Truth in Advertising Bill Passed in Utah

Jack Thompson, the craziest ex-lawyer this side of the globe, helped push House Bill 353 into amendment status ratifying content targeting video game retailers and movie theaters and selling M or R rated material to underage kids.

83 (u) (i) advertises that the person will not sell a good or service labeled with an age
84 restriction or recommendation to a person under the age restriction or recommendation; and
85 (ii) sells that good or service to a person under the age restriction or recommendation.

With a new child of my own, I completely understand having some sort of measurement in place to help stop retailers from pushing pornography and murder onto kids who don't know better. But scaring politicians with lies is just wrong.

Jack, again, pushed that the game Grand Theft Auto IV is a murder/sex simulator, "rewarding" players for killing cops and shooting hookers. He references Devin Moore, a murderer who killed three police workers in 2005, stating to the police that "life is like a video game, everyone dies sometime" and that he shot the police because he didn't want to go to jail. At the time of the shooting, Moore was 20 years old.

My issue is that no where in the bill does it say anything about parental punishment for parents who let their kids play violent games or see violent movies. And I don't see how selling games to underage kids has anything to do with truth in advertising.

Personally, I've played through all of GTA4 and never once had relations with a prostitute. I did however run a car 80mph down a street in the middle of the city and whipe out score of pedestrians. When the cops chased me, I ran outside of their red circle of awareness, at which point they completely forgot about me and I went along my merry way.

Ahh, the realism of video games.

The Original George Bush Shoe Game

Wii Fit had it first.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/28876.html. Lots of shoes in there.

Intrinsic Values: This Gaming Life

As I listened to a Bungie podcast whilst soaking in the tub (yes, I take proper baths), I really started to think about the gaming world that gamers live in and how it compares to other hobbies that people have. There are certainly more people that just play games and maybe pick up magazines to read about what's coming out, but the world is so much deeper than that and I suspect that there are not many others like it. The following is my grasp on this world and what I believe to be the state of our union.

The industry is comprised of many things: developers, publishers, the console makers, and the media. It's like the music industry with less glamor and more nerds. But gaming came from the computer/software world where there are huge press conferences spanning days where the media looks at the year to come as showcased by the game makers and console manufacturers. Developers get together and theorize and hypothesize about gaming technology and human interaction at developer conventions. There are small groups that fit in garages that make games many never see (and really should) as well as big companies that make games that everyone sees (and probably shouldn't).

The big dogs in the developer world are the publishers. EA is probably the biggest today. They are the Microsoft of the game software world. Like recording houses in the music industry, publishers gobble up developers (the musicians) and offer them the ability to publish their games (the albums). The developers, in turn, get better advertising, better quality control (supposedly), and better paychecks and budgets. But they also might get 18-hour work days coding and the possibility of their games being manhandled by suit-types who just want higher profits. Recently, the gaming monopolies are under fire by everyone from journalists to developers themselves. But gaming as a business is alive and monstrous. Big budget movies and fast food chains get video games for marketing. The Army develops for training and recruiting. And games are blamed for school shootings and dysfunctional families.

Then there is the media. Journalists that couldn't get enough of games and had a knack for writing made it in print and on the web. Gamers have their favorite magazines, blogs and even writers. We trust them too much to decide what games are going to be good and where we should spend our hard earned cash. Recently, stories about bad games have gotten people fired because those publications also solicit advertising from those developers and publishers. As critics, some follow them blindly and others barely glance (but glance at least) at their written drivel. But their insight into the gaming world is intriguing and captivating at times. Today developers now keep blogs and community sites. They produce and record rss-feed audio and video podcasts with themes and programmed content.

The console makers are in a battle to differentiate themselves. Never before have a group of companies been so closely matched to win the "console war". Historically the market was dominated by just one console until Sony's Playstation 2 met competition from Microsoft's Xbox and Xbox 360 and Nintedo's Wii. Nintendo took the first step with the Wii to peel away a huge layer of gaming market for themselves with their radically designed console, leaving Microsoft and Sony to spar over the traditional gamer market. With console makers, the battle for sales dollars lies solely with the developers to make games that push the hardware. Games drive the market. That's why even the console makers develop and publish games, hoping to carve their market niche with custom content.

And lastly, the public. We have die-hard fans of practically everything: games, developers, consoles, etc. You can probably search for anything game related and find a Google Group for it. While you mom is at home with her Wii bowling the night away, a 20-year-old is dressed up as her favorite Dead or Alive fighting character posing for cameras at video game music concert. Gaming is becoming as popular (or moreso) than going to the movies. As the diversity in the community increases, video games now have a presence in politics and culture.

After seeing what the whole big picture is, it's hard to see any comparison in another market. Music and movies are all very one-sided, one trick ponies. Complex, but only on one dimension. Video games have become not only a pastime, but a way to communicate with other people and the outside world. They act as not only an art form, but as a cultural mirror to reflect on humanity and our state of awareness. If you ever thought video games were a waste of time, there is a whole world to discover and learn about. And most likely you'll learn a lot more than you bargained for.

At first, this post wasn't going to be an "Intrinsic Values" post, but I realized that there is value inherent in being immersed in a subject that offers so much to learn from. I just hope writing it conveys that mindset that I feel I've gained from it.

"Voting" on the "Game"

(Note to hburgnews readers: this isn't in anyway a jab at our new Clerk. I don't know anything about him. I've only shaken his hand once at Calhoun's and I was one glass down of Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout at the time. All my gaming references are strickly about games and actually are just kind of funny when you match them to politics.)

I was thinking about our recent local elections today, more exactly the Clerk of Court. You might not think this has anything to do with video games, but I can relate anything to video games. So let's give this a shot.

Our recent Clerk election had 11 candidates running for the $125,000 a year/8 year job. It's caused quite a stir around town. Some people think that the position shouldn't be voted on and shouldn't be an 8-year contract, but a yearly position with evaluations or even an appointed job with resumes.

I still consider myself new to town and I don't know all the political relationships and how things "work". So I was very confused with the system, the job, and I ended up not voting. So I thought to myself, how could this have been done better, in my gaming world. This only works with this unique of a position. It's not political in nature and has it's roots in office management and business. It's a job that should be performed with diligence and not political promises, just like our jobs that we work everyday.

So I wish there could have been a website or magazine review with a list of features and options, just like video games and software have. How does this "game" work with this "system"? I want to see a feature list and a check mark beside each one the game has. Then I want to see all the games and what features each one of them has. I don't care if the game likes/dislikes the other features it's not compatible with or if they were planned but never programmed in.

There's nothing worse than getting an over priced game that doesn't play well. But I can return video games or sell them on eBay.

My summary -- But I guess when you have thousands of users looking to buy the same type of game, not everyone is going to agree on what's good. That happens all the time. It's personal preference. What you like, I might not necessarily like. But we all don't get to vote on the game that comes out. The game is what it is and if enough people don't like it, they don't buy it, and it gets taken off the shelves because of bad sales. If not, we pass it on the shelves, laugh at it's low, used price tag, and move on.

More on Black Zombies

Last week I posted about Kym Platt and what she thought about a game with black zombies and a white protagonist (the yet-to-be-released game, Resident Evil 5).

It seems the gamer community has struck back. And she didn't take it well.

As it turns out, Kym isn't even calling ownership on the original article, but a response to another, white author's article on the matter. There is no mention of any other article by this other author in her original post.

What the point is though, is that Kym thinks people will see the game as racist. Is racism still living in the country? Sure. Are some gamers racist? Quite possibly. Is bringing up the issue helpful? Who knows.

Are gamer tired of people stepping in a criticizing their hobby of choice? Most definetly.

Personally, I wish for the days when Sears published video games and my mom left me alone in the living room to find another Fire Flower.

White Man vs Black Zombies = Racism?

An article on Kotaku brings up a piece written on Black Looks, a blog catering to black women.

Resident Evil 5 is set in Africa. One of the RE universe's characters is there for some reason and runs into a horde of zombies, who are correctly black skinned. Kym Platt, the blogger, says...

This is problematic on so many levels, including the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages, the killing of Black people by a white man in military clothing, and the fact that this video game is marketed to children and young adults. Start them young… fearing, hating, and destroying Black people.

Let's see here...

• Why is "Black" capitalized and not "white"?
• Where does the game say black people are inhuman savages. This isn't Resident African. It's Resident Evil. A game about zombies.
• All 13 games in the series have been white zombies killed by white men and women. If anything, you should be pissed you weren't included a long time ago.
  
• The game is rated M (for mature). No kids are playing this game unless you buy it for them. Oh that's right, you don't have any.
• You don't consider yourself "Black"
  
• Your damn right. I better be afraid and hate and want to destroy black zombies. Just as much as yellow zombies and brown zombies. Zombies suck. Really.
  
• If I lived in a world where zombies existed, we would preach this game to children. I would personally show my son or daughter how to pop a zombies head off with shotgun.
• If Chris Redfield was a black Chris Redfield, would you have written your blog?

I guess I enjoy opinions as much as she does. But if we go around making games about non-descript people in non-descript areas of the world, what does that mean?

Also try to remember, white people didn't make this game, Japanese people did.

Senator Plays WoW

I have to admit hearing that a senator plays a maxed character in World of Warcraft is pretty interesting. It's also awe-inspiring. I don't have time to get involved in a game like that (mostly because of all the other games I play). So where does the man find the time to work and play?

Truly, a part time gamer of the highest respect.

If you read on in the comments I linked to, he comments back to some of the regulars. It's pretty funny.