Read the last paragraph again. It certainly sounds ominous, even though I doubt they could do anything.

It's not just ominous, it's outright confusing AND ominous:

http://cathodetan.blogspot.com/2005/09/make-up-your-mind-esrb.html

This comment was edited on Sep 13, 14:31.

The article - and both of the links you posted - are wrong

Yeah. That would be the original point I was making. I was hoping that by mentioning someone might correct the article so that someone who is actually worried about the topic at hand would have the right info.

No, this:

http://www.3000ad.com/downloads/ucAWA_vcf.html

and in the article, it's represented as:

http://http//www.3000ad.com/downloads/ucAWA_vcf.html

I hate to rain on any perfectly good dsmart flamewar, but this really seems like a pretty simple and honest mistake which is fairly easily remedied.

Course, the link is broken in the article, and even when corrected I don't see that file on 3000AD's server

And, dsmart; you haven't adequately explained your reasoning for inconveniencing your custumers instead of your betatesters. It is a basic tennent in the mod-community

OK, c'mon. I've been around the mod community since almost the beginning and there are countless of mods with lousy installers and releases. I've done it myself, at least twice. Once I even had other people test the installer but they already had the file I forgot to include!

Now feel free to proceed.

...Day Casebeer? Sounds dubious to me. Fun, but dubious.

I think your faith in this "myriad of other laws" is somewhat unwarranted. Especially since this particular brand of law is pretty new, so assuming there's a precedent that they'll be struck down isn't really accurate. If you've got examples, fine. The best chance is that the ESA will force them to prove casuality. And it's not a great chance.

And this bill has many problems which could impact outside of "johnny can't play doom", as I list on my blog. For one thing, it lists violent games as harmful to minors and a potential cause of violence. This is precisely what guys like Jack Thompson need to start winning cases against Rockstar. The bill legislates casuality that science has yet to prove.

And then of course, there's this little thing called the Internet. If you were a small developer and trying to sell your game online, you're going to have to start thinking twice about it next week - because if you sell to some kid in Illinois you might get a lawsuit on your doorstep.

Mostly though, this bill shows that gamers need to be a bit more political. I know that sounds nasty and it might require a cold shower afterwards, but the Illinois Assembly walked all over anyone opposing this bill by threatening to flyer them to death saying they support violent behavior in kids. Who was there to raise an opposition? Nobody but crickets.

Well, this one has passed the house, passed the senate and is fully expected to pass the house again quickly and easily. Then it's just the gov's signature and this was his idea to start with.

It passed the house 91 to 19. It passed the house 52 to 5. It did this largely because game media has ignored it while politicians have played it up.

And no, it probably won't be declared as unconstitutional because they haven't framed the violence portion as having anything to do with free speech. The pr0n section does, but it follows existing laws for the most part. The violence section cites public safety as it's concern and the bill's sponsor denies video games even having a stance under free speech.

And if gamers can't even care enough to follow the news on this before it's too late - who is going to care enough to try and challenge it? Supposedly the ESA will but as to date they've been pretty silent actually.

So right now, it's expected to get on the books and probably stay there.

This comment was edited on May 26, 18:23.

Does anyone really take lawyers and politicians seriously when they jump on the "Videogames Kill!" bandwagon?

When they start putting it into law?

I think it's time to take them seriously then. This law defines video games as potentially harmful material, and not in an ethical sense. It basically says that video games can incite violent behavior. That's a lot different than labelling them merely offensive material (although it does that as well).

I wish we could ignore this for being silly, but this is almost certainly going to be signed into law - so I think it's time to pay attention.

Yeah, one of the problems is that the most extreme views have gotten the most airtime (except for the occasional VG industry suit, who is more akin to saying "no comment").

Jack Thompson is a lunatic. I think the Illinois Senate is wildly out of touch with the subject material at hand. And we all know how rationale web forums stay

I've actually emailed a psychologist who has done a lot of work on violence and video games and seems to be about the only voice of reason from the alternate side I can find.

Canada huh. You guys still have plenty of room there, right?

I'm devoting this whole week to it on my blog:
http://cathodetan.blogspot.com/

When I've got more time I'll have to read David's piece in more detail, it sounds like he's done quite a lot of research.

I think considering that an Illinois Senator got up and announced that gamers are pretty much en masse training to kill (since that's her only definition of video games), I'm surprised there isn't more widespread outrage on this. Personally I'm rather pissed as hell.

It's got wide support in the Illinois Congress though, and very few people are raising their hand to say anything against them. That's one of the big problems here. Jack Thompson can go on 60 minutes, but the game media seems to busy making up funny captions to Halo screenshots to notice.

If PlanetSide is the most viable MMOFPS in the foreseeable future, then something is really wrong with this industry.

"that a willingness to port the mod hinges on support from Valve"

Which is a big problem with Valve's approach to mods. They help create this kind of reliance on the mother company. In a lot of ways, real mods are becoming a dying breed.

This comment was edited on Jan 6, 11:11.

A lot of Unrealers do play offline, they have since the original Unreal Tournament. Very difficult to tell how many (majority definately seems like a stretch), but release a mod without decent bot support and they pop out of the woodwork.

The reason is simple - the UT series has always had quality bot AI and the multiplayer landscape is simply getting more and more annoying to play with. Ah, the good old days when it was just the occasional neo nazi racist bastard you had to deal with, and not a twelve year old singing like cookie monster into his microphone.

The previews have surprised me - this could be a sleeper hit for the X-Com faithful it seems like. Or it could be a sleeper hit as in everybody is sleeping off Half-Life 2 and won't play it.

Halo, like Marathon, does have an excellent backstory that's relatively unique and well developed. I'd prefer a Halo movie over lots of video game storylines.

I would definately agree, in particular, with the imps - in part because they are soooo numerous in the game. I find the hell soldiers much more interesting as they'll change up their tactic from time to time.

I want to preface this by saying I can understand how D3's gameplay isn't for everyone. I know from experience that not everyone likes dark maps, for instance - I however, do. ( I doubt anyone here ever played it, but cs_spookhouse is probably one of the darkest map for CS made - and that was all my fault ).

Also, some of the fun is pure nostalgia. Most FPS games don't even bother to knock off id correctly - but here are all the old tricks back in action and some are fun as hell.

Yes, some have also just gotten annoying. Monster closets should be banned from level design, end of story. They're silly, they don't make sense, and they make me remember that it's a game, not an experience.

But man, some of these comments just sound wacky to me. Somewhere between the Half-Life fanboys and the people who apparently expected Carmack to deliver god-on-a-stick, gamer opinions often just seem to me.

Dynamic Gameplay? Meh, it's -how- you play it I think. Did you try not just using the stand-and-deliver approach? Maybe toss a grenade into a room, stir things up, lead them back to those flammable tanks?

Could it be more dynamic? Sure. A better inventory would help - trip mines, prox grenades, etc. I'll agree it's core is still just run and gun but there is more to it around the edges if you let it.

Anyone complaining about this lighting system needs to get their head checked. Jesus, some people are never happy. And the physics? OK, so the grenades are thrown too hard. Guess what. THAT'S NOT THE PHYSICS ENGINE. It's just the way they coded the grenade. Go find your nearest modder, I'm sure he can fix that for you.

Monster AI? No, it's not as clever as Far Cry - nor do I think it needs to be. Maybe the reason the Mancubus doesn't run for cover is that it doesn't think it has to.

As for the spook wearing off in a couple hours of play - I keep hearing that, and I keep waiting for it to happen. I haven't finished the game yet, but it's still spooking me pretty well from time to time. I think the problem is that some design aspects (darkness, etc) annoy some people, and once annoyed it's hard to fall into suspension of disbelief and be scared. But when that body that knew was -there- is now hanging from ceiling, I'm sure pausing for a second.

Scaring people in games is HARD. Scaring people in movies is pretty hard. My GF is notorious for sitting through hair-raising flicks and not blinking (meanwhile I'm jumping out of my seat). Some people just don't bother to turn their heads off a bit and enjoy the ride. Only a handful of games (System Shock 2, AvP come to mind) have really managed to scare me, and just adding Doom 3 to that list is worth the price of admission.

And speaking of SS2 - yes, that game was deeper. Yes, that game was scarier. A shame it also had some horrible gameplay decisions that more or less ruined the game for me. Who puts infinite monsters with finite ammo in a game that expects to explore levels repeatedly? A game that expects you to cheat, and cheat hard, that's what.

Doom 3 offers up one of the most intense, graphically pleasing, vibrant in terms of both actions and environment, gaming experiences I've had in a long time. It's precisely what Carmack said they would do - a revamp of a gaming classic with all sorts of modern splendor tossed on top of it. I feel like I'm playing an old favorite while at the same time enjoying one of the most powerful game engines on the planet.

Gee, yeah. There's so much to hate there

I wonder when HL2 comes out if everyone is going to complain that it's not as good as Duke Nukem Forever.

Realistic realistic people use that word way too much. It's not about realism, it's about LOGIC. It's not logical that you wouldn't be able to tape the flashlight to your head or arm for that matter.

It would if you had no duct tape.

I live like 3 blocks away from 1000 North.


SO TEMPTING