Steve Rechtschaffner who has a long and storied video game career will be our guest for the final class. He is going to take on the subject of the future of games and the future of the industry.

Here is Steve’s bio:

“Steve has 25+ years of pioneering in the worlds of branded entertainment, product marketing and digital entertainment.  He has changed how we think about wrist watches, live events, home fitness, video games, snowboarding and how we experience entertainment in the living room. He’s recently reconnected with some former EA friends, and together they have launched a disruptive mobile games & advertising platform called Play4Perks.

His life-long focus has been on “combining innovation and entertainment to create exciting and sustainable growth for brands and businesses.  Over the years, Steve has done this for Swatch, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Reebok, Converse, the U.F.C., ESPN, FOX TV and the U.S. Ski Team, amongst others.

Non-professional time for Steve is spent practicing yoga, riding his bike, trying to become a kite surfer, while also being a husband and father of 3 offspring.”

jon

Follow

HopeLabs developed a video game designed for teenagers and young adults with cancer. In the game, players navigate within the human body — using violent video game tactics — to target cancer cells, infections, and side-effects of treatment.

http://www.hopelab.org/innovative-solutions/re-mission%E2%84%A2/

The game is touted as one of a number of uses of video game violence with positive outcomes, contrasted sharply to other concerns often heard in the media. Discussed in one article that was part of a 2010 American Psychological Association journal special edition on the effects of video game violence, Re-Mission was reported to have increased self-efficacy, treatment adherence, and knowledge of cancer by those who played the game.

http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/gpr-14-2-68.pdf (see p 77)

The APA special edition was overall quite critical of research that suggests an otherwise direct link between video game violence and real-world violence. A discussion of the special edition’s findings, and public links to all the articles in it, can be found here:

http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2010/06/violent-video-games.aspx

Follow

We have the privilege of having a team of two guest speakers from Electronics Arts Inc. with us this week.

Electronics Arts Inc. was incorporated in 1982. EA was a pioneer in the development of home video games.  EA is an international company with numerous locations in Canada, including Vancouver. EA develops and publishes games under several labels including EA Sports titles, Madden NFL, FIFA Soccer, NHL, NCAA Football, SSX and NBA Jam.  In recent news, their website announced (March 20, 2013) the launch of “Yogify”, a new yoga app created by EA Sports.

Anoop Desai, Director of Business Affairs for Electronic Arts Inc.

After graduating from UBC with a B.Comm (Finance), Anoop obtained his law degree from the University of Calgary before returning to Vancouver to practice at AHB&L LLP in the areas of general corporate commercial, M&A, securities and intellectual properties law. As Director of Business Affairs, Anoop architects and negotiates a variety of development, digital distribution and publishing partnerships for current and emerging platforms.

FUN FACT:  Google search results of ‘Anoop Desai’ notwithstanding, Anoop was never on American Idol.  

Brian Dartnell, Senior Counsel at Electronics Arts Inc.

Brian graduated from Osgood Hall Law School in 1996.  He completed a Judicial Clerkship at the British Columbia Court of Appeal from 1996-1997.  He articled at Owen Bird and was called to the Bar in British Columbia 1998.  Brian then worked as associate at Owen Bird, practicing in general corporate commercial litigation from 1998-2000.  He as an Associate at Gowling Lafleur Henderson, where he practiced labour and employment law from 2000-2005.

Brian’s role as Senior Counsel at EA:

Brian is responsible for the oversight and delivery of legal services to the Canadian based EA development studios. Responsible for the management of the Canadian Legal team which includes lawyers, para-legals, immigration specialists and administrative assistants.

FUN FACT:  Brian has completed 5 Ironman races in the last 6 years.

For more information, take a look at the following:

2010 Canadian Lawyer Magazine article.  The link is: http://www.canadianlawyermag.com/Hes-in-the-game.html

Lawyers Weekly Article, “Gaming Paradise”.  The link is:  http://www.lawyersweekly-digital.com/lawyersweekly/ic2011fall?pg=30#pg30

Follow

Today on the Consumerist, a reader writes to complain of the ToS Death Penalty – a draconian punishment for purported ToS violations that is becoming all too common. The ToS Death Penalty is the seemingly arbitrary execution of a user’s online account with a company, with no explanation of what actually happened and without right of appeal.

In this case, a user lost not only his primary email address and cloud storage, but also access to Windows Live games that he had paid for. From Microsoft’s response:

“I’m happy to assist you with your concern that you could not access your email account.

Please be informed that we have reviewed your account and determined that it was closed due to violation of our Terms of Use.

We are not able to discuss the specific details of your account closure. To read Microsoft Services Agreement and learn about the code of conduct, please visit:http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-live/code-of-conduct”

Microsoft isn’t the only bad guy here. Steam has been known to kill users’ accounts without recourse. Same for Amazon.

The ToS Death Penalty is becoming increasing problematic as more and more of our lives are being moved into the cloud. This is especially true when a single account spans multiple services, and violations of the terms of one service could result in the termination of all your account as a whole.

Cheating in Medal of Honor should get you banned from the game for a few days. It shouldn’t cost you your email account and cloud documents. The ToS Death Penalty must be abolished.

Follow