The New York Times published a heated talks with Deputy President Joe Biden today when the 2020 presidential election called someone high in the video game industry a "little road," and I've been thinking about it ever since.
The statement came during a conversation with Times& # 39; The editorial board, which is made up of opinionated journalists and is unique in its news organization. The editorial board interviews all prospective presidential candidates as part of the process of selecting one of the candidates to approve later this year, and for the first time, makes those discussions public.
Here's the whole rating, in context.
(Joe Biden): And you may recall, the criticism I received from meeting with leaders in Silicon Valley, where I was trying to make a deal with my colleagues protecting the artistic property of artists in the United States of America. And at the same time, one of the giants sitting at that table, which had a lot of people – close to a billion – who told me that we were a musician because we were able to come up with games to teach you how to kill people, you know
(Times Opinionist Charlie Warzel): Like video games.
(Biden): Yes, video games. And I was told by one of the senior leaders there that if I said I insisted on what Leeds integrated us into, I thought we would fully support it, that they would blow up the network, figuratively speaking. Everyone should contact. They go in and out of contact with the switchboard, they just blow it up.
And then one of these good people said to me, you know, “We're an American economic engine. It's us. ”And luckily I would have done a little homework before I left and I said, you know, it makes me happy. As I added seven outfits, everyone was there but Microsoft. I said, you have fewer people on your paycheck than you lost General Motors that you just experienced last quarter, with employees. So don't teach me how to create all this work.
Okay, but who goes down? Billen didn't, and Warzel said later on Twitter that he did I didn't get a chance to follow. At the risk of spoiling the conclusion: We can't find out who it is. But here's who it might be.
In a conversation, Biten pointed to a meeting with "Silicon Valley leaders" about "learning materials." This could be a meeting In December 2009 to meet with the entertainment companies to discuss the protection of copyright infringement. According to Official list of attendees, the only person closest to a video game at that meeting was Michael Gallagher, former head of the entertainment industry association, Entertainment Software Association. Although ESA is not a sport, perhaps Gallagher was defending the rights of game designers as artists.
But wait! Another clue to this passage seems to be that it kicks off the meeting, because Biden says the meeting involves discussing "what Leah did. controversial law against copyright infringement. Tech companies hated it, which they may regard as "criticism" that Biden spoke of, and led to the Vice President's a small conference with Silicon Valley leaders in January 2012.
That meeting is important not only because it ties in well with the height of the SOPA debate, but also because Bitsen specifically mentioned a meeting where all the major tech players were present otherwise for Microsoft. According to Palo Alto Weekly, Apple, Netflix, Facebook, and Google were all there, along with Electronic Arts, Zynga, DreamWorks, and Symantec – but not Microsoft.
If this was a meeting in question, Biten may have been referring to Zynga founder Mark Pincus or the then EA manager John Riccitiello, both of whom were present. Of the two, Riccitiello, as the head of the triple-A company – violent video games FarmVille, could be a potential target for Biden's recovery.
Then again, should we be taking Biten's output at face value? Maybe you combine two meetings. A year later, Biden sat down with a full room video game managers discussion of gun violence following the shooting of Sandy Hook Elementary School. This looks like an appropriate spot for heated discussion about the merits of violent video game art, compared to a 2012 dinner meeting that was clearly about protecting copyright.
Added to the "Bisonen concept of two meetings" of the case is the fact that both Gallagher and Riccitiello were also present at the meeting, sitting to the left and right of Biden. However, there were representatives from Epic Games (Mike Capps), Bethesda parent company ZeniMax (Robert Altman), and the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (Patricia Vance). But there is nothing specific to suggest that it was one of them.
Joe Biden's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
