Media watchdog group convening game-ratings summit

Based in Minneapolis, the NIMF gets a fair amount of media attention each fall when it releases its annual MediaWise Video Game Report Card. The card often raises hackles with its extensive critiques of individual games and gaming as a whole. Last year, it claimed that "the [game] industry's efforts to be good corporate citizens have not kept pace with its explosive growth," and that "killographic and sexually explicit games are still finding their way into the hands of millions of underage players." Naturally, the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas sex minigame scandal was mentioned repeatedly.

Today, the NIMF announced it has finalized plans for a two-day event, called the National Summit on Video Games, Youth, and Public Policy. Held near the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota, the event will "address concerns regarding video game ratings and children's access to violent and sexually explicit games."

Presiding over the summit will be NIMF president Dr. David Walsh (pictured), who famously squabbled with fellow game critic Jack Thompson. He will be joined by Iowa State University professor Dr. Doug Gentile, director of Iowa State University's Media Research Lab, which studies "pathological computer/video game use (for example, video game 'addiction')" and other subjects it deems harmful to minors. Walsh and Gentile are both coauthors of the MediaWise Video Game Report Card.

According to its organizers, the event will have nearly two dozen as-yet unnamed "scholars, educators, and experts on media violence and child behavior issues." Their agenda will be to "review current and emerging trends related to video game rating systems, education policy, and government regulation; determine the accuracy and independence of video game rating." At the end of the event, attendees will draft a 10-year "action agenda" for dealing with the game industry.