File under bad ideas: one component of a Danish anti-violence campaign features an online game that allows players to virtually beat up a woman.

“Hit The Bitch” is the work of The NGO for Children Exposed to Violence at Home and lets players smack around a girl in a bid to elevate scores from the level of “pussy” to “gangsta.”  Users who possess a webcam also have the ability to go interactive, as physical swings and slaps will be translated to on screen violence against the girl.

The site is currently only offered to Danish Internet users due to a high amount of traffic to the site, though the game’s makers note that “domestic violence is a global problem, so please support the fight against it in your local country.”

By all accounts, the game ends with the girl on the ground bleeding and crying. One user reported that the game calls the player an idiot for participating.


|Via Adverblog|

A recent screening of Spencer Halpin’s Moral Kombat documentary featured a post-show panel of game experts discussing some of the topics presented in the film.

The screening took place on November 11th in San Francisco. Members of the roundtable included Wired’s Chris Kohler, Dean Takahashi from Venure Beat, Lorne Lanning of Oddworld Inhabitants and Spencer Halpin.

Perhaps the most interesting response was that of Lanning’s in response to the question of why violence and videogames is still such a hot topic:

They (media groups) want the sensationalism. They will broadcast anytime there’s a shooting; they will find people that have a very specific, loud, sensational, fearful opinion of it, and they will give them prime airtime. If you add up those minutes of airtime it’s actually a fair amount of penetration into the public mind.

But then, we look at the court cases and the Supreme Court decisions and court decisions in nine states, at the time I looked into it. And all of them, throughout all of these cases… they were sham cases. Those court cases, and the results of that, never get any airtime, because that’s not selling news. So we wind up with a very distorted opinion from the public perspective, those that rely on the corporate media. The results of the court case maybe be on page 9, probably on page 19 and take up a tenth of a page.

Meanwhile, when the sensationalism happens… the critics, with false claims that they are never held to, get a lot of exposure and that exposure compounds. We see this in so many things… in the lead up to the war, in healthcare… When it was a hot topic, we could count on the coverage being in a certain direction and I think we can continue to count on that because the media behavior isn’t changing for the better, if anything it can pretty much be proven it’s changing for the worse.

The full post-film discussion is available on YouTube in four segments: part one, part two, part three and part four.

Disclosure: Filmmaker Spencer Halpin is the brother of Entertainment Consumers Association president Hal Halpin. The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.

America’s Army has proven a boon to U.S. Armed Forces recruiting, but opinions are still split as to whether or not gamers have any advantages in the arena of war, according to an article in today’s Washington Examiner.

In testimony to Congress regarding the success of converting virtual soldiers to real ones, the Army called the America’s Army game more effective than “any other method of contact.”  This statement correlates with a study done in 2008 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which found that “30 percent of all Americans age 16 to 24 had a more positive impression of the Army because of the game and, even more amazingly, the game had more impact on recruits than all other forms of Army advertising combined.”

The story quotes an Air Force Colonel, Commander of a Predator drone squadron, as stating that the younger, videogame generation were naturals at piloting the remote-controlled aircraft; however he thought that the same group suffered when attempting to consider the consequences of their actions:

The video game generation is worse at distorting the reality of it [war] from the virtual nature. They don't have that sense of what really going on. It [videogames] teaches you how to compartmentalize it.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has launched a browser-based Flash game to call attention to what the group calls “outdated killing methods” utilized by the McDonald’s fast-food chain.

Super Chick Sisters is a Super Mario-like five level game that has players attempting to rescue Princess Pam (Pamela Anderson) who has been kidnapped by the Evil Ronald McDonald. Information from PETA’s campaign against McDonald’s is sprinkled throughout, for example a chick tells your character, “Chickens who are killed by McDonald’s suppliers have their throats cut while they are still alive. You must save them from this cruelty!”

A kid-friendly version is available as well.

PETA notes that:

McDonald's American suppliers are under fire for using an outdated killing method that often causes birds to suffer the pain of broken wings and broken legs, to have their throats cut while they are still conscious, and to be scalded to death in defeathering tanks.

PETA is urging McDonald’s U.S. suppliers to adopt a more humane killing method that is being used in Europe.

While gamers might be adept at flying drones and operating other types of high-tech military weaponry, they finish behind two other groups of personnel when it comes to being skilled at detecting improvised explosive devices (IED).

The Los Angeles Times reports that military personnel with hunting backgrounds or those who come from tough urban neighborhoods surpassed gamers when it came to spotting explosive devices.

Why is this the case? Gamers “do not seem to have the depth perception and peripheral vision of the others, even if their eyesight is 20/20” states the article. Army Sgt. Maj. Todd Burnett added:

Video game enthusiasts are narrower in their focus, as if the windshield of their Humvee is a computer screen. The gamers are very focused on the screen rather than the whole surrounding.

Sgt. Maj. Burnett said that the best class of soldiers he’s ever seen at detecting IEDs were members of the South Carolina National Guard, nearly all of whom are from rural areas and participated in hunting.

Thanks Sean!

A new study undertaken by a group of Massachusetts General Hospital researchers attempts to further explore whether a link exists between playing violent videogames and aggressive behavior in adolescents.

“M-Rated Video Games and Aggressive or Problem Behavior Among Young Adolescents” surveyed 1,254 7th and 8th grade students in Pennsylvania and South Carolina in late 2004. Youths were asked which five games they had “played a lot” in the past six months and were asked to detail any “delinquent,” bullying or physically aggressive behaviors.

Among those who were current game players, 48.8% (67.9% boys and 29.2% girls) had at least one M-rated game on their most-played list. Cross tallying and crunching variables led the researchers to conclude:

M-rated games remained a strongly significant predictor of engaging in bullying and physical aggression However, we found no significant relationship between playing M-rated games and being a victim of bullies, or engaging in delinquent behaviors.

Boys were then split off from girls and their responses analyzed separately. With boys “M-rated game exposure ceased to be a significant predictor of bullying, and aggressive personality,” though “M-rated game play was still a significant, though weaker, predictor of fighting.”

With girls, “frequent M-rated game use became an even stronger predictor of bullying and fighting.”

The group concluded:

Overall, our hypothesis that heavy play of Mature-rated, violent games would predict a greater risk for common problem behaviors, even when controlling for potential confounders suggested by previous research, was partially supported.

The researchers pointed out a few limitations of their study, which included the fact that “Involvement in problem behaviors is common among adolescents.” Also, responses from the children indicating their top five games of the past six months were not independently verified.

Interestingly, in touching on legislation that seeks to ban children’s access to “violent” videogames, and asking “who would determine whether a game fits these critieria,” the study states, “Because of these complexities, it is unlikely that a narrow category of games could be clearly identified and supported by research as broadly harmful to young people.”

GP: We have an inquiry in with one of the researchers to make sure that's it's OK to post the whole study (PDF) on the website.

Update: Just a note that the research team included Dr. Cheryl Olson, co-author of Grand Theft Childhood.

Update 2: Here's a link to a PDF of the full study.

An initiative that offers virtual payments for use in social and online games in return for performing tasks may promote child labor speculates a post on ReadWriteWeb.

CrowdFlower, which focuses on harnessing “cloud labor” from around the world and Gambit, a company that specializes in facilitating payment solutions for online games, offer users of games like MyFarm real-world tasks to perform—such as tagging photos or reviewing content—and returns payment in the form of virtual currency.

What caught the eye of ReadWriteWeb was Gambit’s explanation of its latest offering: “…making this a superb way to engage younger users, or international users in emerging markets.”

The article’s author, Dana Oshiro, wrote:

While others might argue that the web-task barter system is akin to earning one's allowance, the fact that children could be scraping the web to help businesses advertise to us seems somewhat exploitative. While it's too early to say how this program will pan out, there's no doubt that CrowdFlower and Gambit will have to walk a fine line to keep this program ethical.

A Gambit employee, Susan Su, jumped into the comment section to provide a little clarity, writing that while Facebook does not “knowingly allow” users under the age of 13 to register, “it's always tough to enforce requirements like these on the Internet.”

Su continued:

That said, we do know that users over the age of 15 make up the bulk of our transactions, and while parental consent is still strongly recommended for people aged 15-18, it's true that a lot of teens are making their own spending and work decisions around that age. As Lukas said, this is completely new territory for social game users, for developers, and for Crowdflower and Gambit.

Playing The Mines of Moria expansion for The Lord of the Rings Online has prompted a thoughtful article comparing the fictional battle over Middle-Earth territory to modern-day events taking place in the Middle East.

Is Moria the Promised Land? at The Angry Bear begins by outlining the factions fighting over the right to claim residence in Moria; Dwarves, the original occupiers,  Goblins, which moved in following the Dwarves departure and The Morroval, half-women, half-bat creatures.

Author Allen Rausch notes:

… there doesn’t seem to be any common ground between the three factions that could broker any sort of structured solution. It’s an endless cycle of violence where killing begets killing that merely begets more killing.

Hmm, that does sound familiar. Which group would Rausch side with?

In such a case, my sympathies must ultimately lie with the Dwarves not because of what the Morroval or the goblins do to them, but because of what goblins and Morroval do to each other and the kind of culture they create for themselves.

An Indian youth recently spent over 40 hours straight playing Grand Theft Auto IV, and instead of a one-way ticket to ReStart, he received congratulations and a spot in the record books.

That’s because Chirantan Patnaik of Mumbai set a Guinness World Record with his gameathon, surpassing the previous GTA IV-specific endurance mark of 28 hours and one minute, which was set by a U.S. gamer last year. Patnaik lasted a total of 40 hours and 20 minutes reports ZeeNews, with Guinness rules mandating a 10-minute break every hour.

Patnaik prepared for his binge by running and practicing yoga. He added that avoiding coffee and eating dates (the fruit) helped him stay alert during the session. An avid gamer, this was the first time Patnaik had played GTA IV.

Indian gaming portal Zapak sponsored the event and provided observers. The company’s COO, Rohit Sharma, offered the following about Patnaik:

We have always believed in the potential of Indian gamers. Chirantan's success is a proud moment for the Indian gaming industry. This will encourage more youngsters to take gaming seriously.

Showcasing incredible turnaround time, a browser-based game based on the exploits of Balloon Boy has already hit the Internet, a mere day after the tale of an apparent soaring child dominated network airwaves and Twitter hashtags.

The game was developed by three 25-year olds— Immad Akhund, Jude Gomila, James Smith—inspired by the events that unfolded in Colorado yesterday. A counter at the top of the website asks “How Many $$$ of Tax Payer Money Can You Waste?” and tracks scores. Players dodge seagulls and gather rainbows while floating through the sky in their dirigible.

No word yet if the developers are working on a follow up game entitled Attic Boy.

Videogame marketers still don’t know how to target girl gamers and continue to resort to stereotypes argues an article on Jezebel, which picks apart a recent Wall Street Journal article covering the same topic.

The WSJ article mentioned games like Charm Girls Club, Littlest Pet Shop, Just Dance and Wii Fit, along with a lilac-colored PSP Hannah Montana pack-in, inspiring the Jezebel author to respond:

Some of us like pink, some of us don't. Some of us have all the latest tech, some of us don't. Some of us prefer computer games, some of us don't. Getting the picture? We're all different.

The article details the gaming preferences of a variety of women, and offers up three “fairly obvious” points for videogame marketers to consider: Women gamers are not a monolith, switch up your advertising and when rethinking marketing, start internally.

Citing a Will Wright comment that the reason The Sims did so well with women is that 40% of the game’s development team was female, the author urges:

If you want to attract more women, involve more women in the process of creating games. Hire more women at your organization. Reach out to women who already identify as gamers.

If you’ve been up nights wondering what Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima thought about U.S. President Barack Obama winning a Nobel Peace Prize, today’s your lucky day. Or not.

On his Konami blog, via Joystiq, Kojima put out some thoughts on the matter that may or may not have been lost in translation. He posed a few questions, “Has the era at last started shifting?” and “The start of the Peace Walker plan?” before adding that “Peace will not walk to you. You must both walk towards one another.”

In his possible defense, Kojima was blogging from the gym.

Results of a study conducted by the Mind Research Network indicates that playing Tetris increases gray matter in the brain, leading to improved brain efficiency and a thicker cortex.

Adolescent girls were chosen for the research, which was conducted over a three-month period. Adolescents were chosen because of the likelihood of researchers to be able to see changes in developing brains, while girls were chosen over boys since the latter group typically has had “considerably more computer game experience and, therefore, may not show detectable brain change after game practice.”

MRI scans were used to assess brain activity and progression.

Co-investigator on the study, Dr. Richard Haier, noted:

Tetris, for the brain, is quite complex. It requires many cognitive processes like attention, hand/eye co-ordination, memory and visual spatial problem solving all working together very quickly. It’s not surprising that we see changes throughout the brain.”

Image from Rihards Rozans

As airports turn to new types of technology to use for screening air travelers, videogame technology may play a role.

An article on CNN details a new Homeland Security-backed project, dubbed Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST), which measures physiological signs—heart rate, breathing, eye movement, body temperature and fidgeting—in an attempt to decipher whether or not the person being scanned intends to do harm.

The component currently used to monitor fidgeting? A Wii Fit Balance Board modified to show the weight shift of the subject in question. Unfortunately there doesn’t appear to be a concrete correlation between weight shifting and intent to terrorize, as a study is currently underway to determine what level of fidgeting would necessitate a secondary security screen.

Via Kotaku, thanks Mdo7! Image from CNN.

A BusinessWeek list of the Top 40 companies in the world is topped by none other than Japanese videogame maker Nintendo.

The list, commissioned by BusinessWeek from consulting firm A.T. Kearney, started out with the 2,500 largest publicly listed companies in the world, then took only those with a minimum of $10 billion in sales. Further extrapolation thinned the herd to companies with at least 25% of their earnings coming from outside their home region. Finally, companies were rated on sales growth and value creation over the past five years.

Nintendo’s sales have risen 36% annually over the past five years according to BW, which added:

Despite the hard times of the past year, Nintendo's continued emphasis on innovation has helped the company develop must-haves such as the DS handheld game machine and the Wii console, which outsold rival offerings from Sony and Microsoft .

Google took second place, followed by Apple in third.

The trailer for Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 premiered on national television Sunday night and it didn’t take long for the question to be posed of whether the game’s environment—a destroyed Washington D.C.—goes too far.

While a story on The Christian Science Monitor website asks just that question, it fails to connect COD:MW2 with Fallout 3, an obvious link given the post-apocalyptic setting (in the same city) of Bethesda’s title and the flack it subsequently received.

The author does attempt to include Grand Theft Auto IV in the conversation however:

And with what’s coming out of the gaming industry these days (Grand Theft Auto IV, anyone?) is this any worse? Maybe not. But this is one of the first times such striking imagery has surfaced since 9/11, when the idea of widespread destruction on US soil was suddenly thrust into reality.

Furthermore, while the story’s sub header states, “Some say the images of destruction on US soil are too much for a post-9/11 audience,” no one in the article is quoted or referenced as saying any such thing. To be fair, the story did generate a number of comments; perhaps this was the ultimate goal of the piece.

Responding to a recent Bitmob piece which asked whether games can deliver a political message, a blogger has penned a resounding answer.

Yes, Video Games Are Political, written by Lee Bradley, begins by noting that independent games such as Cutthroat Capitalism, Kabul Kaboom! and Super Columbine Massacre RPG! all delivered hearty political statements, regardless of their reach or palatability.

Bradley then meanders through history, using Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Gordon Gekko in an attempt to illustrate that videogames of the 80’s reflected current politics, much as games today do.

Videogames, as cultural artifacts, are unescapably political. Even the most vacuous of games, despite their ostensible mindlessness, cannot fail to reflect the politics of the culture in which they were produced.

If the 80’s equaled “greed and me,” and resulted in a slew of games featuring lone heroes, then, Bradley argues, today’s political “notions of society and community are once again on the agenda” and are reflected in current titles like Left 4 Dead:

Even in games where the co-operative element of co-op is less pronounced, the ideology is the same; you are not on your own anymore, you are part of a team. What’s more that team is more than likely multi-cultural and/or multi-gender.

The International Olympic Committee has given the 2016 Summer games to Rio de Janeiro, sending Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid home looking toward 2020. Our shoutbox has been atwitter with the news, so for this item only, we have become Olympic GamePolitics. And in a not-so-stunning assumption, Sega is probably booking flights for Mario and Sonic to Brazil in 2016.

The plumber and hedgehog challenged each other in Beijing in 2008, and plan to go head-to-head again in Vancouver in 2010. Sega even has a web page for the official video games of the Olympics. It stands to reason that this dynamic duo will take their competition to London in the summer of 2012 and to Sochi, Russia, in the winter of 2014.

While many game sites rated the Beijing game average at best, sales for the game were still strong worldwide, according to the game's Wikipedia entry. So despite the criticism, Sega decided to continue with the tie-in and if their jaunt to Vancouver is a fiscal success, I suspect we'll see them galavanting around the world every two years with the rest of the Olympic athletes.

There was no official word from Sega.

Backing up previous comments made about the value of including political statements in games, developer Borut Pfeifer is working on a title set amidst the riots of post-election Iran.

Pfeifer, an ex-full time Electronic Arts employee who is now developing his own games, while still working part time for EA, is attempting to fund his game’s development on the Kickstarter website. The 2D puzzle/action game aims to be a downloadable title for the PC or Xbox 360 and will feature around two hours of game play.

Pfeifer, who was one of the few developers to weigh in on the Six Days in Fallujah controversy, explained the impetus for making the game:

I’ve been really passionate about using games to explore more serious topics or themes. Most games are still about fun, diversionary topics. There’s even a lot of professional game designers who don’t think we can treat serious subjects appropriately, which I think is bullshit.

Pfeifer is aiming for $15,000 in seed money to develop the game. So far he has 30 backers and $2,107 pledged towards his goal.

Thanks to GP reader Shane for pointing us towards the story and also to DarkSaber for being another swell GP-er in general.

83% of the U.S. population plays games, enough to eclipse their equals across the pond from a small selection of European countries.

GamesIndustry.com recently disclosed results from its Today’s Gamer series of surveys, which polled populations in the U.S., United Kingdom, France, Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium.

Runner-up to the U.S., in terms of the total percentage of the population playing games, was the U.K., with 73%, followed by the Dutch (70%), Belgium (67%), Germany (65%) and France (63%).

U.S. gamers also led the way in hours spent playing per week, averaging 10.5 hours, almost double that of the second place French, who averaged 5.5 hours a week gaming.

In every country surveyed, at least 60% of the population over the age of eight played games. More graphs are available for viewing here. Specific reports for each European country are also available.