In a response to a 10-year old girl who was called "fat" by the game Wii Fit, health pundits have jumped into the discussion. The girl was reportedly in perfectly healthy condition, but the Wii Fit fatness gauge went off when it took her measurements. It should be noted that Wii Fit does use standard BMI (Body Mass Index for you laymen) values - the same system used by health professionals and high school gym coaches everywhere. The way I see it, Wii Fit is pretty much your high school gym coach. He can't get you into shape without your own willingness to work at it, but if he is around enough to call you a fatass enough times, maybe you'll actually get off your fat ass and do something about it.
Anyway, some obesity expert said we should spare the children of the world's feelings and stop them from playing Wii Fit for their own good. Nintendo even issued an apology for offending fat kids, citing that the BMI values are standard. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, people who calculate their weight health should differentiate BMI between adults and children. Does Wii Fit take this into account? What's worrisome is the possibility that these "obesity experts" will keep the game from the kids who truly need it.
1. The GTA games aren't that violent (have you been to the movies or watched TV lately?)
2. GTA doesn't turn kids into criminals (bad parenting already doomed your kids to a life of crime)
3. GTA's detractors are wrong (umm...GTA is a reflection of society?)
4. GTA is good for you (car jacking and hookers are therapeutic, didn't you know?)
5. GTA gives you freedom (what happens in the game only gets as bad as you are...)
6. GTA = GG (it's a good game, guys)
While I agree with most of these points, most of these are microcosms of the age old "violence in video games" arguments. Can we finally lay to rest that Night Trap doesn't make you more of a stalker than you already are, and that Mortal Kombat doesn't make the average person want to uppercut people into a pit of spikes? That being said, the GTA series is still one of the more controversial mainstream franchises , and although it's "just a game," its environment and content shouldn't be ignored by discerning consumers - especially parents. Antista makes some very compelling points, but I completely disagree that kids of ALL ages should be playing GTA. There's a reason it gets an "M" Rating, but ultimately parents need to use their discretion when dealing with what's appropriate for their children.
Would you let your 4 year old browse your porn stash? How about let them play the latest virtual Hentai sex game ? There isn't a 4 year old on the planet that NEEDS to experience these things, and while we can debate forever about whether playing GTA IV will make them a car-jacking, cop-multilating, acid-tripping, sex-crazed maniac one day, we can hopefully agree that there are many other games more appropriate for the 4 year old age demographic.
So I'm going about my business in Liberty City... busting kneecaps with a baseball bat and throwing hotdogs at citizens, when I get a phonecall from my man Little Jacob. Besides the fact that I have no idea what the hell this rasta is saying half the time, I do know that he is hiding a stash of guns so I try my best to be on his good side. He says, "hey brutha, canna catch a drink with I and I..." I realize he is asking me out for drinks and I happily oblige (with the ulterior motive of eventually getting access to his MP5 collection). We hit up the local Comrade bar for some vodka... next thing I know, I feel like im gonna throw up, LITERALLY IN REAL LIFE! The freaking screen is shaking and blurring so much that I am having trouble keeping down the noodles I had for breakfast this morning. Nico (the protagonist of the game) stumbles about and falls face first into a fire hydrant (it seems that Serbians cannot hold their liquor as well as their Russian counterparts)... I lose a chunk of my health bar. FUCK! He stumbles around some more; the game tells me to take Little Jacob home. Well geeze thats like 10 blocks away. I hail a cab over and then proceed to carjack the poor fellow while jumping into the drivers seat. Little Jacob tells me that I shouldnt drive; I disagree and tell him to get in or walk home. Now I personally do not condone drunk driving. It is extremely stupid and dangerous, but I would also be lying if I told you I have never done so. Well driving drunk in GTA4 feels like driving drunk in real life, but 10 times worse. If anything, this game is a great anti drunk driving ad since you feel so nauseaus when doing so. Don't believe me? Check it out, just don't say I didn't warn you.
You’re cruising through Liberty City in your carjacked Mercedes SLK when your song comes on the radio. Dang, whenever you hear that song it reminds you of the time you and your friends shot up those pimps. You ‘gotta’ have it for your iPod. You pick up your in-game cellphone and type in a ZiT txt. The song is added to a track list on your Amazon.com account, ready for download.
For Grand Theft Auto IV, Rockstar Games has innovated video game music by allowing players to download any song they hear in the game. Rockstar has teamed up with Amazon.com to allow players downloads of their favorite tracks at around 99 cents a song. No need to write down your favorite songs and look them up on a game-break, just type them into your in-game cellphone and "game-on Garth." Music has been advertised in games like "Jet Set Radio," but in GTA IV buying songs is integrated into the gameplay (though not productively). It’s radio advertising at its finest and it’s thanks to the emerging Internet capability of video games, but what Rockstar has capture is only a fraction of the marketing possibilities.
What if you had the option to download new radio stations? You could go online and download new radio frequencies and new track lists. Instead of charging a download fee, they could integrate Pepsi advertisements on Talk radio stations or see it as an opportunity to continue to sell new songs. Why pay real life radio stations to advertise your tunes - "Where's the place to hear all the latest hits?Liberty City." First get the player hooked, then throw some advertising his way.
Still it would be more interesting to see players create their own downloadable radio stations or broadcasts. I assume diehard GTA fans would come up with some creative stations offering a new level of integrated fan fiction. Gamers could spend those extra hours listening to the latest broadcasts while Rockstar still cashes in on those Pepsi ads during alloted commercial breaks.
I still believe this is a bigger step for cross-media marketing than for gamers, but it's a good example of how video games are an increasingly powerful media for reaching people. Overall, it's a lot of unmarked territory, but there's no better testing grounds than GTA's sandbox world.
How much weight can you lose with Wii Fit? Look what it did for these lovely ladies!
But in all seriousness, this topic deserves some consideration. Some have discussed the merits of Dance Dance Revolution as a way to shake pounds off your ass. Shigeru Miyamoto says, "I don't think Wii Fit's purpose is to make you fit; what it's actually aiming to do is make you aware of your body." What this means, in subtext, is, "Wii Fit will show you what a fatass you are." Honestly if they just got a spokesperson to TELL us how much weight he lost, we wouldn't have to debate this. It worked for Jared and Subway.
This whole exergaming thing is challenging our very understanding of video games. Some contend that Wii Fit and the like is not gaming at all. Well, Miyamoto says that in his mind, it is. And I wouldn't question the mind that conceived the Mushroom Kingdom, fireballing plumbers, and Pikmin.
Ever want to strip in your living room? Oh, you already do? How about some dirty dancing in the name of fitness? Well finally, my pole dancing fetishists, someone has answered your prayers. Peekaboo, a European developer that produces in-house stripper poles, has announced its plans to bring a stripper pole game to the Wii. In the tradition of Wii Fit, the game will capitalize on one of the latest exercise trends.
This game will no doubt be controversial if not for the mere fact that Nintendo has long been perceived as a "family company." But we see nothing wrong with your mothers and daughters working their core muscles over a video game. Hell, tell your brother and your dad to join in, too!
We here over at s0rethumbs have always known about the health benefits of stripper pole dancing and are really excited to work on our stripper bodies. There's no official word on the release date yet, but keep your wad ready. Wad of singles, that is.
* as a Dallas Cowboys fan, I'm personally hoping this game will keep Pacman Jones away from the clubs...and in his living room!
Someone at cnet.com seems to think so. The writer, a technology columnist speculates the PS3 will complete its turnaround and that a new DS is model coming out. While the success of Sony and Nintendo is important to the industry overall, we're hearing nothing new that convinces us 2008 is "The Year of Gaming."
The article goes on to list a number of games that will define 2008 as "The Year of Gaming" - citing games like Ghostbusters: The Video Game and Fable 2. Hmmmm....Ghostbusters, in the long, sad tradition of movies-turned-into-videogames, will likely fall short of expectations as most games of this make lack substance and gameplay in favor of selling copies based on name-recognition and hype. And Fable 2? I'm sorry, but did the first Fable even come close to living up to the gameplay expectations set forth by its massive advertising campaign? No. It didn't. In fact, Fable sucked.
The craptastic argument continues, "Unlike many other years where most of the titles were derivative, this year we may have something to propel creativity in the industry." A few more titles from their list of anticipated 2008 releases: Grand Theft Auto IV, Ninja Gaiden 2, Devil May Cry 4, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Killzone 2, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Fallout 3 . . . the list goes on. Now, the average 4 year old who watches Sesame Street could tell you that THESE ARE ALL SEQUELS. If sequels aren't "derivative" then what the hell is? Sure there may be some new mechanics, innovation, and graphical advancements in between games, but calling sequels creative is just oxymoronic.
We'll concede that the industry IS growing. The article cites hardware and software sales increases in February and March and says the entertainment niche is growing. Yet we'll counter with the argument that the industry is growing BEYOND entertainment. With industry innovations like Nintendo Wii's motion controls and the DS's revolution on handhelds with the touch screen, video game niches like exergaming and edutainment are pushing the industry to transcend entertainment. My Grandma owns a Wii, but she would have never owned a Sega Mastersystem or a Super NES. A recent study concludes 75% of people play some form of video games - two decades ago, this certainly wouldn't have been the case.
Finally, the article acknowledges the economic issues the US economy is facing. Will the video game industry be affected? It boldly states, "Unlike every other facet of the tech industry, video games seem almost impervious to the impending economic issues that are ready to plague the United States. With titles that are obviously going to make a huge imprint on the entire industry, there's no reason to suggest anything else will be as important as gaming." So when I'm unemployed, sitting at home in my boxers and digging in my couch cushions for dimes and nickels to buy me a $6 gallon of gas, at least I'll know that Ghostbusters: The Video Game will be sustaining my beloved industry.
At the time of this post, 557 morons Digged this article. Thanks for poisoning the internet with your filth - this is a prime example of hype for the sake of hype. 2008 may be good for video games, but we've been making progress since the crash of 1983/84. Idiot!
Gamers are always looking to raise their scores, and now their love for gaming can help them score high on the SATs. Newsweek reports Kaplan and Aspyr Media have teamed up to bring an SAT Test Prep game to the Nintendo DS.
This is a great progressive step in the "edutainment" niche. Although the genre has been around forever, the Nintendo DS may be an ideal platform for such games. More convenient than flash cards, the DS can help you build vocabulary in between classes, in the lunchroom, or if you are like me, during "extended bathroom breaks" in Spanish class. The DS's user demographics and unique capabilities make it an intriguing system for such games. PDAs and Palms may have offered similar functionality for years, but never had the installed user base numbers of the Nintendo DS. This console generation (with a nod to the Wii of course) for Nintendo has been characterized by innovation and expanding the video game market beyond entertainment, and Kaplan's new project fits right in.
Parents will also be hard pressed to deny their kids a DS with a library of educational games. Finally, playing Nintendo all day can justifiably make a positive difference in your future (without becoming a video game blogger of course)!!
In a response to a 10-year old girl who was called "fat" by the game Wii Fit, health pundits have jumped into the discussion. The girl was reportedly in perfectly healthy condition, but the Wii Fit fatness gauge went off when it took her measurements. It should be noted that Wii Fit does use standard BMI (Body Mass Index for you laymen) values - the same system used by health professionals and high school gym coaches everywhere. The way I see it, Wii Fit is pretty much your high school gym coach. He can't get you into shape without your own willingness to work at it, but if he is around enough to call you a fatass enough times, maybe you'll actually get off your fat ass and do something about it.
