Miscellany
There's been some talk in the past week about a pretty staggering number: one million XBox 360 units banned from XBox Live on account of being modified - presumably, of course, to circumvent those pesky new game prices with the magic of Bittorrent. Not that it ever sounded very wise to tamper with a closed, proprietary game console before logging onto a closed, proprietary online service and assume nothing could possibly go awry.
Well, despite many, many, many, many, many sites reporting that a million accounts had been banned, it sounds like there was a bit too much cross-referencing and not enough fact-checking. XBox Live General Manager Marc Whitten hinted yesterday that the actual number of XBoxes banned last month is much smaller, noting that the popular 'one million banned' statistic essentially came from one site.
Even if it ended up being a false lead, it's easy to see why the appeal of this particular number was pretty tempting for most. Piracy is one of those problems that hovers like a specter, always present and hurting the bottom line of companies who give their all for their projects, but also basically impossible to actually measure. Regardless of who is or isn't a saint when it comes to respecting generations-old IP laws in our digital age, it's both astounding and plausible that a million XBoxes could have been modified to play pirtaed games on XBox Live. PROTIP: That's more XBoxes than the population of Alaska!
Regardless of whethery they number into the millions or have their own senators, the mass of folks who recently found themselves banned from XBox Live may yet get their comeuppance, in form of a class-action suit. Hit the jump to read more!
The National Institute on Media and the Family will be shutting down at the end of 2009. NIMF, known for its annual Video Game Report Card, will be closing because of a lack of funding. Fairview Health Services, which supported NIMF annually with $750,000, could no longer meet its commitment thanks to economic woes.
President and founder Dr. David Walsh vowed to soldier on despite the organization's closing:
The current challenging economic environment accelerated those discussions making this the right time to begin transitioning the programs to other organizations who share our mission and values. I look forward to transitioning the Institute's programs to worthy organizations that I am confident will continue to educate parents and caregivers on our rapidly changing digital culture.
And in a blog post:
We've accomplished a lot of amazing things in the last thirteen years. And in that same amount of time there has been unprecedented technological innovation and an ever-increasing number of screens in young people's lives, making the Institute's mission just as relevant today as when we started. So while this chapter of the Institute's work is coming to a close, I am excited to transition the Institute's programs to organizations that will continue to foster the same important conversations and bring relevant solutions to parents.
NIMF's most recent Report Card gave high marks to the industry for education and enforcement of video game ratings - save an "incomplete" for Parental Involvement.
NIMF to Close at Year End [GamePolitics]
While this isn't related to gaming, I wanted to take a second to post something about an issue that might have missed the radar for some of the readers here. This story has only recently begun to receive mainstream attention.
So if you're interested in reading a bit of topical news that has absolutely nothing to do with gaming but everything to do with young gay men, read on.
Well, leave it up to the Danish to stir up controversy when it comes to facing issues head. This time it doesn't come in the form of satirical comic strips featuring a famous religious figure, but in the form of a flash game that tries to teach about the brutality of domestic violence. The game, called Hit the B*tch, basically sets a woman in from of the player and allows the player to use the mouse to slap the woman. The game rates your slaps from '100% pussy' to '100% gansta', and with each hit the bruises and marks on the woman's face increase in severity. When the player finally knocks the woman to the ground with a blow the screen displays "100% IDIOT!" and shows the woman sobbing on the floor while mournful music plays and a message appears in Danish in the background.
I have to admit, without knowing what the message is at the end it slightly ruins the overall experience, but the flash game itself has many questioning if it really helps in reaching a anti-violence goal. There's always a thin line between a game that'll make the violence seem disconnected from real actions and actually getting the message across to users. Well I definitely hope it is more of the latter, and at the very least the game has accomplished the goal of getting people to talk about the issue more. Unfortunately, due to high traffic to the game, the creators have blocked all non-danish IPs from accessing the game, so unless you live there, you really can't see the game for yourself just yet.
All I can say is that it's a lot better than the gay-hunting flash from the summer, and actually trying to get a good message across.
Anti-Violence Flash Game Lets Users Beat Woman [GamePolitics]
If there is one aspect of video game culture that makes me truly envious of our Japanese friends, it's the fact that just about every game to get a release in the land of the rising sun also gets a soundtrack release. Over here in the states, and many other places across the globe, we have to hope that the game is a big enough deal to get a soundtrack. This fact makes the rare occurrences of when an indie game gets a soundtrack release even more special. But even rarer is when these releases are filled to the brim with songs, behind the scenes content, and exclusive artwork.
The latest example of this all too rare phenomena is indie PC title Aquaria. The boys and girls at Bit Blot may have taken their sweet time in producing what looks like a glorious double-disc package, but it appears to have been worth the wait. This very full 50 track release comes with some extra music tracks and remixes inspired by the game. On top of that, you'll get a song from their current game in progress, Marian.
If you aren't familiar with Aquaria, there's no better time than the present to pick up this very unique "Metroidvania" styled adventure through Bit Blot, Steam, and out digital distribution channels.
[Aquaria: OST Launches Saturday W/ Live PJ Jam] Bit-Blot.com
Last week we got word that over 1500 lives would be profoundly affected by this deadly economy as Electronic Arts became unable to support those employees, having to let them go in order to keep its future bright for the rest of the staff. Unfortunately, it looks as though the aftershocks are still being felt through the company, as EA subsidiary Pandemic Studios has been confirmed by Kotaku to have just laid off 200 of its best employees, including former Pandemic CEO Andrew Goldman and President Josh Resnick. An internal memo documents the migration of a "core IP team," supposedly to keep some of the original brand identity for Pandemic's more popular franchises, to the EA Los Angeles offices. EA originally acquired Pandemic along with BioWare when it bought VG Holding Corp. in 2007.
Meanwhile, here's a sad fact that's easy to miss - Internet message boards are already alight with commenters vilifying EA for its supposed 'habit' of buying up smaller devs and then killing them off as needed. What those baiters must come to grips with is this: while it definitely sucks for everyone when a beloved studio gets closed down, it's almost assured that an independent developer attempting to work on the same level of projects as was Pandemic would likely have hit rock bottom far earlier without the buoyancy of a larger parent company to absorb some of the blow from even one undersold title. Not to say that EA is a knight in shining dragon armor who can do no wrong, but--let's face it--we're in an economy where even well-known and well-loved studios can fail. Just in the past two years, we've seen the closing of such greats as Ensemble (Age of Empires), GRIN (Ghost Recon: AW, Bionic Commando), Factor 5 (Rogue Squadron, Lair), Flagship Studios (Hellgate: London), Pivotal Games (Conflict series), and Turtle Rock (Counter-Strike: Source, Left 4 Dead), among others. It's not a good time to be a lone dev out in the world with no safety net or larger brand to help try and find work for one's experienced employees in other studios. As long as a company is run in relative sanity, with healthy doses of optimism, realism, and hope... well, the industry can only benefit from its existence.
Pandemic's past offerings include the Mercenaries, Destroy All Humans!, and Star Wars: Battlefront franchises, as well as Army Men RTS and Lord of the Rings: Conquest as standalone games. Their latest title, Saboteur, is getting some decent press recently but might still have some work left before its release date in early December, so we'll find out in the next few weeks how the closing of the studio might affect the game's launch.
Regardless of how the closedown affects us gamers, it will undoubtedly mean plenty of long nights ahead for those formerly employed developers who've worked hard under the Pandemic banner for up to 11 years now. We'll continue to keep these folks in our thoughts and hope they find footholds in the gaming industry again soon.
Fashion designer Mishka has made some very cool Brutal Legend t shirts that you can snag for free if you win the giveaway contests at Metal Insider, Metal Sucks and Metal Injection - alongside the grand prize, a 17" Eddie Riggs statue, should that also tickle your metal fancy.
Contest entry is pretty basic - sign up for a comment account and answer a simple question, which is different at each site. Neato.
Brütal Legend Tees For the Metal Faithful [GameLife]
Amid rumors that the Russian government had recalled all console versions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, yesterday had us all thinking the Cold War would suddenly reignite over a mess of controversial pixels and that now-infamous airport scene.
Today Activision laid those fears to rest, telling IncGamers that the reports are untrue:
"Reports that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has been banned in Russia are erroneous. Activision only released a PC version of the game in Russia which went on sale on Tuesday, Nov. 10."
Now, as one commenter pointed out, there is a world of difference between voluntarily withholding a game from market and allowing it to face a potential ban. But with Activision's laser-focus on the bottom line and its lust for pretty, pretty money, all that comes to mind is a quote from my good personal friend Young MC: "There's one more girl you won't be getting."
Meanwhile, I wonder how much Activision stands to lose in revenue from the lack of Russian console sales of the game, or if they never seriously expected Russian console revenue in the first place. No rubles? Hey, bust a move.
Activision: MW2 Russian Recall "Erroneous" [IncGamers]
Over at the PlayStation.Blog, they've offered a preview of what we can expect from the PS3 Firmware 3.10 update (which, if you're paying attention, sounds similar to what Xbox Live is also doing):
The latest update incorporates Facebook into the PS3 experience. By linking your PlayStation Network account to your Facebook account, you will have the option for the PS3 to automatically update your Facebook News Feed with Trophy and PlayStation Store activity. This update also enables developers to set specific criteria in their titles to publish additional game information to your News Feed. You can then check out your updates, and those of your friends, on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media favorites through the PS3's built-in web browser.
Their blog post also includes a video, in which you may or may not have interest. Nothing overly game-changing, but it is curious to see how the two console publishers are continuing to both improve their services while competing with each other.
No official word on a when, just the ever-ubiquitous PR word soon.
Let's get the obvious "it's not even Thanksgiving and people are already doing this" out of the way and get to the good stuff. Proving once and for all that zombies, spies, and the ever so adorable Heavy have place in every facet of your life, Valve has put together some classy and totally dignified holiday cards that might have some people scratching their hands but leave nerds in stitches. The makers of Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2 partnered with Alexandria Neonakis to bring us four batches of the best holiday cards ever seen. With two sets of 10 cards devoted to TF2 and special sets for L4D and L4D2, you've got plenty to choose from. The hardest part will be picking only one set!
If you're a fan of Valve and greeting cards, then Neonakis' name might sound familiar, as she was the artist that brought us those absolutely charming Left 4 Dead Valentine's Day cards earlier this year.
[Holiday Cards] Steam
Here's a confluence of gayness, government, and video games that you don't see every day: an openly gay official in New Zealand has been the butt of some personal attacks for allowing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to be sold in the country.
New Zealand's Chief Censor, Bill Hastings, also an openly gay man, was targeted by right-winged radio host and mayor of Wanganui, NZ, Michael Laws, who seemed more interested in Hastings' sexual orientation than his ten-year tenure as Chief Censor, or the decision to allow MW2 into the country:
"I know the gay guy we've got at the moment who is the Chief Censor Bill Hastings is a liberal sort of guy."
"I don't care if he lets gay sex through because, well, that's what he enjoys watching in a darkened room somewhere and thinks everybody else of his ilk should be able to do so as well."
Lest you think Laws isn't on par with our own right-wing radio jackholes, last month the radio host stirred controversy with his Malthusian proposal that the poor of New Zealand be given money for surrendering themselves for sterilization.
Gay NZ Censor Draws Criticism From Right Over MW2 [GamePolitics]
Clint Hocking, whom you may know as part of Far Cry 2, wrote a blog post this weekend examining the article that popped up in the New York Times Magazine about indie games. He was interviewed for the piece, and this serves as a retrospective on the piece over all (which includes Jason Rohrer, Jon Blow, Jenova Chen, and many more).
The post starts with the recognition that only a certain subset of gamers really cared about the question of whether or not games can or have the ability to be art. He acknowledges that games are entertainment, just as any artistic medium may be. It is the realization that more and more, major publications are posing such thoughts and questions as well, meaning there is a relatively new medium through which people can experience art, or simply expression.
His issue, however, is how the New York Times Magazine article seems to push that in seeing more art in games in the future, there will need to be auteurs, or a strong authorial intent coming from the side of the game developers.
Hocking succinctly sums it up in this paragraph:
But in some ways, I feel this is the very purpose of games. Every other artistic medium is authored in the traditional sense: the message passes down from author to audience through the medium. But games (as we know) are different. Input is expression, and when players input their expression it passes back into the medium, where it feeds back against predictions the author(s) made about the kinds of things players might express (never reaching the author directly).
The idea is not that developers give us a story and that's it, but that this is a medium through which the player can be part of the formation of the narrative and experience. It is among the reasons I myself enjoy gaming so much; it feels like rehearsals for a play, or the process of writing out a story, poem, et cetera. It allows me not to just experience, but create and share the joy of authorship while making the play completely my own.
Which is not to say I mind strong authorship in games. The old Sierra and LucasArts adventure games hold a prominent place on my games shelf.
And girls who like girls who like rumble packs!
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