Industry Experts Form Coalition To Reform & Regulate Gaming Issues

November 27th, 2017 Phil Williams Gaming, News 0 comments

The video games industry forms a coalition to fight the lootcrate gambling crisis

As a result of the increasing external pressure for reform and regulation on the games industry, a group of industry leaders and experts have agreed to come together in a more permanent way, forming a coalition named the National Committee for Games Policy (NCGP).

They’ve made this decision in response to the current crisis regarding the expansion of loot crate economies and concerns about unregulated online gambling, but also as an acceptance of a long in coming decision that we knew would eventually become necessary. Games are not represented or understood in the modern political and judicial world, and that needs to change.

Unlike the IGDA, they are not an association of game developers. they are a coalition of high level industry experts and influencers. Membership in the NCGP is by invite only. They will work on the behalf of games industry professionals of all political leanings. In order to do this, the NCGP has appointed a steering committee with significant political experience on both ends of the spectrum. Where video games, politics, and law intersect, you will be sure to find the NCGP.

The first action of the NCGP is its creation; a privately funded think tank known as the ITK. The work of the NCGP ITK is to represent itself as a group of consummate professionals from every part of the video game community. They seek to represent the entire industry, and as such will not release opinions on differences within the industry except as they relate to public policy.

Members names will only be released if they give permission, and their writing reflects their own opinions. The NCGP will never take a position on policy; they will give policy makers the information the information they need to make informed decision. Their political connections will get this information to them.

The second and much more important arm of the NCGP is their establishment of the video game industry’s first, and de facto, self regulatory organization. Independent of the think tank is the NCGP SRO. As an SRO, their purpose is to protect consumers from unscrupulous video game companies by investigating and bringing legal action against those companies that have damaged the public consciousness in some way, whether mental or physical. To do this they’ve enlisted the aid of game developer’s employees as well. By establishing the first video game industry whistleblower center, they’re able to help the video game industry fight things such as overtime pay.

As part of their work as an SRO, they will release a quarterly list of companies who we have cited and the reason for citation. While they do hope to help as many people as possible, a complaint doesn’t become a citation without further investigation and action by the NCGP.