Se7enSins Forums - Se7enSins Homepage http://www.se7ensins.com/forums/ Read and discuss the news found on the front page. en Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:47:52 GMT vBulletin 3 http://www.se7ensins.com/forums/images/se7ensins/misc/rss.jpg Se7enSins Forums - Se7enSins Homepage http://www.se7ensins.com/forums/ Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 banned in Russia http://www.se7ensins.com/forums/se7ensins-homepage/157305-call-duty-modern-warfare-2-banned-russia.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:10:27 GMT Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 2 Banned in Russia

 by Chris Matyszczyk



Sometimes, one's biases can balance out very nicely. So please let me lay mine out in all their militant glory.


Bias No. 1: I do not play many video games, and Call of Duty does not impact in any way upon my emotional or personal life.


Bias No. 2: Members of my family were arrested by Stalin's miserable cohorts and abused daily in Siberian labor camps, from which only some emerged and even they were permanently scarred.


So I truly do not have a heavily armed platoon in the feral battle currently waging between Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and the fine nation of Russia.


According to the vaunted experts at Hellforge, the designers of this sickeningly successful Call of Duty game decided to push the creative boundaries. The chaps at Infinity Ward incorporated a "No Russian" mission in which people who seem to reek of rather pure vodka massacre lots of folks, leading to--disgust upon depravity--the erection of statues of supposed deceased terrorists in Washington, D.C.


The game, you see, imagines a world in which the Russian Federation is being ruled by extreme nationalists. Positing such a heinous concept clearly took a huge level of imagination and led to Russian gamers expressing their internal pain at such monstrous cultural insensitivity.


Russian politicians, perhaps the most independent-minded in all the world, huffed and puffed and threatened to the degree that the console version has been banned, according to the Mirror newspaper. The controversial scenes have also reportedly been removed from the PC and Steam editions.


I am not sure either side comes out of this looking, well, brave.


Somehow, I have a sense that the game designers at Infinity Ward might have known that a little controversy would be caused by scenes so clearly offensive to a nation of peace.


However, I am also concerned that the Russians might be overreacting. If Salman Rushdie had written such an imagined scenario in one of his books of so many words, would the Russian government have banned the book? Would it have sent some operative to stab him with an umbrella or poison his sushi? I think not.


So why get so worked up about something that will largely be played and pirated by youths of an already doleful spirit?


It is hard enough these days to select a country for villainy in works of art. I notice that in Bond movies, where once evil had its origins in Eastern Europe, now it emerges from some indeterminate or impotent nation in order to keep feathers muffled rather than ruffled.


By getting upset about a video game with an obviously false and fictional characterization, Russian politicians are surely giving it far more credence than its creation merits.


Source:
Code:
http://news.cnet.com/gaming-and-culture/?tag=hdr;snav
]]> Se7enSins Homepage JoeMal http://www.se7ensins.com/forums/se7ensins-homepage/157305-call-duty-modern-warfare-2-banned-russia.html Parents take away Xbox; boy dials 911 http://www.se7ensins.com/forums/se7ensins-homepage/157143-parents-take-away-xbox-boy-dials-911-a.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:32:14 GMT Parents take away Xbox; boy dials 911 By: Chris Matyszczyk Image: http://tinyimage.net/image-6382_4B058096.jpg There is a view that... Parents take away Xbox; boy dials 911

By: Chris Matyszczyk

Click the image to open in full size.


There is a view that removing all 15-year-old boys from this earth would not only help global warming but also our cultural horizon.


Supporters of this view will then be heartened to hear the story reported by the Chicago Tribune of a 15-year-old boy who suffered a serious trauma. His parents took away his Xbox.


The boy, a resident of Buffalo Grove, Ill., which sounds like the sort of place where discipline is imparted along traditional lines, decided to express his feelings and exert his identity. He called 911 in order to ask the police whether his parents were, indeed, within their rights to remove his gaming equipment from his sensitive little fingers.


However, brave as all 15-year-olds are, he appears to have hung up. So the Buffalo Grove police which, on its website, declares that it is "dedicated to making our community a better place to live and work", wandered along to his house.


Where they may have just laughed until their shirts billowed like the kaftans of the late Luciano Pavarotti.


Commander Steve Husak told the Tribune that the officers not only told the little tyke that parents do, indeed, have the right to take away his gadgetry, but that it might be an idea to listen to what they had to say.


It is not recorded why the parents took away the boy's Xbox. Perhaps it was because he's a vastly intelligent youth who will soon be the governor of Illinois.

From:
Code:
http://news.cnet.com/gaming-and-culture/?tag=hdr;snav


 ]]> Se7enSins Homepage JoeMal http://www.se7ensins.com/forums/se7ensins-homepage/157143-parents-take-away-xbox-boy-dials-911-a.html <![CDATA[Online Gaming's Dirty Little Secret]]> http://www.se7ensins.com/forums/se7ensins-homepage/157125-online-gamings-dirty-little-secret.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:10:01 GMT Online gaming's dirty little secret

By: Jeff Bakalar

Click the image to open in full size.


There's no denying that the online multiplayer experience is a major selling point for video games like the just-released Modern Warfare 2. The ability to play with (and against) other players from around the world adds an expanded dimension and a social component that single-player titles lack.



But while the bulk of the mainstream media criticism of these games tends to focus on the violence, gore, and questionable ethics in such combat-centric titles, little is spoken about a growing issue that can affect online gamers playing any title: instances of racism, misogyny, and homophobia (see below for a Current TV video on the latter subject).



Increasingly sophisticated gaming networks such as Microsoft's Xbox Live and Sony's PlayStation Network allow players to communicate with one another before, during, and after gaming sessions via text and voice. Having participated in online gaming for more than a decade, I've heard every last profane muttering and expletive known to man.



But when my attention to online gaming shifted from the PC to the home console, I began to notice a comparatively more hostile environment. For whatever reason, this hostility usually came in the form of racial insensitivity and homophobic behavior.



Fast-forward to the current generation of games, and hearing racial epithets like the "n word" or homophobic slang like the "f word" shouted online is more commonplace than you might want to believe. Meanwhile, women who play in the male-dominated world of online gaming sometimes find themselves the victims of sexually suggestive comments and gender-based taunting.



While this type of behavior and language is actively discouraged in polite society, that mindset is totally disregarded by some in the online gaming world. Odds are that if you play enough online, you'll experience it firsthand.



A quick survey in the CNET office of gamers who play online using voicechat told us that all had had at least one negative experience. And unfortunately, it only takes a single unpleasant match online to really slam you back down to reality.



Perhaps the cloak of anonymity that playing a video game online provides increases the prevalence of these instances. Or maybe the brutal reality is that social issues like racism are more of a problem than we'd like to admit. The fact remains that there are some seriously deranged and troubled people out there, and they are speaking into my headset.



On CNET's The 404 podcast, numerous African American listeners called up voicing their views. Listener Andrel from Georgia says, "It's so bad to the point where if I'm playing a game over Xbox Live, I don't even have my headset on unless I'm in a party with friends."



So what do we do? The answer isn't simple. In fact, there probably isn't much console manufacturers or developers can do to curb this ugly trend. Services like Xbox Live let you mute and avoid players who are guilty of such behavior, and if things escalate, you can file a complaint. If punishment is deemed appropriate, players can be warned, temporarily kicked out, or even permanently banned from the service altogether.



With more than 20 million members, Xbox Live is the most popular online gaming service for home consoles. Leading the way toward a safer, more positive online experience is Stephen "Stepto" Toulouse, director of policy and enforcement for Xbox Live. It's his team's responsibility to sift through the complaints that accuse gamers of malevolent activities and decide whether disciplinary action is warranted. We had a chance to interview Stepto over the phone about what's being done to combat such deviant behavior.

Read the rest/Source:
Code:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10400948-1.html?tag=newsFeaturedBlogArea.0
]]> Se7enSins Homepage JoeMal http://www.se7ensins.com/forums/se7ensins-homepage/157125-online-gamings-dirty-little-secret.html