Censorship and the Media

The video game industry has had a rough start when the media began to call it an “ill of society”. Games were deemed inappropriate by the media, which in turn sparked a controversy that caused parents to have a strong dislike for video games, so the Entertainment Software Ratings Board began rating video games. While the video game situation was getting worse in this country, other countries began to ban video games or forced developers to release a censored or less offensive version. While the past was disastrous to the video game companies, the situation has changed recently. Video Games, have been deemed appropriate by the media, which is a drastically changed stance by the media from ten years ago.
Nintendo used to be the only video game creator in the United States in the first few months. They had a very strict position with video games, censoring out even the least offensive material in this game. The media attacked video games but not because they encouraged aggressive behavior, but that they wasted time and made people lazy. However, when Sony and Microsoft began to create their own video games, competition between game developers caused some inappropriate games to be released in order to attract a different group of people to buy and play these games. However, the media at this time began talking about how inappropriate video games was becoming.
The most famous of these games includes Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas which included a hidden sex game within it. Although the hidden sex game was actually a modified version of the game, a law suit filed by Florence Cohen claimed that the video game developer Rockstar had falsely advertised about this game in which her grandson was exposed to inappropriate material. She did not win the court case, but she did bring publicity to the video game which caused the media to talk negatively about video games throughout the history of video games, many bills have been created to block the sale of video games with inappropriate content. Not only has court cases been associated with video games, but other what?
The Virginia Tech Massacre was one of the first triggers that convinced the media to talk down about video games. Washington Post released an article claiming that the shooter had been a fan of the video game Counter-Strike which is a shooting game which involves saving hostages from terrorists. While there were no evidence that he played while in college, the media blamed video games for this act of violence. Due to this situation, many video games were forced to take extremely strong measures to not be offensive. However, this changed after a new revelation.
The Wii is a new gaming console developed by Nintendo that was released two years ago. This gaming console uses a motion sensitive remote than a standard controller that most consoles have been using. Therefore, this remote promotes the player to be more active when playing. Games released on this console have also been younger age oriented, even though the Wii is enjoyed by many adults as well. Due to this console, which has been deemed appropriate for all ages, many recent games are now being released even though they would be considered inappropriate for children. The media is now attacking video games less, because to argue against video games as a whole would be close to impossible. The recently released Grand Theft Auto 4 which contained partial nudity and large amounts of violence did not come under fire like the first game. However, even though censorship is gone, it is not forgotten.
Video game censorship laws are still being debated in the United States. While the most of the danger for video game companies has passed, some argument remains. Video games were a foreign form of entertainment which were alien to our society ten years ago, but now they are more better understood and accepted.

The problem with bunching games in the holiday season

With the Holiday gaming season coming up, game developers are scrambling to put out something for the christmas season however there is a problem with this system.
Is it just annoying that most good games come out around the holidays or late fall? Because of this, you can't get all the good games that come out. I mean look at what we got last year.

Fallout 3
L4D
Call of Duty World at War
Resistance 2
World of Warcraft wrath of lich king
Fable 2

And that is not as bad as what we have for this years holiday season.

Assassins Creed 2
Modern Warfare 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Uncharted 2
Mass Effect 2
Lost Planet 2 (notice all the 2s)
Halo 3 ODST (which is gona be flipping AMAZING!)
Borderlands

Personally, I don't think my budget can fit 8 Games in one holiday season. Personally, I think people would be more inclined if you released a game in the spring or summer time because, the amount of competition will be low, and when people are looking for new games to play, they'll choose this one because it is the only good one for the time

Evony Controversy

Okay, So I'm sure you seen it on at least every website you have been too. All of them, being a controversial ad for an online game called Evony.

And let me show you. You probably seen some of these ads somewhere.
Picture 1

Okay, Nothing wrong with this. No controversy. However, For the makers of Evony, this advertising campaign did not work as good as they hoped. So, Lets see what they turned it into.
Picture 2

Guess what, there was 5 times as more clicks on it than the original. Honestly though, This is not bad. Its actually a good ad in my point of view. I've definitely seen worse ads. Such as Fiesta and Adventure quest.

(actually to tell you the truth, the picture of the girl was stolen from a picture on the internet store so there may even be lawsuits flying around, (for more info, just google it) )

So, Next picture.... begins to get questionable
Picture 3

and i'll explain in a sec.
Picture 4
Picture 5

Yes, I played this game, which actually a very good game. But these advertisements has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with building cities and attacking other people. Yes, I played this game until I pretty much did everything, and got boring so I know what Im talking about. THERE IS NO HOT QUEEN TO SAVE!!!



Okay, so you might be thinking until now, what is soooo bad These advertisements aren't that bad. and aren't worth a controversy
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The final straw

No, its not photoshop, its not a joke. Its a REAL advertisement they have used.


You be the judge. I say we should ban this spam. Its misleading advertising.

Other pictures


There are other controversies surrounding this game. Such as clicking the ads will give you a Trojan, which has been traced many times to the ad. And also the fact that the game sometimes steals money from your account. But for now, enjoy the pics cause when the lawsuits come, they are gonna be gone

Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott

Well, Left 4 Dead 2 was announced at E3, and well, a lot of people don't like it. Currently, over at Steam, there are over 40 thousand people who joined a boycott (although, I personally believe they won't boycott it.) so Valve would not release it. Okay, doesn't that sound stupid. Just think of it in context, they are complaining about a game That is going to come out, a follow-up sequel! The follow-up to a game that sold over 2.5 million in retail. not including numbers in steam (which are top secret, although they do claim they saw sales increase 2600%).

These people are cheapskates, who do not want to pay for their new content.... I personally believe that, if i pay $60 right now for a new game... they will make enough money to MAKE a new awesome game.... Not some low budget game. If they don't do this... where is Valve gonna make their money from??? Let them make this game, which looks like a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT game than the original. Yes, the basic concept is there, such as the Cooperative gameplay, and zombies, and moving from one place to another.... But really... This game has so much new stuff in it, its melee weapons... I think it has triple the guns of the original. And 4 new special zombies... 5 new maps.

You might complain that this should be DLC.... but think about this....

If one DLC package is bigger than the original game.... thats just weird. that means, you have to get DLC to play it or else you got half the game.

Omegle

Yeah I know I said I'll be talking about the Game industry but I just came across this neat little thing called omegle. Its where you chat with a random stranger who you have no idea who it is. Its neat because you don't know who it is, and you can have completely random subjects. I had this debate whether coke was better than pepsi with a random stranger. You should try it out, just watch out because some people there are trolls and try to mess with you.

Internet and Gaming Grand Opening

Today is the grand opening of Internet and Gaming, where I simply blog about whats happening in the online world. I will mainly stay on topic with Video Games and the World Wide Web but I may go into other subjects as well. Well my first topic today will be about the gaming industry right now. I'll write that in a second as soon as I finalize this blog.