The ESA Saved Video Games Once. Can It Do It Again? (Stanley Pierre-Louis) (Patreon)

This week on Post Games:

Act 1: The 17-Year Fight to Protect Games from the Government

Act 2: The ESA's President on AI, Child Safety, and Calls for Unionization

Patreon Bonus: Three Big Takeaways from the Interview

Guests:

Stanley Pierre-Louis: President and CEO, ESA

Closing Song: "Jumping Voices (Big Walk Theme)" by aksfx (Big Walk)

Act 1: The 17-Year Fight to Protect Games from the Government 

The Entertainment Software Association (theesa.com)

A Brief History of the ESRB (Game Developer)

Video Game Violence Congressional Hearings (C-SPAN)

When Mortal Kombat Came Under Congressional Scrutiny (The New York Times)

International Age Rating Coalition (IARC)

2 Live Crew (Wiki)

“Pinball,” Reviewed: A Remedy for Your Post-Oscar Hangover (New Yorker)

Amicus curiae (Legal Information Institute)

Justice Scalia’s opinion in Brown, et al. v. Entertainment Merchants Assn. (Justia.com)

Act 2: The ESA's President on AI, Child Safety, and Calls for Unionization

Roblox’s Pedophile Problem (Bloomberg)

Video game company stock prices dip after Google introduces an AI world-generation tool (Bloomberg)

Video Games Aren’t Why Shootings Happen. Politicians Still Blame Them. (NYTimes)

AARP Games Center (AARP)

What Parents Need To Know About Roblox (ESRB)

Older Americans are embracing video games, AARP survey shows (CBS News)

We Asked Nintendo, Microsoft, and 12 Other Devs How They Deal With Crunch (Waypoint)

Do Video Games Lead to Mass Shootings? Researchers Say No (The New York Times)

Patreon Bonus: Three Big Takeaways from the Episode's Interview

Game Workers Coalition (https://gameworkerscoalition.org/en/)

The Rise of the Video Game Union (Polygon)

Printable PDF (Archive.org)

United Videogame Workers-CWA (https://uvw-cwa.org/)

ESRB Ratings Guides, Categories, Content Descriptors (ESRB)

Why NSFW games aren't doomed (for now) (Post Games)

This Week in Video Game Links

One of Marathon's more controversial mechanics brings back a neat idea from Anthem (RPS)

The '90s Lobo fighting game got censored because of... Tupac? (Design Room)

This video of kawaii Space Marines is canon, actually (jank)

Ditto Plushies Have Invaded Our Heart Right In Time For Pokopia Fever (Kotaku)

Call Of Duty Enters The White House’s Arsenal Of Memes (Aftermath)

Don Doko Don: Taking a silly game seriously (Kimimi)

"Why Bother If You're Not Going To Do It Properly?" - Why SEGAGAGA's AI Translation Is Upsetting So Many People (TimeExtension)

Free Game of the Week: Hozy demo

From the summary: "Restore a forgotten neighbourhood through your favourite hobby, one cozy room at a time. In Hozy, clean, paint, and decorate abandoned homes with satisfying mechanics and intuitive controls. Enjoy the little details as you interact with tools, items and furniture to bring each space back to life." (Steam)

What Else I’m Enjoying

Gorillaz - Orange County ft Bizarrap/Kara Jackson/Anoushka Shankar (Live on The Graham Norton Show) (Gorillaz)

Gorillaz - The Mountain, The Moon Cave and The Sad God (Gorillaz)

Gorillaz - The Mountain ALBUM REVIEW (theneedledrop)

House of Kong Los Angeles (https://houseofkong.gorillaz.com)

Song of the Week

"Jumping Voices (Big Walk Theme)" by aksfx (Big Walk)