In Grand Theft Auto related happenings, an 85 year old woman in New York is suing Rockstar over the Hot Coffee Mod (Link thanks to Blues News). She bought the game for her 14 year old grandson (apparently ignoring the Mature - 17 years or older label on the box) and thinks she's got some money coming to her. We live in a funny old world these days - where people don't take responsibility for their own actions. Our own mistakes can turn out to be profitable, and she'll probably win this bogus case given the media storm surrounding it.
Now lets talk about the Sims 2, which I jokingly referred to in my last post. Unfortunately, this stuff is being taken all too seriously. Mr. Jack Thompson seems to think that a pedophile can practice his art using the Sims 2 video game and some third party mods to erase blur effects. Fortunately, Electronic Arts has released a statement regarding these accusations -
“This is nonsense. Reasonable people understand there is nothing improper in the game. Reasonable people recognize what mods are. A consumer who chooses to use a mod does so without any kind of agreement with the company. There is no nudity. There is nothing improper or vulgar in the Sims 2."
I could not have said it better myself.
Imaginary scenarios are not a basis for any kind of court case. Who are these pedophiles and where do they live? Have any been arrested for using The Sims 2? Is abusing imaginary people a crime? Is anybody answering these questions in any other way than "Well, so and so COULD do this" and "It's possible that (insert scenario here) can happen"?
I could have choked to death on the bran muffin I had for lunch today, but I'm not going to sue the Bi-Lo bakery people for making it.
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Hot Water Over "Hot Coffee"
If you watch CNN, no doubt you've heard of the "Hot Coffee" Mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Here's the scoop for the uninitiated...
Grand Theft Auto is a mature rated video game released for the Playstation 2, X-Box and PC. The game got its mature rating by the ESRB for some pretty serious violent content. Having played the game myself, I can tell you it's not presented in any serious fashion. Basically you play a street thug trying to gain rank in organized crime. This requires you to go on missions which involve stealing cars and killing people.
The Hot Coffee Mod was, as far as I can tell, written by a fellow calling himself PatrickW. The mod unlocks some pornographic content in the game. The content was hidden in the game code - perhaps as a joke, or perhaps abandoned game code left in there for whatever reason. The only way to access it is by unlocking it with a third party mod.
The ESRB changed GTA's rating from Mature to Adults Only. Wal-Mart, Gamestop and several other large retailers have pulled the game off their shelves (at an estimated 50,000,000 dollar revenue loss I might add). Rockstar Games has not fought any of this, and they have agreed to pull the content out of the game code making it suitable for a mature rating again.
The only reason Rock Star is getting hammered is because the content was buried in the game code somewhere. The content is NOT ACCESSIBLE without the Hot Coffee Mod. I'm not sure why Rock Star is responsible for 3rd party software, but it is nice of them to remove the code.
Enter Jack Thompson, who runs www.stopkill.com. Jack Thompson is a Miami attorney who has it out for video games. He brags about being voted one of the ACLU's "top ten" censors of the year. Jack Thompson believes that violent video games cause kids, or anyone playing them for that matter, to act violently. Since GTA is one of the most violent games out there, he's jumping all over this one.
I recently found an interview with Mr. Thompson on CBSNews.com's GameCore column. In the interview, Thompson states that GTA series "has sold 30 million units, with San Andreas expected to hit 20 million on its own." Fair enough, apparently the game is popular.
Next question:
How many hate or violent crimes would you say are linked to or directly related to violence in video games?
I have no earthly idea, and no one can guess at that. I can tell you that some crimes would not occur but for the violent entertainment. For the families of the deceased, that is the only statistic that matters.
OK, Mr. Thompson has stated that he has no earthly idea how many violent crimes and linked to video games. How does one get anything accomplished in court without any proof?
Next Question:
According to the Center for Child Death Review, 1,242 kids were murdered with guns and 174 children died from accidental firearm-related injuries in 2000. Aside from stories that get covered in the news [like Columbine], there are few, if any, actual statistics that show how many children's deaths are directly linked to video games. Do the facts speak for themselves? Or is it just that nobody is really keeping tabs?
The federal government found that in the school year 2003, there were 48 school killings. The year before that there were 16, and the year before that 17. Something is going on. I submit that the video game generation is coming of age.
Despite the fact that he just solved child violence issues with no information to back up his claims, I want to spend some time dealing with numbers here. Grand Theft Auto is the number one selling video game series and the most violent to boot (I'll admit to that) selling a record 30 million units. 30 MILLION is an awfully big number. AT LEAST 30 million people are playing GTA and that not including roommates, siblings, friends, and people who stole the game. Over 30 million people are playing the brain rot that is violent video games and, what's this? 48 school killings? Lets see, how many times does 48 go into 30 million... 625,000 times. Man, these games are working slowly. 625,000 times more people are going to have to jump on their PS2's and get angry!
The point I'm trying to make is that, numerically, there is no evidence that games are making kids violent. People like Jack Thompson are loud, and people listen to him even though he doesn't know what he's talking about. By creating an outlet for violent behavior, violence in video games could be helping the problem instead of hurting it. I know I feel better when I blast a few demons on Doom 3 after a hard days work.
Senator Joe Lieberman and Senator Hillary Clinton are jumping on the political bandwagon. The government is surprisingly good at regulating imaginary violence, but they're not so good at regulating the actual violence they are responsible for. Maybe the kids are sick of getting picked on at school. Maybe they're watching too much CNN, where they show hours and hours of real violence (every time a bomb goes off on TV, someone is DYING).
I understand that Jack Thompson is attacking The Sims now due to a third party mod that removes the naked Sim blur effect, exposing The Sims for what they really are: anatomically incorrect Barbi Dolls.
Grand Theft Auto is a mature rated video game released for the Playstation 2, X-Box and PC. The game got its mature rating by the ESRB for some pretty serious violent content. Having played the game myself, I can tell you it's not presented in any serious fashion. Basically you play a street thug trying to gain rank in organized crime. This requires you to go on missions which involve stealing cars and killing people.
The Hot Coffee Mod was, as far as I can tell, written by a fellow calling himself PatrickW. The mod unlocks some pornographic content in the game. The content was hidden in the game code - perhaps as a joke, or perhaps abandoned game code left in there for whatever reason. The only way to access it is by unlocking it with a third party mod.
The ESRB changed GTA's rating from Mature to Adults Only. Wal-Mart, Gamestop and several other large retailers have pulled the game off their shelves (at an estimated 50,000,000 dollar revenue loss I might add). Rockstar Games has not fought any of this, and they have agreed to pull the content out of the game code making it suitable for a mature rating again.
The only reason Rock Star is getting hammered is because the content was buried in the game code somewhere. The content is NOT ACCESSIBLE without the Hot Coffee Mod. I'm not sure why Rock Star is responsible for 3rd party software, but it is nice of them to remove the code.
Enter Jack Thompson, who runs www.stopkill.com. Jack Thompson is a Miami attorney who has it out for video games. He brags about being voted one of the ACLU's "top ten" censors of the year. Jack Thompson believes that violent video games cause kids, or anyone playing them for that matter, to act violently. Since GTA is one of the most violent games out there, he's jumping all over this one.
I recently found an interview with Mr. Thompson on CBSNews.com's GameCore column. In the interview, Thompson states that GTA series "has sold 30 million units, with San Andreas expected to hit 20 million on its own." Fair enough, apparently the game is popular.
Next question:
How many hate or violent crimes would you say are linked to or directly related to violence in video games?
I have no earthly idea, and no one can guess at that. I can tell you that some crimes would not occur but for the violent entertainment. For the families of the deceased, that is the only statistic that matters.
OK, Mr. Thompson has stated that he has no earthly idea how many violent crimes and linked to video games. How does one get anything accomplished in court without any proof?
Next Question:
According to the Center for Child Death Review, 1,242 kids were murdered with guns and 174 children died from accidental firearm-related injuries in 2000. Aside from stories that get covered in the news [like Columbine], there are few, if any, actual statistics that show how many children's deaths are directly linked to video games. Do the facts speak for themselves? Or is it just that nobody is really keeping tabs?
The federal government found that in the school year 2003, there were 48 school killings. The year before that there were 16, and the year before that 17. Something is going on. I submit that the video game generation is coming of age.
Despite the fact that he just solved child violence issues with no information to back up his claims, I want to spend some time dealing with numbers here. Grand Theft Auto is the number one selling video game series and the most violent to boot (I'll admit to that) selling a record 30 million units. 30 MILLION is an awfully big number. AT LEAST 30 million people are playing GTA and that not including roommates, siblings, friends, and people who stole the game. Over 30 million people are playing the brain rot that is violent video games and, what's this? 48 school killings? Lets see, how many times does 48 go into 30 million... 625,000 times. Man, these games are working slowly. 625,000 times more people are going to have to jump on their PS2's and get angry!
The point I'm trying to make is that, numerically, there is no evidence that games are making kids violent. People like Jack Thompson are loud, and people listen to him even though he doesn't know what he's talking about. By creating an outlet for violent behavior, violence in video games could be helping the problem instead of hurting it. I know I feel better when I blast a few demons on Doom 3 after a hard days work.
Senator Joe Lieberman and Senator Hillary Clinton are jumping on the political bandwagon. The government is surprisingly good at regulating imaginary violence, but they're not so good at regulating the actual violence they are responsible for. Maybe the kids are sick of getting picked on at school. Maybe they're watching too much CNN, where they show hours and hours of real violence (every time a bomb goes off on TV, someone is DYING).
I understand that Jack Thompson is attacking The Sims now due to a third party mod that removes the naked Sim blur effect, exposing The Sims for what they really are: anatomically incorrect Barbi Dolls.
Monday, July 25, 2005
What happened to Comic Books?
Like a lot of geeks my age, I had a substantial comic book collection in High School (the jewel of which has to be my nearly complete Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collection). High school for me was 1992 - 1996, though I started collecting in 1990. There's a couple of hundred books in the back room, all bagged, boarded and never read.
When comics were introduced, they were marketed to kids and cost something like 25 cents a copy. They were printed on newsprint - sometimes in color and sometimes not - and children would buy them, read them and roll them up for easy carrying in their back pocket.
The dark ages for the industry had to be the early nineties when the "collecting" craze was in full swing. Somewhere down the line, the artist became the most important person in production and not the writer. Comics started to be printed on glossy paper with fancy coloring jobs, bagged with collector cards, and they displayed super holographic covers. 25 cents per copy was replaced by 2.75 per copy. Grocery stores lost their racks and specialty comic book stores jacked up prices. Collectors, like myself, immediately stuffed comics into plastic acid free bags and stored them dark closets while retiring rich in our minds off of selling our collections.
X-Force #1 hit the market like a freight train. Marvel printed more copies of that book than they could possibly sell. It was bagged in clear plastic with some sort of "rare" card. I have 3 copies of the book myself, seeing as how it was the book to have at the time. Recently, I opened one of them, introducing the comic to the air in my house for the first time. Tossing the collector card aside, I opened the comic and READ it. The artwork was blah and the story was worse.
I had lost my way, just like the comics industry had. Any time you MARKET something as collectible, it's not collectible anymore. If there's more copies of X-Force #1 than collectors to buy it, it holds no worth at all. Marvel and DC also alienated their core fans by delivering sub par stories and jacking the prices up 200 - 300%.
Comics need to return to their roots. Children can't afford to buy a comic that costs $3.00 per copy. Likewise, how does glossy paper (which drives up printing costs) improve the story and characters? Comics need to go back to newsprint and cost 25-50 cents per copy. Grocery stores need to get their racks back.
My friend Matt introduced me to a comic artist / write named Scott McCloud. There's a resurgence of comics happening right now on the internet, from Scott's work to the PVP comics. These guys are making comics for their enjoyment and for dedicated readers.
Will Marvel and DC ever return to the glory days? Unlikely. Seems as if they're making more money off of movie licenses than comic books, which is fine. Perhaps it's time to pass on the torch to a newer generation of creative minds.
PS - If you get the chance to read Scott McCloud's Understand Comics, I suggest you do. It's a fantastic read!
When comics were introduced, they were marketed to kids and cost something like 25 cents a copy. They were printed on newsprint - sometimes in color and sometimes not - and children would buy them, read them and roll them up for easy carrying in their back pocket.
The dark ages for the industry had to be the early nineties when the "collecting" craze was in full swing. Somewhere down the line, the artist became the most important person in production and not the writer. Comics started to be printed on glossy paper with fancy coloring jobs, bagged with collector cards, and they displayed super holographic covers. 25 cents per copy was replaced by 2.75 per copy. Grocery stores lost their racks and specialty comic book stores jacked up prices. Collectors, like myself, immediately stuffed comics into plastic acid free bags and stored them dark closets while retiring rich in our minds off of selling our collections.
X-Force #1 hit the market like a freight train. Marvel printed more copies of that book than they could possibly sell. It was bagged in clear plastic with some sort of "rare" card. I have 3 copies of the book myself, seeing as how it was the book to have at the time. Recently, I opened one of them, introducing the comic to the air in my house for the first time. Tossing the collector card aside, I opened the comic and READ it. The artwork was blah and the story was worse.
I had lost my way, just like the comics industry had. Any time you MARKET something as collectible, it's not collectible anymore. If there's more copies of X-Force #1 than collectors to buy it, it holds no worth at all. Marvel and DC also alienated their core fans by delivering sub par stories and jacking the prices up 200 - 300%.
Comics need to return to their roots. Children can't afford to buy a comic that costs $3.00 per copy. Likewise, how does glossy paper (which drives up printing costs) improve the story and characters? Comics need to go back to newsprint and cost 25-50 cents per copy. Grocery stores need to get their racks back.
My friend Matt introduced me to a comic artist / write named Scott McCloud. There's a resurgence of comics happening right now on the internet, from Scott's work to the PVP comics. These guys are making comics for their enjoyment and for dedicated readers.
Will Marvel and DC ever return to the glory days? Unlikely. Seems as if they're making more money off of movie licenses than comic books, which is fine. Perhaps it's time to pass on the torch to a newer generation of creative minds.
PS - If you get the chance to read Scott McCloud's Understand Comics, I suggest you do. It's a fantastic read!
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Gamespot's E3 2005 Collector's DVD Set
This week, I received in the mail my E3 6 Disc DVD set from the good folks at Gamespot (www.gamespot.com). Their coverage is fantastic, especially the 200 or more game previews. Being one of the poor souls who is unable to attend the show, this set is a God-send for me. Here are my thoughts on what I saw:
THE GOOD:
Thanks to Gamespot for putting these DVD's together!
The Elder Scrolls Oblivion is looking fantastic! I have been a huge fan of Bethesda's work since Arena, and having beaten Morrowind and it's three expansions, I am definately hungry for more. This game will be a plus for the X-Box 360 launch, however I'm sticking to the PC side of this release.
The Sony Press Conference. Playstation 3 has already won the next generation console wars in my opinion. Insterestingly, the demo that made the biggest impression for me was the ducks in a bathtub demo. In explanation: The fellow running the demo had an Eye Toy hooked up a PS3 and held up two drinking glasses. Two identical glasses, albeit digital, floated up from the side of the virtual bathtub and reproduced the movements Mr. Demo was making in real life. The amazing part of the demo was how the glasses interacted with the environment; Mr. Demo was able to scoop virtual water out of the bathtub and pour it back and fourth between the glasses. It's exciting to think of the gaming opportunities here. How about instead of pushing button A to spin Tetris peices, you could reach out and spin them by hand? Unfortunately, the Sony reps didn't seem as excited about these prospects as me and only spent a few seconds on the demo; they proceed directly to some Unreal engine graphics demo that, while beautiful, didn't bring gaming into the next level. Hopefully, a game designer in the audience was just as impressed as I was and is working on something to utilize this technology now.
The Killzone 2 demo rocked. I cannot tell if this was really game footage or a pre-rendered lie. I guess it's a testament to the system that noone believes them ;-). Sony has some big promises to live up to with that demo. If they fail to deliver that level of quality in the real product, it will sink the PS3.
Age of Conan is an MMORPG dream come true. Impressive on every level, I am deifnately looking forward to this one.
After reading the PC Gamer article on Prey, I was convinced this was going to be the dumbest game ever to grace a CD (or DVD for that matter.) I'll admit a mistake and say that game looks fantastic! If you get the opportunity to download the trailer, please do.
Quake 4 surprised me! Getting to play a Strogg is going to be awesome. The Doom 3 engine is aging well (see Prey above) and looks as spooky as ever.
THE BAD:
X-Box 360 unimpressed me. Every demo shown looked great graphically, but nothing really looked all that different from anything we already have. Microsoft needs to realize that will live in a post Doom 3 and Halflife 2 world, and nothing they showed tops those games. As I said, I don't know if Killzone 2 was a lie or not, but next gen gaming had better look that good.
Nintendo was a no-show. Period. They will deliver Revolution late and finish third once again.
Two games I was really looking forward to seeing unimpressed me. Lord of the Rings Online looks horrible. Dungeons and Dragons Online looks better than LOTR, but it still didn't do anything for me. I don't know if MMO developers are playing World of Warcraft or not, but these guys need to buy subscriptions. I can't imagine the developers comparing these games and seeing them taking over the market. LOTR looks like Everquest 2, but worse. Ugh.
While I'm on the subject of Blizzard, Starcraft Ghost's demo was pathetic. That game has been in development FOREVER. It seems like past demos I have seen looked much better than this one. I'm keeping the faith for Blizzard, but this might turn out to be their first flop.
The PC market was mostly absent from the show. I'm a PC man, and there's not a whole lot in development right now. I guess we're slipping into one of those PC game slumps that is always ushered in when a new console is in the works. They'll come back. They always come back.
Square needs to either make movies or games. The Final Fantasy demo was nothing but a bunch of cut scenes, albeit good looking ones. What happened to PLAYING Games instead of WATCHING THEM.
THE GOOD:
Thanks to Gamespot for putting these DVD's together!
The Elder Scrolls Oblivion is looking fantastic! I have been a huge fan of Bethesda's work since Arena, and having beaten Morrowind and it's three expansions, I am definately hungry for more. This game will be a plus for the X-Box 360 launch, however I'm sticking to the PC side of this release.
The Sony Press Conference. Playstation 3 has already won the next generation console wars in my opinion. Insterestingly, the demo that made the biggest impression for me was the ducks in a bathtub demo. In explanation: The fellow running the demo had an Eye Toy hooked up a PS3 and held up two drinking glasses. Two identical glasses, albeit digital, floated up from the side of the virtual bathtub and reproduced the movements Mr. Demo was making in real life. The amazing part of the demo was how the glasses interacted with the environment; Mr. Demo was able to scoop virtual water out of the bathtub and pour it back and fourth between the glasses. It's exciting to think of the gaming opportunities here. How about instead of pushing button A to spin Tetris peices, you could reach out and spin them by hand? Unfortunately, the Sony reps didn't seem as excited about these prospects as me and only spent a few seconds on the demo; they proceed directly to some Unreal engine graphics demo that, while beautiful, didn't bring gaming into the next level. Hopefully, a game designer in the audience was just as impressed as I was and is working on something to utilize this technology now.
The Killzone 2 demo rocked. I cannot tell if this was really game footage or a pre-rendered lie. I guess it's a testament to the system that noone believes them ;-). Sony has some big promises to live up to with that demo. If they fail to deliver that level of quality in the real product, it will sink the PS3.
Age of Conan is an MMORPG dream come true. Impressive on every level, I am deifnately looking forward to this one.
After reading the PC Gamer article on Prey, I was convinced this was going to be the dumbest game ever to grace a CD (or DVD for that matter.) I'll admit a mistake and say that game looks fantastic! If you get the opportunity to download the trailer, please do.
Quake 4 surprised me! Getting to play a Strogg is going to be awesome. The Doom 3 engine is aging well (see Prey above) and looks as spooky as ever.
THE BAD:
X-Box 360 unimpressed me. Every demo shown looked great graphically, but nothing really looked all that different from anything we already have. Microsoft needs to realize that will live in a post Doom 3 and Halflife 2 world, and nothing they showed tops those games. As I said, I don't know if Killzone 2 was a lie or not, but next gen gaming had better look that good.
Nintendo was a no-show. Period. They will deliver Revolution late and finish third once again.
Two games I was really looking forward to seeing unimpressed me. Lord of the Rings Online looks horrible. Dungeons and Dragons Online looks better than LOTR, but it still didn't do anything for me. I don't know if MMO developers are playing World of Warcraft or not, but these guys need to buy subscriptions. I can't imagine the developers comparing these games and seeing them taking over the market. LOTR looks like Everquest 2, but worse. Ugh.
While I'm on the subject of Blizzard, Starcraft Ghost's demo was pathetic. That game has been in development FOREVER. It seems like past demos I have seen looked much better than this one. I'm keeping the faith for Blizzard, but this might turn out to be their first flop.
The PC market was mostly absent from the show. I'm a PC man, and there's not a whole lot in development right now. I guess we're slipping into one of those PC game slumps that is always ushered in when a new console is in the works. They'll come back. They always come back.
Square needs to either make movies or games. The Final Fantasy demo was nothing but a bunch of cut scenes, albeit good looking ones. What happened to PLAYING Games instead of WATCHING THEM.
Welcome to my Blog!
Howdy everyone in cyberspace! Welcome to my webblog. Hopefully you'll find what I have to say interesting.
I'll be covering movies, games, computers, comics and anything else nerd related. If you agree or disagree with my opinions, please e-mail me at jm11744@hotmail.com and let me know!
I'll be covering movies, games, computers, comics and anything else nerd related. If you agree or disagree with my opinions, please e-mail me at jm11744@hotmail.com and let me know!
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