ECA Seattle chapter is Looking for members :)

[Jane PMS]

If your in Washington and a member of the ECA(Entertainment Consumers Association), Or wanting to be a member of the ECA, and are interested in joining our Seattle Chapter let me know. You can PM me, E-mail me or call me if ya like. Go Washington!! Woot Woot.

[the7ate9]

I used to live in woodinville... ha ECA, yeah I miss WA

[Buck-O]

Eca?

[Gypsyfly PMS]

LoL, 94 something posts on the PMS Clan forums and you guys don't know what the ECA is..dorks.

PMS Clan is partnered with ECA because they fight for our gaming rights and give us a voice and say in an industry where we typically don't realize or take advantage of the fact that we do have a say in things. I'm an adult consumer and deserve to play whatever I want without being labeled as violent or lazy, without restrictions on "how much" internet bandwidth I have, and with the peace of mind to know I"m actually doing something about it.

Plus..you get some sweet discounts and stuff lol.

Actually you should check them out if you have an interest in keeping politics out of our games: http://www.theeca.com/

[Buck-O]

Ok, so what exactly does the ECA do? Specifics like, what are they doing, and how.

I am a member of the EFF, and i am a member of the EFF because i know what they are doing, i know what cases they are working on, and i know why they are working on them. I "get it" from the EFF, because they go out of their way to make sure that people know what they are working for and why.

Im not "getting it" with the ECA. I see more talk on the front page about "look at all this cool stuff you get, look at all these cool people who are members, look at our annoying, yet trendily cool add banner", and nothing about hard facts, and how they are deep in the trenches fighting for my rights. I see alot of information about older laws and older game related criminal cases, but i dont see what the ECA is doing about it right now with regular updates on progress. With the EFF i know when they send legal council to a court case, i know when they are actively working to take down morons like Jack Thompson, its all plainly visible. With the ECA, i get the impression im joining a pay to enter clique, to get some swag, and post on a forum.

I simply dont understand what they are actively doing. I want to know what the ECA is doing, right here, right now, for me and my fellow gamers, before i put money into anyones pocket for anything. It just seems like a waste to throw money at something just because its about video games, and video game rights. Tell me what my $20 actually does...

[Gypsyfly PMS]

I'm a member of the EFF as well..I learned about them through ECA/GamePolitics.com which also supports that cause and many others like Net Neutrality..which Hal Halpin the founder and president of ECA is actually very vocal about, and Universal Broadband

The EFF was also funded in 1990 to cover mostly civil liberties issues from the legal side, with pro bono help from a few lawyers(which really does help keep costs down). I don't typically see anything specific to gaming legislation. ECA was started in 2006..and we've come a long way for such a short time. The main focus is on gaming and anything that effects gamers civil liberties or 1st amendment rights as well as anything that would unjustly stereotype us.

Mainly we're at grassroots efforts right now spreading the word on different legislation and efforts through Chapters, social sites, interviews, and our action alerts(just like the EFF). We actively try to motivate people and especially our Chapter Presidents to go and testify at court cases and attend different meetings.

However...I guess Hal can answer the question the best:

GS: So it looks like the primary mission…actually, I have a printout right here, I'll just read it! "The primary mission of the ECA is to give gaming consumers a voice and ensure that state and local politicians hear their concerns and appreciate their demographic power." How are they, theoretically I guess since the ECA just started, being heard? What kind of channels are we talking about here?

HH: We're a web-based organization, so hopefully all of it will be digital advocacy. And – a lot like MoveOn.org, actually – a lot of what we're going to try to do is motivate people to sort of express to us their wishes and their opinions, and then we'll be doing advocacy through our government relations team at the state and federal level, and my sort of fondest wish is to motivate people at the local level to go and actually testify, to present petitions, and to be able to sort of show that gamers as a group are not pimply-faced little kids. They're adults, and they can speak up for themselves, and I would love to get people testifying before committees.

GS: So you're talking about web-based, sort of idea gathering, and then from there there's a lot of actual ramifications in the physical world?

HH: I think both things would happen in parallel. The GI team is going to be actively out there and sort of fighting on behalf of consumers and all that stuff anyway. And it's more a matter of, how do you change a course to adapt to what your consumer members want, as opposed to cutting the course.

GS: So is it mostly politically geared?

HH: In terms of advocacy, yeah, almost all that we do in terms of advocacy is politically driven. As a (c)(4) we're not allowed to, by law and by our IRS designation, back any party or any political person running for office. What we can do is fight on behalf of consumers and do a lot of the similar things that the IGDA and the ESA and the EMA do

That's from one of the earliest interviews Hal did with Gamesutra.

The point is we're trying to get gamers motivated and aware...to basically give them a voice and fill the gap..honestly there is really nothing representing gamers similar to the way ESA represents developers and publishers. Nothing that makes us look like more than a bunch of lazy violent gamers. Your donation goes to funding our efforts on that front as well as helping provide any extra benefits for members that we can.

LoL, if membership were free, no one would argue joining because if you actually do research on it and the direction ECA is going it makes sense and a ton of gamers at varies events told us that. Also all founding goes to running the organization so we can be independent and our actions don't have to be dictated by any company.

I'm not an idiot, and I research the heck out of everything I'm involved in..so I don't blame you for the questions lol. Before I joined ECA I researched it and really liked where they were going. I noticed Hal speaking for the ECA was quoted and interviewed everywhere speaking on behalf of gamers and I liked their ultimate goals and mission, the things they were speaking out against. The other benefits were just a perk. Now I do many of their events, write a blog for them, and act as the Community Manger for their chapters which are also expanding. I just joined as the Chapter Community Manager and even though I have a plate of work I'm still liking the direction they're going even though I get to work on the other side now.


BTW: Like EFF, ECA is donor funded non-profit, so you can think of it as a donation as well except you actually get $300 goods and services too. We commonly compare it to triple A for gamers.

http://www.theeca.com/membership_benefits (The list expands when you actually join and the discounts onhealth insurance are not even on the list)

http://www.theeca.com/membership_services

http://www.theeca.com/eca_community(You can email me about chapters now)

And if you do a news search of Hal Halpin or Entertainment Consumers Association you'll pull up a ton of articles I"m pretty tired to research and post for you at 4AM lol.

More info: http://www.theeca.com/faq

If you have more questions please email feedback@theeca.com

If you want to specifically know about chapters you can email me at Daniela@TheECA.com.

We're about to go through a major update and some pretty exciting developments in the next few months which is a big step for us.

Anyway, happy gaming!

[Nakashige H2O]

is there a chapter in Massachusetts yet

[Gypsyfly PMS]

Originally Posted by Nakashige H2O

is there a chapter in Massachusetts yet

Yes, in West Springfield, MA but I don't think it's very active since I joined..I'm still trying to get a hold of the chapter president for that one.

Nakashige, If you're interested in starting a chapter let me know: Daniela@TheECA.com...and if your a PMS or H2O member and sent me your info you get ECA membership free for a year : )

I'm gonna post the chapters that need members and the areas that are unrepresented still probably next week.

[Nakashige H2O]

ok gypsy ill send you a email in a few trying to get osx running on my laptop

[Jane PMS]

The thing I like about the ECA is each chapter can decide on what they want to do actively. If there is something in your state you want to fix you can get together and start something. Its not just sitting back in the bleachers and watching people do stuff for you. You actually DO have a voice! <3.

Again, if anyone is in Washington state you can e-mail me at eca.seattle.chapter@gmail.com. We are looking for more members

[Nakashige H2O]

gi jane do u know if there are age restrictions on anything im interested in getting involved and ill email gypsy shortly

[Gypsyfly PMS]

If you're a president you have to at least be 18+ since you have to be an active ECA member. Sometimes you'll be representing ECA at events, interviews, during meetings and so on.

You should have at least 5 or so members yourself included that are also in ECA or are about to join ECA to start your division, which means they should be 18+ after that you can have members that can eventually become members of ECA, but they don't have to be right then..so typically they should at least be 17+ and about to become 18.

Once you email me I'll send you more info.

LoL, sorry for hijacking your thread Jane...I'll make one for ECA chapters in a bit.

[Nakashige H2O]

im sorrys too

[Jane PMS]

No problem! More people involved is a great thing

[LadyVix]

I have a home in Kent, WA, my drivers license and license plates on my car are all from WA, but I'm at my home in Denver for a few more months...

Maybe I'll try ya' back then?

[Jane PMS]

Sure, Just keep me posted. If you want to send me over your contact info that would be great! Have fun in Denver, I just moved from Colorado springs to WA. What a coincidence lol

[Buck-O]

Ironically, i used to live in Pueblo as well.

[Jane PMS]

LOL Small world this is now the .. who used to live in colorado thread. And why didnt we know this at the time?