Lady's Son Is Sweet, So She Worries He's A Murderer

Because there was a shooting, video games are again being scrutinised.

A mother was concerned that her otherwise sweet, delightful men - son and husband - were playing violent video games.

This is the article, with an unfortunate title.
http://www.ivillage.com.au/the-lounge-room-habit-could-lead-murder/150926

I couldn't help but leave the following comment, which I think is worth sharing:

Oh dear, not again! Every time there's a shooting, this issue pops up. As an older gamer, a son and eventually a father, I can assure you that it's not the video games you need to be worried about. For every gamer who is also a shooter, there are hundreds, thousands, millions who are not. When it comes to our understanding of violence in the real world, a video game is as relevant as the couch we sit on to play, or the junk food we eat too much of while we press buttons. It's not the video game that's disturbed: it's the person. A disturbed person could find triggers in movies, wildlife docos, boxing matches, a street lamp, a dog! 

There's never been conclusive evidence that a violent video game is going to create a violent child. How long do you keep looking for something when there's less and less evidence it exists? And why is it always linked just to violent video games? Look at sport. Football, be it AFL in Australia or NFL in the States - both codes have far more trouble with violent players, who are enacting violence in the real world more regularly than the hapless geek sitting on his couch at night and going to work by day. But are there as many articles titled,

"The Sporting Habit That Could Lead To Murder/Gay Bashing/Stabbing/Fights/Public Urination"? 

Let's get back to you, concerned mother. The Aurora shooter had a college psychiatrist flag him. It's alleged his mother had an idea about him. The Sikh temple shooter was in a Nazi band. You've said in this article that your son and husband are gentle, sweet people. What's the problem, exactly? Here's the thing: stop looking at simply playing a video game as being a worry or a threat. Look for ACTUAL signs. Is your son distant, does he mutter to himself, does he strangle cats, is he a member of a Nazi band? THOSE are things you should be worried about. Those are things we should all be worried about. Let's spend less time focussed on video games and more time learning about psychological illness. 

And enjoy the fact that your kid and your man are fine!

Team Ico Sexist Tosh

"Ueda stated initially they had considered using a small girl instead of a boy to interact with the creature, but realized they would have issues with an accurate representation of the girl's stamina while climbing on the creature, and further issues with questionable camera angles during climbing scenes with the girl, wearing a short skirt."
- Wikipedia

Team Ico, I love your work, but that's just tosh. Little girls can scream and run around all day! And put her in shorts! Weak.

(source: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-the-last/50352)

Dead Space 2 Cinematic: Previously in Dead Space

I'm playing Dead Space 2. It's awesome. I'm loving it. Thank the Nine we can re-tool our nodes.

One cool thing they did was through a 'Previously in Dead Space' video that sums up what happened int he first game. More developers should do this! It's so simple but cool, and I got a real thrill reliving the first game.

Here's the video:


And here's some photos I took from the first game 'cause I like the lighting. NEEEEEEEEEERRRD!

To Be A Nerd: Patton Oswalt and Nerdism

Patton Oswalt wrote a compelling and interesting article on nerdery, pop culture and subculture. It could be considered the co-theory of Pop Will Eat Itself: Nerds Will Eat Themselves, Throw It All Up and Coat the World. (The article)

I got to thinking a little bit. 'Nerd' as it was used in the eighties and, certainly for me, the nineties, wasn't just about what you liked, or to borrow Oswalt's vernacular, what you lined your thought-palace with. Being called a nerd was as much about the people who did the name calling in the first place. You can't be called something without someone calling. To be a nerd was to like something different, weird, not part of the mainstream. We liked things the cool kids weren't aware of, and that made them dislike us but it also made us special.

I don't think that defining aspect of nerdism is gone. True, nerd culture is now pop culture, but that just means a different set of likes and small joys that sit outside the mainstream are being devoured by a new, different set of neo-nerds. Maybe using the word 'nerd' to describe an outcast kid is off-base now, and we need a new word. It should be easy to find: simply go down to the nearest schoolyard and eavesdrop on the words being spat at by those outcasts.

Nerd used to be derisive, or maybe you've forgotten. I think everyone's always been a weak Otaku, they've just had different things to obsess over. From a housewife in the fifties discussing the best laundry detergent with her friends to a member of the Vienese court, waxing lyrical over Beethoven in 1795. What really made a nerd, back in my day, was that what you liked was scorned by the mainstream, but you loved it anyway.

I'm certain those signifiers still exist today. What are they, do you think? In an age where Boba Fett and comic books are cool, what isn't?

Red Dead Redemption

There's been some hubbub on the net of late about the legitimacy of video games as an art form. This debate is most likely a generational issue, and the resistance to the idea that games can be art will melt away with the withering of baby boomers. Most people my age, in those generations marked X and Y have played the very games we know to be powerful works of art, that also happen to be, for the most part, incredibly accessible. Accessibility is to snobbery what lemon is to a skinned fish. Sprinkle even a few drops on and it will start thrashing desperately. The result is inevitable, either way: death. Of course, rounding on my argument like a cowboy on his horse, some components of these artier games might be considered less accessible on the scale of the average gamer. Certainly not every gamer is prepared to sit through an half hour cut scene during the end level of Metal Gear Solid 4. Still, my point stands. These games are on the edge, they push the medium, and they're bloody fantastic.

One such game is Red Dead Redemption. It's perhaps not as groundbreaking overall as a format, but the execution and style of this game is what has been getting Rockstar the 10/10 reviews. I'd like to share one moment with you.

*SPOILER ALERT*
You, John Marsten attack the fort that your quarry has been hiding in in the west US. The fort is defeated, but Bill Williamson has escaped. You ferry across the border river and after a wild shootout from a raft in the middle of a vicious storm, end up in Mexico for the first time. You say farewell to the Irish rat who got you across, mount your horse and ride up the embankment. The horse can't break out of a run yet, so you clop slowly up the incline. Over the crest is a breathtaking view of the red, rounded mesas of the Mexican desert. The sense of quiet natural wonder is heightened by the slow build of gentle but strong guitar strumming, with Jose Gonzalez's Far Away playing over the scene. The storm washes away and the sun starts to shine through, beaming gorgeous fingers of golden sunlight onto the wide open plains. You can't help but keep your horse at an even pace and swing the camera around to take in these visuals.

This scene solidified Red Dead as a top shelf game in my mind. The brilliance of it is that it demonstrates how a game can affect the players and manipulate them into reacting the same way, to move our eye around the screen like a masterpiece painting moves our eye around the canvas. I've spoken to a few people and read reports online about this same scene, and everyone seems to react the same way. Once you crest, your horse is freed up and you can run it as fast as you like, but most players I spoke to or read about kept their horse moving quietly and couldn't help but drink up this stunning moment. That is artistic power, especially when we gamers are so often unfairly characterised as blood thirsty Peter Pans with the attention span of a gnat. To script a game in such a way as to keep our supposedly goldfish-like attentions firmly fixed not on bloodshed, but on natural beauty, and to do it in an open plan, free roaming game is truly a view to behold.

So, if you haven't played it yet and don't intend to, or if you have and want to relive that moment, here is a clip of someone I've never met, reacting exactly the same way I did when I played through this scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8IonrlZp74&feature=youtube_gdata

R 18+ Ratings for Video Games

In Australia, the R 18+ rating for video games doesn't exist. If a game if deemed too violent, sexual or otherwise for the MA 15+ rating, it is given an RC (Refused Classification), which means it is banned from import. Anyone raided and caught selling the game will be fined. Most often, what happens is the developer edits and/or removes the offensive parts of the game and resubmits it to the Office of Film and Literature. If it's now clean enough, it gets the highest allowed rating of MA and ends up on our shelves.

Games that have been RC include most recently, Dark Sector, Manhunt, Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, Reservoir Dogs, BMX XXX, Blitz: The League, and Postal 2.
These games most often were banned for violence considered too real, too connected to sex or shown in too positive a light (usually incorporating incentives for violence), however, you'll notice Mark Ecko's Getting Up can shut down because of its portrayal of graffiti. A fuller list of RC titles and their subsequent outcomes can be found here.

There's been a lot of outcry from gamers and industry folks who really, really want the R rating for games so as to stop the absolute banning of games. Similarly, there are those on the other side of the fence who are rather happy it's not around, as it removes unwanted threats. Instead of bitching about it in the dark, I decided to go right to the source - I emailed the OFLC and asked, simply and quickly, Dear members of the classification board, I was hoping you could please answer this simple question for me: Why do you not provide an R rating for video games in Australia? I'm eager to understand why, thanks very much, Simon J. Green.

To my surprise, I received a hard copy letter, mailed to me in the post, from the Attorney-General's Department, Territories and Information Law Division. The letter is a fascinating insight into the minds of those people who make the laws of our country, the very heart of the matter. I invite you all to read it and discuss what you think. (Names and contact details have been blanked for privacy)

Link to Page 1
Link to Page 2
or download in a .zip

For a big fat discussion and history on this topic, I suggest you read the excellent Cnet article Censory Overload: Games censorship in Australia.

GTA Ballet

The coolest thing happened during a bit of GTA IV on my XBOX last night. I was at that point you get to sometimes where you simply ignore missions and start shooting all passersby and blowing up cars with an array of weapons. As I watched with glee a victim of a grenade get tossed off a cliff in Alderney's south, I spotted a utilities worker at the top of a power line pole. I marveled at such a mundane but reality-enhancing touch, and to celebrate, locked my reticule, pulled the pin of a grenade and arced it at him. With perfect timing (I've long been an excellent grenadier), the explosion occurred right at the poor chap's feet. He soared high into the foggy air and I cheered loudly, my girlfriend shaking her head at my gratification. He floated over my head and then smashed into the crooked surface of rock that the road was cut into. I was so excited and proud I had a nerdgasm. If only I could've recorded such an event to share with you fine people. Oh well, my description will have to suffice. Hope you enjoyed it half as much as I did executing it.
Click the pic below for a bit o' fun.