Barry John Williams' Blog

Just bought "Crunch", a game from TerrorBull games (who also make War on Terror), the description of this game is:

As the CEO of a global bank, it's your personal responsibility to do whatever it takes to ensure a comfortable retirement.

Would make my payment method quite appropriate then!!

Labels: coolstuff, games, humour

Amazingly about 15 minutes after I posted that last story about why video game violence exists, I read this story on digg's front page.

Basically a family's Jeep Grand Cherokee swerved off the road and rolled over a few times before resting on it's back. The 11 year old child who'd presumably been illegally playing Grand Theft Auto beforehand realised cars blow up in-game when they are upside down and that provided the much needed motivation for her to help her family to get the hell out!

Indeed, GTA IV is slightly different as the cars no longer blow up when upside down - however you do get a 30 point xbox achievement for rolling your car over 5 times from a single crash. An achievement they narrowly missed by rolling over only 4.

There is no word if the girl later car-jacked another motorist to take her family bowling.

http://kotaku.com/5044866/grand-theft-auto-helps-preteen-save-familys-lives

Labels: games

There is a really interesting blog post on Gamespot about the reason why there is violence in video games. A question which for some reason and as far as the author (and I) can tell, hasn't been asked before. A very enlightening read for which I agree with all of it. In fact one of the games I'm playing at the moment sometimes gives you a choice at the end of a mission whether you should end the character's life or not and I find it quite satisfying that it allows you to spare their lives (which I often do).

I particularly agree with his point about sense of realism, quite rightly life isn't a fairytale and if you play with knives, prepare to see blood. If I play a racing game and skid off the track I expect to see my car damaged, why should a virtual human character be any different?

in much the same way voice acting, sound effects, or real-time physics are tools. If I fire a gun at an enemy in Half-Life 2, I expect him to bleed

You can read the full post at:
http://uk.gamespot.com/users/OrkHammer007/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=m-100-25524267

Labels: games

Just bought a copy of the War on Terror boardgame which appears to be getting suppressed by shops and powers that be... apparently MPs have reported it has crossed the line of what is acceptable. Obviously children playing computer games where they can hire hookers and shoot firemen is acceptable!

Looks to be a fun game - though the police clearly don't, they confiscated a copy from some climate activists last week.

From the site:

WAR ON TERROR, THE BOARDGAME: It's got suicide bombers, political kidnaps and intercontinental war. It's got filthy propaganda, rampant paranoia and secret treaties and the Axis of Evil is a spinner in the middle of the board.

http://www.waronterrortheboardgame.com/

Labels: games, humour, politics

Following on with the Doom theme (believe me this is completely unintentional), I just discovered the phone I use (a Palm Treo 680) runs Doom. Let's be honest here, what doesn't?

Well, since my contract is coming to an end I've been scoping out possible alternatives. Possibly a Nokia N series on Three; or maybe the iPhone on O2 - unlikely, I've tried the "My iPod needs replacing" already!

Then via the palminfocenter.com I discovered ZDoomZ which is a port of the Doom engine to the Palm. It will run any Wad files - which I happen to have both Doom and Doom2 wads lying about!

It was a bit tricky to install since I had to install the Timidity MIDI engine by hand since the instructions didn't work. Doom went on fine and after configuring some keys I started Doom to be prompted by familiar music and a surprisingly smooth Doom experience - with authentic sound!!

I may just be keeping hold of my Palm after all!!

ZDoomZ at MetaViewSoft
Wikipedia Article about Versions and Ports to Doom

Labels: coolstuff, games, software

The computer game Manhunt 2 has been rejected classification by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) - an unelected group of people who decide what is acceptable for the British public to watch.

This game's predecessor was given an 18 rating which apparently was at the "top end of the scale". Manhunt 2 clearly surpasses that, no doubt due to it's probable increased graphics realism and something which I read separately; the Wii version's ability to control stabbing and mutilation by performing the motion with the wiimote...

Whilst I'm not one for buying this particular genre of games I would have like to have seen the wiimote stabbing action purely out of curiousity, not out of some hidden wanton desire which the BBFC rejection now makes this appear.

a range of unjustifiable harm risks to both adults and minors

Let's quickly skim over the adult part. If a person starts to commit these acts based on a computer game, then that person has a problem. It's not the games fault!

They should perhaps do a lab test - pull a few hundred people of the streets, let them play the game for a few hours a day for a full month and release them into the wild and see what they do. I doubt very much they will all turn into killing machines*. Although, you may find that a fraction of those that do have tendencies for violence may be catalysed by the computer game - but since (I presume) that number is quite small, why stop the rest of us. It's a bit like banning peanuts because some of the population is allergic to them.

Now to the minors, sorry, that's why it should be an 18. 18 means, don't let people who's ages are less than 18 watch or play... Let's assume it did get an 18 classification. I'm not ignorant enough to realise that kids would get hold of it because "it's cool". Some of their parents would have even bought it for them, their friends would play it, etc. This is a decision the parents should be making based on the age rating and it really should become an offense just like (unsupervised) underage drinking is. Perhaps there is a useful application of DRM here.

Furthermore, rejecting the game now makes it even more 'cool' in the average kid's eyes because they'll have to import it from the US and play it on their chipped PS2s...

Come on, where there is a will there is a way. Why bother banning games - you'll still be able to get hold of them. It's not going to stop it, is it?

*If someone makes a movie out of this then I had the idea first!

Labels: computers, games, grumble, software, wii