THE LAST WORD
We ain't non-essential
by David Pierson
Any publicity is bad publicity, or so many in this
industry have come to think. After all, with the great
attention the media has showered on the truly stupid
and totally unsubstantiated arguments of the anti-kid
elements which wailt to do away with coin-ops, many
people in the coin-op business have started to ask
themselves, "Do I really need all this attention?"
What the industry has to examine is the reason for
all this negative media attention.
Why is any argument against coin-op considered a
valid argument and any arguer against coin-op con-
sidered a valid news source?
Why is it that shallow and pretentious arguments
(such as video games being "addictive" or "stealing" '
children's lunch money) are aired as having some
substance to them?
Why is it that a New York mother like Ronnie Lamm
who is anti-games and who has done absolutely no
research into the psychological, sociological, or
educational implications of the games she's com-
plaining about, is suddenly thrust into the limelight as
someone who knows what she's talking about-
simply because she has an opinion that is unsubstanti-
ated and unsupportable?
How is it that a talk show host such as Phil Donahue,
without any evidence or even an inkling of evidence
to support any kind of connection , can suggest that
coin-op videos may be contributing to the "dumbing
of American textbooks," and hence to the dumbing
of American schoolchildren-and not only not get
laughed at but actually have such a stupid opinion
considered a working theory that must have some
basis in fact by a gullible audience that's hearing all of
this for the first time?
But the real question is this: Why is it that all other
forms of leisure entertainment-including television,
sports, motion pictures, records, books-though they
reap hugh profits from the American public and even
flaunt their wealth in the public eye, can go about
their businesses unchallenged, while coin-op amuse-
ments get all the flak?
Why is it said that video games are addictive when,
in fact , no one blinks when it's pointed out to them
that our youth sit dumbfounded in front of television
sets for more hours in each week than they spend in
school?
Why is it that violent sports, which have been
known to cripple our youth, are held up to an adoring
public and even granted monopoly rights while
everyone focuses in on how repeated use of the firing
button in Defender can cause numbness in
someone ' s pinky finger?
Why is it that pseudo-talents who specialize in
writing two-minute ditties about the wonders of
teen sex and drugs can have their message aired
repeat edly on the radio without the slightest bit of
so c ial scorn , while outraged parents and govern-
146
mental vigilantes see the face of Satan himself in the
coin-op video games?
Why is it that motion picture stars can live in elegant
mansions and no one thinks anything about it? Why is
it that top motion pictures are ranked each week
according to the millions of dollars they grossed over
the previous week, but the coin-op amusement
industry is afraid even to admit that those are real
quarters that are being put into the machines because
local governing bodies will want to take all of them?
Obviously, the manufacturers' association doesn't
have the answer. That's why they hired a high-priced
public relations firm to figure it out for them.
Obviously, the distributors' association doesn't
have the answer. That's why they also hired the same
high-priced public relations firm to figure it out for
them.
And-obviously-the operators' association
doesn't have the answer. So, you guessed it, they
hired the same public relations firm, too .
And what is this highly-paid public relations firm
going to tell them? Exactly this: The reason coin-op
videos are being so vehemently attacked is that the
general public perceives the industry as being non-
essential.
And, you know, the real problem is that we
perceive ourselves that way too-as non-essential.
All other forms of entertainment have justified
themselves in this puritanical society-sports,
television, records, motion pictures, and so on. But
not coin-ops.
Mrs. Lamm was not completely laughable when she
made the utterly nonsensical remark that people in
the coin-op business are in business only for the
money, that they're motivated only by their own
greed. Of course, any businessman in American
society would tell you straight off that that's the only
reason any of them are in business.
But Mrs. Lamm's naive complaint does point out
the extra step entertainment industries must take to
justify their existences in American society. While
restaurateurs and innkeepers don't have to bother
with such nonsense, it's because their "service" to
society is obvious. But entertainment industries, in
order to survive, have got to articulate what it is about
them that is essential to the American way of life. And
professional sports have done that. The motion
picture industry has done that. The record industry
has done that. And television has done that.
But the coin-op amusement industry has not.
Next time we'll explore exactly what it is the coin-
op amusement industry should point to in order to
justify its existence to society. It's actually the task of
the public relations firm, but then a P.R. firm is only
going to be able to bring out what is already within
the industry.
Next time ...
PLAY METER, May 15, 1982