Daily News Spin — April 20, 2001 (Friday)

Buenas dias from Tropico!

Tom has played and scribbled and scribbled and played Tropico until he's had to fight down the urge to haunt Salvation Army stores for military fatigues. Check out his Early Hours look at this game from Phil Steinmeyer and PopTop.

No kidding

ZDNet UK has done some sterling investigative reporting and discovered that games tend to drive the development of fast chips.

Industry observers say there is a definite link between the PC chipmakers' focus on megahertz and games' thirst for power. "To a degree, [games] have been responsible for driving chip technology," said analyst Nick Gibson of Durlacher. "Look at 3D chip manufacturers: it is almost entirely games-driven innovation in that market."

This just in! Bush elected President!

Another flawed study linking games and violence?

The Oklahoman has an article about a new study that links violent games with violent behavior.

Teen-agers who play violent video games such as "Doom" and "Soldier of Fortune" are more likely to fight and argue with teachers, an Oklahoma researcher claims.

Paul Lynch, a third-year medical student at the University of Oklahoma, will present his findings to the Society for Research in Child Development in Minneapolis on Friday.

"We wanted to know if there was a correlation between exposure to violent video games and students' aggressive thoughts, attitudes and behaviors," Lynch said. "It turns out there is. Violent video game players are more likely to argue and get into physical fights."

That's all well and good, but according to the article he didn't really show a cause and effect relationship. Instead, he looked at this kind of data:

His research is based on interviews with more than 600 eighth- and ninth-grade students from four schools in Minneapolis.

His study used personality profile questions to measure hostility in students. He compared that with the amount of time students spent playing violent video games.

Lynch found that 63 percent of the violent video game players with hostile personalities in his study got into physical fights.

In other words, kids more prone to violent behavior are also more likely to play violent games. What exactly does this prove? Nothing, really, other than that further research is needed.

Sega's plans in detail

Yahoo has reprinted a Gamespot interview with Charles Bellfield, vice president of corporate and marketing communications, at Sega of America. Here's a bit of it:

GS: The Dreamcast release list has become thin lately, but the announcement of 65 games for the upcoming fiscal year certainly reinforces the comments you've made regarding Sega's intentions to support the console going forward, doesn't it?

CB: Absolutely. We will continue supporting the Dreamcast as long as publishing on the platform is a viable business for us. That doesn't mean that both selling the hardware and publishing is possible. It is just whether publishing alone on the platform is possible. So, now without having the hardware burden around our shoulders, I think the length of time we're willing to publish on the Dreamcast is actually longer than it would have been normally. Secondly, some of this content is already in development. Finally, particularly with our multiplatform support, the ability to develop a Dreamcast version of a specific game, while developing the same game for multiple platforms, is especially cost-effective.

Thanks Murph.

Counter-Strike beginner's guide

Firing Squad has a beginner's guide to Counter-Strike, someone's game of the year for some year, no doubt.

Feed on Black & White's AI

Feed has interviewed Black & White's AI programmer Richard Evans.

FEED: Can you talk a bit about the group interaction among the villagers?

EVANS: The town itself is a group mind, working out what needs to be done, and delegating jobs appropriately. Every time they react to something -- a friendly creature, a miracle, a house on fire -- they are controlled by a Reaction which is another type of group mind. When they dance, they are controlled by a different sort of group mind. It is these various group minds -- coexisting, shifting priority over time -- that give the villagers their varied behavior.

Group mind? That sounds like some kind of Village of Damned stuff. We spotted this at Stomped.

Grow up you stupid games!

Slate tackles immature videogames, zeroing in on Conkers Bad Fur Day.

Still, it seems the designers just took a Mario-style kid's game and added a bunch of swear words. Most of the mature moments come during preprogrammed scenes triggered when you meet a new character. The effect is jarring: Jovial cartoons suddenly face the screen and call you a "shithead." Other marks of maturity: A flower lets you bounce off her massive breasts so you can reach a high-up ledge; a drunk scarecrow farts loudly; and a cow drinks prune juice and gets the runs. The designers also favor misogyny and violence: Female characters are leered at, ridiculed, or graphically murdered. Of course, this is the industry standard and not solely Conker's fault.

Good points, but there are plenty of mature games that don't sink to these levels, like Half-Life, Civilization, and so on. Thanks Andrew and Bernie.

3am

It's always almost 3am in the weird time-space that Quarter to Three occupies. Sometimes it's time for other things. Time to save that game. Time to turn off the computer and let the CPU cool down. And maybe it's time for sleep. Here's something to help.

The Sciences Sing a Lullabye

Physics says: Go to sleep. Of course
you're tired. Every atom in you
has been dancing the shimmy in silver shoes
nonstop from mitosis to now.
Quit tapping your feet. They'll dance
inside themselves without you. Go to sleep.

Geology says: it will be all right. Slow inch
by inch America is giving itself
to the ocean. Go to sleep. Let darkness
lap at your sides. Give darkness an inch.
You aren't alone. All the continents used to be
one body. You aren't alone. Go to sleep.

Astronomy says: the sun will rise tomorrow.
Zoology says: on rainbow-fish and little gazelle.
Psychology says: but first it has to be night, so
Biology says: the body-clocks are stopped all over town and
History says: here are the blankets, layer on layer, down and down.

- Albert Goldbarth, from Heaven and Earth, 1991, Georgia University Press.

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