Archive for July, 2005

Jul
29

Grand Theft Auto mess getting messier…..

Posted by on Friday, 29 July, 2005

:doze: Well, I thought things couldn’t get any worse and out of hand for Take Two Interactive and Rockstar Games (publisher and maker of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas), but it just did….

According to CNN an 85-year-old woman is filing a lawsuit against the creators of GTA:SA because in her opinion they “engaged in false, misleading and deceptive practices.” Well, what caused her to sue? Well, she had originally bought the M-rated game for her 14-year-old grandson… READ THAT AGAIN. She bought an M-(mature, not for children under 17) rated game for her 14-year-old grandson…. And she sues the company because it contains hidden, mature content? Geeeeeeeez…….. I hope the case gets thrown out of court. However, with today’s ultra-conservative religious climate in the States, I’m sure she’ll get a settlement, of, oh… a millon bucks or so.

Yep… This whole affair makes me SICK!

[EDIT] I just found this… The adventures of MoralValuesMan. Hilarious!!

Jul
28

Added a new major link – Neomarxisme!

Posted by on Thursday, 28 July, 2005

Wow… When I was browsing through the endless void of nonsense information that is the Internet, I found a really good blog which I promptly added to my fixed links.

However, it looks so interesting, it earned a whole post for itself!!

It’s called neomarxisme and is written by a writer/musician lviing in Japan called David Marx, aka Marxy. His posts seem to focus on Japanese culture, and is definately an interesting read! Recommended!

Jul
28

Intelliseek’s Blogpulse

Posted by on Thursday, 28 July, 2005

😎 So I submitted my blog to BlogPulse, a weblog search engine run by Intelliseek. Perhaps now I will start to get some hits/backlinks, whatever… I guess I have to pump up my content a bit though… Whoever is gonna want to read the crap I’m writing now, except for a few close friends/family…. Damn you lack of inspiration, DAMN YOU!!! :crazy:

Anyway…. Speaking of BlogPulse, it’s a really nice-looking service. It indexes about 14 million (!) blogs (or so the say…). Sounds pretty amazing! On average about half a million new posts get added and indexed per day…. Wow!

So anyway, another thing I am planning to do is to permanently link to a number of good Japan-related blogs from here. I have found a few interesting ones (through above mentioned service) and I want to promote the reading of them! I’lll have those links up within the next few days!

[EDIT] I couldn’t help myself.. I started adding the links now already. I will keep adding good blog-links within the next few days.

Jul
27

More Hot Coffee….

Posted by on Wednesday, 27 July, 2005

I’m still pretty much in shock and outrage about this whole GTA:SA matter.

So I will share another great link to information about the absurdity of it:

http://illspirit.com/press_release.html

(From BoingBoing)

Jul
22

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas and that ‘Hot Coffee’ business

Posted by on Friday, 22 July, 2005

If you haven’t lived under a rock for the last few weeks, you will be very aware of the whole debacle which is the “Grand Theft Auto:San Andreas” Hot Coffee mod outrage.

In short, for you people who dwell in caverns in Siberia, the extremely popular game Grand Theft Auto:San Andreas has a hidden feature, a little mini-game (or rather an animated sequence) where you as the main character can have “sex” with a girlfriend. The quality of the graphics is pretty bad and it is generally very very harmless, in my opinion – at least in comparison to the various other violent acts you can choose to take part in while playing this game.

The hidden feature was not meant to be seen by the general public (there still has been no official statement on why it was put there or who did it) but it was unlocked by some Dutch guy a few months ago. By applying a downloadable patch to the game, you could watch the simulated (poor) sex graphics.

I hardly raised an eyebrow when I first heard about it, because I saw some screenshots of the mod in question and it didn’t appeal to me (too crude, bad graphics etc.) plus I read in the comments about the mod that it modified some of the game-settings so your game-progress in the game would become harmed.

I then read a comment on the Swedish blog Kommenterat.net about Hilary Clinton going all apeshit because of this mod and how it was morally disgusting and whatnot. I laughed about how Americans are still the most stupid people on this earth and continued to drink my hot coffee.

Then the shit hit the fan on July 20, as I read on Kotaku that Mrs.Clinton actually got her wish granted, and the ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board) recalls the earlier rating of M (Mature, not for children under 17 years old) and instead gives GTA:SA the rating AO (Adults Only).

Incredible! Here is a game which is sold under an M rating, meaning that no kids under the age of 17 in theory should have access to it, causing an uproar in the States because of hidden, locked content which had been hacked open by some guy in Holland. (Apparently, the hidden features were available in the PS2 version as well, unlockable by entering a few codes with your Action Replay) And this is the same game that features:

* A main story which involves playing a gang-member
* Several missions which involve shooting other people
* The possibility to murder innocent people (including cops) with the weapon of your choice

Yeah…. I can see why the depiction of sex is the big problem here…..NOT! Damn puritan Americans, you make me sick. I know not all Americans are conservative and puritan, but when you vote for politicial leaders that do these things and voice these opinions, what are you thinking?

Isn’t it the parents’ responsibility to not buy a game for their 11-year-olds that has an M rating? Sure, it features gang-violence, but that’s cool right? Oh, how cute, little Johnny just got $50 in the game buy beating that hooker to death!

America needs to get its priorities straight. And I know I’m not alone on thinking like this. The sad part is that there are lots of Americans who feel that this is stupid too, and for them I do have some sympathy!!!

Here are a few more links to comments about this joke of an “atrocity”

Blog.thebriz.org
Sophistic Logomancy