Posts Tagged ‘politics’
Obama tells parents to ‘Put away the Xbox’, Microsoft responds
President Barack Obama isn’t exactly a support of video games, as supported by several occasions in which he suggests that video games are a waste of time. This assumption is further supported by a speech given by Obama addressing the NAACP 100th anniversary commemoration, which gave African-American parents a few words of advice.
“For our kids to excel, we must accept our own responsibilities. That means putting away the Xbox and putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour,” President Obama said. “It means attending those parent-teacher conferences, reading to our kids, and helping them with their homework.”
It’s not exactly good PR for Microsoft, but it should be considered an honor itself to have all of video games be referred to by a single console. However, Microsoft still has this to say:
“We agree with President Obama that it’s a time for families to work together so that kids use media in ways that are safe, healthy and balanced,” the press statement reads. “Xbox 360 is the only console gaming system that has a timer feature allowing parents to set time limits for their kids, as well as parent controls to enable parents to set limits on what their kids are playing and watching.”
Read (GamePolitics)
Trillion Dollar Bailout Review – Games Can Have Politics Too!
Proving that games can have political agendas too, we take a look at Trillion Dollar Bailout, fresh off the line from the folks at Addictive Games.
How can I tell that the game has an agenda, you ask? Well, it’s not tough. Basically, you have two options–hand out bags of loot or slap petitioners for cash upside the head. Seriously–your buttons are “bag” and “slap”, with accompanying sound effects. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the screen is a bar, ostensibly the economy. You watch as your choices cause the bar to go up and down. It’s interesting that most of the time, when you hand out large wads of cash to businesses, the bar goes down, whilst handing out the loot to homeowners (who ask for relatively little alongside the corps) usually makes the bar trend up.
Circumstancial evidence, you might say, indignantly. All hearsay! Well, if you still don’t think there’s an agenda from my admittedly roundabout proofs, how about this quote about the game’s description?
Punish greedy fat cats and save honest peoples! Hand out moneys to homeowners. Put the hurt on dudes in suits! Do it right and save the world!
Agenda? Oh yeah. The problem with this, of course, is that the agenda was the overmastering point of the game, to the point that they forgot to make a game. If you play it exactly as described, you will win. The economy will recover. Try it in a contrarian fashion (back the businesses) and it’ll be bread lines for all. It’s a bad sign when they actually tell you how to win in the game’s description, and doesn’t make for much fun. I like a hint when I’m stuck, not when I walk in.
Obama, Palin in Spore
Seeing as how today is election day in the US, Maxis and EA jointly announced that Barack Obama and Sarah Palin will make appearances in Spore.
The presidential candidates (and their ever-lovable sidekicks) will appear in Spore as spaceships. Players can get the politician-shaped spaceships in their game by subscribing to the Election 08 Sporecast.
"Who knows, you just might see Obama firing ‘YesYouCannons’ around the galaxy, or witness firsthand John McCain being ‘mavericky,’" reads a note from EA.
CTA Pulls GTA Ads
The Chicago Transit Authority has decided to pull down all Grand Theft Auto IV advertisements. A local Fox News affiliate reported on the subject, leading to a response by the president of the CTA, Ron Huberman that agreed to take down the ads. The question was triggered by the recent major school shootings occurring in the Windy City. Illinois is notorious for being especially critical of violent video games.
But then again, isn’t it the parent’s responsibility to make sure what your child is allowed and not allowed to do in the world? There are plenty of violent movies that are running ads in the CTA, and I’m sure a lot of them contain more adult themes than Rockstar’s creation. Movies can be sneaked into, and can usually be watched without parents even knowing. But video games are played at home most of the time, and it’s unlikely that a kid will be able to purchase a full-priced retail game without a help of an adult.