VGN for October 14th, 2005

Friday, 14 October 2005

VGN for October 14th, 2005

Video Game News:

Attorney Proposes Violent Game October 10, 2005

by: Matt Saunderson

Jack Thompson will give $10,000 to charity if any videogame company makes and releases a game based on a scenario he created.

Miami, Florida Attorney Jack Thompson, a long-time outspoken critic of violent and sexually explicit videogames, has done something totally unexpected. Thompson today actually proposed a violent videogame, and will pay $10,000 to the favorite charity of Paul Eibeler (the Chairman of Take-Two Interactive) if any videogame company will "create, manufacture, distribute, and sell a video game in 2006" based on a scenario he created.

Thompson's proposal is titled A Modest Video Game Proposal and has been sent to members of the press and apparantly to Douglas Lowenstein, President of the ESA.

Here's Thompson's proposal (italics are his, not ours):

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The Golden Rule

This writer has been saying for seven years that violent video games can be "murder simulators" that incite as well as train some obsessive teen players to be violent.

I've been on 60 Minutes and in Reader's Digest this year explaining how an Alabama teen, with no criminal record, shot two policemen and a dispatcher in their heads and fled in a police car--a scenario he rehearsed for hundreds of hours on Take-Two/Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto video games.

I have sat with boys in jail cells, their lives over because of murder convictions, after they, with no history of violence, have killed innocents while in a dreamlike state. Said one cop who investigated such a murder in Grand Rapids, Michigan: "The killing was like an extension of the game."

The video game industry, through its lawyers, its spokesmen, and its head lobbyist, Doug Lowenstein, the president of the Entertainment Software Association, all say it is utter nonsense to suggest that what is dumped into a kid's head hour after hour, day after day, year after year, could possibly have behavioral consequences. Cigarette ads can persuade kids to smoke, but interactive simulators in which these same kids punch, hack, bludgeon, and maim affect not a wit their attitudes and behaviors, notwithstanding the findings of the American Psychological Association, published in August 2005.

The video game industry says Sticks and stones can break my bones, but games can never hurt me. Fine. I have a modest proposal for the video game industry. I'll write a check for $10,000 to the favorite charity of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc's chairman, Paul Eibeler - a man Bernard Goldberg ranks as #43 in his book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America - if any video game company will create, manufacture, distribute, and sell a video game in 2006 like the following:

Osaki Kim is the father of a high school boy beaten to death with a baseball bat by a 14-year-old gamer. The killer obsessively played a violent video game in which one of the favored ways of killing is with a bat. The opening scene, before the interactive game play begins, is the Los Angeles courtroom in which the killer is sentenced "only" to life in prison after the judge and the jury have heard experts explain the connection between the game and the murder.

Osaki Kim (O.K.) exits the courtroom swearing revenge upon the video game industry whom he is convinced contributed to his son's murder. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay" he says. And boy, is O.K. not kidding.

O.K. is provided in his virtual reality playpen a panoply of weapons: machetes, Uzis, revolvers, shotguns, sniper rifles, Molotov cocktails, you name it. Even baseball bats. Especially baseball bats.

O.K. first hops a plane from LAX to New York to reach the Long Island home of the CEO of the company (Take This) that made the murder simulator on which his son's killer trained. O.K. gets "justice" by taking out this female CEO, whose name is Paula Eibel, along with her husband and kids. "An eye for an eye," says O.K., as he urinates onto the severed brain stems of the Eibel family victims, just as you do on the decapitated cops in the real video game Postal2.

O.K. then works his way, methodically back to LA by car, but on his way makes a stop at the Philadelphia law firm of Blank, Stare and goes floor by floor to wipe out the lawyers who protect Take This in its wrongful death law suits. "So sue me" O.K. spits, with singer Jackson Brown's 1980's hit Lawyers in Love blaring.

With the FBI now after him, O.K. keeps moving westward, shooting up high-tech video arcades called GameWerks. "Game over," O.K. laughs.

Of course, O.K. makes the obligatory runs to virtual versions of brick and mortar retailers Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, and Wal-Mart to steal supplies and bludgeon store managers and cash register clerks. "You should have checked kids' IDs!"

O.K. pushes on to Los Angeles. He must get there by May 10, 2006. That is the beginning of "E3" -- the Electronic Entertainment Expo -- the Super Bowl of the video game industry. O.K. must get to E3 to massacre all the video game industry execs with one final, monstrously delicious rampage.

How about it, video game industry? I've got the check and you've got the tech. It's all a fantasy, right? No harm can come from such a game, right? Go ahead, video game moguls. Target yourselves as you target others. I dare you.

Jack Thompson is a Miami lawyer who has for 18 years been involved in efforts to stop the marketing of adult entertainment to minors.

It is unlikely that Thompson's proposal will actually be turned into a game, as most videogame companies do not simply accept proposals from individuals. We'll keep you updated, however, as it is very likely that there will be some sort of response to Thompson's proposal from members of the videogame industry.

The rebuttal...

From Penny Arcade:
Jack Thompson

Wed, October 12 2005 - 10:49 AM
by: Gabe

You may have seen Jack’s proposal mentioned on various news sites. He’s offering 10 grand to charity if a game developer makes a game based on his insane proposal.

So I got his email address and I went ahead and sent Jack a note this morning:

10 grand is pretty weak man. Through our charity www.childsplaycharity.org gamers have given over half a million dollars in toys and cash to children’s hospitals all over the country.

I’ll let you know if he responds.

The fact is when we kick off Child’s Play 2005 on November 1st we’ll be going global. We’ll be delivering videogames and toys to children’s hospitals all over the world now. I don’t think there’s any better response to Jack’s insane ramblings than that. Maybe Jack would like to donate his 10 grand to Child’s Play, that could buy a lot of Game Boys.

-Gabe out

Quote:
Jack

Wed, October 12 2005 - 11:48 AM
by: Gabe

My email sig had my phone number in it. Jack actually just called and screamed at me for a couple minutes. He said if I email him again I will “regret it”. What a violent man.

-Gabe out

And...

This...

Industry Fights Back.
By Peter Cohen MacCentral
Tue Oct 11, 2:50 PM ET

The Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) has announced plans to collaborate with the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) to fight a recently passed California law that would fine retailers for selling violent video games to minors.

The VSDA is a trade association for the home entertainment industry. Its members include retailers, distributors and other related businesses. The ESA is the public policy group for the video and computer game industry.

The ESA has overturned other state laws that would have prohibited the sale of violent or sexually explicit video game material to minors, successfully arguing that such efforts have infringed Constitutionally protected rights. The ESA is currently pursuing a case against Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who signed a similar law earlier this year.

PSP Firmware update.

Posted: 11:57 on 13 Oct 2005
By: Jon Wilcox

Latest security issues dealt with along with further tweaks and features...

Sony Computer Entertainment America and Sony Computer Entertainment Japan have today announced that v2.50 of the firmware for PSP is now ready for downloading. As well as closing several security issues, the update also tweaks several features to the PSP browser as well giving users the choice to update their time/date settings over the internet.

Also included in this latest edition is the ability to connect to Sony’s LocationFree technology, enabling PSP owners who have a LocationFree Base Station that ability watch TV from their portable system.

Sony are advising gamers not to update their PSPs if they aren’t PSP models PSP-1000, PSP-1000 K, PSP-1000 KCW, PSP-1001 sold in North America and Japan as they cannot guarantee proper operations with other models.

An exact release date for European PSP owners to access the new firmware is yet to be announced by SCEE though a spokesperson for the subsidiary confirmed that it wouldn't be until 2006.

Virus hits DS.

News by: Mr. MarblesPosted: 10/11/05

Just days after a similar virus hit the Sony PSP, Nintendo DS owners face a similar threat. A Trojan virus, malicious code that damages system firmware, is currently circulating on the Internet disguised as a hentai homebrew application.
Once installed, the Trojan (currently unnamed) embeds itself on the DS system software and damages the unit's firmware, rendering the DS useless.

Though the malicious code causes irreversible damage to the DS, the only way to get it is to use unofficial product applications.

What I've been Playing:

Pirates: Legend of Black Kat

Pirate!

Burnout Revenge!!!!

Anime news:

Uberbot!!!

Grand Opening this Saturday, check this place out!!! We'll be there reppin' that hatchet! Er, I mean VGN and Just Push Play.

Convention Corner:

Necronomicon!!!

14 days away until the last major convention of the season!!