The Select and Start News Report: 09.29.08
Posted by Vincent Chiucchi on 09.29.2008
Jack Thompson is getting disbarred and Lowenstein has a word with game journalists, Activision trademarks "Dance Hero", Ensemble Studios was planning a Halo MMO, Warhammer Online news, and more.
I really hope The Mentalist on CBS gets cancelled soon. That show is nothing more then a Psych rip-off.
Big News
JACK THOMPSON SOON TO BE DISBARRED; DID PRESS GIVE HIM TOO MUCH ATTENTION? [credit: GameDaily, Gamasutra, Joystiq]
While this was sure to happen ever since Thompson walked out of his own hearing months ago, it's finally been made official that Thompson is going to be disbarred about 4 weeks, and was also ordered to reimburse the Florida Bar fees equal to to $43,675. Thompson of course is blaming this decision on other factors, this time saying the Florida Bar is doing this because Thompson pointed out the truth (at least his version of it) of how the Florida court system works in his book Out Of Harm's Way. Although it won't mean that Thompson won't stop his crusade against the game industry, at least one of gamer's biggest detractors won't wield the power he still has for the next few weeks.
Just when you think this would be the perfect news to hear, former President of the Entertainment Software Association Doug Lowenstein said that it's the gaming press' fault for what Thompson wind up becoming. This was his full reponse to the Jack Thompson disbarment:
"I read with more than passing interest the reports of Jack Thompson's disbarment. Amid all the celebrating among the game industry, one thing I hope emerges is some degree of self examination by the game press of its own complicity in making Thompson what he became.
The game press had a schizoid relationship with Thompson. He was the person they loved to vilify and the person they could not get enough of. Time and again, the game press — and mainstream press — would ask ESA to engage with, or respond to Thompson's latest excess. The media knew well that he was a charlatan who wholly lacked credibility. But hey, they said, he was news and could not be ignored. That was a cop out. It gave Thompson a platform he might not have had for as long as he did.
Mainstream outlets (The Today Show, CNN, Fox) were worse but the game press knew better. But he was the game press' crack. And even as they said privately he was a kook, they treated him as if he was a credible, fair minded critic. That represented an abdication of the critical filtering role the media should play.
There were and are legitimate grounds to criticize the game industry, and there were responsible and fair minded critics like Dave Walsh. But for the game press it was all Jack all the time. So as it takes delight in his apparent demise, it is a good time to contemplate whether the game media itself has matured . You help set the tone for mainstream media coverage and if you validate extremists you give license to the less informed to follow your lead.
It is 35 years since Pong. Your readers and the industry deserve a game media worthy of the best that journalism has to offer.
We made what Jack Thompson became? I think Lowenstein here is wrong. If you've looked at the history of Jack Thompson, you would learn about the cases he had against Janet Reno and 2 Live Crew back in the late 80's and early 90's where he did crazy things like make Reno take a survey on what her sexual orientation was and claiming he was Batman for trying to get 2 Live Crew's album banned. Thompson has always been a man to do crazy stunts and make ridiculous accusations. Did the game industry make him go on Fox News and claimed Virginia Tech was caused by a gamer who was obsessed with Counter-Strike? Did the industry make him claim that The Sims 2 can train pedophiles?
Lowenstein thinks it was best to ignore Thompson, but ignoring people do not make them go away. If anything, people like Thompson need to be highlighted in an age where networks like Fox News are willing to let him and Cooper Lawrence come on and talk about how evil the game industry is and the video games we play, while state senators are trying to pass any bill they can to control how video games should be sold. If we don't point out how flawed these people are, nobody else will, and their crap will be taken as truth by those not in the know.
ACTIVISION TRADEMARKS "DANCE HERO;" SIGN OF FUTURE MUSIC GAME? [credit: GameSpot, 1UP, Joystiq]
In one of those "Trademarks that could mean a game" news, Activision recently filed a trademark for the name "Dance Hero," would give Activision rights to the name for "computer game software," "interactive video game programs," "computer game discs," "downloadable computer game software," and other related categories. This could be an indication that Activision is planning their own dancing game to compete against DDR and Pump It Up. Activision hasn't made any comments on this, and have been trademarking other names in the past such as Guitar Villian, Drum Hero and Villian, and DJ Hero, but except for DJ Hero, no other news has come out of that.
Will Activision make their own DDR style game? I really wouldn't be surprised if they did, considering the way their making Guitar Hero a lot more similar to Rock Band in order to continue dominating the music genre. If Dance Hero does turn out to be a new game, I'd expect it to be released by next year.
ENSEMBLE STUDIOS SHOCKED TO SEE ITSELF CLOSED; HALO MMO PLANS SCRAPPED [credit: GameDaily, Gamasutra]
Earlier this month it was reported that Ensemble Studios was going to be shut down by Microsoft after Halo Wars was finished. Ensemble founder Bruce Shelley was shocked to hear about the news, considering the company was doing so well with it's games. But due to financial reasons and other Microsoft studios making games that will be profitable to the company, Ensemble is getting shut down and most members will either join other studios or perhaps join studio head Tony Goodman's new independent studio. It was also recently revealed that Ensemble was working with Bungie on making a Halo MMO around 2006, but by mid-to-late 2007 the project was cancelled. Above was one of the prototype UI's that the company was considering using.
Sucks for a company that was doing well having to be shut down like that. As for the Halo MMO, I don't really see how something like Halo could really have worked on in MMO plane. Then again I don't play many MMOs at all, so who knows.
Several tidbits about the newly released MMORPG this week:
-The question on everybody's mind when an MMORPG gets released is can it hold it's own to World of Warcraft? Mythic's co-founder and lead designer Mark Jacobs is very confident that his game can as he pushes for all the innovations the game contains. He admits that he won't beat Blizzard and doesn't mind being a competitive number two, which is what he felt back in 2001 when Mythic's Dark Age of Camelot had to go up against Sony's Everquest.
-If there's one thing Jacobs hates about Warhammer Online, it's the gold sellers. Jacobs says WAR has a "strike team" dedicated to removing gold-selling spammers from the servers quickly, and even employs a "public ban message" that gives users a special message to let them know whenever a user has been banned. So far, about 400 people have been banned from the game.
-Just how many people are playing WAR? In the game's first week since release, over 500,000 new players have registered for the game. How many of that 500,000 will stay after the first month when they start the monthly fees is another story.
[credit: GameDaily]
This week's lawsuit involves the ever growing controversy of Spore's DRM protection. Consumer Melissa Thomas has filed a class action lawsuit, claiming that the software prevents some user actions and can only be removed via complete drive reformat. The suit is seeking over $5 million in damages, according to the Courthouse News Service. According to the legal documentation, Thomas is suing EA because they did not disclose that Spore comes with a program (SecuROM) that installs itself into your computer and prevents users from certain actions, using certain programs, and disrupting hardware operations, all while being completely uninstallable.
Will this lawsuit actually go anywhere? Not likely. Will it continue the hatred gamers have over the Spore anti-piracy treatment? Oh yeah.
Tidbit News
-By the time you read this, Xbox Live will be unavailable for today as Microsoft upgrades the service to get it ready for the "New Xbox Experience" dashboard update coming later this Fall (according to an advertisement for MTV Games's Rock Band 2, the "New Xbox Experience" will be launched in November) that includes the new looking dashboard, the avatar system, and the Netflix service. [credit: Gamasutra, GameSpot]
-A study conducted by the E for All Expo and PoshMama.com says that one-third of the women pulled would rather play video games when they should be sleeping. 32% say they game while on the phone, 20% say while at work, and 12% wsay while getting ready to work. I can understand the sleep and phone, but while getting ready to work? To that 12% I say DROP THE CONTROLLER ALREADY! [credit: GameDaily, Destructoid]
-Microsoft announced that the Xbox 360 officially sold more than six million units across Europe, with recent sales going up thanks to the price drop on all SKUs, two of them now cheaper then the Wii. [credit: GameDaily, Gamasutra, CVG]
-The ESA Foundation announced that nine different organizations will receive $1 million in grants. The target charitable organizations include Animation Project, HopeLab Foundation , PAX, ThanksUSA, WGBH, Web Wise Kids, Federation of American Scientists, One Economy Corporation, and the National Institute on Media and the Family. [credit: GameDaily]
-Ubisoft announced that Tenchu 4 will be coming out early 2009 in North America and Europe in early 2009 exclusively for the Wii, and the developers for the game will be the original developers of the series (who left after Tenchu 2) Acquire. Tenchu 4 will feature the ninjas Rikimaru and Ayame in over 10 missions and 50 side quests. [credit: GameSpot, Destructoid, GameDaily]
-Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has sold over 1.5 million units worldwide in less than a week, making it the fastest selling Star Wars game in the series. [credit: Gamasutra, GameDaily, GameSpot]
-Over in Japan, the all female group Takarazuka Revue will be performing a Phoenix Wright Musical coming in February. The Phoenix Wright musical will be set in the U.S. and will use American character names rather than the original Japanese, and will feature a new love romance that doesn't exist in the game. [credit: Destructoid, The Escapist]
-Rock the Vote and Microsoft also announced that over 55,000 voter registration forms have been downloaded through Xbox Live. Also, in the results of a poll taken by nearly 100,000 people on Xbox Live over the upcoming presidential election, Barack Obama received 43% of votes compared to John McCain's 31%. Now if these people vote in the real election, this country just might have hope again. [credit: GameDaily, 1UP, Gamasutra]
-Advance Wars fan Matthew Pyke, 20, was stabbed to death in his home in Nottingham, England, over what police suspect may have been an online dispute with a German gamer. The suspect, 21-year-old David Heiss, was arrested near Frankfurt in Germany. Pyke and Witton ran a fansite for Advance Wars, which included a forum for patrons to chat with each other. Police suspect a possible motive may be that Heiss -- who was a member of the forum under the name "Eagle the Lightning" -- entered into a dispute with Pyke online, and actually flew to the U.K. in order to exact this tragic "revenge." Curiously, another anonymous poster suggested that some forum members may know more about the case, with a message that read, "We may know a lot of what was going on prior to the killing, but I, for one, am not going to say any more." [credit: 1UP]
-As if World of Warcraft couldn't get any more addictive, PopCap put their extremely popular Bejeweled game as an add-on. This add-on is free of charge and works like a full-fledged Bejeweled game. [credit: Gamasutra]
-When Crysis Warhead gets released on Steam, included for the game will be the ever popular SecuROM for DRM. It's a bad choice for EA to make, but at least they're not getting sued over this SecuROM...oh wait. [credit: Destructoid]
-Today's latest game to be banned from Australia is Silent Hill: Homecoming due to it's excessive violence. Guess this means we won't have to hear Yahtzee complain about how much it sucks. [credit: The Escapist]
-This week Rock Band (and Rock Band 2) will have the Red Hot Chili Peppers' album "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" available for download, with tracks at $1.99 (160 Microsoft points) each or the whole album for $19.99 (1,600 Microsoft points). The album contains the following:
"The Power of Equality"
"If You Have to Ask"
"Breaking the Girl"
"Funky Monks"
"Suck My Kiss"
"I Could Have Lied"
"Mellowship Slinky in B Major"
"The Righteous & The Wicked"
"Blood Sugar Sex Magik"
"Under the Bridge"
"Naked in the Rain"
"Apache Rose Peacock"
"The Greeting Song"
"My Lovely Man"
"Sir Psycho Sexy"
"They're Red Hot"
[credit: GameSpot]
Gaming Calendar
September 29th:
-Kirby Super Star Ultra (DS)
-Wario Land: Shake It! (Wii)
September 30th - Silent Hill: Homecoming (PS3, X360)
October 3-5 - E for All 2008 to be held
October 7th - Sam and Max Season 1 (Wii)
October 9-13 - The Tokyo Game Show 2008 to be held
October 14th:
-Dead Space (X360, PS3)
-SOCOM: Confrontation (PS3)
October 20th - Wii Music
October 21st:
-Fable II (X360)
-LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
October 26th - Guitar Hero: World Tour
October 28th - Fallout 3 (X360)
October 2008:
-Bioshock ported to the PS3
-Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 (X360, PC)
November 4th:
-Left 4 Dead (PC, X360)
-Resistance: Fall of Man 2 (PS3)
November 7th - Gears of War 2 (X360)
November 11th:
-Eternal Poison (PS2)
-Call of Duty: World at War (X360, PC)
-Mirror's Edge (X360, PS3)
November 13th - WoW: Wrath of the Lich King (PC)
November 14th - Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (X360)
December 2nd:
Prince of Persia: The Fallen King (PS3, PC, X360)
Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories (PS2)
Fall 2008:
-MySims Kingdom (DS, Wii)
March 13th 2009 - Resident Evil 5 (X360)
Videos of the Day
When Sony released the PlayStation 3 in Malaysia, the music they used at their event sounded awfully familiar from another company...
