A senior at California's Chico State University added a political flavor to three popular Nintendo classics for a recent art exhibit called "Eeprompaganda." The title is a mashup of EEPROM and propaganda.

As reported by student newspaper The Orion, Ryan Fitzpatick showed off mods of Super Mario Bros, Millipede and Dr. Mario. From the report:

Fitzpatrick reprogrammed the beloved "Super Mario Brothers" and turned it into "Super Democracy Brothers: The Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism." Instead of Mario and Luigi... players were able to choose from President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney... The two men run around the desert, encounter men in turbans and hop over oil bins with Exxon Mobil labels...

Fitzpatrick likewise transformed Dr. Mario into Doctor Democrat:

The words "Hillary Care" stretched across the top of the screen and players became Dr. Hillary Clinton. The object of the game was to arrange pills into a medicine container, similarly to "Tetris."

Millipede was modded into what sounds like a potentially controversial take on the immigration debate, Minuteman Civil Defense Headquarters Presents: Border Stampede: The student newspaper, however, notes that the mod was presented in the vein of political commentary rather than political advocacy:

Fitzpatrick was afraid people would miss the comical aspect of the exhibit and find the games offensive... In the statement, he wrote about his curiosity with American culture symbols and the influence they have on thinking.

It took Fitzpatrick a year to create the classic Nintendo mods.

So your family thinks that you'll never amount to anything because you sit around in your bathrobe all day managing your World of Warcraft guild.

Maybe. Maybe not.

According to an article in the Harvard Business Review, you could be modeling the coming wave in leadership styles. The lengthy, multi-page piece is definitely worth a read, but here are a few snippets to whet your appetite - and maybe help keep the family off your back:

A lot of work will be done by global teams... that are assembled for a single project and then disbanded. Collaboration within these geographically diverse groups will, by necessity, occur mainly through digital rather than face-to-face interaction.

What on earth will leadership look like in such a world [?] ...the answers may be found among... Eve Online, EverQuest, and World of Warcraft. Despite their fantasy settings, these online play worlds... in many ways resemble the coming environment we have described and thus open a window onto the future of real-world business leadership.

True, leading 25 guild members in a six-hour raid on Illidan the Betrayer’s temple fortress is hardly the same as running a complex global organization... [but] don’t dismiss online games as mere play. The best ones differ from traditional video games as much as universities do from one-room schoolhouses...

According to a report on The Impudent Obersver, police in one Indonesian municipality will be enforcing a ban on videos games and TV during a two-hour evening period designated for children to do their homework:

The municipality of Bekasi... [is] ordering all students within its jurisdiction to study and do their homework or face legal consequences...  The new regulations require students, from elementary school to high school, to study between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. either at home alone or with classmates from the same neighborhood. During study time, no TV or video game will be alowed and students will be banned from going to the mall or entertainment centers.

[Eductaion chief] Kodrato said his adminsitration would empower neighborhood heads and police personnel to enforce the regulations. Bekasi was inspired to institute the new policy after hearing it has been in operation in the municipality of Yogyakanta since 2003.

Gamers will definitely want to catch Adam Sessler's G4 interview with Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson, authors of Grand Theft Childhood, a new book that is gaining enormous attention in gaming circles.

Discussing concerns that violent video games cause real-world violence, Kutner said there's "absolutely no evidence for that."

The authors also viewed video games as a "marker of social competence," noting that boys who didn't play video games were at a higher risk for getting into fights and having other problems at school.

The authors did note that boys and girls who play only violent games for 15+ hours per week have a higher likelihood of getting into trouble at school.

All in all, Grand Theft Childhood goes a long way toward debunking past criticism of games by researchers, pundits and media opportunists.

Libraries are increasingly turning to video games to reach students.

To that end, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, Friday has been designated Gaming @ Your Library Day by the American Library Association.

According to a survey by Syracuse University's School of Information Studies, almost one-quarter of U.S. libraries staged some kind of video game event in 2007. In Los Angeles County, teen use of public libraries has surged by 50% since a video game pilot program was introduced in 2006.

Said San Fernando librarian Lydia Harlan:

It lets teens be more comfortable with the library and become familiar with librarians. And it's what kids are into these days.

Penny Markey, coordinator of youth services for L.A.'s libraries, added:

Libraries have wonderful children's programs and programs for adults. But when it comes to programs serving teens, the numbers drop off. Games help us bridge that gap. It's a changing world. Teens are the next adults, the next taxpayers. And the library needs to be seen as an important and relevant resource for them.

Not every librarian agrees, however. The LAT reports on a blog entry by Steven M. Cohen, who operates LibraryStuff.net:

Why do we have to lure kids into the library with candy? Shouldn't good literature be good enough?

A pair of academic speakers criticized violent media during yesterday's Public Affairs Conference at Missouri State University.

As reported by the Springfield News-Leader, the gathering sought ways to deal with conflict and violence in schools. Virginia Tech assistant prof Christine Kaestle, speaking on the first anniversary of last year's campus shooting rampage, charged that the media tended to focus on extreme acts of violence, while ignoring more commonplace acts of aggression, sexual harassment and bullying:

There is a disconnect between the needs of the media and the needs of the students. The media are interested in acts of violence that involve weapons. There are overt acts of bullying that lead to acts of aggression and interfere with educational goals.

The University of Wisconsin's director of the Center for Communication Research, Joanne Cantor (left), was more strident in her criticism of violent media:

We need to understand the impact entertainment violence has on kids. The media spends a lot of money debunking the research. [Kids who consume violent media] see the world as an angry place. They are desensitized to the effects of violence.

The more they play violent games, the more impulsive they are since games reward impulsive reactions, to shoot quickly in order to kill.

We pass laws that are helpful, like an ordinance that won't allow a minor to rent a [mature] rated video game without a parent, but the laws are thrown out because the First Amendment is interpreted so broadly. It's the merchant's rights over the parental rights.

In a surprising mainstream affirmation of the video game medium, Scotland's educational minister announced yesterday that game design will be added to the national school curriculum.

As reported by Digital Spy, Maureen Watt (left) said:

There is huge confidence that Scotland will continue to play an important part in the future of video games and interactive entertainment and we are focusing on establishing firm foundations for lifelong learning and, for some, specialised study and careers.

A key aim of Curriculum for Excellence is to produce informed, skilled, adaptable and enterprising citizens of the future. The pace of change in the world means that we should be equipping young people with the skills to embrace and use all the tools of modern life.

Scotland's video game industry currently employs 500 people and generates £20 million per year. Scotland's best known video game firm, of course, is Grand Theft Auto series developer Rockstar North.

Via: Tech Digest

UPDATE: Bruce on Games has a bit more on this topic.

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...

I'll be speaking and serving on a discussion panel today for Playing to Win: The Business and Social Frontiers of Video Games at Penn State, so the usual roundup of GamePolitics stories will be a bit abbreviated.

It looks to be an excellent conference, with speakers from all sorts of disciplines, including Jason Della Rocca of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), ESA CEO Mike Gallagher (Gallagher was listed, but I'm told he was sending VP Stephan Mitchell in his place) , Dr. David Bickham of Boston's Center on Media and Child Health, Adam Thierer of the Progress and Freedom Foundation, First Amendment experts Clay Calvert and Robert Richards of Penn State, noted free speech attorney Larry Walters (via teleconference) and many others.

I hope to live blog portions of the conference.

UPDATE: (okay, here comes the live blogging...) David Bickham did a very nice presentation on the effects of games on children. He's a good speaker and a couple of people I spoke to here afterward commented independently that a reasoned approach like that has the potential to be far more persuasive than the hysterical rhetoric coming out of Miami. Bickham's boss is Dr. Michael Rich, who has been a healthcare-based critic of game violence issues in recent times.

On the other hand, I felt that Bickham didn't pay adequate heed to research that shows games aren't harmful to kids. I hope to ask him where the Center on Media and Child Health stands on the current Massachusetts video game legislation.

UPDATE 2: My brief (about 15 minutes) presentation has now wrapped up. I was privileged to sit on a panel titled Law on the Frontiers of Videogames with some of the best First Amendment legal minds in the country (the aforementioned Calvert, Richards and Walters) as well as Prof. John Bagby of Penn State's Institute for Information Policy.

My topic as The New Video Game Consumer: Changing the Equation. I offered my views on important video game consumer issues, talked about game consumer activism, and explained my view of areas in which the video game biz fails its customers. Oh, I also compared having the Video Game Voters Network represent gamers to having General Motors represent drivers. I'll expect to hear some noise from the ESA over that one. But it's true.

First Amendment expert Larry Walters argued that video game censorship is the "same old story" that has plagued other forms of media over the years. He argued that "family values" groups are after money and power. However, he also fretted that the recent 8th Circuit decision in the Minnesota game law case was a concern (GP has written in a similar vein). He suggested that the game industry needs to look at that decision in relation to its content, going forward. His reading of the 8th Circuit's decision is that the state might appeal and could have a chance to succeed. He also mentioned the recent news that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia opined that video game legislation could be constitutional.

UPDATE 3: Adam Thierer gave a very nice lunch time presentation on the ESRB system and issues surrounding game ratings and content. You can see Adam's Power Point here.

GP: This was a nice conference. I hope that Penn State makes it an annual tradition. I got to meet some terrific folks, including Mike Todd, who heads up the brand-new Penn State chapter of the ECA, PSU doctoral candidate Ibrahim Yucel, whose Saturday presentation on Portal I had to unfortunately miss. I also met a number of GP readers, and that always makes my day...

A press release issued by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) this week outlines a new scholarship initiative designed to assist women and minorities who are seeking careers in video game development.

Noting that the video game sector is growing at four times the rate of the U.S. economy, the ESA Foundation program will make $45,000 available in tuition assistance. Full-time undergraduate students can apply for $3,000 by May 15th.

The ESA press release quotes CEO Michael Gallagher:

Positions in our industry are high-paying jobs with a remarkable potential to inspire and entertain millions of Americans. We hope these scholarships will encourage students to pursue careers in this growing and lucrative field. We offer this program to help create our industry’s next generation who will boost the industry’s creative capital with new and unique approaches.

Details on the scholarship program may be found here.

At Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute in Troy, New York, the fallout continues in the wake of the school's cancellation of a controversial game art exhibit.

As reported by the Albany Times-Union, the College Republicans, who were instrumental in drawing attention to visiting artist Wafaa Bilal's Virtual Jihadi exhibit, have had their website shut down. RPI officials said the action was taken because the College Republican site referred to the RPI Arts Department as "a terrorist safehaven."

With an official disciplinary review pending, Dean of Students Mark Smith ordered the website to be shut down, writing that:

[The terrorist safehaven remark is] slanderous, blatantly untrue, and can be construed to endanger the health, safety and welfare of members of the Rensselaer community.

Ken Girardin, co-chairman of the College Republicans, said:

[School officials] were looking at the term from the strictest interpretation. And we were looking at it with the loosest interpretation.

Ironically, the website shut down was the official RPI College Republican page. The terrorist safehaven comment resided on a separate blog not controlled by the school. 

The debate over Bully: Scholarship Edition continues to rage, primarily in Canada.

There, Mary-Lou Donnelly, head of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, pens an op-ed slamming the game in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald. Among her points: Gamers just don't get it:

Reporters, newspaper editors and game promoters have tried to downplay the game, saying that teacher organizations are overreacting... One accused teachers of not giving students enough credit to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Another said that teachers had missed the boat because the game could be used as a teaching tool against bullying...

Clearly, the creators and promoters of the game just don’t get it... A game such as Bully: The Scholarship Edition, which reduces bullying to a mere lark... contributes nothing positive to youth culture. Indeed, it contradicts everything that educators are trying to accomplish...

Well, here’s a hard fact: Bullying is never fun! 

Meanwhile, game developer Clint Hocking, writing for his Click Nothing blog, has issued a challenge to the educators who are protesting Bully:

Since I haven't even played Bully - and probably neither [have the teachers who are protesting it], I wonder if we even can contribute anything? Ought we enter into debate about public access to media that we have not even engaged ourselves? That seems unethical to me...

Instead, I am going to invite [the teachers] to examine it with me, and to enter into a critical discussion of its merits and the difficulties it may or may not pose to students and to teachers... I extend an open invitation to play Bully with me, and once we have all finished we can collectively engage in an informed dialogue about the merits or failings of the game.

Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), debated Ms. Donnelly on CBC last Sunday (video here). Della Rocca writes about the Bully controversy on his Reality Panic blog:

The teachers are missing a prime opportunity to make progress... I’d argue that teachers could have leveraged Bully to both better understand the social politics of high school (by embodying a troubled teen) and open a much needed dialog with students about bullying...

While some argue that Bully could have been an even more scathing critique of school life, the challenge is that many simply do not look to games for meaningful social commentary (like The Breakfast Club, for example)...

Ultimately, we all want to stop bullying and built safe/effective schools, and there’s no doubt that games can play an important role in that effort. We’ll see what happens next…

Last week GamePolitics tracked the story of Wafaa Bilal, an artist whose Virtual Jihadi exhibit at Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute was cut short following protests from some students and alumni, as well as a visit from the FBI.

In the wake of the campus flap, Inside Higher Ed reports that some RPI faculty members were outraged by school president Shirley Jackson's decision to abruptly cancel Bilal's visit. Art professor Branda Miller, from whose classroom Bilal was pulled by college officials, said: 

This isn’t just shutting down an exhibit. This is an assault on my classroom, an assault on academic freedom and freedom of expression.

I thought, ‘this must be what it feels like to be in Iraq.’ A moment of compassion crossed my mind. I was imagining professors attempting to teach their students in countries where academic freedom does not exist, where even their lives are at risk.

I think this is a very complex discussion.He’s an artist. He’s very intelligent, very serious, very kind. He is trying to make a point. My students play these games. Some of these games are embedded with violence and racism and the ability to dislocate your sense of self when you kill someone. [Bilal was trying] to get people to think about the games.

A Canadian legislator has weighed in with support for a teachers' group which is seeking to regulate Rockstar's controversial Bully: Scholarship Edition.

John Nuraney (left), a member of British Columbia's Legislative Assembly, told Burnaby Now that he "totally agrees" with the British Columbia Teachers Federation's call to boycott Bully:

The dangers are known to all. I think it's a question of jurisdiction. The only thing it seems right now is to bring more awareness.

Nuraney recently spoke about video games in the Assembly, saying:

It may be of interest to this house to know that one of the top video games for boys in grades 3 to 6 is Grand Theft Auto. While it is admirable that our children of today adapt very quickly to this technology, it is also alarming that without proper guidance and supervision, they can fall victims to the unscrupulous predators.

The basis for Nuraney's comments about GTA is not known. GamePolitics has a request in for more information and we'll update if a response is forthcoming.

Steve Tilley, who covers games and gadgets for Canada's Sun newspapers, writes that he is disheartened by the Canadian Teachers’ Federation targeting of Bully: Scholarship Edition.

Steve, we feel your pain.

As reported by GamePolitics earlier this week, the teachers' group called for retailers to be responsible - whatever that means. Usually it means following the rating guidelines, and Bully: Scholarship Edition is rated T, suitable for those 13 and older. Said Tilley:

What’s really unfortunate is seeing the people responsible for teaching the importance of critical thinking to this country’s kids making attacks on something they clearly haven’t taken the time to fully experience or understand.

Tilley took issue with Emily Noble, president of the CTF, who said, "This is a game that glorifies bullying and glorifies violence and we’re saying that is not the way to do it."

I’d certainly agree with Ms. Noble that glorifying violence and bullying is a bad thing. Thing is, Bully, in fact, does neither... Doing well in your classes is essential for getting ahead in Bully...

The game doesn’t glorify the serious issue of bullying in schools any more than the movie Heat endorses bank robbery or Star Wars encourages civil insurrection...

Just because a piece of entertainment is about a thing doesn’t mean it condones that thing. Why does this even need to be said, especially to teachers of all people? And why do we give kids so little credit for being able to distinguish between fiction from reality?

For that matter, why do video game opponents get away with calling for bans on games they’ve never played? Why do we not treat them with the same scorn aimed at people who try to ban books they’ve never read?...

One can sense Tilley's righteous indignation in the Sun piece. He really gets on a roll, making excellent points which are too numerous to list here. It's definitely worth a full read.

REAL Bully problems: We note reports of freezing and frame rate problems in the Xbox 360 version of Bully: Scholarship Edition. In fact, GP's own copy locked up on an early mission to hack a bully's combination lock. Rockstar is said to be "horrified" by the tech issues and working on a fix.

An international coalition of teachers is targeting today's launch of Bully: Scholarship Edition for the Xbox 360 and Wii.

The game is essentially an updated version of the original Bully, which launched amidst a Jack Thompson-fueled storm of controversy in October, 2006. A story appearing in today's Globe and Mail describes the game as follows:

[Bully: Scholarship Edition] features a shaven-headed teenager who adjusts to life at a new boarding school by harassing others, which the organizations say glorifies bullying. The abuse includes dunking pupils' heads in toilets, photographing them naked and physically assaulting them. Teachers are also targeted.

Emily Noble, president of the Canadian Teachers' Federation, told the newspaper:

We're asking retailers to be responsible. Yes, they can sell it and make a buck out of this, but is this the kind of marketing that they want to be [doing], selling games that glorify violence?

What it does is it encourages kids to target other kids, to be a bully with other kids. This doesn't help us as teachers in the work that we're doing at school. It also targets teachers at the school as well.

Rodney Walker, a spokesman for Bully publisher Rockstar, offered counterpoint:

As a matter of principle, we hope everyone starts off by saying, ‘Okay, we know this is an entertainment experience. Video games are not just for children. This game happens to be about high school and it's a tough kid in a tough environment, but it's also one of the funniest games you will play...

McGill University professor Michael Hoechsmann, who riled gamers just last week with comments about shoot 'em up Army of Two, said that any move to ban Bully: Scholarship Edition was misguided:

As tempting as it may seem, I'm not so certain that banning this will somehow result in a more peaceful and more loving school population... This young person being confronted with all that [abuse] seeks the one remedy that he appears to have access to. If there was a peaceful schools committee at the Bullworth Academy, maybe Jimmy would have joined the committee.

Unlike rival Hillary Clinton,  Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama does not have a significant track record with regard to video game content issues.

His speeches, however, often contain a reference to parents making their children "put away the video games." For Obama, video games seem to serve as a sort of metaphor for underachievement.

The Illinois senator repeated the theme last night in a victory speech following his big win over Clinton in the Wisconsin primary. As reported by the Washington Post, which carried a transcript and video of the speech, Obama said:

I know how hard it will be to alleviate poverty that has built up over centuries, how hard it will be to fix schools, because changing our schools will require not just money, but a change in attitudes.

We're going to have to parent better, and turn off the television set, and put the video games away, and instill a sense of excellence in our children, and that's going to take some time.

A day earlier, speaking to a college crowd in Youngstown, Ohio,  Obama made similar remarks. The Youngstown Vindicator reports:

[Obama called for] investments in early childhood education to close the achievement gap, but with an added emphasis on poetry, music and art, not just academics. Obama admonished parents to do their part by turning off the television, putting away the video games, and instilling in their children a desire to get a good education.

Nor is this a new theme for Obama. GamePolitics reported on similar comments as far back as April, 2006.

There has been much hurly-burly of late regarding a Sierra Club proposal to tax video games and TV sets in New Mexico.

The Entertainment Consumers Association (representing game consumers), Entertainment Merchants Association (representing game retailers) and the Entertainment Software Association (representing game publishers) have all come out against the plan.

Despite mounting opposition, the tax bill has now been introduced in New Mexico's legislature. HB583, also known as the Leave No Child Inside Act, would force consumers to pay a 1% excise tax on purchases of games, consoles, and TV's.

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Gail Chasey (D, left) of Albuquerque, and is now before the House Business & Industry Committee. If passed, the measure, which is intended to fund outdoor education programs for school children, will become law on January 1st, 2009.

Full Disclosure Dept: The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.

UPDATE: The Las Cruces Sun-News has more on the bill.

With childhood obesity a major concern, The Independent reports that officials in the U.K. plan to supplement physical education programs with Nintendo's Wii console.

The Wii, of course, requires a greater level of physical activity from users than competing systems. From the newspaper report:

The latest attempt to tackle the problem stems from an acclaimed initiative in which Nintendo Wii consoles were used to tempt inactive pupils into "virtual PE"...  The project, at five schools in Worcestershire, found that children queued up at lunchtimes for their chance on the Wii... Heart monitoring revealed that the pupils became fitter with regular use of the consoles.

The scheme follows a report in The British Medical Journal which found that active console games "significantly increased participants' energy expenditure", compared with other systems...

Now, days after announcing its latest strategy to tackle obesity, the Government has accepted that active computer games can play a key part in introducing children to exercise.

Not everyone agrees, however. The BBC reports that Nick Seaton, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, is opposed to using the Wii in school:

Pupils would be far better doing serious competitive sports and games than this sort of thing.

Thanks to: GP European correspondent Mark "Beemoh" Kelly...

Within Range?

Sounds like a great title for a first-person shooter.

Not quite. The edu-game, created by students at Carnegie-Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center, is designed to teach players how the Library of Congress classification system works. And even Fox News can't whine about that.

Probably...

Check it out.

Via: Joystiq