British tabloid News of the World reports that 64-year-old Crediton Mayor Frank Letch (left) will be motion-captured for an upcoming video game.

Letch, born with no arms, has reportedly developed a remarkable dexterity with his feet. He can drive a car, peel a potato and write, using just his feet.

From the NotW story:

[Letch] will be kitted out with special leggings fitted with electronic tags before being filmed carrying out various tasks with his feet.

 

The footage will then be mapped onto a computer and Frank...  will be transformed into a cartoon... He was approached by Fragment Media, based in Newcastle, after its director Simon McKeown spotted him at a disability exhibition.

The game project involving Letch is not specified.

Earlier this month British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spotlighted the topic of food waste in the U.K., which he said costs the average household about £8 ($16). Brown's comments, which included criticisms of "buy one, get one free" promotions run by supermarkets, sparked some derision in the UK.

Via the Wasted Food blog, we've learned of an online parody game, Gordon Brown and the Kingdom of the Wasters:

You get to control the British Prime Minister as he tries to recover good food like bananas and cupcakes while avoiding rotten items like fish bones.

 

Apparently, dastardly opposition leader David Cameron is the one throwing away the good food. The goal is to catch Cameron and stop him from giving another press conference. Zelda, it’s not.

U.S. and British military forces are increasingly utilizing video game technology, according to Wired's Danger Room blog.

By way of example, arms manufacturer Raytheon displayed its Universal Control System for drone aircraft at an air show last week. Company exec Mark Bigham commented on the system, which employs video game-like controls:

Gaming companies have spent millions to develop user-friendly graphic interfaces, so why not put them to work on UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles]? The video-game industry always will outspend the military on improving human-computer interaction.

In another application, the Wiimote is being used in place of traditional joypads to control the robots used to disarm roadside bombs in Iraq. Paul Marks writes in New Scientist:

The problem with the joypad is that it takes a lot of concentration and can monopolize the attention of the soldier using it… The Wiimote is far more intuitive because movements of the hand directly translate into movements of the robot.

Meanwhile, UK blogger Paul Mander noticed that a modified Xbox controller is being used to fly a drone in the British Army recruiting video at left.

Via: Hard OCP

The Tacoma News-Tribune reports that a former technical advisor on the original Metal Gear Solid has been charged by federal officials with attempting to ship sophisticated holographic night vision gunsights to Japan.

Capt. Tomoaki Iishiba left Japan in 1993 to join the U.S. Army. Iishiba served in Afghanistan and wrote A Japanese Lieutenant from the 82nd Airborne, a Japanese language book about his military experience.

More recently he has been stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington as an intelligence officer. From the report:

In a two-paragraph charging document filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, prosecutors wrote that Tomoaki Iishiba bought 60 of the EoTech 553... then mailed them to coconspirators in Japan without obtaining an export license. The company’s Web site lists the sights at $639 apiece...

 

He faces one count of conspiracy to smuggle goods from the United States and is scheduled to enter a guilty plea at the end of the month, Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg said...

Iishiba has also endorsed a line of knives.

...the one in which GP explains why you can stick a fork in E3.

Catch it only on Joystiq...

UK Conservative leader, occasional video game violence critic, and potential prime minister David Cameron has been invited by Eidos Interactive to visit a July 23rd media event unveiling Tomb Raider: Underworld, according to MCVUK.

The invitation was extended following an interview with UK newspaper The Guardian in which Cameron compared his political fortunes to playing Tomb Raider: 

There is an element to politics that is a bit like Tomb Raider. Until you have cleared level one, which I have incidentally never done, you cannot get on to level two. Level one is: are you a reasonable, decent, non-discriminating, sensible, practical person who understands the world as it is lived today, who wants to live in a modern world and who accepts what that means? If so, then you can move on to level two, where you can talk about some of the difficult issues about families and about responsibilities which can lead to trouble.

Jon Brooke, Eidos' UK marketing boss, seized the opportunity to invite Cameron:

We’re delighted to hear that David Cameron is talking to today’s voters using Tomb Raider as an analogy. As we build up towards launch, we’d be really pleased to offer him an exclusive look at the latest Lara Croft adventure, so he can see for himself how the series has evolved– and maybe come up with some high definition political parallels. Of course, both [current prime minister] Gordon Brown and [Liberal Democrat] Nick Clegg are equally welcome, provided they all sit together nicely.

Jack Thompson will be featured in an interview on the July 24th episode of the normally light-hearted Jace Hall show.

We don't think this one will be a walk in the park, however. The segment, according to Thompson, was filmed in a video game store in Salt Lake City. The likely-to-be-disbarred attorney was there recently to be honored by America's Freedom Festival. Why Thompson was feted remains a mystery, as officials of the festival have not responded to our requests for information.

As to Thompson's Jace Hall appearance, the show apparently provided two brief clips to Thompson, who forwarded them to GamePolitics (sorry, we have no clearance to make them generally available). Here's the dialogue:

(first clip)

Jace Hall: Having created mature-rated video games myself, and just listening to you, effectively I'm one of the damned, apparently.

Jack Thompson: Yes... permanently

(second clip)

Jace Hall: Now that you've had a chance to talk to me, do you think of me as some bad guy who's trying to hurt children?

Jack Thompson: No, I don't think of you, Jason, as a bad guy. I think of you as pure evil, and there's a special room in Hell for you...

GP: If you're not familiar with Jace Hall, he is co-founder of Monolith and a former VP at Warner Brothers. He has a long list of game projects to his credit. 

A piece in today's New York Post reminds us that EA's most recent renewal of its $25.74 tender offer to acquire Take-Two stock expires today.

The most likely development is a renewed offer by EA.

There is a good deal of buzz this week surrounding video game-oriented legislation passed overwhelmingly last month by the New York state legislature. New York Gov. David Paterson (left) must decide by July 23rd whether he will sign the bill into law or let it die.

In a story broken by GamePolitics on June 24th, we reported that the NY State Senate passed, by a 61-1 vote, Sen. Andrew Lanza's bill which:

• requires that games carry a rating
• requires games consoles to have parental controls
• establishes a 16-member advisory council on media violence

While the various segments of the video game industry have taken no unified position to date, the Binghampton Press details opposition to the bill from some unusual corners.

Grover Nordquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, said:

This is a feel-good piece of legislation that really doesn't so anything.

GP: That's certainly true (see: NY Video Game Bill Barks, Doesn't Bite)

Robert Perry of the New York chapter of the ACLU, added:

This bill would have the state regulating constitutionally protected speech. The courts will not permit that.

GP: Since the bill doesn't restrict content or sales based on content, we're assuming that the ACLU's Perry is referring to the requirement that games be labeled with a rating, which they already are on a voluntary basis.

Derek Hunter of the Media Freedom Project said:

The bill is unnecessary. The video-game industry is praised as the best at policing itself. They have a great ratings system.

Adam Thierer, writing for the Tech Liberation Front, calls the bill "unnecessary, unworkable, and unconstitutional" in an open letter to Gov. Paterson.

Meanwhile, Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the International Game Developers Association, has apparently issued an alert to IGDA members based in New York, calling upon them to contact the Guv in opposition to the bill.

The key piece of the puzzle will be whether the ESA decides to challenge the law's constitutionality. The game publishers' trade group, busy with E3 this week, has not said what it plans to do in that regard. Their most likely response will be to wait and see whether the Governor signs the bill into law. In the meantime they have urged VGVN members to write the Governor in opposition.

Comments made by the Entertainment Merchants Association, however, give the impression that video game retailers believe they can live with the law's provisions:

The bill is unnecessary and seeks to solve a problem that does not exist. But we do not anticipate that video game software retailers will have a problem complying with its requirements. (It is important to note that NY law already requires DVD packages to display the rating of the movie.)

As GamePolitics reported yesterday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) met with industry giant Electronic Arts at E3.

Perry's chat with EA CEO John Riccitiello apparently took place after his poorly-attended keynote speech and an ESA-escorted tour (left) of the expo's tiny show floor.

As reported by the Austin American-Statesman, Perry described his visit with Riccitiello:

We're talking to these guys and saying, 'What's it take to get you to move to Austin, Texas?' You tell us what we need to do to be competitive, then our guys will sit down and look at it ... and see what we can do... The mentality is, 'We love California, it's a great state and a hip state, but Jiminy Cricket, it's costing us a lot of money to stay out here.'

Meanwhile, Empower Texans, an Austin-based nonprofit group which focuses on fiscal responsibility, has criticized Perry's trip, telling its Texas-based readers that they are being "joysticked":

The governor and Legislature are taking aim at your wallet with a little video game waste. Unfortunately, this isn't the virtual variety but the real-world deal. Texas Gov. Rick Perry wants lawmakers to give video game manufacturers boatloads of money to get them to design their games in the Lone Star State. This is corporate welfare at its worst. This is a $9-plus billion industry that is referred to as "recession-proof." They don't need your money.

 

Texas taxpayers already subsidize the industry to the tune of $250,000 per game made here... This is one barrel taxpayers should definitely jump.
 

Video game execs apparently hated this week's E3 .

They shouldn't feel bad. Everyone else hated it too.

I'll have more to say about that, but for now, digest these quotes from today's San Francisco Chronicle:

John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts:

I hate E3 like this. Either we need to go back to the old E3, or we'll have to have our own private events.

Laurent Detoc, president of Ubisoft North America:

E3 this year is terrible. The world used to come to E3. Now it's like a pipe-fitters show in the basement.

According to a BBC report, 56-year-old John Darwin (left), on trial for faking his death in a canoeing accident, had an adulterous fling with a US woman he met in an unspecified online game.

Darwin's wife, Anne, revealed the MMO details yesterday while testifying for her own defense. The couple is charged with fraud in the case. From the BBC:

The court heard she eventually found out her husband was having an affair... Mrs Darwin said her husband turned secretive when he joined an internet role-playing game.

 

She said: "It was like a virtual world which was played over the internet. The people who played it became characters in this world and they had money to buy and sell things and they used to cast spells on each other. He became rather cagey when using the headphones and speaking into the computer if I came into the room. It was obvious he was in conversation."

 

Mr Darwin later flew out to Kansas in the US to meet a woman, who his wife believes he met while playing the game.

With his remaining time as a licensed attorney likely numbered in days rather than decades, you might think that anti-game campaigner Jack Thompson would be in something of a funk.

However, Thompson has e-mailed GamePolitics with a YouTube link to a new G4TV parody called Jack Thompson Was Right. His subject line? "Very Funny, Really"...

However, when we jumped over to YouTube the video was gone, and the following notice posted: "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by g4 Media Inc."

No worries. G4TV still has the video...

  Ars Technica is reporting on Mad World, an in-development title for the Wii that is being shown in behind-closed-doors media briefings at E3.

From Ars writer Ben Kuchera's report:

Splashes of color hit the screen when you disembowel your enemies with any number of weapons, and we're told the chainsaw is going to be in the character's standard loadout. The character is competing on a game show where you have to murder as many people as you can in an urban environment to win...

 

Everything about the game is a celebration of violence, a wicked dance of gore. The Wiimote controls look to be very functional, with movements giving you both environmental and weapon-specific finishing moves...

GP: Thanks to comment mod E. Zachary Knight for the heads-up...

While Texas Gov. Rick Perry bragged about his state's financial incentives for game developers during yesterday's E3 keynote, legislators in North Carolina have apparently abandoned the idea of game biz tax breaks - again.

As reported by the Independent Weekly, North Carolina-based developers such as Epic, Red Storm and Destineer will be getting no love from the state government:

Though tax incentives from the Canadian government helped Montreal attract numerous major game companies, efforts in N.C. have proven unsuccessful. In a recent session of the General Assembly, House Bill 2509 called for tax credits for producers of "digital interactive media" in its first draft. By the second draft, the "digital interactive media" section had been gutted... There is no mention of the video game industry.

 

The bill was introduced by state Rep. Pryor Gibson, a Democrat... He adds that he's been working closely with game companies to help develop future bills for incentives.

As GamePolitics reported in August, 2006, a similar measure, also introduced by Rep. Gibson (left), failed to clear legislative hurdles.