Gamertell

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum used to be similar to nearly every other politician, believing that video games would train young children to be mass murderers. He took particular issue with the Wii version of Manhunt 2 due to the fact that he thought the Wii’s motion controls would enable kids to act out their “violent tendencies.”

According to GamePolitics, the person who planted that seed in his head was, of course, a certain Jack Thompson.

However, now that the holiday season is upon us, McCollum is taking a stance that other politicians are beginning to take - cautioning parents to exercise restraint when it comes to…

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Grand Theft Auto IV was recently removed from store shelves in Thailand by the order of New Era Interactive, one of Asia’s largest game distributors. The reason is that Polwat Chino, a 19-year-old boy, killed a taxi driver while trying to recreate a scene from the game.

Ah. Yet another case of “life imitating art.“ Remember the problem though. Before games, movies and any violent media, there was still violence. So, in comes the obvious step of scapegoating. The easiest thing the blame is something that really can’t defend itself. It’s the basic psychology of blame. Since the Columbine school shooting, the popular thing to blame for violence has been videogames.

We are in an age where one of crime’s biggest motives and accusations is…

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According to the European Commission survey, Ireland is now banning violent video games.

The reason for banning violent games, according to the EU’s study of the implementation of Pan European Game Information ratings, is that many of the EU nations are not enforcing the age limits on the games identified by PEGI.

The only game currently known to be banned in Ireland is…

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In a fresh development, a federal ban has been imposed on popular titles Counter Strike and EverQuest in Brazil.

It was in October 2007 that a Brazilian federal court banned the sales of the two games but it didn’t come into effect immediately. Carlos Alberto Simoes, the federal judge, found the two games to be antagonistic to public order and went as far as calling them “an attack against the democratic state and the law and against public security.” 

The two games might have come under attack for being way too riveting – and addictive – but this is the first time that the games have been blamed for…

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That didn’t last long. Almost as quickly as Singapore banned the videogame Mass Effect, the Media Development Authorities did a complete turn around after the Board of Film Censors gave it a M18 rating and placed the game on the shelves.

Did the homophobic city-state learn to understand and accept members of gay community or was it the outcry of the gaming community that changed their mind?

Well, that and the fact players male characters can not have any intimate relationships with other male characters in the game, only the females can have seduce both sexes apparently. Not sure how this makes the game any better or less of a threat in Singapore, but as long as the authorities are happy gamers in Singapore will get to play Mass Effect. I’m sure what it boils down to is that the boards grew uncomfortable with the fans of the gaming community expressing their disappointment and anger.

Had the ban remained, Singapore would have been the only country to have banned the game. But upon MDA’s reconsideration of Mass Effect and BFC’s closer look at the game, they found that the sex scene is only triggered if the player selects the correct series of choices about becoming more than friends with a colleague. If playing as a male character the scene can take place between him and a human woman or a humanoid female alien. If playing as a female character the scene can take place between her and a male human or a female humanoid alien.

It’s strange what Singapore will allow and how they rate their games. Currently they don’t have a rating system in place for videogames. Prior to the turn around, Singapore was the only country in the world to have banned Mass Effect.

According to Germaine Ong of Game Axis, a Singapore-based publication, “the ratings system is a long time coming but any step now is a positive one,” Ong said. “This is significant because gamers would have obtained the game anyway, through parallel importers or illegal means. Now, gamers and parents are able to make a decision on which games are suitable rather than have the games prescribed to them by the authorities.”

Read [USA Today] Also Read [The Straits Times] Also Read [Game Axis] Site [Media Development Authorities]

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That didn’t last long. Almost as quickly as Singapore banned the videogame Mass Effect, the Media Development Authorities did a complete turn around after the Board of Film Censors gave it a M18 rating and placed the game on the shelves.

Did the homophobic city-state learn to understand and accept members of gay community or was it the outcry of the gaming community that changed their mind?

Well, that and the fact players male characters can not have any intimate relationships with other male characters in the game, only the females can have seduce both sexes apparently. Not sure how this makes the game any better or less of a threat in Singapore, but as long as the authorities are happy gamers in Singapore will get to play Mass Effect. I’m sure what it boils down to is that the boards grew uncomfortable with the fans of the gaming community expressing their disappointment and anger.

Had the ban remained, Singapore would have been the only country to have banned the game. But upon MDA’s reconsideration of Mass Effect and BFC’s closer look at the game, they found that the sex scene is only triggered if the player selects the correct series of choices about becoming more than friends with a colleague. If playing as a male character the scene can take place between him and a human woman or a humanoid female alien. If playing as a female character the scene can take place between her and a male human or a female humanoid alien.

It’s strange what Singapore will allow and how they rate their games. Currently they don’t have a rating system in place for videogames. Prior to the turn around, Singapore was the only country in the world to have banned Mass Effect.

According to Germaine Ong of Game Axis, a Singapore-based publication, “the ratings system is a long time coming but any step now is a positive one,” Ong said. “This is significant because gamers would have obtained the game anyway, through parallel importers or illegal means. Now, gamers and parents are able to make a decision on which games are suitable rather than have the games prescribed to them by the authorities.”

Read [USA Today] Also Read [The Straits Times] Also Read [Game Axis] Site [Media Development Authorities]

• Florida Attorney General flip-flops his attitude toward video games
• Philips announces Bluetooth capable GoGear Luxe
• Rant: Stop blaming, banning videogames for real-world violence

Microsoft doesn’t like thieves. When Xbox Live user “Scar” came into possession of Halo 3 through less-than-legal means, MS served him with the gamer equivalent of 114 life sentences – He’s banned from Xbox Live until December 31, 9999.

Gamespot had the details of this young man’s tale of woe:

“A friend said he got the [Halo 3] Epsilon from a friend and offered me to glitch it onto my account with what you call the two-controller exploit. I downloaded it from Marketplace and played it for maybe six hours or so all alone, in custom games and campaign. [Then] it would kick me offline every time I tried to play Epsilon. It wasn’t until the next day when I signed on that I found out I got banned.“

Scar is a 17-year-old who calls himself an “achievement whore” and boasts (ahem, boasted) a Gamerscore higher than 61,000. According to him, there are “at least 10 others that downloaded it and got banned till 9999”

So what have we learned today, class? That Microsoft overreacts in the most hilarious ways. Better luck in a few millenniums, Scar.

Read [Gamespot] Also Read [Destructoid]

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