It takes a unique kind of person to create a video promoting an obviously fake video game about slavery, a sad part of our history that the majority of Americans do not find much humor in. Nonetheless, we live in an age where the Internet allows for all kinds of free speech - even the kind we do not agree with, find offensive, or find to be outright disgusting. Still, sometimes you have to look straight into the abyss to see the foolishness of humanity. Perhaps this is one of those moments, so we present the promotional video for "Slavery - The Game."

If you think that the cease and desist letter Bethesda sent Minecraft developer Mojang over plans to use the word "Scrolls" in its next game is ridiculous, then Andrew Eisen's latest video will make a lot of sense. After all, if one company can go after another for "Scrolls" then they can go after anyone for any other seemingly innocuous or common word. Take the word "the," for example...

This morning Kotaku pointed out a video from Germany's RTL Television in which commentators took great delight in mocking what they characterized as the "computer freaks" that they filmed at last week's Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. Today the show, apparently embarrassed (and likely humbled by fans that were pissed off at their mean-spirited characterizations) is now apologizing for their bad judgment in airing the report.

In the latest video from our own Andrew Eisen he talks in-depth about the Mega Man conspiracy theory making the rounds. Some believe that Capcom cancelled Mega Man Legends 3 for the 3DS and Mega Man Universe, and omitted the Blue Bomber from the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 roster because Mega Man co-creator Keiji Inafune left the company late last year. You may recall that Inafune made several derogatory statements about the Japanese video game industry prior to his departure, which reflected poorly on him and his employer too.

“Uh, this game has spiders?”

PEGI, the ratings organization set to take over exclusive game rating duties in Europe sometime in the coming months, uses symbols instead of text for its content descriptors.  If you don’t happen to know what they mean, they can be a little confusing.  For example, the spider icon means: “Fear – Game may be frightening or scary for young children.”

Okay, good to know.

While everyone else is ranting and raving about Diablo III and having to be "always connected" to Battle.net to play it - even in single player - our very own Andrew Eisen takes a different approach with the following heartfelt letter.

If Blizzard listens, this could be the best Christmas ever! Check out his heartwarming plea to Blizzard to your left or visit YouTube.

Nothing is impossible with a little ingenuity, some software and some technical wizardry - as evidenced in the following video. While it is a messy implementation, the demonstration in the video shows Microsoft's Kinect being used with the PlayStation 3 game Killzone 3. Hacker Shantanu Goel created a PC program to make it work on the PS3, and as the video shows, the implementation can safely be called "alpha." Even though this Kinect hack has its share of issues, it is nonetheless an interesting and unorthodox way of controlling a game that is already designed to work with move.

How is it possible to be blind and complete a video game? While I can't imagine it, 23-year-old Terry Garrett has accomplished just that. Terry Garrett, is a mechanical engineering student from Colorado Springs who figured out how to play through and beat Abe's Exoddus, multiple times using only the game's quick-save feature and audio cues.

Using the game's sound and learning how it all worked, Terry played through the game and beat it. And then beat it again.. and again. Some describe his playthroughs of the game "nearly flawless." I know people who have sight and can't beat the game. Check out the video to the left to learn more.

You can't make this kind of stuff up.. George "Geohot" Hotz has apparently created a rap about Sony trying to sue him for jailbreaking the PS3.

The sometimes explicit rap video appeared on his YouTube account explaining the lawsuit and challenging Sony (though I think that's all bluster for the sake of the rap, son).

Some of the lyrics are NSFW, but you can find them below, slightly edited for the sake of work and school safety :

What happens when you are playing a game in the subway and you don't pay attention? A ten-year-old boy from Milan, Italy found out when he fell off a subway platform and onto the tracks below because he was engrossed in playing a PSP game. Luckily a police officer nearby sprung into action and lifted the boy back up onto the platform.

On a personal note, I have a 10-year-old son and I could see the same thing happening to him. But it wouldn't matter if he was reading a comic book or playing a video game - sometimes he pays little attention to what is going on around him. It happens.

Anyway, watch the dramatic video to your left. Yes, I’m overselling it.

Thanks to nightwng2000 for the tip.

Source: MSNBC

Would Cliff Bleszinski, Epic Games design director and lead on Bulletstorm, let his son play his next big shooter? In the latest edition of The Escapist's Bulletpoints, a video series dedicated to the game while it is in development, Bleszinski answers the question in great detail.

Bulletstorm is rated "M" for "Mature" by the ESRB.

We won't spoil it for you. Visit The Escapist to find the answer.

Police in Thames Valley, England have created a "video game" campaign where participants choose an action in a scenario similar to ones they might encounter when out in pubs and bars related to sexual assault. The video game is called Seal the Deal and is available on both YouTube and Facebook.

But the game is only one part of the campaign; another part involves true confessions from convicted rapists.

For example, a 41-year-old from Oxford calling himself "John" admits to raping his girlfriend when he was drunk in 2001 "following a difficult period in their relationship." He agreed to be interviewed as part of the new Don’t Cross the Line serious sexual assault campaign. He said during his interview that he felt "entitled to sex."

The campaign encourages young men to consider the consequences of their actions towards women - particularly when drinking is involved.

What is the best way to handle a news story about an adult-themed Kinect game you might have seen on YouTube? Create a report about it where parents are concerned about their kids playing it. Forget for a minute that it's not actually available on a regular retail Xbox 360 with a Kinect, or that it is basically just a video floating around YouTube..

That is exactly what Martina Valverde, Morning News Reporter at KFox TV in El Paso, Texas did in a report called Adult Video Game In The Works For Kinect System Has Parents Concerned. In the report, she apparently brings the video of an adult groping game to the attention of parents who have a five-year-old son. The son got the game system for Christmas.

Thinking of having unprotected sex? Maybe this public service video from Leicestershire Teenage Pregnancy Partnership in England will change your mind. The video for teens uses Super Mario and Mega Man style 8-bit graphics to deliver a fun little message. Check out the video to the left for a laugh.

Find out more about the Leicestershire Teenage Pregnancy Partnership here.

Thanks to Kotaku

Los Angeles TV station Fox LA 11 recently did a segment on California's law on violent video games featuring a debate between Gerry Block (IGN and G4TV contributor) and Michele MacNeal, Director of the California Chapter of the Parents Television Council.

While the debate is fairly tame and both participants are clearly nervous about being on TV, the "video game guy" does a good job of being articulate. Check out the video and judge for yourselves.

Source: Fox LA

We’ll just let this one speak for itself.

As Andrew notes, the video appears to have been edited a bit, but probably just to enhance the absurdity.

Pokemon is a game that teaches children how to enter into the world of witchcraft. How to cast spells. How to use psychic phenomena…  How to put to work supernatural powers against their enemies… How to fantasy role play… Pokemon world is a world of the demonic, of the satanic.

 

While you might not take it quite seriously, I assure you that demons take it quite seriously.

 

Satan takes it quite seriously.

Our kids are going out in gangs on the streets and they are so used to killing each other in their fantasy games and in their video screens and blowing each other away and blowing each other up, that when they walk down the streets and they pull out their .45 and they pump some friend full of bullets, they kind of think in the back of their mind, well, we’ll turn off the machine and they’ll get up and they will be there tomorrow and I will shoot them again.

It’s just a game, to which I respond, Russian Roulette is just a game.

|Via EveryThingisTerrible|

Since it’s Monday and we can all use a bit of levity, check out the embedded video from Nexon, the developer of Combat Arms.

The video spoofs Infinity Ward’s now infamous Fight Against Grenade Spam (F.A.G.S.) video, which called out grenade spammers in the Call of Duty series. Nexon applies the same anti-explosive theme to its online, multiplayer first-person shooter. Video funding was provided by “Fight Against Nade Spammers (F.A.N.S.).”

This video is not immune to criticism either however: several YouTube commenters note that the bleeped out curse words in the video are the same ones that got them banned from Combat Arms itself.

As GamePolitics alerted you to late Tuesday, yesterday’s Fox & Friends morning show aired a segment covering Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The short segment was introduced by host Steve Doocy, who began, “A popular new videogame actually allows you (points at camera) to be a terrorist and kill people.” He asked, “Is this fantasy game just a little too real and is it appropriate?” before kicking off a “fair and balanced” debate on the subject with Jim Steyer of Common Sense Media and John Christensen from SlashGamer.com.

Steyer was concerned about the age of the person playing the game, while a flummoxed Christensen attempted to explain the context of the scene in question.

Doocy followed up with the question, “Is it ever appropriate to simulate killing people?”

Steyer replied, “We live in a world of free speech so you can create these games. The issue for violent videogames is there’s no question that there is a correlation between videogame violence and screen violence and aggression in real life. The American Academy of Pediatrics just came out with a statement about that. The violence is the issue… you need to use common sense in terms of using games like this.”

GP: Of course, other researchers have refuted a suggested link between violent games and aggression. Overall, a less than engaging debate. What do you think?

Thanks KayleL

Funny stuff, but what else would you expect.

Looks like Infinity Ward provided some assistance as well.

Last December GamePolitics reported on Pamoja Mtaani, a PC game developed through a partnership with Warner Bros. Interactive, North Carolina-based Virtual Heroes (creators of America's Army) and The Partnership For an HIV-free Generation.

The game's title translates to "Together in the Hood," and Pamoja Mtaani aims to help players learn skills to negotiate difficult issues such as crime and HIV in some of East Africa's most impoverished areas.

GP reader Wai Yen Tang dropped us a line to say that a video report on the game and how it is being used is now available on YouTube.

Outspoken God of War designer David Jaffe posted a video rant against used game sales on Saturday, but apparently removed it from YouTube the following day.

We caught up to Jaffe's video yesterday morning while scanning our daily RSS intake (left). By late afternoon when we checked back to gather some quotes for this article, it was gone. In its place was a YouTube message reading, "This video has been removed by the user."

A short time later, when we looked again, we couldn't even access his blog. A system message from Blogger read: "This blog is open to invited readers only."

It's unclear why Jaffe's video was taken offline or why he locked his blog. While Jaffe's video argument against used game sales was punctuated by occasional f-bombs, that's not unusual for his freewheeling commentaries. Prior to being locked, readers of Jaffe's blog were engaged in a lively response to his video, both pro and con.

The used game issue is a passionate one indeed, and Jaffe has addressed it previously on his blog. For his part, Jaffe takes the standard industry line that games are bad for developers and publishers. In the deleted video, he said (we're paraphrasing from memory here) that he didn't begrudge consumers the right to buy used games, but that game creators deserved a cut of used game sales. He said that some have defended used game sales by comparing buying a used game to buying a used car. However, Jaffe said that was a bad analogy because while playing a used game is the same experience as playing a new game, driving a used car is a different experience from driving a new one.

GP: Hmmm... We tried to reach Jaffe via Twitter to ask him about the missing video, but it appears that his Twitter account is no longer active. We hope that Jaffe has not decided to stop interacting with gamers. While we don't always agree with his rants, they are provocative and entertaining.

Anti-piracy marketing campaigns are sometimes creepy (such as this video which suggests that your mom will be manhandled by the police if you engage in file sharing).

But the Business Software Alliance, which primarily watches out for abuse of productivity-ware, has come up with an antipiracy ad that is actually fun to watch. The parody of Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" series features a would-be pirate humorously caught in a sting. BSA exec Peter Beruk commented on the video:

It uses comedy to convey what is a serious message. It’s experimental.

Via: Wired's Threat Level

Part 2 of Video Games are Dead, Scott Steinberg's short documentary look into the future of the game biz, has dropped.

While it's unclear why this needed to be a two-parter, there were a couple of good lines:

We have too many people who have a love of money in our industry. We need more people who have a love of art, who have a love for the act of creating games.  -Chris Taylor, Gas-Powered Games

 

Game publishers and the retailers, they should come to some kind of agreement about how to make [used game sales] happen so it doesn't really hurt the developers. But at the same time consumers have their own rights and to pull games out of the reach of many consumers is actually not a good idea. -Dean Takahashi, VentureBeat

Catch Part 1 here...

Earlier this month GamePolitics reported on a study which suggested that excessive video game and T.V. time may be contributing to reduced vitamin D levels in children.

Funny man Stephen Colbert, however, may have the answer. In the clip at left, Colbert recommends using the "VaxBox 360" to play Tan Theft Auto, thus soaking in gobs of vitamin D-producing UV rays.

Okay, so it's funnier when Colbert says it...

If you want to skip ahead to the game-related bits, they begin at about 3:45 into the clip.

Via: Kotaku

The video game industry experienced a near-fatal meltdown in the 1980s. In today's uncertain economic climate, could it happen again?

Tech journalist Scott Steinberg examines the issue in part 1 of Video Games Are Dead.

The video is also available on Facebook, where it has generated a lively discussion.

Steinberg interviews a number of game industry and media types in search of an answer:

• Michael Capps, Epic Games
• Michael Pachter, Wedbush-Morgan
• Jesse Divnich, EEDAR
• Chris Kohler, Wired
• Hal Halpin, ECA
• Derrik Lang, Associated Press
• Mike Snider, USA Today
• Jason Della Rocca, Perimeter Partners
• Peter Wanat, game producer
• Chris Taylor, Gas Powered Games
• Lorne Lanning, Oddworld
• Cliffy B
• Raph Koster
• Greg Zeschuk / Ray Muzyka, BioWare
• Nick Torchia, Warner Bros.
• Cevat Yerli, Crytek

When we last heard from Joseph DeLappe, the artist/professor was was participating in online matches of the Defense Department's own America's Army game as a means of protesting the war in Iraq.

Now DeLappe and machinima artist J. Joshua Diltz have collaborated on 6 Days in Call of Duty 4. The anti-war video project combines a static view of CoD4 multiplayer action with a mobile cam. The kill count scrolls in a separate window. Diltz describes the project, which incorporates the recent Six Days in Fallujah controversy in its title:

"6 Days" is an experimental documentary that examines the consequences of a military conflict that rages over a period of six consecutive days in a virtual game world.  Through the lens of both a static and roaming ground camera, the movie captures both  visceral action and a sobering body count.

Based in the game "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare", the film pays homage to the lives, both military and civilian lost during the Second War of Fallujah.

Download a copy here...

Partially via: Kotaku

President Barack Obama's admonition to parents to "put away the Xbox" has drawn a response from Microsoft.

Obama made the remarks on Thursday evening during a speech he delivered at an event commemorating the 100th anniversary of the NAACP. Here's what the President said:

To parents, we can’t tell our kids to do well in school and fail to support them when they get home. For our kids to excel, we must accept our own responsibilities. That means putting away the Xbox and putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour. It means attending those parent-teacher conferences, reading to our kids, and helping them with their homework...

...and here is Microsoft's response, as reported by the Associated Press:

We agree with President Obama that it’s a time for families to work together so that kids use media in ways that are safe, healthy and balanced. Xbox 360 is the only console gaming system that has a timer feature allowing parents to set time limits for their kids, as well as parent controls to enable parents to set limits on what their kids are playing and watching.

In addition to his debate with Mark Methenitis at the recent SGC09, disbarred attorney Jack Thompson engaged in an open forum Q&A session with attendees.

Thompson, who was paid $2,000 to appear, was on his good behavior for the event. That said, the questions from the audience were largely softballs.

The video offered by SGC09 is an edited version of the session.

The video game violence episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! which originally aired last week is currently posted on YouTube in three parts.

Given the title of the series, need I say that the videos may be NSFW?

UPDATE: The videos have been removed from YouTube.

FPS fans will appreciate this one...

Via: boingboing