"If someone had told me when I retired from the Supreme Court that I would be speaking at a conference about digital gaming, I'd be thinking, 'You've had one drink too many,'" said the Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor, former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
"I have not had much exposure to this world as you might imagine," the 78 year-old told a packed auditorium as the final keynote speaker at the 2008 Games for Change festival Wednesday afternoon. "I don't play video games, sorry," she revealed later during the question-and-answer session.
While O'Connor will probably never play "Halo," she explained that she came into the digital world after noticing how increasingly difficult it is to receive impartial judgments from serving judges who face mounting political pressure and partisan attacks. She feels that the only way to combat this is with video games about civics education. Yes, that's right: video games.
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Will the Republican candidates for President talk video games during tonight's CNN/YouTube's debate?
Over at MTVNews.com I have a story about Jesse Vetters, an 18-year-old Indiana high school student and gamer who has done his best to get a question about video games added to the debate -- and, with the help of the Entertainment Consumers Association, managed to inspire about 20 other gamers to do the same.
Like the Democratic debate in the Summer, the Republican one will feature questions submitted by regular folks (and possibly Master Chief) and chosen by the moderators. Vetters expects a gaming question to be asked. His question asks whether these politicians would take a stand for or against legislation against violent games.
Here's ECA president Hal Halpin from my story:
Halpin feels that the very fact that Vetters made his question — and that other gamers answered the ECA's call — is a victory. "Whenever I'm dealing with the mainstream media, their vision of gamers is apathetic, uninvolved, don't get out to vote. And here's this high school kid willing to jump into the deep end."
The debate will air tonight on CNN at 8PM ET. Let's see if the Republicans get forced to talk about this issue.
"If someone had told me when I retired from the Supreme Court that I would be speaking at a conference about digital gaming, I'd be thinking, 'You've had one drink too many,'" said the Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor, former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.