Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition... least of all in game format.

But Vintage.VideoSift located the bizarre game at Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills, Michigan. The estimated date of manufacture is 1920-1930.

With tongue firmly in cheek, Vintage.VideoSift notes:

This game was the root cause of all the societal violence of its time.

And may we add:

NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency....

 

Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope....

 

Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll come in again...

Full script here....

Eurogamer reports that the Collector's Edition of THQ's Saints Row 2 will ship in a box which depicts a pistol mounted in a fancy gun case:

...in keeping with the game's general sense of fun and social responsibility, the box is shaped like a gun and you get a USB stick in the shape of a bullet...

 

It's not alone, either, with a 1GB USB key in the shape of a golden bullet to keep it company, along with a 3rd Street Saints poster (a woman blowing the smoke away from the barrel of her man's gun) and a map of Stilwater, the game's sandbox location.

For now at least, the special packaging appears to be exclusive to the Xbox 360 version - and to the European market.

Via: Sports Legends

South Africa's Independent Online reports on yet another attempt to link media violence to the real deal.

The IO reports that Cape Town-based watchdog group the Family Policy Institute has petitioned South Africa's government to recall all music containing violent lyrics and all video games with violent content.

FPI spokesman Errol Naidoo made the request, expressing the group's concerns over potential negative influences on young people. The move comes in the wake of the samurai sword killing of a 16-year-old by a schoolmate who allegedly dressed himself like Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison (left).

Prefering not to wait for any type of inquiry, Naidoo requested the recall of the games and CDs "pending the outcome of the investigation". From the Independent Online:

Naidoo cited the case of two US teens who were convicted of murder in 2003 after stabbing a friend 20 times and slitting his throat after listening to Slipknot's song Disasterpiece.

He also cited the case of Bangkok teenager Polwat Chinno who had killed a taxi driver by punching and stabbing him after playing the computer game Grand Theft Auto. "Police believe he was acting out a scene in the violent video game," Naidoo said.

He said there was no guarantee that removing violent music and games would prevent violent behaviour, but that it would "provide added peace of mind for families".

Given the pre-release backlash from media watchdogs over the level of violence depicted in Sega's upcoming Wii title Madworld, publisher Sega is said to be in touch with officials of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and Pan-European Gaming Information system (PEGI) in an effort to head off the type of outright ban imposed on Rockstar Games' controversial Manhunt 2 last year.

Nintendic reports on the dialogue between Sega and the ratings bodies. Of particular significance is the BBFC. The organization was behind the Manhunt 2 ban, which was later overturned by Britain's High Court. More recently government officials have indicated that their preference is to turn the U.K.'s game rating chores over to the BBFC. The British game industry, however, would prefer PEGI.

Nintendic quotes Sega exec  David Corless:

Yes, [Madworld's] violent. We don’t try to hide that, but as publishers, we see it as a fantasy game - it’s fantasy violence. It’s over the top. It’s cartoony. We also take the violence very seriously. We are working with the age rating boards, with PEGI and with BBFC. We’re not at the end of the game’s development, but we’re working with them now to make sure that we don’t go over the top. The game has been banned in Germany; there’s no getting around that unfortunately. But we are taking it seriously and we’re going to make sure that this game is rated for the appropriate audience.

Video game content rating in Germany is not for the faint of heart (or the easily confused), according to a report in DW-World:

Legislation recently passed in Germany in July, for example, makes it easier to put [violent] games on the banned list following the introduction of a rating index... Games on Germany's banned list cannot be sold publicly. That includes any advertising and sales through mail order. The decision to flag a game is made by the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons (BPjM)...

But the labeling system for content rating is run by yet another organization in Berlin, under the sponsorship of two game industry groups:

The labeling system is organized by the so-called Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) in Berlin... Two industrial associations assumed sponsorship from June 1: the German Association of Computer Game Developers (G.A.M.E.) and the German Association of Interactive Entertainment Software (BIU), both of which are headquartered in Berlin.

...but, despite the industry's involvement, the government has an additional layer of control here, as well:

The decision-making power lies with the federal states. The Protection of Minors Act calls for the Supreme Youth Agencies of the state to undertake the labelling, he said.

 

"And they employ the USK," [BIU spokesman Olaf] Wolters added.

 

The USK functions as a service provider, commissioning a circle of independent experts. These observers first play the game, present their results to a five-person committee consisting of at least four of roughly 60 expert appraisers from the USK, including teachers and employees of the youth agencies. The committee is then completed by a permanent representative of the Supreme Youth Agencies of the states.

GP: It would seem that quite a few bureaucrats are involved in Germany's content rating process...

A leading Thai newspaper takes the government of Thailand to task for basing a video game crackdown on the recent murder of a cabbie by an alleged Grand Theft Auto player.

An editorial in today's Bangkok Post is unsparing in its criticism of the official response to Polwat Chinno's claim that GTA prompting his stabbing of 54-year-old victim.

Far from showing concern, this [government] reaction [to the murder] emphasised the huge gap between the real technology revolution and what the country's leaders appear to know about it. 

 

First of all, it is most troubling that authorities and the media latched on so quickly and conveniently to the alibi of a confessed, vicious killer... He is an adult who told police he planned and carried out a reprehensible killing for a small amount of money. His claim that the video game Grand Theft Auto made him commit the crime sounds more like a novel legal defence than a credible motive. Tens of millions of people around the world play that game - tens of thousands in Bangkok...

The Post also outs the Thai government's laughable list of Top 10 Violent Games, a story broken here on GamePolitics (see: Thailand's 10 Violent Games to Avoid List Stolen From Detroit):

The Public Health Ministry quickly assembled a list of Top 10 Violent Games - not by research or reason, but by a quick Googling in which bureaucrats accepted the first hit, an obscure list from a local US politician trying successfully to get his name in the newspapers and his face on the TV news in an election cycle. 

 

Such a ban is also self-defeating, since new games come on the market regularly. In any case, a police ban is only another business hitch to the video pirates and shop owners involved in underground distribution...

 

The problem is most parents and few politicians have a clue about such things. Many are technologically illiterate...

What’s black and white and read all over?

A newspaper, but if veteran games industry marketer Bruce Everiss has anything to say about it, that should not include the UK’s Daily Mail:

They really are just trying to sell newspapers with sensationalism because nobody with a brain can be stupid enough to believe what they have written.

Everiss took umbrage with an article concerning Madworld, Sega’s upcoming bloody brawler that’s being developed exclusively for the Wii. The Daily Mail suggested that the game would tarnish the Wii’s family-friendly image and quoted a UK watchdog group that is calling for a BBFC ban on the as-yet unreleased title.

For his part, Everiss offered a point-by-point counter to the Mail’s claims. 

• If a Wii is family friendly then presumably a DVD player is. And you can play totally execrably disgusting content on a DVD player.
• Game content is mild compared to film and book content. MadWorld just pales into insignificance compared to what is on these other media.
• Games are age rated with the excellent PEGI system. Every parent can clearly see this on the front of the packaging...
• There is plenty of equally violent content already available for the Wii. The Mail are just exposing their total ignorance with this...

-Reporting from San Diego, GamePolitics correspondent Andrew Eisen...

Could executves of Take-Two and Rockstar Games be prosecuted for an alleged copycat killing in Thailand?

Following local police assertions that the murder of a Bangkok cab driver was prompted by the killer's play of Grand Theft Auto, a Thai government official has called for prosecution of game publishers for instances of copycat violence.

AsiaOne Digtal quotes Somchai Jaroen-amnuaysuk of the Welfare Promotion, Protection and Empowerment of Vulnerable Groups Office:

When a player copycats a crime he or she sees in the game, the game maker should be prosecuted. Prosecutions will automatically force game makers to act more responsibly.

The Daily Mail has published news of the first - but surely not the last - mainstream attack on Sega's upcoming Madworld for the Wii:

Players in the 'hack and slash' game, which is due for a UK release in early 2009, can impale enemies on road signs, rip out hearts and execute them with weapons including chainsaws and daggers.

 

The decision to release a violent game on a console which has based its reputation on family fun has shocked anti-violence pressure groups.
 

John Beyer, head of watchdog group Mediawatch-UK, called for a ban on Madworld:

This game sounds very unsavoury. I hope the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) will view this with concern and decide it should not be granted a classification. Without that it cannot be marketed in Britain. What the rest of world does is up to them. We need to ensure that modern and civilized values take priority rather than killing and maiming people.

 

It seems a shame that the game's manufacturer have decided to exclusively release this game on the Wii. I believe it will spoil the family fun image of the Wii.

An unnamed Nintendo spokesperson told the Daily Mail:

Wii appeals to a wide range of audiences from children and teenagers to adult and senior citizens, anyone from 5 - 95, as such there is a wide range of content for all ages and tastes available. Mad World will be suitably age rated through the appropriate legal channels and thus only available to an audience above the age rating it is given. The game is not made by Nintendo but by Sega.

Just-released survey data from parenal advisory website What They Play maintains that parents worry more about their kids' exposure to video games than alcohol, violence and pornography.

From WTP's press release:

Nearly 3,000 respondents in two separate What They Play polls concluded that drinking beer and watching pornography were less objectionable activities for children than playing certain video games. Further, viewing violence was more acceptable than seeing content involving sex and sexuality within games.

WTP president John Davison commented:

These poll results demonstrate that parents are as apprehensive about their children’s media diets as they are about traditional social issues such as alcohol, drugs, violence and sex. When it comes to video games, parents should know that What They Play is a resource that helps demystify one of the most popular – and challenging – forms of entertainment their kids are into.

Dr. Cherly Olson, co-author of Grand Theft Childhood, is also quoted in the press release:

Although these findings seem surprising at first, they hint at fears parents have about video games. To some parents, video games are full of unknowable dangers. While researching for Grand Theft Childhood, parents we spoke with in focus groups often bemoaned the fact that they didn’t know how to use game controls - and felt unequipped to supervise or limit video game play. Of course, parents don’t want their children drinking alcohol, but that’s a more familiar risk.

According to WTP's data, here's what parents found most offensive in video games:

• a man and woman having sex (37%)
• two men kissing (27%)
• a graphically severed head (25%)
• multiple use of the F-word (9%).

Parents apparently worry about what their kids are playing on sleepovers, too:

The second poll... queried parents on what they’d be most concerned about their 17-year-old child indulging in while at a sleepover. More than 1,600 respondents revealed they’re more apprehensive about their child smoking marijuana (49%) and playing the video game Grand Theft Auto (19%), than watching pornography (16%) and drinking beer (14%).

GP: If accurate, the data poses some interesting challenges for the video game industry, starting with building parental confidence in game content as well as the means by which mature-themed games are kept away from younger players.

Over the past week there has been much written about accused Thai killer Polwat Chinno (at left, supposedly re-enacting his crime for investigators).

Police in Bangkok claim Chinno's alleged murder of a taxi driver was sparked by his playing of Grand Theft Auto.

On that score our attention was caught by this excerpt from yesterday's edition of The Telegraph: 

After the stabbing, [Chinno] tried to steal the taxi with the dead driver in the back seat, but did not know how to drive. Neighbours in Soi Jaran Sanitwong in central Bangkok called police after Polwat constantly pressed on the horn as he reversed into a dead end. When police arrived Polwat had locked himself in the car.

...all of which begs the question:

If Grand Theft Auto supposedly trained this 19-year-old man to kill so effectively, how could it be that it didn't train him to drive very effectively? After all, we'd estimate (conservatively) that GTA players spend at least 25% of their game time cruising around the series' open environments in a wide array of vehicles.

Professional wrestlers aren't generally known for their smarts, but WWE's Randy Orton does wax philosophical - in his way - in an interview with Eurogamer.

Visiting London to promote THQ's upcoming SmackDown vs. Raw 2009, Orton turned his attention to the debate over video game violence:

Violence sells. I want to see more violence in games - the more blood the better... [Some parents who worry about video games] don't know their kids are watching South Park.

 

The violence [in Goodfellas] is against human beings. There's rape in movies - you see all kinds of f***ed up s*** on film.

Orton, who owns an Xbox 360 and a Wii, called Grand Theft Auto "just a cartoon" in comparison to Goodfellas.

Via: MaxConsole 

Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia reports that an association of taxi drivers has called for a ban on Grand Theft Auto.

We're working from an imprecise Google translation, but the basics of the story are that Josep Maria Goñi, secretary general of the Catalan Taxi Federation, has requested that the Spanish government pull GTA titles off the market.

Goñi makes it clear that the Taxi Federation's request is based on the Thailand murder case. The cabbie spokesman didn't stop at GTA, however, calling for a ban on all games with a high level of violence or which "celebrate" drug trafficking or prostitution.

GP: We've always found the GTA series to be fairly sympathetic to cabbies. After all, they get mega-tips if you warp to your destination. You can even play as a driver, racing fares around town to earn some in-game cash. And, as GameSpot points out:

There are no actual missions in GTAIV which require players to rob, stab, or kill a taxi driver...

Singapore may have banned Mass Effect last year (and later un-banned it), but gamers there do not want to see a Grand Theft Auto ban.

As reported by the Electric New Paper, gamers in Singapore are concerned that last week's cabdriver murder in Thailand may prompt a video game backlash:

'It's a game, it's just for fun,' said student Julius Wong, 20, who completed [GTA IV]... 'What makes the game popular is that you get to do things you don't normally get to do in real life.' Playing the game was 'stress relief'.

 

Student Poh Koon Kiat, 23, was also against a ban, saying it would be a knee-jerk reaction. 'I don't think games affect how I act in real life,' he said.

ENP reports that GTA IV was a huge seller in Singapore, with 20,000 copies sold during its first week at retail. Local distributor IAHGames said it was unaware of any move to ban the game.

In the wake of Saturday's highly publicized cabbie murder in Bangkok, there's more bad news for Grand Theft Auto.

Police in Fulton County, Georgia say that three teens arrested for a series of car arsons claim that they used GTA-inspired Molotov cocktails to set the vehicles ablaze.

WSBTV-2 reports:

Fulton County officials said they have arrested three teens and charged them with 57 felony counts in connection with a recent series of car bombings with Molotov cocktails in the city of Milton, north of Atlanta.

 

Officials said the teens -- ages 15 and 16 -- told authorities they learned "how to do it" from playing the video game "Grand Theft Auto."

BoingBoing co-author Cory Doctorow gives a wide-ranging interview to the Chicago Tribune in which he touches on misperceptions about violent video games and the Virginia Tech massacre.

There’s this broad consensus that the Virginia Tech murders had something to do with violent video games. When you actually read the coroner's inquest report, video games are mentioned twice. The first is his mother saying he never wanted to play those video games. The second is his roommate saying, "We always thought he was weird because he never wanted to play video games." Yet it’s still a [popularly held] truism that violent video games must be responsible for Virginia Tech.

 

GP: As GamePolitics has reported in the past, the official commission investigating the Virginia Tech rampage found only one game that the killer played - Sonic The Hedgehog.

The situation in Thailand involving a cabbie murder with an alleged GTA connection grows increasingly bizarre...

Yesterday we mentioned a Cnet Asia report that the Thai Ministry of Health (left) had issued a list of 10 violent video games to avoid. You can see it here, in Thai.

Can't read Thai? Me neither. Here's the list in English, as translated by Cnet's Jesada Chandraprasert:

1- GTA

2- Man Hunt

3- Scarface

4- 50 Cent - Bullet Proof

5- 300

6- The Godfather

7- Killer 7

8- Resident Evil 4

9- God of War

10- Hitman

Back in December GamePolitics criticized Detroit Prosecutor Kym Worthy for a.) blaming her city's crime on video games, and b.) issuing an outdated list of violent games to avoid. Here's Worthy's unworthy list:

1. Grand Theft Auto
2. Manhunt
3. Scarface
4. 50 Cent Bulletproof
5. 300 
6. The Godfather
7. Killer-7
8. Resident Evil 4
9. God of War
10. Hitman Blood Money

Notice anything?

They're the same list. The only difference is that Worthy's Hitman Blood Money morphs to Hitman on the Thai Ministry list, while Grand Theft Auto is simply written as GTA. That could be a result of imprecise translation by Chandraprasert.

So, is Thailand turning to Detroit to help solve its crime problem? 

The more likely answer is that Thai bureaucrats are simply grabbing material from the Web in order to support a video game crackdown by the government.

Jesada Chandraprasert (left), who pens the Technology Thailand blog for Cnet Asia, wasted no time in disputing media reports that the murder of a Bangkok cab driver was prompted by his alleged killer's play of Grand Theft Auto:

the gist of the story is that a "good boy" up and kills a taxi driver for his money... Anyway, it turns out that this kid likes to play GTA and his parents... have concluded that it must be the game's influence...

 

I know, you must be thinking "same poopoo, different country". I couldn't agree more! People tend to find different things to blame for things that go wrong in their lives. This country is no exception... anyone who walks past a newsstand can tell you what you see on the front page of the Thai Rath [daily newspaper] is much more graphical than the worst of these games and movies.

 

Since [the Thai Ministry of Health is] bothering to make a list [of games to avoid], don't forget to include Temple Fair favorites like Whack a Mole that promotes animal cruelty, bumper cars for encouraging bad driving habits,  shooting the water gun into the clown's mouth which teaches you to use guns, an a plethora of other "violent" carnival games.
 

Media accounts of Saturday's murder of a Bangkok cab driver have caught the attention of a Filipino blogger who fears GTA-inspired violence.

Perhaps more interesting,however, is a brief glimpse into the Filipino game piracy scene offered by the Pinoy Biscuits blog:

Did you know that Grand Theft Auto pirated discs are selling like hot cakes in the Philippines? Go to Greenhills, San Juan you'll be able to buy a bootleg/pirated copy of the whole Grand Theft Auto series.

 

A time bomb is just waiting to explode in the Philippines. Lawmakers in the Philippines aren't that serious yet when it comes to video games, it's always too late as in the case of almost all other cases here in the Philippines.
 

The Christian Examiner Online expresses concerns over video games from a religious angle in what a press release claims is an "in-depth" report.

However, the piece, written by Steve Rabey (left) seems far too brief to be "in depth," is very much of a bashing, and ignores a number of positive areas where religion and games intersect, such as:

• Games based on religion or religious themes: not mentioned
• Use of games to attract teens to youth ministries: not mentioned
• How Christian gamers relate game experience to their faith: not mentioned
• How serious games teach important social and cultural lessons: not mentioned

Instead, Rabey has cobbled together a string of negative quotes. In fact, there's not a single pro-game quote in the entire article. Pastor Kody Kirchoff of Omaha's Calvary Lutheran Church:

Aside from the violence, obscenity and negative themes, the larger and greater problem lies in the fact that video games control many people’s hearts and minds, creating a monotonous, zoned-out new reality... God, family and friends do not exist in many games. Activities like camping, playing catch with Dad, swimming, or just being a kid have vanished.

Al Menconi of Al Menconi Ministries:

[Video game addiction is] a very big epidemic . Withdrawal is very similar to drug withdrawal.

Paul Asay of Focus on the Family:

There are virtual worlds for children, such as Club Penguin and subeta.org, that charge kids or their parents for virtual doodads with which they can decorate their virtual pads. In other words, they’re shelling out real cash for imaginary products.

Carey Casey of the National Center for Fathering:

Games are a way of life, devouring our children’s time, energy and brainpower... Parents should place limits on children’s media use, including when, where, and how much they can participate. And we should be ready to address common myths that are often portrayed in the media: such as the myths that to be worthwhile you have to be beautiful, that money buys happiness, that sex is merely recreation and has no consequences, and that violence solves problems.

Alabama grandmom Margie Tanner:

While shopping for a new video game recently with my 13-year-old grandson, I previewed several of the latest releases. Most were filled with intense violence, involving killing and torture. Others involved witches and wizards.

Not witches and wizards! What's next, a Harry Potter book burning? And which commercial games feature torture?

Certainly, there are millions of Christians who are gamers and thousands who are in the game business. Couldn't Rabey find one person to say something positive about games from a Christian perspective?