GamersFirst in Politics
Politics has it's place in the universe that is our government. However over the past 2 decades, the gaming industry, in some regard has been on the receiving end of negative issues with regard to the nature of the content in some types of games. Folks like Joe Liberman, Jack Thompson, etc, have certainly at one point raised awareness to their somewhat baseless claims.
So when will the gaming industry gain a positive light in government? Some might say when all forms of entertainment are heavily monitored and their respective content strained and moderated.
It is to this end that I write this article today. Gamecore was recently informed that one of gaming's very own is looking to give the state of California and their governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, a run for their money. According to a press release launched on the April 1st 2010, the Chief Executive Officer and founder of GamersFirst, Joshua Hong, has announced his plans to run for governor of California.
The Orange County (OC) businessman founded GamersFirst back in 2001. The idea was to offer Free2Play MMOGs to all their users and were the first at the time to do this. The games currently range between 4 types, racing, shooters, explore (RPGs) and arcade. Here's the press release.
---
Irvine, Calif., April 1, 2010 - Joshua Hong, CEO and founder of GamersFirst, has declared his intent to participate in the 2010 race for California Governor; replacing Governer Schwarzenegger; who is ineligible for re-election this year. Joshua Hong addressed his public through a video released to various news sites this morning at 5:00 a.m. EST/8:00 a.m. PST and posted on the company's website: www.Gamersfirst.com/Vote4Josh.
"I have pondered this decision at great length and am eager to join the esteemed ranks of California's past gubernal candidates," says Joshua Hong in his video release this morning. "In the past ten years, I have really seen California embrace global thoughts and ideas and incorporate them into our state's processes. However, the focus has been on over-examined issues like the economy, schools and healthcare. Real Californians are tired of hearing about these issues. What people really care about is entertainment and video games. From experience, players are sick of big corporations charging exorbitant costs for video games and consoles. I want to incorporate the ideas of Free2Play, which I brought to this industry and trademarked. I will use my gubernatorial term to propagate and instill Free2Play to Californians. With our loyal Free2Play community of nearly 5 million in California, the strength of that bond will push me into the position of 39th governor of California!"
In 2003, Governor Schwarzenegger won the race with 3,654,385 votes, beating Cruz Bustamante by 1.3 million votes. Joshua will be running as an Independent against Helene Nightingale, Markham Robinson and Steve Weidman. Joshua Hong's campaign will be running out of his Orange County office in Irvine, Calif.
Joshua has yet to announce his campaign advisor and team, however, he has decided to run the campaign with the idea that the campaign will run solely on the promise of Free2Play and the Free2Play community.
"Obviously this is not the first time Josh has been in a leadership position and definitely not the first time he has considered candidacy," says Rahul Sandil, Joshua's long-time friend and VP of Global Sales and PR at Gamers First. "We've talked about this for years and he wanted to wait until the timing made sense for him, and when California was in a place where it was receptive to fresh logic and ideas, like Free2Play video games for all. California needs a fresh look on what's really important to our state and Josh is the man for the job!"
In true Free2Play tradition, Joshua has extended an invitation throughout California and the United States to access Gamers First's online game titles for FREE at www.GamersFirst.com/vote4Josh