Crazy People Petition Whitehouse for Skyrim Ban

At Kotaku there was a small, but very funny article about a petition against Skyrim. This isn't the run of the mill "we need a patch, there are issues with the game" fan complaints, this is full on "round up every copy and burn them" style. That's a little intense don't you think, to you know, destroy any mention of a game that sells millions? Well, maybe that's because the authors are a little out of left-field. Here is the petition in it's amazing original form, straight from Kotaku:

WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
Immediately Ban the Deadly Videogame Known as "SkyRim" for The Safety of America's Youths.
Whereas videogaming has proven to cause social, ethical and health problems in people of all ages,

Whereas sexual perversion and homosexuality are threatening to destroy the Christian foundations on which this nation was built,

Whereas a new video game has just been created that far exceeds any others in the psychological and spiritual damage it does to teens,

We, the American people, today ask you,

1) To enact an immediate ban on the videogame known as "SkyRim" produced by Blizzard Entertainment.

2) To seize and destroy all copies already in public hands and erase its presence on the internet.

3) To prosecute the players of "SkyRim" to the fullest extent of the law.

4) To create a national database of videogame avatars and "screen names" so that teenagers can be better monitored.

Good chance it's a joke, but hey their are crazy enough people in the world that this could be legit. It also felt like a good time to poke some fun rather than my usual commentary on the happenings in the videogame industry. Mainly this was an excuse to bust out a Buddy Jesus pic, but I digress, let's look at everything wrong here.

1.) They call it "SkyRim"

First off, it's "Skyrim". It's the name of a country in the continent of Tamriel located on the planet Nirn in the Elder Scrolls Universe. It's not two words, it's not like they named the place "Sky Rim Job" or something (considering they allege "sexual perversion and homosexuality" is a big part of this game). So credibility is getting questioned here.

2.) "Whereas sexual perversion and homosexuality are threatening to destroy the Christian foundations on which this nation was built"

You mean Protestant?

3.) "To enact an immediate ban on the videogame known as "SkyRim" produced by Blizzard Entertainment."

Really? I mean c'mon, I can understand messing up the whole history of america and the pilgrims deal, but it says "Bethesda" right on the damn box.

4.) To seize and destroy all copies already in public hands and erase its presence on the internet."

You ever hear of 4chan or anonymous? Good luck with that one.

5.) "To prosecute the players of "SkyRim" to the fullest extent of the law."

I didn't know that 1000 bounty in each of the 9 holds was going to catch up to me in real life....

So, in conclusion, this whole thing is ridiculous. Yes, I have logged over 90 hours on Skyrim but I'm not going on shooting sprees, acting homosexual, or trying to burn down the christian church and none of my friends are so I think we are going to be fine. I think everyone else thinks it is a joke too when they get digital signatures on the petition from people with Skyrim reference names like "Dova K", "Fus Roh Dah", "Lusty Argonian M", "Balgruuf T", and "Tiber S". All in all, people just need to relax on videogames. Media sources like Fox feeding us awful information from people like Jack Thompson over recent years has given a bad image to games. There is nothing better or worse on television or a movie that you will find in a game and the rating in systems in place are there for a reason. No game is going to cause someone to do ridiculous things unless a careless adult can't read that a game like  Skyrim contains blood and violence and gives it to an impressionable person like a 5 year old or an unmedicated schizophrenic. So what do you guys think? This is a hilarious petition by crazy people, that you actually agree with them, or that this joke does point toward the issues of game content and the audience that they are meant for with the current ESRB rating system? Sound off below!

Torchlight 2 Delayed

Got an itch to play a dungeon crawler this holiday season? Well, you might have to hold your breath as Kotaku's Owen Good is reporting that Torchlight 2 is being pushed back to an early 2012 release. Runic games sited that it wanted more time to polish the title and even do a short beta before it's release.

The cooler thing, in my opinion, is the frankness the company has to the other reason it has delayed the title: all the great games that are out now. Think about it, this may have been one of the greatest years for videogames ever. IGN awarded perfect 10 scores to two titles already in Uncharted 3 and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, not to mention the other amazing titles out there. Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Dark Souls, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Minecraft, RAGE, Saints Row 3, and Star Wars: The Old Republic are just some of the big name titles that have (or will be out) by Christmas. It's a breath of fresh air to see a game developer realize that most people will be consumed in these games and that pushing their title into early 2012 can give them a better chance as being seen as a stand out title. 

The move could turn out to be a mistake however. By pushing back into early 2012, they have to compete with that other popular dungeon crawler. You know...oh what's it called....oh yeah, Diablo 3, probably one of the most anticipated games this decade. Being in direct competition with them could hurt their sales as they'll launch around the same time. Runic does, however, have a lot of the staff from the original Diablo game developing the Torchlight series, so it does stand a very good chance of being as good or better than Diablo 3, but it is still relatively not well known compared to the big franchise name Diablo has evolved into over the years. So hopefully Runic is not hurting themselves by doing this, I'd hate to see Torchlight 2 sink in this holiday seasons lineup, but it would be even worse to see it struggle against the Diablo juggernaut. So what do yo think? Is delaying a good idea with what is all available right now? Is it cool that they are willing to admit to this? Or are they making a mistake by not getting to the market before Diablo 3? Sound off below!

The "Modern" Gamer

Call of Duty is by far the biggest, most publicly known video-game in the industry. It shatters sales records every year that they set with their previous games. Despite all of this, it is also one of the most slandered and despised game among gamers. Why is this so?

Brian Crecente at Kotaku had a novel idea to find out why: let everyone on twitter comment on why they don't like COD. The comments are interesting and varied, from claims that COD is the videogame equivalent of a popcorn film like Transformers to distaste with the management of its publishing company Activision and even some disgust of how unrealistic it portrays and over glorifies war. The unique voice of the community can be heard in this wide range of comments, but there was one in particular that really struck a chord with me from the twitter handle jerschobel: 

"it perpetuates stereotypes of gamer culture that simply aren't true. many who buy COD buy ONLY COD."

It made me think about myself as a gamer, what I play, and what games my friends play. We all lean toward certain genres, I certainly enjoy my FPS and RPG games, but I found that I do have a robust library. Titles like Frozen Synapse, Limbo, and Magicka can be found throughout my steam library from the very small developers that created them. I clearly enjoy my fair share of strategy games as well with turn based Civilization and the Total War titles, not to mention the real-time titles like Dawn of War II and the iconic Starcraft games. 3rd person action games even get the nod with Batman Arkham Asylum and Arkham City and I have never played a game so thoroughly as Assassin's Creed II in recent memory (100% completion including DLC in one glorious weekend). Yet, when I compare it to some of my friends and roommates, things start to diverge. 

To start, 2 of my roommates (with the exception of sports titles) own exclusively Call of Duty games on their Xbox 360. In fact, since the release of Call of Duty 8 (Modern Warfare 3) this past Tuesday, it's the only game they have played.  They have nearly 30 or more than hours into it's multiplayer mode and it's been for sale for only 5 days as of writing. That is a ridiculous amount of game time. Another 8 of my friends own only games from a total of 4 franchises (Call of Duty, Battlefield, Gears of War, and Halo) with the iterations of Call of Duty being considered their most played title. 4 more of my friends own the same titles, but start to add in more role-playing games like the Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Mass Effect. Only 3 of my friends have a library as diverse or even more varied than the one I have.

It's interesting to see how dominate Call of Duty was among my friends that claim themselves as gamers. If you blow the numbers up by millions, it sure would outweigh a lot of the other players with very uniquely dispersed library's. The question is though: are those who seemingly play only the blockbuster AAA titles like Call of Duty the definition of today's gamer? The loudmouth, trash talking, racist, sexist, 17-28 year old guy on Xbox live is getting well known in society. Even popular viral shorts like "The Online Gamer" have been dedicated to this stereotype, with one of my friends actually making this mockery series look tame. A lot of my friends are highly competitive and hearing a small tirade of cussing from the other rooms in my house is common place at the moment. Is this becoming the face of the gaming community? Like movies, the Michael Bay movie with cheap thrills and no story and a massive marketing budget rule the roost and bring in the masses while the more well refined experiences get lost to a more niche audience? I for one don't like telling people that I am a gamer, in particular a Game Development major, and then get asked immediately about Call of Duty. I want to talk about the art and magnificence of Skyrim's landscape, the brilliance that The Old Republic looks to bring with story telling to MMO's, the creativity in Minecraft, and the success of free communities like League of Legends. *Sigh* or maybe I should just give up and be happy that the stereotype of a gamer is no longer the neck-bearded World of Warcraft die-hard. Regardless, I want to hear your thoughts on what you think a gamer is. Is it the new sterotypical COD rager, is it still that WoW guy in his mom's basement, maybe it's the rise of the female gamer? Sound off below!

Bioware Crossing Multiplayer Into Mass Effect 3

On Kotaku, Michael McWhertor had the biggest scoop in videogame news yesterday when he went over the details of Bioware's plans to add multiplayer to Mass Effect 3. Bioware has stated that they are adding 4 player co-op to the game and that the results of it will directly influence your single player experience. You do not play as Commander Shepard or any know characters, but instead create your own unique soldier from the ground up. You can pick a race (Humans, Turians, Krogans, and Asari are confirmed as options) and unique abilities, then form up to take down positions and capture territories from the enemy.

A unique class based co-op mode sounds pretty awesome, but why does Mass Effect 3 need it? As someone who has played through Mass Effect 1 and 2 more than once, I'm thoroughly happy with what I have: an engaging single player experience with deep, story driven choices that compile into a narrative entirely unique to me. It's a role-playing game at heart, creating a connection to my character through moral choices that define whether I'm the noble soldier ready to lay down my life for Earth or the dick who'd throw the nearest person under the bus to save his skin. When you add multiplayer to something like this, it seems out of place. Team and objective orientated gameplay is the polar opposite of it's audience and adding 4 player co-op with it's cover focused mechanics seem like it's trying to copy Gears of War. Why can't it be enjoyed as merely a great single player game?

Personally, I think it has to deal with the evolution of games and growth of expectations by demanding fans. 20 years ago we were happy to play through titles like Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past by ourselves, now we want that experience, competitive multiplayer, and the kitchen sink from current games. Great single player games are being watered down by wasting development time to make the now "mandatory" multiplayer aspect of their game. Just recently, great single player titles Bioshock and Dead Space had multiplayer added to their sequels and both titles suffered in overall quality compared to their original. We need to just sit back and remember that not everything is meant to be played in team deathmatch. We can't keep trying to blur the lines between the quality of an rpg like Mass Effect and a shooter like Gears of War, we'll eventually lose the battle as quality declines trying to appease both audiences and publishers planned release dates. What do you think? Are single player games quality being hurt by the demand of multiplayer? Do you like Mass Effect adding multiplayer? Sound off below!!!

Step 1: Diablo 3 Skill Calculator Step 2: ??? Step 3: Profit

Kotaku writer Mike Fahey had the scoop Wednesday that Blizzard has released a Skill Calculator on their website for Diablo 3. The die-hard fans rejoice as they can plan out their class of choice over and over again with endless speculation in wait of its rumored release this holiday. You can deck out the barbarian, witch doctor, demon hunter, sorcerer, or monk (my personal favorite, depicted in the picture above) any which way you want from level 1 to level 30 without having to plug a single hour of gameplay in to realize how badly you messed up your build.

To the average gamer this isn't much news at all, but for me and other Diablo fans this news should be huge for one reason: the auction house. Blizzard had announced earlier in August that Diablo 3 will feature a new auction house that will allow players to trade in game items for real currency. That's right, you can now make a profit from all the tireless hours you spend playing the game. Like that enchanted battle ax? $10. Need new gems? $5. The possibilities are endless as it is presently laid out.

Now consider the news of the Skill Calculator. You can pre-layout your entire character before the game launches. Half the battle with new rpg's are figuring out what skills best coincide with one another and how to become a well rounded team with the varying talents available. With the skill calculator, you can figure that out before the game launches and be entirely set to tackle the game at full speed. As we speak, one of my roommates and I are using this tool to plan out our characters and how best to complement each other so we can focus on getting good loot and exploiting the auction house as early as possible in an attempt to find a fun way to pay our rent. All jokes aside; if the Skill Calculator shaves off 20 hours of learning my monk through trial and error, I gain 20 hours I can use to make money playing the game, it's a huge payoff for me in the long term.

What do you think? Is the auction house for real money a good idea? Is the calculator really going to help people looking to make money on the auction house get an early edge? Sound off below!