With so many elected officials bashing video games these days, GP naturally has a soft spot for any politician willing to get hands-on with our favorite pastime.

Kudos, then to Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert (R) who played a bit of the Pat Benatar anthem, Hit Me With Your Best Shot at a charity Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock marathon today in Dallas. The event is sponsored by Blockbuster and benefits Education is Freedom, a local nonprofit which is part of Mayor Leppert's Igniting Opportunity for the Children of Dallas Campaign.

The Dallas Morning News reports on hizzoner's performance:

Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert attempted to play Hit Me with Your Best Shot during a 24-hour charity event featuring the video game Guitar Hero.

 

Once the mayor began to play he handed the guitar to 11-year old game whiz Aaron Blockmon to play most of the song. At the end, the mayor grabbed the guitar, dropped to his knees and cranked out the last few fake chords rock-star style...

 

After the mayor won a coin toss, Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes kicked off the event with School's Out. While Mr. Keyes was playing, the mayor stuffed his guitar strap with $5 bills.

GP: Awesome, Mr. Mayor. Simply awesome... The marathon runs through Saturday. Click here for details.

Although we know that John Tyler Hammons is a gamer, we're not sure which console he favors.

He seems to be an expert at the political game, however. As the Associated Press reports, The 19-year-old University of Oklahoma freshman, a political science major, was elected mayor of Muskogee, a city of 38,000. He will be sworn in to the unpaid position next week.

Hammons, who drubbed a 70-year-old challenger, wants to create an ethics commission and set up a campaign finance reporting system. From the AP report:

His ambition doesn't stop him from enjoying the typical diversions of a 19-year-old: video games, movies, fast cars and rock 'n' roll. As for dating, the skinny, baby-faced Hammons said he's waiting to see what kind of offers come his way.

Local cafe owner Gary Armstrong said:

He doesn't have the baggage. He doesn't owe anybody anything. It's sort of a fresh start for Muskogee.

I'll cop to an innate mistrust of most things corporate, but when a company does something this cool, honor must be paid.

So, my heart is warmed by a Macworld report that Microsoft will distribute hundreds of Xbox 360 game kiosks to US children's hospitals:

The first hospitals to receive the kiosks are Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center of Seattle and the Children’s Hospital of Orange County in California...

The kiosks are set up with a variety of Y-rated TV programs, G-rated movies, and games rated E and E10+ by the ESRB. They come with headsets and Xbox Live Vision Cameras, and have been configured to communicate with other kiosks over a dedicated Xbox Live network designed specifically for this purpose...

Microsoft is partnering on the kiosk program with the Companions in Courage Foundation, a nonprofit that builds interactive playrooms in hospitals.

When we speak of positive uses of game tech, it doesn't get much better than Nothing But Nets, an online game offered by the United Nations in order to highlight the need for mosquito netting in Africa.

After all, World Malaria Day is April 25th.

In Nothing But Nets the player steers a motorcycle and delivers mosquito bed netting to needy villagers. As games go, it's not state of the art, but it does drive home the need to combat mosquito-borne illnesses with proper netting.

There are also opportunities for the player to sign up as a donor or a fundraiser, but these are not required to play.

Via: Kotaku

When students in Scotland use game tech to persuade peers that binge drinking is a bad idea, that would seem like a positive thing.

But a critic says that ThinknDrinkn is "irresponsible."

Compute Scotland reports that the game was created by a joint effort of students from Paisley Grammar School and St. Andrew's Academy along with assistance from the University of the West of Scotland's School of Computing. Binge drinking is apparently quite the problem in that area, with an estimated one-third of 15-year-olds getting drunk every week. From Compute Scotland's report:

In the game, the players have to find and help a friend who has been drinking and whose condition is constantly deteriorating. Game players will have to provide fluids and food to a drunk friend and either take them home or to hospital, avoiding obstacles including youth gangs along the way. They will also have to answer various questions related to alcohol misuse and can use links to useful websites to find relevant information.

Thanks to the success enjoyed by the game, variations are being studied which would address issues with drug abuse, gambling and sexual health.

But not everyone likes ThinknDrinkn. As Spong reports, Nick Seaton of the Campaign for Real Education objects:

It is irresponsible to confront children of just 11 or 12 with the idea of a friend lapsing into unconsciousness because they have had so much to drink.

Spong notes:

This is the same Nick Seaton who earlier this year told anybody who would listen that introducing Nintendo Wiis into schools was, "pandering to the views of the physically idle". 

Thanks to: GP Correspondent Colin "Jabrwock" McInnes for the heads-up on ThinknDrinkn...

While surfing Xbox Live this morning, GP noticed that the Inside Xbox section has posted a "Gamer Spotlight" on a user named borocouncilman. From the spotlight description:

He's an Xbox gamer and an elected official in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. He's also got a wife, two daughters, and a baby boy on the way.

And then, in one of those "small world" moments, I realized that borocouncilman is an elected official in my home town. How cool is that?

Borocouncilman's real name is Det Ansinn and he's actually the Borough Council President here in Doylestown. While I knew the name, I had no idea Ansinn was a gamer. His XBL chops are impressive, but his real-world bio is even more so:

[Ansinn] founded a successful technology company that has created and supported well-paying local jobs. On borough council, Mr. Ansinn chairs the Streets committee and serves on the Finance and Public Safety committees. In addition to his role as councilman, he is also actively engaged in the community and serves on the board of the Bucks County Free Library.

With so many anti-game politicians out there, it's great to find one who is not only tolerant of gamers, but actually is one.

So what does borocouncilman play? His profile lists a number of games, including Halo 3, Gears of War, Mass Effect, COD4, Crackdown, Burnout Paradise, Fight Night 3, Fusion Frenzy 2, Bioshock, Kameo, King Kong and TMNT...

UPDATE: TriXie from XBL has a detailed interview with borocouncilman.

GamePolitics readers may recall our coverage of David Hecq, the gamer and game shop owner who was running for mayor in the French town of Anzin Saint-Aubin.

Well, he won!

Longtime GP reader Soldat Louis, who often provides us with game-related news from Europe, has posted a message in the GP/ECA Forums about Hecq's victory:

Last sunday march 9th, there were municipal elections in France. And Hecq's team "Pour Anzin-Saint-Aubin : une nouvelle équipe pour de nouvelles ambitions" (litterally, "For Anzin-Saint-Aubin : a new team for new ambitions") received 57.18% of votes, against 42.82% for the former mayor's team. Details are shown on Hecq's campaign blog (in French)

...David Hecq is also credited for the creation of games retail store Objectif Games, which became Ultima Games, a chain of stores located in many French towns.

When last we saw artist and professor Joseph DeLappe, he was protesting the Iraq war - and infuriating other players - by typing the names of dead U.S. miltary personnel into the multiplayer chat window of America's Army.

While DeLappe continues to visit the Army recruiting game as part of his Dead in Iraq war protest, he has turned to a new virtual project, recreating Gandhi's 1930 Salt March within Second Life. As reported by GQ:

DeLappe will begin reenacting Gandhi's 1930 240-mile Salt March on a treadmill inside New York's Eyebeam gallery—all of which will be reproduced in real time on Second Life.

Yes, the self-parody is (kind of) deliberate. "I'm a spoiled American computer artist paying tribute to Gandhi's life and philosophy by taking on certain aspects of his march, like the walking," he says. "But at the same time, you know, I'm not going anywhere."

DeLappe writes on his blog that he will use a specially converted Nordic Trak treadmill to control his SL avatar:

Over 26 days I will walk throughout the confines of this internet based community to reenact Gandhi’s famous 1930’s march to protest the British salt tax in India... my steps on the treadmill will control the forward movement of my avatar...

The Telegraph reports on a touching memorial to British soldiers killed while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A virtual military graveyard in an area of SL known as Tribute Island features memorials to about 250 British war dead. Nik Hewitt of lasting tribute, creator of the memorial, said:

We've replicated individual tribute markers to all the UK soldiers and military personnel who’ve lost their lives in the continuing conflicts...

We have seen avatars - characters created by serving military personnel - wandering through the graves looking for fallen comrades.

Do you fold?

If you've got a PlayStation 3, perhaps you should join a million other PS3 owners who are providing vital assistance to Stanford University's research into protein folding. The efforts could lead to advances in the fight against diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington's, and cystic fibrosis.

All that's required is the download of the Folding at Home software onto your Net-connected PS3. The program runs when your system is not in use. Stanford prof Vijay Pande told Next Generation:

Since partnering with SCEI, we have seen our research capabilities increase by leaps and bounds through the continued participation of Folding at home . Now we have over one million PS3 users registered for Folding at home, allowing us to address questions previously considered impossible to tackle computationally, with the goal of finding cures to some of the world’s most life-threatening diseases.

PC and Mac owners can participate as well.

One of our favorite do-good projects, One Laptop Per Child, finds itself in the midst of an unexpected game violence controversy. OLPC's goal,of course, is to spread the power of personal computing and the Internet to children in poverty-stricken areas.

As GameCulture reports:

The [OLPC's] XO laptop... was obviously designed with videogames in mind... EA released the source code for the original SimCity... Freeciv... has also become a popular download.

But a free download of the original Doom has generated controversy among the OLPC community. Things began heating up when contributor Bryan Berry removed Doom from the OLPC Wiki, writing:

I work in Nepal, a country recovering from an 11-year civil war. Exposure to more violence, real or virtual, is the last thing most Nepali communities want.

But another OLPC'er, Noah Kantrowitz, argued:

OLPC is not in the business of censorship or content classification, and you have no right to try and remove thing from the wiki just because you dislike them. If you are worried children will find distasteful things on the internet, perhaps you shouldn't give them a laptop.

Eventually, Doom was placed back on the OLPC Wiki. But, as GameCulture's Aaron Ruby notes:

Doom may be back but arguments over what is appropriate for the XO and the children using it are unlikely to end. As many noted during the discussion over Doom, these computers are connected to the internet and the internet is not always child friendly, at least from a parent's perspective. For the kid looking for porn and things that blow up there's nothing better.

Full Disclosure Dept: GameCulture and GamePolitics are both owned by the Entertainment Consumers Association.

In the past, GamePolitics has reported on various games, both indie and commercial, the very concepts of which have raised hackles.

These include the likes of Bully, Super Columbine Massacre RPG and V-Tech Rampage.

Some, like Danny Ledonne's SCMRPG, aspire to a cultural message. Others, like V-Tech Rampage, were released with the specific intent to offend, apparently just for the creator's twisted amusement.

But what if a game designer wanted you to feel outrage, but also hoped to motivate you to do something about it?

That is the case with Harpooned: Japanese Cetacean Research Simulator. National Nine MSN in Australia spoke with Conor O'Kane, who designed the game to raise public awareness of the fight against commercial whaling. O'Kane is particularly troubled by claims of Japanese whalers that they only harvest the animals for research.

O'Kane explained the reasoning behind Harpooned's direct approach:

If people [are] offended by the game they should be even more offended by real whaling... I hope people make the next logical step and realise that reality is much worse than a video game. The more people tell their friends about how disgusting it is, the better … it puts more pressures on the whalers.

Harpooned is a top-down scroller in which you control a "research vessel." Your job is to kill as many whales as you can for pet food, er, research. If you harvest enough whales in a row, you are rewarded with an "ultra-scientific bonus!"

Running into icebergs damages your ship, and colliding with protesters who are trying to protect the whale pods causes a loss of points for legal fees. Each level ends with you transferring your haul of whale meat to a cargo ship for "further research," Congratulatory messages follow, based on the number of cans of pet food and whale burgers your "research" managed to produce.

Harpooned is a Windows-only game created using the Torque Game Builder from Garage Games.

- Reporting from Canada, where he's carefully scrutinizing any pet food that says "Now with 25% more research!", GP Correspondent Colin "Jabrwock" McInnes.

What a week gamers shared with conservative talk show host and author Kevin McCullough (left).

On Monday GamePolitics reported that McCullough had wrong-headedly trashed Mass Effect, treating the popular and well-regarded 360 title with the kind of disgust usually reserved for snuff films.

On Wednesday we were outraged by McCullough's Thompson-esque bashing of "gamer nerds."

But now McCullough has backed off a good bit, even issuing an apology of sorts:

Based on the multitude of response by gamers who share my concern for decency in the entertainment of our children, it is obvious that I had been misinformed on at least two points of substance in my original column.

For this I DO apologize to the gaming universe!

...I still do concur with my original position that the objectionable content in Mass Effect is still offensive, and should be kept out of the hands of those under age.

GP: Well... To be honest, Kevin, your original position wasn't that Mass Effect was merely "offensive," but rather that it constituted digital sodomy and "virtual orgasmic rape." But we're glad you're willing to learn from other viewpoints (unlike some critics we know). McCullough continues:

Mass Effect fans have demonstrated that the three minute cuts on YouTube are only arrived at after hours of play. So in their argument the "percentage" of objectionable content is heavily outweighed by the overwhelming amount of content leading up to it. Point well made...

GP: While we respect and appreciate McCullough's about-face, the real take-away from this episode is the persuasive power of gamers when they unite against a common threat.

McCullough spent most of this week's radio program discussing the Mass Effect affair with some very level-headed gamers. It's worth a listen...

….another in an occasional series of reports about gamers who gave their all:

The Californian reports that Army private George Howell, 24, died last week in Iraq when an IED detonated beneath the truck he was riding in. From the newspaper account:

[George's sister] Chardell, 33, remembered her brother for his sense of humor, thoughtfulness and love for his family. An outgoing person, George loved playing football and video games, she said...

“Georgie could not find [a job]… so he went into the service,” Doyle Howell said.  “...he was a special kid … I just wish things could have turned out different.”

Also lost: New Hampshire gamer Justin McDaniel, 19, who died in Baghdad.

Ads inserted into video games are a new and controversial topic.

Do they commercialize the gaming experience? Are they exploitative? Does a gamer deserve to be marketed to within a game that just set him or her back sixty bucks?

But in Scotland, officials are testing a new, inarguably positive use of the game ad medium. As reported by the BBC, warnings about the consequences of drunk driving are being inserted into Xbox 360 games. The Scottish government plans to spend £10,000 on the advertisments, which will appear in the multiplayer versions of Need for Speed: Carbon, Project Gotham Racing 4 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2008.

Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson said:

With statistics showing that road deaths, particularly among young people, are continuing to rise, it is clear we must look at new ways of getting road safety messages across. This is exactly the kind of initiative we should be trying.

It is innovative, it is new, and it is far removed from the more traditional methods we have been using. I believe that is what we need if we are to reverse the number of Scots families suffering the tragedy of a loved one being lost.

Michael McDonnell, director of Road Safety Scotland, added:

We need to look beyond the conventional methods of addressing key road safety issues which affect young people.

I believe that positioning of the drink-drive message in online games will serve as an ever present reminder to young Scots about the consequences. The online message could not be any simpler 'Don't risk it.'

GP: It's hard not to like this idea. If we must have in-game ads (and they're inevitable), it's great to see at least some of them used for a positive - and important - message.

And, hey, all you GamePolitics readers: Please be safe on the highways during this holiday season...

GamePolitics has a special holiday gift for you.

Our 2007 Holiday podcast has just launched and features good cheer from two dozen assorted newsmakers and game media types.

It's been a long time since GamePolitics has released a podcast, but expect it to be a regular feature in 2008.

You can download the Holiday Podcast here (8:34, mp3 format).

Enjoy! ...and, best holiday wishes from the GamePolitics crew.

UPDATE: I've edited in the AWESOME ending supplied by longtime GP correspondent Andrew Eisen, who is a helluva singer in his other life... Bumping this up in coverage to ensure people don't miss AE's great finishing touch.

While some critics claim that his company's video games promote violence, Take Two Interactive chairman Strauss Zelnick apparently saved a woman's life last week.

As reported by the New York Times:

Holiday parties are often filled with memorable moments — drunken toasts, dancing on tabletops — but rarely with near-death experiences. Strauss Zelnick’s annual dinner for employees and spouses at his Upper East Side apartment in Manhattan last week was a notable exception.

Mr. Zelnick... was chatting animatedly with Jody Cukier Siegler, whose husband, Scott, heads the company’s West Coast office. Then Ms. Siegler, an interior designer and contractor, took an overambitious bite of steak. “I realized it was lodged in my throat,” she recalled.

Zelnick explained what happened next:

I looked over and asked, ‘Are you choking?’  She nodded yes. I said, ‘Are you O.K.?’ Ms. Siegler shook her head.

Complete instinct took over. I said, ‘Stand up,’ and told her to turn around. I put my arms in the Heimlich position, and I did the maneuver twice.

Jody survived, and so did the party. People kept eating their steak. Or maybe they switched to the salmon. But I kept with the steak.

….another in an occasional series of reports about gamers who gave their all:

A gamer who served his country in the U.S. Army has lost his life in Iraq. The Associated Press reports that Spc. Randy W. Pickering, 31, died Sunday in Baghdad. Randy loved comic books and video games, his brother said:

He did his computer thing. He loved video games. Video games and comics were his life.

On his MySpace, Randy described himself as:

...a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

Also on MySpace, he listed Mario and Luigi among his heroes.

Rest in peace, Randy...

Philip West, you won!

A few weeks back, GP realized that we needed an eye-catching graphic to help spread the word about our lively GamePolitics Forums.

So we announced a contest.

We had about a dozen submissions and all were quite good. In the end, the forum moderators (Hannah, Garrett, Jabrwock and Tollwutig) and myself reached a strong consensus on Philip's graphic, seen at left. Incorporating the ballot box with a screen capture from the forums proved to be a clever - and winning - formula.

A fabulous prize package of games and game swag will be heading Philip's way...

While West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green whines about the effect of the PlayStation and other video game consoles on the quality of England's football play, the top general in the British Army has only praise for the "PlayStation Generation".

As reported by icWales, British Army Chief of the General Staff Sir Richard Dannatt (left) praise the efforts of his nation's young soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq:

There is no doubt in my mind that our people, whether from the specialist Air Assault and Commando Brigades, or from the Ground Manoeuvre Brigades are all up to the job.

There was a time when commentators and some more experienced members of the Army expressed concern as to whether the 'PlayStation generation' were up to dealing with the gritty bloody conflict. Our young soldiers, drawn from across British society, are more than a match for what is required of them and I salute every one of them.

The courage, steadfastness and professionalism of our soldiers has been exemplary.

Dannatt made his remarks during an address to the Cardiff Business Club.

Via: Joystiq