SOPA sponsor and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) thinks Wikipedia's decision to shut down the U.S. version of its popular site is a stunt to garner attention. Smith continues to say that SOPA will not harm sites like Wikipedia, and will only target foreign websites identified as trafficking in counterfeit goods or copyrighted material. Wikipedia's protest will apply only to the English version of the online encyclopedia and will last for about 24 hours. Wikipedia is the fifth or sixth most visited site in the U.S.

Speaking to political publication Roll Call, SOPA sponsor and House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) took shots earlier this week at critics of the bill that has gained as much bi-partisan opposition as it has support.

Today, a group of 83 Internet inventors and engineers sent an open letter to members of the United States Congress, voicing their opposition to the SOPA and PIPA bills that are under consideration in the House and Senate. Vint Cerf, co-designer of TCP/IP; Jim Gettys, editor of the HTTP/1.1 protocol standards; Paul Vixie, author of BIND, the most widely-used DNS server software; and Elizabeth Feinler, director of the Network Information Center (NIC) at SRI International are just some of the names that have signed this letter.

Earlier this month a congressional subcommittee looking into the PlayStation Network outage and data leak asked Sony Computer Entertainment America chairman and Sony Corp. executive vice president Kaz Hirai to testify. He declined at the time. While Hirai didn't make it to Washington D.C. his company provided a detailed list of answers that - at least temporarily - pacified lawmakers. Now with the PSN back online, Sony had decided that it will comply with the request from House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade.

Ken Johnson, an aide to subcommittee chairwoman Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), told The Atlantic magazine that Sony Network Entertainment president Tim Schaff, is scheduled testify before the subcommittee next week.

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.

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:

DC Universe Online subscribers, upset over Sony Online Entertainment's and Sony's security issues, will get some compensation in the form of a virtual item and some free play time in the super hero-themed MMO for PC and PS3. According to the DC Universe Online community site, subscribers will receive a 30 day subscription credit in addition to one day for each day the DCUO was unavailable. Subscribers will also receive a Batman-esque cowl. SOE is calling all this the "make good" plan. More from SOE:

Checkerboarded Studios is testing the boundaries of good taste and free speech with a new game modification for Half-Life 2 where the goal is partake in a school shooting called School Shooter: North American Tour 2012 (thanks Andrew Eisen). The Escapist caught up with mod maker known only as "Pawnstick," who attempted to explain the motivation of creating such a mod.

The gist of his comments on the game are not about how shocking, horrible, or in bad taste a mod such as his is, but about how there haven't been any exciting games representing school shootings. He calls Super Columbine Massacre "fucking boring." His inspiration for the mod came from Bully: Source, which he says tries to "educate the player" and calls "almost always fucking garbage."

Here is what he had to say about media coverage of Columbine:

Sony Computer Entertainment America is hiring for a special team to deal with piracy, according to a recent job listing by the company. The post on SCEA’s recruitment site seeks a senior corporate counsel and senior paralegal to spearhead the development and implementation of an "anti-piracy program."

The positions would require a deep knowledge of trademark and copyright law, experience with online investigative practices, online databases, DMCA tracking products, and anti-piracy services and software. The goal of all this is to create a program with a "strong strategic online component" that would take input from SCEA's marketing, product development and business development departments.

The creators of the x-rated game BoneTown, are setting their sights on a sci-fi fantasy world game called "BoneCraft." Announced at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) this week, BoneTown developer D-Dub Software takes aim at the fantasy MMO market with a risqué game involving humans, elves, orcs, "BoneTown-style fighting," and of course - sex..

BoneCraft is described by its developers as a "fantasy/sci-fi parody game that will appeal to both the adult gamers who have always loved BoneTown and to the legions of fans of the fantasy/sci-fi genre." Players will "be able to experience what has never been possible in other games of the genre— taking the action all the way to the bedroom." The game plays off the popularity of Blizzard's World of Warcraft and StarCraft games.

Saucy, naughty and NSFW. The CEO of D-Dub does his best to explain what the game is all about:

According to a report on Big Download, former Civilization V lead designer Jon Shafer and science fiction writer Dave Stern have joined Stardock to work on Elemental: War of Magic.

Shafer, who recently left Firaxis, will eventually oversee his own development team. For the time being though, he will be focusing on the continued development of Stardock's current flagship title Elemental - including the development of the two upcoming expansion packs.

Source: Big Download via Blue's News

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.

When it comes to the crime game genre, it must be difficult to compete with the Grand Theft Auto series.

Perhaps that explains the inclusion of streaking in the upcoming Saints Row 2. Edge Online put the question to Craig Mitchell, media relations guy for publisher THQ:

In terms of backlash from the game's content, we are not too concerned. THQ and [Saints Row developer] Volition have worked within the guidelines of the ESRB and the international ratings boards and the game has been rated appropriately...

In addition, Saints Row 2 has a very over-the-top tone and the activities like streaking play into that.  In streaking, the character's front is blurred out, plus, all the characters were made 'asexual' so even a possible mod/hack would not reveal anything.

In-game streaking earns respect points for the player's character.

A new video trailer which shows off the cooperative mode in the upcoming Saints Row 2 features likenesses of presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama engaging in full-on gameplay.

And in Saints Row, of course, that means full-on violent gameplay...

Eurogamer reports that the Collector's Edition of THQ's Saints Row 2 will ship in a box which depicts a pistol mounted in a fancy gun case:

...in keeping with the game's general sense of fun and social responsibility, the box is shaped like a gun and you get a USB stick in the shape of a bullet...

 

It's not alone, either, with a 1GB USB key in the shape of a golden bullet to keep it company, along with a 3rd Street Saints poster (a woman blowing the smoke away from the barrel of her man's gun) and a map of Stilwater, the game's sandbox location.

For now at least, the special packaging appears to be exclusive to the Xbox 360 version - and to the European market.

Via: Sports Legends