2 Cents Gaming

…by taking your money.

Gamepolitics has a story up about a mailer from the CSM (which, unsurprisingly, Denis has the patience to subscribe to what would only make me cranky) which went out last Friday, with the watchdog group using the usual fear tactics to spread their word. Their word of fear.

When Common Sense Media was founded just five years ago, the latest data from the FTC suggested that kids could walk into a store and buy an M-rated game, like Grand Theft Auto, nearly 70% of the time. That figure was simply unacceptable. 

Since then, we’ve worked closely with other advocates, parents, legislators, and retailers to end the sale of M-rated games to underage gamers. New data from the FTC shows that number has fallen to just 20%. We’re proud to see this vast improvement, and with your help, we can bring that number to zero.

…

Games like Grand Theft Auto IV promote murder, sexual exploitation, and violence towards women. Exposure to this type of violence, which is common in most M-rated games, at a young age has been shown to make children anti-social, numb to violence, and more aggressive.

You’ll notice two things from this. One, they’re entirely certain that they’re responsible for the drop in children being able to purchase M rated games at retailers, because, as we all know, there is no other political or social pressure against video games at all. Oh wait, damn, had the Bizarro switch flipped on.

Secondly, this “Watchdog Group” persist in using false data to further their goals. If they’d only show the proof for what this “exposure to violence” causes - a reputable, non-biased, study, at that - we’d be able to accept them as more than fearmongers desperate to get their names in the headlines.

Of course, as Gamepolitics points out, the entire thing is for one point:

Donate today…

Which helps… how? The biggest “Violent Game” release has come and gone, with no hitches from the moral majority. How are you going to now keep the game out of kids hands, when most of the sales have taken place?

Good news, undoubtedly, for fans of the one and only successful episodic gaming franchise, Sam and Max (which, of course, includes yours truly). Telltale games have announced that the series will make its way to your homes (via the tubes of the internets, to start with) in 2009, Emily Morganti revealed in an interview with TheBBPS.com.

She also talked more about the console release of the popular adventure games, confirmed as coming only to the Wii, with the first “Season” getting a retail disc release this fall. She also goes on to say that they’re certainly considering other options - but that the Mac will be coming last, with “getting onto consoles” being a bigger priority.

(Now, of course, this has me wanting to finish up the very last episode of Season 2, and wanting to know how the dog and hyperkinetic rabbity thing get out of Hell. Also, not a spoiler, since that’s been known since the series began)

News found via 1UP.com

Could it be? Could it really be? According to 1up.com and EGM’s “Quarterman” it is. Killer Instinct 3 is on the way.

First up, he’s heard that Microsoft-owned developer Rare is currently hard at work on a new Killer Instinct offering for Xbox 360 tentatively titled Killer Instinct 3D: Death, Destruction, and Doom. Word has it that the plasticized 2D visuals and mash-happy gameplay have been wisely bulldozed in favor of fully 3D graphics and a more refined combat system. Our Q-spies in the U.K. report that the game looks “rather early” yet “promising,” and tell us to expect a hasty denial from the cheeky lads at Rare.

You can read the full article at 1up.com here

So we may be finally getting our combofests on again after all these years. Then again, we can only hope that today’s questionable Rare can do justice to the series.

Great news from Joystiq.com!:

We’re not going to make jokes on this one and save the snark until the final ruling, but the judge presiding over self-proclaimed anti-games activist Jack Thompson’s Florida Bar trial has recommended the attorney be found guilty on 27 of the 31 misconduct charges – 21 from the Devin Moore case, 4 when in 2006 he tried to declare Bully a public nuisance, and 2 unrelated to video games.

Game Politics has the full story and a list of some of the charges, including “Engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation” and “Making statements that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to the truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge.” A disciplinary hearing is being held June 4. The full report to the Florida Supreme Court is due September 2.

Too bad, so sad Jacky boy!

EDIT: Updated with a link to the Game Politics article.

Not to ask if it’s more Mature, as that tends to simply indicate the presence of boobs and blood to most people, but rather to ask if our favorite pastime is growing up in the subject matter that it handles.

Gaming has, of course, been “Mature” for some time - after all, we even have a rating to indicate that. We also have a rating for Adults Only, but that’s mostly porn that never gets put on a console. We’ve been tearing Harpies and people limb from limb for a long time, but quite often, the reason we do it is trite, following the path and sensibilities of the Commando movie school more often than not.

Warning: Serious spoilers for The Darkness, Bioshock and Grand Theft Auto IV. You haven’t played through those games; it’s more than likely better that you don’t read any more after the jump. Plus, it won’t really make sense unless you’ve played those games through.

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From Kotaku, we have news that today, without any real sort of official warning, we suddenly have WiiWare downloadable games on our little white boxes.

They have the list of games as:

Final Fantasy: 1500 Wii Points
LostWinds: 1000 Wii Points
Defend Your Castle: 500 Wii Points
Pop: 700 Wii Points
VIP Casino Blackjack: 700 Wii Points
TV Show King: 1000 Wii Points

I’d be more excited about the first title in that list if it wasn’t a Crystal Chronicles game, which I’ve heard absolutely suck monkey balls.

Official Press Release deal after the jump.

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This years FTC “secret shopper” study into the self-enforcement by retailers of the voluntary ratings systems on various forms of media showed one thing with certainty - the ESRB ratings, along with the help of retailers educating parents more and more, is starting to work.

1UP has the figures of the 2008 study, which was released last Thursday. They show that the secret shoppers found it “increasingly difficult” for under 17s to purchase M-Rated games at most retailers, with only 20% being successful, as opposed to 2006s figure of 42%.

According to the data, this is a huge step up against the availability of R-Rated movies to kids, with 50% being able to procure such films.

Of course, there’s not a huge amount of outcry about that, now is there? Hey, moral majority, double standard much?

Due to last weeks outcry over the overly harsh authentication needed should you want to play Mass Effect on your PC, EA and Bioware have decided to change the way they’re looking at the issue, according to Eurogamer.

Now, rather than expecting you to be constantly connected to the internet and having to submit to a check every ten days, and having the game you spent good money on dying a horrible death should the auth fail, you will only be expected to authenticate when you first install, or when you download any of the official content to be provided.

We can consider this a partial win on the part of the consumer, as, unfortunately, SecuROM is still being used as the DRM program on EAs products. Due to this, we can expect a lot more problems down the line.

More after the jump.

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And that’s the figure for one weeks worth of sales. Selling over 6 million copies globally since it’s release on April 29th, might well have made it’s way into the record books as the biggest game launch so far.

On launch day itself, they made $310 million, with 3.6 million units being sold. That’s $10 million more than Halo 3 made in it’s first week put together - though how fair it is to compare the two, I’m not sure, seeing as Halo 3 was a single console release.

According to the AP article on Yahoo, Zelnick believes this vindicates his decision to attempt to stop the buyout by EA, with Take-Two shares trading currently at $26.39 versus EAs offer of $25.74.

Also mentioned in the article is that MADD - Mothers Against Drunk Driving - are pushing for an AO rating for the game, because it allows you to drink and drive. Typical controversy without any ammo however - more than likely, noone at MADD sat down to play the game, otherwise they would have noticed it’s more than likely a deterrant to driving drunk, with the controls being incredibly difficult, the cops being on your ass in an instant, and Niko’s own insistence that “Perhaps this is not such a good idea.”

Unlike other gaming news sources, we really didn’t do much in the way of Grand Theft Auto IV news. Mostly, all I was looking to do was play the damn thing - which, having now done, and continuing to do so, is seven shades of awesome.

However, a couple of Transit Authorities pulled ads for GTA in the lead up to its relase. One, in particular, the Chicago Transit Authority, described as a “quasi-governmental agency” by some quarters, pulled them as being “too offensive.” The ads featured certain characters from the game looking… menacing.

No guns.

No blood.

Nothing beyond a painting of a character.

Well, Take-Two, who had paid to have the ads run on the various public transportations of Chicago, have decided that this isn’t on. After all, they still run ads for R-Rated movies, which could very well be considered the equivalent of an M-Rated game, and even the more “violent” TV shows. Why not a non-offensive ad for a rated video game?

So, Take-Two are taking the CTA to court, and suing them to kingdom come - here’s hoping they absolutely destroy them in court. Full story here on 1UP.

Reported in Eurogamer, Mass Effect is all set to use the same Anti-Piracy measures that Bioshock used when it was relased for the PC - much to the dismay of many.

SecuROM, which was responsible for a completely botched launch of the PC version of Bioshock, has been slammed by consumers and consumer rights groups for some time as being far too invasive, and not nearly supportive enough of the customer. It requires a check, every 10 days, to re-validate your CD Key. Apparently, if you miss that check, you have to wait for the next one. That’s right, miss the check and you won’t be able to play your game. As well as that, you will be required to have an active internet connection to play the game.

Admittedly, that last isn’t as much of a shock as it was back when Half Life 2 first came out, being one of the first games to require and active internet connection during everyday gameplay. It doesn’t make it any better, however, for someone who buy’s the game, expects to be able to play, and has an internet connection problem. They will not be able to play the game they spent $50-$60 on, and which is now their property.

I fully understand that Bioware and EA don’t want their property pirated - hell, I wouldn’t either. But that doesn’t mean that their efforts should end up hurting their actual customers.

Open up my email this morning to see an email from Station - Sony’s online game management… thing.  Turns out Planetside, the MMOFPS that I played at launch, which has already gone through a server merge, a complete overhaul of the maps and even a “free” option of gameplay in order to coax more players into their realms, has finally had to bite the bullet and start merging servers.

We’ve all seen enough MMOs going through Server merges, and we know that they’re really never a good thing.

All I know is, the promise of free playtime isn’t enough to draw me back into the game where I was really only good enough to fly the transport plane. And even then I still always got shot down.

Capture of the email after the jump, for those interested in the first two paragraphs.

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