What is it about parents' media watchdog groups?

They seem to see porn around every corner. And you know what, it only makes them look crazy -- which sucks because if anything, they should be a calm voice of reason and education for parents overwhelmed by emergent technology.

But they know as well as the Mitchell Brothers did that smut sells -- even if you're the ones who purportedly are trying to stop it.

Recently, a parents' website, PornTalk.com, sent out this missive to its readers warning them of the pus-covered, seeping disease that they could be inadvertenly letting into their homes by purchasing a Nintendo Wii:

Alright parents now listen up. We wanted to let you know that Nintendo's Wii Gaming Console can access pornography. This highly popular and very fun gaming console is one of the hottest items out there and is a blast to play. But because the device is a Wi-Fi (wireless internet) console able to access the internet, this means that you can surf the net pretty easily.

Gawd. This just makes me sick. Not because PornTalk isn't providing a necessary educational service to parents too busy to read the Nintendo's users manual. It actually is.

In fact, something that neither Kotaku nor Gizmodo (who broke this item) mentioned in their predictably snotty reports was that the post actually provides very good information for the parental owner of a new Wii. It goes into detail about parental controls the Wii offers and it shows how you can set up the system so that it cannot recieve or send messages -- both handy tools for a parent who's worried about the evils of the world coming to give their little angels herpes and sell their organs.

But of course, this couldn't be written starting with something like, "Wow. Nintendo has done a great job of providing us concerned parents a way to block inappropriate websites and keep pedophiles from contacting our kids. Hooray for Nintendo!"

Nope. That wouldn't sell eyes, now would it?

Of couse, they felt the need to grab their hair, put on their best Macauley Culken face and scream, "OH MY GOD, PEOPLE!!! YOU COULD ... concievably... GET PORN ON YOUR WII!!!!!!!!!! SAVE YOURSELVES!!! SAVE THE CHILDREN!! GOOD LORD, THIS IS AMERICA!!! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?!?!?!"

Of course, followed much later with handy details on how Nintendo has parental controls.

I'm sorry, but in an age when digital gaming entertainment is already suffered many slings and arrows from technological Ludites who are more interested in getting their names in the news than actually working to protect children (rhymes with "hack"), the last thing parents need is one more hysterical voice added to the chorus.

Especially a hysterical voice that obviously has done a little research and knows that the potential danger has already been taken care of.

So boo on you, you uptight, fear-mongering freaks at PornTalk. If you're going to offer desperately needed information to protect children, you have an obligation not to incite unnecessary parental panic in order to get a few hits. Stop using porn and fear as your selling tool. It makes you no better than the pornographers you supposedly are trying to stop.

How funny that these two stories should come across the wires on the same day.

First, on the homefront (of GamerAndy if not you), two of the most vocal and politically powerful critics of the game industry have finally removed their heads from their backsides and allowed oxygen to their brains.

According to GamePolitics.com, at 3 p.m. ET today, Sens. Hillary Rodham-Clinton and Joseph Lieberman will join with ESA president Doug Lowenstein and ESRB president Patricia Vance to launch a new informational campaign for parents. Their message: Read the ratings on your kids' video games.

This is a welcome moment of detente after both Rodham-Clinton and Lieberman have spent the last couple years blaming the video-game industry for everything from Columbine to West Nile virus.

But even as these two legislators are recovering from AssHat disease, the entire nation of Germany has started showing early signs it has caught the bug.

A hilarious rollick into the minds of insane Germans after the jump...

We said this would happen. We warned that attempting to pursue "feel good" yet "patently unconstitutional" legislation by certain states around the country was not only folly but potentially costly.

And lo, it came down today that a judge has ordered the state of Michigan to reimburse the Entertainment Software Association $182,349 for expenses it incurred fighting Michigan's failed anti-violent gaming law.

Despite clear warnings that the law was unconstitutional at the time, a judge in April said the law violated the First Amendment and threw it out. That opened the door to the ESA to pursue recoving their costs for fighting it.

This comes a day after the ESA announced it would also sue for legal fees against the state of Louisiana, which similarly passed anti-gaming legislation and was also ruled uncontstitutional.

Right now, the ESA has collected or owed about $1.5 million in such fees.

I'd like to offer condolences to the state of Michigan et al, but to be honest, I can't feel sorry for stupidity. This was the ultimate and very predictable end of the path that misguided legislators decided to run, headlong and with arms flailing like an epileptic playing Wii.

Who I will offer my sorrow for is the taxpayers of these states, which were irresponsibly taken on this ride and who will ultimately foot the bill. This is, was, and always will be a waste of precious public funds that are much better served for doing important things, like funding libraries and schools and filling potholes.

Instead, it was pissed away in a fool's folly and doomed effort at "do-goodiness."

So gratz to the ESA for fighting for our rights to paaar-taaay and a big, fat Bronx cheer to stupid lawmakers for wasting a stupid amount of money on a stupid -- and expensive -- Quixotic session of windmill tilting.

[From Gamesutra]

That headline is admittedly harsh, but it's the best way to put the recent news that at least one parental group has evolved enough to realize that "child safety" isn't a decent rationale for gutting the First Amendment.

News came down tonight via the Associated Press that at least one video-game watchdog group has finally figured out who exactly should be controlling children when it comes to video-game violence.

National Institute on Media and the Family issued its list of the video games that children shouldn't get in their Christmas stockings this year.

But instead of warning about the mature nature of these games while simultaneously bashing the industry for publishing them, spokesperson Senator Joe Liberman (D-Conn) said, "It's really time to focus on the parents and urge parents to pay attention."

Did I read that right? A parental watchdog group says it's parents' responsiblity to monitor what their kids are playing? That they should pay closer attention to that little ESRB thingy on the back of the box?

David Walsh, president of the organization said revolutionary words that brings glad tidings to my heart:

Educating parents on how to use the controls and to spend time with their children to learn about the games they are playing is vital, Walsh said. A good start is to limit game time for kids and to keep them away from M-rated games, he added.

"We have to put our kids on a media diet," Walsh said.

We here at GamerAndy and other gaming websites have been pretty hard on these types of groups for blaming the industry. We've mocked them and derided them. We've called them nasty names.

Now at least one has seen the light, and took a senior Washigton legislator with it.

And I want to be the first gaming writer to give a huge hats off to Walsh, Liberman and the institute for finally coming to the conclusion that you cannot legislate free speech but you can ask parents to act like parents once in while. This level of logic has, up to now, been unknown territory for most of these groups.

So I want to be as gracious as possible. I am sorry I called you names. I'm sorry I questioned your ethics, your intelligence and your sobriety. Inasmuch as you have evolved to a greater level of understanding of us, I will endeavor in the future to attaing a greater sense of understanding of you.

It will be nice to finally work with the institute rather than against it to make sure than mature-rated games stay in the hands of mature adults.

[From Associated Press]

I take it back.

Many months ago, I poked my gnarled finger in the chest of the hyper-Christian right for the development of the Left Behind: Eternal Forces video game.

Now, let me be clear, I'm not talking about all Christians -- just those who would condemn Grand Theft Auto and Halo but be perfectly okay with Left Behind because it's "Christian" violence.

Anyway, a few months ago I took a lot of heat for pointing out that accusing Take Two for irresponsible game development and supporting Left Behind Games is hypocrasy.

Today I got a breath of fresh air and a renewed faith -- as it were -- in the clear thinking of at least a few Christian-based advocasy groups.

CrossWalk America, the Beatitudes Society, Christian Alliance for Progress and the Center for Progressive Christianity issued a joint statement asking consumers to boycott Left Behind: Eternal Forces because of the hate-based violence it portrays, like killing Jews, athiests, non-believers and those who believe in the separation of church and state.

They didn't say it should be taken off shelves. They didn't say that Left Behind Games should be picketed or put out of business. They said that good Christians who believe in practicing acceptance, love and peace should choose not to purchase this game. They said it is not a good Christmas gift idea for your kids.

Huzzah, I say, and halleluja to those who see that wanton violence can come in any flavor, even Jesus-flavored. Praise be for those who say, "This is an option for you if you dig this stuff, and we won't stand in your way, but it's not a good idea to buy it for your kids."

They said that killing "others" is not a Christian value. They said that hate in any form should be condemned.

Hack Humpsom should take a cue from these four groups. If you don't like something on store shelves, don't buy it.

And thank you, CrossWalk America, the Beatitudes Society, Christian Alliance for Progress and the Center for Progressive Christianity, for proving me wrong.

[From Political Cortex]

This story hasn't made much of the general news, yet.

I say "yet" because it's only a matter of time until it gets turned into a set of brass knuckes with which the gaming industry will be pummelled by the anti-gaming lobby.

Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis recently undertook a study wherein they hooked up 44 adolescents ranging in age from 13 to 17 to a magnetic brain imaging system. They were then put in separate groups: Some played the teen-rated shooter Medal of Honor: Frontline and others played driving game Need for Speed: Underground.

What did they find? How will it become the new ammo for the anti-gaming lobby?

I'll tell ya after the jump...

Welcome to another edition of Game Randy: Dubious News, presenting you with the finest in exclusive, breaking stories that might be true but probably aren’t.

As reported last week, Utah Representative David Hogue made a successful push to pass his sponsored bill regarding the sale of ‘Material Harmful to Minors.’  The outstanding factor in this proposal is the unique approach of defining and classifying the ‘harmful content’ of video games by the same standards and setups as pornography.  For this reasons, the media has dubbed this the “Games-as-Porn” bill.

“I very seriously think that we need to push this forward and find if we’re going to have a challenge or not and have the attorney general fight those battles,” said Hogue.  He went on to support his position, adding, “I know for a fact and can say without exaggeration or hyperbole that every single taxpayer in America knows that the luscious irony of Master Chief blasting an alien Covenant Elite with his allies’ own plasma rifle is precisely equal to Ron Jeremy nailing five bimbos at once, if not several hundred times worse.” 

Several days upon the approval of this bill, however, it was discovered that faulty wording within the bill radically changes its scope and application.  In what district clerks refer to as ‘a spectacularly unlikely string of coherent typos,’ the Utah bill effectively forces video games to subject to the same standards and judgments of certain departments of agriculture.  Specifically, all entertainment software is now managed and classified as corn.

Oh, good God.

You know, it's bad enough when lawmakers and attorneys open their uninformed, attention-seeking pieholes about video games.

But at least they stick to the point and don't intentionally make statements that give you the distinct sense the're a few clowns short of a circus.

On Friday, talk-hole... I mean, host... Bill O'Reilly launched into a tirade against video games, claiming that they are making our kids dumb and sucking the lives out of a vast number of Americans.

But he didn't stop there...

Oh no!

Details after the jump ...

Good Lord, Videogames being used as a mechanism in our grand political machine?   *Gasp*  Whip my ass and call me Lula!       Just kidding, the name's Andy....

GA's Favorite "Lets-Check-What-Stupid-Thing-Washington-Is-Doing-To-Games-Now" site GamePolitics.com is covering a story from the AP about a presidential hopeful, Walmart, and the PS3 in a launch day scandal rife with the scent of a wealthy childs broken dreams.

On Wednesday Edwards criticized the giant retailer while participating in a conference call with labor activists from WakeUpWalMart.com. Company officials claim that on the same day an Edwards staffer asked a Wal-Mart store in Raleigh to hold a PS3 for the ex-Senator. Edwards denied the charge:

Elizabeth and I don’t shop at Wal-Mart. We haven’t been in a Wal-Mart in years. We instructed no one to contact Wal-Mart on our behalf.

Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar wouldn’t name the staffer who supposedly made the request, but told the AP the caller left a voice mail saying he worked for Edwards. Company officials confirmed that he was an Edwards staffer by calling back. The retail giant subsequently issued a statement accusing Edwards of trying to use his status to obtain a scarce PS3:

While the rest of America’s working families are waiting patiently in line, Sen. Edwards wants to cut to the front.

*Snicker*  But wait! Theres more!  Check out the full story over at GamePolitics.com

The recent release of Left-Behind: Eternal Forces has sparked up a lot of controversy, not only in gaming circles, but in religious ones, too. One of the more provocative examples is the stance taken by Christian religious institutions. Gamepolitics.com is reporting on a story with regard to an editorial made by a priest at the "Archangels Orthodox Mission," the Rev. Fr. Germogen Tucker. In this remarkable piece the pastor states that

We need to protect the minds of ourselves and our youth from the violence in the world and portrayed in video games

Nielsen Entertainment has just finished its third Active Gamer Benchmark Study. The findings in this study is certainly something to behold.

• 117 million Americans are gamers. That’s a good bit of the population. 56% of gamers play games online, while 64% of these online gamers are women. Though two thirds of the online game market is dominated by women, men still out-number women by two-to-one when it comes to overall gaming.


• As one expects, the teen-aged gamer is the largest percentage of active gamers (40%), but there is a growing population of gamers 45 and up (13%).


• The study also shows that while games are usually thought as a solitary activity, gaming is really a social activity. Active gamers spend up to 5 hours a week playing games socially, while teens play up to 7 hours a week socially.


• Casual games are mostly played by older women, but teens and young adults are second in this ever-expanding market.


• Of all games pre-ordered or bought on the first day of launch, role-playing games are king. Also, the presumption that these role-playing games are more popular among the older crowd is gravely incorrect - teens are the biggest audience for this.


• The drive for next-gen consoles are fueled by the desire for better graphics and richer game-play.

Bully.
 

  A Rockstar title that's come under attack since its very announcement from, among others, our favorite radical slobberologist & frivolous litigant, Lack Bompsun.   The central theme of Bully is.... Well, actually I don't know what it is. 

Supposedly it takes place in a school, swirlies can be given to kids, it got a T rating and if you punch girls the teachers are mean to you... Beyond that, we're all kinda just waiting for the game to drop on Tuesday.... The funny part is, this title that nobody really knew anything about drew fire from the happy-go-stupid election year crowd simply because of its name and a few vague screenshots. 

So here we are mere days before it launches in the US, and I gotta say i'm pleased as punch to be able to tell ya'll that Expert Yodeler Smack Lawson's latest legal manuever has been thrown out of court.

From Destructioid:

In a Recent Interview with The Age, Michael Ephraim, Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia, was discussing Sony's Plans for this Christmas but more importantly his views and opinons on Nintendo, Xbox and Handhelds and their affect on the current market.



More After The Jump........

Today, Friday August 25th, the Peaceaholics held a protest in front of the Take-Two Interactive building in downtown New York City.

The protest featured children standing behind police barricades shouting such phrases as "this game is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s." However, no amount of text can fully explain the phenomenon of the events that took place, although this video might help.

Brace yourself.



Big thanks to OSVG from the GA Forums for the find, and to The Software Pirate for the video.

IGN reports (via Gamepolitics):

"The segment features comments from Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-PA., to the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection. Stewart and co., in typical Daily Show manner, ridiculed Pitts for the following astute observation: "It's safe to say that a wealthy kid from the suburbs can play 'Grand Theft Auto' without turning to a life of crime, but a poor kid who lives in a neighborhood where people really do shoot cops and steal cars and deal drugs might not be so fortunate. There's almost certainly a child somewhere in the America who is going to be hurt by this game. Maybe his dad is in jail or his big brother is already down on the corner dealing drugs."..."I regret that Comedy Central's 'Daily Show' portrayed my words the way they did. I believe that gratuitously violent video games are inappropriate for all children. However hard it may be to prove their effect in any given instance, tragedies like the killings at Columbine High School and more recent events closer to home clearly show that children from every neighborhood and income level can and do get into trouble -- sometimes quite seriously," he said.

Democrat Lois Herr, who is challenging Pitts in November, agreed with his concerns about video game violence, but called his comments an "embarrassment" and believes that Pitt has "lost touch with his constituency."

It sounds like a big deal over a little joking to me. Heck, if everyone got this annoyed over what is obviously satire (albiet satire that makes a true point), we'd all be crying, fighting, and filing lawsuits against each other constantly.

Rep. Pitts, calm the hell down.

-Matt

Those of you that haven't seen the Daily Show video can watch it after the jump

The title really says it all. The ESA has filed suit against Minnesota for their law in which NOT the retailers but THE CHILDREN who rent/buy M or AO rated games are fined. Whaddafuxup? Seems like this suit will go off without a hitch if anyone has some sense in their brain. Read the full press release after the jump:

GameSpot reports...

In a 35-0 vote in the Louisiana Senate...

"Written by Representative Roy Burrell (D-District 2) and Thompson, HB1381 would make it illegal to sell, rent, or lease a game to a minor if it met three conditions. First, if the "average person" would think "appeals to the minor's morbid interest in violence." Second, if it "depicts violence in a manner patently offensive to prevailing standards." Lastly, a game would only qualify if it "lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors." Violators could be fined between $100 and $2,000 and sentenced to up to 12 months in a state prison."

"The Governor is expected to sign the bill, given the unanimous vote and the recent linking of games and teenage murder suspects in the Louisiana media. If that happens, expect an ESA legal filing to follow shortly."

If the "average person" would think it "appeals to the minor's morbid interest in violence"? Who is to say what the "average person" thinks? Where are these violently offensive standards concerning "violent" and "offensive" content? And who's to say that any game doesn't provide serious literary, artistic, political, or even scientific value for minors?

More after the jump...

I recently inquired to an industry journalist about Jack Thompson's legendary Harassment Suit against the Florida Bar Association.

As I am certain you all know perfectly well (in fantastic detail,) Jack Thompson announced at the beginning of March that he was filing suit against the Florida Bar Association.  Jack's deadly rage towards his professional leaders has been known for quite some time; his site TheFlaBar.org, a stunning paragon of cutting-edge web design, has thrust his conspiracy theories into the blogosphere for all to absorb.

According to Jack, the Florida Bar, keepers of all of the state's lawyers, is in the pocket of that illuminati-like organization... The Porn Industry.  In his brave quest to slay the triplet dragons of obscenity, perversion, and relevance, Jack has accumulated quite a few complaints against him.  Jack calls these various filed complaints 'baseless,' and that the Bar's investigation of their validity is gratuitous 'harassment' of him.

A million dollars' worth of harassment of him.

That's right, the very investigation of these complaints, per regular procedure, was a million-dollar example of professional harassment in Jack's eyes.  Mind you, that was his word for receiving flowers and a letter, too.

Undertaking this battle was big, big news for Jack.  Apparently his voluntary withdrawal of the suit is not.  Details below..

So, I've been thinking alot about politics for the past week or so. Why does our little hobby attract so much negative attention? Why do the politicians always seem to not actually talk about the whole story? How the hell can ANYONE take a certain miami lawyer seriously any more?

And I just keep coming back to "The Look Busy Effect". I've seen it in local politics all my life - An election coming up? Quick! Propose something outrageous and claim it "Supports the voters"... Don't worry that it'll never make it into the law books, whats important is that you appear to be doing something to help your constituents. That being said, the Miami Herald ran a story yesterday about the upcoming Rockstar game "Bully" and more importantly, a bill being pushed by local schoolboard members to fight it prior to knowing anything about it...

From the article:

"This game is built entirely around bullies and is staged in a school -- it's the antithesis of everything we're trying to promote,'' said School Board member Frank Bolaños, who introduced a resolution urging Rockstar not to release Bully, asking local merchants not to sell it and asking parents not to buy it.

A board committee unanimously approved his resolution Thursday, and the full board is expected to vote Wednesday. If it's approved, Miami-Dade's would be the first major school system in the country to take sides against Bully, according to Jack Thompson, a Coral Gables attorney.
Source

Brief commentary after the jump

...Or charisma?

So, this morning in Oregon there was a school shooting.

Roughly four hours later, Jack Thompson released the following statement

Immediate News Release -- February 23, 2006

Another Homicide Linked, by a Prosector/District Attorney (!) to Violent Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Video Game. Wrongful Death Action Against Game Companies Expected to Be Filed Soon.

Miami attorney Jack Thompson, who appeared last year twice on CBS' 60 Minutes to explain a wrongful death action filed by him on behalf of the families of two Alabama policemen and a dispatcher killed by an obsessive teen player of the cop-killing video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, has today been asked to bring another similar action against Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., the maker of the murder simulation game.

The call to Thompson came from a prosecutor who believes the role of the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City game in the killing is a slam dunk. The prosecutor has the video game materials, which will be turned over to Thompson, and they all point to the crucial and clear role of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in the killing.

Thompson has been asked by this prosecutor to work with a top-notch plaintiffs' personal injury in another state in order to secure compensation for the surviving family members. Thompson has agreed.

Look for more wrongful death suits like this to be filed, as Take-Two's pigeons are all now coming home to roost. Thompson has repeatedly warned Take-Two that such copycat murders were occurring and that more would occur. Thompson has retained copies of those warning letters, all of which were sent prior to the above-noted killing.

Contact Jack Thompson for more information at [phone number removed].

PS: A word of warning to Take-Two's lawyers and lobbyists, Blank Rome of Philadelphia: Get your fees up front.

At this point you're saying to yourself "Yeah, so what else is new, Jack Thompson is on this school shooting, press release in hand before the gunsmoke has even gone"

Well, what's new and different about this one, is that The kid who got shot is not dead

Wacky Jacky has announced his intentions to file a wrongful death suit when the kid isn't even dead yet... How messed up is that? Considering what a Good Christian he is, you'd think he'd have a little more compassion...

From the article over at OregonLive.com

The victim was listed in serious but stable condition in the intensive care of Mercy Medical Center after three and a half hours of surgery.

Hospital spokeswoman Kathleen Nickel said surgeons told her Monti was shot from behind and hit twice in the abdomen, once in the chest, and a bullet grazed his left elbow.

Anybody else as pissed off as I am about this one?

Well folks, just when you think it can't get any wierder, NIMF (National Institute on Media and the Family) is issuing a "Nationwide Parental Alert".

UPDATE: GA has secured an exclusive 3 minute sound clip from the NIMF press conference!
Listen Here!

Hawkes, Quick! Warm up the bat-signal!

All kidding aside though, the parental alert has to do with a promotional online game for the movie Running Scared where if you get past their security measures (Have to type in all your information and it checks it against DMV records to see if you're of legal age via your drivers license), then at level two of this admittedly pretty crappy flash game you get to play a mini game that involves satisfying your wife before the kids get home. Quite the cunning linguist, arn't I?

From the Gamepolitics Article

The only other time NIMF has taken such a step was in response to last year's Hot Coffee revelations. Today's NIMF release reads in part:

"The National Institute on Media and the Family wants to warn parents of graphic sexual content found in online in a new video game designed to promote the new movie Running Scared.

Running Scared, a movie to be released Friday, February 24, 2006 by New Line Cinema, is promoting this R rated movie with an online video game that allows anyone who poses as a 17-year old to simulate oral sex in Level 2 of the game."

Commentary after the jump

So... I've been gone for a while, but this week we're rolling out some nice additions to the site

But first, the folks over at Flowers for Jack have finalized and sent a letter along with just over 600 dollars worth of flowers to Mr. Jack Thompson. Because of the HUGE response they've gotten (Over a thousand in donations in under a week), they've started up a community site that aims to gather the faithful and forward the cause of Gamers everywhere. It's called Pixelante Nation and can be found at PixelanteNation.com, .org, or .net

We at GamerAndy.com are big fans of activism in general, and gaming activism specifically - We're gonna help them out any way we can, and YOU should check them out.

because Hey, if we don't stand up for ourselves, who will?

Full text of the letter after the jump (Its long, but ABSOLUTELY imperative that ya'll read it...

Found this interesting yet disturbing story at 1up.com. Which has really boiled my blood a little...

Earlier today a little site by the name of Flowers For Jack came to my attention, and after investigating further I discovered that is was actually a pretty new and innovative (And really wacky) way of dealing with everybody's favorite ambulance chaser.
How you ask?
By sending him bouquet upon bouquet of flowers, courtesy of donations from gamers.
Interview is after the jump, I really had a good time talking to them

Quote of Jack Thompson from GamePolitics:

...please know that California Civil Code Section 3495 enables and authorizes each and every law enforcement officer to walk into any video game store, without a court order, to seize and destroy each and every copy of 25 to Life. California law treats this as acceptable 'abatement' of a public nuisance by parties particularly endangered by such a nuisance.

In the next six days I intend to take to the public airwaves in California, and to use other means, to encourage all law enforcement officers in California to in fact go into video game stores and seize all copies of 25 to Life.

Looks like our favorite self-humiliating frivolous-lawsuit-filing lawyer is now encouraging violation of our 1st amendment rights by destroying private (whether consumer- or store-owned) property? Sounds like this one isn't quite going to work either, Jack - back to the drawing board for you.

To quote my favorite boss: "Hugs and Kisses", Jack.

Game on!
-Matt



Heres another story fresh from GamePolitics.com. Indiana Senator (Republican) is trying his hand at video game legislation. The text of the bill has been revealed and is readable Here but its basically the same type of law we've seen get smacked down in 4 of the last 5 states that tried something like this (The California Law is different, it moves away from the ESRB).

I think the general concensus at this point is that this law will go the same way all the rest have gone... It's unconstitutional and will be ruled so.

As to the title of this article, I think its interesting to note that politics is one of the very few areas where you'll see a proposal fail, and then have someone else stand up and says "I"ve got an idea! Lets do that again!" and have it fail, and have it happen again and again.

The theory behind it is that eventually you'll get lucky and one of them will get through, but in reality all it is, is a waste of taxpayers money. [sarcasm] God bless the american political system [/sarcasm]

Source

From arstechnica:

Microsoft broke stance and decided to formally back HD DVD in September of this year, citing a number of reasons. Now the EE Times is reporting that the company may attempt to leverage its OS dominance to push HD DVD penetration in the PC market.
Several industry sources last week told EE Times that Microsoft is muscling into the optical-disk fray by leveraging its operating-system clout to bundle HD-DVD within Vista, the company's next-generation OS. There is also talk that the software giant may be planning to offer cash incentives -- in the form "coupons" -- to system vendors or retailers if they agree to support HD-DVD. Such coupons would provide "credits" or "memos" for each PC that is sold with HD-DVD inside.

The question of motives is a never-ending one, and it has been rehashed more than once on Ars. The most common theory is that Microsoft is ultimately doing anything in its power to put the hurt on Sony's PlayStation 3, which will come equipped with a Blu-ray drive. The theory says that Microsoft is worried that the PS3 will dominate gaming once again, partially on account of the device's potential dual-role in the household: gaming console and Blu-ray player.

Microsoft's Media Center ambitions are huge, and in my opinion, they're bigger than those surrounding the Xbox 360. Make no mistake about it: the next version of Windows will be billed as an entertainment OS, and the Xbox 360 will be subjugated to that.

I would post on opinion, but I'm too tired to have one right now.

-Matt

Lets get this out of the way, I have no love of Jack Thompson as can be seen Here Here Here Here and Here
When the new legislation was announced today by Senators Clinton, Lieberman and Bayh I wasn't sure how to cover it. I saw the story on Game Politics and Dennis had pretty much said everything I wanted to say. In an effort to be original, I called up Jack Thompson for comment. Even though he's one of the industries biggest critics, he's recently been locking horns with Sentator Clinton on the best way to protect American children via legislation, I was sure it would be an interesting conversation. When I called, he was out of the office - I left a message and about 45 minutes later he called me back. I introduced myself (letting him know that he reported GamerAndy.com to the FBI in August, and that it was really good to finally talk to him).

Heres where it got interesting - We talked (He talked) for roughly 20 minutes with some slight prodding from me at various points, and by the end of it I realized that I personally hadn't really understood his point of view. My impression had always been that he was for obviously unconstitutional laws aimed at making it very dangerous for game companies to even produce M rated games because of the potential for damage they could cause (I.E. all the times he's gone after RockStar claiming their game made a kid kill a cop), but it seems like Mr. Thompsons' tune has changed in recent months. He talked fast, and I took furious notes - from those notes I have now gleaned pretty much the most important thing he said in our entire conversation:

Basically he said that the new legislation put forth by Sen. Clinton today is unconstitutional and they're just proposing it to "look busy" because it'll never make it past the Supreme Court. He says that what needs to happen, and what he now fully supports is the use of a modified Miller Test of Obscenity ( which says that the work has to be taken as a whole and be below the community standard). It has to appeal to the delinquent interest in sex or the morbid interest in violence.) as applied by an unaffiliated jury. Based on the feelings of that jury, all games should be rated as appropriate for children or not and games that are deemed inappropriate should be illegal to sell to them
(From my notes)

I completely agree with that.

Admittedly, I'd take it a step farther and say the same should apply to Music and Movies, but that's really splitting hairs - I think that Jack Thompson has the right idea here, if we want to see an end to all this political busywork that I find myself writing about more and more, we need to get a law in place that will placate both sides -

This seems to fit that Bill. If YOU are a true Gamer, look at this proposal and tell me you're unhappy with it. While I understand that the segment of gamers under the age of 18 will NOT like this idea (because it'll restrict their access to games) the reality is that it seems like the right thing to do - It won't punish the industry, it will placate the soccer moms, it will muzzle the politicians, and it will let me spend more time playing games and less time writing these articles.

I call on all REAL gamers to support this legislation, and let us all get back to games!

Jack Thompson, it would appear that I have misjudged you
-Adam "Andy" Levine

Ed Note: It would appear that most of our conversation he was reading directly from an Op-Ed that he sent to me after our conversation.... Thinking about it now, I realize that I still think he's a tactless putz... Full article is after the jump

Hey Folks, Andy here - Thanks to some help from reader TBYRD we've got the full 14 page text of the Class Action lawsuit filed in Chicago on the 10th, as well as an explanation of what it is and what it means in terms people like you and I can understand (TBYRD is a lawyer and knows things like this) Commentary below, feel free to peruse the 14 page PDF.

Basically it is a putative class action suit. The named plaintiff claims that the 360 is defectively designed and overheats, causing it to lock up. Essentially the plaintiff has pleaded everything in such a way as to get certified as a class action (a little known fact is that you actually have to ask the court to allow you to proceed as a class action). The lawsuit also uses quotes from news sources about the cut throat video game market. This is done in an effort to prove that MS rushed the 360 and ignored a known problem.

As I said to Hawkes, perhaps the most interesting thing about this suit is the timing. It was filed a mere 10 days after the North American launch yet states "Though faced with mounting consumer complaints concerning the Xbox 360, Microsoft has failed and refused to recall the defectively designed Xbox 360." I believe the quick filing of this complaint will work against the plaintiffs as 1. I don't really believe there is a general problem with the system and 2. MS never had a chance to fix it if there was before the suit was filed. Like I said to Hawkes, this lawsuit was likely contemplated by the attorneys even before the product was launched, all they needed was a slight problem in a few systems and 1 person to act as a plaintiff (in the old days many class action plaintiffs were secretaries in the law firms!)