Gamertell

Take a look at the picture above you and try not to drool too much.  As you can see, this is the Digital Edge Gaming Table, also known as the Pro Gaming Table (for obvious reasons) and it can handle quite a bit. 

This bad boy (or girl?) can hold three 21-inch monitors…

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You’ve already seen my baby gamer modeling the Wendy’s kids’ meal toys and he helped test the Hallmark Player 1 Christmas ornament (he wore those batteries out pretty dern fast). So it’s only appropriate that, for his first birthday, he have a controller-shaped cake.

My wife made the cake using two chocolate, sour cream based cakes (super moist and yummy) stacked together. She then cut the…

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Jack Thompson, Miami attorney and anti-game activist who has been hounding the gaming and music industry for a while. Now his career is in jeopardy as he fights to keep his license at the Florida Bar hearings this week.

Looking through archives of news, news panels and blogs Thompson has been trouble off and on throughout his career as a lawyer and even in his younger college years.

His controversial actions include attempting to expose Janet Reno’s alleged sexual preferences, suing a radio station for mocking him after being fired for airing tasteless and offensive music, his campaign against rap music, starting a controversy about the violence of videogames and, more recently, his attacks on the Florida legal system. Let’s not forget his recent actions against the Game Politics’s blog writer who has been following and reporting on Thompson’s antics for a while.

This week is the start of Thompson’s ethics trials. The Florida Bar is pursuing several complaints concerning Thompson’s professional behavior and conduct in court cases against the gaming industry following several complaints and Thompson’s attempt to block the trial from continuing on November 21, 2007, with an emergency motion to stay. As if grasping for straws as he sinks deeper into a quicksand pit, he even offered to take a three-month voluntary suspension to avoid the trials, which didn’t work. This is following several of his motions denied on November 20, 2007.

The court is already holding Thompson accountable for “making false and disparaging comments about a judge and several lawyers.”

The complaint is based on grievances filed by Judge James Moore of Fayette County, Ala., lawyers at Miami-based Tew Cardenas and Blank Rome, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., lawyer Norman Kent and the Bar itself. And the list of complaints is pretty long, 24 pages long, in fact.

What does Thompson have to say in his own defense on the matter?

“This is frankly, once again, just the Bar going off the deep end trying to use Bar rules to limit my First Amendment activism,” he said.

Meanwhile on Game Politics, readers have created a poll to see if anyone thought Thompson will be disbarred or not. So far out of 3772 voters, here is what the readers think:

Q: As his Florida Bar trial begins, do you think Jack Thompson will be disbarred? A: Out of 3,772 voters 2,087 said yes he will be disbarred permanently, 1,100 said yes but he would only be on a temporary basis, 248 said no and 337 were not sure of the outcome of the trial.

Read [Neoseeker] Also Read [Law.com] Vote [GamePolitics] Case Docket [Order on Pending Motions (PDF)] Case Docket [Order of Dismissal Without Prejudice (PDF)]

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Tuusula, Finland was in shock following a fatal school shooting that killed six students and two faculty personnel, and wounded 10 others at Jokela High School in a small Finland town. Flags in Finland were flying at half-staff Thursday, November 8, 2007, and a moment of silence was observed for the eight people killed during a student’s rampage before the shooter, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, turned the gun on himself. Auvinen didn’t die on the scene, he actually died at a local hospital in the town from his self-inflicted wounds.

Auvinen, an 18-year-old student at the school, was the small town’s first known school shooting. During the probe police had found a suicide note bidding his family good bye. The motive was unclear and officials believed he picked his victims at random.

During the investigation, police reported that they found 69 shells and more than 320 unused bullets at the scene. All of the victims had multiple gunshot wounds to the upper body and head.

Because Auvinen happens to be a big fan of first-person shooters including Battlefield 2 which he played a few minutes before his rampage. I’m pretty sure gamers can expect to hear about this fact and the incident added to the arguments of anti-videogame propaganda and blame game circulating through the media in the upcoming days.

Auvinen was not shy about his intentions, in fact he posted tons of videos on YouTube about his hatred towards the bureaucracy of religion and anything else he found wrong with society, but most of his videos as well as his account on YouTube have been deleted since the shooting. His latest videos Most of his videos chronicled his angst against everything that is wrong in the world and his days leading up to the shooting.

Wearing a black t-shirt that read: Humanity is Over-rated, the student who calls himself Sturmgeist89 on YouTube and NaturalSelector89 on the Battlefield 2 stat boards, had been plotting this event since he turned 18 and was legally allowed to purchase a gun. He wanted media attention but he wanted the public to be clear that his movies and games had nothing to do with his decision.

“…Don’t blame the movies I see, the music I hear, the games I play or the books I read. No, they had nothing to do with this. This is my war: one man war against humanity, governments and weak-minded masses of the world! No mercy for the scum of the earth!”

Of course his list of games, movies and music will be blamed anyways. Auvinen’s online profile alone is enough for anti-gaming activitsts to use as fault to the violence situation of course so it wouldn’t matter if I listed what the teen’s profile reads or not. So, here it is. Note the profile says “computer games” with no specific game listed.

• Existentialism, Freedom, Truth, Misantrophy, Social / Personality Psychology, Evolution Science, Political Incorrectness, Women, BDSM, Guns (I love you Catherine), Shooting, Computer Games, Sarcasm, Irony, Mass / Serial Killers, Macabre Art, Black Comedy, Absurdism;
• Movies and Shows: The Matrix, A View To A Kill, Falling Down, Natural Born Killers, Reservoir Dogs, Last Man Standing, Full Metal Jacket, Dr. Butcher MD (aka Zombie Holocaust), Saw 1-3, Lord Of War, The Deer Hunter, True Romance, The Untouchables, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Idiocracy, They Live, Apocalypse Now, End Of Days, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Dr. Strangelove, House MD (TV), Monty Python, TV Documentaries Relating To History
• Music: KMFDM, Rammstein, Eisbrecher, Nine Inch Nails, Grendel, Impaled Nazarene, Macabre, Deathstars, The Prodigy, Combichrist, Godsmack, Slayer, Children Of Bodom, Alice Cooper, Sturmgeist, Suicide Commando, Hatebreed, Suffocation, Terrorizer
• Books: Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury), 1984 (Orwell), Brave New World (Huxley), The Republic (Plato), all works of Nietzsche

This incident sounds very much like that of Virginia Tech, except VA Tech shooter Sueng-Hui Cho never played games except Sonic as a child. Looking through Auvinen’s list of videos, he has a tribute to CodeName 47, the name of the character in Hitman which I’m sure will be looked over with a fine tooth comb in the fight against violent games as well.

Read [CNN News] Watch [CNN Video]

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I have met some amazing people on the internet and throughout my years as a reporter for a military-themed newspaper. But to find one individual that refused to give up his dream and strive to make a difference is a heart-warming story that needed to be told.

In December 2006, Zach Wigal, a 17-year-old Junior attending Saline High School in Saline, Mi, along with his friends worked hard for nine months using their own money to make their dream of hosting a Halo 2 tournament scheduled for March 24, 2007 come true. Only to have the dream crushed three days before the tournament when his school’s superintendent yanked his rental permit. All because the game was rated M for mature by the ESRB.

Wigal and his friends not only lost all the money that they’ve been saving for the event, but watched a dream he’s had since his freshmen year in high school go up in smoke.

“We had been planning the event for months and was even granted approval to use the building by our town’s rec center far in advance,“ Wigal said explaining what happened. “Over 300 people registered for the event my friends and I really put a lot of work into. Long story short, 3 days before the tournament was supposed to take place our superintendent got a call from our townships public safety director, (who apparently belongs to the Parents TV council) and convinced her that Halo 2 was “corrupting the minds of America’s youth” and in a nutshell told her my friends and I were degrading the Saline school facilities by hosting a Halo 2 tournament in the building.“

Wigal and his friends were disappointed, but were not ready to give up on the tournament just yet. They tried to negotiate with the superintendent and even offered to send out parental consent and liability forms to all the gamers who already registered for the event. But when he realized that she was pretty adamant about stopping the event and was not going to change her mind ... the tournament was officially canceled. When news of the tournament’s cancellation spread across the internet through blogs, bulletin boards and chat rooms - gamers worldwide voiced their outrage and soon after the Gamers Outreach Foundation was born.

“Our tournament was canceled based on the notion that games like Halo are somehow corrupting the minds of America’s youth. I strongly disagree with that perspective as I hold more to the philosophy that videogames are competitive, fun, interactive and a great way for people to socialize with one another,“ Wigal explained and said he and his friends have come up with a new way to host their tournaments - a Gamers for Giving Charity tournament. “We’re currently negotiating some possible dates at the venue we’re looking into. The event is going to be a Halo 3 Tournament / 3 day straight PC LAN event. The PC LAN will most likely start on a Friday afternoon and will go until Sunday morning. All profits made from this event will be donated directly to charity.“
But the event had to be more than just a regular charity function, Wigal said his goal is to show that gamers are not a plague of society and plans to eventually help break down the negative stereotypes gamers have been receiving lately.

“GOF is a non-profit organization to encourage gamers to donate to us (hoping the tax break would offer some benefits to people). Our plan is to run the event using donations made by gamers,“ he said then added that once the tournament is over, GOF would eventually work hard to break down the negative stereotypes gamers and games have been receiving lately. “We’d be able to use our favorite past time to help people. A bunch of us have been interested in getting involved with some charity work, what better way than to use videogames? We’re just a bunch of guys, who are sick of the stereotypes associated with gaming, (especially when Jack Thompson comes out and claims people are “training themselves” on Counterstrike 1.6) and to break those down we want to start getting ourselves involved with community and charity related projects using video games.“

Wigal said he has many plans for future projects, but tries to stay realistic in their goals.

“We’re fairly new, so I think one of our biggest challenges at the moment is just getting the word out about our organization. While we certainly don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, there are a ton of gamers who I think would be really interested in what we’re doing (and obviously we need the support of our fellow gamers in order for our organization to run events),“ Wigal said. “Hopefully as we begin to build on our organizations philosophy of integrity and trust, (we hope) more gamers will start to get involved with our future outreach programs and events we plan to run. Our hope is that by actively getting involved in charity and community work, we can take a more pro-active approach towards building a positive reputation for gaming.“

Currently Wigal is working with CyGamZ, a LAN center in Michigan for a benefit extravaganza this year on November 10. The event will be a Halo 3, Counterstrike 1.6 and Guitar Hero tournament. Prizes for the event is sponsored by MYTHLOGIC, a custom performance computer company who volunteered to raffle one of their computers at the tournament.

“We’ve got some concepts in the works that aren’t quite ready to be discussed yet,“ Wigal said. “But much of our future will be determined by how well our first few events do.“

Read [The Saline Reporter] Also Read [Halo Bungie News] Listen to Podcast [Gamer Girls Radio]Site [Gamers Outreach Foundation]

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So this morning I created two quick bumper stickers for the Lynch/ESRB post. The first simply reads, “I play video games and I vote.“ 

The second, which is pretty damn similar, instead says, “I’m a gamer and I vote.“ Less than four hours after I created it, it has made it to Zazzle’s Today’s best list for August 10, 2007. Sure, Zazzle might simply highlight a few creations of the day but it still strikes me as pretty funny. Maybe one of the interns simply thinks it’s funny.

In any case, thanks Zazzle. Maybe I’ll actually sell a couple. If not, it’s all good. At least it made a few people think about politics and videogames and several others giggle.

If I get a few extra minutes, maybe I’ll add it to other Zazzle products. I’d love to see random people waling down the street wearing that as a T-shirt.

Product Page [Bumper Sticker] Read [Gamertell]

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What comes to mind when you think of a gamer? Is it the image of a young boy in his mom’s basement, no job, no girlfriend, and sore thumbs? If it is, then you may want to hear what Matt Ringel has to say.

The commissioner for the World Series of Video Games, Matt Ringel, is not a teenager addicted to soda, potato chips and video games. He’s 40 years old, has a job and a mission to bring the real image of a dedicated gamer to the public. There’s no better way to accomplish this than publicity - lots and lots of publicity.

In order to accomplish his mission, Ringel has devised a plan: Make the world of video games into a glamorous TV-friendly extravaganza with real professional gamers that make frequent appearances. His vessel is the World Series of Video Games…

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One young lady over at Destructoid has posted a rant about “girl gamers.“  Besides the usual grumblings about how girl gamer “stars” like the FragDolls look like models first and gamers second, she raises some good points about the atmosphere of gaming culture:

“Sometimes you can’t really trust if your actually liked or if you’ve only got popular because you have tits. For example, myself. I managed to get number 1 blog on 1up.com for a few weeks. I was on the front page for a number of weeks also. Now was it because people actually liked my writing, or because I am female? I am not really a great writer. And some of my 1up messages are all “omg your hot” or “omg girl gamer.“ I usually introduce myself as a female gamer. I’m 20 years old, I am not a girl any more.“

When the industry tries to cater to girls with That’s So Raven and Bratz games, you know something is awry.  I’ve known many girls who play the same games as most guys.  My girlfriend is working on Odin Sphere as we speak, though I often remind her that she’s not just controlling the camera when we play Gears of War over Xbox Live.  And I’ve noticed a sudden surge over hearing little girls meandering over how much they love Zelda.

It just seems like something the industry doesn’t want to move on just yet.  They just keep making their games to the 18-34 male crowd and girls can either bite that particular wax tadpole or get left out to dry.  I just wonder how far we are from games made in the vein of romance novels.  One shudders to think what it’d be like for a local game retailer to have the same clientele as any Barnes and Noble book store.  One shudders twice to think of the profits, since all of those games would be largely derivative, just like their paperback counterparts.  One shudders thrice because lists of three have better rhythm than lists of two.

Site [Destructoid]

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This past Sunday, in Essex England, twenty-four year old Adam Mapleson was on his way to work via the railway station when he witnessed two armed and masked men robbing a female security guard. Racing to the aid of the woman, (witness’ accounts state that Adam had attempted to block the thugs’ escape) he was shot at close range in the chest. He is now reported to have regained consciousness and is in stable condition at a Southend Hospital.

According to The Sun Online, “The woman guard escaped shaken but unhurt — as did a male colleague who was driving the security van in Rayleigh, Essex. The robbers - wearing scarves around their faces - fled with a security box belching red dye. Their haul is likely to be worthless.“

What likely won’t hit the airwaves (or net-waves?) as hard is the fact that Adam Mapleson was a gamer, who listens to black metal and in every picture on his Myspace Page is dressed in black. Now, far be it for me to pontificate the jurisprudence of social mores and how backwards they may be, but it just goes to show that looks or interests does not a man define. With that said, I’d like to invite Jack Thompson take a peek at a slice of this hero’s interest in gaming: Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike Source, FEAR, GTA: San Andreas, UT2004, Dawn of War and Mark of Chaos.

For all the negative media around gaming and gamers, I can’t help but notice that when the facts don’t appease the agenda, no matter how insignificant, those facts are lost. Where’s Jack Thompson now?

Read [Kotaku] Read Also [The Sun Online]

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