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Glenn Beck, star of the previously posted "Stupidest Anti-GTA Vid You'll See Today", recently had Focus on the Family founder Dr. James Dobson on his CNN show to bemoan the disintegration of the institution of the family. The family, Dobson and Beck agree, is under attack from every direction, from politicians, from MTV and, of course, from Grand Theft Auto IV.
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game violence
We have to nip this story in the bud before the mainstream media get a hold of it, though it may already be too late! There is absolutely no connection between Sonic the Hedgehog and the New Zealand man who allegedly assaulted a 15-year-old boy with a flying erinaceus europaeus.
"It hit the victim in the leg, causing a large, red welt and several puncture marks," said Senior Sgt Bruce Jenkins, in the North Island town of Whakatane.The suspect has been charged with assault with a weapon (the hedgehog) and faces trial on April 17th. Police cannot tell if the hedgehog, found on the ground dead after the assault, was alive pre-flight. The gaming community needs to distance ourselves from this incident quickly, before another gaming icon comes under fire from major media outlets. Gamers don't mildly injure people. Crazy men flinging small pointy mammals mildly injure people.
NZ man 'used hedgehog as weapon' [BBC - Ninja Girlden]
gamer goodness
On September 4th of last year, firefighter Jeff Diederich came home from work to discover his year-old son Aiden lying strangely still in his crib, grey and yellowed from Jaundice. He and his wife Heather rushed to the hospital only to discover that Aiden needed a liver transplant, and was no way the always crowded National Donor List route would save him in time. Their only option was a living transplant, where a portion of a living donor's liver is transplanted into the recipient. The father offered to undergo the procedure, but his family changed his mind. The 40% risk of donor death meant that Heather would be left alone with two children, so they had to look elsewhere. Enter Aiden's Uncle, Jeff Shoemaker.
Jeff, the uncle, recalls, "after seeing him laying there with all the tubes and hoses, cables and wires I think all my fears went away. My life was worth giving to save his, and if that's what it took, I was fine with that."More »
mainstream media
virtual worlds
Eventually there will more companies in Second Life than their are in real life. Now CNN is setting up an I-Report hub in the virtual world, in a double-effort to learn about life in a computer-created environment while discovering what constitutes news in such a foreign environment.
"The thing we most hope to gain by having a CNN presence in Second Life is to learn about virtual worlds and understand what news is most interesting and valuable to their residents," said Susan Grant, executive vice president of CNN News Services.See? Exactly what I said. The I-Report hub will allow Second Life users to submit their own news stories and includes both a news desk and an amphitheater for bigger events, such as appearances by RL CNN anchors. They're holding a training session tomorrow at 5 eastern for budding VR reporters. If you're interested, be prepared to see things you can't unsee.
mainstream media
violent games
mainstream media
This makes me wonder if the catastrophic injury to Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett will make any real impression on the desensitized adolescents and adults raised with the cartoon violence of "Madden '08" or "NFL Blitz," or the absurd blood-and-guts scenarios associated with other Xbox games.The hell? Did this come completely out of left field or what? Just because we play sports video games we can't tell the difference between a virtual simulation and a real man's pain and suffering? Ug. What's next, a financial correspondent telling us we don't care about the the economy because we are desensitized by the cartoon economics of Sim City? Everybody pile on the gaming industry!
I am often fascinated by what the non-gaming press picks up on. Being as immersed in gaming culture as I have to be to write for Kotaku, it sometimes takes an outside influence to get me to see the shock value in certain titles. Boston's Patriot Ledger explores one such game as they delve into BioShock's Little Sister monsters, and the choice they give the player. Kill them, or free them? The game seems to reward killing them over rescuing them, presenting an interesting ethical choice to players. The goal was to present players with difficult choices, 2K Boston President Kenneth Levine said.More »
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