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Saturday, October 15th, 2005
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Event
7:35a
Gamers don't need an insulting and cynical Jack Thompson publicity stunt to show off their charitable nature.
There are a number of organizations, both large and small, that depend in whole or part on contribution from gamers to make a difference in the lives of children. Here's a press release received by GamePolitics detailing one such organization:
OLDSMAR, FL - October 14, 2005 - Kids Wish Network, a nationally recognized charity dedicated to infusing hope, creating happy memories, and improving the quality of life for children suffering with life-threatening illnesses, needs video game donations for their in-hospital support programs for kids with chronic illnesses. The charity is currently experiencing a critical shortage of much needed items for their hospital gift-giving programs and is hoping that you can assist them in continuing their mission of bringing joy to children in need.
At this time, Kids Wish Network is seeking games and entertainment items for children ages 3-18, but particularly for those in their teens, more specifically ages 13-18. Unfortunately the needs of older children are often overlooked, and the hospital can be just as frightening and stressful at 18 as it can be at eight! Items for this age group are difficult to secure, and Kids Wish Network's Distribution Center is running seriously low on their teen-oriented inventory. Your generous contribution is desperately needed to help fill our giving event teen gift bags!
In addition to granting the wishes of children suffering with life-threatening illnesses, Kids Wish Network brings gifts, entertainment, special guests, and a much-needed break from medical treatment to hospitalized children all across the country through its Holiday of Hope gift-giving program. During these events, Kids Wish Network staff and volunteers also distribute age appropriate gift bags full of toys and other treasures to the young patients and their often-forgotten siblings.
A new toy or game can quickly dry the eyes of a frightened child and distract them from stinging needles, scary machines and the loneliness of being in a strange place. Pediatric doctors and nurses all agree that sometimes a smile can be the very best medicine.
"Most of our patients are medically indigent, with very limited resources," said Martha Benzor, Volunteer Coordinator at LAC+USC Women's & Children's Hospital in Los Angeles of the Kids Wish Network Holiday of Hope held at their hospital. "The wonderful toys they received helped enlighten their lives!"
The entertainment items and toys that we receive are never sold or distributed to other organizations. There is no middleman; they are given directly to the children.
HOW TO DONATE:
Your donation is tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law, and WE PAY THE FREIGHT in the continental U.S. If you would like more information on Kids Wish Network, please visit our website at www.kidswishnetwork.org, or call toll free at (888) 918-9004.
CONTACT:
If your company is able to assist Kids Wish Network with any of these items, please contact Barbara Askin at 813-814-0788 or by email at Barbara@kidswishnetwork.org.8:04a
Those cheeky GTA modders are at it again.
The fan-based mod community which unleashed Hot Coffee upon the world continues to tweak their favorite video game series. Their latest effort lampoons a rather well-known figure in gaming circles. Defamation of Character: A Jack Thompson Murder Simulator places a likeness of the controversial anti-game crusader into typical Grand Theft Auto action sequences.
As described by the mod team, which calls itself "The Fighting Hellfish," the mod "allows players to adopt the role of prominent anti-videogame attorney Jack Thompson as he lives through an insane weekend which changes his life... It turns out that all the time Jack spent studying violent video games has turned him into a Manchurian Candidate. Receiving calls at random that begin with the classic line, 'Why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?' Jack immediately falls under a hypnotic spell, transforming into his criminal vigilante alterego Banman to commit violent acts in the name of Thompson's morality. While Thompson enjoys legal immunity as an attorney, Banman has both regenerating armor and bullet time to help him make his way."
The modders have obviously been paying close attention to gaming's current political and cultural landscape. In the DOC mod, for example, the Banman character undertakes a mission to destroy 18-wheelers before they can deliver Rockstar's Bully to retail stores. Meanwhile, the Jack character gathers news for a press conference by traveling to GTA locale San Fierro in order to catch ESA boss Doug Lowenstein and a hacker exchanging a disk full of naughty Sims character images.
According to an e-mail received from Hellfish, players can choose the Jack character's comments at the subsequent press conference, with 85% of his dialogue coming from real-life Thompson quotes. Before the mod ends, the Jack character will have the chance to take on both Lowenstein and former attorney general Janet Reno, both longtime targets of the real attorney's ire.
The Fighting Hellfish added, "We decided early on in doing this mod that we wanted it to be fun on its own, even if the player doesn't know who Thompson is, much less Reno or Lowenstein. That said, we also wanted to use it as political satire, and firmly convinced that Jack is already his own best parody, we simply went about adopting bits from these diatribes... "
"As Jack Thompson recently outlined his proposal for a violent video game, we have decided... to develop a version of Thompson's game for San Andreas, sticking as closely to his proposal as possible save one major change: instead of playing as O.K., players will resume the role of Jack Thompson..."
The mod is native to the PC version of GTA: San Andreas. However, Hellfish tells GP, "With a bit of technical know-how, it's possible to ftp DoC to a xbox and play that way." Videos and screen shots of action sequences from the mod can be found here.
Reached for comment, Jack Thompson e-mailed GP, "I'm not interested and won't be commenting on the mod. The satirical piece entitled 'A Modest Video Game Proposal' was intended to highlight the patent hypocrisy and recklessness exhibited by the video game industry's willingness to target cops, women, homosexuals, and other groups with some of their violent games. To be fair, though, you can't expect a bunch of gamers to understand the satire if they think that Jonathon Swift, the author of 'A Modest Proposal,' is the name of a new Nike running shoe...
...I will say this though, the 'video game community' (what's next, 'the necromancy community'?) surely seems exercised about someone who is a 'joke' and who is accomplishing nothing. You all seem rather bothered and worried about a nonentity. God is in this battle, and I am privileged to be a foot soldier. You all should be concerned, not about me, but about Him."9:32a
Is the world's most popular online role-playing game spying on its customers?
A troubling article on Rootkit indicates that World of Warcraft publisher Blizzard has a monitoring program in place that is capable of gathering all manner of non-WoW related data from its subscribers. While the author speculates that the software, warden client, which runs every 15 seconds, is designed to weed out WoW cheaters, it falls squarely into the category of spyware:
"I watched the warden sniff down the email addresses of people I was communicating with on MSN, the URL of several websites that I had open at the time, and the names of all my running programs, including those that were minimized or in the toolbar. These strings can easily contain social security numbers or credit card numbers, for example, if I have Microsoft Excel or Quickbooks open w/ my personal finances at the time... Next, warden opens every process running on your computer... I watched warden open my email program, and even my PGP key manager."
As one of more than four million WoW subscribers, GP ain't happy about this one. Thanks to Kotaku, where we came across this disturbing item.
UPDATE: A GP reader has clued us in that Blizzard has addressed this issue in their forums.
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