I wanted to clarify some of our practices and positions as relates to our community and the variety of content around which MLG ’s business is built. As I said to [fifth estate Associate Producer] Nicole [Brewster] on Tuesday morning, I can certainly appreciate your journalistic endeavor to present two sides of any story. Our concern with the aggressive and singular line of questioning that Gillian [Findlay] took on Monday is that you were focused on getting one ‘counter-point’ sound bite only as relates to the violence in videogames issue.
Like any sport, we have a wide variety of fans. And like any new sport, there are a lot of long-held stereotypes about what our community is passionate about. Through competitive gaming, our young fans and competitors are learning and practicing sportsmanship, socializing with and meeting new friends, traveling to new places and learning about new people, and being rewarded and recognized for what they love to do. We’re thrilled to be the aspiration of millions of gamers around the world.
A couple of key points: The great thing about competitive video gaming is that virtually any title can be used in the competitive setting. On our GameBattles site, we currently offer about 40 games for competition. 12 are rated M, 14 rated T, and 14 rated E. Historically, we’ve seen between 3 to 4 E and T rated titles in our top 10 most popular ladders. In our 2008 Pro Circuit season, we were thrilled to add World of Warcraft, which is rated T, and has over 16 million registered users around the world, to our live competition line up.
Gillian mentioned that you had done an informal survey of the ages of GameBattles users playing Call of Duty and saw that 50% of those players were 15 or younger. That informal survey grossly misrepresents the full facts. Our own internal registration data, as provided by users, shows the average age of our online community to be 23 years old. Our 3rd party survey data, fielded by SRI says that our average age is 18 years old. We are a community of about 2.5 million registered individuals.
At our live Pro Circuit competitions, any competitor under the age of 18 must provide a parental consent form. Spectators of any age can come to an MLG event. There are large signs at the entrance to our events which clearly notes that there is mature content being played. Online, because the games have already been purchased, and are being played at home over an online subscription that a parent would typically have to pay for, we do not require parental consent.
We do want to reiterate that blanket prohibitions on the sale of video games to minors has, time and time again, been adjudicated to be unconstitutional in the US. Any effective solution must in the end be a partnership between the industry, parents, and retailers.
Our business is built around the creative visions of some of the most sophisticated, visionary artists and storytellers in the entertainment industry. Competitive gaming represents the epitome of the socially-oriented video game lifestyle and our fans, pros, and partners have come together to support this exciting new sport. It ought to be celebrated.
Amy Janzen
SVP, Marketing Communications
Major League Gaming
