Issue 5: Editorial

Every society has to have one thing to unite against to give a sense of strength. We gamers develop our strength, or at least used to, from infamous gaming bogeyman Jack Thompson.

This week it seems someone pitied him and gave him a job. While he can no longer take people to court or send letters to developers mothers telling them they’re very naughty boys, it does seem he will still be around to make snide comments about games on his new post at magazine Human Events.

Most gracefully exploiting the concept of truth it seems in his bio on the site he is a great man responsible for ‘persuading TW to pull rapper Ice-T's 'Cop Killer' from store shelves worldwide,’ then by the looks of things he disappeared from the face of the earth for 16 years until resurfacing in 2008.

Don’t worry though Jack we’ll fill in your crowning achievements. Here’s a few things you missed. Remember when you stormed out of court saying the judge ‘doesn’t have the authority to sit there.’ Or what about the time you were made contempt of court after continual attempts to stop the sale of Bully in shops.

How about the time you harassed a client who was suing you for defamation in an attempt to get the case withdrawn. Don’t forget all those times you filed cases against Rockstar citing the Grand Theft Auto series as responsible for any murder only for them to be dismissed.

Also why did you also forget to mention the 27 misconduct charges you were found guilty of including submitting pornographic material to court or the $43,675 you were given along with being disbarred for life.

Thing is Jack if we’re sad for playing games and simulating murders at least we’ve not ‘pretended’ to be a mediocre lawyer for the last 30 years.

[Originally Published in Forge Press:Issue 5]

Issue 3: Editorial

[Originally Published in Forge Press:Issue 3]
By Sam Robinson

One thing that really annoys me is the current games industry trend of creating sequels instead of original games. Not only does this show a lack of originality but it defiles cult classics and turn them into a money maker.

Most developers do spend a lot making games so that’s fair enough, but when it literally stops them from taking a gamble and creating something original then there are problems.

Like for instance this week with the announcement of a hidden trailer for Bioshock 2 at the end of the PS3 version of Bioshock. The original is an interesting game where plot and gameplay go hand in hand. Sure some have called it a spiritual successor to the System Shock series especially the foreboding atmosphere yet it differs in most offer aspects.

So what’s going to be offered in the sequel to Bioshock? You can hazard a guess that they will be multiplayer and new plasmids and a trip to an underwater city. So pretty much the same as the original then. Tagging on multiplayer, calling it a completely new gaming experience and demanding full retail price for it is one of the biggest insults ever. The developers may as well teabag your mum whilst having their way with the beloved family pet.

Let us throw down the glove to developers and challenge them for once. We should no longer give in to their get rich quick schemes and boycott those games that clearly are just minor updates.

There’s a lot of potential to use next generation software to make some fine examples of gaming. How about for instance a game where you play a serial killer and you have to stalk, hunt down and brutally murder random people. I’m sure there’s nothing immoral or wrong with that as a game available for kids.

Issue 2: Editorial

[Originally Published in Forge Press:Issue 2]
By Peter Walsh

Rarely could we imagine that Sheffield student media would stoop so low as to start wagging a disappointed finger at those ‘too realistic’ violent videogames. The last issue of Forge Press saw columnist Daniel Baird take GTA4 to task for killing a taxi driver, and for Manhunt ‘inspiring’ an accountant to kill a nurse.

I doubt I’m alone in feeling a bit *facepalm* about this one. You don’t have to be ‘educated’ or ‘mild-mannered’ to realise that games, films, or even rubiks cubes cannot turn people ‘criminal’. Back in the day they used to wheeze that silent movies were turning good upstanding citizens to criminality, murder and petty larceny. Looking at your average Keaton or Chaplin feature these days makes it quite hard to see the link. Maybe the plinky-plonky pianos were particularly inspiring to those of a dastardly inclination.

The columnist then goes onto quote his housemate as saying that GTA4 made him drive more violently. Trying pulling that line of reasoning on a speed-camera cop and see how far you get. If anything the game teaches you consider the green-cross-code before you venture into a busy road, as well as highlighting how incredibly stupid it is to drink and drive.

One of the most realistic details in the game is the fact that if you hit a tree at high-speed your character goes flying out of the windscreen headfirst. It was a genuine ‘gee-whiz aint that neat’ moment, but unlike a certain taxi-driver killing Thai teenager, I didn’t feel the urge to go out into the real world and try it myself.

But then again maybe I’m just lucky I can tell the difference between violent delights and mundane (if socially responsible) reality.

Issue 1: Editorial

[Originally published in Forge Press: Issue 1]
By Sam Robinson

It’s been a long summer and nothing of interest has been released as of yet. Each summer this infamous games drought takes place, and I want to know why. Are developers trying to coax us outside? I have a problem with that, mainly because this summer there has been: i) rain of biblical proportions, and; b) wind strong enough to blow away a tank.

Trouble is that this then leads to publications suffering. Look at Ben ‘Yahtzee’ Croshaw of Zero Punctuation fame. He’s doing features on things like webcomics which, while they are funny, are not on par with his reviews of recent games. Even the games page here had to let the likes of Too Human defile the page just because there was nothing out. I’m sorry for that.

Our jobs suffer because publishers like to cash in on little fat kids begging their mums for Mega Death Spree 5 at Christmas. So the next few months we’re going to be bombarded with hundreds of games and sequels of which we can only get a few lest we starve to death.

Titles evenly dispersed throughout the year would be a good thing and something that should be considered. If not then be ready for countless reviews of Oblivion or a feature on how to entertain yourself each summer.

In fact on that point why not try and reach the final prestige on Call of Duty 4. It’s kept me mildly entertained so far, though mainly because some of the chavs online have been coming out with hilarious comments. We can learn a lot from them. In the meantime feel free to knife me in the back; my gamer tag on Xbox Live is Ironfighter88.