How Bad User Interfaces Are Ruining Video Games And Other Wonderful Things 
She Tried To Make Good Video Games For Girls, Whatever That Meant 
The Story Of Doodle Jump: Brotherly Love And Digital Snacks 
Sunday Comics: Dead Island 
Gearbox: The Wii U Will Get The Best-Looking Version Of Aliens: Colonial Marines 
Microsoft Responds To Reports Of Xbox Live Account 'Jacking' Church-goers will soon have their very own “inspirational” gaming portal thanks to the backing of Left Behind Games.
GameFaqs and parent company CNET have responded to yesterday’s story about the teen who burned down a church. After the incident, the teen went to the GameFaqs forums and bragged about his crime, leading to his eventual arrest. In a statement to TV news station WGEM, CNET and GameFaqs said:
“Our thoughts go out to those affected by the Mission Hill Baptist Church fire. GameSpot and GameFAQs message boards are for people to discuss gaming topics. We moderate the posts and pull down inappropriate messages. We are working with the proper authorities to assist in their investigation of this matter.”
We’ll be keeping an eye on this story and we’ll be sure let you know of any updates.
You all remember Jericho, right? That average though creepy-as-hell shooter from the mind of Clive Barker?
I wish it could have been more. I wanted it to move me. Make me tingle inside with an unearthly excitement, an excitement I could channel as a pure, white stream of gaming bliss at my console.
I have no idea what that means… but I think I may have found my salvation. If you ever wanted to see Church and Black getting it on in a piece of digital art, well, LesbianGamers has the answer.
You can see the whole picture after the jump, but be warned, it’s NSFW.
Kotakuite Joshua D. sent us a heads up about a New York Times article, this one on modern methods of getting kids into church: Halo 3. This raises some interesting questions: how do you differentiate between kids who are showing up to fellowship since it’s Halo night and those who a really wanting to save their immortal souls? And how do people reconcile ‘thou shalt not kill’ with, uh, a first-person shooter? Is church really the most appropriate place for an M-rated video game? Do kids even care about potential allegorical features of the Halo plot, or is this just a cheap way to lure in impressionable teens? And aren’t a lot of these people in the group who are frequently bitching about violent media in today’s world?
Witness the basement on a recent Sunday at the Colorado Community Church in the Englewood area of Denver, where Tim Foster, 12, and Chris Graham, 14, sat in front of three TVs, locked in violent virtual combat as they navigated on-screen characters through lethal gun bursts. Tim explained the game’s allure: “It’s just fun blowing people up.” Once they come for the games, Gregg Barbour, the youth minister of the church said, they will stay for his Christian message. “We want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell,” Mr. Barbour wrote in a letter to parents at the church.
There are plenty of quarters that would say spending time “blowing people up”, virtual or not, is setting kids on the path to hell. I’ll give these churches credit for interesting recruiting tactics, though – it must work better than the fire and brimstone and simply scaring people.
