Posts by Defrag

  • German minister wants to imprison gamers??

    I always do wonder what these guys smoke. Do they ever stop to ask themselves about the figures relating to amount of game sales versus amount of murders (dubiously) attributed to video games? More to the point, how many rulings have been made in the courts that show concrete proof of video games causing murders? I can't think of one. How many spurious, flimsy court actions regarding video games (mostly brought about or represented by the venerable Jack Thompson...) have been thrown out of court? Plenty.

    99.9% of it is media or politician induced. It used to be Ozzy's fault, then it was video nasties and now it's video games. They'll find some other easy target to blame soon enough, no doubt. I always get a chuckle out of the average media commentator's hysterical ramblings about doom being a "murder simulator" that trains people to kill. I hope Billy learns that he can look up and down when aiming a gun in the real world!

    In reality, the fact is that many parents aren't bringing up their children properly and it's a much deeper rooted problem than some impressionable kid being taught to kill stuff by video games. Adolescent males have watched violent films and played violent games (not necessarily video games) since.. forever. Cowboys and Indians, British Bulldogs, wrestling etc. etc. I hate to quote Eminem lyrics to make a point but he's right when he points out the absolute hypocrisy displayed when dealing with different types of media:

    Quote

    “And last week, I seen a Schwarzenegger moviewhere he's shootin all sorts of these motherfuckers with a uzi

    I see three little kids, up in the front row,

    screamin' "Go," with their 17-year-old Uncle

    I'm like, "Guidance - ain't they got the same moms and dads

    who got mad when I asked if they liked violence?"

    When the suits in the media and the parents cannot relate to something new and shocking, it soon becomes all too easy to blame.

    Can violent video games have negative effects on people who are either too young to understand or have mental deficiencies? Probably, but if that is the case then:

    A: They will likely find 'inspiration' from other sources. People didn't start murdering just because new forms of media came into being.

    B: The parents of these people should know their children's problems and actively monitor what they're doing.

    On a different note, my mother has been a special needs teacher for two decades and many of the people she has taught have been abused (physically and mentally) or have huge behavioural problems for other reasons. Some of these pupils are just totally unhinged to the point where it is just a matter of time before they offend seriously. It's either down to the environment they're brought up in or severe mental problems. Occasionally my mum will open the local newspaper and spot an ex-pupil in a story regarding a serious assault or worse. It's very sad, but that's the reality of the situation. If someone plays video games and does something shocking, it's all too easy to blame the game, whereas video games are on the periphery of the reasons for committing these crimes. Do they honestly believe that someone wants to kill because of some pixels moving around on a tv screen and, more to the point, do they also believe that had that person not played video games they wouldn't be at risk of committing similar crimes?

    I always end up scratching my head. To this date there has been no concrete link proven between games and violent behaviour. Try telling the media that.

  • First tidbit of NS2...

    Quote from Campaignjunkie

    I wonder how they do it... Any insights? Also - it would be cool if the creep pulsates too, like if it's alive or something.

    If I were to guess, I'd say it's something similar to a pathing mesh being generated

  • Congrats garry!

    Quote

    Your feedback is valuable to me. I don't mean that in the usual bullshit "it's the players that make the game" way that most real game companies say it, because, frankly, 90% of you are complete idiots.

    I'm really offended by this. Well actually, I thought it was pretty god damn funny.

  • Scott Miller: Steam should not be a part of valve

    I'm still waiting to see the savings that were meant to be passed down to the consumer. Right now I'd say it isn't happening for a few reasons, namely the fact that most games on steam also have publishing deals with traditional publishers. I'm guessing that the existing deals guarantee the publisher x% of the sales revenue regardless of the distribution method, so after valve takes its cut, the consumer is still paying as much, if not more, compared to buying a boxed copy. I had a quick look through the steam games list and googled/froogled some prices and found pretty much all of the games like CoD2 & Civ were found cheaper on web sites that offer boxed copies. It was the same deal when HL2 was released, you could buy the bronze version in the shops for less than the bronze download package. Until I actually save some money via downloading, I'm not going to use Steam regularly. Right now my solitary steam purchase was HL2 silver which worked out to be £37. Not bad, but not great.

    The great thing about steam is the indie and/or small developer stuff. Innovative & fun games like the ship probably would never have been released, or if they were, a lot more of the money would end up in the hands of the publisher.

    The bad thing about steam is simply that it is becoming saturated (I used to leave my news updates on so I could see information about valve updates, but now I'm spammed with 29764 messages about some columns clone that costs £4.34... I don't care) and, as others have pointed out, it is not independent of Valve. I'm not sure what people are getting at when they say that Steam should be an independent company -- it'd just be like having Rupert Murdoch owning Myspace and Sky News. The two companies aren't under the same banner, but they have a common interest. If people mean that they would like to see a new and independent company taking steam's position as the market leader in digital distribution, I'd agree that'd be kinda good, but then again, who's to say that we won't end up with another publisher situation? Valve has a ridiculously sharp business operation (considering how urm.. naive a lot of games companies are -- it's still a very young industry) and it's fair to say they're doing the best for themselves, though others are benefiting. It's giving people options they didn't have before, but yes, it could be better. I'd be cautious about wishing it were replaced by a company unconnected with developing games, though.

    Right now I bet the majority of the larger games companies (particularly EA ) are kicking themselves and saying "why didn't we think of that first?"

    From what I've read, the people who get the best deal out of Steam = Valve & small developers without existing publishing deals who would have trouble releasing their game or would barely receive much revenue from the sales. For the rest, I think they're probably just jumping aboard because there's nothing better out there and, if they don't punt it via steam, they won't make any more money once the game falls down the retail charts.

  • Gangsta models

    "Meanwhile, dead-cert for number one this week has got to be 'Just Got Offed', that's Puffa Fat's tribute to himself recorded before he pumped 30 bullets into his own head in a studio last month in what many say was a gang-motivated attack"

    Chris Morris is the man.