Estavillo’s suing Microsoft for an RROD on his 360, claiming that a disability means he can afford neither a new console nor a “well over $US100 fee to fix it.” He’s looking for $US75,000 on that complaint, because of the “undue stress” he’s suffered since the machine’s failure, plus the “sadness he will have in the mean time of finding one he can afford.” Allllllllright. Next.

Nintendo of America isn’t so holy in this either. Estavillo complains that a Wii firmware update disabled his homebrew channel. Basically, he’s bitching that it prevents him from unlocking a character in Super Mario Galaxy and for that he wants $US5,000 for obstructing his “pursuit of happiness.”

In his suit Estavillo says he depends on games for his emotional well being because he suffers from depression, OCD, panic disorder, Crohn’s disease and agoraphobia, the latter of which you might recall was his basis for suing Sony after it banned him for being a jackass on PSN. A judge threw out that lawsuit, a judgment which he has appealed. There’s obviously no stopping this guy.

Banned Resistance Gamer Targets Microsoft and NOA in Latest Suits [Game Politics]

The study, “Playing By the Rules” was undertaken by Pro Juventute, a Swiss children’s rights group, and Track Impunity Always (TRIAL), which is concerned with international criminal justice. Their report provides a legal analysis of the conduct enabled by the games.

Rather than play the games themselves, the two groups sent expert observers to watch serious gamers play through and then note the egregious acts they saw. Here’s what they had to say about Battlefield: Bad Company.

In the scenes, there seems to be no assessment of proportionality in the attacks realised in civilian areas and we do not know whether precautionary measures were taken to minimize civilian casualties and damage to civilian objects. However, in a real life situation, one is often confronted with similar circumstances: regular armed forces and irregular armed groups are very unlikely to give any information about the planning of the preparation of military operations to international organisations or human rights bodies. Without such information, it is difficult to establish that a military operation was not proportional, in particular whether the attacker took all the precautionary measures necessary to avoid, and in any event to minimize incidental loss or civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.”

In addition to the extensive destruction, some of the scenes portray the members of “Bad Company” taking gold and “treasures” found in the civilian houses they have just destroyed. Upon obtaining them, the players get points. These actions amount to pillage, which is strictly prohibited under IHL and thus have also been labelled as “strong”. This illegal action is confirmed in one of the scenes where you can hear a member saying that “Pillaging is an old war tradition.” Pillage is considered as a war crime both in international and non- international armed conflicts.

I’m thinking that asking the goons of Bad Company to take precautionary measures for anything would be a little like talking to a cardboard box. It’s also amusing to me that a basic, nonviolent scavenging mechanic rates a “strong” violation of international law (which it would be, if it occurred in real life) and is called out as a war crime.

Anyway, the study had a number of recommendations. Among them is a call for clearly defined rules of engagement.

It would be very useful if developers would incorporate more specific rules on how to conduct an operation in their games, in terms of the weapons allowed, the behaviour allowed, the military targets sought, the degree of collateral damage permitted, etc. The message of the scenes should never be that everything is allowed, or that it is up to the player to decide what is right and what is wrong. In real life, this is not the way it works.

If you want to dive into more killjoy gasbaggery about Modern Warfare, World at War and – Jesus, True Crime Streets of L.A. is in here? Who did they find to play that? Anyway, you can grab your copy of the report here [pdf.]

Fighting Fair: International Humanitarian Law As Applied to Games [Game Politics]

Well, not literally STFU, but one imagines that’s heavily implied with this kind of boilerplate, uttered by a Microsoft spokesperson on Friday to Canada’s Financial Post.

“Piracy is illegal and modifying an Xbox 360 is a violation of the Xbox Live Terms of Use. Microsoft is well within its legal rights to ban these users from Xbox Live.”

No suit’s been filed, remember. I think the firm involved in this saw the claims that a million XBL users were caught in the blast and went beating the bushes figuring at least some lucrative percentage of those were innocent. While Microsoft hasn’t specified the total number of pirates banz0red, it’s cast doubt on rumours that it was, in fact, seven figures’ worth.

Microsoft Stands Firm in Face of Possible Lawsuit Over Xbox Live Bans [Financial Post]

Abington are looking to get a class action lawsuit together, believing Microsoft’s actions to be both heavy-handed and suspiciously convenient given the proximity of the bannings to the release of Modern Warfare 2.

“Microsoft has chosen to use one of the most indiscriminate ‘weapons’ in its arsenal in an effort to combat piracy — as a result, use of this ‘weapon’ has resulted in a great deal of collateral damage — many people were affected who had nothing to do with piracy,” reads a statement on the firm’s website.

As for the conspiracy theory side of the story, Abington reckon that the mass bannings were just an excuse for Microsoft, with the release of the year’s biggest online title on the horizon, to rack up a few extra Xbox Live subscriptions from those eager to get back onto the service.

Sounds like complete rubbish to me, but then, this is a law firm we’re talking about.

Law Firm Sniffing Around Xbox Live Class Action Suit [GamePolitics]

As we posted previously, announced that it and 54 software game companies were filing a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court against companies that import “R4 Revolution”-type devices, using the Unfair Competition Prevention Law as the legal grounding.

According to Nintendo, such devices hurts the growth of the entire game industry and steps must be taken regarding the legality of R4 carts. It’s important to note that this legal injunction is for Japan only.

Nintendo is asking for the cease of marketing, sales and importation of these Chinese-made devices. The R4 allows easy software piracy by fitting right into the DS’s cartridge slot. Data is stored on a Micro SD and downloaded from websites via a flash drive, and the R4 has a small slot that the Micro SD card goes into.

In addition to the suit, Nintendo launched a website devoted to collecting information about R4 sellers. “It’s getting increasingly difficult to track down R4 sellers as day by day they get more ingenious, flourishing online and complicating matters,” said Nintendo in a written statement. Because of this, Nintendo is calling on the strength of the masses to eradicate the sale of these devices.

The website Nintendo has set up has an anonymous form that can be filled out. Selectable choices include retail stores, internet shops, online auctions selling R4 devices. Another choice includes “game software uploads” — or those sites or individuals making DS games available online. There’s also spaces for dates and time, a box for details and another box for the shop’s address or home page.

Today, Nintendo announces that the information collected by this website has been “extremely useful”.

“We would like to say that the information we have collected from so many individuals has been extremely useful and offer our sincere gratitude for everyone’s cooperation.” Nintendo goes on to say that with the cooperation of all, the legality of this issue will be concretely resolved.

[Pic]

The nature of Alexander Stern’s visual impairment isn’t clear from the report, whether that is total blindness or partial blindness, or some other form of sight disability. But his suit, filed in federal court in California, claims that Sony has ignored repeated requests to modify its games – the suit seems to focus on SOE’s MMOs – and that the realms Sony maintains here are essentially public accommodations as defined by the ADA.

Stern repeatedly asked Sony for the addition of visual cues to point out destinations for gamers with “disability impaired visual processing.” The suit mentions World of Warcraft and another game that, through the allowance of third-party modifications or other features, make their games more accessible to the visually impaired.

There’s also a claim that by not making accommodations for the visually impaired, Sony essentially deprives Stern and others of fair participation in selling off in-game items over SOE’s official auction site.

Sony told GameSpot it doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

Whatever the merits of the suit, and I’m sure our team of lawyers will robustly discuss them in the comments below, the action is intriguing to me in that it seems to depend on finding a virtual environment is a public accommodation. I can’t even begin to argue coherently that it is or isn’t or should or should not be. A judge could find that an MMO is a public accommodation and Stern could still lose, but such a ruling could have larger ramifications that outlive this case, for more than just Sony.

Visually Impaired Gamer Sues Sony Online [GameSpot, thanks Roberto E.]

Take iPhone game developer Storm8, for example. A class action lawsuit filed in San Francisco alleges that the company, who are behind iPhone games like World War, iMobsters and Vampires Live, “has written the software for all its games in such a way that it automatically accesses, collects and transmits the wireless telephone number of each iPhone user who downloads any Storm8 game”.

Apparently this number-farming went unannounced until August, when Storm8 finally ‘fessed up, saying it was a “bug”. Michael Turner, the man filing the suit, says “poppycock” to that and is after damages.

iPhone game dev accused of stealing players’ phone numbers [boing boing]

One console was broken upgrading to firmware 3.0, the other installing 3.1. Both claim that upon contacting Sony’s customer support, they were told the machine failures were “coincidental”, and that to fix the console they’d need to pony up a $US150 repair charge.

The sexiest part of the suit reads:

Defendant’s unlawful, unfair, and fraudulent business practices include, but are not limited to, misrepresentations regarding the fitness of the PS3 and software updates, failing to disclose defects in the system and software updates, and refusing to repair PS3 systems free of charge.

The pair have listed every PS3 owner in the US on the suit, and are seeking from Sony “unspecified damages and restitution”.

Sony sued over PS3 firmware update problems [GameSpot]

Jennifer Strange (pictured), a mum to three kids, died of apparent water intoxication during “Hold Your Wee for a Wii,” a contest held by KDND-FM of Sacramento in January 2007, not two months after the Wii debuted and demand for the console was white-hot.

The jury found the station negligent in the death, especially for ignoring several warnings that the point of the stunt – drinking a ton of water and refusing to pee – could have fatal consequences.

Ten station employees were fired after the death; Entercom Sacramento, the company that owns KDND, sounds like it will not be appealing the verdict. A spokesman told the Los Angeles Times that, “We respect the jury’s decision and hope that it will assist the Strange family in coping with its loss.”

During the trial a tape of the program revealed that an on-air host had mentioned the potential fatal effects of drinking too much water – citing a 2005 fraternity hazing death. A listener also called to advise they not try the stunt.

Strange was trying to win the console for her three children. She finished in second place. After the contest she rushed with the winner to the bathroom to vomit; by the afternoon, she was dead.

Jury Awards $US16 Million to Family in Fatal Radio Prank [Los Angeles Times, thanks Andres B.]

Here is the ad. Yummy instant ramen!

Now, here is the Bubble Bobble theme song. Kwinky dink or highway robbery? YOU DECIDE.

韓国の三養ラーメンのCMソングが『バブルボブル』のテーマ曲のまるパクリな件 [はちま起稿]