Lawsuit up!

Something game related finally.

So, I’m all okay with game companies. I don’t believe they’re evil corporate jerks who sit in an office made of gold, discussing around a dark table how to best exploit us. They’re businessmen, that’s what they are. So the only real difference is that they have an excuse. But anyway, while suing a game company is okay if the cause is just, it just is too much sometime. Allow me to take a little part out of an article from my favorite online magazine, The Escapist:

“Agoraphobic PS3 Owner Sues Sony over PSN Ban

Erik Estavillo is suing Sony over being banned from PlayStation Network, claiming that the company violated his right to free speech and has caused him pain by removing his only form of socialization, as he suffers from agoraphobia.

PlayStation Network is important to Erik Estavillo, so when the San Jose resident was banned for inappropriate behavior in Resistance, he had to do something to get it back: file a lawsuit. Estavillo, then, is suing Sony for repressing his constitutional right to free speech and causing him pain and suffering.

The lawsuit claims that Estavillo was “exercising his First Amendment Right to Freedom of Speech” in the game’s “public forum” (guessing this refers to the official Resistance message board?) when moderators, who the suit alleges are biased, banned him from Resistance and PlayStation Network altogether.

Taking away his right to free speech would be one thing, but in addition to that, the suit claims that the ban “has caused pain and suffering to an already disabled plaintiff.” Estavillo, it seems, suffers from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder, Major Depression and Crohn’s Disease. To ban him from PSN robbed him of one of the few sources of pleasure in his life, as Estavillo is an agoraphobic (he’s afraid of crowds) who “relies on [PSN] to socialize with other people, since it’s the only way the plaintiff can truly socialize,” the suit states.

The suit states that Estavillo has medical documents to prove that he really suffers from all those conditions, and okay, if he’s not lying, that really sucks. But this is just plain ridiculous. Estavillo is asking for $55,000 in punitive damages as well as “pain and suffering damages.”"

Okay, it’s cool so far. The guy obviously has issues. But, illness or not, the friendly people at Sony doesn’t like their customers get verbally abused. So something had to be done. Yes, you have issues, but those are the rules. You may not yell at people.

At first, this guy seemed reasonable. But then, this came up:

“Agoraphobic PS3 Owner Sues Microsoft, Nintendo

The agoraphobic PS3 owner who sued Sony because he was banned from the PlayStation Network has launched two new lawsuits, this time against Microsoft and Nintendo.

Erik Estavillo sued Sony after being banned from the PlayStation Network earlier this year for “inappropriate behavior” while playing Resistance: Fall of Man, seeking $55,000 in punitive damages and “pain and suffering.” The case was dismissed in October, with Judge Ronald Whyte ruling that PSN couldn’t be held to the same First Amendment standards as a state-owned body and thus hadn’t actually violated his rights. Nonetheless, Estavillo announced later in the month he had appealed the dismissal and also filed a second civil suit against Sony for $180,000 in damages.

Apparently not wanting anyone to feel left out, Estavillo has now filed suits against the other two console manufacturers as well. He’s seeking $75,000 from Microsoft as a result of his console being hit by the Red Ring of Death; he can’t afford to repair or replace the unit because he’s disabled, he said, so he’s seeking compensation for the “undue stress” he’s suffered since the demise of the unit and the “sadness he will have in the meantime of finding one he can afford.”

His lawsuit against Nintendo, meanwhile, centers around the 4.3 update to the Wii firmware, which disabled the Homebrew Channel. Estavillo used the Homebrew Channel to unlock characters in Mario Kart Wii and the only way to unlock them without it is to purchase Super Mario Galaxy, essentially “forcing customers to buy another game to unlock one character in a different game.” Estavillo is seeking $5,000 from Nintendo as well as an injunction against “deleting, blocking or prohibiting the Homebrew Channel and Ocarina applications.”

Estavillo, who said he also suffers from depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder and Crohn’s disease, plans to file similar lawsuits at the state level as well.”

Wait, what? Let’s take this piece by piece. First, you sued Microsoft for RROD? They’ve already stated that you can get that, you can’t sue them for something that happens to EVERY console. Besides, you can, you know, fix it or get the Elite version.

Also, he sues Nintendo? For bad firmware update? How about, you know, calling support and waiting until the next update comes? Or are you that obsessed with getting all the Mario Kart characters by the end of the week. Patience, young Padawan.

Also, “plans to file similar lawsuits at the state level as well.” You just shot yourself in the foot, kiddo. You basically revealed that those lawsuits have nothing to do with damages. You’re just an attention whore, and a bad one at that. Or do you think that there is actual money to gain here? But wait, there’s more:

“Agoraphobe Sues Activision Over “Hurtful” World of Warcraft

The crazy-ass bastard who sued Sony over a PlayStation Network ban and then launched suits against Microsoft and Nintendo has fired one last litigational salvo: He’s suing Activision Blizzard because World of Warcraft isn’t fun enough.

The story of Erik Estavillo should be familiar to all of us by now: The agoraphobic gamer filed a lawsuit against Sony in July for banning him from the PlayStation Network for “inappropriate behavior” while playing Resistance: Fall of Man and then last week began a pair of sequel lawsuits against Microsoft and Nintendo for the Red Ring of Death and the 4.3 update to the Wii firmware respectively. But that’s not the end of it; today he announced his “final lawsuit,” filed against Activision Blizzard because World of Warcraft isn’t fun enough.

I make that point twice because although it may sound like a joke, it’s not. Estavillo’s complaint essentially breaks down like this: Blizzard charges too much money for World of Warcraft, a problem exacerbated by the fact that the game doesn’t let people move around fast enough until they’ve sunk enough time and money into it to buy a mount or a “teleportation stone.” But mentally ill people who rely on MMOGs as their primary form of entertainment and contact with the outside world have a tendency to die when they’re deprived of them and since Estavillo himself is mentally ill and doesn’t want to end up like all the other dead MMOGers out there, he wants the game “fixed.”

Oh, and he wants a million bucks in punitive damages “for creating a game which hurts gamers rather than being a bridge of entertainment for them to pursue happiness.”

But wait, there’s more! To support his case, Estavillo has subpoenaed both Martin Lee Gore of Depeche Mode and actress Winona Ryder to testify. “[Gore] will be a witness on ‘alienation’ and the ties it has to World of Warcraft, since he himself has been known to be sad, lonely, and alienated as can be seen in the songs he writes,” he explained in an email to The Escapist.

“[Ryder] and I share a common interest in the book Catcher in the Rye, which is all about alienation,” he continued. “She will be a witness that can explain the significance of alienation in Catcher in the Rye (since she bought one of the original printed copies at an auction) and will also testify to how alienation in the book can tie to alienation in real life/video games such as World of Warcraft.”

It’s quite clear at this point that one of two things is happening here: Either Estavillo is a total nutcase – not just agoraphobic, OCD and all the rest, but completely out of his tree – or these lawsuits are a buildup to some sort of unfathomable attention-whoring punchline. It’s a dangerous game; according to Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, people who knowingly bring a frivolous lawsuit before the courts can be slapped with some pretty hefty fines.

And yet… Is there a third possibility that we’re overlooking? Could all of this in fact be another stealth ad from the wild and crazy guys at the Dante’s Inferno marketing team? Is it sloth? Will it be greed? Is it possible that this series of insane lawsuits will turn out to be the most insidious advertisement ever? Of course not – although as explanations go, it makes about as much sense as anything else involved in this case. (And if it is, I’m totally buying the game just for the sheer awesomeness of the marketing.)”

DAAAAAAHH! *slams head in table* What has this world come to!?

First of all, that’s the reason you’re suing Blizzard? Why not just sue them over Starcraft’s lack of LAN? And while you’re at it, sue Infinity Ward for Modern Warfare 2’s lack of dedicated servers. This has to stop.

If you have such a problem with WoW, why are you playing it? Play something else. I hear that Champions Online and Aion is new. The game isn’t designed for mentally ill attention-whores like you, it’s designed for normal shut-in nerds like other gamers. Why shouldn’t Blizzard make money that way, it’s called genius game play design. As said, they’re business men, they’re job is to make money. Also, how many of the 11 million players have you seen complain about this? They can’t fix it to fit one out of several million players.

And what!? You’re calling in Martin Gore, the best song-writer in the world? What has he to do with anything? Oh sure, he’s made songs about alienation, but what has that to do with WoW? He hasn’t ever mentioned it. There are other things that can alienate, and many of them far worse than a bad game. Like, I don’t know, having a divorce, having close ones almost die, go through depression. There are far worse things. And you’re calling in Winona Ryder cause she read the same book as you and liked it? Oh my God, there aren’t like millions of people who liked that book! I don’t think the author wrote the book with the intent to be used in a lawsuit against video games. Get a grip! Seriously, do you have some sort of grudge against video games? Then stop playing and do something else if it isn’t good enough. Wouldn’t it just be easier to get your own developer team to make your dream game? Nobody is forcing you to put up with any of the stuff you’re pissed about. You can just as well do something else. Oh wait, no you can’t, cause then you will end up suing that too.

God, now I’m pissed.

Unhappy, but satisfied

(Yet again, nothing about games. Boy, this is starting to derail. Guess there’s not much interesting about games lately.)

I’ve been having a lot of thoughts lately. Or that depends. How do you define lately? I’ve been having these kind of thoughts for years on end. Am I happy? What am I doing with my life? Why do I keep myself locked in a box, not coming out and meeting people? I’ve had so many speculations about this, and I just can’t get a definite answer. Maybe it’s fear, maybe it’s shyness, maybe it’s that I don’t care about going out. Everyone says “you need to get out more”, but why? I’m not what some would call good at socializing. I only have a few friends, and most I’m not particularly close to. Maybe that’s why I sit here all day.

I dream of having a better life. Having more friends. Being more happy. Not being such a social reject. I’m sure I’m able to do this, but I just don’t have the energy or guts to change anything. And even if I had, I don’t know how. Maybe it’s cause I became a shut-in so early in my life, but I know nothing of making friends. I know nothing of small talking. Next to everyone I’ve almost become friends with doesn’t find me fun. It’s a curse thrown upon me. Maybe that’s why I obsess about games, computers, and music. It distracts me. It gives me a temporary bliss until I’m thrown back into reality.

I don’t know if I’m happy or not. Judging by what I’ve written, you can probably assume that I’m miserable. And that’s probably true. But I also have no wish of becoming one of those teenage idiots who go to parties and drink themselves retarded and smoke their lungs black. I almost despise them. I don’t know why people would want to do that? Poison themselves for a temporary rush, doing stuff that will only get them incarcerated, yelled at, or worse. I don’t get why people are like that. Sure, I’m one to talk, I barely have a social life, but you know what? If I had to choose between those two, I’d choose being who I am every time.  I don’t want to be someone who starts drinking/smoking at the age of 14 or 15. I may sound like a complete mama’s boy, but I don’t see the good things about that. I’d rather be unhappy than drunk and stoned.

I’ve never taken an alcohol-filled drink. Why should I? I’ve never smoked. Why should I? I don’t have a girlfriend or anything, but I’ve never had, I don’t even know what it’s like, so why should I care? There’s barely anyone I know who I have any kind of interest in anyway. And even though I’ve seemingly been interested in people, nobody wants me anyway. Why should I try to fit into a world that doesn’t give a flying shit about me? I’ve known people who seem to care, but I can make an estimate guess that most of them do it out of pity. Remove all that, and who would want to be with me? I don’t know. I can’t separate friend from foe. I can’t even tell if I’m my own friend or foe.

But you know what? I’m fucking happy anyway compared to what I could have been. I may be lonely and don’t have any social skills. But everything else just seems like shit. Sure, I could go better. But why should I bother? Maybe I could be more happy, but until the world starts giving two shits about me, I’m bloody satisfied about the way I am. It may sound narcissistic and egoistical, but I like to believe that I stand on a higher intellect than most people. There are few sensible people left, and while I’m not the most sensible one, at least I don’t go out and ruin my life for the sake of small rushes. I may be addicted to the Internet and my only friends are the anonymous people there. But what does it matter? I’m glad. At least the people I know on The Escapist and Twitter and such are more kind than the people outside my house. I may sit on my ass playing guitar all day, but at least I’m doing something constructive.

At least I’m aspiring for something rather than just not worrying about the future. You know why? Cause you should worry. The future is your future. Sure, you could drink until your brain hates you, but what about in a few years when you’re lying in the gutter, homeless, unemployed, and with a ruined life. Where will I be then? I’ll have an education, and maybe even reach my dreams of working in music business. Who’s the one with the bad life then? Maybe I still could have some more friends and more to do, but it could just as well be worse. So anyone ho’s got a problem with my life-style, go fuck yourself.

Anyway, sorry for the long rant. I just needed to vent my feelings.

Global warming, and a note from Save Capitalism

(No gaming talk this time, kids, come back some other time.)

I wouldn’t say I’m what the social dictionary likes to call a “normal person”, and due to this I’m not surprised that few take me seriously and call me strange things. And while I have some radical views, it’s not for the sake of being radical that I have them. Economy, climate change, politics, etc. aren’t subjects I’d call myself educated in. But I know what needs to be known to formulate an opinion, which many sadly don’t seem to think.

What I’m trying to bring up is a note about global warming, a subject that I like to avoid, cause spilling out my opinion will probably get me beat up on the streets, but I’ve made clear on occasions what I think of it. People obviously think that the earth is getting warmer, and that it’s our fault. And I tend to disagree with that. And whenever I say that, everyone brings up the denial card that has been my enemy for so long, so after using it they refuse to listen.  Firstly (WARNING, there are opinions in this post! All idiots please exit the area.), I think it’s not that big a deal, the planet has gone through worse than us, we’re just a mere nuisance.  Earth has existed for around 4-5 billion years according to science, and life started to exist around 1 billion years ago. Humans, those narcissistic pricks, have existed around 200,000 years. During our existence, we have slowly developed without harming Earth, until around 200 years ago, when industrialization kicked in. Since then we have been puking out carbon dioxide. 200 years of carbon dioxide, against 4 billion years of natural disasters and destruction. Let’s make some math. 200 out of 4,000,000,000 years is around 0,000005%. Do you see how small of a fraction we are?

Secondly; Just like the theory of rise in usage of carbon dioxide=rise in temperature, there are also theories that excuse us. So let us accept the excuse and take a look, shall we? If you believe that the earth is warming, the reason for that is perfectly clear. Ever heard of the Little Ice Age? It was a period during time, probably around the 13th century, where Earth slowly got colder. And it continued getting colder, until around the mid-19th century. So, if the Earth has been crazy cold a few hundreds years ago, shouldn’t it take time for it to recover? According to research,  yes, it should. That’s one reason for Earth to get warmer. And besides, Earth has been much hotter before. According to many charts, Earth has gone from warm to cold like a roller-coaster, and we’re still sitting in it. Why would it stop?

Also, if you’ve been looking at the graphs released by the environment scientists, you’ll see a trend called “the hockey-stick effect”. If you don’t get what I mean, it’s basically that all graphs start out low with some few ups and downs, but then rises up at the end like it’s trying to win the Olympics. The problem with this, is that many (if not all) are incorrect due to the fact that the measuring of the last hundreds of years are barely measurable at all. So the reason that it looks like that is cause the measuring is wrong. Not that they’ll tell you that.

One thing that really got me interested was the measuring of temperature through checking the stem of trees. They vary in size width depending on temperature. The thing is, the graph that shows this, is from one tree. ONE. FUCKING. TREE! I mean, what if that tree has been affected by other natural phenomenons? What if it had gotten other disasters over it? Wouldn’t that change the structure?

Another thing that should get your attention is that a study showed that around 75% of the devices for measuring temperature in America are highly inaccurate. You might now think, don’t you think the government would know that? Well, maybe they do, maybe they don’t. Maybe they’re blind idiots, or maybe they’re diabolical geniuses. What could the government possibly earn by making us believe this? Power, that’s what. The only way to stop “global warming” is for everyone submitting themselves and letting the government get control over our lives. They give us false reassurance and convincing us that the day is saved, and still keeping their power over us.

If you don’t believe me, I don’t blame you. I’m no scientist, and I’m barely educated in this subject. I don’t know what’s true, many don’t.  To me, the climate question is becoming more of a two-sided religion, with one side having Al Gore as God. I don’t have anything against global warming being true. I do, however, have a problem with the government getting too much power and intruding on our lives. And I don’t have much power to do anything. All I can do is try to spread the word to the readers. And hopefully, people will lend me their ear so I can tell them to look into both sides of the fight, rather than just one side and being as stubborn as a donkey sinking down in quicksand, refusing to accept help. I’m not saying we shouldn’t worry, but there are just as much proof of one side as the other.

No normal man can figure this shit out, the only ones who can really figure this out are the scientists (and sometimes not even them, as proven). All the rest of us are just the ones who find our own logic in it.

Here’s a link to a blog that I occasionally read, called Save Capitalism (you can find it on the sidebar), with some posts regarding this subject. He knows more than me, and provides some better sources.

Hopefully this helped, and if it didn’t affect your opinion, I’ll see you when the Earth is doomed, either by the warming, or the government robots guarding our houses, not letting us leave. Either way, I’m moving to Canada to escape this.

As for you, if you still want to help, I’ve got two words for you: Stop breathing!

Sources: http–epw.senate.gov-public-index.cfmFuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=83947f5d-d84a-4a84-ad5d-6e2d71db52d9&CFID=300384&CFTOKEN=41534480

On the determination of climate feedbacks from ERBE data

Anthropogenic Global Warming – Fact or Hoax? An editorial by James A. Peden

Global-warming myth – Washington Times

Global Climate Explained

http://www.leif.org/EOS/2009GL039628-pip.pdf

http://wattsupwiththat.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zOXmJ4jd-8 (This is probably the best of them. He goes through all scientific facts and non-facts, and he makes his points very clear.)

(I may add some more to the post, and hopefully some more tasty sources. Yum, knowledge.)

Update on the controversy

Has been a while since I posted, have not had much to say, I’ve been too busy playing on guitars and doing things that matters instead of blogging about games like some loser. Just joking of course, games are still as entertaining to rag on as always. Anyway, with more controversial “IRL game deaths” as I call them happening, I thought I’d once again point out where the emphasis is wrong in the endless bullshit that is the news.

First news headline: “Houston Dad Killed Son Over Videogame”

There’s probably more to it than that. Let’s take a look. A man comes home very drunk to his wife and kid and starts arguing about a lost video game. The kid eventually gets involved, and the father brings out a gun and shoots him in the neck.

The flaws here? Even though the title is true, it emphasizes the videogame too much. It’d be better if it were as simple as “Houston Dad Killed Son During Argument”, or “Houston Dad Killed Son While Drunk” or “Drunk Idiot Kills Innocent Son Due To Being An Idiot”. But I guess that doesn’t sound as good or alarming enough to the brainless morons that buy these stories like me buying games on a bored afternoon. The problem is that it could just as well have been a fight over losing the TV remote, the porkchop for next day, or whatever. But no, they feed us these titles to prevent this from happening. Well, you’re doing it wrong. Games actually help.

Second headline (this is actually my favourite): “Japanese Man Burns Down House Over Gundam Models”.

A 29 year old Japanese man who lives at home with his mother (I repeat, “with his mother”!) burnt down their house when his mother threw out his Gundam models. Now, Gundam models aren’t exactly cheap. If you’re a hardcore collector, as this guy seems to be, those several Gundam models could have cost him several thousand dollars totally.

Granted, this has nothing to do with video games per se, but it has to do with the same kind of nerdy people who are yet to find a girlfriend and sits at home in a beanbag with a bag of Doritos in their lap.

Now I’d be pretty pissed if I owned a set of guitars worth a bunch of thousand dollar bills, and somebody decided to play rock star and smash them on the floor. So this is probably how that guy feels. He’d been an avid collector and just lost a whole lot of money and time collecting. Of course, that is never a legit excuse to burn down your (I’m sorry, your mothers) house, but his rage wasn’t without reason. But I don’t think he was really healthy in his head. I mean, he lived at home with his mom, for starters. And as usual, it could be a sign of bad raising or mental disorder, so one of these probably triggered it. Unfortunately, I have no more information, but seeing as he seemed to be willing to kill himself over some Gundam models, it seems that he’s been deprived from social activities with real people, and maybe he has some disorder that prevents him from that.

Also, who the hell throws out Gundam models worth thousands of dollars!?

Next one up (this one makes me ashamed over being Swedish): “Swedish Gamer Stabs Girl Over Dropped Internet Connection”.

Ah, nerd-rage. Don’t you just hate being disconnected from a game of Starcraft? I want you to take a moment and tell me what you do whenever something like that happens to you. Do you move on? Do you take a bath? Smash your fist in the wall? Cut yourself? Or, do you do like this guy, and grab a kitchen knife, go for a walk, and stab nearest person you see? If the answer is yes, I suggest going to the hospital for a check-up, cause there’s something wrong with your brain. Fortunately, the girl wasn’t killed, and the guy got psychiatric help. So at least they realized that it’s his brain it’s wrong with, and not Starcraft. While games like Starcraft makes you eager and competitive, you can also get competitive by other things, like a game of poker. Wouldn’t you get frustrated if you lost 1,000$ in a game of Texas Hold ‘Em? Granted, this is not as serious, but the sense of losing is essentially the same.

Well, this has been fun, I may add some more info on media stupidity, but for now, I’ll leave.

Oh, and another thing. I just thought I might mention this. A prisoner recently escaped from a prison Metal Gear style by sneaking out through a box. That is both hilarious and clever. Of course this will make the news reporters gab on, but let me just say that the fact that you can hide in a box isn’t exactly new.

And here’s a thing I was happy to hear: “Buddhist Religious Leader Says Games Satiate Aggression”

Finally, some praise for the video game industry. The big Buddhist himself, Trinley Dorje, says that games actually stop you from stabbing people (and all news reporters who know of this, got their socks blown off). Here is what he said:

“Well, I view video games as something of an emotional therapy, a mundane level of emotional therapy for me. We all have emotions whether we’re Buddhist practitioners or not, all of us have emotions, happy emotions, sad emotions, displeased emotions and we need to figure out a way to deal with them when they arise.

So, for me sometimes it can be a relief, a kind of decompression to just play some video games. If I’m having some negative thoughts or negative feelings, video games are one way in which I can release that energy in the context of the illusion of the game. I feel better afterwards.

The aggression that comes out in the video game satiates whatever desire I might have to express that feeling. For me, that’s very skilful because when I do that I don’t have to go and hit anyone over the head.”

I think every gamer on Earth can agree that games relieve stress and frustration. Believe me, there have been several times when I’ve wanted to hurt someone for various reasons, and you know what I do? I play a game, and take my anger out on the emotionless pixels. Who needs therapy, games are just as good. It gets my bottled up anger out without having to hurt anyone except my wallet. For all gamers out there, praise this man, he is your new guide.

Christ, abortion, and other things

All righty then, controversy creating title, check. Now on to the real subject.

So I’ve been watching some videos on Youtube (some Steven Crowder to be precise) on several hot topics, such as religion, gun ban, etc. And While trying to fit my opinion into the abused 300 limit Youtube spam box, and the 140 letter Twitter thingy, I’ve not been able to bring out my opinion in a steady way. So I’ll bring some of them up here. Even though this has nothing to do with games, it could still be worth reading, even for those expecting game talk.

First off, the gun ban. Now, before anything, I’m not politically biased towards Obama. In fact, I’m not much politically biased at all, except for some specific views. And this particular thing, awoke a certain opinion. You see, while some are for this ban, and some against it, it’s hard to choose a side. On one hand, we got the individual rights people, who claim that they are in their full right to own machine guns. Now, I’m very much towards the individual rights, but I’m still leaning towards the other hand, those who claim that we need to protect the community more. And I have to say, I’m a bit torn. My view on guns, is that you should be able to defend yourself if necessary with guns. But the list of banned weapons lean more towards machine guns. And I find that acceptable. Yeah, yeah, you might be a gun enthusiast who gets a hard-on from the sound of your M4A1 piercing through the blood and bone of some filthy criminal, but it could be just as fun with a normal hand-gun. Besides, if it’s for protection, you’re better off with hand-guns, cause if you bring out an assault rifle when you’re house is invaded, one of you could possibly die. Don’t get me wrong, you can kill with a hand-gun, but it’s easier to render someone harmless with a hand-gun. Now some may say “If someone walks up on my property, I’ll shoot them in the head”, and to that I serve you the moral rules of home protection (written by me).

If someone robs your house, you do this. You take out your Beretta, or whatever hand-gun you have. Not your assault rifle or shotgun, or hand grenade. Your hand-gun.  Now, when you walk into the room, gun up and ready, you do not shoot the second you see him. You aim at him, and tell him to stop and leave your property. Make him aware that you’re armed. If he doesn’t stop, tell him that if he doesn’t you will shoot him in the leg. Not the head. The leg. No need for murder here. And if he still doesn’t leave, then you’re allowed to shoot him in the leg. Wasn’t it worth the wait? Now some of you may think that you’re in your full right to kill him, but you’re not. If he comes with his own weapon, and you’re untrained, you still aren’t supposed to try to shoot him in the head, you should rather try the leg or shoulder (if you get the shoulder, how is he supposed to hold his hand up properly). But if you would panic, and shoot him in the head or chest, that could serve as self-defence, as long as it isn’t intentional.

The only thing I disagree on with the ban list, is the ban on all semi-automatic weapons. We cannot all be expected to be using revolvers. A semi-automatic hand-gun is better for protecting. That’s where my limit is drawn.

Next on the list, abortion, a question asked for years. I know it’s long overdue, but what the hell, I might as well take my opinion.

First of all, let me say that I’m pro-choice. I believe that every woman has the right to have an abortion. I don’t mean to offend, but I find it morally wrong for people to try to deny that. To ban abortion is imposing on another person’s right. I’m not saying that you should be able to do abortions whenever you want and forget about condoms, cause that is sheer idiocy right there. But if a woman is raped, or your condom is broken, you should be allowed to get an abortion, cause you never planned to get pregnant and it happened by accident. And for those who say that abortion is killing and thus against the law, I give you the fact that we have yet not fully identified life, but through science, it starts around the time the baby has a brain and can feel pain. That’s where the abortion last minute call is for me. Before that, it’s all cool for me. But this is where the child of God argument comes in, and sanctity of life and all that. Those who claim that life starts before the organism has a brain, bring just as much logic as if bacteria is sacred. So in that manner, maybe you should accept the bacteria infecting you and killing you. And while people who don’t think that still are pro-life, I give all of you the fact that for some, the child would possibly choose it’s own abortion, cause many aren’t ready to be parents, and the children will have a very weird youth while growing up. And while this is only a small thing, if we stopped thinking about the children, and started thinking through the mother’s perspective, we get another picture. For a mother who isn’t ready, it could be devastating, scary, and traumatising. So, until we negotiate through when life starts, there is no murder behind abortion.

Speaking of life, sacred stuff, there is a lot of talk about Jesus. You know him. White robe, almighty son of God, etc. Well, let me bring you down to Earth, Jesus, cause the real deal.

While I haven’t read the Bible, most stuff in it is common fact burned into the conscience of human beings. And everyone talks about good old Jesus and how he was so holy and shit. But here’s the cold truth. Outside of a religious perspective, Jesus wasn’t the son of God. In fact, he could have been a madman. Cause, if you look into it, they talk about the second coming of Christ. But can you imagine what would happen if a bearded man in a white robe came today, claiming to be the son of God? He’d probably go to an asylum. Cause if you go to a mental hospital, you’ll see dozens of people claiming to be Jesus. And while this is the sad truth of the modern world, nobody knows of how the real Jesus was. But, scientifically, he might as well have been a nut-job. Sorry to destroy your religion there.

But, even though I’m usually a rational human being, I don’t believe that Jesus was a nut-job. I’m in fact a fairly religious person. But I don’t believe that he had superpowers either. If you’re a fundamentalist you might think so, but if you look from a different perspective, the New Testament is actually mostly symbolic. When Jesus claimed to be the son of God, I don’t think he meant that he was the “chosen one” in some kind of manner. He just meant that everyone’s a child of God. And this is where he comes in as more of a preacher rather than a Christianity-themed Super Man. When he, for example, “turned water into wine”, he could have said that they should appreciate what they have, so the people appreciated the water so much that it was just like wine. Also, “walked on water”? Allow me to inform that the Bible is roughly translated from the Hebrew language, and the word for that also means “swim”. So, it might be possible that he taught the people how to swim, or he just wanted to take a swim. Who knows? All I’m saying with these examples, is that Jesus wasn’t super-human or anyone special. In fact, he probably didn’t look anything like the pictures like us to believe. If science tells us right, he was actually as poor and ugly as the next guy. Unbrushed hair, yellow teeth, no teeth, torn clothes and a bad physical structure on his body. Let me remind that this was the beginning of the first century, and people looked awful then, and if Jesus was no exception, then he must have been so too. There were no toothbrushes or combs then, and I don’t think God gave him the power of good looks. He might as well just have been a normal person, speaking well of goodness and God and being nicer to one another. And that’s totally acceptable. What is blasphemous about this, is that if this is all true, then Christianity doesn’t technically exist. Cause Christianity is the religion of the New Testament, based on Jesus. And if he wasn’t their Superman, then their religion is just Judaism + a bearded fellow being a bit nice. And then everything, churches, the Pope, Luther, everything on this, is fake. So this is where people get sensitive. But hey, I’m not here to say that you’re wrong, but I don’t believe this at all. I believe in a higher power, that doesn’t meddle with our lives, but with our dead souls. And when we die, he’ll reach out a hand, and help us out. So don’t be mad, cause we’re all the same. Looking for something to believe in, wanting more than life, and that’s acceptable, it’s human nature, but it isn’t necessarily wrong. It gives some motivation, and we should respect that.

Well, that’s all for today, class, I may expand this later, but right now it’s 2AM where I live, so I’m going to leave. Thanks for reading.

“Why so unserious?”

I’m sitting here on my littered desk, trying to think of words for this next post, and all I got to think about is a sad book that I finished reading over 6 hours ago and that still got me depressed.  So the thought occurred, why are there barely any games that do that? Games that go right into your heart, makes you sympathize and makes you grow an attachment to the story. I’ve played hundreds of games, and only a few have passed this test.

An example, Final Fantasy VII. While the game stands for everything stereotypical in Japanese RPG’s, the story was one of the best I’ve ever encountered in gaming. I’ll try to keep it short with the story so it doesn’t turn into a full review.

You play Cloud Strife, a mysterious, lonely misanthrope who joins a group of rebels along with his childhood friend Tifa fighting against an evil corporation (named Shinra) running the capital city of the world that’s slowly destroying the planet. A corporation that our dear Cloud once was a part of. They later find a girl (named Aeris) that is an Ancient, an extinct race of people who have the power to communicate with the planet and have remarkable powers over it. She then gets kidnapped by Shinra for experiments to try to breed new Ancients and find the Promised Land, a land that is suggested to have loads of Mako (the energy that the corporation is using and the source for all electricity and such). After saving her, they find the President of Shinra dead with a 7 feet sword up the ass, and they find out that the murderer is Sephiroth, also a previous soldier of the corporation who is believed to be the son of Jenova, a very powerful Ancient.

What really drew me into the game was the development as Cloud as a character. While he is a misanthrope who couldn’t care less for the world, the game revolves mostly about his dark past, and how he is manipulated by Sephiroth.  I’m going to give some spoilers here, so if you haven’t played the game or just don’t want to hear, feel free to not look into the marked paragraph. It’s going to be like a whole summary of the story.

As the game develops and you get closer to catching Sephiroth, they discover how he’s looking for the magic item called Black Materia, a Materia (the essence of ancients) that can summon a meteor to destroy the planet. Of course, this seems like something they should stop. When they finally take it before him, he somehow takes control over Cloud and makes him hand over the Materia. And as you see him slowly walk towards Sephiroth, you take control over a ghost representing Cloud as a kid, who tries to stop the real Cloud. It’s a very clever moment that reveals how Cloud is not driven by his own will, and that his own will has no meaning.

Later on, Aeris has left, telling Cloud in his dream that she doesn’t want him to come, cause she worries too much, while she knows how to stop Sephiroth and aims to do it herself. They then follow her, cause they don’t want her to go alone to meet Sephiroth. When they finally find her, you see Cloud standing in front of her while she prayes, taking out his sword and tries to kill her, which confuses the player a lot, but as before, his mind is not present to his actions. Then you see Sephiroth coming down from the roof with his sword out, and killing Aeris herself. A scene shown in great description, as you see a small Materia, once her most treasured possession, falling into a small lake beneath them, while a beautiful piano hymn plays. It was at that point that the game turned into one of my favourite games, cause it showed so many emotions as Cloud stood there with Aeris in his hands. Anger, despair, sadness, confusion. And that is where the story gets the most interesting. As they continue without Aeris, they shortly after finds Aeris hometown, which shows a very sad irony, and when they find Sephiroth again, he once again toys with Cloud’s mind as they’ve reclaimed the Black Materia, and then makes him give it to him.

But the killing blow, the absolute creussendo of the story is almost by the end, when Cloud has disappeared and you find him in a hospital, poisoned by Mako, as he sits in a wheelchair and mumbles weird stuff about Sephiroth.He then gets saved by his childhood friend Tifa, who falls into a crater of Mako with him, and is stuck in the depths of his subconciousness as they go through his memories, trying to assemble the memories of his destroyed, scattered mind. That was the thing that really showed the despair and emptiness of Cloud, how lonely and disjointed he was, what really made me sympathize with him and connect with him.

There, now my fan rant is over. My point is, that that story made me sad, interested, and a bunch of other emotions, and it kept me going to the end, while most games have shallow, boring stories with obvious endings and boring plot twists that aren’t even unexpected. It’s boring to see how game developers aim all their force on game play rather than story, cause if you make an 8 hour game with great game play, it’s all for nothing cause after you’ve seen it all for the first 4 hours, there’s nothing to keep you going, unless you have a good story. If developers only figured this out, then maybe they would hire real writers, and they could make better games with serious, heart tugging events. Or they already know, and make money on hyping games up and then earning criticism for it. But if you sit on a stockpile of money with two beautiful supermodels wrapped around your arms, I suppose you’ve stopped caring what others think. Yes, ain’t it a great life, Bobby Kotick?

“Mainstream” and “hardcore”, the two fists of the gaming industry

Mainstream; one of the most overused words  in the gaming industry. By definition the word mainstream is a word meaning ” belonging to or characteristic of a principal, dominant, or widely accepted group, movement, style, etc.” And if you’ve played games for the latest years or so, and maybe have looked into forums and such, you will have encountered this word in correlation with many game titles. I will state a few examples.

First runner up, Halo. An FPS first started back in 2001 as the starting title for the Xbox. It was widely recognised as the game that brought popularity to the elements of regenerating health, limited weapons, etc. It became popular quick and is now known as one of the biggest series in gaming. But there has always people hiding behind the crowd of drooling fan-boys, mumbling to themselves over how it is and has always been an over-hyped title only continued to suck money out of the shallow players. Some arguments are more valid, some are less, and this franchise has nonetheless over the years been a punching bag as well as a gentle lover for gamers.  The word that describes it most by gamers that dislike it, is “mainstream”. And that may be true, but it’s a flawed insult. You see, when the first title in the series was developed, it was one of the first of it’s kind. It was new, radical, and fun to FPS fans who wanted more than Doom and Quake. And before you say that it’s mainstream cause it’s released the same game over and over, let me first say that the gaming industry is a two-sided business. On the one side, we have the gamers, who just want to have fun with their games, and there is the other side, the creators, who have one out of two reasons to create games: to please gamers, or make money. And Halo has both of those aspects. While they don’t innovate as much anymore with their games, they’re able to please the fans of their games, and they’re making much money. They’re logic is that they’ve already got a huge audience of Halo lovers who’d love to throw money at them, and they are using that opportunity as well as pleasing their core audience. And I can understand that to a point, cause they’re doing their job, and getting well paid for it. There will always be people who criticize their work, but there will also always be people who praise it, you just have to choose. A while ago, I wrote a review on Halo 3 (I put it up on The Escapist, but chose not to put it up here, I felt a bit unfair to the game after a while), and while it wasn’t that good a game, mainly cause it ripped off itself too much, it was still not a “bad” game, but it is mainstream, it feels like it’s designed for the fans, cause it gives those who love that kind of game what they want, which is what turned me off a bit. It could be fun for new gamers as they haven’t played many FPS’s at all, but it feels generic in some cases for those who’ve played different FPS’s that are better, but I digress.

The next title up is: Super Mario, also known as the biggest title by the giant corporation Nintendo. It started almost 20 years ago, when game developers could only afford a limited amount of pixels, and created a small midget Italian plumber, who goes around saving a pink dressed princess who rules a kingdom of mushrooms. A very weird story when taken out of context, but it’s been around so much that people stopped caring. It’s hard to define Mario as mainstream, cause the word is derived from different sources. By definition, Mario is mainstream as it’s released more games than any series in the world, and is more popular than any game in the world, but some call the game “casual”, cause it’s a game in the beginning intended for kids.

That is another term that’s been flying around. “Casual”. That is a word hard to define. The word that defines it would be obsolete, if you’ll believe dictionary.com.  and it’s mostly used in the gaming industry for games that are played by an audience that doesn’t play much games at all.  The reason that many games like Mario are so taboo for many gamers is that it’s child friendly, and the reason that Halo and such is taboo for others, is cause it’s so widely popular. And there’s such a contrast between the different audiences.

I now bring the next term; “hardcore”.  Hardcore basically means dedicated (and also explicit if you’re talking about porn, but that’s not what I’m talking about!) to the subject matter, and in the gaming industry, it’s been thrown around much around gamers, but what persons are right when it comes to this matter. We have the classic FPS fans, who call games that aren’t FPS casual, and we have the complete opposite of gamers, who claim that games like Halo and such are for casual gamers cause of their popularity. Allow me to do what I always enjoy doing and putting the idiots into place, cause here’s the big answer to what group is right or wrong: they’re both right, and they’re both wrong. Yes, if you like FPS games with a passion you are a hardcore gamer, but if you like other games, even the kid games, you are still a hardcore gamer. And if an FPS enthusiast claim that games like Mario and Zelda are mainstream and casual, he’ll be wrong depending on who’s he talking to. Yes, it’s mainstream, but it’s not casual for that, neither is it hardcore, it depends on who plays it, they are the ones who either play it much or little.

What disturbs me much about all this, is that the two words “mainstream” and “casual” are used as insults in the gaming community. Mainstream isn’t necessarily bad, there are many mainstream games that are still fun, it all depends on the game itself, and a casual gamer is just someone who isn’t passionate about games that much, and people should accept that. If a game pleases many people, it’s done it’s job. We should be happy about that. So a game wasn’t good for you, maybe it’s fun for others who aren’t like you, a game can’t be expected to please everyone.

Racism in games

Okay, this is getting annoying. These anti-racist groups are starting to get on my nerves. Let’s backtrace a bit, shall we?

So we all remember not too long ago, when Resident Evil 5 was in development, yes? There was a lot of tension in the air regarding the accusations of RE5 being racist. Did you think that game was racist once it came out? No, I don’t think so. The anti-racist groups thought it was racist cause there was a noticeable number of black people. Well, I respond to this with a quote from Achmed (the Dead Terrorist): “Location, location, location!” The game was set in Africa! Of course there are black people there! What else would there be there, Asians? The second accusation regarded two black people dragging a white woman. Well, that cutscene makes nothing but sense to me. The Las Plagas was a parasite sent through Africa, infecting the inhabitants. If a white woman was dragged, it was probably cause she wasn’t an inhabitant.  Also, a white man killing black people? Maybe cause he was an American agent, widely acknowledged for working with that kind of virus that had spread, and he was localized in… Africa! Let’s fast forward to the not too distant past.

If you have seen the trailers for Left 4 Dead 2, you will notice that it isn’t set in a fictional city and is completely dark. Now it’s set in New Orleans and is set a bit in daytime. I, myself, thinks it can be great. It gets tedious to be in the dark all the time. Seems so unrealistic that the sun never rises. Anyway, the accusations this time is that it’s inappropriate that two of the protagonists in the game are black… Why? Why is that racist? The first game had a black guy named Louis, did you find that offensive? No. What, is there some kind of black protagonist limit on games? “You may have one black protagonist!” they say. And they’re accusing us of being racist. You know what I think? I think they’re the ones who are racist. They’re the ones making complaints when we are  making an honest depiction of the real world. Isn’t blind chance allowed in this scenario? Will the protagonists go around saying: “We need one more white person, we already have a black one! The previous game only had one black person, it’d be racist to by accident have two!” Valve and Capcom aren’t racist, they’re realistic! If realism makes you think that someone’s racist, you have the completely the wrong picture of what racism is. What kind of sick, unreasonable standards are we following here? Are we going to count how many black people there are in comparison to white people in the world and say: “We can have this many percent, not one number wrong! Or we’ll send your ass to court!”

I say, stop whining, stop making up things, and enjoy the bloody game, you annoying douchebags. Problems only come if someone points it out. How many are there except you anti-racist groups that thinks that this kind of thing is offensive, cause I sure as hell don’t see any? Stop making us feel guilty over something we haven’t done, and get some real accusations instead, rather than pointing out everything as racist just to get attention just cause you have some weird picture on how the world should be!

Although, I like the Depeche Mode t-shirt on the L4D2 girl. I love Depeche Mode!

Exasperating games controversy

Welcome to the daily unscheduled basis blog rant. Today’s rant is on the news media.

If you have heard the news on games, you will either hear commercials or news reporters gabbing on about games having negative effects. I’m not going to go on full defence here and say that games have no effect, cause that’s a bloody lie. I’m sure that if you’ve played a FPS, fighting game, RPG or Cooking Mama or whatever, you surely must have visualized some of your more hateful thoughts through them. But by blowing up this kind of thing, the news media make it come out as a bad thing and that it isn’t a frustration reliever, but a frustration maker . And I can see how it would make sense for someone who’s never played a game or/and has seen their kid run over a pedestrian in Grand Theft Auto, cause who in their full common decency would rather sit glued to the couch simulating an event than having fun outside? Well, obviously somebody who hasn’t played enough games.

The reason I bring this up is not long ago, I saw a news report on the controversy of the new game Fat Princess. The game is in short a Capture The Flag game, in the sense that a princess is a flag, and you stuff the flag with cake so the other team will have a harder time capturing her. Doesn’t seem that controversial, does it? But here’s the media’s view. They think that games that encourage you to stuff a woman with cake and take her home will have an effect on how kids act in real life. That’s pretty thick. The reason that it’s thick:

A) It’s a princess, not a normal woman, so that breaks the whole force feeding women part.

B) There are other reasons that a kid would stuff himself or anyone else with cake, because it’s bloody delicious. They wouldn’t do it just cause the game says it.

C) If you break it down, it is more depicted as CTF but you tie the flag to rocks. The princess and cake part is just for comic value.

D) As I stated above, the game seems to take it with a sense of humour, i.e. that they make it as a joke, not as a serious encouragement.

And lastly, what I say about all controversial games: How many compared to all gamers are affected by it?  Billions of people have played at least one violent game, and there are around 10 to 1000 (numbers may be inaccurate) that have had acted violently cause of it. Compare that to the numbers of psychotics that never played a game, but goes around killing and raping people anyway. It’s absurd, the media is so fucking out of things to blame, since they can’t blame psychos for being psychos, and they can’t blame their own media, cause that would be shooting themselves in the foot.

And now even Obama is talking about “putting away the Xbox”, and the US have made it a law that buying violent games for minors is illegal and can give jail time. The politicians have turned against gamers 100% when around 20 years ago, they didn’t say a bloody thing about it, cause it was “innocent” and a”technological wonder”, and even when the violent games came, they let it slide after a while- My point that I’m trying to reach with my exasperated frustrated mind, is that while violent games, or games at all in general, have a partial effect in a normal person’s mind, it has rarely triggered real illegal acts. And in the cases it has, it’s mostly cause of bad parents, mental disorders, or both. Games can be accused simply by being in the same room as the person in question. There are certain cases where games have been involved, but all can be explained by simply seeing how the parents raised the person, or looking at his reaction psychologically. And that people are getting lazy, that is just as easy excuse you can get from blaming the TV. But that is going back to blaming themselves.

There was one kid who had a fight with his brother over a video game, and then shot him with a gun. If you now would say that it’s the video games fault, allow me to slap you in the face, cause there are so many flaws in that statement that you deserve it. Firstly, how did the kid get the gun, I thought it was law for people with guns to keep the barrel, the gun, and the ammo in separate locked safes. Secondly, how did a nine year-old know how to use it? Well, the dad even admitted himself that he taught the kid. Is that what you’d call good parenting? No.

Another case is when a kid saw a body-slam in a boxing game, and decided to do it from the top of a two story building with no goal or reason. Here it’s just stupid. Firstly, shouldn’t the parents keep him off the bloody roof? Secondly, the game had no special effect, he could have easily seen the same thing on TV. Thirdly, shouldn’t the kid now the difference with around two feet, and 20 feet? Also, shouldn’t the parents have taught him that jumping 20 feet is idiotic, deadly and for suicidal people?

These are only a few of the cases where the local media has blamed video games.  As I said before, it’s mostly due to bad parenting and mental disorder, and games where only the thing that broke the last of a thousand already broken straws. If the parents are going to buy their kid the next Mega Gun Testosterone Slamajama, make it clear that it’s fiction, should never be done in reality, and also have the talk on death. Buy violent games by the time they’ve understood the term “death” fully, and how it happens, and that killing is not fun. And violent games shouldn’t be bought to people with severe mental problems, cause people with mental problems can have trouble telling things apart, such as right and wrong, reality and fiction, and idiocy and not idiocy.

There’s one case which actually helps me prove my point that games isn’t the only kind of media that hurts. A kid wanted to be a Transformer so bad that he started drinking gasoline, which got into his lungs. He can’t now survive without it, and is mentally retarded. As sad as it is, it proves my point. Take that, local media!

I’ve talked about violent games much now, but I just realized I haven’t discussed the controversy on non violent games properly. But that’s idiotic, cause no games without an at least small essence of wrongness has ever had any controversy. Although the borders of wrongness I’m talking about are the borders made by the non-gamers, which are pretty weird and inaccurate. If Fat Princess is saying that obesity is a good thing, shouldn’t games like Super Mario encourage kids to grow up to be a colourful plumber with an ugly moustache rescuing ladies with pink dresses? I can see how that could confuse the mind of an extremely impressionable kid and make him a psychotic. But they can’t blame that, because that’s already grown far bigger than the local news, so they can’t attack it. And they think that’s stupid, when blaming other just as innocent games for being controversial.

All and all, it’s all for nothing with blaming the games. They can only protect it from kids who’s parents never have played a game, but that kind of audience is slowly disappearing, thanks to the casual games (never thought they would do any good), and gamers who one day will have kids, won’t let their kids be fooled by the media, and will hopefully teach them what should be taught. I know I will if I have kids, because I’ve so far played games for 13 years, and I’m not planning to stop anytime soon, so stop making controversy out of nothing and polluting my unborn children, you unreasonable pricks, or I will come over to your studio, and tape your feet to the ground and force you to make a reportage by my words describing the murderous awesomeness of Manhunt.

Did video game developers go to a noir art class?

A few days ago, I encountered the trial game for Battlefield: 1943, another game in the series of popular FPS’s, that rules the modern FPS genre with a closed fist, closely followed by Call of Duty, that sneaky bastard. this instalment is made exlusively for online game. Allow me to talk about it first for a moment. Now, I’m no stranger to the BF series, I’ve played Bad Company, and I thought it was a one of the few great FPS’s for the 360. With this new game being purely online, there is no career, but that isn’t needed, and the game is extremely cheap, so you should just be damn grateful. Anyway, I played around 3 matches, and while there were some things that seemed a bit odd and in need of criticism (like that I could snipe an enemy with a WWII sniper rifle, half a mile away) I had lots of fun, I didn’t die to often, it was newcomer friendly, but most of all, it was the first game where I actually was good as a sniper. But the thing that I loved the most, that someone else in the room noticed, is that it’s colorful. And not colorful like Super Mario is colorful, more like sunny environments and beautiful forests along a sea reflecting the sunlight, and this is where I get snippy with the current FPS’s of today (you know who you are).

You see, if you look at modern games like Gears of War and Killzone 2 , you’ll notice a distinct (or not so distinct) color theme. If you’ve played any of those games, you’ll know what I mean. Grey and brown merged together for better realism in more natural or industrial environments. And that’s all fine if it’s done in moderation. But it seems to happen in almost every FPS. While making a more natural and gritty appeal is all well, people seem to forget that sometimes you just want the colorful, happy color themes that used to be in other games. And I hate to admit it, but even though Halo 3 was a pretty bad game compared to the scores it gets and what games it gets put up against, the brightness gave a good feel to the environments, if nothing else. And that’s one of the reasons that I loved Bad Company and 1943, it wasn’t dark and depressing, it was bright and beautiful, which probably could have livened up the world wars a bit. But that’s not funny.

What I’m trying to say with all this is that game developers need to get off the realism train and look back on how games were done before. Oh, sure, they’ll say that having colorful games is for the kids, but if that’s true, I’d rather be a 8-year old who’s glad and joyful, than an depressed grown man living in a real life noir.