Daily Show On Gaming Legislation

If you can find a torrent or video of last night's Daily Show, proceed immediately to downloading it. The show brilliantly covered the Congressional talks on video game violence. One of the most easily noticeable facts is just how out of touch lawmakers are with modern entertainment. One claimed, jokingly I suppose, that he was an avid video gamer because he really liked Pong.

Seriously, though, how can we expect the government to regulate something it has no real concept of? One lawmaker bemoaned how much his kids loved games and himself sounded powerless against the forces that would compel him to buy whatever they wanted. Curse the ESRB for not making the rating "Mature" clear enough for parents shopping for their eleven year old child ... curse them!

I do feel for parents trying to navigate today's media ... but if they're looking at Congress to help ... well, that's just the blind leading the blind.



tagged: game, gaming

This Spartan Life On Net Neutrality

As part of Pulver.net's Save The Net viral ad contest, This Spartan Life covered net neutrality in one episode. This was a month ago so clearly avid fans have already seen it ... but if you haven't and care about the rape and pillaging of the Internet as we know it, give it a view and pass the link on. That's how these viral ad things are supposed to work, I hear.
(seen via These Damned Machines Are Killing Me)


tagged: net neutrality, gaming

Some Games "Don't Deserve Free Speech Protection"

Oh really?

Committee Chairman Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican, and others also suggested that certain explicit games don't deserve traditional free speech protections. "Building a video game around a premise based on very realistic, cold-blooded assassinations of innocent bystanders and police" is "more akin to hate speech, not free speech," he said.

-- Politicians lash out at video game industry

So, media which portrays the death of law enforcement agents or innocent children constitutes a hate crime? Does the honorable chairman even watch television? Or hell, read Shakespeare? We're to assume that it's never OK to portray the criminal?

I can see it now, thanks to Congressional oversight, the next Rockstar game will be Grand Theft Auto: Rehabilitation Clinic ... where the only possible actions will be for the player to realize his life mistakes and try to make amends. Press "A" to make an affirmation and "X" to take your methadone.

Oh wait, maybe instead it should be Grand Theft Auto: Capitol City. Instead of a life of crime within urban sprawl, the player instead trades wasteful pork barrel projects in exchange for "donations". Press "Y" to sneak in legislation on a bill to feed AIDS victims and "Z" to keep the black man down.

Seriously, we're in the age of Abramoff and Congress actually has the balls to try and tell us what's moral? Pah-lease.




tagged: politics, gaming

Wii Dev Kit For $1700?

Rumors suggest that the Wii Development Kit will ring in to a tune "as low as $1,732", which would be sweet as hell (digg it). I would still love to see Nintendo develop a PC based DS SDK which uses the Wii as a deployment device (homegrown demo downloads if you will), but a cheap Wii Dev Kit's a good start. This would help expand the Wii's base greatly and if Nintendo can learn from Live Arcade in general, the Wii could be a great indie platform.



tagged: nintendo, gaming

More On Metroid Prime 3's story, mechanics

The main gimmick behind the corruption is the idea of hyper mode. Hyper mode has been something that we've used in the Prime series before, but it's also been in Super Metroid at the very end. Well, because of this Phazon corruptionm we're giving the player the ability to go into that mode at any time and become very powerful, which open up a subset of abilities that Samus will have based on this Phazoncorruption. The caveat to that is while you're extremely powerful for a period of time, you also have the possibilty of dying. So you're kind of balancing the system at the same time. You would naturally time out of the system or you would use up all your Phazon while you're shooting your weapons and things like that. Your corruption fuels this hyper mode, so you shoot weapons your health bar switches to a different type of management system.

-- Metroid Prime 3 Corruption Interview (digg it)

Not sure if calling a chief mechanic a "gimmick" is such a great idea, but I appreciate the honesty. There's also some details on the storyline and the role other bounty hunters might play. Personally, I just want to see how well a Wii shooter will play.




tagged: game, gaming

Lego'd Games

This photostream features game vignettes done up in Legos, including this great Katamari pic. This might be old, actually, but I felt I should put it up in respect to Lego's layoff woes.


tagged: game, gaming

OK, Time To Cancel Duke Nukem Forever

This grand list of world changes since Duke Nukem Forever started development has been making the rounds ... and it's quite the read. "Every Unreal, every Unreal Tournament, and every game that has used any of the Unreal engines" hits pretty close to home for me, considering just how many hours I've wasted on those titles (and to some extent, developing with them).

Soon the title will be a decade's worth of effort and currently there's nothing 3D Realms is willing to show for it. No demos, no screen caps, no videos. The last E3 presentation is now terribly dated. The best thing to come out from the franchise in all this time is quite likely Megadeth's cover of the theme song.

Duke Nukem Forever has transcended the normal concept of hype for a game. It's practically urban legend. Nothing that could be produced will live up to the expectations that will be thrusted upon the game. And we've seen with Doom III and Deus Ex 2 just how much high expectations can lead to a gamer rebellion on a title.

Despite my constant request to never release it so that the constant calvacade of Duke jokes and release rumors can continue, I'd say it's time to cut the losses. Cancel the game, change the title and release under a completely different name. Make the next Duke title a different genre, like RTS or MMO ... because it's hard to imagine the next Duke shooter surviving the forum flame wars. Because that's one thing not on that list ... just how saturated the FPS market has truly become. Not even heavies like id can always hit the home runs these days. Upstarts like CroTeam are just as likely to make a splash as someone like Epic.

Who needs Daikatana like baggage on a release? Is the Duke name really worth all that? I think the last Duke title I played was on the N64. Games like Project: Snowblind prove that seperating yourself from a franchise is sometimes better than staying hitched to it.

It's been fun ... and funny ... but it's time to let it die.





tagged: game, gaming

Mean Mac Ads?

Apparently both Boing Boing and Slate feel the recent switch ads for Macs are somewhat mean in nature. TUAW asks if they're productive. The basic premise seems to be that since the man playing the part of a PC, John Hodgman, is rather likable fellow ... that the Mac is just picking on the guy.

Honestly, I'm not sure I've read a more oddly nuanced view of a Mac ad since people debated if that girl was stoned or on cough medicine. I rather find making the PC "character" likable turns the ad affable rather than confrontrational and not the other way around. If the PC was portrayed as some sniveling uncharasmatic suit ... well, then Apple would be guilty of just erecting a large straw man to beat on. In other words, you aren't supposed to choose Mac because the other guy is an assclown but rather because when the features are laid out side by side, you can see the benefits.

So by making the PC persona someone actually warm and funny just brings to light that Apple understands that people don't really hate Windows. Heck, if people are really going to go buy a computer based on personality, they'll probably get a Mac anyway. I bought my Mini before these ads came out ... and trust me when I say it's every bit as personable as Mr. Hodgman himself.




tagged: apple, macintosh

False Mario Idol

From est0al's photostream. Taken at an exhibition about the history of videogames called "From Cardgame to Game Boy". You can even ride the trippy Pikachu bus to praise the grand statue of Mario.



tagged: mario, gaming

Neverball: MacBook MonkeyBall

Neverball is a GPL version of Super MonkeyBall. Apparently on a MacBook, you can use the computer's tilt sensor as a control. Reason #237 to buy a MacBook... Check out Dee's Planet for a vid (that I can't see).



tagged: game, gaming

Adorable Bear Plays With Tiny Nintendo

Cutest thing I've ever posted. From tiramisu_addict's photostream.



tagged: game, gaming

Jeremiah Palecek's Video Game Art

Jeremiah is an artist in Prague whose apparent obession with video games blends into his paintings in a keen and almost surreal way. He's got a blog where he posts a painting a day. (via Cool Hunting)


tagged: art, gaming

PC World's High Def Format Showdown

If all the hype and spin between Sony and Microsoft on why their upcoming high definition format makes so much more sense than the other guys has your head aching, try giving PC World's article a good slow read. It breaks down the different devices and formats in some detail and while it doesn't declare a victor (because seriously ... it's too close to call) ... it's a great overview.



tagged: microsoft, sony

Sure, Let's Beat On Take Two Some More...

Because really, it's the kind of fun nobody can ever get enough of, right?

Mind you, I'm responding not to the actual op/ed by noted Take Two hater GamePolitics.com ... because right now I can't read it ... but rather Joystiq's read on the matter. Apparently even after the FTC has settled with Take Two ... Dennis McCauley wants them to be dragged in front of Congress.

First, Dennis, let's be honest. Congress is posing a straw man debate in the first place ... so why would you expect them to bring up anyone specifically related to the argument? It completely goes against the grain of the concept. Why worry about experts when you get some guy who lost his brother to a teenage shooter? Who needs facts or logic when the Jack Thompson approach is oh so much more interesting.

Second, the obvious answer to things like "Who created the animations?" must be "who the hell still cares?" Since the FTC has settled on the matter, why do we think a good old fasioned Congressional hearing on the matter would do anything at all? We've seen just how much it's cleaned up baseball.

Why can't anyone answer the prominent question of this issue: "Why should parents make the distinction between altered game code which uncovers assets and altered game code which adds assets?" I know, it's a lot dryer than asking something like "Why did they try to blame the mess on their biggest fans, the GTA mod community?" ... which isn't entirely accurate or fair. In fact, it desperately tries to ignore the actual issue at foot here ... how much can the game industry be expected to regulate the mod community?

We're talking about a ratings system to which the nuances between "Mature" and "Teen" is apparently lost on many parents, but we expect them to care whether some modders found a nipple hidden on a disc or figured out a way to add nipple later on? It's the first disconnect which is a problem for the industry, not the second.

But go ahead, drag this out for as long as possible. I'm sure it's good for traffic.




tagged: game, gaming

Stevens' "Compromise" On Net Neutrality

If I'm reading the article right ... and mind you I'm not operating at full cycles right now ... the this "compromise" offers no ban on telecoms playing traffic cop to the content you're trying to access on the Internet ... but rather "a complaint process through the FCC if consumers believe their access rights were violated and the agency would be authorized to adjudicate complaints with penalties" to control abuse.

In other words, this would be the kind of compromise which is best compared to gutting a fish with a very large knife.

And we're the fish.




tagged: internet, net neutrality