The Daily ‘Shroom – 2/7/07
- Now available: TransFormers: The Movie action figures!Plus, images have surfaced of the toys for Blackout and Fast Action Battlers Battle Blade Starscream. Hmm, does this mean Starscream will be a swords
manbot again? - N-Philes has new details on Wario: Master of Disguise, Mario Party 8, and even a Japanese online demo of the fourth Gyakuten Saiban game, which has so far been localized as Phoenix Wright in the US.
- If EGM is wrong about Tingle, so help me God…
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess figures.This is the part where we start cursing Japan and searching for online retailers. Ready, set… *starts running* …GO!
- On a similar note, coming soon to those same shores is the Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin soundtrack.Mighty tempting, that.
- Oh, and Metal Gear Solid 4 can be thrown in there as well.
- Go Nintendo says that Punch-Out!! is coming to Virtual Console.Wouldn’t hold my breath for Iron Mike, though. There is some reminiscing about those times, however.
- Ok, so the latest is that Manhunt 2 is coming to the Wii.Fine, fantastic, I really don’t give a crap. That’s why I never said anything until now.
And I wouldn’t have said anything, but this gave me pause, enough to raise an eyebrow.
Overreaction? Maybe. At the same time, I can’t help but think that this might provide some serious ammo for the Thompsons and Clintons of the world, who one might say were starting to retread the same ground in their crusades against violent games.
Let’s face it, this has the potential to bump the idea of “games as murder training simulators” up into a whole new level of legitimacy that quite frankly, I don’t think we need right now.
Seems that Joystiq might be inclined to agree, maybe.
Funny thing is, until now I was able to rest easy that it seemed other systems, Sony’s in particular, drew most of the critics’ heat on these matters, with Nintendo’s “kid-friendly” image seemingly keeping them on safe ground. Ironic then that Nintendo may well become the worst offender.
- Let’s get Biblical! So goes the cry of Major Nelson, as he seeks to gain input to establish the 10 Marketplace Commandments for XBox Live.Despite my lack of said system, I remain curious as to the eventual turnout of this.
–LBD “Nytetrayn”
February 7th, 2007 at 9:43 am
8. I think those are very valid concerns, but at the same time, I can’t see the Wii be any better at being a “killing simulator” than any other device in the world. Even if you’re producing realistic motions, you’re still holding an electronic entertainment device –a toy– in your hands. There’s no heavy weight of a weapon, no feedback from making contact with a victim, and no matter how realistic graphics get, you are never going to come close enough to the sensation of harming a person to desensitize you to the real thing.
I can see games working to improve your aim and reflexes, maybe, but that’d be about it.
How many times have you gotten so angry that you imagined hurting someone? We’ve all been there. But did you ever get that opportunity? Did you ever get close to that person and think, “Well, I imagined it enough. Time to follow through and do it!” As cliche as it sounds, your imagination would be more realistic than any of these games we have available to us today, and yet it’s still not enough to prepare us for real violence any more than a dating sim prepares Japanese teenagers for real sex.
This post is not to bash you or the link. Surely, I doubt anyone in a political place of power will see things this way, and you’re right, this will only add fuel to the fire. While it might be easier for us all if the Wii never saw this game, and thus could never be targeted by these activists, I think it’s for the best for it to be released. If we don’t challenge the way things are, we’ll never have a chance to step forward.