So Manhunt 2 has been edited and blurred upfor an M rating?

That's Great.
That's exactly what the people looking forward to this game wanted: a happier, gentler more easy going game named MANHUNT2.

My biggest problem now, is that I can't decide who deserves most of the blame for this travesty. When I was a kid and we went to the video store to rent tapes, there was always that curtained off area in the back that your parents would never let you go in no matter how happy uncle Phil was when he would exit. The purpose of the curtain wasn't for decoration or allure. It was to prevent our fragile little eyes from gazing a peek at a poster or tape-box containing images of body parts normally covered with clothing. If we lived in a theocratic state like some people in the mid-east, the video store wouldn't need the curtain or the room, but we live in the United States where consumers wereallowed to rent and purchase entertainment products which some may find offensive, vulgar, and/or perverted.

Why the past tense? Well we're apparently no longer able to decide what is suitable entertainment no matter how old we are; and to the surprise of many, it isn't even the government who is regulating us yet. It's retail chains like Wal-Mart who are built on religious foundations by religious fundamentalists that pose the biggest threat.As it makes up a large percentage of overall retail sales across America, anythingWal-Mart bans from it's shelves will not reach a majority of the shoppers' eyes. This is why so many companies (not just game publishers) that produce retail goods feel the need to adhere to Wal-Mart's regulations. So you have other (not necessarily religious) corporations being forced to adhere to one retail outlet's fanatical beliefs. I don't see why American companies would want to endorse this practice since we see that it doesn't work too well for the corporations in third world hell holes that we invade. This is why I often get the feeling that our way of life is threatened more by radical Christian clerics (like Pat Robertson) than radical Islamic clerics.

I hate that the game companies feel that they need to cater to the big retail chains like Wal-Mart who think that anything more violent than Bambi or more sexually explicit than a Harry Potter film is too icky to be sold to the American public but this is why monopolies aren't usually allowed to exist. However some retail chains (like Wal-Mart) get so big that while they aren't quite yet a literal monopoly, their choices still effect everyone from other large corporations down to thecommon consumer.

Many gamers worry about politicians and other needy publicity hounds but those fools never actually get anything done. It is the monopolies (among other things) that threaten game creativity as well as the public view of gamers by making them look like wasteful fools (perhaps the greatest disservice GameStop/EB provides to gamers; but that's a whole 'nother article) while they are rewarded with greater profits every quarter. Will R* keeptrying to push the envelope if it means another half years work every time? I hope so.

Now, I know it is the goal of any corporation to make as much money for it's shareholders no matter what it does to our health, environment, and/or our American way of life and that is why so many of these corporationsdo things that are harmful to us. But with retail chains like Wal-Mart or GameStop, they oftentimes have to directly harm and/or scam their customers in order to drive the greatest profit. This is where the consumer must make a stand. Does it bother you that Wal-Mart refuses to sell the kind of games you want to buy? Then don't buy anythingfrom them. Do you buy used games from GameStop because saving $1 is better than nothing? Then use a service that cuts out the middle man (and his profit) like Amazon or eBay so you can save $10-20. I have amassed a huge collection of games and systems without ever resorting to Wal-Mart or GameStop while some think they're the only places to buy games.

If enough gamers stop giving their money to these corporations, they'll either stop selling games or realize they can't openlypatronize us the way they have been. As long as we allow these retail chains to make fools out of us, they will, and completely without shame, because it earns them a pat on the back from their investors.

And that brings me to the point of this whole rant: Manhunt2. I'm one of the people whoWAS really looking forward to this game. I'm not into the "torture horror" movies like Saw or Hostel but a game like that seems very interesting because we don't often see it. Sure one has come out every few years since the old arcade light gun game Chiller but the genre isn't a common fixture to the catalog of most publishers the same way sci -fi RTS games are. My curiosity was also encouraged by the question "How far will they go?" which is, I'm sure, the draw to most fans of the "torture horror" flicks. Of course, now, I will not have a satisfactory answer since the game now hasbeenedited so that some kills are removed and the others are blurred or darkened.

While the makers of horror movies are free to go as far as they want, knowing that the more restrictive the rating, the more rabid the fanbase. Game publishers on the other hand are learning they can't take a game as far as an AO rating and still have it show up on the three big home consoles or the two little portable consoles either since not only Nintendo, but Microsoft and Sony also forbid such games to be made for their machines. So why should we bother to buy games that the publisher was forced to edit, especially if it was the most shocking bits (the shocking bits being the draw) that were taken out? It's buying a game that the publisheradmits to being only half done with. Don't they know that anyone buying a game called Manhunt is looking for shock and horror?

And then we have to ask, what's the point of the AO rating if the companies aren't allowed to make them for the consoles? Why don't they just leave those games Unrated which you can get for your computer regardless of it's standing with the ESRB. These games are usually imported and thus rating less anyway. And then I can't help but wonder, what's the use of these game consoles anyway? You can get a pc to do pretty much anything these game consoles can do, and better too. Not to mention that while we do usually have to wait, any game that comes out on a console, eventually makes it to the PC, and usually in much better form. So why would anyone who has a PC get an incomplete console version of Manhunt 2 when they can have the complete experience on the PC.

Now, I do understand that there are bad parents out there who will get their deranged kid any video game no matter how inappropriate the game or unhinged their child as long as it'll shut the kid up for a second. Are these people worth restricting ourselves for and willunavailability of a game stop the child from growing up a psycho? I'm sure the answer to both questions is a resounding NO. Don't we already know that restricting video game content will have as much of an effect on the issue as the Comic book seal or the Explicit Lyrics stickers.

Anyone who wasn't completely stoned during Psych 101 would know that psycho kids go psycho because of abuse that they've suffered. At least, that's the case with every psycho who's ever lived to this day. No one ever went psycho from a game (on the computer, D&D, Checkers or anything else), music (heavy metal, rock, and jazz are all innocent too), or comic books (even the ones about psychos) and if you asked any psychologist (who isn't a part of the Moral Majority or some other radical religious movement) they would laugh at you for suggesting they could. Okay... MAYBE it could work if you had one of those acid feeding, eyelid propping crazy chairs from Clockwork Orange; but otherwise, it's a preposterous suggestion.

The only link that could be made is that someone who is already a psycho may also like violent games, heavy metal music, and the old horror comics, but that doesn't necessarily make it the cause. Psychos probably all like hamburgers too, should we blame the beef industry then? I can see that Thompson d-bag's argument now: "It's meat, it's chopped, and you're just going to hand it over to some gore crazed psychotic case?" You see how preposterous this can get. Guys like him are probably thinking that if this game is released, kids are going to be strangling each other with their nunchuck cords or bludgeoning people to death with their wiimote.

So let's decide, are we going to let a bunch of misguided religious fundamentalists decide what's appropriate entertainment for us? Hey, it works in the mid-east right? If you think so, you better get used to completely tasteful, sterilized, and comforting entertainment all the time, because if these nut cases have it their way, the only people who are going to be entertained in the future are these thoughtless mouth breathers who get a kick out ofthe 700 club and the psychos who, to everyone's surprise I'm sure, will still be out there in full force slicing people up.

When we look at this situation with Manhunt 2's AO to M edit, we can see a dangerous precedent being set here where we may one day have to live our lives to the satisfaction of religious nuts. Look at the state of politics: the able majority isn't listened to in this country, it's the vocal yet completely insane fundamentalists who are so obsessed they write to their congressman everyday about the offensive cleavege they saw on TV. Did you ever watch the Breakfast Club on network TV? It's a very different movie isn't it? They cut out whole scenes and the VO edits are horrible. Can you imagine if it was only possible to purchase the DVD of the cheesy edited for TV version? That isn't an America I want to live in.

I've had my new Nintendo Wii for over a month now and I have to say that I only have two complaints. I'm going to address these two slips because I do not have the time to detail all of the things that I love about Nintendo's little miracle. The first problem is that the "virtual consol" is a total bore. The second is that there doesn't seem to be a really good first person shooter yet.


The virtual consol (as I've mentioned elsewhere on the site) currently has only old games which if I didn't play to death 20 years ago, I could play for free on an emulator. I don't want to encourage anything illegal (at least anything infringing on the rights someone has to their creative work) but who are they trying to kid. Even the least savvy computer novice can find and run an emulator and some roms.


What do I want to see? Some original games. I'm not expecting any geometry wars but I'm sure they could whip up some brain games for the shop. Of course they're probably going to make a $50 disc of that one instead. But even some tried and true games slightly modified for the wiimote would be worth 100-200 points to some. A motion sensitive snake game for example would probably cost one programmer an afternoon and rake in more points than any of the golden oldies they dusted off for the VC.


And if they're going to dust off oldies for the VC, why don't they sell old arcade games that wouldn't even work on the other new systems. I'm thinking about all those old arcade light gun shooters of yesteryear like Chiller (remember that disturbing bit of programming?), Operation Wolf, and Terminator 2. These would be perfect for Nintendo's new controll scheme and could run with the wiimote alone. Yea it might take a little reworking, but I'm sure they would rake in way more points than Mario Bros., NES Soccer, and even the Zelda games. Why is Nintendo reviving the light gun style but neglecting the classic light gun games?


These games would be especially welcome at this point as we don't really have too much shooting action to choose from on the Wii specific lineup. Red Steel was okay but I am glad I waited to see it on sale before buying it; the full $50 price is a bit of a rip off. Call of Duty wasn't the reinvention I expected either. For the system that revolutionised the light gun, they seem to not have the software to really make it shine as a shooter just yet. Most of the other games I've picked up however, do prove that this control scheme works well and can be quite intuitive.


Those are my only problems. Of course neither of these little problems have overshadowed the great big strengths the Wii has going for it and in no way do I regret my purchase or the three hour wait outside the Nintendo World Store. Besides being fun for gamers like my wife & I, friends who never had an interest in games want to get one after trying ours.


The price and the simplicity are proving that this is the most inclusive game system ever. It's certainly less intimidating than the current competitors whose $400+ tag and many buttoned gamepads bewilder most non-gamers. People who lost interest in games when the joystick went beyond one stick and one button are finding the Wii to be the next logical progression from the atari. In the end I believe all the game makers will be on their knees thanking Nintendo for expanding the market like this.

-Gonzo

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/liksang8/petition.html
This is the link to click if you believe Sony overstepped it's bounds in suing Lik-Sang into oblivion. While Sony would like to deny their responsibility for this travesty, it's forcing them to play stupid (which they've been pretty good at lately) by saying their multiple lawsuits didn't directly cause Lik Sang to shut down. However that's dependent on the lie that they weren't aware Lik Sang was not a huge multinational corporation like themselves; unable to defend themselves in all the countries in which they were sued.
For those of you who don't know, Lik Sang was a web shop where one could buy imported games, hardware, and peripherals which are either not available internationally or un-licenced and therefore not sold in all stores. I've bought items there which I couldn't even find in Chinatown. Such as my GBA Movie Player which I use everyday; mostly for reading ebooks and listening to music at the same time. My psp doesn't even do that.
What Sony wanted was revenge on a scapegoat. They blamed Lik Sang for ruining the European market for PSPs when they started selling import PSPs to European customers before the official European release. Some of those who made the purchase were actual high level Sony Europe executives adding the indignity of hypocrisy to this scandal. It was this (Sony claims) which caused the PSP to sell so poorly in Europe rather than the fact that the smell had drifted over from America and Asia where we were already growing bored with the PSP.
While I am mostly just upset about the closing of this site which provided a great service to us gamers, I am left wondering why our friends in Europe always have to wait for new games and hardware. In the case of the PSP, they had to wait so long, everyone lost interest. Currently, Dawn of War: Dark Crusade (which is based on a tabletop battle game from the UK) is out in America a month ahead of Europe. The idea came from Europe and they have to wait.
Well I can't answer that question but I can ask you to sign the petition which will be sent to the High Court of London as well as Sony. While that may not actually DO anything, you can at least let them know that they can't intentionally hurt the gaming community like this and still expect us to buy their overpriced and frail hardware.
When Sony says and does stupid things like this, it just makes me want to sh*+ in my PS2 and send it directly to Phil Harrison.
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/liksang8/petition.html

I'd like to talk to you about "Fanboyism" and the turbulence it seems to sometimes cause in the gaming community. Competition is very useful because it is what drives both people and corporations to innovate and be fair. While some organizations (I'm looking at you FCC) and corporations (I'm also looking at you, every pharmaceutical and media company left) would just as well like to see our antitrust laws disappear so that the conglomerates can charge us whatever they want with as little quality control as they need. Fortunately for us, our government (with exception to many of our most recent leaders) for the most part agrees that fascism is bad and competition between many corporations is the best thing for the common consumer. I find this message to be most relevant to the games industry. Okay so there may only be three major players making game consoles right now but that seems to be enough when you look at the innovations they have brought to the industry.

 

I'm not writing this to warn you of the dangers of monopolies or to bad-mouth the FCC, PTC, and other d-bags of censorship (I have another blog for that), but to warn you and tell all those self proclaimed fanboys that you need not take your preferred console so seriously. While for us it's a game, for the people who make and market these machines, it's a way to make lots of money. Corporations like Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft aren't your buddy they just want to please you enough that you'll want to buy their machine over the others. There's no need for us (as consumers) to become emotionally invested in them and their PR stunts. It's like when (here in NYC) our public transportation workers went on strike. Both the Transit Workers Union and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority were trying to get average New Yorkers to take a side when neither were ever on our side, on the contrary, the MTA wants to suck just enough money out of the public that we'll still pay while the TWU can do the least amount of work necessary. It's something that should be painfully obvious to anyone who's had to negotiate a fare hike into their paycheck or has had a bus driver ignore them & blow past while waiting in the snow.

I've found many fan comments on many sites claiming one corporation's superiority over another and it all seems like a rather large waste of time. Unless you're getting paid for it, you're giving these guys free advertising. Bad and sloppy, but free. Do you think for one second that if you bought every playstation game and machine sony would give you free advertising in any game for whatever product/service you'd come up with? Of course not. Now I think one of the greatest things about the internet is that it's given everybody a chance to give their opinion but once you start blindly agreeing with whatever corporate line is fed to you, you're no longer stating your own opinion, you're just spouting corporate propaganda.

Of course every company has it's own strengths, weaknesses, and high level corporate d-bags who's job it is to tell everybody about their strengths, their competitors' weaknesses, and why their weaknesses are really strengths. What most fanboys forget, is that it comes down to your personal preference. I've been playing games ever since I was a small child and my uncles let me play with their Intellivision, Atari, and Coleco Vision. So, I've played every kind of game. I think this is why I tend to be more partial to unusual games like Trauma Center or Katamari Damacy. Of course I still play FPSs and RTSs but usually only when it's really well made and I'm also especially partial to the background material like the upcoming Dark Crusade expansion for Dawn of War. As a long time fan of Warhammer 40k, a typical RTS simply made to look like the grim darkness of the future wouldn't do it, but as Dawn of war is a most exceptional RTS, I'm very interested. That's responsible "fanboyism."

I can appreciate certain aspects of every console (I just love video games) but of course every console also has it's conflicts with my personal preferences too. Even if I did think of one particular console as being perfect, I'd probably be the only one. I love playing the beautiful xbox(360) games and they've done an excellent job with their (rather expensive for what it is) on line service especially the XBLA games. However I find that many of their games are the same kinds of fps and platformer type games you can get anywhere and they don't have very many of the weirder Geometry Wars (which is cool but not even that innovative) type games available. There's certainly no shortage of weird games on the ps2 (and now the psp, I love rolling around Loco Rocos on the psp and Katamaris on the ps2) but of course you're also taking chances with them as expensive Sony hardware is notorious for breaking down and Sony customer service is notorious about not giving a crap. While you can immolate some less expensive (but less powerful) Nintendo hardware and it'll still work and they certainly don't have any shortage of unique and trippy games: on the contrary, the company mascot loves magic mushrooms more than I do, the big N does have a shortage of the super violent games some of us have been waiting our whole lives to play. You can't even get Burnout Revenge for the Cube. So of course no system is perfect but if you can afford every system, you can get the best of all worlds. I'm not going to suggest you do this, but you should look for whichever one has all of the bells and whistles you feel are important for your gaming experience.

The same goes for the handheld systems. Nowhere do "fanboys" seem more divided than in the handheld arena. If your looking for great graphics, bloodsplatter, and something that does more than games, save up and go with the psp. If you want weird innovative games on a smaller more affordable and durable machine, go with the DS lite. I got both and in all honesty I bring both of them with me when I travel but for my everyday commute, I still use the GBAm the most. All three are great machines but to marry yourself to one and shun the rest is depriving yourself of allot of fun.

Even if there was a "best video game machine" for every generation, people would still buy the other ones anyway. Not out of any sort of misguided loyalty or stubborn need to prove oneself right but just because someone will find the other games amusing. And THAT is the best reason to show appreciation for a game: it entertains you.

For those of you who caught Rep. Joe Pitts racist remarks on how video games affect teens from low income families as was seen on the Daily Show on June 22nd: How dare you! That was only meant for the other racist slobs he works with and he resents making a fool of himself to the voters who view comedy central’s award winning show. At least we don’t have to worry about the future of video games. Between Pitts and Jack Thompson, the movement to marginalize violent video games has been a display of complete ignorance and foolishness championed by the most pathetic of this nation’s walking wounded. And it's not just the Bible licking conservatives either. Now Hillary Clinton wants to put a tax on video games the way we do with cigarettes as if game pads cause cancer. I think that perhaps these politicians don't understand that the game industry can't afford to hire lobbyists to shovel loads of money into Washington because it doesn't make as much money as transportation, energy, and other industries which do.

The fact is (and this really is a fact) that as more and more violent games have come out over the past several years, violence amongst youths has dropped dramatically. Is it a direct relation? Probably not but there is a direct correlation and it makes you wonder why these politicians are so concerned about the affect of video games on teens when they have to be benefiting from them if anything. Most believe that violent video games tend more to pacify ones rage than stoke it.

For example: being stuck in NYC traffic is enough to make you want to run over a few blind people. Even after getting home (especially after trying to find a place to park in NYC) you feel just as enraged as when you were stuck behind the old man with a hat who doesn’t know which pedal makes it go. After playing a little bit of Burnout Revenge, does one feel even angrier? NO; If they did, nobody would play this game. You play it to get out the aggression with a car that can’t hurt anyone in the real world.

So do violent games affect teens? Yes; of course, games relieve them of stress, anxiety, and rage: all things that directly cause people (of every age) to really become violent. Every teenage boy has violent daydreams and there’s probably nothing you can do about that without chemical restraints. All you can do is give them a neutral outlet (like a game-pad or a willing real life sparring partner) so they can work out their aggression in a healthy manner.

Teens can’t vote so of course their needs and feelings are always ignored by politicians. However, parents can vote so of course the politicians are going to say to parents “it’s not our fault” and point the finger at (from what we’ve seen historically) whatever the kids are distracting themselves with at the time, weather it’s movies, comic books, music, or games; all of which have been attacked by irresponsible politicians in the past 100 years. Yea... this bit is getting old but many parents still fawn over any politician who can convince them that they aren’t responsible for how their children deal with stress, anxiety, and rage. There are healthy ways and unhealthy ways. Video games are healthy because they diffuse these feelings onto a machine.

Of course there’s always going to be those people who are gullible enough to buy every little bit of propaganda and BS politicians spew to keep their jobs, but I can’t help but feel sorry for those slobs because politicians aren’t the most dangerous predator stalking them.

As for the politicians themselves, I believe they should try fixing the real problems kids are facing. Like the fact that our educational system was developed during the industrial revolution to train people to work in factories. Well we're living in the information age now and all of the factory work has been shipped overseas so I don't think that we can afford to waste time saying that this bit or that bit of popular culture is damaging our children when it seems to be political culture which is the biggest threat to their futures. And since I'm certainly not going to blame the teachers (who are told specifically what and how to teach) I'm only left to blame the policy makers who have been too lazy to help the new generations prepare for the future.

Joe Pitts, Jack Thompson, Hillary Clinton, and the rest of you haters must be high on crack if you think video games are the biggest threat to kids. I think politicians like you who only care about stroking the latest group of 'hot constituents', are the biggest threat to young people today. Playing GTA makes me calm after a long day, listening to you makes me want to strangle someone.