure some politicians are nervous, and understandably so. According to the VGVN, 50% of all Americans play video games. You can register to vote in your area on the VGVN’s website. Click the link above to read the press release, or click here to begin the registration process.
 According to Douglas Lowenstein, president of the ESA, Play for Real will "offer the adults who have grown up with our computer and video games a unique way to involve themselves in the political process on all issues, including the ones that matter most to gamers." (The ESA, or Entertrainment Software Assosociation, is a trade organization created to represent U.S. computer and video game publishers. The Video Game Voters Network is a "grassroots political network for gamers and a project of the ESA").
If, on the other hand, you think that video game content needs to be censored to protect America's youth, or if your name happens to be Jack Thompson here are some facts you may find interesting.
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The average game player is 33 years old and has been playing games for 9.5 years. |
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Seventy-five percent of American heads of households play computer and video games. |
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Fifty percent of all Americans play video games. |
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Sixty percent of online game players are male. Forty percent of online game players are female. |
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Adult gamers exhibit a high level of interest in current events, with ninety-four percent following news and current events, and seventy-eight percent reporting that they vote in most of the elections for which they are eligible. |
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Fifty-three percent of game players expect to be playing as much or more ten years from now than they do today. |
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The average game buyer is 37 years old. In 2005, ninety-five percent of computer game buyers and eighty-four percent of console game buyers were over the age of 18. |
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Adult gamers have been playing an average of 12 years. |
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In 2004, nineteen percent of Americans over the age of 50 played video games, an increase from nine percent in 1999. |
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In 2005, more than 228 million computer and video games were sold, almost two games for every household in America. |
(source: Video Game Voters Network)
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Last Updated ( Friday, 12 October 2007 )
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