Many people in the game industry know of the Entertainment Software Association, the trade group that organizes E3 and also fights in court against restrictive game selling laws. However, there is another organization that is centered not around the publishers but around game consumers. The Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) is a non-profit organization that not only goes after restrictive state laws but also is an advocate for gamers and their rights. Big Download got a chance to chat with ECA president Hal Halpin to find out more about the group, his opinions on various PC game industry issues and more....

The Entertainment Software Association has been in the news a lot lately but mostly for the wrong reasons as four of the trade group organization's members (Activision, Vivendi Games, id Software and Lucasarts) announced that they were leaving the ESA. The Washington Post is the latest media outlet to look at this trend and suggests that more departures may be coming.The article quotes Hal Halpin, the head of the consumer trade group the Entertainment Consumer Association, as saying that he knows of two more (unnamed) ESA members that he claims are planning to leave. To be fair, the ECA has been in a bit of a feud with the ESA in recent days. ECA web site Gamepolitics.com has questioned the ESA's pick of Texas governor Rick Perry to make a keynote speech at July's E3 event (the ECA states that Gamepolitics.com has complete editorial freedom but the ESA feels otherwise). The article also talks about the relative low public profile of the ESA's current president Michael Gallagher who took over the job from ESA founder Doug Lowenstein about a year ago.But it's also possible that the companies that have left the ESA might return to the fold. The article quotes id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead as saying their decision to leave the ESA, " . . . is probably temporary and was not political." Fees to join the ESA have gone up because of the decision to make E3 a invite only event....

In the mood for a LAN party but don't have any friends to frag? Eager to spout your geek-dom to other gamers who couldn't possibly know as much about your favorite game as you do? The Entertainment Consumer Association has heard your pleas.A non-profit organization geared toward hardcore gamers, the ECA will be dispersing its members throughout chapters in a variety of locations. Their goal: to conduct activities and educate their target audience on political matters relevant to gaming. Among those activities are ECA-sponsored LAN parties, as well as attending conferences and shows.ECA chapters have begun sprouting across college campuses and gaming communities all over the country. Over 40 chapters have already been instantiated, and according to ECA Chapter Relations' Thomas Valentino, the coming months will see the ECA "coordinate group advocacy efforts that continue to preserve our rights as gamers."Gamers will receive more benefits than verbalizing with (and fragging) other gamers; ECA chapter members and presidents will also be presented with both career and educational opportunities.Visit the ECA's website to learn more about the organization and chapters located in your area....

There's been a lot of talk lately on how the PC game industry can grow and become more stable. One of the major solutions that has been mentioned is free-to-play game titles which can be downloaded and played for free but can be supported via micro-transactions or in-game ads.Our sister web site Game Daily has a new editorial from Entertainment Consumers Association president Hal Halpin who advocates this new business model for games. In particular he is looking at how the upcoming Digital Illusions-Electronic Arts game Battlefield Heroes will do when it officially launches later this summer. Halpin seems to think that EA should have made the game browser based (he believes that would have opened up the game to even more audiences) but he seems hopeful that this new business model could work for other games.In particular, Halpin believes that a move to a free-to-play model will solve an issue that hurts both PC and console games; games that retail for $50 and $60 or more tend to be rented or traded in more and more. Halpin doesn't believe that all games could turn into free to play (although he adds, "that is certainly a possibility in the distant future") he does believe more publishers should look to changing their ways in order for the games industry to survive....