Sunday, October 26, 2008
Games as Simulators Jack Thompson Hasn’t Even Thought Of Yet
11:00AM Owen Good | Running with the “[game] is nothing more than a [really bad act]-simulator for kids,” SomethingAwful’s Forum Goons came up with about 21 real-world skill simulator concepts, as an alternative to shootin’, murderin’ and killin’. The entries range from the mundane to the raunchy (as most things do on SA). See! Dr. Mario and the DS can teach you how to beat the piss man and get a high paying job that involves the safety of others! (Or, just take echinacea and goldenseal and drink water like hell the weekend before). Two others on the jump, loads more at the link. More »
Is This Why Fallout 3 Won’t Be Released in India?
10:00AM Owen Good | Earlier this week came the news of Microsoft pre-emptively choosing not to release Fallout 3 in India, citing “cultural sensitivities.” It’s interesting because rather than wait for a ratings board or authority to ban it, or local media/pissed off people to demand it’s banning, Microsoft just said nothankyou.jpg and took its business elsewhere. More »
Wii Stolen; Nintendo Replaces More than 250 WiiWare/VC Games
9:00AM Owen Good | Gaffer MiketheBSG got robbed, bigtime. Yesterday some burglar broke into his place, stole $US26,000 worth of electronics, his girlfriend’s jewelry and traumatised his dog. If there’s a silver lining? His 228 Virtual Console and 30 WiiWare games were all restored by Nintendo to his new Wii. Ordinarily Nintendo doesn’t allow such transfers. But my guess is they saw the volume of his catalog, not to mention heard about the 151 and 127 GameCube and DS games lost in the theft, and figured he was a good customer who definitely deserved a break. So, good on Nintendo. But the burglar is a piece of shit forever. 66 Wii, 228 VC, 30 WiiWare, 151 GameCube, 127 DS Games. STOLEN from My Home [NeoGAF via GoNintendo] More »
Japanese Woman Jailed For Virtual ‘Murder’
8:30AM Maggie Greene | And you thought MapleStory was all fun and games. A Japanese woman has found herself in jail, potentially facing charges of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating data, after deleting the character of her in-game ‘husband’ who divorced her rather suddenly. “I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry!” she is quoted as saying: More »
Refreshing Comments from an Elected Official
8:00AM Owen Good | On this site you can read a lot of lecturing about how others should do their jobs. Well, when an elected official shows that he can take games seriously, instead of personally, he should get credit for that. Unfortunately for Americans, this guy is a member of the UK Parliament. But here’s what struck me about Don Foster of Bath, in his remarks to The Guardian backing the gaming industry as an important part of the British economy: “I hardly play any games, I’m not from that generation, but because of my job, I had to research the industry. The vast majority of my parliamentary colleagues are always wanting to ban the latest game, but they don’t know the details of the industry. Few people in this country realise how important it is to the UK economy.” More »
The Surprising Success of Retail Game Cards
7:30AM Maggie Greene | I had an interesting discussion this week on the topic of microtransaction models, East-West interaction, and the fact that few people pay much attention to such issues (or dismiss them out of hand); Games In Motion has a nice interview up illustrating the ‘fly under the radar’ nature of a lot of those microtransaction models. WIM sat down to chat with Rob Goldberg, CEO of GMG Entertainment — the company produces branded pre-paid cards for a couple of franchises, sold at big box stores like Target — to talk about where the market is currently and where it’s headed. They estimate somewhere between $75 and $100 million in sales this year, but what about the future?: More »
Fable II Abbot Glitch Now a ‘Matter of Priority’
7:00AM Owen Good | There have been numerous tips of glitches coming to our inbox, and it’s hard to keep track of what’s been reported and what hasn’t, and then how serious the stuff is. But Lionhead is aware of them, and is responding. And the notorious Monks Quest glitch is being pursued “as a matter of priority.” According to someone speaking for the studio, on Lionhead’s official forums: More »
The Promises and Pitfalls of a Gaming Education
6:30AM Maggie Greene | The LA Times had a nice industry-focused series of articles earlier this week, and the one that really caught my eye was on the increasingly common ‘game degree’ of a variety of stripes — as one person quoted in the article noted, games are ‘the ultimate interdisciplinary art.’ But one problem of (popular) emerging fields is schools that hop on the bandwagon to lure in bright-eyed and bushy-tailed students without really having adequate support for getting those students jobs (sounds like a lot of PhD programs I know): More »
Microsoft Chips In $US25K in Search for Missing Kid
6:00AM Owen Good | There’s still no sign of 15-year-old Brandon Crisp, who went missing after his parents confiscated his Xbox, but Microsoft Canada added $US25,000 to the reward for information leading to his safe return, doubling it. Microsoft is also working with Barrie, Ontario authorities, divulging IP addresses of anyone who may have come in contact with Brandon via Call of Duty 4, his favourite game. More »
