Fourkiller against 'violence'

I live in a very silly state. Here, tattoos used to be banned, it's frowned upon to take a bite out of someone else's burger and it's illegal to pretend to have sex with a buffalo. I was running on the treadmill last week when I heard disturbing news that would happen in a strange state like Oklahoma. Representative William Fourkiller proposed HB 2696, a bill that would charge a 1 percent tax on any video game with the ESRB ratings Teen, Mature and Adult-Only.

According to Fourkiller, these are 'violent' games that encourage obesity and bullying among children. The funds would go to Oklahoma's Childhood Outdoor Education Revolving Fund to fight obesity and the Bullying Prevention Revolving Fund. Although these are good causes, the bill is full of holes and the tax is unjust. 

Firstly, how can one say that all Teen games are violent? Even then, what can be considered as "violence"? Is the booty-shaking in Dance Central 2 too "violent" for children to be participating in? Maybe the intense strumming in Rock Band or Guitar Hero games is too intense. Even if there is violence in a Teen game, it is not the same kind you would encounter in a Mature game. This is a flaw many critics of the HB 2696 have pointed out. 

Secondly, why video games? Movies, books and music can be just as, if not even more disturbing than video games. Fourkiller claimed in his interview with KFOR that it is not his intention to target video games, but everything he has said goes against that. So far, it seems he has no good explanation. 

William Fourkiller's bill had it's first reading yesterday. If this bill is passed, it will be effective as soon as July 1. With as much scrutiny this bill has undergone, I doubt it will be. 

Here is the interview Fourkiller had last week with KFOR. Check it out and tell me what you think about this proposal: 





 
Yours truly, 
HavokRose 

Everyday Video Game: Pac-Man

Video game merchandise has evolved past the simple t-shirt, poster, or figurine. It has become an entire industry that allows us to bake with Pac-Man oven mitts and cuddle with Pikachu Pillow Pets. Every week I plan on featuring awesome video game merchandise that can be used in everyday life. Why stop enjoying the characters we love when we turn off the television?


This week's theme is Pac-Man!

Now we finally get to know the gratification Pac-Man feels when chomping on Pinky, Inky, and Blinky and Clyde's redish-orange lovechild. You can find these cookie cutters at fredflare.com on-sale for $9.99! 

Careful now, you wouldn't want to burn your precious gaming hands while trying to pull that scorching hot pan out of the oven! Keep your babies safe with this nifty Pac-Man 'Potholder'.

Although it would be more appropriately called an oven mitt - who is really going to grab a pot with this - it works on your ovenware all the same! Thinkgeek.com is offering this novelty item for $14.99.

For any situation, a true gamer knows to be prepared for the worst.

 Keep an extra potion on hand, a spare fairy in your last bottle, or maybe a pack of Pac-Man bandaids in your back pocket. You know, just in case you burn yourself. Your training from Cooking Mama never got this serious. But don't worry, our people over at fredflare.com have got us covered for $9.50.

Happy baking!

Have you seen any interesting items? Let me know!

Yours truly,
HavokRose

Happy Holidays Everyone! 

Video Game Awards Round Up

Tonight, Spike TV graced the gaming world with the Video Game Awards. It was a round up of video game stars, developers, performances by Deadmau5 and the Black Keys, and featured animation to bring the characters of our beloved games to life. I expected it to follow the same format of other award shows. Announce a category, bring in a presenter to announce the nominees, then announce the winner. Although this happened for a few of the awards, a majority of them were just announced by the mysterious narrating female voice. The more prominent awards like Game of the Year and Character of the Year had representatives of the winning game go to the stage and claim their award. For those who went over their allotted time for their acceptance speeches, they were forced to the ground and tea-bagged by Sergeant Lipton. There were also a number of other interesting components to this show.

Backstage with Felicia Day was mini-games galore. There were three games: the Spiderman fling, Fruit Ninja real fruit slice up, and  Little Big Planet 2 cupcake challenge. Each of these games had their own point system that resulted in a certain amount of money that would be donated to Child's Play! That's right, the foundation that I wrote an article on not too long ago that donates video games to Children's Hospitals.

This show took its attendees into account. For instance, it teased the social gamers (Farmville, Castleville, ect.) by showing them focusing on their phones playing games instead of paying attention to the show. Zach also introduced a man known as ThaBlackBaron, a fellow video game blogger. He made this video about his discontent with the 2010 VGAs. Due to this outspoken video, he was invited to the 2011 VGAs and sat right across from the man in charge of the show, whom ThaBlackBaron had threatened in his old video. He then made this video after he felt justice had been served when Skyward Sword was nominated for this year's show.  Maybe one day I too will be recognized by someone big in the industry and be invited to an award show... or convention. Crossing my fingers for E3!

While all of this was going on, viewers had the opportunity to vote online for the NFL Blitz Cover, Character of the Year, Most Anticipated Game, and Trailer of the Year. All of the other awards were previously voted on by an advisory council.

On a random note, Zachary Levi announced that 42% of gamers are now women! YEAH! Sorry, I had to get a little excited about that. Great statistic there. Anyways, let get to the part you all want to hear about.

The results:

Best DLC: Portal 2 Peer Review
Best Downloadable Game: Bastion
Best Performance by a Human Male: Stephen Merchant as Wheatley - Portal 2
Best Performance by a Human Female: Ellen McLain as Glados - Portal 2
Best Graphics: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Best Original Score: Bastion
Best Song in Game: "Build That Wall (Zia's Theme)" By Darren Korb - Bastion
Best Adapted Video Game: Batman: Arkham City
Best Independent Game: Minecraft
Best Motion Game: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Best Fighting Game: Mortal Kombat
Best Driving Game: Forza Motorsport 4
Best Team Sports Game: NBA 2K12
Best Individual Sports Game: Fight Night Champion  
Best Multi-Player: Portal 2
Best RPG: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Best Action Adventure Game: Batman: Arkham City
Best Shooter: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Best Handheld/Mobile Game: Super Mario 3D Land
Best PC Game: Portal 2
Best PS3 Game: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Best Wii Game: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Best Xbox 360 Game: Batman: Arkham City
Studio of the Year: Bethesda Game Studios
Game of the Year: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

NFL Blitz Cover: Ray Rice - Baltimore Ravens
Character of the Year: The Joker - Batman: Arkham City
Most Anticipated Game: Mass Effect 3
Trailer of the Year: Assassin's Creed: Revelations

During the acceptance video for Character of the Year, the Joker heavily hinted at the next Batman game plans for Rocksteady Studios when he held up a document that read 'Batman: Arkham World Script.'

Extra Awards:

Game God: Blizzard Entertainment
Gaming Hall of Fame: The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda is the first series/game/anything to be admitted into the Gaming Hall of Fame. I started tearing up as soon as the montage for the series began. Scenes from every Zelda game flashed on the screen as the female narrator described the role music takes within these epic games. As soon is it ended, Miyamoto appeared out of fog proudly raising the trophy as Link would raise a newly discovered item. It was magical.

In addition to the awards, there were a number of world premiers for trailers and cinematic introductions for a number of games presented by celebrities. Click the title of each game for the trailer for each game.

The Last of Us - will.i.am
Mass Effect 3 - LL Cool J
The Amazing Spider-Man - Tony Hawk
Rainbow 6 Patriots - Kevin Jonas
Fortnite - Epic Games
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron - Stacy Keibler
Diablo III - Blizzard Entertainment
BioShock Infinite - Felicia Day
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance  - Hideo Kojima

Personally, the coolest was Diablo III. I've never played any of the Diablo games but that introduction made me want to. There are also several other world premiers on the Spike TV premier page. It includes Hitman Absolution, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and many more.

The show concluded with the Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance trailer and a goodbye from Zach. Overall, I was pleased with the awards show and enjoyed the two times I watched it. It wasn't perfect but hey, what is?

Yours truly,
HavokRose

P.S. What did you think about the VGAs?

Sexism.

Last week in my Introduction to Mass Communications class we had a guest speaker who came to lecture us over my favorite topic: Video games! I've been anticipating this lecture since my Professor announced it. When I got to my seat I was practically bouncing with excitement. I didn't expect to learn too much since I am fairly familiar with the video game industry but nevertheless I was still so excited.

 Our guest speaker was a student from the College of Journalism who is currently working on his doctorate degree. His name is Brain Carter. His lecture was a nice change of pace for the class and he was entertaining. His lecture gave a great overview of the video game industry but one part particularly interested me. There was a slide on sexism, something I had expected to appear in this lecture. His endnote on the topic caught my attention.

Games like Duke Nukem, GTA and Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball all have sexist themes in them against women. But what about sexism against men? Right before changing the subject, Brian mentioned the other side of sexism not commonly talked about.

The game is called The Boyfriend Trainer. You play as the girlfriend who is trying to beat her boyfriend into being the 'perfect' boyfriend. Lot of the girls in the room laughed at this, it sounds like a hilarious game right? As soon as he finished describing the game I punched the title into my Google search bar and got ready to play.

In this fantastic game there are four levels in which you click on your leprechaun-looking boyfriend whenever he is committing acts that go against your liking. In the first level you and your not-so-great boyfriend are sitting outside of a cafe, sharing a drink. The boyfriend, who we will call Chad, gawks at the girls every now and then.When this happens you smack him and the 'perfection bar' goes up. To clear the level you have to fill the perfection bar within the time limit.

The game only gets worse from here. Level two features the couple in a living room where Chad goes around throwing things on the floor and you taser him each time he does so. The third level the couple are in a different living room watching television. Every time he changes the channel or drinks wine instead of his juice (I'm surprised it wasn't in a sippy cup) you smack him with a fly swatter. In the last level Chad is finally on a leash. It's time for the couple to take a nice ride - or not. When Chad goes Speed Racer or turns up the music too loud for perfect girl friend's liking, she gives the driver's leash a nice yank, choking him in the process. Yes, lets choke the driver. Once this level is over you have finally trained the perfect boyfriend! Congratulations!

Or not. Somehow this game gained enough popularity for the development of The Boyfriend Trainer 2.

Sexism against men in video games is a rare thing. Although it exists, it has been limited mainly to simple flash games. I'm not saying I would like to see a game like The Boyfriend Trainer on a major console, but it shows how men are also getting their share of sexism.

I'd rather see things like this:

Yes, I know this isn't a game. But you have to admit - this commercial is awesome.

Yours truly,
HavokRose

P.S.
My little brother, bewarethebetray, is awesome. He requested I make you all aware of that.

MW3 Launch: An Overview

I thought falling in a hole was bad. The MW3 launch event was far more intense than the Gears 3 midnight launch and definitely wetter. Here are some pictures from the night:

Around 9:30 two store copies of MW3 were put into an Xbox and PS3. Through out the night gamers of all ages popped in and out of the store to get a sneak peak at the campaign. A few probably went in to escape the weather. 

This guy held open the door for several hours - a task meant for the GameStop employees. He also handed out flyers and greeted people as they came in the door! This gamer arrived at the store around 6:00 to wait for his pre-ordered copy of MW3 and was first in line.  

One thing I really appreciated about both of the launches I have attended is the tremendously helpful GameStop staff! Bringing a camera into any sort of store can be a risk but these guys and girls invited it. They also were great when disclosing information about what goes on behind the scenes and making sure customers had what they needed in order to get their game. Awesome staff! Also, they remembered me! 

Here are two of the decent pictures I took of the insane weather. I wasn't able to get a picture of the back of the building where a bulk of the people were waiting. I know they got hit the worst, they didn't have a sidewalk to stand on or an awning to stand under. 

I expected this release to be more popular than the Gears release but I wasn't expecting this number of people! There were so many people that the end of the line was right by the doors - just a few feet away from the beginning of the line.

Before

After!

Overall, I enjoyed the MW3 launch better than the Gears 3 launch. Standing in my drenched boots in the cold rain with a hundred other gamers made receiving the game more gratifying. I felt like I earned it. 

Sometime in the next week or so I plan on posting a review on the Elite service. Is it really worth it? 

Yours truly, 

HavokRose 

P.S. Did you get the game at midnight? If so, how did it go and what do you think of the game? 

MW3 Launch: 1:11

Game on.