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The design and business of gaming from the perspective of an experienced developer

Category: Games and Politics (Page 5 of 9)

Meanwhile, In The Land of Make-Believe

April 7, 2006 /

I haven’t talked about the game ratings thing at all lately, largely because Game Politics does it so much better than I do. Blogroll them if you’re not already.

That being said, GP turned me on to this story of the Virginia Legislature trying to get Mature games with labels that are at least 3 inches X 3 inches square (or put another way, covering up a full quarter of the front of a standard DVD game case). Clicky clicky for a general mockup.

Brenda Brathwaite goes on to point out the obvious: Game Ratings are already much larger and more prominent than movie ratings on DVD. This is not to say that there aren’t steps we can’t take to improve how our industry is percieved and that ratings are accurate. It would just be nice to see politicians display some appropriate perspective.

Catty ‘Games As Art’ Comments – Only 5 Months Late!

March 14, 2006 /

Last Friday, I was an emergency fill-in on a panel for the AGD on the topic as to whether or not games are art, where I was a speaker alongside Scott Jennings and Allen Varney. Being as I didn’t know at 5:00 that I was speaking on a panel at 7:30, it was an interesting panel, and one which I felt remarkably unprepared for. Still, we had a good discussion (J has posted his notes on Gamasutra).

The topic was specifically about Roger Ebert’s rather catty and self-important quotes claiming that games will never be as important as other mediums, for a variety of reasons. Continue reading

A Peaceful, More Tranquil Year

January 19, 2006 /

Buzzcut wants to point out that there were no M-Rated games in the top 10 games from last year. Which is interesting, given all the hoopla about video games provided by people named Thompson and Clinton. To be honest, the only M-Rated game that I thought was really excellent last year was God of War, which suffered from sub-par sales, so perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise.

Also of note: yet another Pokemon in the top 10. One wonders how much of Nintendo’s annual earnings are made by releasing a Pokemon title every year.

Jack Thompson Update

November 21, 2005 /

Game Politics remains the top source of news regarding our favorite anti-gaming scoundrel. This morning they report two amusing stories. The first is that Jack Thompson’s book, Out of Harm’s Way, has been, predictably, bookstormed on Amazon.com, as various members in the gaming community have proceeded to helpfully provide tags, customer images and reviews for the tome. This, of course, has prompted Jack Thompson to threaten Amazon with legal action (summaries here and here). It also has, purportedly, a review from Amazon.com written by Jack himself(supposedly – there is no way to verify as of yet), which of course Amazon removed since you’re not supposed to review your own books (perhaps Amazon also didn’t like being described as a ‘neanderthal blog’ as well).

Meanwhile, in a ‘you can’t quit, you’re fired’ moment, the judge on the case that Thompson attempted to withdraw from a couple of weeks ago has rejected Thompson’s request, solely so the judge would have the privilege of removing Thompson himself. A side effect of this action is that the judge has forwarded the matter to the Alabama Bar for ‘appropriate action’. Judge Moore commented “Mr. Thompson’s actions before this Court suggest that he is unable to conduct himself in a manner befitting practice in this state.”

Again, if like me, you can’t get enough of these theatrics, add the Game Politics blog to your Bloglines feed.

Jack Thompson: Making a Machine That Runs GTA Is Like Another Pearl Harbor

November 8, 2005 /

I can’t believe I missed this story earlier: Jack Thompson has sent a letter to the Japanese Ambassador to America, attacking Japan for not condemning Sony for their part in publishing and promoting GTA – a game which is banned in Sony’s home country of Japan. The fact that Take Two is American, Rockstar is English and Sony just makes the hardware that runs the platform is irrelevant.

As a United States citizen who has been active and visible in opposing Sony’s distribution of hyperviolent and sexually explicit video games to children in this country, I would respectfully request that your nation’s government assist me in making this harmful distribution stop.

This request comes in the aftermath of recent news reports that certain local/regional governments in Japan will not allow, for example, the grotesque Sony/Take-Two/Rockstar Grand Theft Auto games to be sold to children in your country but Sony is more than delighted to distribute these games to our children in our country.

Continue reading

I Am Jack’s Disintegrating Client Prospects

November 8, 2005 /

What’s the one thing you don’t want to do if you are a lawyer attempting to specialize in video game violence lawsuits? My guess is get kicked off of a case, setting a precedent that you’d be an unwise choice. In a lawsuit regarding GTA in Alabama, the judge seemed to be leaning towards removing Thompson from the defense team.

“You said after the criminal trial to ‘have at it’,” Thompson said. The judge had imposed a gag order on lawyers until Devin Moore’s trial was over.

“Your ‘have at it’ and my ‘have at it’ are not the same,” the judge replied.

Last night, Jack pulled a ‘You can’t fire me, I quit‘, removing himself from the case. I would surmise that this is primarily to keep him still potentially hireable in the future – after all, whose going to take you seriously in future Pixelante trials if you got forceably removed by the judge for inappropriate conduct on the last one.

A Look In The Psyche Of Jack Thompson

October 21, 2005 /

I’ve been feeling sick, so the only energy for posting I’ve had has been Jack Thompson-related stuff. I’ll do better next week. Promise.

Speaking of Jack Thompson, he’s now in a full blood frenzy: Brokentoys reports he’s now threatening to sue the Florida Bar Association (I hear that professional organizations like threats!) Game Politics reports that he has also forwarded his complaint against Penny Arcade to the feds. My favorite part (from the brokentoys article): Continue reading

Deep In Hole Of Own Digging, Jack Thompson Kicks Hornets Nest

October 20, 2005 /

And these hornets know how to use the Internets. After Jack Thompson attempted to get Penny Arcade’s creators arrested by the Seattle Police Department (albeit, with a caveat):

Tycho and I remain free men. The fact is that Jack actually sent the fax to everyone but the intended recipient at the Seattle PD.

Still, the action was apparently enough to get the Penny Arcade fanbois motivated, and they apparently bombarded the Florida Bar Association with requests for the FBA to investigate the wingnut in question. Here is the Hornet’s Nest thread, discussing the complaints they’ve sent. Here’s one: Continue reading

Jack Thompson, Having Hit Rock Bottom, Starts Digging

October 18, 2005 /

I didn’t post the Penny Arcade shenanigans about Jack Thompson because, well, better heads had done so, and to be fair, I thought y’all might be getting sick of it. But understanding is critical, and so the summation is that Jack Thompson rescinded his offer to give money to charity if people made his crackpot vision of a game once, you know, people turned around and did so in 3 days time (Ol’ Grandma Hardcore was one of many who managed to cobble something together quickly). He claimed his offer was satire.

“I’m not interested and won’t be commenting on the mod. The satirical piece entitled ‘A Modest Video Game Proposal’ was intended to highlight the patent hypocrisy and recklessness exhibited by the video game industry’s willingness to target cops, women, homosexuals, and other groups with some of their violent games. To be fair, though, you can’t expect a bunch of gamers to understand the satire if they think that Jonathon Swift, the author of ‘A Modest Proposal,’ is the name of a new Nike running shoe…

Continue reading

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