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With Halo 3 already out in the US and about an hour away from launch over here, The Guardian’s games blog has made a few observations on the media coverage. It made me laugh, at any rate.

I’m getting really tempted by the 360 now. I’m the sort of person who’s interested in games but doesn’t play them too often, which can get annoying when I’m with better and more knowledgeable gamers and pretending to be really enthusiastic about a game I’ve never played. It doesn’t help I’m not a particularly good gamer either, but then again, games are supposed to be fun, right?

So anyway, I’m tempted. Though this could be a subconscious decision to eliminate that slightly guilty feeling I get when I claim I’m a hardcore gamer when I suspect I’m really just extremely casual.

Most gamers know about Manhunt 2 being rejected by the BBFC and getting rated AO by the ESRB, effectively stopping the game being sold in both the UK and US. Predictably, the reaction’s been pretty strong across the web, with opinions ranging from anger over the censorship to accusations of unfairness towards the game to acceptance and ambivalence. And I’m about to add to it.

The thing is, in pretty much every opinion piece I’ve seen as to why this was bad or good or whatever, nobody seems to be acknowledging something crucial to their argument:

Nobody has played this game.

99.9% of the people who have an opinion on this have not seen anything that can justify it. I currently know of only four groups who have played the game – Rockstar, the BBFC, the ESRB, and NGamer Magazine, who wrote a review of the game before the news broke.

This is crucial for obvious reasons. Censorship is an issue, but is it possible that a game can be so fundamentally “wrong” that it would be irresponsible to release it? Without playing the game, I can’t say, and so this is why I get slightly wary when people say they should have gone with a simple 18 or M, who haven’t played the game either but instinctively know that it cannot be worse than anything they’ve seen before. I do know Rockstar really wanted to push the envelope with Manhunt 2, so it’s entirely possible that this could be a lot worse – but I don’t know, because I haven’t played it.

I’ve hear people compare Manhunt 2 to Saw and Hostel, and then complaining because these were allowed through because of either games prejudice or hypocrisy., but I’m not sure that’s a good comparison to make – because I don’t know what I’m comparing. Nobody can say it’s anything like those without playing the game themselves (NGamer did say it contained Hostel elements, but that’s hardly saying the game is a Hostel clone), and potentially the game could be perhaps even more shocking or unsettling – but I don’t know, because I haven’t played it.

You may be reading this and thinking “Why are you on their side?”, especially since I’ve been critical of games protesters in the past. For a start I’d like to say that I don’t consider myself to be on anyones side, although I will say that I’ve trusted the BBFC in the past. I just want to point out that there seems to be a growing number of people defending something that they really don’t know anything about. Rockstar have been known for pushing the envelope in the past, and at some point we have to accept that they might have created something that may have been completely unacceptable. Of course you can argue that the game still shouldn’t be censored, by any means, but the BBFC may not have exaggerated what they played. Don’t fall in to the trap of assuming this game is like something that’s gone before when it could easily be something a lot worse.

I’ve been interested in this for a while, but I think now it’s “official”, so to speak. The Perplex City ARG/card game is about to start its second season, and I’m following it intently. I’ve known about the game since last year when a friend introduced it to me, but at the time I didn’t think I was smart enough to do the puzzles (still don’t, in fact) and so never really got involved with it. However, after getting hooked on the Frozen Indigo Angel game on Radio 1 a few weeks ago, I’m enthused.

I suspect most people will be totally lost as to what I’m talking about, so a quick explanation: Perplex City is a Alternative Reality Game, where game events blur with the real world. For example, a website might tell you to ring a phone number, which you do and then you have a conversation with someone at the other end who tells you to meet him somewhere where he will reveal a secret…or something like that. The best analogy I came up with when explaining to another friend was a “staged conspiracy” – the scenario is fictional, but the events are real.

The last season revolved around the search for a mysterious cube with a £100,000 reward for its discovery (yes, that was a real prize). This time there hasn’t been any specific prize set, besides an interesting adventure, but there’ll probably be some sort of reward. In the meantime, there are puzzle cards to collect, which are essentially trading cards, but with the added bonus of a puzzle and the chance to get points on the leader board, which is fun. The puzzles range from very easy to mind bogglingly difficult – one of the most difficult cards asked players to prove Reiman’s Theorem. I don’t reckon I’m clever enough for the harder cards (or some of the middling ones), but they’re fun to collect, and a great way to procrastinate from revision and other tasks.

So anyway, that’s what’s been taking up my time. That, and Twitter , which is monumentally pointless but ridiculously addictive. Like Twiglets.

This particular rant is being written after a not entirely pleasant experience with The Culture Show on BBC Two. Perhaps I’m not looking at it in a particularly forgiving way given that I’m currently fuming at the BBC both for pushing Doctor Who back a week and airing reality-clone Any Dream Will Do? and the horror of Eurovision in its place, as well whoever’s responsible for my new Arrested Development DVDs not working, but along with a nimber of other things its made me throughly depressed over what people think “culture” is.

For a start, it had Mark Kermode in it. Mark Kermode is one of those people who manages to be able to infuriate me without even trying. The first experience I had of him was on Newsnight Review’s look at the at the time soon to be released Wii, and had him criticizing it – and by extension games in general – for being too enjoyable. Because of course, its a video game, which apparently are more addictive and damaging than heroin if you believe what the “critics” say. Personally I’m of the opinion that anyone who uses the words “brain” and “fry” in the same sentence while talking about games really shouldn’t be anywhere near a debate on gaming.

The fact that Kermode was on this show at all sort of set the tone for the whole thing. Nearly everything shown was about “good” culture coming from supposedly “bad” culture. The segment on the illustrated guide to the 9/11 commission report was littered with thousands of comments about superheros and talking dogs, as well as a question as to whether it was in poor taste. This is almost exactly like the games example – the reviewers already have a preconceptions to what something is (in this case, comics), and instead of accepting that it may be more than what they believe it to be, they declare it unacceptable. The thing is, this is exactly what allows misconceptions like this to continue, despite the fact that there have been plenty of serious graphic novels and games for a while now.

These are some of the more blatant examples. At other times it’s more subtle – “instead of MySpace and video games, they’re playing chess!”. There’s nothing wrong with playing chess, but is there something wrong with games. People will often say that there is some sort of inherent “badness” about them, but the thing is this “badness” doesn’t exist – its created and spread by misunderstanding and fear.

I’m fed up with “culture wars”, and I’m fed up with the things I enjoy being seen as a lesser form of “culture” because someone further up an imaginary hierarchy says it is. Isn’t culture supposed to be defined by the people?

(title is random, may explain, probably won’t…)

Today’s been interesting. A lot of it was spent looking at this site and feeling nostalgic at all the old tunes…and some newer ones. Some people might consider a day listening to TV themes “wasteful” or “idiotic”, but I think we know that that’s’ just not true, right?

We also got an opportunity to indulge in some serious gaming with the Wii. A good time was had by all who participated, with Excite Truck, Wii Sports and Rayman Raving Rabbids providing the entertainment and hilarity.

It’s good to be home.

Today, Nintendo and Sega announced that Mario and Sonic would be appearing together in a game set at the 2008 Olympic Games. Hell has issued a blizzard warning in response.

I think this represents the true Olympic Spirit, when two rivals game characters can come together to compete. *sniff*

Also, the book jacket for the last Harry Potter book has been unveiled. It looks good.

Sometimes it’s the little things. I’ve just seen this article on the BBC about playground contact games being banned. I’ll leave whether thats a sensible decision up to you, but I have to comment of the first line of the article.

A Lincolnshire school has banned physical playground games because pupils were copying violent computer games, making playtime too rough.

Perhaps I’m reading to much into this, but that statement changes the focus of the story somewhat. To be fair, the articles does quote the head as including television and films in the same category, but for some reason computer games are somehow more threatening that they get included in the secondary headline as being the cause of it all.

In some ways this is the real PR problem games have. It is somehow now a universal “truth” in the media that games are either played by kids or the socially inept with nothing better to do, and it’s not a good image to have.

There are other things as well – little things, but stuff I find annoying. Like the fact that whenever soap characters play video games, they invariably sounds like something off an Atari (peow-peow-peow BOOOOMMMM). The idea a game may have realistic sound effects is apparently too hard to imagine.

I dunno quite why video games are somehow seen as somehow more damaging than a film, or how they can be simultaneously both being shallow unintellectual garbage and insanely addicting Child Catchers. I just get the feeling that the media needs to wake up to the idea that you can have games that don’t fall into “super happy funland” and “murder simulator”, and can actually be as interesting as any good book or film.

…because I can.

This is fun. It took me a long time, but my brand new Nintendo Wii is here and I`m very happy to have it. It`s very good.

Ive already promised to bring it back home at some point. Multiplayer stuff should be brilliant.

I’m not a World of Warcraft player, but it’s difficult to go on a gaming site at the moment and not see anything about the new expansion, Burning Crusade. And along with that, there’s been lots of talk about whether the game, or MMO’s in general, are merely havens for the stereotypical obsessive gamer.

Case in point – Guy gets level 70 within 28 hours of release, playing non stop in a calculated plan. There is the general response ranging from “why would he do this”, to “WoW suks”, and including “loser”, “no life, no girlfriend, no job”, and the standard video game argument “Go outside and GET A LIFE!!!”

It’s always weird that gamers will attack other gamers for playing games and then get offended when someone outside does exactly the same thing. Jack Thompson has almost “Go outside and GET A LIFE!!!” for ages now, and no gamers I know are proclaiming him as a voice of reason in the debate.

Like I said, I don’t play MMOs, but I know people who do on my course and they are nowhere near what the stereotypes would suggest. This isn’t to say that you cannot get obsessed with a game, but it’s not to say that everyone on WoW is some sort of socially inept loner.

As for this guy – well, it was a record attempt. He may well have taken slightly obsessive lengths to do it, but then people have been setting strange records in things for years. (longest fingernails springs to mind). And the the other thing is we don’t know anything about this guy. He may be an obsessive player, but then again after reaching the top level he may not play for months.

Let’s not go crazy. It’s only a game after all.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z29dYUXoloI]

I had to link to this video, because it’s hilarious. It’s a parody of the incredibly misguided attempt Sony made at marketing the PSP (link to mirror here).

‘Fo Shizle!