Gamertell

During Comic Con 2008, many games and comics were featured. And who wouldn’t want to attend a special preview of today’s most talented directors and animators create independent film masterpieces. The Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival consisted of movies that fell into seven categories: action/adventure, animation, comics-oriented, documentary, humor/parody, horror and science fiction/fantasy. On July 27, 2008, the top films in each category were announced and awarded.

This year’s Comic-Con International: Independent Film Festival are…

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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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PC Authority writer Alex Kidman listed what he believes the five most violent games in last 25 years in a recent article. Instead of jumping to attention getting titles that have only been out for a few years, like Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat or Silent Hill, Kidman does his research and goes after some games which truly deserved their mature ratings. The five titles he lists as most violent/graphic are Custer’s Revenge, Night Trap, Carmageddon, Thrill Kill and Manhunt.

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A new poll conducted at whattheyplay.com (a site oriented towards educating parents about videogame content) shows that people are more offended by sex than violence in games. Keep in mind that this is a thoroughly unscientific study of a very skewed portion of the population (read: parents who care what their kids are playing), but the results are still surprising. According to the poll, the most offensive thing in a videogame is a depiction of a man and a woman having sex (37%) followed by two men kissing (27%), then a graphically severed human head (26%), and lastly, multiple use of the F-word (10%).

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A man has been charged for assaulting a 2-year-old girl in York, PA (USA), with, of all things, a video game controller. The game controller might sound like a benign object but it can be lethal if used against a toddler, which it turned out to be in this case. The little girl is currently in a coma after receiving severe injuries to her head and body.

The execrable incident occurred on…

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In an appalling incident in Brockton Massachusetts, (USA) on Tuesday (March 25, 2008), 15-year-old Olivier Baptiste was shot dead by his 18-year-old neighbor, William Suarez, when he refused to hand over a video game. Suarez has been charged with manslaughter and illegal possession of firearms and is being held on a $1 million bond.

The accused pleaded not guilty to the charges against him in Brockton District Court. He allegedly pulled out a .32 caliber Smith and Wesson from his waistband and…

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Minnesota is another state in a long series that has passed video game legislation only to have it mercilessly beaten down by the US court system. The Minnesota law was a little unusual in that it would have fined game purchasers rather than retailers. Children age seventeen or younger trying to buy a Mature-rated video game (or an Adults Only game, if you can find a store that sells them) would face a $25 fine for the transgression. 

It was struck down first by a US District Court judge back in July 2006, then finished off for good by a…

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The Australian Federal government is contemplating the introduction of the R-18 certification for video games that contain highly explicit content not deemed fit for minors. The absence of such a certification means that titles which exceed the MA certification (only for sale to persons 15 and above) are altogether denied an Australian release…

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The Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC), Australia’s classification board, has refused to give a rating to Digital Extreme’s latest game, Dark Sector, essentially making it illegal to sell the game in that country. The OFLC considers the game to be too violent.

Dark Sector is a third-person shooter about a black-ops agent named Hayden Tenno who, while investigating the propagation of a deadly virus, gets infected with it and turns into a bio-weapon with extraordinary combat abilities. One of the main weapons on the game is the glaive, a plate-sized throwing star much like the one on the movie Krull. This weapon can help…

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The Presidential candidates are debating nearly every relevant issue these days. Videogaming has found prominence as a political issue in recent times - sadly enough – so, it would be nice to know the candidates’ positions on the issue. Common Sense Media tried to sample the opinions of the candidates about videogames but only three of them showed enough interest to take the survey. One of the frontrunners in the Presidential race, Sen. Hillary Clinton (Democrat), was interested in participating in the survey but could not furnish a response in time. According to gamepolitics, CSM has finally received her reply.

She doesn’t seem to be a huge fan of violent videogames, or games with “corrupting content”, and has vowed to shield children from such content if she becomes president. One can expect more stringent game regulations if she occupies the Oval office. Historically, Clinton has stood up for tougher video game regulation and she introduced the Family Entertainment Protection Act a couple of years ago. This bill had provisions for fines being imposed on on-site store mangers, if they sold inappropriate games to children.

In her response, Clinton also talked about the ills of violent and sexually explicit game content and, specially, the fears parents have about losing control over their children as a result of such content.

Read [Game Politics]