I Need Opinions Here

While browsing one of my favorite websites, I found this article. The article states that two Swiss Human Rights Groups ran a study that "attempted to determine if the acts gamers engage in while they play violent titles would "lead to violations of rules of international law, in particular International Humanitarian Law (IHL), basic norms of International Human Rights Law (IHRL), or International Criminal Law (ICL)."" Yes, I know that might sound confusing to most people, so I reccomend reading the article.

Basically, these groups had people play through several action games while lawyers watched them to "try to find actions in games that in real life would violate rules and regulations that govern armed conflict". Sound stupid to you? If not, then read it again. These people are trying to enforce real-life rules into the fictional worlds of video games.

Wait, is that a burning building in the background? How dare they!

I found a sentence from the article that I find hilarious, simply because it is so contradictory. "The organizations said the study is not intended to "prohibit the games, to make them less violent or to turn them into IHL or IHRL training tools." Instead, the groups want to work with developers to ensure that in the future, their games observe real-life human-rights laws." Does anyone else find that funny? They're not trying to prohibit the games, but want them to adhere to a set of rules that are only applicable in real life. To me, that sounds exactly like prohibiting, especially when you find out that they want game developers to take out things that make certain games enjoyable. To quote the groups: "civilians or protected objects such as churches or mosques can be attacked with impunity, in scenes portraying interrogations it is possible to torture, degrade or treat the prisoner inhumanely without being sanctioned for it and extrajudicial executions are simulated".

To me, this is all some of the most ridiculous hogwash I've read in a long time. Video games, and the worlds they encompass (however similar to this one), are works of fiction and must remain as such. There is no reason that a work of fiction should be following any set rules of the real life world. If video game developers want to make it possible to blow up a church in a video game, then they have every right to make it possible.



The thing about this article that irks me the most? The fact that they are trying to enforce human rights on video games. Last time I checked, the characters in a video game were nothing more than a complex set of 1s and 0s, not actual humans, and therefor, lie outside the rules of the real world.



But, what about the rest of you? Do you think we've reached a point in the world where works of fiction have to be governed by the laws of real life? If we're going to do it to video games, why not do it to books? What about movies? Share what you think in the comments.

I Think We Need An Update Here

My posting on this blog has been missing, as of late. I'll try to be better at it, I swear.

Today's post is just going to be a few of my first impressions of games I've played recently.

First off is Phantasy Star 0 (zero). Phantasy Star 0, which is for the Nintendo DS, is very similar to some of the other games in the series, but isn't exactly like any of them. The gameplay is like a mesh of Phantasy Star Portable, Phantasy Star Universe and Phantasy Star Online, all of which were great games. I personally think the game is closer in similarities to Phantasy Star Online rather than the others. First off, the race and class selection is taken almost straight from Phantasy Star Online (PSO). Unlike Phantasy Star Portable (PSP) and Phantasy Star Universe (PSU) you're limited to 3 races and 3 classes; Humans, Newmans, and Casts for races, and Hunters, Rangers, and Forces for classes. Just as in PSO, each race is limited in what class it can be, such as Casts not being able to be Forces. Character customization is severely limited when compared with PSP and PSU, both of which let you change outfits, hair, parts (for Casts) and accesories. With Phantasy Star 0 (PSZ), you're limited right from the start. Just as with PSO, you can only change a few things about your appearance, such as your color (for Casts), your hair style and the one set of clothes you wear. (Rememeber, this is a first impression of the game. I haven't finished it yet, so the ability to change clothing and such might still come later.)

I am excited, however, at the reappearance of the Mag. (In PSO, a Mag was a small robot that followed you around and boosted stats and such. Feeding your Mag would make it "evolve" and boost you even more. PSU and PSP had Mags, but they didn't do as much as in PSO.) I'm not sure if the Mags are going to be as awesome as they were in PSO, but I can sure as heck hope they will be.

Graphics-wise, the game is nowhere near the quality of PSP (which, ironically, was on the PSP, which has always been the superior to the Nintendo DS as far as graphics capabilities.) But, the game is still decent to look at.

My only problem so far with playing is the lack of an ability to control the camera. With all the others (PSP, PSU, PSO) there was a button to swing the camera around behind you. So far with PSZ, I have been unable to find that button. Maybe I should read through the little guide that came with it, it might tell me how to do that. But, if there is no button for camera swings, I'm going to be extremely disappointed.

All in all, I'm liking the game so far. (But, I might be biased. I have liked all of the Phantasy Star games so far.) Although, I have now taken a break from PSZ so I can go back and complete PSP. I guess that's normal though. I didn't want to get too far into a new Phantasy Star game before I finished all I could on a previous one.

My first impression score (which I'm no longer calculating on a 1 to 5 basis, but on a level of how much I want to keep playing it): Interested & Wanting More.

Basically, there's too much left to play in the game for me to say "Yea" or "Nay" to it. I'm pretty sure that I'll like it, simply because it's a Phantasy Star game, but I'll try to keep my mind open and give an unbiased opinion when I finish it.

Next on my list of new game first impressions is Little Big Planet for the PSP. Little Big Planet made it's first appearance on the PS3 and was met with huge success. It was a very smart, logical step for Sony to take by porting the game to the PSP.

Little Big Planet for the PSP (LBPP) plays very much like its predecessor. The graphics are, of course, nowhere near the caliber of the PS3, but they are still quite amazing. In my opinion, it looks just fine on the small screen. The controls are almost exactly the same, minus the ability to tilt the controller to make your Sackboy move, which wasn't really a neccesity.

Gameplay-wise, you're not going to notice anything really different about LBPP from LBP. You still sidescroll across the screen and grab things. Grabbing things can help you move and can also activate certain things in the game. It's a very simple game to play that is still extremely fun.

Character Customization in LBPP is just as amazing as LBP. You can change pretty much anything on your Sackboy, and you can also save the outfits you create so you can jump between them. There are moustaches, hats, hair, clothes, accesories that you can choose from, as well as different "skin" colors to choose from.

All in all, LBPP is a great port from a great game. I definitely will be playing more of it.

First impression score: Entertained & Wanting More (You may notice that my new way of ranking something based on a first impression is not really set by anything. It's probably going to be different for each game.)

Unlike Phantasy Star 0, I know enough about this game to be able to say "Yea" to it. I know I loved the PS3 version and with how similar the PSP version is, it's safe to say I'll love it.