catch_33's Journal

9:00pm: Wii: A Trick, Or Wishful Thinking?
There appears to be some rumors that Nintendo is pulling a fast one on us gamers. Even though I don't care what the name is, I'm intrigued by the possibility.

When E3 comes around, if the name stays the same, we'll know it was just wishful thinking on the part of Wii-haters.

But, if it changes back to Revolution, or something else entirely, we'll never know whether it was really a joke, or that they caved into the negative response.

I don't know which one to leans towards. I really don't. Because of the rather joke-bait nature of the name, Nintendo may just be kidding around. Or, they may just try to make it look like that to save face.

I hope it stays the same, because then the whiners will eventually shut up about it, whereas if it changes, we'll have two different groups swearing up and down that "they were right all along" until the end of time.

10:05pm: Come Again?
As you may have heard, what was once the Nintendo Revolution, is now the Nintendo Wii. This, unsurprisingly, has provoked much ire and been the source of numerous [and hilarious] jokes.

Personally, I don't give a shit what the fucking name is. I've never cared. I've never heard the name of an upcoming console and felt the same way I do when I see beautiful screenshots of an upcoming game.

For the most part, it really does fit the console like a glove. Look at the fucking controller. Does it yell conventional? Nope, and neither does the name.

Will this prove disastrous for Nintendo? Doubtful. We buy consoles for good games, which I'm sure the Wii will feature plenty of.

And now for my joke:

Wii will
Wii will
Rock you!

^_^

8:59pm: Great Big Cycle Of Crap
Stuff like this makes me sad. Very sad.

http://wtopnews.com/?nid=104&sid=762918&page=1

I guess Columbine didn't make students as fearful of pushing other kids over the edge as I'd thought. While I was still in school, people thought I might pull something like this, so they avoided offending me like I was Juggernaut hefting an uprooted oak tree around. It was nice, but it was done for the wrong reasons. Kids need to stop bullying each other out of gaining compassion, not from being afraid of getting shot.

We have the media to thank for this. All anyone ever heard was sensationalistic bullshit. Marilyn Manson, Rammstein, goths, Doom, anything that's ever been controversial at some point was blamed. You know what that told kids? Go ahead and pick on other kids, no one will give a shit. They're too busy blaming everything else. If this isn't proof that the news stations are not our friends, I don't know what is.

You know why this continues to happen, right? People like Jack Thompson. They encourage it, every time they blame games for violence. Every time they're not there to help kids deal with their actual problems, they contribute to stuff like this. To me, these students aren't dispicable. The people who claim to be saviors of lives and on the side of justice are dispicable. Almost to the point of being vomit-inducing.

They encourage the bullies to do what they do, through their blame-shifting. And for what? Ratings. Money. A pat on the back from people who can't see through their bullshit. Fucking disgusting. Forget ostracizing these students, let them take a swing at fucksticks like Thompson.

I think it's time I put together a nation-wide anti-bullying program. One where the main focus involves making the real problems the center of attention. Only then, are we going to get anything done.

1:30pm: Game For Girls
This in regards to the article on Kotaku, which is in fact on another article: http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/girls-on-gaming/how-to-attract-female-gamers-150259.php

This Kristin McDonnell doesn't get it. You know who does? A commentor on Kotaku, known as Lordieth. I couldn't agree more with what he wrote.

Argh, enough of this silly proffesional analysis! Girls like the exact kind of games we do, there's no magic formula to woo girl gamers over. Sure, girls like teddy bears and pink and fluffy kittens and puppys, but how many games can you fling out like that, without splitting up male and female gamers into two different groups? That's making things worse, not better.

Girls' Night Out Solitaire? Reeks cheap tactic more than well aimed game design. If you want to win female gamers over, rid games of the cliched "weaker sex" rubbish, and start portraying women for their strengths, and *not* their weaknesses. Give us games where girls can kick ass just as much as guys can, and stop throwing flesh at us like we're at a cheap butchers market, it's no suprise girl gamers are annoyed, if all they see is disproportioned "babes" to appeal to the guys. Do you see many scantly clad male warriors wearing revealing thongs in videogames? I very much doubt it.

The only trick to success would be to give us an equal option between male *and* female characters, instead of just the same cheap tricks to appeal to hormonal 12 year old teenagers with a lust for pixelated mammaries. I don't expect to see half-naked buff firefighters as gaming characters, so why should women put up with the same kind of shallow attitude towards them?

Female gamers don't want games simply repackaged for them, they want fair portrayal and female character integration, not to be treated like some cheap afterthought. Give female gamers respect, and they'll pay you in kind.

I'm amazed at how slow the gaming industry is on the uptake, wasting time with statistics and polls and analysis reports when all they need to do is give us equality. Even the movie industry is fairing better in this respect, and that's really saying something about how stuck in the past gaming really is.

Equality is definitely the key. McDonnell's methods segregate the sexes, when we need them to come together. Not every girl is turned off to games that involve explosions, blood, and swearing, and to treat those women like they don't exist is just plain wrong.

However, even the women gamers who love violent games don't like seeing every female character wearing butt-floss and having large enough breasts to use as a make-shift trampoline. Especially if these female characters are supposed to be warriors or assassins. Armor can be sexy and functional, but more often than not, the latter is sacrificed for the former. Even I'm getting annoyed at that, and I'm a 21-year-old male.

It's kind of a vicious cycle though. Sexy women are in games because mostly guys play them, and it's mostly guys playing them because they feature sexy women. However, it doesn't have to be this way. And when that starts to change, then we'll see more women playing games.

My message to devs: Don't target any specific gender, as you'll just alienate the other, and that's not good. Equality is a wonderful thing.

9:45am: According to Jack Thompson
According to Jack Thompson, we mostly drug-addicts. If that were true, he'd never hear from us, because we'd have sold our stuff to buy drugs.

According to Jack, violent video games increase aggression. If that were true, there'd be game-related incident happening every hour on the hour in every city in America. Every single day.

According to Jack, we employ terrorist tactics. If that were true, he wouldn't be alive right now.

According to Jack, gamers are all juvenile delinquents. If that were true, the game industry wouldn't be bringing in billions of dollars a year. Juveniles can't make much money, let alone juvenile delinquents, who typically don't even have jobs.

According to Jack, video games train people to, and how to, kill. Like with the terrorist thing, if that were true, he wouldn't be alive right now.

In fact, I think the fact that Jack Thompson still lives, alone, is proof positive that everything he says about games and gamers is wrong. He taunts gamers every day. The same gamers who play what he calls "murder simulators" all the time. The same gamers who, according to his logic, are willing and capable of killing. So why does he taunt us? And why have we refrained from "using" our alleged "training"? Isn't a cranial menu supposed to pop up whenever we read something by him and feel "threatened"? He says that we feel threatened by him all the time. He's claimed we're all "running scared". So why hasn't anybody run to his house and shot him?

Because he's wrong. He taunts us because he knows the worst we're most likely to do is send threatenting letters. Which has unfortunately happened. But it doesn't prove him right. As long as he remains untouched by the "Manchurian children", everything that comes out of his mouth is either bull shit, or a lie.

8:43pm: This Is The Last Straw
Jack Thompson has always been an asshole, but with the comments he's made today, the gloves are coming off.

I've been keeping certain people up-to-date on Jack's antics for the past month or so. Newspapers, magazines, radio channels, politicians, and especially the FBA. Everything Jack does, I try to get exposed to damn near everyone.

Now, I'm stepping it up a notch. I'm going to do everything in my power to get on TV. Preferably 60 Minutes, the show Jack loves to remind everyone he was on. I'm going to show the whole fucking world the piece of shit that Jack Thompson truly is.

Think I'm bluffing, or joking? Think again. I will get air-time, and I will put Jack Thompson out of business forever.

Prepare to taste my wrath you worthless sack of dog shit.

Catch 33

8:04pm: Another Ultimatum
You have until five o’clock p.m., Tuesday, January 17, 2006, to announce a recall from all retailers of all of the aforementioned three game titles—The Warriors, Manhunt, and all versions of the Grand Theft Auto games—or I and others shall proceed to secure appropriate remedies against your company in these regards.

This was in a letter Jack Thompson apparently sent to Paul Eibeler, CEO of Take Two.

I really hope Jack does something this time. It'll be hilarious, if nothing else.

7:38pm: Craziness Beyond All Comprehension
It seems Jack Thompson's been upping the ante on the degree of absolutely-fucking-bonkers behavior he exhibits when there isn't a camera in his face. And I missed a lot of it. Oh well. I'll just comment here.


On his attempt at destroying copies of "25 To Life" and claiming it's legal: Even he knows it's not, he just likes to antagonize us. It's easy to forget that, and I'm guilty of it as well. He also doesn't care. I'm guessing he's either throwing his career away or has some trick up his sleeve that he's going to use when the hammer comes down. And it will. You cannot destroy property under that statute unless it actually poses a provable or proven danger, not because someone just thinks it will. After spewing so much bull shit, Jack seems to have forgotten he hasn't actually proven games to be harmful. Or he just doesn't care. Hard to tell with such a maniacal person.


On his recent religious ramblings: I have to admit I've seen worse. And really, like a lot of things he says, it's his way of pulling down his pants and waving his ass at everybody, like the fucking juvenile he always claims we are. His faith is a shield from the realization that he's a total failure at his profession. Nothing more.


On his blaming of the bum-beatings that happened in Florida on games: Not really that surprising. Dispicable as all hell, but not that surprising, which just makes it worse. Jack frequently jumps into things without knowing all the facts. In fact, most of the time, that's the only way he can justify doing so. [And I use the term "justify" very loosely here.] There appears to be even less of a relation between the actions of total retards/psychos and any video game in this case than never before. Something tells me Jack's going to claim he has an "inside source" that "told him all about it", like he's done before.


On his claim that Paul Eibeler's going to jail: Wishful thinking on Jack's part. Nothing more.


On hius persistant threats against us in regards to annoying him over the internet: His denseness knows no bounds, it appears.

PS: All you people emailing me anonymously and annoying me: a) you're committing a criminal act, by virtue of a new federal law,

Not if they're foreigners. Which a lot of GP visitors are.

and b) I have your identities by virtue of software I have.

This is a man who has frequent trouble working his email system. I don't know what kind of software one would use to identify people, or if Jack has such things, but I guarantee you he doesn't know how to use it.

Nice going, geniuses. The last kid who did this got sent to jail in Houston.

He threatened to kill you. We've shown you how wrong you are. Big difference.


By the way:

Fuck you Jack Thompson. Fuck you up your fucking ass you stupid motherfucker.

Sincerely,

Not-Signing-My-Real-Name-Ever

8:12pm: Tsk, tsk, tsk.
This Just In...from Jack Thompson
(Anonymous)
2006-01-12 09:48 pm UTC (link)
Eidos, Inc., the makers of 25 to Life, explicitly promised the Attorney General of Utah, Mark Shurtloff, that the game would never be released.

Eidos decided to break this promise, with no heads-up, no explanation to Shurtloff. Shurtloff was involved because of the lead a Utah family had taken in trying to stop the game's release. The father in the family was a police chief who had been gunned down.

Now AG is madder than a wet hen, and all this is going to hit the fan in the news tomorrow morning. I gave all this to Dennis McCauley, but apparently he was too busy freelancing a boil to report it.

You all are welcome. Hooah! Jack Thompson

Here's an excerpt from an article regarding this:

Just hours before the protesters assembled... Eidos announced it would delay release of the game until sometime in 2006... Shurtleff, who attended (police officer) Gurr's funeral in 2001, said he spoke with (Eidos CEO) Gardner over the weekend and persuaded him to push back the release date. The game glorifies murdering police officers and brings video games to a new level of indecency, the attorney general said.

See that? No promise to never release the game. Just a delay. A postponment.

Jack Thompson is a liar. End of story.

11:04am: Jack Thompson = Fucking Moron
The follwing is a letter Jack Thompson has sent to the Russian Federation Ambassador to the United States, Yuri Ushakov, in regards to this incident: http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/01/12/jews_demand_russian_action_after_synagogue_attack/

Please read the article if you haven't already.

Now, brace yourself, because this is going to be bad:


Dear Ambassador Ushakov:

I am an expert, recognized as such in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, and elsewhere, as to the disturbing nexus between violent video game play and real-world violence.

Expert? Is he a scientist? No. Is he a researcher? He attacked Sims 2 based on a random email he received. So no. Is he an analyst? No. He's lawyer who's actual field of expertise is medical malpractice. Hmm...Something's amiss here...

I have been repeatedly interviewed as to this nexus by the BBC and by major news media in this country.

This true. But it doesn't mean anything.

As you know, a young person in Moscow just went on a knifing spree, allegedly inspired to do so by the incredibly violent PC video game, Postal 2.

Actually, the game he played was the first Postal, and he was an anti-Semite. If Mr. Ushakov has a brain in his head, he already knows this. Quit sticking your nose in business that isn't yours Jack.

In this game, by the way, a player can place his virtual gun into the anus of a cat to use the feline as a silencer.

Good fun. :)

That is how depraved is Vince Desi, the head of the company that makes this game. He is a sociopath.

That doesn't make him a sociopath, asshole.

This game is being distributed around the world by Mr. Desi’s US company, Running with Scissors, whose corporate slogan is “To kill or not to kill? What a stupid question.”

True. But what's your point?

We have had a large number of killings in this country linked by law enforcement to these types of murder simulation games.

LIE,. The only one who's linking anything to games is YOU.

Our US Defense Department actually uses virtual reality killing simulators like this to break down the inhibition of new recruits to kill, so of course it has this same effect on civilians.

LIE.

Running with Scissors has recently entered into an arrangement whereby it can distribute its murder simulators via the Internet, thereby bypassing various nations’ restrictions on the distribution of such harmful material to minors.

They beat you. Good for them.

The Russian Federation must stop this practice.

They have no reason to care. They have real issues to deal with, like anti-Semitism.

I am a Republican who can tell you that United States President George W. Bush has direct financial ties to the violent video game industry—such as Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., through massive campaign contributions by the political lobbying firm of Blank Rome—so there is a collaboration of sorts between the US government and the violent video game industry to export this dangerous garbage around the globe. In fact, our Defense Department has actually subsidized the creation of some of these virtual reality killing games at an agency known as the Institute for Creative Technologies. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is this program’s chief enthusiast.

Conspiracy theories can be fun, but you take them too far Jack.

I appeared on ABC World News Tonight blowing the whistle on this nonsense, which also extensively involves the Sony Corporation.

Then why hasn't it stopped yet? That's right, because it's not happening, idiot.

Please feel free to contact me for additional information as soon as possible. I think at the very least the Russian Federation should lodge a formal protest with the United States government regarding the importation of Postal 2 and the mayhem at the Moscow synagogue that it may very well have caused.

Yeah, I'm sure you'd love to gain some allies at this point Jack.


Send the ambassador a letter exposing this liar for what he is.

2650 Wisconsin Ave., NW

Washington, D.C. Via email and fax to 202-298-5735

12:58pm: Lies And Bull Shit
Source: http://www.netjak.com/review.php/1091

This is a recent interview with Jack Thompson that caught my eye. This guy just never learns.


On his strategy with being at the shareholders meeting for Take Two:

I’m also going to bring up Bully, which is a revenge fantasy and a murder simulator. The setting is Columbine. The setting is Paducah. I could go on for fifteen minutes on how many disasters have been brought about like this.

LIE. It's a game where you defend yourself from bullies and asshole teachers. No guns, and no killing.

Game Informer already has published screen shots of the game, and has done a brief write-up of what’s going to be in the game. Nobody can claim that they haven’t gone into the game’s content; it’s already out there.

And none of it gives any indication that it's a Columbine-simulator. Yet Jack keeps claiming it is.

We don’t need to play the game; it’s irrelevant to the subject.

You've got to be fucking kidding me...


On targeting other companies:

Back in the day, Eliot Ness didn’t go after the small-time criminals. Eliot Ness went after Al Capone. Actually, I must offer my apologies to Al Capone. He only targeted adults, corrupt adults with his crimes. Capone never went after minors.

There he goes again with his demonizing shit. Everyone who's not on his side is a spawn of the devil.


On Hot Coffee:

I saw a blurred oral sex scene. Beyond that, I don’t want to get into details. It’s irrelevant; we all know what’s in the scene, and kids shouldn’t be subjected to that.

Pah! As if kids stumbled unto it and were immediately traumatized. Tch.


On the game media:

The video game media has been belligerent and afraid of me.

You'd like to think that wouldn't you Jack? But even you know the truth: No one's afraid of you.

The problem is that they don’t listen to my message. Let the adult video games stay with the adults. We need to keep these games out of the hands of our kids. Take Two has been marketing these games to our kids, and they just let the retailers sell them to kids. They’re all wrapped up in this together; it’s like a conspiracy.

And a ridiculous one at that.


On Take Two meeting his demands [sort of]:

Well, I’d still have issues with the game on moral grounds, of course. However, if they [Take Two] stopped their marketing towards kids and instructed retailers like that, I wouldn’t take any action against the company.

Thing is, they don't market their games to kids as it is. So this statement is bull shit. He's never going to let up until his license is gone.


And here's the climax everybody, one of the biggest contradictions Jack Thompson's ever made:

Yes, there are plenty of wholesome, educational games out there. And there are good manufacturers out there. Video games are like any other technology – it’s neutral, capable of either good or evil. I don’t want to do away with video games. I just want to protect children from adult games.

Sound familiar? It should, he said something similar during his interview with Dennis McCauley. He's contradicted it before, except this time it was a moment later in the same interview:

Yes, put down the controller and get a life. Video gaming is an escapist activity and you’re being exploited by these companies. It’s not healthy; I worry about someone who would play Grand Theft Auto for ten hours a day. It’s a masturbatory activity, and it would be better if people put down the controller and went outside.

By the way, people used to say the same thing about television. And whether they were right or wrong, they lost. ^_^

9:08am: Anti-Gamers Are So Stupid
It is no exaggeration to say that video games can help train people to kill.

Oh yes it is.

Ask the people we trust most, the U. S. States military. The military succeeds at the difficult task of getting people to overcome their natural barriers to committing unthinkable acts of violence. It uses video games to train our servicemen and women for the rigors of combat.

But not for the reasons you'd prefer everyone to think. See, it saves them on much more valuable resources. But, you have an agenda, obviously, so you're going to insinuate that games reduce one's inihibition to kill, which is complete bull shit.

The same games for children reward cop-killing, auto theft, and drug dealing.

LIE. No game on the market rewards gamers for blowing away virtual depictions of cops. Stealing cars and dealing drugs aren't rewarded either, though they are a central part of some games.

An underage child should not have the unilateral discretion to walk into a store and purchase such a product. This is common sense.

Such a product would need to exist first, asshole. ^_^

Yet currently, a 10-year-old could purchase a Mature (M-rated) or Adult Only (AO-rated) video game.

Yeah, through an adult.

There are voluntary guidelines that tell retailers not to sell these products to children, but they have been a failure due to their voluntary nature.

The same could be said about movie and CD retailers. Where's your uproar about that?

A propoal (SB 492) by state Sen. Alex Diaz, R-Miami, would basically take those guidelines and make them law. Despite the failure of their voluntary guidelines, the multibillion-dollar video game industry is fighting this legislation as it did (unsuccessfully) in Illinois, Michigan and California.

Been living in a cave for awhile? Or are you just lying through your teeth?

The evidence is conclusive: Countless independent studies confirm that repeated exposure to graphically sexual, violent and profanity-laced video games has a harmful and long-term affect on children.

LIE. No study has proven anything conclusively.

Most recently, researchers at Michigan State University used functional magnetic resonance imaging technology to observe which areas of the brain are stimulated when a subject plays violent video games.

Researchers concluded, "there is a causal link between playing the first-person shooting game in our experiment and brain-activity pattern that are considered as characteristic for aggressive cognitions and affects ... Violent video games frequently have been criticized for enhancing aggressive reactions such as aggressive cognitions, aggressive affects or aggressive behavior. On a neurobiological level we have shown the link exists."

That study's been lambasted by fellow scientists for months. Consider it debunked.

If these games are marketed to and manufactured for adults as the industry insists, then their sale to minors should be restricted.

But that's not happening, at least not any more so than with the film or record industries. And you apparently don't have an issue with them, so why pick on us?

This solution protects our children without interfering with the rights of adults. We place similar restrictions on the sale of firearms, tobacco, alcohol and pornography. This is no different.

Actually, it is much different. See, everything you just mentioned, the courts agree that they're harmful. But they don't agree with video games being harmful, because it hasn't been conclusively proven. Dumbass.

Video game retailers have failed to police themselves. A year ago, the Parents Television Council conducted a secret shopper in several cities across the country and found that more than 50 percent of stores selected were willing to sell M-rated video games to children under 16 without asking for identification.

You're attacking us over year-old results? What an asshole.

The Parents Television Council also polled parents and found that 40 percent were unaware that there are no legal restrictions preventing children from obtaining these games.

That's not all they're unaware of...

The children of Florida are being bombarded with sexual and violent images through video games.

And TV shows, movies, and damn near everything else. And you say that like we're kidnapping them and forcing them to play GTA. They ask for the games, and the parents buy them. THAT is the real problem.

The more than 67,000 members of the Parents Television Council in Florida are calling for the passage of SB 492 to give parents another tool to protect their children from such harmful influences. Florida must follow the lead of Illinois, Michigan and California and show that we care about our children as much as they do theirs. Parents should contact their legislators about this bill to urge a quick passage.

Yes, that its, waste taxpayer's money. Bastards.

Remember that our children are watching!

Watching what, exactly? You act like an idiot?

10:37am: Nothing More Or Less Than A Joke
Jack Thompson Here with a Warning for the Pixelantes

I am working with legislators now in six states to pass video game legislation to prohibit the sale of sexual and violent games harmful to minors. We have the way to do this constitutionally. Kiss your mature-games-to-kids arrangement good-bye.

Secondly, here is a warning to you folks here who post and send annoying messages that pertain to me. President Bush has signed into law a bill, that your asylum keeper here, Dennis McCauley, managed to miss. From now on, if your posts pertain to me, and are of their typical tenor, then you must provide your true identity in the post. Good luck on this one, pixelantes. Dennis, consider yourself warned:

Create an e-annoyance, go to jail
By Declan McCullagh
http://news.com.com/Create+an+e-annoyance%2C+go+to+jail/2010-1028_3-6022491.html

Worried? Don't be, especially if you don't live in the U.S., as this has no effect on you. It's un-Constitutional, and I fully expect it to get tossed by a judge.

But here's the funniest part:

Jack Thompson is a failure of a man who will take anything he can get to feel like he's otherwise. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for anyone with a brain, it never works, it especially won't this time.

You see, he wants this to be a method in which he can fight back at all the people who make fun of him on the internet. He can't stand criticism, as is evidenced by his penchant for suing pretty much anyone who does so. Thing is, he does the exact thing that would call for punishment under this law. He's always insulting us gamers on GP and elsewhere, and he never signs with his true name [John Bruce Thompson].

This isn't the first time Jack Thompson has managed to fuck himself while trying to take a swipe at his opponents, and I'm certain it won't be the last.

7:37pm: It Never Ends
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1976339,00.html

The title: Gory games that can warp your brain

Lovely, huh?

The article talks mainly about a study done at the University of Missouri-Columbia, which supposedly proves a causal link between violence in games and aggressive behavior.

When shown images of real-life violence, people who played violent video games were found to have a diminished brain response. However, the same group had more natural reactions to other emotionally disturbing images, such as those of dead animals or ill children.

What's funny is, this actually proves them wrong.

When the game players were then given the opportunity to “punish” a pretend opponent in another game, those with the greatest reduction in P300 brain responses meted out the most severe punishments.

"Reduction in P300 brain responses" means the person is desensitized to certain images. Problem is, they didn't bother to measure other factors that may have attributed to each player's enhanced desire to "punish others". They just put two and two together, which doesn't prove anything.

Many shocking crimes, mostly committed by teenagers, have been linked to violent video games in recent years. In 1999, two high-school students shot dead 13 people and wounded 23 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.

Every time I find someone associating Columbine with violent video games and NOT calling bull shit on it, I feel like turning into the Hulk.

Craig Anderson, of the Department of Psychology at Iowa State University, said: “These brain studies corroborate the many behavioural and cognitive studies showing that violent video games lead to increases in aggression.”

What an idiot. How do people like Anderson and Thompson get their credentials? Am I in Bizarro World?

Some critics remain unconvinced by the findings, however. Jonathan Freedman, Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, who has prepared several government reports on media and games violence, said that all people “habituate” to any kind of stimulus. “All we are really getting is de-sensitisation to images,” he said. “There’s no way to show that this relates to real-life aggression.”

I'm surprised they printed that. And thank you Prof. Freedman, for not being a brainless fuckstick.

SO VIOLENT, IT’S ALMOST REAL

Last year’s most violent games, as assessed by the US watchdog Family Media Guide, included:

# Resident Evil 4: Player is a special forces agent who is sent to rescue the President’s kidnapped daughter. Images include a woman pinned to a wall by a pitchfork through her face
# 50 Cent: Bulletproof Loosely based on the gangster lifestyle of the rapper. Player engages in shootouts and loots the bodies of victims to buy 50 Cent recordings and music videos
# Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Player is a criminal on a mission of murder, theft and destruction. Health is improved by visiting prostitutes, with bonuses for killing them
# God of War: A warrior hunts the gods who tricked him into killing his family. Prisoners are burnt alive, victims torn in half

Well, at least those descriptions are accurate. Sort of.

Oh, and be sure to give these people a piece of your mind, even if you don't live in the UK.

11:24am: PS3 Controller May Not Suck After All
Source: http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/gossip/ps3-controller-redesign-147443.php

Interesting, yes?

And there's this, from the first [and only] comment to the article:



Source: http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2666&p=2

Looks to me like Sony has taken the hint, and isn't going to unleash that monstrocity on us.

Now if they'd just re-think their ad campaign for the PSP...

9:37am: Beginning of the End
What does the future hold for the anti-gaming movement? Fortunately, not much.

As a medium gets become more sophisticated [as games are], it gets harder to attack. Even if there's violence, if it's "artistic", no one will say anything.

Granted, not all games are going to be "artistic", but that's good because the number one priority is keeping the gamers happy with a wide variety of games. Not avoiding giving easily-offended non-gamers fuel for the fire. They'll find that fuel no matter what we do, so it's best to just do what we want.

There's also the issue of "controversy criteria", as it applies to games. Years ago, pretty much any form of violence in games was met with outrage. Today, it's mainly the games where you can [but really aren't supposed to] shoot depictions of police officers and innocent civilians.

See, the criteria for what the anti-gamers bitch about changes over time. It doesn't stack, and it doesn't get broader. It just changes form and gets more specific. Eventually, the "controversy criteria" will dwindle down to nothing. It has no other place to go. Does anyone bitch about Mortal Kombat any more? No. And it's just as violent as ever. It's even in 3-D now. Doesn't make a lot of sense does it?

As games become more realistic and sophisticated, the potential for complaints does grow, and we do need to take this into consideration. We shouldn't let the complaints of anti-gamers determine where the industry goes, but we should know ahead of time what kind of arguments certain games could create. That way, we can prepare to crush them all. ^_^

There will always be games that invoke the most ire. Always. In the future, GTA-style games will have the capacity to look and feel as real as the most vivid dream anyone's ever had. And there will most likely be bitching, but that's okay, because by then we'll be too strong for any of it to have an effect.

2:43pm: Jack Thompson Is A Liar
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold trained on the violent video game Doom to rehearse for the carnage of Columbine.

LIE. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold improved their marksmanship skills out in a field near their homes. There's video tapes of this.

The worst school massacre since Columbine – in Red Lake, Minn., in April 2005 – was at the hands of Jeffrey Weiss, who literally trained on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City to calmly stalk his human prey and shoot them in the head.

LIE. Jeffrey Weise was a racist bigot with a history of mental problems. He shot those kids because he had no regard for human life, even his own. He enjoyed GTA, but what violence-loving person wouldn't?

In August, the American Psychological Association, the largest association of psychologists in the world, officially reported that the link between teens’ immersion in violent video games and increased aggression and violence is proven and clear.

LIE. Their results were inconclusive and skewed. If they weren't, all the game legislation laws would have gotten an O.K. from the courts. But they haven't.

Indeed, the Department of Defense pays the commercial video game industry to design and manufacture virtual reality killing games to suppress new recruits’ inhibition to kill.

LIE. Video games are used by the department of defense because it saves them on other more valuable resources. Suppressing the inhibition to kill is typically unneccessary, as most recruits already have violent tendencies, or they wouldn't be signed up for a job that requires such.

Source of quotes: http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/columnists/story/5446063p-4916552c.html

Drop them a line and tell them you don't approve of such lies being printed.

8:30pm: Revolution = Anti-Gamers Are Fucked
The Nintendo Revolution. Funny that it would have that name, because it's release into the world, I think, is going to bring exactly that: revolution. How? Let me explain:

The whole interactivity argument is full of holes as it is, and when Nintendo blesses us with it's latest creation, the argument's going to be completely destroyed. Take a look at the controller. It's just like a remote. You point it at the screen, press a button, and something happens. Whether it be a menu screen disappearing, or a space pirate getting blown to shit, the remote controller allows the user to interact with a virtual world, much like a regular controller does. Except it's built like a remote that non-gamers use to change the channel, adjust the picture settings, pause their DVD movie, set up the TiVo, etc. See what I'm getting at yet?

Television, though directly linked, are regarded as separate. But are they really so different anymore? Games often contain some rather realistic violence that usually requires the player to engage in that violence for it to happen. Meaning, pressing certain buttons on a controller at a certain time. TV often contains very realistic violence that only slightly requires any active part on the viewer. Meaning, they have to turn the TV on and change it to the right channel, and that's it. No pressing of buttons to make people shoot each other or engage in a street race.

But what about DVDs? TiVo? That takes extra effort. And with a violent movie, the viewer can make someone who's being beaten to death on screen experience it over and over again. Just like a game player can make someone on screen get run over again and again.

Thing is, the way in which movie-viewers and gamers have interacted with their entertainment of choice has been greatly different. But that's all going to change when the Revolution comes. Non-gamers will see that what they've been doing with a remote control all these years isn't that different than what gamers have been doing with their controllers for years. And when that happens, the anti-gamers are fucked.

Both mediums are interactive, they just vary greatly in the degrees of interactivity. But that's going to change one day. Maybe not during the time of Nintendo's Revolution, but there will definitely be a revolution when this day comes. And I can't wait.

12:02pm: Yet Another Study that Doesn't Prove Anything
http://www.umich.edu/news/index.html?Releases/2005/Dec05/r120505

I'm so tired of this shit.

"It's already well known that playing violent video games increases aggressive behavior and decreases helping behavior," said University of Michigan researcher Brad Bushman. "But this study is the first to link exposure to violent video games with a diminished reaction to violent images."

Well-known? The hell it is. And all your study proves is that exposure to violent media diminishes ones reaction to it. Fucking duh!!

"Most of us naturally have a strong aversion to the sight of blood and gore," Bartholow said. "Surgeons and soldiers may need to overcome these reactions in order to perform their duties. But for most people, a diminished reaction to the effects of violence is not adaptive. It can reduce inhibitions against aggressive behavior and increase the possibility of inflicting violence on others."

Then why aren't surgeons stabbing each other to death? Like you said, they become disensitized by their work. So why are they saving lives instead of taking them? Is it because people with a Ph.D are an exception? Or is it because your study is a crock of shit?

What the researchers found was that participants who routinely played violent video games responded less to violent images, as measured by a diminished amplitude of their P300 brainwaves.

But do you know what else these participants have experienced in their lives? Some may watch a lot of violent movies, and spend a lot of time on the internet watching "shocking" videos. Didn't ask, did you?

Along with other recent research, the findings suggest that chronic exposure to violent video games has lasting harmful effects on brain function and behavior.

Because some gamers didn't react with shock and horror when you showed them some violent images? Pfft.

6:51pm: State of Games
The current state of games is where I'd like them to be: In the spotlight. Sure, that light may be being wielded by the anti-gamers on occasion, but when it comes right down to it, their ramblings mean nothing, and everything they accomplish helps the industry. The more they bitch, the more copies get sold. The more copies of a particular type of game get sold, the more incentive developers have to make more of those types of games. Pretty counter-productive huh? I mean, if they could actually stop the release of a certain type of video game, it wouldn't be like that. But that's not possible, because games, no matter how violent and/or offensive, are a form of entertainment and are protected. No game will ever be prevented from being released through legal means. [I don't know what makes a certain lunatic think otherwise, especially since this certain someone has been practicing law for quite some time, and should know better. But enough about him.] So, despite the trash-talking, being in the spotlight is a very good place to be.

The types of games that are coming out right now, and in the future, are a huge beacon of hope. Games are gradually becoming interactive movies, and while I don't want all games to be like this [and they won't], that is a good thing. The closer we get to another, older form of entertainment the better off we'll be. Movies are, or at least can be, far more realistic than even today's games. When we possess that kind of power, the potential for kicking-ass is limitless. One day, playing a game could be just like stepping into your favorite movie. And that'll draw in a lot more people that wouldn't normally play games, which is just what we need. Nintendo recognizes the importance of this, which can be seen by their radical new controller. It's just like a remote control that someone would use to operate their TV or DVD player. It's not intimidating, which is what controllers and complex games can often be.

Granted, I can understand why someone would prefer the days of the original Mortal Kombat and Super Mario Bros. I'll always hold those as the Glory Days of Gaming. But we can't survive in that mode. This is why I don't object to games that are much different than the ones I was introduced to the world of gaming with. I may not like all of them, but the more we progress, the more powerful the industry becomes, the brighter our future looks.

Game on people. No one can stop us but ourselves.

8:45pm: Contemplation
I retired from the game known as The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind earlier this year. That's right. You read correctly. No typos here. I actually retired from a video game. I clocked in over 2,000 hours on that game over the course of two years. I found every item, discovered every square inch of Vvardenfell [as well as Mournhold and Solstheim], and brought my Orc up to level 500. After so much play time, there was truly nothing left to do. I had a pillow fort in every city, a dozen houses converted into museums full of ridiculously valuable items, and I even managed to exterminate every NPC in the game [except the guards, which re-spawn].

So I retired. I will play the game no more, forever.

Now, I need a new game to dedicate an absurd amount of my time to. I was hooked on Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath for awhile, but as fun as that game is, it just isn't big enough. I need something huge. Something like Morrowind, but different. Bigger. Better. More immersive.

What do I need? This:

http://elderscrolls.com/games/oblivion_overview.htm

Check out the screenshots on that motherfucker. Wicked stuff huh? Watch the trailer in the downlads section. Drooling yet? There's a demo video on gametrailers.com. I demand that you check it out immediately. You will not regret it. This game is going to kick so much ass.