Here we go again...

Hey folks, it's that time again. Time to point fingers, jump on bandwagons and try to shift the blame of all the worlds evils onto the video game industry. I suppose it was about due, with about nine months since the whole Manhunt furor. This week it's the turn of Eidos' 25 to Life to take the flack - despite the fact it hasn't even been released yet.

Firing off the first salvo on Monday was New York Senator Charles E. Schumer. In the press release, he asks stores not to stock the game, and calls upon both Sony and Microsoft to refuse to allow the game to be released on their systems - to which Microsoft quickly said 'No'. Amongst those responding was Press the Buttons, and Penny Arcade and - both of whom have a much better idea of what it is they're talking about.

Never one to miss a bandwagon, CNN had the follow-up attack ready in the form of Tuesday's Nancy Grace (it's near the bottom). Reading through, the phrase 'media circus' kept popping into my mind, especially when you consider the 'panel'. Veteran anti-game laywer Jack Thompson (whos contempt for gamers is well documented), Michael Jackson's parents attourney, another random lawyer, and a pyschotherapist - whos only contribution to the whole thing actually raises a valid argument, but the focus is hurriedly shifted away. Gamepolitcs, Game Girl Advance, Press the Buttons and Cathode Tan all have good counters that essentially destroy any credibility the program may have had. Which, if we're being honest here, wasn't too much to begin with, the sensationalism of American news TV being what it is.

What Sen. Shumcer and Nancy Grace failed (or refused) to acknowledge is that 25 to Life actually allows you to play as a cop, letting the player take down criminals the good ol' American way. Part of the problem may in fact stem from America's gun culture. It may be a constitutional right to keep a gun in your house, but increasingly it seems people are unwilling to take responsibility for their child taking that gun and unloading it into someone, preferring instead to find a scapegoat to try to get money from.

What the whole thing boils down to is that parents are refusing to accept responsibility for the upbringing of their children, instead using the TV and game console as surrogates. It doesn't help matters when research shows exactly what us gamers have know for years - that parents don't care. I was in a game shop a few weeks ago, when a dad was looking at games with his son, who couldn't have been more than six or seven years old. As the boy looked over the shiney cases with the pretty pictures, struggling to read some of the titles, he soon saw one he recognised. "Daddy look, it's Grand Feft Auto!"

Games like Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt are given age ratings for a reason - big, prominent symbols, often now on the front of the box - although it seems some still don't look hard enough. While the system here in the UK is enforced by the law, in the US (Illinous notwithstanding) the ESRB's guidelines are voluntary. Surely the whole point of having these ratings is to limit the sale of adult-oriented games to adults? And if it's not going to be enforced, by either the parents or retailers, you have to ask, why bother? Of course this has all been said before, most recently and elloquently by Brian Clevinger of 8-bit Theatre (scroll down a bit from the comic to see).

Another thing that this new report confirms, is that sticking an 18 certificate on the cover of a game is only going to make it more desireable. It's to be expected - it's human nature. The more you can't have something, the more you want it - the complete sellout of Manhunt days after it was pulled from various store shelves is testament to this. I know the feeling - I played the original GTA when it first came out, when I was about 14. Knowing you're playing something you're not supposed to adds an element of danger to an otherwise mundane game, with the fear that you could be discovered and the whole thing taken away.

The irony is, that it doesn't matter how good or bad 25 to Life is when it sees daylight. It's going to sell like hotcakes. People now know the name, and will give it that bit more attention. It's a sad, strange state of affairs, and I can't see it getting much better.

The wanderer returns... after taking the scenic route and getting lost on the way to pick up a pint of milk...

Well now... it's been a while, hasn't it? I'm sure all my regular readers (both of you) have been getting worried about my extended leave of absence. Well, perhaps 'worried' isn't the most accurate term to use.. but maybe you'd like to know why I seemingly abandoned the place.

For a kick off, I've been so busy the past few weeks it's untrue. I don't think I've ever been this busy in my life. Birthdays, barbecues, family gatherings, nights out on the town, Episode III... for a while there, I believe I may actually have had a social life :)

You know the old movie cliche, when someone's sitting, staring blankly at a piece of paper? They know what they want to say, but don't know how to say it? That's what I've been having. Every time I start something, I only manage to get so far before the whole thing becomes an intangible mess of thoughts and ideas, and it's usually not long before I decide to come back to it later.
I've got a couple of half-finished posts sitting waiting to be be published, but every time I go back to round them off I either realise I have no idea what I was trying to say before, or find that what I was talking about is now old news, and no longer has any real relevance (and it doesn't help when I try to update right when the blogger systems are down for maintenence either).

I have a few other 'projects' on the go as well, stories and characters etched out in my head, with what I think is enough of a framework to start writing something. And then, as soon as I start setting it out in something slightly more tangible and rather less eratic than my own mind, new ideas spring forth and force me to rethink. It's driving me nutty.

There are a couple of other contributing factors, but I won't go into them here, lest I start to sound like a whingy git. And nobody wants that now, do they?. I'm gonna try and get back into the habit and actually update this thing. Maybe do more 'random thoughts' bits. Til next time...