EA’s Origin may be glorified Spyware…

In case you hadn’t heard already, Electronic Arts’ Origin is more than just a petty attempt to undermine Steam. It’s an insidious petty attempt to undermine Steam. The service has upset gamers since it installs Spyware, allowing EA to dig around in your hard drive as explicitly stated in the terms of service.  The EULA says that EA can identify your computer, operating system, installed/uninstalled software/hardware, and use that information for marketing purposes while merrily sharing it with third party companies. It ‘s all fairly disgusting, and there’s no opt-out offer. If you don’t want EA to know everything about you and pass the information along, your only recourse is to not install Origin — which will mean you can’t play Battlefield 3 on PC at all…

via EA’s Origin may be glorified Spyware, causes mass upset -Destructoid.

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Wow..  Really EA?   Damn does your marketing department have got balls and your programming team must have been outsourced…    WTF is this?  You, EA, provide products we buy, and that is where our relationship ends.  You can ASK to see my system specs in order to see what the ‘normal’ PC is out there but you don’t need to know what I have installed.  Nor can you make money off MY information with out ME getting a cut of it.

You can pay me for my personal information, otherwise  ╭∩╮(°_°)╭∩╮

Phoenix Down (Final Fantasy Cocktail)

Phoenix Down (Final Fantasy Cocktail)

Ingredients:
1/2 shot Absinthe
1/2 shot Zwack (Jagermeister will work too)
2 tsp. Simple Syrup
1 Splash Grenadine
Fill rest of the glass with Club Soda

Directions: Mix the absinthe, syrup, and soda water in a smaller glass (a perigord absinthe glass is used in the picture) until the drink becomes opalescent. Add ice if you prefer the drink really cold. Before serving, add the Zwack and grenadine.

Both will settle nicely, leaving a nice orange on the top and a deep crimson below.

 

DJ Hero Helped Kill Guitar Hero – Games News at IGN

Activision boss Bobby Kotick says the company’s flop music game DJ Hero contributed to the company taking one-time star franchise Guitar Hero off the market….

via DJ Hero Helped Kill Guitar Hero – Games News at IGN.

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Really?   How stupid does Booby Kotick think we are?   First off, DJ Hero WAS a bad idea from the start.   But, someone thought it would do well enough to make a sequel and have a third on in the works..   But no.. it’s DJ Hero’s fault that the past few Guitar Hero games have had horrible track lists, lackluster game play, and pretty much boring.

Booby also admitted that creating DJ Hero pulled valuable care and attention away from Guitar Hero.   Wait.. WHAT?    So like you had the whole company focused on a game like DJ hero?  WTF?!     and DJ Hero wasn’t created by the same team.. so how was focus shifted?

Boils down too.. Some upper brass screw up.  But will they take the blame?   nope.    the Developers where the problem.  Not some idiot giving the green light on a game that was OBVIOUSLY not A) thought though and B) had any market research done.

 

Activision Blizzard sued!!! By the PSN guy?!

Activision Blizzard sued by … yeah, it’s the PSN guy

via Joystiq – ULTRAFEED by Alexander Sliwinski on 11/25/09

 

Serial suit launcher Erik Estavillo is making a little name for himself in the game space, as his latest complaint seeks $1 million in damages from Activision Blizzard over the design of World of Warcraft. GamePolitics reports on the complaint, which claims that the publisher maintains a “harmful virtual environment to many of its customers by forcing them to follow the game’s sneaky and deceitful practices.” Estavillo alleges that the “calculated slow pace” of the game makes turning quests in take longer and thus generates more subscription revenue for Activision Blizzard.

If that wasn’t enough, Estavillo also subpoenaed actress Winona Ryder and Depeche Mode’s Martin Lee Gore to testify on his behalf regarding alienation. He explains that his health issues, which apparently include OCD, agoraphobia, depression (and more), mean that he “relies on video games heavily for the little ongoing happiness he can achieve in this life.” 

Estavillo had previously sued Sony after being banned from PSN and also has another suit against Microsoft and Nintendo, for his Xbox 360′s Red Ring of Death and Nintendo’s disabling of the Homebrew Channel in an update. Perhaps he’ll have more luck suing over the design of a game in which millions happily pay to participate.

Activision Blizzard sued by … 

Jeebus crisp… *sigh*
You would think with the number suits out there that this guy is only looking for easy money and just wants to meet Winona Ryder and Martin Lee Gore.
Course, I wouldn’t mind meeting Winona Ryder either. *Hmmmmm* .. I’d just be afraid she’d steal something from my house. L

Freaking Sheep…

Source for this rant:
[http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/06/uk-change4life-ad-campaign-attacks-gamers/]

in a new shell for those too lazy to click a link.  The Joystiq article is reporting about an AD campaign that links video game playing with people dying younger.

O.o

WHAT?!  Ok, at the top most level there is some logic to that.  If you are so lazy that you never leave the sofa for years on end and just play games.  Ok, you can mess with your body.  But I’ve never known anyone to do that.  8+ hour sessions?  yes.  but weeks?!  no.  (Unless you are a WoW player.. and then you should really get a life and play RoM. )

And I’ve played a number of games that can get my heart pumping.  a good UT match, Rock Band, Guitar Hero,  even the Wii really kinda forces you to stand up to play most of it’s crappy games.
since when do you just set there for ever?

The thing that scares me the most about this is that some parents are going to believe it.   What’s next?  a warning label to advise people:  1 HR game time is equal to 2300 calories.   OMG!  Timmy just played Battlefront and now needs to exercise for 12 minutesto burn off the fat!   WTF.

Yes doing ANYTHING for too long (yes, even sex you pervs)  can be a bad thing.  You can kill yourself by drinking to much water..  You can kill yourself by eating too much toothpaste. 

But are people so breed to be sheep now you need to be told that sitting on the sofa for to long can mess with you?  Do you need to be told to get up and move around one in a while?     Really, are people becoming that brain dead?

(Rebuttal) Guitar Hero: Another sell out…

[From the Editor in Chief of the Pogowolf (and soon to have a Pogopup...)]

I’ll admit, I am a die-hard Metallica fan, and have been for since my early days of Junior High.  In a time of self discovery and becoming less of a product of my parents and more of a individual, I was introduced to Metallica’s fiery guitar licks, thundering double-bass drum beats, hard bass-riffs and raw lyrics that send chills down my spine each time I screamed at the top of my lungs to release the pent up rage I felt when growing up with the injustices of the world.

So, I was hook on Metallica.  I studied them, learned their history, with the beginnings of Lars, James and Dave Mustaine (later to form Megadeth), Ron McGovney, to the tragic loss of Cliff Burton; which almost lead to the demise of the entire band in the mid-80′s.  Despite the indulgence and complications of the booze, the lost of band-members, Metallica as prevailed, they continued through the darkest of dark times and their music captured that feeling.  I remember the haunting lyrics from a passed Cliff Burton off the “And Justice For All” album, track “To Live is to Die” which says, “When a man lies, he murders some part of the world…  Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home?”  How does that not captivate you?  I feel even the lyrical genius Leonard Cohen would struggle to come up with something better.

In the tale of two-halves commonly known as “Pre-Black Album” and “Post Black Album”, Metallica, like ALL long standing bands, have changed their sound and song style as an evolutionary process with the times.  For reasons I cannot understand, this “change” is uncomfortable with many die-hard fans of the like.  They are referred as “sell-outs”, or “going soft, weak”, thinking that all bands must stay in the same style they started with and should never expand themselves from that box we as fans put them in.  No one raises a stink or throws a fit for the band KISS when their hard-rock sound changed in the 70′s to fit the Disco era.  Just look at the song, “I was made for loving you.”  It’s is Disco at its finest, and the KISS Army has grown to accept it.  Why is that?  What about Led Zeppelin disallowing license to their music for TV spots and movies? Do people beat down the door of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page and call them weak for protecting their music?  (Granted, the movie “School of Rock”, did finally, convince Zeppelin to use “The Immigrant Song” in the movie.) We create such a double standard for musicians that have been around for 7 years or more.  I even remember people talk about hating Korn because of the album of Cover songs they did, hearing people say that Korn has gotten soft.  We as fans are horrible.

After Metallica’s whole Napster incident, they were the labeled the black sheep of all bands because of the lawsuit of illegal downloads.  For that I say, “good for them.”  Buy the music people.  Support your musicians.  The artists should be compensated for their works.  Your beef shouldn’t be with Metallica, but with the record companies failing to recognize the ever changing model of the music industry and electronic distribution.  I should also let you know that in a former life, I was Disc-jockey and a Bass guitar player, and I can tell you, without music, even the cheesy artist such as Vanilla Ice, it’s tough to throw a great party.  What’s .99 cents?

Now, I heard from the Pogo-peeps of a Guitar Hero: Metallica in the making for 2009?  Wow, I am really not sure what to say about that except for maybe, “Good luck to the developers at Activision.”  I am sure that all fans would come to expect that the GH:M game should focus on the songs “pre-black” that we fans have come known as our favorites.  I feel that Activision will have a difficult time trying to replicate the authentic sounds of Kirk Hammet in songs like “Whiplash”, “Master of Puppets”, “Seek and Destroy”, “Fade to Black”, “One”, “And Justice for All” and the list goes on and on.  Now that GH allows Bass guitar, will it include such Bass solos as “(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth” or the epic instrumentals like “The Call of Ktulu”, “Orion”, or “To Live is to Die”.  Can Activation recreate this essence of Metallica in the scrolling-button-pushing arena of Guitar Hero and be even remotely close to the real thing?  I have a feeling that it won’t, and their attempt will be shoddy at best.  If GH does it right, ALL songs from ALL albums should be in this game; from the ballad of “Nothing Else Matters”, to the two-hundred-ten-beats-per-minute second-half of “Whiplash”.  If they are going to do it, they need to do it right as justification for all the millions of Metallica fans in existence.

Although, here’s a small beef:  But if someone is going to spend the time trying to master these songs via the 4-color, 4-button controller, why not just pickup a real guitar and learn the real songs?  Mastering a “Trash’em” song in Guitar Hero makes you a geek, mastering a “Thrash’em” song with 6-strings through a Marshal Amplifier makes you a God.  I feel that if people are going to label Metallica a sell-out for allowing the folks at Activision to create a GH featuring them, then everyone that offered their songs in the previous version of GH should also be called a sell-out; after all, what’s the difference between tracks from multiple artists in a single game versus multiple songs from a single artist in the same game?  Zero, period.

If people call Metallica sell-outs, they are right, they do sell-out…  every concert they play.  No Napster incident, no “bad album”, no media coverage, rehab-incident, etc has stopped Metallica from creating music or continuing to go on tour since 1983.  If Activision wants to create a game, featuring one of the hardest to duplicate musical style-bands of all times, then go ahead and let them.  (Anyone remember the powerhouse concert of the mid-90′s of Metallica and Guns n Roses Use your Illusion Tour?) This could be Activision’s crowning achievement.  If this venture succeeds, perhaps it is a turning point in the GH world and maybe something great comes from it.  However, if it fails, perhaps this will finally end the GH series with nothing more than quiet slip into “Fade to Black”.

[This topic was origionally posted as a comment; however, I deicded to step things up a notch and make this a full topic]

‘Expert’ says Wii Fit should be banned…

Over on the [WiiFitChat] Blog, someone has posted an article stated that some poor little 10 year old was “devastated” after the game her [she was overweight].    Now I’m going to hold my tongue here for a moment but only add that after that state that after the above post some Tam Fry, an Obesity expert, has gone on the record stating:

“I’m absolutely aghast that children are being told they are fat. BMI is far from perfect but with children it simply should not be used.

A child’s BMI can change every month and it is perfectly possible for a child to be stocky, yet still very fit. I would be very concerned if children were using this game and I believe it should carry a warning for parents.”

 

Now, Nintendo has apologised for any offence the game might have caused thus far, but has refused to place a warning on the game so far.

 

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OK.. looks like the community needs yet another reality check.   First off the WiiFit is a game.   Yes it helps to get you moving so you aren’t just sitting on your ass which will help you to loose weight, but it’s a game none the less.   If you’re 10 year old is believing a VIDEO GAME over YOU.  Then you’re 10 year old has some other personal esteem issues other then just being called fat.   Tell the kid it’s a game not a fitness expert.    it’s only as smart as the programmers that created it. 

 

 

 

 

Xbox game ad banned over violence

This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Wednesday April 09 2008. It was last updated at 07:22 on April 09 2008.

Kane & Lynch Dead Men ad: appeared in Total Film magazine

A “graphic” and “shocking” poster, press and television advertisement campaign for Xbox video game Kane & Lynch has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority.

The ASA has ordered the game’s publisher, Eidos Interactive, not to print or broadcast any of the ads again after upholding 26 complaints and ruling that the poster was “graphic and too shocking to be seen in an untargeted medium”.

Eidos’s press ad promoting the game – about two violent mercenaries – showed a woman with a gagged and tear-stained face having her head held back by one of the men, who stood behind her pulling her hair and wearing surgical gloves. A second man, who held a rifle with his finger on the trigger, stood behind him.

The ad was used a double-page spread in Future Publishing’s computer game magazine Edge, while a second version appeared in the magazine Total Film, also owned by Future, with the same images but in close-up and with the rifle excised. The poster ad used the same image.

A TV ad for Kane & Lynch showed scenes involving the two central characters from the game shooting guns among a group of hostages. One of the characters used the butt of his rifle as a club accompanied by the sound of a loud crunch, while another scene showed a man with a bloodied face apparently having his throat cut.

The voiceover stated: “From the creators of Hitman comes Kane & Lynch … Lynch, a medicated psychopath, Kane a flawed mercenary”.

The ad continued with various scenes of acts of violence and chaos including shooting and people screaming and running in terror.

Ruling on the Kane & Lynch poster, which stated “Grittier and nastier in tone than anything you’ve seen before, the violence here is visceral, brutal and very, very real”, the ASA said it was “likely to be seen as condoning and glorifying real violence”, and was also irresponsible and “likely to cause serious or widespread offence”.

The ASA also ruled that the images in the press ads were “graphic and too shocking to be seen in any medium” and breached its code on responsible advertising, decency as well as on violence and antisocial behaviour.

“We noted that the demographic profile of the magazines that carried the ads was predominantly adult males and that only a small number of children were likely to have seen the ads,” the regulator said.

“We considered, however, that the graphic and shocking image, which would be seen as condoning and glorifying real violence, was likely to cause distress to some readers and was unsuitable for children to see. We therefore concluded that the placement of the ads was irresponsible.”

Complaints against the TV ad were also upheld, with the ASA deciding that the images were “likely to cause offence and distress to viewers despite the animated treatment” and breached its code on harm and offence, violence and cruelty and personal distress.

“In addition, we considered that the voiceover, which included the statement from one of the characters, ‘I should regret it all, all the pain I’ve caused’, in conjunction with acts of violence and intimidation, which were prevalent throughout the ad, were likely to be seen by viewers as condoning real violence and cruelty,” the ASA added.

In its defence, Eidos said that it had intended the poster image to be “cinematic” but it was not their intention to cause offence. The games producer added that the ad portrayed a kidnap scene from the game but pointed out that the woman was unharmed despite the mouth gag.

Eidos said the TV ad was designed to be cinematic and to communicate the contrasting characteristics of the two main protagonists. The company added that because of the subject matter of the game, the TV ad was “not … overly violent”.

Both Channel 4 and Channel Five, which broadcast the television ad, apologised for causing any distress.

· To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332.

· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”.

More on the MASS EFFECT sex scandal…

More PROOF that Fox ‘news’ has no idea what they are talking about.  What’s up with this crap??!
Shouldn’t the news report in a truthful, forthcoming manner?  Shouldn’t the news be reporting well, THE NEWS?

This isn’t news.  This is troll bait.
But it does make me want a copy of the game these idiots are playing.

Even children are smart enough to know that jumping on a person is NOT going to make a coin pop out of their ass.
studies or no studies…

Grrrrrrrrrr.. Stupid Humans.

Theme from Zelda on a Theremin.

The Legend of Zelda (a video game) main theme played on a theremin.
The theremin is the first musical instrument designed to be played without being touched.
and guaranteed to hurt your ears….