More than 100 elementary and middle school students from New York City and around the country will compete using DimensionU video game software on May 21. Students tackle fast-paced math problems over several stages in order to advance and win $60,000 in scholarship funds.

The U Games National Scholarship Tournament brings together more than 100 students who were smart enough to secure a spot in the final national competition after participating in one of 12 qualifying rounds that ran from November - April.

Using the DimensionU Games for math, the tournament is hosted by the game's developer Tabula Digita in partnership with Intel and Dell. The tournament finals will be held Saturday, May 21 at Hunter College in New York City.

This Thursday at the New York University Game Center, the No Quarter Exhibition of Games returns for its second year to debut some brand new independent games and offer some other interesting surprises. At last year's event, Mark "Messhof" Essen unveiled his dueling game Nidhogg. It went on to win an Independent Games Festival award.

This Thursday No Quarter will feature games from VVVVVV creator Terry Cavanagh, Ramiro Corbett (worked on Glow Artisan while at Powerhead), and game designer Charley Miller.

This year's No Quarter will also see the debut of NYC Winnitron, a free-to-play custom arcade cabinet featuring independent games. It was apparently modeled after the Torontron/Winnitron machines that are used on the indie scenes in Toronto and Winnipeg.

No Quarter begins on May 12 at 7 PM with an opening party. The event runs until the end of the month. For more information, visit http://gamecenter.nyu.edu/.

According to this Bloomberg report, the New York State Attorney General has subpoenaed Sony over its ongoing security breach. Citing sources close to the situation, Bloomberg reports that New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is seeking further information on the security breach of Sony's PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment.

Specifically his department is taking a closer look at what Sony told customers about the security of its networks and when it told customers. The probe is supposedly part of a "consumer protection inquiry," according to the Bloomberg report.

From the report:

The NYU Game Center had added Game Designer Eric Zimmerman (pictured) to its ranks as Visiting Assistant Art Professor.

Zimmerman is co-author, with Katie Salen, of the game design book Rules of Play and was a co-founder of Gamelab, which created a range of games including Diner Dash. Zimmerman has already helped to plan the curriculum for the GameCenter over the past year and will teach Introduction to Game Design and Advanced Game Design courses at the school.

NYU Game Center Interim Chair Frank Lantz said of Zimmerman’s appointment, “His addition on a full-time basis is an indication of the Game Center’s commitment to bringing together the most important and influential scholars and designers in the field in order to build a world-class program in game design.”

The NYU Game Center was started in 2008 and is described as “an independent, multi-school center for the research, design and development of digital games.”

A charity organization for the homeless has been ordered shut after an investigation into its finances showed that money was not being used to help the disadvantaged, but was instead put towards meals, online purchases, cable TV service and videogames.

Ubiquitous throughout Manhattan, The United Homeless Organization (UHO) charged homeless people $15 to rent a table to be used as a donation center. The homeless were allowed to keep all donations accrued throughout the day (minus the $15 charge). Investigators charge that UHO’s founder Stephen Riley, and its Director, Myra Walker, used the proceeds from the table rentals as a “personal slush fund,” and used the funds to buy a variety of items, including purchases from GameStop.

New York’s Attorney General’s office ordered the organization to close, but AG Andrew Cuomo offered, “This organization's bad behavior should not undermine the public's willingness to donate to legitimate charities.”

The New York City Council Committee on Technology in Government is holding public hearings today on the subject of Net Neutrality.

A live stream of the hearings is available on LiveStream. The Council is live Tweeting coverage as well here. Also look for hashtags #netneutrality or #reso712A.

Entertainment Consumer Association (ECA) Vice President and General Counsel Jennifer Mercurio gave testimony earlier today in support of Net Neutrality.

A sample of her testimony:

ECA is strongly in support the proposals you’ve outlined in Resolution 712A-2007 and of the concept of Network Neutrality, the principle that protects one’s choice of content and equal opportunity on the Internet. Like President Obama, who has pledged to make Network Neutrality the law of the land, we believe that Network Neutrality is a key right for consumers, insuring continued enjoyment and use of the Internet for a variety of applications including recreation, creativity and economic expansion.  This is especially true for video game players (gamers), because our hobby is increasingly tied to the Internet.  Of the 117 million active gamers in the US, 56 percent play games online, accounting for over 65 million Americans.

Disclosure: The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics

A Manhattan, New York-based school is taking a new approach to teaching its kids, one that introduces videogames to its curriculum.

Quest to Learn (Q2L) located on East 23rd Street, will use games such as Spore and Little Big Planet, alongside other tools such as PhotoShop, Flash, Google Earth and Maya, in a bid to leverage digital and interactive tools to foster the learning experience. More conventional board games and card games will also be utilized according to a story on MetropolisMag.com.

The Institute of Play, a nonprofit, came up with the idea, and is supported by the Parsons School of Design. Financial backing comes from the Gates Foundation, Intel and the MacArthur Foundation.

Katie Salen, a Professor of Design at Parsons and Executive Director of the Institute of Play commented:

There has been a cultural shift in the past few years. Parents and teachers recognize a kind of engagement children have with games and digital media that could lead to a new way of learning.

Yesterday in the Big Apple, socially-aware teens held the first-ever NYC Youth Media & Technology Festival. The event spotlighted the work of teenagers who create video games and other digital media projects in order to advance social causes.

Organizers expected about 100 attendees for the Festival. The gathering was intended to produce a citywide dialogue about the role of new media and technology in teens' lives and how it can be utilized to promotes issues kids care about.

A group of young designers affiliated with the New York Public Library were scheduled to showcase their designs and conceptualizations for serious video games about subjects like celebrity drug use, media consolidation and genocide.

Meanwhile, teens from the Global Kids Virtual Video Project premiered an animated short film about child sex trafficking in the United States.  Members of MOUSE discussed their efforts to advance technology in New York City public schools by developing open source labs, advocating for the One Laptop Per Child campaign and other efforts.

The invitation-only event was held at the Parsons The New School for Design.

-Doug Buffone, Entertainment Consumers Association intern

Somewhat lost in the pre-E3 buzz is the 6th Annual Games For Change Festival, currently underway in New York City.

The show has a terrific lineup of speakers, including Ian Bogost, Henry Jenkins, Clive Thompson, Lucy Bradshaw, N'Gai Croal, and James Paul Gee.

For updated G4C Festival news, check out the official Games For Change Twitter feed.

A 9-year-old Brooklyn boy died this week after jumping from the roof of his apartment building with a makeshift parachute.

The New York Daily News quotes a playmate as saying that the fatal plunge taken by Damori Miles was inspired by THQ's WWE Smackdown vs. RAW. However, a WWE official denied that parachutes are used in the T-rated game:

Shakar, Damori's best friend, said his pal was imitating his favorite PlayStation2 game, "WWE SmackDown vs Raw."

"He tried to do a swan dive like Jeff Harding does in 'SmackDown.' That was his favorite game. He played it all the time," Shakar said...

A a spokesman for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), said the video was designed for ages 13 and up and none of the characters use parachutes or jump off buildings.

"The death of Damori Miles is a tragedy and our condolences go out to his family," he said. "We should allow the authorities to conduct a full investigation... including insecure roof access, before conclusions are made about this unfortunate incident.

The Speaker of the New York City Council is expected to denounce a controversial Japanese rape simulation game this morning on the steps of City Hall in Manhattan.

Councilwoman Christine Quinn (middle left) will hold a news conference in protest of RapeLay at 11:00 A.M. As GamePolitics has reported, the hentai game was recently removed from product listings on Amazon.com where a re-seller had been offering it for sale.

Quinn will be joined by the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault. A press release announcing the event includes the following description:

A teenage video "game" simulating brutal gang rape and other horrifying sexual violence — just pulled by Amazon.com — will be the subject of a news conference hosted by [Quinn]... who will call on all U.S. video distributors to refuse its distribution or sale...

 

The "game" is now available in the U.S. market...

We should point out that RapeLay, while despicable, is not a product of the U.S. video game industry and is not rated by the ESRB.

UPDATE: Newsday has the first mainstream media coverage of today's press conference:

Amazon and eBay have already banned the sale of the game... but New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said Monday that the game is available on other Web sites...

UPDATE 2: The photo at left is from the news conference. Speaker Quinn is in the middle. At left, holding artwork from RapeLay, is  Harriett Lessel, Executive Director of The New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault. Of the game, Lessel said:

Video games of this nature are beyond appalling, and people of good conscience need to speak out against them. Sexual violence is a major problem in America and video games like this send the exact wrong message to young people. It tells boys it’s okay to sexually assault girls, and it tells girls they are worthless. The New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault is hopeful that American distributors will reject this game and the aberrant behavior it promotes.

GTA knockoff Saints Row 2 launches today, and a spokesman for the NYPD has criticized THQ's new crime game for its graphic depictions of virtual violence against police officers.

As reported by the New York Daily News:

A blood-soaked new video game boasts enough violence, guns and gratuitous sex to make Grand Theft Auto seem as tame as Pac-Man - and it has cops hopping mad.

The over-the-top Saints Row 2 encourages players to butcher cops with chain saws, smoke drugs, annihilate rival gangsters and run prostitution rings... Many in law enforcement and politics don't find any of it remotely entertaining.

Patrick Lynch, who heads the NYPD union, told the Daily News:

These horrible and violent video games desensitize young people to violence while encouraging depravity, immorality while glorifying criminal behavior.

The newspaper also has a quote from our old pal Jack Thompson:

Jack Thompson, a Florida lawyer and longtime critic of violent video games, called Saints Row 2 a "Grand Theft Auto ripoff."

"As is true with pornography, as is true with violence, the subsequent products tend to push the envelope even more," he said.

An unnamed THQ spokesman defended SR2:

Saints Row 2 is not a gang simulation game. It's a tongue-in-cheek game.
 

Meanwhile, the Daily News does acknowledge some of the satirical elements in the game:

Despite the outrage, some of the scenarios depicted in the game seem hilariously over the top. Players can commit insurance fraud by faking injuries, spraying the contents of a septic tank to bring down property values or appearing on a "Cops"-like reality TV show.

If things get boring, competitors can just strip and run around naked.

GP is an admitted sucker for simulation games, so it's no surprise that World of Subway caught our eye.

German developer TML Studios launched their first foray into subway sims in 2005 by adding the Berlin underground to Microsoft Train Simulator, a game which enjoys a following among hardcore rail enthusiasts. Top News has a report:

The game allows players to manoeuvre between New York City and New Jersey, picking up passengers along the way. Publisher Aerosoft says the program will win people over with its realism: slow motion is used to convey the sensation of movement. The three-dimensional cockpit starts vibrating at high speeds.

The program's creators do not intend stopping at New York. A series is planned focusing on the world's most interesting subway stretches.

GP: Here's hoping that the London Tube is TML's next sim project. Mind the gap, and all that...