The first movie about video games is being remade!
The trailer for Tron Legacy is out.

Lili vs. Asuka

All the action will start at 11:30 AM EST (17:30 CET) on Saturday and Sunday and last until 10:00 PM EST (05:00 CET).
Live Stream Link.

Don't Mess With My Dew!

Mountain Dew released a commercial featuring two female gamers in a commercial promoting mountain dew as “game fuel”.

Why this is new and compelling:

– It’s a gaming commercial that stars two women who aren’t panting over babies, fashion or losing weight.

– Instead of focusing on the typical girl fight we see the two women take on avatars of opposing genders. One transforms into a male Orc while the other transforms into a female Night Elf.

– These women are dead serious.

The commenters on Youtube are fulfilling many of the awful stereotypes about gamers. They’re actually complaining about using two women as the stars of the commercial.

[Via - Jezebel]

I don’t think so. I know at least 8 women that fit this description…including myself.

Dressing your iPhone with GameBoy

Slip this Infectious Skin onto your iPhone to transform it into a shrine of Nintendo gaming devices past.

Yummy Prototype!

I heart this photo. That isn’t a copy of Imagine Babyz in her adorable hands.

[Via - LiveJournal]

Woot! You did it!

I’ve been getting panicked emails and dms from some of you about this. Live is down for maintenance and it looks like the Xbox Ops team is still working on it.

While it was my fondest hope that we would come in well under the wire, we still have a bit to tidy up, and are likely to go close to midnight pst. The remaining list of issues is pretty small, however its important to us that we get some deep testing in with things at 100%. [ via - XBL Ops Blog]

Things should be cleared up by tomorrow morning though. I wonder if we get reimbursed or extended subscriptions for the time XBL is down?

[Via - Destructiod]

Eric is a friend of mine from college. Since graduating he’s become a teacher. The other night he sent me an instant message with a funny story about a student. 

Eric: I had a student in class today try to convince me that he should be able to play a trench warfare video game in history class, because it was “educational”. When his teacher asked him what war it was about the kid paused and answered, “The Cold War.”

Me: Haha!!

Eric went on to explain how a game about trench warfare couldn’t possibly be about the Cold War. The student went further than that and conducted more research on the war using Wikipedia.

This reminded me of a study conducted in 2007. It found that over 50% of students believe educational video games would help them learn while 81% of teachers disagreed. The results of the study are not surprising but maybe the kids are on to something. A mere discussion on the prospect of video games in the classroom led Eric’s student to study the Cold War.

Several companies are developing educational video games. Even if you think gaming in the classroom is absurd you’d have to agree that games (at the very least) can serve as a valuable topic of discussion in school. Imagine students discussing how Project Natal works in science class or how computer science is used to create a video game.

[Via - Eric ]

I didn’t want to write about the PSP Go. If this feels like a ‘me too’ post that’s because it is a me too post. My RSS reader is filled with buzz about Sony’s new portable gaming device. Unfortunately, most of the coverage has been the same because we all have the same limited information. So I thought I would provide some thoughts on what the alleged PSP Go could mean for mobile gaming and why it brings out the green eyed monster in me.

The Good

• Wider screen
• No UMD Drive – The device will rely soley on  16 gbytes of internal memory and digital downloads.

The Bad

• Lack of a second analog stick
• No mini- KEYBOARD – A flaw of the previous model makes a return in the PSP Go. How am I going to search for games and browse web sites online without a keypad?
• Awkward placement of buttons
• No touch screen

The So What: I’m still jealous

You know what? None of the above matters. The most important question is: Can Sony get awesome games for this platform? That’s the only reason why my PSP is gathering a thin layer of dust under my bed. Nothing compels me to go out and buy a game for it. You know what I want? I want a Nintendo DS. I’ve gone to GameStop to check out the games for the DS and I hate to admit but I’m jealous! I want to play Brain Age and Personal Trainer: Cooking. They may seem like lightweight games but that’s ok. You can’t play a high performance game on the go. I doubt people (truly) want a super charged portable gaming device. We just want something fun to play during our morning commute to work or in between classes. Casual games like Brain Age and Personal Trainer fit the bill perfectly. 

[Image via Eurogamer.net]

Have you heard of Rape Lay? It’s a rape simulation game that led to much discussion and justifiable outrage a few months ago. The game was eventually pulled form Amazon.   Unfortunately, Stockholm: An Exploration of True Love…is even worse:

” [Stockholm is] a terrifyingly vivid exploration of Stockholm Syndrome, a psychological condition in which a captive falls in love with her kidnapper. And you play the part of the kidnapper. With a limited number of options, you must figure out how to make her fall in love with you.” [ Via - Amazon]

This game is much darker than Rapelay in that torture, kidnapping, and psychological abuse are used as pre-cursors to love. [!?]

Why This Won’t Cause the Faux Outrage that Rape Lay Did

I call it “faux outrage” because the game led to the usual video game apologists trotting out their, “It’s a free country” song and dance while the uppity Westerners wag their fingers and say “oh my gosh those Japanese folks are seriously disturbed”. In the end, both camps walk away feeling better about themselves. 

Rape Lay was also a self serving news story for politicians like British Labour MP Keith Vaz who seem to worry more about banning a video game than about enacting more sexual assault education programs and strengthening laws to make reporting rape less of a fruitless hassle.  Rape Lay has also found support among misguided Libertarians like Penn Gillette who don’t seem to understand how a game like this reinforces rape culture in society. 

We can’t blame obscure Japanese culture for this game. As far as I know, it wasn’t produced in Japan for a Japanese market. Stockholm doesn’t allow ‘us’ to point fingers at someone else’s culture when we should really examine our own culture and why it continues to allow rape to go unreported and un-prosecuted. 

The Real Problem with Rape Simulation Games

I don’t believe these games create rapists. I argue that they make rapists far more comfortable then they should be. This is what separates Grand Theft Auto 4 from Rape Lay and Stockholm. Murder carries the heavy consequence of indefinite jail time (and sometimes death) in real life while rape does not. Many women don’t even bother reporting their rapists because the chance of successfully convicting their attacker is next to nil. 

So you’ll most likely forget about this Sexual Assault Video game. Doing something beyond banning the game takes the hard work of shining a light on a broken justice system that continues to sweep rapists and their victims under the rug.

Steps You Can take Beyond Internet Flame Wars

The Easy Stuff

Help Amazon filter out the bad stuff. I’m confident Amazon will pull this game once they receive enough complaints from consumers. Do your part by sending a note to Amazon here. 

The Awesome Stuff

Volunteer to raise awareness about the true nature of sexual assault (8 in 10 women are assaulted by someone they know). I did this in college and it was an amazing experience. Join V-Day and sign up to become a College or Community Organizer.

Write your elected official and encourage them to pass H.R. 80 the Military Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Response Act to better protect men and women serving in the military. 

H.R. 80 would reduce sexual assault and domestic violence involving members of the Armed Forces and their family members and partners through enhanced programs of prevention and deterrence, enhanced programs of victims services, and strengthened provisions for prosecution of assailants. [ Via- Change.org]

[Via - Jezebel]