A little treat between shows.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
We Won
The Supreme Court of the United States in a 7 to 2 decision - has struck-down California's violent video-games ban, and in doing so has ruled that restricting the sale of violent games to minors by force of law is unconstitutional. This is, without question, the biggest and most important American legal decision in video game history.
The most important part of the decision, in terms of future lawmaking, is in the wording of the Majority Opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia (becoming, for the first time in his entire tenure, "cool") which specifically singles out the two most common arguments for game-censorship - that gaming's interactive nature and the un-planned-for nature technological evolution makes a "special case" for restriction - as being insufficient.
Incidentally, the decision defied the typical "liberal/conservative" split in the Court - a plurality of Justices voted to kill the ban, but Conservative Clarence Thomas and Liberal Steven Breyer were the dissenting votes.
The most important part of the decision, in terms of future lawmaking, is in the wording of the Majority Opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia (becoming, for the first time in his entire tenure, "cool") which specifically singles out the two most common arguments for game-censorship - that gaming's interactive nature and the un-planned-for nature technological evolution makes a "special case" for restriction - as being insufficient.
Incidentally, the decision defied the typical "liberal/conservative" split in the Court - a plurality of Justices voted to kill the ban, but Conservative Clarence Thomas and Liberal Steven Breyer were the dissenting votes.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Eddie Lebron's "Sonic FanFilm" Has a Trailer
Eddie Lebron, who did that not-bad-at-all "Mega Man FanFilm" a year or so back, is hard at work on a follow-up project based on "Sonic the Hedgehog." The big news thus far has been that he scored a fairly cool piece of casting: Sonic will be voiced by Jaleel White - who famously provided the character's voice on the American cartoons in the 1990s. Now it has a teaser trailer, with your first look at their CGI-Sonic...
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Regarding the "Tip Jar"
Alright, so... as you can probably tell, there is now a PayPal "Tip Jar" button on the sidebar of both blogs. I just wanted to clarify a few things about that after the jump.
Here's the thing of it, folks: While I DO get paid to produce some of the content that is linked/embedded to this site, a good deal of it I do not - i.e. Game OverThinker, American Bob, "pieces" posted directly to the two blogs themselves, etc. So I figured that, on the off chance that folks who enjoy those things ever wished to "express" said enjoyment in the form of a tip here or there, it couldn't hurt to make the option available.
I want to be very clear on this point, though - the "tip jar" is EXACTLY what it says it is, and nothing else. It's not going to effect or be effected-by the content of the site - i.e. you will NOT see things in the vein of "if the tip jar gets X-amount full, this or that will happen on this or that show." Because that would be INCREDIBLY tacky and lame. It's a virtual jar by the virtual till, period; and will have no influence on content - PERIOD.
Conversely, please know and take seriously any comments/emails/whatever along the lines of "if I put X-amount in the jar, will you start/stop doing this/that?" will be ignored. In fact, I'd prefer not to talk about it AT ALL - even in the well-meaning "hey man, I liked that so I tipped etc etc" in the comments/feedback or otherwise because - again - that seems tacky and uncomfortable to me.
The "tip jar," much like the ads, is STRICTLY a way for me to break a little bit more even on this whole "free entertainment and content" thing. If you like the blogs, content, etc and want to "show support" by tossing some change in the jar or clicking the ads; awesome, bless you, thank you very much. If not, that's cool too and thanks for reading/watching all the same.
Here's the thing of it, folks: While I DO get paid to produce some of the content that is linked/embedded to this site, a good deal of it I do not - i.e. Game OverThinker, American Bob, "pieces" posted directly to the two blogs themselves, etc. So I figured that, on the off chance that folks who enjoy those things ever wished to "express" said enjoyment in the form of a tip here or there, it couldn't hurt to make the option available.
I want to be very clear on this point, though - the "tip jar" is EXACTLY what it says it is, and nothing else. It's not going to effect or be effected-by the content of the site - i.e. you will NOT see things in the vein of "if the tip jar gets X-amount full, this or that will happen on this or that show." Because that would be INCREDIBLY tacky and lame. It's a virtual jar by the virtual till, period; and will have no influence on content - PERIOD.
Conversely, please know and take seriously any comments/emails/whatever along the lines of "if I put X-amount in the jar, will you start/stop doing this/that?" will be ignored. In fact, I'd prefer not to talk about it AT ALL - even in the well-meaning "hey man, I liked that so I tipped etc etc" in the comments/feedback or otherwise because - again - that seems tacky and uncomfortable to me.
The "tip jar," much like the ads, is STRICTLY a way for me to break a little bit more even on this whole "free entertainment and content" thing. If you like the blogs, content, etc and want to "show support" by tossing some change in the jar or clicking the ads; awesome, bless you, thank you very much. If not, that's cool too and thanks for reading/watching all the same.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
NEW EPISODE INCOMING THURSDAY NIGHT! (updated, my bad)
Oops, jumped the gun a bit there: EPISODE 52 will debut Thursday evening, June 16th, at 11pm ET.
Also, you may wish to check out my new independently-produced political-comedy show, "American Bob," now LIVE on YouTube.
Also, you may wish to check out my new independently-produced political-comedy show, "American Bob," now LIVE on YouTube.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Blackwater: The Game
There are no words for how despicable this is. Congratulations, Japan - "Rapelay" is no longer the most vile premise ever concieved for a video game.
505 Games is developing a Kinect-enable shooter based on the real-life mercenary outfit, developed in cooperation with it's founder and bearing the group's original name - which was changed after the public-relations "setback" of the company being dragged in front of Congress to face charges that the group had pulled all kinds of shady, illegal stuff up to and including murder of civillians in Iraq.
Y'know... the "America's Army" games/recruitment-ads were borderline edgy stuff... but this is easily the most morally-bankrupt (even by MY standards!) pitch for an actual game since.. what, "Custer's Revenge," easily? Yes, they have a right to make it... but if it actually SELLS it's going to be a black eye that'll set the gaming medium back for DECADES. Seriously - games-as-art after this = Republican Party after WATERGATE.
Oh, incidentally - any of the right-wing twits who pitched a hissy-fit about "Medal of Honor's" playable-Taliban but DON'T immediately also condemn this piece of shit are hypocrites of the absolute highest order.
505 Games is developing a Kinect-enable shooter based on the real-life mercenary outfit, developed in cooperation with it's founder and bearing the group's original name - which was changed after the public-relations "setback" of the company being dragged in front of Congress to face charges that the group had pulled all kinds of shady, illegal stuff up to and including murder of civillians in Iraq.
Y'know... the "America's Army" games/recruitment-ads were borderline edgy stuff... but this is easily the most morally-bankrupt (even by MY standards!) pitch for an actual game since.. what, "Custer's Revenge," easily? Yes, they have a right to make it... but if it actually SELLS it's going to be a black eye that'll set the gaming medium back for DECADES. Seriously - games-as-art after this = Republican Party after WATERGATE.
Oh, incidentally - any of the right-wing twits who pitched a hissy-fit about "Medal of Honor's" playable-Taliban but DON'T immediately also condemn this piece of shit are hypocrites of the absolute highest order.
TANOOKI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Konami's Pre-E3 Teaser
One of those only-in-gaming (or comics) teasers that is either IMMEDIATELY identifiable or utterly meaningless from person-to-person - no middle ground can exist:
I will say this much: If this is teasing what it appears to be teasing - I had BETTER NOT hear the words "first-person," "cover-based," "online multiplayer-focused" or "sandbox" anywhere NEAR it.
I will say this much: If this is teasing what it appears to be teasing - I had BETTER NOT hear the words "first-person," "cover-based," "online multiplayer-focused" or "sandbox" anywhere NEAR it.
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