Northern Illinois Shooting Blamed on Games As Well

Yet another college shooting, and yet another bit of violence blamed on a "violent culture" of video games happened last week. After the shooting, Jack Thompson immediately sprang up in a FOX News interview, in which he obviously blamed the shooting on "the Counter-Strike Half-Life" game, which apparently the shooter had played along with most people in the world. Makes me wonder why I haven't killed anyone yet. It must happen at some point, I just wish I'd get it over with now. Anyway, then a New York Post article mentioned Counter-Strike, and an Illinois legislator blamed our violent culture rather than gun control issues. The guy came off medication, so I'm not sure why a history of playing Counter-Strike would be more responsible than that. Also, any proposed gaming legislation wouldn't even affect his playing Counter-Strike, because he's 27 years old. I hope that we're not going to suggest 30 year-olds can't play violent games either. Especially if they can have whatever guns they want.

All Together Now: 2/10/08 - 2/15/08

Sail the ship. Chop the tree. Skip the rope. Look at me! All together now...

2/10/08- I made a quick recap on several things at once, like a Pokemon hold-up, and the British crackdown on video games.

2/11/08- I fell for the reigning rumor that Wal-Mart was about to cover up M-rated games. Yeah, I'm pretty ashamed, because I realized it must have been a joke at the time, but couldn't find anyone laughing.

2/12/08- I talked about Hush, the quick downloadable Rwandan genocide game.

2/14/08- I quickly linked to Bruce on Games' editorial on the British gaming crackdown, and gave you all a chance to guess what game my brother was thinking of when he drew a little picture of raccoons with umbrellas in front of an evil house.

Holiday Laziness: Guess the Game!

I don't feel like writing a huge essay or anything for Valentine's Day, so instead I'll show you one of my little brother's drawings and you have to guess in the comments which game he's drawing it about. This may be tough, because it's not literally like the game, but think about what all the things in the picture are, and I'll devote a hall of fame on all future Guess the Game posts to whoever is first to guess it. Click on the picture for a much closer look.

Shameless Link: The British Government is Stupid

Really, just read this story for all you need to know. The British government is forcing every video game to go through BBFC classification, as I've said before, and this post from Bruce on Games tells you everything that's wrong with it.

Hush: Rwandan Genocide Is a Rythm Game (Actually Very Tasteful)

In Ian Bogost's new column at Gamasutra, he talks about a new-ish game (describing it as a video game vignette) about the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Hush comes from USC, (where you got the funky flOw) and it's basically a five minute long "rhythm" game. Letters appear on the screen that you are to press on the keyboard when the letters reach their brightest. This represents you, a mother, singing to your baby to soothe him, while Hutu soldiers are committing a massacre around you. You constantly hear sounds of the massacre, knowing that allowing your baby to get too riled up will expose your location, killing you. It's not exactly Rock Band, no... Even the gameplay isn't, due to the patience necessary in waiting for the letters to actually get bright enough. Well, it's recommendable, and provides a short but intense emotional experience for those willing to be given a short but intense emotional experience from a game about singing to a baby. So any Call of Duty freaks can probably just move along.

The Craziest Thing I've Ever Heard: Wal-Mart Covering Game Covers

Wal-Mart is placing a porno-style three quarters black sleeve over M-rated game covers. This has to be a joke. And T-rated games may get half sleeves. That makes even less sense. I'm really afraid I'm being had here, this really sounds like a joke. There's not much more info here, but apparently this is true. What could possibly be "damaging" on a game cover? They're not "interactive", which is the buzz word for most who blame violence on video games. A quick look through the video rental store will show you that approximately one fourth of movies' covers involve you looking at the main characters of the movie through a girl's legs. You may laugh, but it's true.

And, of course, it wasn't true. Sigh.

Stuff I Done Heard on Them There Internets

Some people say you shouldn't even blog on weekends, because no one will read it. If that's the reason, then I shouldn't blog at all, but let's move on. I failed to post yesterday due to my recent purchase of Devil May Cry 4 and recent rediscovery of Civilization IV (two games so different that they don't use the same numeral system, but I'm playing them both). Video games get so much crap thrown at them every day that I'm already way behind. Just a quick scan of recent GamePolitics posts shows a local TV news story claiming games normalize killing, a kid stealing Pokemon cards from another kid at (Airsoft) gun point, and this whole British gaming crackdown business. The last item is what I suppose I'll talk about here, the other stories work just fine as headlines.

Gordon Brown, the somewhat new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after Tony Blair stepped down, is apparently getting ready to implement British Board of Film Classification ratings for all video games, or at least a lot more than they're handling now. Tanya Byron, apparently a big psychologist or something across the pond, is releasing a new report on the game industry that will prompt government action. The new game ratings will actually make it illegal to sell games to those under the suggested ages. It's basically what we in the States have been trying to avoid for a long time. It creeps me out, I don't see why the pre-existing hassle of buying a game underage in stores has to now exist in law, though I'm guessing the purchaser can never be at fault with a law like this. Still, shivers down my spine.