I guess they become researchers…
“a team of researchers from VU University Amsterdam and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor determined that the the PEGI rating system used in Europe “makes [restricted] games forbidden fruits” for children.”
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22533
Bang up job guys
A friend recently posted a link Bill O’Reilly’s article entitled “Computing America” on his facebook status. The articles closing line: “Succeeding in the real world requires a lot more skill and determination than flipping a switch.” http://townhall.com/columnists/BillOReilly/2009/01/31/computing_america
After my friend posted the link a number were quick to point out how silly a lot of what Mr. O’Reilly is saying. For example, a Playstation 3 has a “modest” number of transistors or ‘switches’—around 234 million.* “So yeah,” one of our friends mentioned, “it does take a bit more than flipping A switch.” Mostly though, it seems everyone wrote it off. Yet another example of Mr. O’Reilly fomenting FUD (Fear/Uncertainly/Doubt) at the easiest of targets: ‘protecting our children.’
Picking apart Mr. O’Reilly’s verbiage is easy enough though and the fact is many share his fears.
Taking a step back from the kids, this never-ending fear of how technology is going to ruin society is getting a bit old though. As the Dead sang, “the same old story that’s always been told.”
Technology, especially laced with the arts— has been scaring the heck out of people for a long time . From the pope digging up the grave of the guy who first translated the Bible into plain English in order to crush and scatter his bones to those who devoted their lives to saving our children from comic books of all things.
Funny thing is, in the end and as a whole– things always get better. When we make it easier for people to exchange and access information we’re always better for it. Tangibly our economy grows and intangibly, so does our culture. Inevitably there is abuse, but the isolated scary examples are either forgotten or laughed away as something silly old people used to bother their kids about.
The irony of this c/Conservative (big and little ‘c’) concern is the similar fear of the very technology that allows Mr. O’Reilly to be “Bill O’Reilly” on a 24 hour news network in the first place. Of course, a threat to journalistic integrity is quite the call to action as a threat to ‘the children.’
Either way, all this fearin’ misses the point. Advances in technology, almost by definition, shatter entrenched powers into fragments for new players to fight over. That, in case if it wasn’t obvious, is why the Pope had his tiara in a twist. And frankly Mr. O’Reilly, you yourself are quite the case-in-point about just how ‘American’ that is.
Ask the Bush Administration about the resulting future of governance. Specifically, on the online community surrounding the liberal site, TalkingPointsMemo.com. Mere hours after the Justice Department released thousands of pages of documents regarding the alleged political influence in the firings of US Attorneys, the community had sifted through the documents and posted potentially damning details to the site. (Thanks to “Crowdsourcing” by Jeff Howe for bringing that to my attention!) Certainly, examples to the dismay of the current administration will come in due time as well.
Haven’t we learned that the next generation is only going to giggle at the fear mongering? Specific security concerns aside (protecting children on social networking sites for example), are we really so afraid of ourselves? Is humanity really just waiting for the next advance to take our dirty work to the max? Are we really just a bunch of evildoers held back by lack of technology?
Or maybe… whatever we invent– just becomes what we use it for
It’s just a bit foolish is to think the new technology can come cleanly, without crimes and misuse. It’s patently reactionary, however, to think that you– just by having come into being without it– are in a position to tell us what’s best.
Of course there are downsides, but scaring people so you can feel good about protecting us from ourselves… you’re still tied up the in cave yelling at shadows.
It’s not a sword if it doesn’t cut both ways.
-Dylan out
* http://tinyurl.com/dexe7k
~
Dylan A. Tredrea
Managing Director
Creo Ludus Entertainment, LLC
www.creoludus.com
Bruce Sterling is a serious writing talent– for better or worse is even credited with helping to establish the cyberpunk genre. Recently he spoke at Austin GDC, however, and said a number of things on the games industry I’d like to comment on. The quotes are from Gamesindustry.biz’s coverage: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/sterling-bankers-will-get-rich-from-games-not-designers
“Who are the moguls, the zillionaires [in the future]? I can tell you that - it’s the bankers, the financiers. Entertainers can make a lot of money, but they don’t keep that money. They’re not money management people. Money management people make and keep a lot of money.”
Bashing finance people is certainly all the rage these days, but it’s a little silly to complain about how much money they make (extremes asside- I’m looking at you Fannie & Feddie peeps!) Of course they make a ton of money, because their jobs are hard, boring, complex, and money well– just about everything involves money. Do you know any I-bankers? I do and some love their jobs– though I can’t imagine it’s anything other than hell. Imho, 80 hours a week for 8 years is just blowing the best chunk of your life away so you can see your kids drive german cars to boarding school. Games are an amazing business opportunity with unbelievable growth potential, of all the industries in the world we should be the last to complain about our economics. Want to be wealthy? Start a business. Don’t want to start a business? Don’t count on being wealthy.
[G]old farmers — “rip off artists… the excluded, the black market, the pirates” - griefers - who “have a game, have entertainment, but it’s not yours, it’s their game. Hate, sorrow, treachery, conflict, grief” - and convergence culture people - who will “play your game, but they’ll play it while they’re using six or seven kinds of media at the same time. Use networks as meta medium. They don’t play the roles in your games.”
Nothing like an artist to tell you how, when, and where you should enjoy their creations. That sillyness aside– there has been a lot of angry words directed at ‘gold farmers’ recently and everyone really needs to calm the heck down. I’m sorry have you ever been to Russian or Chinese village? Did you grow up in a place with no indoor plumbing? Have you travelled more than the few square kilometers around the place you were born?
I’d like to see YOU just slog it out in that kind of place. How easy is it for people in the West to get on their high horse!
1) This country was BUILT by rip off artists (e.g., John Hancock- smugger & Kennedy’s– bootlegging and stock market manipulation, to name a few).
2) Just shut up, because if anyone of us grew up in one of these crap sandwich situations on the other side of the world we would and should jump at any opportunity to get the hell out of there that doesn’t involve drugs or violent crime.
Don’t be a dick and make it personal– these are just people trying to survive. Pirates are cheap bastards, but gold farmers are just trying to make it from the bottom of this crazy mixed up world. Game Co’s have every right and interest to do what they can to prevent gold farming, but to make it personal is just ridiculous.
Dylan Out
Dylan A. Tredrea
Executive Producer/Managing Director
Creo Ludus Entertainment, LLC
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