Geek vs Life

So I’m browsing around on TV.com, adding episodes for Haruka -Beyond the Stream of Time-, when I catch this little nugget at the top of my screen. I’ll spare you from reading it (although the comments are amusing), and give you a brief synopsis:

A 10-year-old girl in England who is reportedly 4′9″ and 6 stone (84 lbs) was called “fat” by Wii Fit (even though that term is not used) in their BMI test. Her parents are pissed, and now the spokesperson from the National Obesity Forum (remember, it would be England’s National forum) wants to ban the game from children.

If you want more on what’s been said and everything, you can go ahead and read it, but here’s the reason I’m posting this:

Something in that article is wrong.

Ok, so wandering around Destructoid, I found this video:

Jack Thompson is getting to people. Only difference here is that they’re focusing on online RPGs.

Now, we all know that video games cause misanthropy, violence and sadistic murder, but did you know that they are also the vile, sordid root of isolation, depression and suicide for some people? That’s right folks, this latest bit of video game sensationalism comes courtesy of Philadelphia’s Action News on 6ABC and features some crack head of a mother talking about how Everquest was the reason her poor little 21 year old medicated rifle owner locked himself away, quit his job, then went ahead and offed himself.

They at least acknowledge the fact that the people who are killing themselves and running around getting depressed over their night elves are people who had problems already with meds, and the game is just a catalyst, like drugs. But its still irritating when developers put their sweat and blood into making them work, only to get blamed for everyone’s dead kid…

April 16, 33 students were killed at Virginia Tech. Being one of the last people on earth without TV, it took a while for the news to actually get to me of what happened. It was a customer at work that told me. “Did you hear about the shooting?” Instantly my mind was going off, flashbacks of Columbine running through my head.

I paused for reflection, feeling sorrow for the families of those that were lost, and twangs of anger. Both at the shooter, and for the people that didn’t notice any of the signs of a problem. My inner journalist chimed in, telling me to do further research. That’s when I saw a name that inspires constant annoyance and tends to enrage me. That of a Florida lawyer, Jack Thompson.

Part of me wanted to put this in a different order, so it wasn’t quite this heavy, but as it means a lot to me, and this is so important, well, here it is.

A couple of days ago (again, sorry for the delays on this stuff), some kids did something absolutely horrible. They killed a homeless man, after having beaten him ruthlessly. Rocks, bricks, and even the man’s own BBQ grill were thrown at him. They then took a pipe and a baseball bat (that was there for his protection) and beat him to death. Afterwards, one of the boys smeared his own feces on the body, and cut the man’s face to make sure he was dead.

The story was covered by CNN, and I saw it on Penny Arcade. Well, today the…umm..step mother of the boy wrote Gabe about her experience with him.

You know, I’ve got a lot of respect for this man. The ESA has done a lot to keep the video game industry both in line, and given it a lot of freedom to express itself. Tireless work for over a decade. At this year’s DICE, he gave his going away speech, which to me, sounded like the Dragon Speech (Sorry, I can’t find an actual copy of that truly powerful lecture), but instead of directing it at developers so much (But he did say this about an un-named developer that “make[s] controversial content and then cut and run when it comes time to defending their creative decisions”…Rockstar, the rest of us are looking in your direction…), he targeted the game journalists.

Step One: In an interview with EGM, Jack Tretton stated that he would pay $1,200 for any PS3 that stood on the shelves for longer than 5 minutes.

Step Two: Let it get out over the internet.

Step Three: Sit and watch while people try to take you up on a really stupid offer.

Psst…Psyfall! Grab the good camera, and let’s go shopping!

Half-Life 2 is delayed until next fall. The Orange box and the Blackbox.

I want Portal, damnit!

Seriously, who’s gonna pay these guys five bucks for them to make your Mii?

Send ‘em a photo, they’ll make a Mii using it as a model, and they’ll send it to your Wii via your Wii ID…ii…

Okay, so my friend was asking me if I’d heard about the Maple Story DS game they’re making, and I was thinking about it, and realized that it’s kinda stupid. I mean, I love Maple Story (I’ve discussed it before), but, provided I get my DS back, I don’t think I’d buy it.

I mean, Maple Story is an AWESOME game. It’s got fun, addictive gameplay, it’s an MMORPG that you can play with people from around the world, and it’s FREE!!

So what’s not to love about a portable version for the DS? Maybe the fact that, as far as I’ve heard, there will be NO online play. So basically, you can either PAY for the portible, OFFLINE version, or play the ONLINE version for FREE from home, or wherever else you can manage to play it (like an internet cafe or something).

Yeah. That makes a lot of sense.

Sorry, this is a bit dated, by about 3 days.

Jack Thompson is facing a disciplinary hearing before a referee appointed by the Florida Supreme Court. What is behind the hearing comes down to 5 counts of professional misconduct by the Florida Bar.

Ok, the general “we hate Jack Thompson” aside, looking over what he has stated to people, why hasn’t this come earlier? What is he made of, Teflon?

For #^!@’s sake…

GamePolitics for more info.

This is just sad. The nerve of some people. A kid is in the hospital for a cancer treatment, and someone breaks into his house and steals his 360 and about a grand worth of media. To make it worse, the perpetrators evidently knew the kid.

What is the world coming to?

So images have been posted that are supposedly in game images of the infamous Duke Nukem Forever. Having long since become a geek joke for it’s inability to release, it’s almost sad to see that it may be released. The jokes are probably better than the game…..