Looks like the DRM method used by Electronic Arts in the new “Spore” game has given new meaning to the term “counterproductive”.
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Jehuda
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Jehuda
Nice. Great gig, if you can get it.
I’ve been wanting to research several video games and their effect on me. Maybe the National Science Foundation is still taking proposals…
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Some days ago I linked to a post at GamePolitics about an expose on this X-Box quality fiasco.
A few days later, the only guy who went on the record gets canned.
Tough business.
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The new Electronic Arts PC title Spore represents a whole new video game business model based – in part – on a virtual economy within the game.
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I’ve been a Sony man for years now, but I have been debating whether my next console should be a PS3 or an X-Box. This definitely makes me think twice about getting a 360, now that I’ve learned about it.
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Five games have been banned in Thailand since that cabbie mugging was blamed on Grand Theft Auto IV
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HEH: A short but enlightening YouTube video at GamePolitics.
How did our culture ever manage to survive such a violent coin-operated video game machine? If that’s what people were playing back then, we will probably survive Grand Theft Auto IV
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Jehuda
Seems that demonizing video games is one of those big-tent issues. I always thought it was a misguided conservative cause. But I was wrong, which makes me feel better about my right-wing leanings, but that’s small comfort given the circumstances.
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Jehuda
A man is caught for warezing videogames and now he’s looking at 8 months in federal prison. Kinda sad, but even trading warez – which ordinarily involves no actual profiting – could land you in a cell.
Hopefully the Feds are going after the big-time, money-making pirates just as aggressively.
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Jehuda
Really unfortunate, if true: Older, rural jurors more inclined to accept “video game made me do it” defense, says lawyer.
Note that at least one lawyer actively promotes such a negative view of video games among the public. I guess he’s been busy.
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A quick peek at Lara Croft’s next adventure. The game hits the shelves on November 21.
Crap, that’s the day that the State Bar Exam results will be published. Two reasons to look forward to that date…I guess.
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It’s always open season on media – and expression – somewhere.
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The other big convention this week doesn’t revolve around politics but video games: the Leipzig Games Convention 2008. There is complete coverage of the event here.
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Jehuda
Another reader tip-off: A study concludes that books, films and TV shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and their depictions of Wicca have led to a serious decline among the Church of England’s female worshippers. Hmm.
Church attendance all across the EU nations has been eroding for decades. And Wicca was well-known way before Buffy‘s pilot ever made air.
Next thing you know, violent video games are going to be blamed for violent crime.
Oh, right. That’s already happening. My bad.
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Creepy, but true.
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Looks like several video game publishers in the U.K. have in fact organized to sue file sharers.
All things being equal, if there is infringement going on, fair is fair. You can get sued. That’s how it works. But as far as these publishers’ approach is concerned, fairness seems to be lacking, especially when it comes to the method they use to identify potential defendants.
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Wired takes a close look at the new Star Wars video game.
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Someone at the Wharton School has suggested that Hasbro could have capitalized on Scrabulous; and that suing its creators for trademark infringement instead was more than a bad PR move.
Surgeons like to cut. Lawyers like to sue. As the linked content mentions, some businesses are a little to quick to file infringement suits. I agree.
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Looks like open season on pirates and file-sharers. And this lady got off easy compared to yesterday’s pirate du jour.
Like I said before, video games are big business now. You just can’t get away with this stuff anymore. Not after what happened to the music industry.
Some of the lawsuits have been a lot like bullying, especially when fair use of a copyrighted property might be a possibility. Others may seem like bullying but are technically fair. You infringe at your own risk.
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Lots of IP litigation this week. Nintendo ain’t talking, but the start-up suing it alleges patent infringement based on the the Wii’s motion-sensing controller and software.
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With a bigger, 160 GB drive. And that’s not all.
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A fellow video game enthusiast – who actually owns a PS3, as opposed to me – just tipped me off to this story. That level of realism just blows me away. Animation as lifelike as it can be.
The Image Metrics team, which created the animation for GTA IV
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Video games are big business now. You steal from big business and bad things can happen.
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Over at Shacknews, an industry survey shows most game developers remain focused on creating either PC-based titles or games for the XBox.
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But hey, just to be safe: let’s prosecute the game makers!
A similar approach (civil actions, not criminal) didn’t fly here when they tried it against gun manufacturers, but I have the feeling that in Thailand it’s a different story.
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High expectations for Madden NFL ’09 upon its launch yesterday.
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Gamepolitics reports that a new survey indicates parents fear that their children might be exposed to video games more than they fear their exposure to booze, porn, or violence.
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Over at Shacknews, Chris Faylor has posted this week’s new video game releases, including Madden NFL 09, whose premiere party coverage I mention here
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You know video games are getting bigger and bigger when they start throwing celebrity-studded premiere parties. At the Madden NFL 09
I can’t remember which was the last Madden I played, but it was pre-2005. Great fun, especially against a human being.
H/T: Gamepolitics.
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Now a group of young alleged arsonists in Georgia is claiming they were inspired by Grand Theft Auto IV
to set vehicles ablaze with Molotov cocktails . Is this the new catch-all excuse for misconduct? When I was in my 20′s I think it was child abuse.
I for one believe I learned to make Molotov cocktails watching Red Dawn
back in the 80′s, but I could be wrong.
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Speaking of violence in video games, Prof. Reynolds at Instapundit has linked to news on Amazon.com of a violence-filtering feature for Gears of War 2
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To be clear, I have not played either Grand Theft Auto IV
(law school was not quite compatible with my video gaming habit, so I had to abandon it for the interim), so I don’t know how violent the games actually are. I’ve already seen some pretty crazy violence in the video games I was able to play pre-law school, so this all smells of hype and hysteria to me; or – in the alternative – a reaction to hype and hysteria, to which the note on Amazon alludes.
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CNET has compiled a list of quality video games at bargain bin prices.
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Gamepolitics sets the record straight on the topic of alleged video game-inspired crimes in America. I discussed the related cabbie murder here.
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Gamepolitics has excellent coverage of the Bangkok cabbie murder which was allegedly inspired by Grand Theft Auto IV
Many people feel threatened by the violence in today’s video games. This perceived threat is leading governments worldwide – including state governments in the U.S – to introduce regulations that amount to little more than government censorship at worst and making it harder for video game publishers to do business at best. It’s regrettable. This sort of legislation is often based on misperceptions and generalizations. Gamepolitics and its parent organization – the ECA – is committed to that point of view, among other things, and to not letting this bias get in the way of gamers’ rights.
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There’s an interview with Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata on his plans for launching a slew of services and reaching out to new gamers.
I have never owned anything made by Nintendo, except for a little Gameboy I bought for a 20-hr flight to Cannes last summer. I gave it to my nephew soon after. But I certainly have a deep respect for the company.
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The class action lawsuit against Rockstar Games for the alleged “injuries” it inflicted on some of those innocent souls who bought a copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas took an unexpected turn this week.
Why does it sound to me like someone was trying to extort a settlement? Does it sound like the plaintiffs wanted compensation for self-inflicted injury or is it just me?
Consumers must exercise some responsibility. In fact, many did in this case. Of those who bought the game, a group numbering in the millions, less than 3000 applied for compensation. But I wouldn’t blame those few thousand gamers for how far things got.
Via Techdirt.
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The state might just bankroll part of your production budget.
