Umh…ok! I vowed never to blogg about Hot Coffe again, but this is just too bizarre!! So Take-Two is yet again being sued. This time by The city of Los Angeles “for selling pornographic video games to childen with its best-selling game “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas,” which last year was found to have hidden sex scenes.” Which is just so incredibly silly, in my opinion! The game was rated for 17+, so I don’t understand the whole kids scenario…but I think that’s an American thing and I’m really not going to bother getting into the whole thing here. But I will however say that Take-Two has just been really incredibly stupid, I’ll save my opinions on this for another date, however. But listen to this:

• “The lawsuit asks that Take-Two “marketed the ‘Grand Theft Auto’ series in a fashion that encourages the creation of (software modifications), which has added to the counter-culture image of the games, enhancing their popularity and hence their profitability.”” (Reuters)

WTF!!!!! Seriously? Are these grounds for a lawsuit? First of all they mention modding as a bad thing, which I actually do understand that game producers have a problem with (you know, the whole copyright blah blah) BUT A CITY?!!!! I don’t know if Take-Two did this all as a deliberate marketing tool, or not…but jeez! How ridiculous can you get? Clickable Culture’s wonderfully brilliant Mr. Walsh states it best, when he writes:

• “The outcome of the lawsuit could have chilling effects on game culture and the industry. Beyond this, I wonder if car manufacturers would be held responsible for encouraging drivers to customize cars and get into street-racing accidents. Or if shotgun manufacturers would be held responsible for thugs with sawed-off barrels…”

I seriously don’t understand what’s going on over there! I’m sure they’ve all gone mad…either that, or I’m just not understanding this correctly!

Right…I think Kotaku has got to be one of the biggest fans of Google Video, but what gems he finds!! Now, I really wish that I didn’t recognise these characters at all…but alas…I’ve met a few! Which is probably why I had a good laugh! Fear of Girls – a mockumentary.

Wagner James Au has been kind enough to offer a transcript from Lawrence Lessig’s visit to Second Life!! Thanks for that Au…you don’t know how happy this makes me, since I missed it!!!

To be honest, I’m through being gobsmacked by these things…and well…I’m getting kinda bored with it! Anyways! Some guy, runs an in-game store, Second Life Boutique and is now selling XFX GeForce computer graphics cards in Second Life for Second Life money (Linden Dollars). Which, I’m sorry…but it really doesn’t surprise me!! To be honest, some people have become so fanatical about Second Life, that I’m sure they’re conspiring to make it the first ever virtual country somehow! Which I know, somewhere deep inside of me, I’m really excited about but it’s really not a game anymore is it? Was it ever?

Well now…I’m sitting here at the university late, because I really don’t want to go home and feel like I haven’t done anyhing usefull, today as well!!! Other than making more sense out of Castronova’s and Burke’s arguments on governmentality within MMORPGs, I really don’t think I’ve done too much! I’ve written about 5 sentences…yeeehaa!! But it’s good to feel comfortable about the stuff I’ve read…it’s just…well…that’s not the chapter I’m working on, you know! Jepp! I’m completely stuck in that ‘is it a game, what is a game, is it a playground, what is a playground, can a playground have gameplay and not a game?’…finding my own definitions is the WORST! But I know as soon as I get through this crappy thing…I can move on with vigour (at least I hope so)! So…after telling you what a completely awful and unconstructive student I am, let me introduce you to what I’m doing right now!
I stopped by Guru Lessig’s blog and was introduced to yet another side track of entertainment! First off this wonderful film ‘Cease-and-desist’ – a humorous insight into IP copyright law and how ridiculous it has become.
And then the ANIME videos!! They’re soooooo sweet and soooooo emotional!! I don’t understand half of what they’re supposed to mean…but I’m definately feeling something watching them! Anyways….better than sitting here trying to figure out how gameplay is different from play if I’m saying that it can exist without a gaming frame, narrative or form or magic circle thingie! Time to go home, I think!!!

I’ve never played myself…but I watched the new trailer and well….jeez…it’s beautiful….and they really do love dramatic emotions, huh?! I almost got a lump in my throat from this…no wonder Final Fantasy always comes up in ‘can games make you cry’ discussions! Very sappy, indeed!

The fabulous Ian Bogost’s Persuasive Games,
has now released Disaffected.
You really just have to love them!!!

“Are games only capable of carrying positive advertising messages? Or can they also enact dissatisfaction and criticism against corporations? Anti-advergames are to detract from or call into question a set of products or services for expressive, cathartic, social, or political purposes”

I had a great time with it!! So should you!!

So here’s a little hit from the Game Developers Conference archives. Gamespy has a sweet and entertaining report on the GDC 2004 Game Designer’s Challenge. Will Wright (The Sims), Warren Spector (Deus Ex) and Raph Koster (Star Wars Galaxies) were challenged to create a love story game!!!
If you’re looking for a smile…have a look!

Well here’s a nifty little article by Lost Garden’s Danc (steered to by my flavor-of-the-month, Game Tycoon). He mentions that the games industry has adopted their methods from film making, writing narrative scripts a.s.o. and that we’re lacking an informational technology to describe the ‘important systematic interactions’! I COULDN’T AGREE MORE!!!

• We need to understand the basic mechanical elements that describe the game play experience
• We need to create a notational language for expressing, analyzing and manipulating these key elements of game design

Yes! Yes! Yes!!! This is really a brilliant piece of work! I feel like rewriting the whole theory right here, but this would be unfair! But he’s taken into account the player’s psychological experience, rhythm and created a notational system which include Buzz notes, Reward Channels, Verbs, Master Buzz Meter and Statistics. Urgh…this probably isn’t making any sense to you right now…I’m just too excited to think straight! Reading this just gave me such an insight on what is lacking in game design methodology, specially for a person like myself, who’s just analyzing a game! And I just know that I’m going to end up in tears because I can’t use any of this brilliance…sigh!! I mean this is a great system for measuring when the socialisation in MMORPGs is most active according to gameplay or when the players are more creative and and and I could go on forever!!

Well…my media studies mind went wild thinking about the connotations of this <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2713994116796945354&q=zelda+commercial
“>Nintendo commercial from way before my time (hmmm)! I mean, what’s with the extremely stereotypical white nerd and the rap music? Something’s really weird about this!!!