A Cleveland man is doing some serious time in jail for pirating PC games and selling them on eBay and Amazon between 2005 and 2009.
“According to federal agents, Qiang “Michael” Bi of Powell, Ohio, purchased legitimate retail copies of various computer games, duplicated the games illegally, and then sold them for $9.95 on eBay and Amazon.”
He was initially given a 90 day suspended sentence but when the judge discovered that one of the games Bi was selling was Rogue Warrior, the judge changed the sentence to 30 months in prison and ordered him to pay the court $367,669 in cash, as well as ordering him to forfeit his house, a car and computer and electronic equipment. The Judge then lectured Bi:
“I believe at your core you are a good person,” Judge Marbley told Bi. “You made a gross error in judgment … Rogue Warrior? That terrible game with the Mickey Rourke voiceover? Dude!”
Of course, all this probably took place in an alternate dimension:
“Investigators found that Bi had sold the games from 2005 through December 2009 for $10 rather than the $20 retail price for an original new game.
“Investigators estimated that the value of the games Bi counterfeited and sold would have been $700,000 at retail.”
And that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to the eleventy billion dollars a year that game publishers have scientifically proven they lose due to piracy.
There’s a new book out about gaming, Fun Inc., by Tom Chatfield. It seems to be getting some traction in the press. From The Guardian across the pond:
“Chatfield’s open-minded approach allows games to be a window to human experience. Did you know, for example, that the amount of time a jump lasts in a game is remarkably consistent across a whole range of titles? A game jump is “around double the duration of the time that an ordinary human can lift themselves off the ground for”. Or that, in online games which could theoretically award millions of (imaginary) gold pieces and mystic swords to every player, “the most successful… emerged as those that imposed brutal regimes of scarcity on their players”? What does it say about us that, given a potential electronic heaven where all our wishes could be granted, we have opted to create starkly unequal worlds, where there’ll never be enough mystic swords for everyone?”
Chatfield is also mentioned in a Financial Times article about gold farmers. It all is a bit more high-minded than I care for, but all you games-as-art people might enjoy it. I will continue to work on my real life jumping so I can jump as high as my WoW character. Of course, Ashton Kutcher will still be able to outjump me….stay tuned for that later today.
Need a new video card? Good at coming up with quests for your D&D campaign? Then you’re in luck! Stardock is giving out a fancy new ATI card to the winner of their “design a quest” contest for Elemental. The winning quest even goes into the game.
What’s notable about this contest is that all the submissions are public. Well, mostly. A horrible pop-up window tends to scroll the tops of the quests off the page, so I can’t read about the mysterious stranger offering a given quest.
Some of these are about as dull as you’d expect, but you can spot the aspiring DMs. Take, for instance, bootleg96 and his submission, “You Love Betrayal”, which will test your allegiance to an allied kingdom.
In exchange for POWER, you MUST declare war on your ally and sacrifice a bunch of his people for the dark magic, torture-sacrifice thing… the shaman can only use sacrifices from your ally’s people (‘coz they have a special mojo in them) so you can’t just kill at someone you already dislike. And the ritual is like… CRAZY cruel and WICKED bad so there’s NO WAI you’re ally will ever forgive you.
Is it a good quest? Who cares. That kid has spirit!
This week sees the release of Sony’s superhero-themed MMO, DC Universe. If you’re a comic book nerd, 1) ha ha, and 2) you can expect 100% more licensed superheroes than you got in City of Heroes. As for me, I normally wouldn’t care since I’m too way cool for comic books. Plus it’s an MMO that isn’t called Lord of the Rings Online. However, I have an ongoing assignment to cover it over the next four weeks, so I’ll be playing. Friend me or sidekick me or mentor me or Justice League me or whatever it is you do in this game and we can fight crime together. Excelsior! Snikt! Bamf!
The really intriguing release this week is Capcom’s Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, a Nintendo DS game from the creator of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Ghost Trick is a puzzle game in which you’re a ghost who has to possess objects to solve puzzles, and ultimately solve the mystery of who killed you. I played a bit of it at a press event and I really like its style and how it’s suited to the DS. Remember the DS? That folding thing Nintendo made?
Then there’s Prinny 2: Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood! for the PSP. I have made no embellishment to that title. All those words are actually in the game’s name. Now you may know what a Prinny is from the Disgaea games. You may have even married one in ZHP. I know I did and I don’t regret it. We had some great times, mostly involving meal deliveries. But if you haven’t played one of these Prinny games, I have to warn you that they aren’t to be approached lightly. Even though this sequel to the first game advertises itself as being easier, it’s still not a very friendly platformer. But then again, some people actually got more than three levels into Donkey Kong Country Returns without quitting in disgust, so I might not be the best judge of platformers.
“Hamlet is the first in a planned series of major Shakespearean content updates coming to the world of Mabinogi, Nexon America’s fantasy-themed MMORPG. Players will find all new areas to explore, new missions to undertake and new skills to acquire, along with much more.”
I have no idea who this is aimed at — Shakespeare themed expansions? — but it got my attention. Just as I gladly play a Dune mod for Civ IV and a Star Wars mod for Sins of a Solar Empire, I could be enticed to play a Shakespeare mod for a free-to-play Korean MMO.
Electronic Arts has posted the names of the games whose online functionality will be cut off this year. The page is called “Online Service Updates”, which is one hell of a euphemism. That’s like listing the casualties in a war and calling them “Order of Battle Updates”. As I read up the list of impending demises, it’s mostly sports games, so I couldn’t care less. Besides, don’t they keep cycling in new sports games? I mean, it’s understandable that they’d cut off support for Tiger Woods Football ’08 so that you’d buy Tiger Woods Football ’09. Lame, but understandable. But then I come to something not unlike a punch to the stomach.
I’ve watched my share of Starcraft II replay commentaries. It’s the closest I’ve come to actually enjoying a sporting event. But I find the above commentary, co-narrated by a dude and his four-year-old daughter, really encouraging for a couple of reasons.
First, because it teaches good scouting habits. “I see something!” is the hallmark of an observant player. I was in a game the other day with the sound turned down, and I had one of those War of the Worlds walker things rampaging through my base without me even noticing. Lame, huh? I could have used this girl’s scouting acumen.
Also, she and I have the exact same reaction when Mutalisks show up. I also make that noise you hear at the 7:41 mark.
Finally, what a great lesson on the mid-game, which is where I tend to fall apart: “I have a secret for you. There’s more and more and more and more and more.” Now there’s a mantra for good macro. Four-years-old and she’s already got a better handle on the game than I do.
What’s really encouraging about this video — aside from it being so darn cute — is that this girl is going to grow up with Starcraft II. In 20 years, there might actually be women playing RTSs.
I’m on my second playthrough of Alpha Protocol, opting for the role of jerkwad with a lot of points in his shotgun skill. It seems that no matter what you do in the game, the plot calls for you to take Madison Saint James (pictured, right) into your safehouse in Rome, where I presume she eats your food, reads your magazines, watches your TV, and lolls about on your couch. Since I’m a jerkwad in this playthrough, she doesn’t like me. So when I initiate a conversation, it goes like this.
Madison Saint James: “Asshole.”
Mike Thornton: “Bitch.”
My favorite thing about the conversation is how the characters speak under their breath. I’m going to miss her when — spoiler! — she’s gone.
Good lord, that looks exhausting. I don’t see anything up there I wouldn’t rather do with a gamepad. Well, a mouse if I had my druthers. But barring that, a gamepad. It’s bad enough having to hover your right hand in front of your body. Ruse involves a whole lot of moving the map around, and I don’t want to have work my delts to do it.
Hello! If you’re here from Fidgit, let me show you around. Further down the page, you’ll find links to podcasts and reviews. Qt3 does a weekly podcast on movies, and a podcast on games featuring different guests from our message board. Starting in January, there’s going to be more stuff on this page to make a daily visit worth your while.
Over there to the right, you’ll see three links. The first goes back to Fidgit. The second, uh, takes you right back here. You know, just in case. The third takes you to the forums. That’s the important one! Click on it and register an account with us. We’re a friendly bunch for the most part and we talk about cool stuff beyond the usual games. For instance, here’s an online fantasy-world-meets-zombies game that several folks are playing. We love Pinball FX 2 and you’ll find plenty of names here to add to your friends list so you can get your Wizard Score up. Here’s an epic thread on iPhone games. Also, be sure to jump into this thread and vote on your game of the year.
You’ll also find lots of conversations about movies, TV shows, books, and music. We have an active politics subforum that can be plenty mean-spirited, but it can be plenty smart as well. And you won’t want to miss this thread and especially this thread to just get happy.
Be sure to read the rules post in the games forum so you get a sense for how we roll. And if you have any questions, send me a PM at “tomchick” or an email at [email protected].
