Interview with Hal Halpin, IEMA
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Original date: September 03, 2006
Hal Halpin is the president emeritus of the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association (IEMA).
It's been a little over a year since the Hot Coffee controversy broke. Do you think we've seen the last of the Hot-Coffee-inspired legislation?
Far from it unfortunately. We've witnessed in excess of over 100 pieces of anti-games legislation over the past year or two. I would think it safe to assume that we'll see at least that number again in the coming election cycle. The issue has become too politicized, and the down-side risk for legislators isn't severe enough to prevent them from making hay. The more worrying aspect of the latest trends is that policy-makers are changing their focus from self-regulation (industry and retailers working on concert to voluntarily enforce their ratings system) to criminalizing the purchase itself. It's a fundamental shift that changes the burden and puts gamers at-risk. Most gamers probably don't realize that these laws would treat purchasing a game similarly to illegally purchasing firearms!
Do you believe Lieberman's loss is significant for video games?
Being a CT resident and therefore constituent has put me in a unique position in dealing directly with the Senator over the years. Despite our obvious disagreements when it comes to restricting consumer and retailer rights regarding content, I have always found him to be very forthright and exceptionally bright. (I can't say as much for many of the legislators with whom I've dealt over the years.) That said, he was - quite literally - the impetus for this never-ending onslaught of moralistic conservatism. His loss of the primary doesn't necessarily count him out, as he has made clear that he intends to run as an Independent. In either case, there is no reason why he couldn't continue to carry the torch for the causes which have preoccupied his time for the past decade or more - games included. I'd imagine that the National Institute on Media and the Family would still welcome him as a guest speaker during their annual Video Game Report Card. In other words: Joe will still be Joe.
The IEMA recently merged with the VSDA, an association with which most game developers are unfamiliar. Can you tell us a bit about your common ground and why the merger was beneficial for the industry?
The IEMA represented game industry retailers largely (including Wal-Mart, Target, Circuit City, Toys R Us, etc.) and the VSDA represented video industry merchants (ranging in size from small Mom and Pops to the large rentailers). There were some very obvious synergies between the two organizations, and we worked together very effectively over the years in lobbying and legislative issues. VSDA spun off a group which represented the smallest of their members, called IDEA, and that brought our larger member's interests more in line. There really were very few reasons not to merge in the end, and it helped both the movie and games sectors of the broader entertainment business in numerous ways.
Some major outlets, including Wal-Mart, have recently carried a new line of "personal care products" aimed at women. The Elexa line includes, among other things, vibrators. Why the hang up with video games?
I don't know that the major retailers have a hand-up with games per se. You have to keep in mind that at the end of the day, retailers serve their customer's best interests and make purchasing and merchandising decisions accordingly. Games, as a product line, happen to be a the political football of the hour and as such we're getting more than our fair share of people's criticism. Retailers need to be sensitive to their customer's concerns and cognizant of how best to empower them. Ultimately that's how your retain and add new customers.
Did the seemingly sudden change in E3 come as a surprise to you? It didn't, other than that the news unfolded so quickly. In running the Executive Summit for the previous six years, we had been hearing the publisher's thinking for some time and knew that there were challenges in the event's format and design. I held out hope that it could have been altered in some way - perhaps including a change in format to include consumers. The cancellation created an interesting void, and has since presented opportunistic event companies with interesting options. I know of five different companies that are exhaustively working at filling that niche, and at least two of them have the resources to, theoretically, do a very nice job at it. It will certainly be interesting to see how the new E3 affects the old VSDA show and the new Microsoft Retail Vision Show, if at all.