Absolute Power

If anyone has been living under a rock the past few days, read this. For the rest of us, Illinois Gov. Rob Blagojevich is now back to work after posting a "signature bond" for 4,800 dollars. Corruption, Corruption, Corruption is all over the news. There seems to be something about these corruption cases that has caught my eye in recent hours. After reading a GamePolitics article, a weird idea popped into my head.

Why are Governors who support violent game laws getting busted for corruption? Mr. Spitzer was busted a few months back for paying prostitutes with government funds. Now, Mr. Blagojevitch is in the process of getting nailed for trying to sell Barack Obama's senate seat to the highest bidder. Both men who either supported or were propents of laws banning violent video games. (Both happen to be Democrats.)

There seems to be something about this mentality, a "Holier than thou" if you will, that doesn't compute. They want to save us from ourselves, yet they are living on the edge. Absolute power corrupts absolutely as they say. What makes these douchebags think they are above the law.

I hope this serves a reminder why the people hold the power in this country. If anyone tries to trample your liberties, Democrat or Republican, tell them to get lost.

Remember kids, Do as I say, not as I do!

Just Aweful...

Alright parents. Get your shit together. Put on your common sense caps and read this story. Two children, 6 and 7 years of age, stoned and hung a kitten by the cord of a video game controller after playing a session of GTA.

What is wrong with this picture. Psychotic children? Maybe. Violent Game? I'll give you that one. Under the recommended age for such game? Definitely. Parents? No where to be seen. Again and again we see children playing violent games who shouldn't be playing them. If the government wants to regulate something, how about bad parenting.

Such a heinous act perpetrated by children under the age of ten. Throwing rocks at a small animal and then hanging it by a controller is just sickening, even for an adult to do. GTA you can kill cops and hookers, but animals? These are some fucked up times we are living in folks.

According to the reports, it doesn't say that the game inspired them to do this, but you have to have some sick fucking ideas already implanted into their brains. One of the mother is an undocumented illegal and the other is on a work visa so it makes it hard to prosecute, and according to state law, children under 8 cannot be tried for crimes.

I don't know what to say. This fucking makes me sick...

Brad Wardell - Stardock man of...AWESOME

After stumbling around the web links on Jeff Green's blog, I found a link to Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock. This dude is now my official hero. A Game Dev with common sense. I'm adding him to my cool links!

Sessler Says It!

Adam Sessler has a great rant on his Soap Box.

The DRM Conundrum

Well, it seems big GabeN over at Valve has made some waves in recent days talking about his stance on DRM. Gabe always offers some great talking points! Mr. Newell stands with most gamers' saying that DRM is "dumb." He says that the focus should be to add value to a product, not take it away.

All this comes to light as the hotly anticipated GTA 4 launches on the PC. GTA 4, as reported before, uses the controversial SecuROM copy protection software. However, Rockstar has allowed users to have unlimited machine activations so gamers don't have to worry how many times they can uninstall their game.

To me, this all seems kind of rediculous. DRM is something that should be on the forefront of the PC Gaming Aliance's agenda. Something along the lines of what Stardock's Gamer's Bill of Rights looked like. Since the dawn of the platform, PC Gamers have enjoyed backwards compatability (when Windows will allow it) and could play games 10 or more years old. DRM schemes on SPORE and Mass Effect only stymie the consumers ability to use their product.

Why wouldn't a company allow for unlimited installs? If you have online activation it really doesnt matter. I mean, how successful was EA's attempt to control their digital rights? Well, SPORE was on a torrent days before its official North American release. It's not the average consumer EA needs to worry about. Just pulling numbers out of my ass, I'd say that 99.99% of consumers are not taking their copy of "insert game here", cracking the DRM and puting it up on a torrent for people to download. Whoever these people are, get their hands on it before hand. Using draconian DRM only isolates the gaming public, and shows that EA is on a trend to kill the PC as a platform.

I've never had any problems with DRM before. It's never killed my computer disabled a game. I think it's within a developers rights to try to protect their investments, but not when you infringe on a consumers right to use a product/service thats been paid for. There has to be some middle ground both developers and consumers can agree on. I think we will see this relationship grow with independant devs such as Valve, Id Software, Stardock because they only answer to themselves. Bigger firms such as Microsoft and EA have shareholders and bottomlines to worry about. If the consumer is unhappy with a PC game, so be it. You can't return open box PC games to most retail stores. Either way "insert large corporate developer here" gets your money and doesn't have to give it back. I feel that independant devs are more intouch with their player base and usually keep them in mind when creating games, and for the most part are sympathetic to the gripes and complaints of their community.

As for now, Rockstar's use of SecuROM is just fine with me. If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Gentlemen, leave my mother out of this!

Ah yes, nothing is more soothing than the dulcet tones of a pre-pubecent male screaming racial epithets at your mother. There is just something about it that makes me think of home. It's almost like Frank Sinatra or Elvis singing Christmas songs when you are sitting by the fireside.

The folks at 1up have a nice little feature on the Top 10 Things Learned from Xbox Live headsets. Screaming and yelling at idiots has become common place when playing games over the net. It's a quick read but a good one. Definately goes well with the companion Top Gamer Tantrums.

In other news, we got our Christmas tree up. Along with the tree goes about 40 boxes of decorations and other garbage ornaments. I'm hoping the wife will see how much crap she has and throw some of the hand-me-downs out. My garage is breathing a sigh of relief now that the boxes have been moved out, but now you can't use the living room. Thank goodness for the "Bat Cave."