Today's Adventure In Cell Phone Monopoly

After being bored with essentially controlling the entire board ... I thoughtfully swapped enough assets to give every other player at least one monopoly on the board.

Next round, Ben (CPU) wanted to trade me a property from his for an errant railroad. Probably not the best strategy, Ben (CPU).



tagged: monopoly, gaming

Taking the Media Guide To Task

Blogcritics have an excellent deconstruction of the Family Media Guide which reports what it considers to be the most ultra-violent material for parents to willingly purchase for their children:

Do you see a pattern here? I have my hand raised; I'll get this one. All of these games are rated M for Mature by the ESRB. The reason the Family Media Guide has to put this list out is because - and only because - parents obviously cannot read and understand the ESRB rating system. Well I take that back, these "Family Groups" are attention whores when it comes to anything remotely resembling GTA.

On the back of the box for Condemned it says: Mature (17+) Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language. Let me translate: When you hit someone over the head with a lead pipe, blood squirts out; this game is really violent; you will hear people say things like "Fuck You!" in this game. Was my translation needed? Do I have to answer that?

-- The Anniston Star Links Our Article To Family Media Guide

They break down the titles as well, pointing out that they share the fact of being well-known and also, generally good games. The real problem I have is that NIMF's material seems to be turning into a most wanted list for the media to start to attack, as if just by making some kind of "ultra-violent" top ten, it's justification for making egregious leaps in logic about just how much your PS 2 can brainwash you. I do, in general, support NIMF and what they're trying to do ... but a lot of their press releases are little more than chest beating and witch hunting that seem to gain far more traction with the fearmongerers than the parents.



tagged: game, gaming

A Video Game Librarian Overview

Over at Gaming Target, John Scalzo talks about the video game his library started to rent and how well the expirement turned out. He goes into how long it took to get breakage (seven months), what happens with thefts (hunt 'em down) and also the odd contradictions between R rated movies, which are allowed, and M rated games, which aren't:

I've tried to push games with a "tame M" like Neo Contra and games that spawned R-rated movies (which we do own) like Resident Evil 4, but no dice. The M is the roadblock, not the content descriptors. Yet, R-rated movies are everywhere. In fact, many patrons are requesting the new Unrated Director's Cut (read: NC-17) DVDs that have become all the rage these days and they are being added as fast as they can be purchased. It's a strange double standard, but one that almost has to be respected at this point. The collection is too small to fill it with games that can only be appreciated by a small percentage of our patrons.

-- The Video Game Librarian: It's The End of the Year As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

I remember thinking it was radical that a library might rent music, much less DVDs and PS2 titles. It's been a woefully long time since I've stepped into a library, so I would find around Chicago. It's great to see some places take the idea seriously, however.



tagged: library, gaming

What Benefit to Game Legislation?

Plagiarize over at Aelon asks a great question:

Again, let’s look at England. They have the legal controls, and more and more consoles are providing the software controls.

So why is it then that in the last two days, two different stories have been laying blame at the door of the game developers for two seperate cases of violent crime committed by teenagers?

-- What is wrong with Britain?

All the more evidence that this morality play the lawyers and politicians are trying to run with is little more than a hill of beans. If we enact these laws, it's not going to stop any violence. Just like ignoring the real cause of any problem won't solve it.



tagged: gaming

Lost: OMG Charlie WTF!

Scuze the l33tspeak, for some reason this morning I had a bizarre faux conversation of how the average internet forum reaction to Charlie's behavior in last night's Lost would read. Something like "WTF troll! OMFG get yer own damn kid." came to mind.

Again, this episode felt a little like a lull to me. If I had missed it, I don't think I'd feel the pain too much next week. That said, I'm still glad I didn't miss it. For one thing, there were some great lines ... the best is when Charlie complains that Kate can see a horse and nobody blinks but when he has something weird happen, it must be ... well, the horse (as in heroin). The love triangle stuff is always so-so. Big net debate this morning seems to be whether Locke is moving in on Claire. My only response is ... who cares, there's a freaking invisible evil smoke monster with steel claws on the island. Or something like that.

Granted, I think there is no doubt that if I were on the Island ... I'd be the one freaking out. A lot.

Also, I'm a little cranky that American Idol ran over House for the second time in a row. So wrong on so many levels.

However, there was something important about this episode I think. It's what Charlie himself pointed out ... what happened to him isn't at all odd. Jack sees his dead father. Sawyer swears he recognized that boar. Kate sees a horse. Sayid and Shannon see Walt. And that's when they were awake. Hurley has a dream about an English talking Jin and a man in a chicken suit and now Charlie has a near biblical epiphany while apparently sleep-kidnapping. So seriously, WTF? Let's not ignore Locke's mysterious ability to walk ... which can apparently leave him just as mysteriously.

What can happen here? The Island, or it's keepers, is clearly capable of bringing in wild coincidences, from getting people on the same plane to crash on the same island as other people to finding random snippets of film. People can see and touch things we should assume would previously exist in their head (Jack's dad) or maybe even someone else's head (backward talking Walt ... which begs the question ... why backwards?). People can have powerful dreams and even be influenced to perform certain actions while dreaming. Oh, and if Michael and Charlie are any indication ... all of this could drive someone really batty. Let's not forget that Kate was acting odd before her equine moment.

Course, many of these things are similar in nature. Jack's dad, Sawyer's boar, Boone's Shannon, Kate's horse, Charlie's angels (sorry, couldn't resist) and even if we toss in Michael's text conversations ... are all key icons in the main issue of their specific life. In fact, the only one that comes to mind who doesn't fit is Walt appearing to Shannon/Sayid ... which might be why he was talking backward. He was a mixup, or came from a different source ... but the wires got swapped on his A/V connection or something.

The question I've got is ... is there a real difference between Kate's horse and say ... the Nigerian drug plane? Did maybe both of these items get spirited to the Island not for seperate reasons and seperate means ... but the same reason and the same mechanics?

Not sure where that long winded diatrabe was going. It sounds like I suspect Scotty is in some hatch beaming stuff all around. And who knows ... maybe that's right...



tagged: television, Lost

Kid goes crazy, People blame the game

Via Idle Thumbs I looked up this latest bit of video game fearmongering. Seems a couple years ago in England, a kid went crazy and attacked his family. Attacked his brother with an axe and set fire to the house ... which killed his sister via smoke inhalation. This was all laid out in his complex plan which read: "Operation New Life. Kill family. Lose memory. Get adopted by rich couple. It all starts.”

What does this have to do with games? Clearly this was an otherwise normal boy who played too much Devil May Cry, because any other explanation ... like him being absolutely 100% insane (did I mention he planned on cutting himself to make it appear like a demon had attacked him? No? He did. ).

Of course, this is the Sun Online which is squeezing such wonderful journalism in between hardhitting headlines like "I had gay sex" and the Page 3 Girl.




tagged: murder, gaming

Duck Hunt Meets Call of Duty

Newgrounds offer up a great flash game which combines the graphical splendor of Duck Hunt in Call of Duty's setting. Brilliant, funny and fun. Watch out for the kraut dogs and remember that you can aim better with "SHIFT". As Teddy Roosevelt once said, "Do no hit at all if it can be avoided, but never hit softly." Or something like that.

Someone sent this to me via IM, but I think they found it via Boing Boing who saw it on Wonderland.



tagged: flash, gaming

GameTunnel's December Round-up

They deal out a lot of Silver Awards this time around, but GameTunnel's monthly rodeo of indie game reviews doesn't cough much else. Reviewers this time include Seth Robinson of Legend of the Red Dragon fame and GT's own Russ Carrol.




tagged: indie, gaming

Are Movies Portraying Gamers Better?

Metroactive seems to think that the movie 40-year old virgin squares up the representation of gamers in film. Well, considering we used to have Tom Hanks as a paranoid schizophrenic LARPer, it's hard to disagree that the image has definately been getting better. They do a good job of running down the history of gaming in film, the generational gaps that used to exist and how games are becoming more and more prevalent in films.




tagged: movies, gaming

25 To Life's "Moral Dilemma"

I don't think 25 to Life has been that well reviewed thus far, but I'm like the game's writer P. Frank Williams. The guy's defense of his work is straight on and honest:

"After doing this game, I experienced kind of a moral dilemma," said Williams, a former Source magazine editor and hip-hop awards show producer, who wrote the game's storyline and scripted its dialogue. He's married to MuchMoreMusic host Traci Melchor and splits his time between Los Angeles and Toronto.

"It's wild to be in Toronto where you guys are having the unusual spate of gunplay. It's indicative of our culture, but we have to be careful also with video games like this and just be safe and smart."

-- Violent game's creator admits to 'moral dilemma'

His take is that his writing isn't a promotion of violent crime, but a reflection of society. Some Senators and insane lawyers seem to think that if we don't write about things, don't portray them in movies or make video games concerning them ... that they will simply vanish into thin air. Somehow the joystick give video games a higher moral imperative than books or comics as well, and if you make a game tht mirrors the same content as a Hollywood movie ... then it's going to break down normal human behavior. Which makes about as much sense as proclaiming that gay marriage leads to incest, so I guess we can see where the problems our Congressmen have with rational thought exist.



tagged: controversy, gaming

Nintendo Sponsors Gaming History Exhibit

From Nintendo.com:

The world wide tour celebrating the history and culture of video games comes to the Science Museum in late 2006 thru into 2007. Nintendo will sponsor the exhibition, which charts the technological and cultural developments in computer games, from the 1960s video arcades to the very latest home consoles.

-- Nintendo sponsors Science Museum




tagged: nintendo, gaming

Mods, Steam, Innovation, etc.

I totally blanked that Johnny Pi posted up his guestbloggery on Steam and Mods over at Design Synthesis. Guest bloggers amount to Corvus and myself ... and we manage to cover the vantage points fairly well I think. I shan't repeat myself here, especially since I am known for long winded rants on the subject and can't seem to keep a response under a paragraph.

Here is a bit of Corvus on the subject:

I'm a little torn about this. Quality mods keep Half Life alive and, presumably, will perform the same function for Half Life 2 and the Source engine. Crappy mods, as far as I'm concerned, are noise in the channel. When I go to log onto a server, the last things I want is to find dozens, or even hundreds, of custom mods, hacks, and maps, I need to download before I can find a server with decent ping to play on.

Is it tough to get noticed when you're a dwarf among giants? Sure it is. Is it fair? No. It does mean, however, you have to think faster, worker harder, shout louder, jump higher, and self promote your accomplishments like a carnie barker on meth (potentially redundant, I know). But here's a shocking opinion: there's not anything wrong with that situation. Not one damn thing.

Comments are off here ... direct them there.


tagged: mods, gaming

Gonzales v. You

The more I read about the government pursuing Google's data in conjuction with all the rest of the junk that the Bush administration is trying to get away with, the more I'm inclined to agree that maybe it's time to start taking this a little personally.

Set aside what political affiliation you may or may not be associated with for a moment and realize that if you are reading this blog there is a decent chance that you spend a good amount of your time doing things online. Reading, writing, communicating and gaming. Netizens have always had to make a case of defending their personal and private space online, and for good reasons. We exist in a kind of liminal space out here on the net; one that borders our private lives and our public communications.

Gonzales was on NPR yesterday explaining that he felt the Bush administration was not bypassing FISA by performing domestic wiretaps because electronic surveillance is a wartime effort and Congress granted the Executive branch wartime powers for the War on Terror. Essentially he insists Bush can circumvent current laws provided they are exercised as part of standard warfare procedures. Since electronic wiretaps are common war tactics these days, Bush can do it all willy nilly like.

Just like he can detain people and probably torture them, the logic would probably follow. American citizen or not. Pushing the boundaries of the Executive power is not uncommon for the Bush administration. In fact, it's pretty much a goal. The Supreme Court has already slapped their wrist for Hamdi and also recently for trying to interfere with the Oregon Right to Die law.

And now Google. And if there were ever a portal to that liminal space we reside in as netizens, Google would have to be a main one. While the justifications vary, the end result is the same. The Bush administration wants to have have what it feels it needs, and both state and civil rights get brushed aside in the end. The Google request isn't even tied to a criminal investigation, but rather a dragnet of information to build a constitutional defense.

You probably aren't a terrorist or a child pornographer. You might not even know what COPA means. But you are possibly an American citizen (and if you're not, hello!) and a citizen of the Net. And you have rights. And maybe it's about time to write your Senator.




tagged: game, gaming

Fear Of Girls RPG Mockumentary

Geeks are, if anything, a marvelously self-deprecating bunch. Such is the ten minute mockumentary of two avid role-players portrayed in Fear of Girls. Get to know Doug Doug and Raymond as they exposit on LARPing, girls and being vampires in high school. Yngtrk of digg.com calls it "'Broke Back Mountain' meets Dungeons & Dragons. Watch Fear of Girls, because true love is but a +2 broadsword away.



tagged: video, gaming

Java Combat Clone

Well, not a complete clone but rather an an interesting update on the tank portion of the game with such ideas as hit points rather than instant kills. Fun and more than a little addicting.


tagged: java, gaming