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Playing Video Games Can Improve Spatial Attention

2012-05-05T16:00:00Z

Amidst the clamour over whether or not violent video games turn innocent children into raging monsters, a pair of recent studies highlights the potentially positive effects that violent video games can have for our brains.

A study out of the University of Toronto, published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, has shown that playing a first-person shooter can improve people's spatial attention - which is a process by which your brain orients your cognitive abilities to different objects in space, such as an upcoming stop sign, a snake in the grass, or, in the case of an FPS, an enemy soldier. Basically, it's your brain's way of saying "Look at that! It might be important!" While other studies have shown that gamers may have better spatial attention than non-gamers, this is the first study to show that simply by playing an FPS, people's spatial attention can improve. Participants, who were not gamers, were asked to play ten hours of either Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault or puzzle-game Ballance over two weeks. The participants who played Medal of Honor showed an increase in their ability to tune out distractions in a test of spatial attention - e.g., they would be better able to pick out the enemy from the trees. Lead author Sijing Wu foresees benefits from this research such as helping older drivers improve their skills. But first, researchers have to sort out what elements of the game are creating the effect.

Nintendo, Microsoft Take Different Digital Paths

2012-05-02T14:00:00Z

On Friday, Nintendo announced that it would start offering its in-house games as digital downloads starting with the upcoming 3DS title New Super Mario Bros. 2; in fact, Nintendo indicated that all titles it produces thereafter for both the 3DS and the Wii U will be available as a download from its online store the same day that they're available in retail outlets. Gamers will also be able to purchase codes from retailers that will allow them to download titles directly from Nintendo's eShop. This may be an olive-branch to electronics outlets that stand to lose revenue from Nintendo's move: Retailers could offer deals or bundles to buyers for going to a physical outlet to purchase a game as an incentive not to buy directly from Nintendo.

Console-based direct download services serving up AAA titles have been in the works for some time, as we have discussed on this site previously, but console makers have been slow to adopt the scheme. The scuttlebutt (some of it, anyway) is they don't want to risk the ire of physical retailers, who sell their games, consoles and accessories, and from whom much of their revenue currently comes (though some retailers are themselves beginning to jump on the digital distribution bandwagon). Regardless, cutting out the retailers could ultimately mean more profits for developers, and since Nintendo in particular makes so many games in-house, it stands to gain a great deal from an on-line purchasing system.

Microsoft, on the other hand, has pledged not to make its games available by digital means - at least, not until some time after they're released in stores, as they do with their current Games On Demand service. While it may seem odd that Microsoft would be more reluctant than Nintendo to embrace a digital future in any way, shape, or form, consider that Windows - as well as many other Microsoft products - is still sold (or pre-installed on virtually every computer sold) at the same retailers whose profit margins might be affected by Xbox games being made available online from day one.

One way or the other, the internet's inexorable decimation of physical media continues apace.

Halo 4 Dated, Begins A Decade-Long Trilogy

2012-04-17T21:00:00Z

Today Microsoft announced that Halo 4 will be released for the Xbox 360 on November 6 of this year, beginning, according to Microsoft Studio VP Phil Spencer, "a journey that will encompass the next decade of Halo games and experiences." Halo 4's story will begin four years after the events of Halo 3, continuing to put Master Chief in harm's way.

Microsoft states that Master Chief will "confront his destiny and face an ancient evil that threatens the fate of the entire universe" in the new trilogy. Since Bungie Studios, who brought us the first three numbered Halo games as well as ODST and Reach, split from Microsoft in 2007 to pursue its own IPs, 343 Industries (which, unsurprisingly, has been doing a lot of hiring) will be overseeing the future of the Halo series; indeed, 343 Industries was created by Microsoft for the sole purpose of producing Halo content. No doubt the pressure's on to make sure the company's first major outing lives up to Bungie's efforts.

Stay tuned as more details about Halo 4 drop. With E3 fast approaching, the wait shouldn't be too long.

Video: Capcom Gives New Resident Evil 6 Details, Release Date

2012-04-11T21:30:00Z

Resident Evil 6 has been on the radar since January (as my fellow writer Wootini pointed out, the news was hardly a huge surprise), and we've known for some time now that the game will take place in locations the world-over. RE6 promises baddies named J'avo (which is Serbian for "demon") that can regenerate limbs, understand speech, and use weapons. Further, fan favourites Chris Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy will be returning.

Now, Capcom has issued a new trailer and tonnes of information on the forthcoming game. For more, check out the video and follow along after the jump.

]]> According to Capcom's press material, RE6 will feature three interwoven stories, with Leon S. Kennedy and U.S. government agent Helena Harper in North America, Chris Redfield and fellow BSAA member Piers Nivans in China, and in the fictional Eastern European state of Edonia, two children of important characters gone by: Jake Muller, son of Albert Wesker, and Sherry Birkin, daughter of Umbrella scientists William and Annette Birkin - William being the creator of the G virus, who was later infected by it and killed by Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil 2. Capcom is promising "horror on a global scale", with the playable game centred in those three locales. This sounds like a welcome departure from the typical Resident Evil formula of relatively confined outbreaks - especially for those who have ever longed for a video game version of World War Z.

Capcom is also promising that the J'avo will indeed be zombies, this time infected by the C-virus, that there will also be a horrific mutation called "Chrysalide" that can happen to those infected by the C-virus, and that the game will harken back to the survival horror of old. That being said, these zombies will be able to run and use weapons, and playable characters will be much more mobile than before. Having previewed the game, Destructoid reports that characters will now be able to run-and-gun, roll, and even shoot while lying on their backs. Meanwhile, Capcom has stated in an article from Nowgamer that each main character's storyline in Resident Evil 6 will take about ten hours to play, meaning that the total game time should be around 30 hours. The game will also offer two-player co-op, online or offline, as well as a Mercenaries Mode.

Resident Evil 6 is slated to be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 2, 2012 - a full month earlier than previously suggested. Meanwhile, it will be released sometime later for PC, and Capcom has no current plans about a Wii U version.

We'll have more for you as it develops.

Take-Two, THQ In Smack-Talking Spat

2012-04-06T17:00:00Z

"THQ won't be around in six months." So spake Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two. THQ is known in large part for licensed properties, such as film, WWE and UFC titles. Licensing properties means you have to pay for them, which consequently cuts into your bottom line, and that is the core of Zelnick's criticism of THQ's business model. But he doesn't stop there:

"The most important difference is quality. Take-Two has the highest quality ratings among third-party publishers, according to Metacritic and most people in the industry. Quality really, really, really matters. THQ has had some good games, but their quality levels aren't even remotely ... the quality hasn't measured up."

Regardless of the smack-talk, THQ has been in trouble for some time now. Reports show that in 2007 the company was worth $2 billion USD, whereas today it's worth $35 million. The company has blamed many of its woes on it's under-performing uDraw and children's gaming division. THQ has also closed six of its eleven development studios - surely a sign that something's amiss.

Yesterday, THQ's VP of corporate communications responded to the statements from Take-Two:

"Obviously, Mr. Zelnick's perception of THQ is outdated and inaccurate. His comments are irresponsible and false. Perhaps he would be better off commenting on his own business."

We'll have more for you as it comes.

Minecraft Creator Working On "Hard Science Fiction" MMO

2012-04-05T14:00:00Z

Fans of high-concept science fiction rejoice! Reports are hitting the interwebs that infamous Minecraft mastermind Markus "Notch" Persson is in the early stages of launching a new game titled 0x10c. The game will be launched à la Minecraft, an early beta with lots of opportunity for feedback from players to the game's creators. According to the man himself, it will also be a "hard science fiction" game (keep your minds out of the gutters, guys), meaning that it'll hew as closely to real science as it can. To wit, a description of 0x10c's background from the game's website:

In a parallel universe where the space race never ended, space travel was gaining popularity amongst corporations and rich individuals.
In 1988, a brand new deep sleep cell was released, compatible with all popular 16 bit computers. Unfortunately, it used big endian, whereas the DCPU-16 specifications called for little endian. This led to a severe bug in the included drivers, causing a requested sleep of 0x0000 0000 0000 0001 years to last for 0x0001 0000 0000 0000 years.

It's now the year 281 474 976 712 644 AD, and the first lost people are starting to wake up to a universe on the brink of extinction, with all remote galaxies forever lost to red shift, star formation long since ended, and massive black holes dominating the galaxy.

From the site's description of the game, it appears that players will be based on these ships, each of which will have a limited amount of power. This means you will have to think seriously about what functions you have up-and-running on your ship - a fancy cloaking device may eat up so much wattage that you have to shut off other functions to turn it on. Gameplay will include space battles, mining, trading, and "seamlessly" landing on and taking off from planets (I don't know about you, but that idea makes me geek out more than a little). Further, the computer on your ship will be a "fully functioning emulated 16 bit CPU" that you'll use to control your ship and/or play games in-game.

The game will take place in an MMO multiverse, and while the single-player game will have a one-time cost only, playing in the multiverse will involve some sort of recurring fee.

We'll have more about the game as it's announced.

Minecraft Creator Getting BAFTA Special Award

2012-03-05T16:30:00Z

Minecraft creator and indie game superstar Marcus "Notch" Persson is going to receive a special award at the 2012 British Academy Video Games Awards on 16 March. In case you've been comatose for the past couple of years, Minecraft is a wildly popular mash-up of Lego and wire-frame video games that lets you build, dig, farm, and adventure your way through a fully-interactive environment. It was famously created by Persson, released in Alpha and Beta modes to raise money for the "official" release, which happened late in 2011, and has attracted legions of fans and a dedicated presence on YouTube. The money made off Alpha and Beta was enough to hire staff for the newly-minted Mojang and begin production of further games. In fact, the whole Minecraft enterprise has become deliriously profitable, having made £62 million ($98 million USD), and pulling as much as £160 000 daily; said Ray McGuire of the BAFTA Video Games Committee:

"Markus is an inspiration for all games developers and this Award reflects the determination and innovation that he continues to show to both the developer community and to gamers worldwide. We are thrilled that he will accept this Award and are excited to see what new developments he will introduce to the industry in years to come."

Proposed Oklahoma Video Game Tax Is Dead

2012-02-26T23:00:00Z

Earlier in February we brought you the news that an Oklahoma lawmaker, State Representative Will Fourkiller, was proposing a 1% tax aimed at violent video games. The idea was to bring awareness to the purported correlation between video game violence with bullying and obesity, and to channel the funds to Oklahoma's Bullying Prevention Revolving Fund and Childhood Outdoor Education Revolving Fund. Critics argued that the proposed tax was too broadly drawn, given that it would target all video games rated T or higher; this would mean that non-violent T-rated games like The Sims 3 would be targeted alongside games like Grand Theft Auto. Critics further contended that the law excluded other forms of violent entertainment, and that the body of research on the alleged relationship between video game violence and real-world violence is inconclusive.

Now comes news that Oklahoma's House Revenue and Tax Subcommittee has rejected moving forward with the proposed tax in a 5-6 decision, effectively killing the legislation. It seems that Oklahoma lawmakers had qualms similar to those of the tax's critics, questioning why it would single out video games, and not "French fries or rap music or movies." Representative Fourkiller suggested the creation of a task force on the relationship between video game violence and bullying and obesity, but that too was rejected; the prevailing opinion was that there are enough task forces in place that study these issues.

The Video Game Voters Network was quick to celebrate, stating that "Oklahoma VGVN supporters worked quickly, sending hundreds of messages to the [Oklahoma] Subcommittee on Revenue and Taxation and to Rep. Fourkiller letting them know that they would not stand for this proposed legislation" and that the U.S. Supreme Court had already decided that states do not have the right to "impose content-based restrictions on video games."

Xbox, iPad Manufacturer Foxconn Opens Its Doors To Scrutiny, Raises Workers' Wages

2012-02-25T17:30:00Z

In January we brought you the story that over 100 workers at a Foxconn plant in Chengdu had gone on strike, and that an undetermined number of them were threatening to kill themselves by jumping from the roof of the plant where they worked. At issue were severance packages, transfers, and work conditions. This came after a spate of suicides and deadly explosions at Foxconn plants, and increasing international pressure on Foxconn regarding the conditions in its workplaces - which also produce products for companies such as Nintendo, Sony, and Dell.

Apple has been on the defensive ever since, as many media outlets have worked primarily the iPad and iPhone angle of the story. In response, Apple indicated it would demand its suppliers to submit to inspections and audits of their workplaces, and to the guidelines of the Fair Labour Association.

Foxconn, meanwhile, has allowed an American news crew to tour its factories in Shenzen and Chengdu, and has increased its employees base pay to 1800 yuan per month, and up to 2 200 yuan ($349 USD) should employees pass "a technical examination" (though the pay at plants farther inland remains at about half that amount). ABC News offers a lengthy report on Foxconn's plants at Chengdu and Shenzen - which employ hundreds of thousands of mainly migrant workers - here. In it, Foxconn employees describe their experiences working in Foxconn factories, and how international pressure has lead directly to the company's opening up about its practices. Foxconn has also installed nets around many of it's buildings to discourage jumpers, and opened counselling centres for its employees.

We'll have more for you as it arises.

Oklahoma Lawmaker Proposes Tax On Violent Video Games

2012-02-05T16:00:00Z

A lawmaker in Oklahoma (a state smack-dab in the middle of the US of A - I'm learning a lot about the country that neighbours mine, writing for this site) has proposed a one-percent tax on violent video games, claiming that they lead to obesity, bullying, and criminal behaviour. State Representative Will Fourkiller, a former educator and nurse, is the one tabling the law, indicating that he has personally seen how violent video games can affect people:

"A gentleman shot a police officer and stole his car," Fourkiller says. "He had been playing Grand Theft Auto."
He can't believe there's actually a video game called "Bully" because he says bullying is often what happens when kids play these games.

"Not everybody is going to react the same," Fourkiller says. "But I believe after hours and hours of watching the screen, playing the video game, being that person and taking on that role, people get desensitized."

So Representative Fourkiller (who voted in favour of a failed 2011 anti-bullying bill which would have included LBGT youth) is proposing a tax on all video games given the ESRB ratings Teen, Mature, or Adults-Only. The money from this tax would go to Oklahoma's Bullying Prevention Revolving Fund and Childhood Outdoor Education Revolving Fund.

Critics contend that the law is founded on a reliance on contested research, is over-broad in its definition of "violent" video games, and is targeting violence in video games while excluding violence in other popular media. Indeed, we here at GayGamer have pointed out many of the difficulties with the current research on video game violence which make it effectively impossible to claim that video game violence causes societal violence. Time quotes its contributor Chrisopher Ferguson:

Quite simply, the research just hasn't panned out. For one thing, even while video game sales have skyrocketed, youth violence plummeted to its lowest levels in 40 years according to government statistics. Secondly, it has been increasingly recognized that much of the early research on VVG linking them to increased aggression was problematic: most studies used outcome measures that had nothing to do with real-life aggression and failed to control carefully for other important variables, such as family violence, mental health issues or even gender in many studies (boys both play more VVG and are more aggressive.) This was something the U.S. Supreme Court recognized when, after considering California's attempt to ban the sale of VVG to minors in Brown v. EMA, it stated on June 27, 2011, "These studies have been rejected by every court to consider them, and with good reason."

Meanwhile, Jeff Hughes of Digial Trends contends:

A glaring problem with the bill is that it seems to be geared towards a vague swath of video games in its definition: "'Violent video game' means a video or computer game that has received a rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board of Teen, Mature or Adult Only." That means, aside from obvious games like Fallout, Bully, Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty, the bill would be taxing games like Beatles Rock Band, You Don't Know Jack and The Sims 3...

Representative Fourkiller rejects the contention that he is targeting the video game industry, claiming instead that he feels the games should be taxed and that awareness about the issues of video games, violence, obesity, and bullying needs to be raised.

Workers Threaten To Jump From Roof Of Xbox 360 Manufacturing Plant In China

2012-01-14T15:00:00Z

In what some media outlets are calling a "tiff," an uncertain number of workers in China reportedly threatened this week to jump to their deaths following a labour dispute with Foxconn.

Foxconn Technology Group is the company that Microsoft and Apple tap to manufacture the Xbox 360 and iPad - proof, I suppose, that money is no fanboy. If you ever noticed the "Made in China" stamp on your 360, it refers to a factory in Wuhan where Foxconn employees used to manufacture the console. Foxconn allegedly told its workers that the Microsoft contract would be moved to another location, and that's where the story gets muddy. Foxconn workers allege that they were initially offered a choice between severance and being "transferred," but then backed out of the severance option:

The workers climbed to the top of the six-storey dormitory on Jan. 3 and threatened to jump before Wuhan city officials persuaded them to desist and return to work, according to the workers and accounts online. The workers gave varying estimates of the numbers involved in the strike, from 80 to 200, and photos posted online showed dozens of people crowding the roof of the boxy concrete building.

Note that the report suggests these people live in a "dormitory," and were persuaded to not kill themselves but to "return to work" instead.

Read on, after the jump.

]]> Meanwhile, Foxconn reportedly denies that it offered its employees severance, and that "only some" were offered transfers (there is no indication what, if anything, the other employees were offered); and while unnamed current employees of Foxconn stated that some of the strikers threatened to kill themselves, one employee who recently left the plant (which is reportedly run with "military-like discipline"), Wang Jungang, argues that "none of them were going to jump" but that the company and government officials were anxious about the "consequences" should one of them jump.

This is not the first time suicide has been an issue at Foxconn plants, which also produce products for Sony, Nintendo, Dell, and HP. In 2010, an over a dozen Foxconn employees attempted suicide by jumping, resulting in an estimated fourteen deaths. As with the current incident, exact numbers are difficult to pin down.

For it's part, Apple is stepping up its scrutiny of its suppliers, following the Foxconn controversies:

In the course of the 229 audits, Apple said it discovered several violations, including instances of underage labor at five facilities. Apple said it required the suppliers to support the young workers to return to school and to improve their management systems to add age-verification procedures. Apple also said it found instances of involuntary labor and stopped working with one of suppliers involved.

"Involuntary labour" is, like the term "unfree labour", a nice way of describing forms of labour from conscription, to serfdom, to slavery, so it is difficult to ascertain exactly the sort of labour violation that is being described in that report. Regardless, it's good to know that Apple is doing something to prevent involuntary labour from being a link in the chain that manufactures its products.

In response, Apple will now compel its suppliers - including Foxconn - to hold to the standards of the Fair Labor Association, which are themselves approved by the UN's International Labour Organization, which include audits of working conditions and third-party complaint systems. Of course, one wonders why every multinational tech giant hasn't always automatically demanded such standards of its suppliers and contractors.

According to Apple Insider, Foxconn has settled its current labour dispute. The site also offers a slightly different version of the dispute than is reported elsewhere, indicating that employees were upset over "dismal" working conditions and pay, and that:

An employee at the facility, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that over 100 of the 32,000 workers at the Wuhan campus had taken to the rooftop of a three-story campus building in a protest that lasted eight hours. Some of the disgruntled employees reportedly threatened to jump from the roof if the company failed to meet their demands.
...

The unnamed worker said that Foxconn promised a $450 per month salary including overtime pay as part of a deal for workers who were forced to relocate from the company's main factory in Shenzhen to Wuhan, but employees have received only two-thirds that amount and need to endure poor working conditions.

Of course, we'll have more as it arises.

[image via: Apple Insider]

Perhaps The Most Deliciously Bat(poop) Crazy Skyrim Mod You'll Ever See

2012-01-08T17:00:00Z

"Perhaps?" you say? I hedge because I'm well acquainted with just how wonderfully crazy people can get.

I could try to tell give you a witty synopsis of what this Skyrim mod has to offer, but I don't know that there's much of a point. Suffice it to say that someone wondered what the world would be like if we all lived in Skyrim and the Macho Man were a fire-breathing, quip-spewing dragon. Really, just as tan(x) can only ever approach and not meet infinity, I don't think there's anything I can write about this singularly bizarre (and I call it that with the utmost respect) video that could do more than approach how...well, how it it is.

Happy Sunday, guys. If you want to try out the mod, you can find it here.

Resident Evil: Revelations Demo On Its Way For Europe And North America

2012-01-08T03:00:00Z

It's not long before Resident Evil: Revelations is released, and Capcom has confirmed that there will be a playable demo available in the Nintendo e-Shop soon enough for players in Europe and North America. Apparently the lucky folks in Japan have had it for some time already, and the rest of the world has been waiting for all the red tape to get cleared up.

Of course, Resident Evil: Revelations is the first RE game built from the ground up for the 3DS, and promises to have lots of good old-fashioned survival horror. It also promises to have shirtless guys and Chris Redfield, who - let's not kid ourselves - makes it instant gaymer bait. Mr. Redfield seems to be to the 'mos what Dead Or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball is to our breast-loving fellows. Or he is to me, at least, seeing as this is the umpteenth article I've written that features him, and I've only been around here for about a year now. (Though I still say his biceps have gotten out of control.)

But I digress.

Resident Evil: Revelations is coming out for the 3DS on January 26th in Japan, January 27th in Europe, February 2nd in Australia, and February 7th in North America. There's no word on when the demo will be released, but clearly it's going to have to be soon.

Opinionation: A Little Push For Representation

2011-12-31T21:00:00Z

Here I sit on New Year's Eve, scouring the interwebs for something, anything at all, that piques my interest enough to report on - but this is the wrong frakking day for that. The web is alight with Best-Of lists and predictions of what's yet to come.

And then, lo and behold, I light upon a couple of editorials that feel like nothing I would have read five years ago; opinion pieces that speak directly to what makes GayGamer unique.

Make the jump for the rest - and beware of delightfully NSFW language.

]]>
According to Andrew Meade, writing for AltDevBlogADay and reprinted by Gamasutra:

Can you name three homosexual characters in popular videogames that were NOT made by BioWare, Bethesda, or Rockstar?
...

I guess it doesn't matter though. We can shoot kids, and we can mass murder civilians, but we can't have "fags" in our games, right? Why is that? Are we afraid of fucking offending anyone? Guess what - people are already offended by our very existence. Is it because we can't relate to homosexuals? I don't know about you, but I can. I have so many homosexual friends that I can't even put a number on them - and I doubt I'm in the minority on that.

This paragraph. I've written it and rewritten it over and over again. I'm getting fired up, wondering where we're at as a collective of people, and why a major group of people is excluded from our fun and games, and the only thing I can think is that we're just scared. What's there to be scared of? The Fox News piece about how we're corrupting our youth? Are publishers gating us? What's the deal here?

Firstly, my apologies to Mr. Meade for picking out the soap-boxy-est bits, as he was clear that was not the direction in which he wanted to go. But I feel they capture the brightest part of his argument: Essentially, when it comes to inclusion of LGBTQ people in video gaming - WTF is going on? It's something I know I've wondered for a long time, and I've laid it at the feet of an easy target: Systemic homophobia. Frankly, that's been my attitude since I started thinking about the issue in the mid 1990s. Gamers are homophobic. Big corporations are usually run by homophobes. Those that aren't fear losing profits due to gamers' homophobia. Now, before I complete this paragraph, I want to acknowledge that painting such huge swaths of humanity with one brush is my own baggage. Not all gamers are homophobic - not by a long shot. Not all corporations are run by homophobes, and not all corporations fear the recriminations of homophobic customers. I am cognizant that my knee-jerk reaction, my blaming a lack of representation on systemic homophobia, comes from a lifetime of fearing it - and sometimes being proven right. And, as any behavioural psychologist could tell you, un-learning something is hardest when you've learned it through intermittent positive reinforcement.

However, as time has marched on the black-and-white attitudes I've held for so long have become harder and harder to maintain. It's a wonderful feeling - I'll never forget the first time I made two guy Sims make out - but it foments in my mind the same consternation that Mr. Meade expresses:

Tomorrow is 2012. WTF, guys?

If the aforementioned column made me happy, Jim Sterling's op-ed at Destructoid made my heart grow three sizes today: It's a "deathly serious" case for making Nathan Darke come out of the closet. And, frankly, it's a great one. Laying out point-by-point what makes total sense about the move, he concludes by laying down the gauntlet to homophobic gamers:

I bet the most insecure ones would even start to question themselves and wonder why they liked Nathan so much. I mean, they've just spent three games staring directly into the ass of a gay man for hours at a time, cooing over the PS3's impressive graphics as Nathan's shirt gets all wet and clings to his toned, glistening torso.
Why were you looking at Nathan that way? Did you feel it? Just a little pulse ripple along your shaft? Just the once? Did you? You can't be sure, can you? What does it mean if you did? If Nathan Drake just started stroking your face, would you stop him? Would you close your eyes? Oh God, you don't know. Why don't you know what you'd do? Why does it feel like Old Snake's wearing nothing at all? Nothing at all? What are you going to tell Mom and Dad now?

Let's be clear here: This kind of op-ed would have sounded like it was from Mars even five years ago. Not only advocating for LGBTQ representation, but lampooning the thought processes of homophobic gamers?

Colour me happy.

But as fantastic as it is to see all-audiences gaming sites advocating for the inclusion of LGBTQ characters - interesting characters, not offensive, mincing charicatures - I can't help but feel like we're a long way away. There are people who are trying. We've featured them here on as heavy a rotation as we can. But it still feels like there's a long way to go between where we are and respectful representation.

The thing is, despite any Eeyore-ish sentiment I may have, these guys are right. What is going on? Whom are we afraid of offending? With all the violent, misogynistic, borderline-pathological qualities that we have become convinced sell games, how the hell is including LGBTQ people a step too far?

And to all of you who have made steps in the right direction, to all of you who are advocating for more: Thank you. If it makes a difference: This queer thinks of it when he spends his money.

The Next Great Leap In Motion Control: UK Company Turns Urinals Into Controllers

2011-12-29T15:00:00Z

This time of year is what we like to call a "slow news week" around these parts. Many reporters fill their time with top ten lists. I prefer to look back at the odd story that I didn't get a chance to report on. Maybe it wasn't really that timely, maybe (most likely) I spaced out and completely forgot about it, or maybe - as in this case - it's just...well...

People are using pee to control video games.

Yeah, it's weird, but I can't pretend to be surprised. Men seem to have some sort of deep-seated thing for marking their territory. From peeing our names in the snow, to piddling out camp fires, to the endless "crossing the streams" jokes that come with watching Ghostbusters, pee is a part of dude culture. And now it's a part of pub culture in the UK, thanks to Captive Media.

Believe it or not, this is the third company out there (as far as I can tell) to make a pee-controlled video game. First came the Germans, with the oh-so-lovingly titled piss-screen, which featured a car game to un-subtly remind bar-goers that drinking and driving can very well kill you. Not to be outdone, next came the Japanese - Sega, in fact - taking things to a whole new, terrifically creepy level. Of course, not to let the British Empire be out-done in anything related to pubs, now comes UK company Captive Media's answer to Germany's Piss Screen and Sega's Toylets (I swear on Apollo's chest: I am not making this up) Featuring trivia games, action games, and even the delightfully-titled firefighting simulator Hosepipe Hero, the units (tee hee) have already been installed in one bar in South London and another in Cambridge.

Cue the "joystick" jokes.

As with the previous systems, Creative Media's design features sensors built in to the urinal so it knows where you're aiming, and the action is displayed on an LCD screen just above the urinal. Moreover, the system will have live leaderboards and it will give you the option to tweet your scores. Apparently, the patrons in the Cambridge location are enjoying the experience, and the staff is pleased with how much neater it has encouraged the washroom users to be. As if there weren't any reason to aim before now. But I guess any bit helps.

Captive Media plans to officially roll out their units across the UK in 2012.