Jeff Gerstmann's Shadow

I have to say that as fucked up as the situation appears to be, I am encouraged by the tide of popular support for Jeff and the sheer rage that is burning up the message boards right now. I am appreciative of responses like N'Gai's blog post, and by 1UP's sincere show of support for GameSpot editorial.

I don't know if there is a way to escape the system so eloquently described (with an edge of pure fury) by N'Gai. I'm not sure that other entertainment media have successfully broken the ties to their advertisers. If gaming press can secure non-endemic advertising that could be one way. Or if they drop review scores, then they would also drop out of the publisher's radar and be free to write whatever they wish.

Hm.

VICE Magazine in the Sudan

It's a bit heavy-handed, sure, but as far as a first-hand look at the utter exploitation that's going on in the Sudan, this series is pretty instructive. And very sad. and will make you angry.

Vice TV. Click on "Travel" and the Sudan piece. Or try this direct link.

Two More at Take-Two Fess Up

Take-Two's naughtiness apparently extends beyond their games...
Fudging financial spreadsheets? Check!
Lying to regulators? Check!
Stock options backdating, check and mate!

Steve Jobs, are you paying attention? There but for the grace of...

Jack Thompson, Busted

The shooting on the Virginia Tech campus was only hours old, police hadn't even identified the gunman, and yet already the perpetrator had been fingered and was in the midst of being skewered in the media.

Video games. They were to blame for the dozens dead and wounded. They were behind the bloodiest massacre in U.S. history.

Or so Jack Thompson told Fox News and, in the days that followed, would continue to tell anyone who'd listen.

MSNBC has a pretty good write up.

Was Lowenstein Right?

Gamasutra asks industry professionals about Lowenstein's fiery speech at the DICE Summit. Most of them answer, heck yeah! ...But choose to remain anonymous.

Yeah, that's exactly the kind of courage we're looking for. That's what Doug was talking about. That's balls, people.

Ratings Preserve Hegemonic Power

Great, thought-provoking post by Danah Boyd on the movie, This Film is Not Yet Rated, a documentary about the MPAA and the values that go into rating films.

While most people i've talked to are fascinated with the legal (copyright, first amendment, etc.) issues involved, what i really enjoyed was the portrayal of how we leverage protectionist rhetoric and "child safety" to uphold hegemonic moral values that will aid industry. This isn't actually about the children; it's about maintenance of power.

I'm certain that much of the same criticisms can be applied to games and the ESRB - but I hope the ESRB can learn from the mistakes of the MPAA and evolve into a healthier organization. I often feel the game industry is dancing between the need to create massive explosions and massive sales, and the need to respond to societal neuroses.

The Best Defense...

Check out this article from Game Revolution. Using data from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Statistics it shows that contrary to the current media hoopla over the epidemic of youth violence,
recent data shows that "... the offending rates for 14-17 year-olds reached the lowest levels ever recorded.” The data is only available up to 2003, but at least herein lies some hard facts with which you can confront those who find your choice of entertainment "distasteful."

AB 1179

So, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed California AB 1179 which prohibits retailers from selling violent games to minors. If you haven't read about all the uproar over this, here's a a good place to start.

One thing I've always wondered is why games don't use the same ratings system as movies. What's wrong with G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17? People have had decades to be trained into recognizing that system and I've never fully understood why the ESRB system has to be so esoteric. Part of the reason why these bills keep getting passed (even though they often get struck down in federal court) is because of the "confusing" nature of video game content and ratings that "confuse" parents. It's an easy step for advocates of these measures to make a leap from parents being "confused" to their children being "manipulated" by game marketing. Disregarding that specious rhetorical device, I have no doubt that marketers ARE doing their best to "manipulate" as many people as a possible into wanting their game--minor or adult. That's sort of how advertising works--you pull on people's strings in order to get them to toss you money they'd be much off better saving. Capitalism and all that rot.

Could the argument that "ratings systems don't work" be short-circuited by shifting to a ratings system people are already familiar with (I'm intentionally overlooking the huge technical hurdles of such a switch)? Or is there some real benefits to the ESRB system or serious problems with applying movie ratings to video games that I'm overlooking?

"Alhamdulillah, You Destroyed the Command Ship!" - Islamic Videogames

Slate has an article by Chris Suellentrop investigating the world of Islamic videogames after seeing a New York Times article hinting at moral panic with the quote, "One game, 'Ummah Defense I,' has the world 'finally united under the Banner of Islam' in 2114, until a revolt by disbelievers. The player's goal is to seek out and destroy the disbelievers."

It should come to no surprise to anyone familiar with Christian gaming that the actual gameplay is really just a vertical shooter with Islamic text boxes.

Also reviewed, Islamic pseudo-Super Mario Bros. with lasers and Islamic Gauntlet. Check it out.

The McCarthy Code

The megaphones powering the Save the Children Rhetoric Society have found new sources of awesome, cosmic energy with which to boost their signal, lately. Their sound-waves, crushing intellect and creativity alike, have brought to light several instances of demonic perversion through which the medium of "Video," combined with that of "Gaming," shall engulf us all. Unfortunately, there usually is no save-us-from-the-save-the-children rhetoric to follow.

Those who would save our children from ourselves always seem to overlook a rather obvious factor of the meteoric rise in the value of the industry. "They"--the Masters of Decency--seem to assume that it has very much to do with an ever-rotting social fabric and the poor sheep captivated therein having an unconquerable addiction to violence and the sexy stuffs. I attribute it to gamers having grown up, getting jobs and doing what all adults in a free society have a right to do: choose what they wish to spend their money on. What makes the adult purchase of the game unacceptable to many is the same peculiarity that makes adult themes in games unacceptable: games are for kids. Unfortunately, like most absurd cultural anachronisms, things will likely only change once the elite elders that have a monopoly on thought have kicked it and today's gamegirl becomes a gamegranny.

This continued and fabulously erroneous idea is something that strangleholds artistic achievement more than any mere standards rating board could ever hope and I tend to think that we are, at times, showing up with the wrong counter-argument. Rather than address the issue on the grounds of their ruptured view of moral decency, we should let our own rhetoric take center stage.

Games are art--a fine art. They are expression and expression is not obscene. Mr. and Mrs. holier-than-thou don't get to judge for the rest of us what does and does not have artistic value or purpose in the medium. When we buy into the language that places the game developer and the game player on the defensive, it infantilizes the medium as a whole and elevates their parochial dysphemisms into memes. While events like E3 lower the IQ of the dialogue substantially--"oo! shiny!" and "oo! cleavage!"--we should be demonstrably angry over an art form being reduced to a cultural malaise instead of just lashing out at the other side's puritanism. As an art form as much for grown-ups as for kids (much like all the other arts) and as protected speech, it is "they" who should have to have the burden of trying to convince us that censorship is in the best interests of everyone and that such censorship won't kill the valuable expression inherent in a creative medium. You never hear politicians mention that "c" word because they know it's a deal breaker. Over the long term, "The People" tend have a nasty reaction to anything being censored, and rightly so. Censorship is a slippery slope that you don't need a Masters in sociology to understand.

Force them into declaring that they don't want to censor an art form and force them into upholding freedom of speech and expression as the most valuable of all rights in an open society instead of being forced into playing the game of defending ourselves into legitimacy. The legitimacy of new artistic means is already here, already inherent. It's "on" be default. Senators Jack and Hillary aren't "saving the children," they're latching onto a hot-button issue that plays well to whatever demographic their polling data says will get them re-elected and in the process, knowingly or unknowingly, framing the debate on McCarthyist terms which require us to extricate ourselves from obscenity instead of forcing them to extricate themselves from McCarthyism.

NEWS FLASH: Sims Have Sex!

I’m sure most of you are already aware of this story about Jack Thompson's next target(thanks Gamespot). To summarize, after helping to take down the filthy, filthy fully-clothed consensual urban-setting sex of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, gaming nemesis Thompson has turned his attention to another, even worse example of depravity: Sims 2. According to Thompson, the fact that EA blurs out the nude Sims in the game implies that there is something to hide. Even considering the fact that underneath the blur is a smooth blank, Thompson says, “The blur is an admission that even the 'Ken and Barbie' features should not be displayed. The blur can be disarmed. This is no different than what is in San Andreas, although worse."

He goes on to say that, with the proper mods, the blur on children can be removed, and “much to the delight, one can be sure, of pedophiles around the globe who can rehearse, in virtual reality, for their abuse.”

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Who is the Master of Unlocking?

I’ve found the recent controversy over the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas sex mod / unlock extremely fascinating (thanks Gamespot). If you believe what the modder and critics are saying, Rockstar left the code for the sex mini-game in the final copies of San Andreas. For one reason or another, the theory goes, Rockstar blocked off the feature so it would be impossible to access. There were a few rumors that the code existed on the PS2 version, but it wasn’t until the PC version that someone actually unlocked it and made it available. Or modded it, depending on your viewpoint.

Now politicians and watch groups are up in arms. Folks who thought the cop killing and hooker stomping was bad are now going nuts over the prospect of young children pretending to have sex using an awkwardly timed minigame. Whether the code was modded or buried by self-censoring game makers, someone has added fuel to the fire and it won’t die down anytime soon.

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Kids Can Learn to Read and Shoot Cops

This Gamespot news story piqued my attention. Not because of the usual argument over video games and their impact on the minds of children. I’ve been hearing that argument since I was a kid. I remember Mortal Monday, when the first Mortal Kombat was released for consoles. I was in the fifth grade if I remember correctly. Everyone was abuzz with excitement. Since I didn't own a Super Nintendo or a Genesis at that point, I used some left-over birthday money to buy that sucker for the original Game Boy. Good times. And nary a dead body in sight.

Anyway.

The quote that really got my attention was Senator Charles E. Schumer saying, “Little Johnny should be learning how to read, not how to kill cops.”

Ignoring the fact that 25 to Life is obviously an adult-oriented game, and further ignoring the irony that Eidos executives must be jumping up and down in joy after the 6 o’clock news publicity Schumer has brought their game, I have to wonder at the wider assessment of video games that Schumer appears to be making. By comparing the actions in a video game against learning how to read, Schumer portrays video games as products devoid of any educational value. Which, to a guy who grew up with video games, is an even more troubling implication than the idea that crazy kids might copy what they see in games the same way crazy kids have copied everything for years.

And the more I think about it, the more I realize what video games did teach me.

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Residuals vs. Royalties

Followed a link from the PA Crew over to Wil Wheaton's blog today, where he discusses the finer points of the SAG/Video Game Industry deal that went (largely) south this past week.

It's a long entry, and it really needs to be read in its entirety, so please, go check it out, and then come right back.

Okay then, let's continue. The money quote which describes the beef of the whole argument:

As I understood the video game negotiations, SAG wasn't asking for per-unit payments from video game producers. The proposal I read and supported asked for an additional session fee, after the game in question had sold a minimum of 50,000 copies and was profitable. Yeah, that sure seems unreasonable, doesn't it? Especially since actors account for something like 2% of the average game's budget.

I have to say that it does seem unreasonable, Wil.

I see no reason why the voice actors should get an "additional session fee," when nobody else on the entire game gets that. Assuming that "additional session fee" means your half day minimum pay, which according to your data (which I trust, as you're in SAG) is $759. Also according to you, it seems that 4 hours is about all it takes to get a voice recorded in a game. If I'm doing my math right here, that means you're getting a 100% bonus of your contracted pay for the game, the second it becomes profitable. How you consider this to not be profit-sharing (as it's obviously money taken from the profits) is a bit boggling, but I'm not even interested in arguing that point.

What I'm interested in, is that if this concept is to be considered "fair" or "reasonable," we need to apply it to everyone on the project. "Why not form a union," you say? Well, let's take this argument to its logical conclusion, and say we did form a union, and we all got this "reasonable" deal. We all got relatively a 100% bonus on our salary when a game ships. Hey! It DOES sound pretty great!

It sounds pretty great, until you stop to realize that with those kind of bonuses, suddenly the game is no longer profitable. We've just added at least 50% of the cost of the game back into the budget. A game that cost 10 million dollars to produce now suddenly costs 15 million. Obviously, the bonuses won't be paid out 'till the title reaches 15 million, so what was previously 5 million dollars in profit now must be earmarked and sat on (i.e. not reported as profit and spent or invested) untill such time as the profits surpassed 15 million. A royalty based payment structure would have allowed the fair percentage of that 5 million to be paid out quarterly as soon as the title became profitable (the first dollar over the 10 million dollar budget).

In short, the idea of residuals is actually worse than royalties. The residual system wouldn't even allow the industry to survive, and no industry means no games, and no games means no jobs. I'd rather you guys got your fair share of royalties for the game (no, honest, I think anyone who participated in the creation of the title is entitled to a share of the profits commensurate to their amount of work involved), which would probably amount to about $80 for $800 worth of work. The idea that you're owed any more than that for a half day's worth of work, quite frankly, is unfair. Both to you, me, and the industry at large.

I hate to say it, but the industry has numbers that prove that voice actors don't drive sales. They just don't. And these numbers are what they used to make their decision on this deal. Kids don't go buy Area51 because David Duchovny or Marilyn Manson are in it. To be perfectly fair and use a cross-industry example, there's data that proves that nobody buys a sports game because of the cover athlete, either. It's a game. People buy them for the gameplay. I buy movies for acting, story, and directing. I buy games for the game. Story and acting is second. Supplemental, influential, inspiring, hell, sometimes even as good as a feature film, but second. If there ever comes a day when the actors are more important than the game, we've failed as a community of game developers.

Workers of the World Unite, Maybe?

Many rumors abound when something like this happens. Did DICE shut down their New York studio at their own behest or is the always-infamous EA up to more of that it-would-be-shocking-if-it-were-anyone-but-EA flava? The truth is, no one knows. From the outside, this sequence of events--

1.) Battlefield: 1942 is released to much acclaim
2.) A very popular mod to Battlefield known as Desert Combat is released by a team calling themselves Trauma Studios.
3.) Trauma is purchased by DICE/EA and becomes DICE's New York office.
4.) Battlefield 2--an obvious sequel to Desert Combat rather than BF1942--is finished and soon to be shipped out to a ravenous fan base.
5.) The DICE New York office is shut down.

--looks very suspicious, to put it gently. EA owns all and is all and has been known in the past to perform similar machinations of evil-ness upon those it no longer finds useful. So, one can't help but wonder if while the head of Trauma studios declares the decision to be DICE's alone, there isn't something more sinister at work. True, the 12 Trauma folks were offered a job at the DICE offices in Sweden, but that's sort of like offering to pay for the abortion after knocking up your best friend's kid sister.

What this reminds me the most of is the early days of movie consolidation and the monopolization of animation studios. Much like the game developers of today, most of the day-to-day entertainment laborers of yesteryear had to put up with insidious business practices orchestrated by the trusts if they wanted to, you know, eat and stuff. This included the hiring and firing of entire teams centered around specific projects and controlling the methods of distribution, production, financing and marketing through megalithic corporate entities with whom you either played ball or got played. It took organizing into unions--often violently--in order to trade sweatshops for decent working hours and the fear of being laid-off with the confidence of social benefits.

Is it time to get serious about organized labour for software development? Is it even possible in a globalized marketplace where the work for anyone asking slightly more than minimum wage can be ported overseas faster than you can say "industry-wide-hegemony"?

Senator Clinton Grandstands Grand Theft Auto

The Australian has an article covering some recent statements by Hillary Clinton on the subject of videogame violence.

"Children are playing a game that encourages them to have sex with prostitutes and then murder them," she said, me-tooing the chorus of morally posturing politicians over the past year or so.

Of course, this is almost certainly just posturing for an '08 presidential run. As a Democrat, Hillary needs to cover her "morality" bases, and she's been quick to show Jesusland that she can represent them too.

But come on...

Law & Order: Video Game Unit

I'm watching Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. There's an episode on about a man who kills a hooker using a car and stomping method taken from a game called "Intensity," an obvious fictionalization of "Grand Theft Auto." Naturally, everyone's shocked and horrified that a video game features such violence. And who makes the revelation to the police that the hooker's death was a video game mimic? Of course, a little boy who thinks that the game is "cool."

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It's In the Cards

A little while ago ClockworkGrue posited a question about the possibility of "Peacecraft", a game in which you'd try to stop war rather than make it. A new fantasy role-playing game that blends live-action elements does just that: you play to deconstruct nuclear weapons using a pack a cards. The game is being developed by Terence Ross, who also has a long article about conceptualizing nuclear weapons up on his site. I don't think the game is finished yet, but when it is, it looks like it will be available as a free download.

Hm! Maybe Pakistan and India and China and North Korea just need to get together and play a game of cards.

A Place for Games in Geopolitics

"Fascism is always at the gates. And for some reason, I keep moving towards my research, even if I intended to just post a rant caused by some smart-ass propaganda banners. I wonder if simulation can help us further understand the big picture. Long term solutions versus short term ones. It works in Sim City, it should work with fascism. There must be a way to model the plague. The must be a way we can learn to manage this disease. There must be a way to prevent us into falling into the same easy thoughts again and again."

- Gonzalo Frasca on Ludology.org.

Games as a tool for civilization-building in real life? Powerful thought.

Terrible Title, Great Taste

As shameless as this may be, I’d like to pimp my political weblog for you folks. A project for NYU’s Journalism department, my little slice of blog looks at the use of videogames and flash-cartoons in the presidential election. I’m rather moderate, and an idiot, so please feel free to comment and criticize and disagree anyway you feel is appropriate or humorous.

While the last election extensively used the internet, such things as little flash cartoons about the various candidates’ policies or games based on Kerry’s Vietnam experience are rather new to the current campaign. This really brings up the harsh reality that the electronic landscape is now important enough to become a heated battlefield for the politicians. I think it's worth taking a small look at.

Hell, maybe my writings might even give some insight into this baby kissing of the 21st century.

Alright. Shameless plug over.

Republicans Play Games, Apparently

It used to be that only Iraq War protesters made political statements with games, but no more. Enter Tax Invaders, a vertical shooter that allows you to take out aggressions against John Kerry's tax plans. Experience thrills previously known only to America's wealthy elite as you control George W. Bush, shooting down tax proposals like a Texas cowboy.

It is interesting to note that whoever made this game decided that enemy bullets cannot actually harm dubya, meaning that as long as you just keep clicking, the game is impossible to actually lose. Is that, in itself, a political statement, or was the perceived audience for Tax Invaders so gaming-averse that the difficulty had to be removed?

The Postman To The Rescue

No, not Kevin Costner. This has nothing much to do with the typical G+G=A fare, so I'll keep it brief:

The Department of Homeland (In)Security is considering a plan to have postal route carriers deliver antibiotics to residences and workplaces in the event of a "catastrophic biological event" (I think we can take this to mean a successful bio-terror incident). What does this mean? This means there is at least one smart individual with one good idea -- awash in a sea of dullards floating miserable strategies -- in the American terror-response bureaucracy. The US Postal Service is, and has been, a shining beacon of efficient execution in American federal institutions. Way back when, "back in the day" as you kids say, when Ross Perot offered to, for a fee, overhaul the US Postal Service, I declared, Good God! Don't let that man anywhere near the post office. There's nothing wrong with the Postal Service.

What I want to know is who this son of a bitch is. Let's make him, or her, president. Hell, let's make him God.

Clicking for Dean

I clicked and clicked, handing out pamphlets, canvassing door to door, and holding up a Howard Dean sign in public. In the end I recruited 159 Iowans for Dean.

Howard Dean for Iowa is a Shockwave game, made by Persuasive Games - Ian Bogost and Gonzalo Frasca. The title consists of three mini-games designed around building up Dean followers in the early Democratic primary state.

It's the arcade/action side of a real-time strategy game, resource gathering through fast clicking. But there's no resulting overview, no political resource allocation game. That would probably have overwhelmed the time and resources available. Think of Dean for Iowa as the first part of Populous, - gathering followers before the gods are able to weild their powers. Perhaps it's just a taste of what's to come - it is a game just for the Iowa caucus, after all.

The Howard Dean for Iowa game does remind us that the political process is made up of rote tasks performed by dedicated followers - the earlier in the process the better. So as a political education project, it is rudimentarily successful - recruit early and often. As a game? It's good for about ten minutes. Which ain't bad I guess. The game begs a strategic element - something to give it replay value. Having more detailed modelling of citizens and neighborhoods would have been exciting - playing politics with social networks, targeting hubs. It is the first US political promotion game I can remember playing, so for curiosity it scores points. And points for reaching out to young audiences with a young medium.

Dean for Iowa has about as much depth [of gameplay] as Frasca's September 12th, but less mystery. With the directions spelled out, you reach the limits of possibility in the play-space faster. Can't have much mystery in a recruitment tool, I suppose.

After a few rounds, my favorite mini-game was the "hold the Howard Dean sign up at the right time" game because it was the fastest. I wanted to get to the end of the caucus period. Finishing, I was rewarded with my score. And the tantalizing note, "Your recruiting results will influence future games of other players." Ultimately I was curious for more - I wanted to stop the rote tasks, and play Joe Trippi, commanding my followers in the political power pyramid. Version 2.0 - South Carolina perhaps?

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Satire Under Fire

Take-Two Interactive has agreed to remove the line "Kill all Haitians" from the game Vice City. The NY Times covers it here (free registration required). Gamespy covers it here. IGN has Take-Two's official statement and apology.

I think it's pretty clear that there is a massive, and willful, misunderstanding here. The game does not urge players of the game to kill Haitians. It's improbable that the game developers have a grudge against ethnic minorities in the United States. What's happening here is that game is engaging in very dark satire of American racism and race politics. Imagine a character in a movie saying this line - it's entirely dependent on context whether or not you believe the director or writer of the film actually agrees with such a statement. More often, they use the medium to point out how fucked up the world really is, that there can be characters in it who act and believe in this way.

The thing is, the Haitian community in the United States is discriminated against, sometimes violently, as are so many ethnic minorities. I would argue that the game exposes this blatantly, and that's what's scary to people. In post-Affirmative Action America, we don't like to have our deep-seated racial tensions thrown in our faces like that. We'd rather have a game - which after all is only entertainment, it's not supposed to make you uncomfortable or, god forbid, make you think - that presents that world as a less violent, less racist place than it really is.

There's a place for that. There's a place for optimism and eternally sunny skies. There's hope in Marioworld, in the technicolor positivity of Nintendo. There's a place for the unbridled upbeat athleticism of SSX, where a ten-year-old boy and a 19-year-old girl can compete on equal terms with the 26-year-old white male. That's great, of course! I love that. But that's a fantasy - a progressive, inspiring fantasy.

Isn't there also a place for Vice City? For the cheeky, dirty, nasty, rough-edged take on a sometimes ugly world?

When videogames truly grow up, we may be unhappy with some of the results. There will be upsetting games. There already are. But I think Take-Two is a little ahead of its time. Because they're pushing the boundaries now - even if they push them for shock value - ultimately we're all growing up because of them.

The Paul Robeson of Games

Austin was preparing Langston Hughes for class tomorrow. I couldn't find my CD of him reading "A Negro Speaks of Rivers" so I played him some Paul Robeson. Austin hadn't heard of this bold man, or his amazing life; I was happy to share. As his rich rendition of "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night" resounded from my computer, I realized that this song - Paul Robeson singing Joe Hill, reflects much of what I miss in video games. A politically conscious person with a passion for current events and human justice, an informed view of struggle and history, sings with profound passion - a voice filled with quivering depth.

Today I was reading an advance review of Rockstar's upcoming Manhunt on GameSpot. Like the film Kill Bill, Manhunt appears to be the art of violence - reflecting media back upon itself in a bloody mirror. Months ago I was curious and eager to see it. Now I'm tired. I'm tired of seeing the language of violence used to express little more than irony and detachment. I want to see someone make a video game to express something they're passionate about, something that matters to people with more tangible problems than boredom.

Newsgaming: September 12

September 12 is a free Shockwave game where players try to solve the terrorist problem - a sort of editorial cartoon rendered in simple simulation.

September 12 is the first game from Powerful Robot Games, based in Uruguay. Powerful Robot is run by Gonzalo Frasca (of ludology.org), who has been studying the social implications of games for years; now he's finally glad to be using game design to trigger discussions: "It was the first game we made where every design decision was hell. Do people cry over dead terrorists?"

The art is fantastic in September 12, the sound is critical (play with your speakers turned on). Frasca is eager to use video games to provoke political and ethical discussions. September 12 is a witty little thing - we look forward to more like it from the folks at newsgaming.com.

The Dawn of a New Day in Christian Technology

The second annual Christian Game Developers Conference is taking place on July 25-27 in Portland, Oregon. There will be demonstrations of Christian games, and debates over issues particular to Christian Game Developers. Here's a sampling of what they discussed last year:

- Effectiveness of games as a media to share the Gospel - "Where does one draw the line between the content that goes into a Christian game versus the content that goes into a secular game? Have industry focus on two game categories, "Soul-winning" and "edification"?
- Funding options for Christian projects - Any similarities and differences between seeking capital for a secular game and a Christian game? What projects have received funding so far?
- Revolutionary Opportunities - What technology can we use to outpace secular projects? (Erasmatron? A home grown system?)

They're looking for other speakers and attendees - I'm curious to examine ways that games have been used to put forth ideology, maybe I'll find some other thinkers on that topic at this conference. There were 30 people there last year, maybe there will be more this year.

No FrE3dom for French Press

Reporters sans frontières is protesting on behalf of some videogame journalists who were detained and deported from Los Angeles as they were en route to report on E3 last week: "Six French journalists detained on arrival at Los Angeles, sent back to France."

Journalists who cover videogames would seem to have it easy - gameplaying, junkets, exciting events. But here's a rude bit of geopolitics and paranoia for them to cover. I wonder if they will report on the experience themselves?

Alexandre Alfonsi of Télé 7 Jours, Stéphanie Pic of Télé Poche and Michel Perrot of TV Hebdo, Thierry Falcoz, editor in chief of Game One cable television, and two of his cameramen, Laurent Patureau and Alex Gorsky - I apologize to you on behalf of my government.

From Ben at Serious Games.

the Iraq invasion reimagined as a UO guild

From writer Julian Dibbell, a link to the Iraq invasion reimagined as a Ultima Online guild chat.

Escape from Woomera

The Australian Immigration Minister is pissed because an arts group got government funding to build a game that replicates the notorious Woomera refugee detention center and encourages players to find ways to escape. Escape from Woomera appears to be a protest piece of art - a member of the wishes-to-remain-anonymous group behind it says "there's been a lot of focus on the victimhood (of detainees) and we really want to focus on the bravery and heroism of these people." Quoting her from an article about the game in The Age, "she said the project was also a reaction to the Federal Government policy of restricting media access to detention centres. 'They don't want people to know what it's like, and we do,' she said." According to ABC news, a group representing refugees says the making of the game trivializes the issues. But would they say that if hundreds of school children played the game and saw the conditions the game-makers want to model?

For the record, Immigration Minister Ruddock says conditions have improved at the Woomera centers; they have two PlayStations there now! I wonder what kind of fights break out between refugees hoping for chance with the a controller?

(From the Serious Games mailing list)

Christian Game Critique

We've talked about Under Ash, a game used for political ends by Palestinian sympathizers. This fascinates me, the use of games as a means to communicate a deliberate message (other than the passive messages of most fantasy/scifi mythology in electronic entertainment).

Today I stumbled across Christian Console Game Reviews, a partner site of Christian Computer Game Reviews. They host fairly typical reviews, with the addition of a "appropriatness" metric for most games - how these games suit the Christian philosophy and approach to life. The James Bond/Nightfire review belies the lure of gaming and mass media:

From a Christian perspective, this game has its downfalls. The sheer fact that it is a shooter, for instance, or that it has sexual innuendo, which is, really, a part of the James Bond genre. There is one saving point, though. You are trying to save the world from another evil madman. And that makes it worth all the trouble…all the trouble…

More trouble is found in the Super Smash Brothers Melee review, where the writer points out that the game has some Pokemon characters, reminiscent of How Pokemon and Magic Cards Affect the Minds and Values of Children (from May 1999).

There's constant talk of how games might change us, obviously Christian writers and parents have already been giving this some thought. These writers are trying to balance the seduction of occasionally sin-laden electronic entertainment with fears they might be savaging the spirit of their faith. Gamers lacking a strong Christian persuasion have only their eternal souls to worry about.

The Right to Virtually Assemble

John Scalzi (who evidently writes a column in OPM twice a month) poses the topic on his Whatever web column: The Right to Virtually Assemble.

But I think there's also an interesting wrinkle in the first amendment argument for video games that I'd like to toss out there for comment and criticism (which, of course, I'll use for background in my next OPM column). So far all the arguments for first amendment protection for video games is founded on freedom of speech from governmental intervention. But what about freedom of peaceable assembly?

The debate is an offshoot of his original articles about the First Amendment and how they apply to video-games (and the ongoing case against the First Amendment applying to video games). His peronal web-column is typically devoid of video-game topics, so this is a rare chance to take a gander at a great writer's take on the legality of video-games.

MAVAV a Hoax - does it matter?

I was in a class about video games and someone raised MAVAV, Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence. A fellow educator didn't believe me when I said it was a hoax; I showed him evidence that MAVAV was David Yoo's Final Project for an Interactivity & Programming class at the Parsons School of Design.

The people presenting about CounterStrike and game violence and addiction proceeded with their presentation. One said, "Does it matter if it's a hoax? I think it should exist either way."

The Politics of Voice Chat on Xbox Live

Howard of Smart Mobs sends another provocative article today:

Multiplayer online games played with text chat have been around for decades. And there have been a few games promoting voice chat - notably FireTeam and CounterStrike.

Microsoft's Xbox, eager to stay a "living room" machine and avoid keyboard and mouse has bet its online gaming on voice chat systems. And according to the BBC, Xbox live voice chat gaming is a hotbed of arbitrary personal politics:

Xbox Live seems to have reinforced national stereotypes for many people. One British gamer I came across "booted" any Americans who joined his games, while a US gamer hosting a site would remove anyone French, citing their lack of support for the war in Iraq.

But besides these sad exclusions, it appears that Xbox Live is a great way to meet other gamers, practice a foreign language skills, and have fun with online multiplayer gaming. "A Melting pot of online gaming." Yum! I want to try it.

Subverting Region Encoding

I have not yet heard an argument I can stand behind for region encoding. This is a completely separate issue from piracy, the arguments against which I can easily understand. But region encoding seems furiously anti-consumer to me. I have a legitimately paid-for Gamecube; I have the new Zelda game, bought with real yen in Japan. But of course I cannot play my own software product in my own hardware product player because someone has decided that I am not allowed to.

Piffle! Thanks to Freeloader by Datel, ordered from Liksang (which Justin wrote about earlier) I am right now enjoying the Japanese Zelda on my U.S. Gamecube. It's wonderful - no messy modchips which void warrantees, no soldering, no actual hardware modification, this is simply a disk which you load before you load your import game, and it changes the address and local settings of your Gamecube. It works like a charm.

And I cannot tell you what a joy the new Zelda game is. The Japanese is easier than some other games I've attempted, perhaps because the game is aimed at children. The art is fantastic.

Next up on the Freeloader list: The Japanese version of Animal Crossing (Doubutsu no Mori)!

The Danger of Handheld Games

Gizmodo reports that a member of parliament in Norway was caught playing a handheld electronic game during an important debate. He promised, "I'll never do it again."

That's right, mister! Or we'll just have to confiscate that from you!

[via anil dash]

Xbox Game Recalled

It looks like a fighting game for the Xbox ranked mediocre in most reviews is now being recalled from the U.S. and Japan because of potentially offensive religious content.

Supposedly, this martial arts fighting game Kakuto Chojin includes bits of the Koran being read as part of the soundtrack. A muslim friend once refused my request to use his "Call to Prayer" tape on my radio show - it was sacred music to him, and not supposed to be used for entertainment.

Kakuto Chojin recalled at GameSpot doesn't give much info, but it's about as much information as anyone seems to have. Penny-Arcade has weighed in with something funny maybe, but not very pointed or particular.

Perhaps the product was recalled because MS didn't want to offend Muslims. But maybe the product was recalled because MS didn't want to be associated with Islam? Probably they wanted nothing to do with religion at all - this might have been Penny Arcade's point. Unfortunately the gaming news sites have reported nothing more than a single sentence-worth of information, and forums are filled with uninformed speculation and idle provocation. These gaming journalists at sites like GameSpy and GameSpot are ostensibly paid to write about games - wouldn't this be the type of story that warrants a follow-up call to Redmond? This seems fascinating as well as important to pursue!

Defence Gaming

There's been a fascinating proliferation of publications covering gaming. For people interested in issues of politics in games, and the slippery slope between fighting simulation and military training, the new Defence Gaming, "a new initiative from Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV), The Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) and The Swedish National Defence College (FHS) to study, research and explore the conjunction of computer and video games and the military." Judging by some of the smiling faces in the staff section, maybe this was a project undertaken by gamers to make their cumpulsory military service fun? Either way, looks like Defence Gaming will be spending money and energy to track fascinating, if occasionally frightening, issues.
(first seen on Ludology)

North Korean Games

All this attention is paid to South Korea as a capital of video gaming - what about gaming in North Korea? This piece, Personal Computers and Games in North Korea, written by an ex-Professor at Kim Il Sung University, describes how the content of a fighting game was seen as anti-Communist and ultimately threatening to the state:

A guy, whose girlfriend was kidnapped by a gang, had to beat his enemies in their den one by one to rescue his fiance. So well was the program prepared and so hard, yet so fascinating was it made to get to the goal, that once a person started it, he or she could hardly stop until they had finished it.

The crux of the matter was that the young man of justice symbolized a capitalist society and the gang a Communist group.

The rest of the article describes how some North Koreans finally agreed they could play "ideology-free" computer games.

Under Ash

"A nation in Palestine is being uprooted: their houses are being devastated, their establishments are being destroyed, their lands are being occupied, their trees are being pulled out, their property is being confiscated, their cities are being besieged, their schools are being closed, their sanctuaries are being violated, their sacred structures are being made permitted, their children are being beaten, their hands are being broken, their bones are being crushed and they are imprisoned, tortured and slain. They are even prevented from crying and moaning. The whole world is plotting to ignore them. None hears them moan. None sees the trains of their martyrs. None says a word of support to their rights.

This is the tale of the game of "UnderAsh" in short..."

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Distract him!

Every morning I wake up and wonder if we're at war yet. I know we're all a little worried about it. So is Evil Ninja. But unlike the rest of us, he has a solution. Won't you please join him in his Buy Bush a Playstation2 Campaign? For, as Evil Ninja eloquently puts it, "Without the catharsis that video games provide, Bush has no way of fulfilling his militaristic fantasies other than actually fighting wars."

[via 8bitjoystick.]

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Electronic gaming illegal in Greece

A Greek law enacted at the end of July decreed all electronic games to be illegal. Yes, even the Solitaire that comes built in with Windows. Well, maybe they have a point with that game...

The Greek site gameland.gr is circulating an online petition and organizing protests. Sign up to register your support for this cause.

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