San Franciscans who had an open afternoon took to the streets today to protest the work of Ubisoft and the United States Army, claiming that the America's Army line of video games "has been developed by the United States Army to recruit children under the age of 17 in violation of the U.N. Optional Protocol and international law". Fortunately, Wired's Game|Life was on hand to capture the action, beat by beat.

In short, the protest group Bay Area Direct Action feels that, due to the 'Teen' rating of the America's Army series, Ubisoft is in violation of "international law" by making joining the Army seem totally rad — just like sitting on your arse playing video games all day, instead of focusing on how you could be maimed or killed or mentally scarred for life.

Wired points out how wrong this is in between bouts of dissecting how ill-prepared the group was with clever signs, pun-laden chants and logic. Since it went down in San Francisco, so a genuinely crazy guy shows up. It's worth a read.

Activists Protest America's Army Game With Songs and Stickers [Game|Life] [Image]

Just a scant hour ago I made the trek down to the Powell Street GameStop to take in the midnight launch of Metal Gear Solid 4. Upon arrival, I was greeted with a line that went halfway down the block and around the corner. Roughly seventy five to a hundred and people waited patiently for the doors to open so they could once again get their hands on their beloved Solid Snake. First in line was lucky Kiattikhun Ratanatharathorn, known as "Bank" to his friends (pictured after the jump) who had been waiting for his prize since 6pm. He was accompanied by his friend James Demonico who wasn't actually there for the game but he owed "Bank" money so he came along for the ride (now I guess we know why they call him "Bank").

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Tomorrow (Wed.) will see the Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword launch party at the Nintendo World Store in New York City from 2pm - 6pm. The game's producer and director Yosuke Hayashi will be on hand to sign autographs and met and greet the crowd. If you purchase the game there you will be granted one of those nifty Dragon Sword Ninja styli. There will also be demo stations set up around the store so you can try before you buy.

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Pandemic PS3 coder Tony Albrecht has made one of what we hope will be many posts on this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

According to Albrecht, San Fran's a bit like Adelaide. I actually found it more like Melbourne, or a colder Sydney (which would be Melbourne anyway). Mind you, I've never been to South Australia, so I can't really judge the comparison.

The programmer also mentioned that Oz is doing a fine job of making its presence known, and it doesn't involve guns, naked women or Bach:

Overall I've been impressed with the Aussie contingent - the number of companies that have representatives here and the talent of those individuals and their companies speaks highly of the Australian games industry and its future.

Hope you have fun in San Fran Tony, be sure to keep us in the loop if time allows.

If you're wondering about the choice of photo, it's a happy snap I took of the amusingly-named Coit Tower during my stay. It's okay to laugh, really.

GDC part 0 [Seven Degrees of Freedom]

The Game Developers Conference, now the largest industry-only event in the world, just kicked off their updated website and registration for next year's event which runs from Feb. 18 through the 22.

Next year's show will include an extra track dedicated to game outsourcing, helloooooo China, and all of the usual suspects.

More than 16,000 industry types will be hitting up San Francisco during the show, if you want to be one of them you better snag a registration but quick.

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