Colorado Gaming Article

The video game censorship issue is getting more attention, I knew, as the coordinator of the Colorado Game Developers Association, that it was a matter of time before I was quoted in an article. The Denver Post has a long feature today: Colorado Gamemakers Fear the Aftershock of “San Andreas”.

Other local game developers are also quoted in the article: Scott Brown of Net Devil and Doug Donohoe of Donohoe Digital. I’m surprise that Scott is quoted as saying that he is somewhat in favor of some form of government regulation.

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Sims Now Under Attack

Miami attorney Jack Thompson, one of the people behind the uproar over GTA mod “Hot Coffee” is now after The Sims. He claims that the Sims 2 game is porn, based on the fact that you can use a cheat code to remove the blur over nudity. However, the non-blurred areas only reveal action-figure-like smooth areas, not genitals.

But even stranger to me is one of the arguments he is using. He says that nude areas can be revealed, even in child-aged game characters “much to the delight, one can be sure, of pedophiles around the globe who can rehearse, in virtual reality, for their abuse.”

But what is he suggesting we do about that? The game is rated “T” for teen (13 and older) right now. EVen given an “AO” (18 and older), how will that solve the pedophiles problem? Only pedophiles 18 or older or with permission of their parents will be allowed to buy the game? Or is he suggesting that The Sims be banned completely?

That’s exactly what he is suggesting. A ban on The Sims. See what the GTA “Hot Coffee” mess has done? The industry gave a little, and now the other side wants to push even further. This is why someone like me, disgusted by the violence in GTA, will still fight for it’s right to exist unregulated. Censorship is a very slippery slope.

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Liability For Unused Software Content

So Rockstar games has decided to proactively take action to appease lawmakers. They are pulling GTA from the shelves and replacing it with a version that cannot be modded to reveal the extra content. Alternatively, they will be supplying “Adults Only” stickers to retailers that want to continue to carry the current boxes. And in the most ridiculous aspect of the whole incident, they will be providing a downloadable modification that will remove the already-inaccessible content. Like who is going to download that? For what purpose? Do you have a split personality and don’t trust your other half to not install the mod that revelas the content? Do you take such an active role in your child’s video game playing that you will install this mod, but yet still let your child play this game? Give me a break.

What is interesting here is that there is an implied responsibility for software content that was intentionally left inaccessible by the developers. Inaccessible content is left in software all the time. Anyone using Director that does a “Save” instead of a “Save and Compact” is possibly leaving behind content. Other developers will leave behind content or code because it is easier and safer to do so rather than risk removing something used by a part of the product that is still available. And what about things like variable or procedure names? Comments? Object properties? These are all hidden from the software user. But what if a variable name is something that is inappropriate for a child? And what if someone comes up with a mod that reveals this variable in some way. Far-fetched, I know, but possible. Some OSS programmers, for instance, often use crude variable names for humorous effect when viewed by other developers on the same project. Similar things have happened even in large, professional development companies.

The point is that we now have to be responsible for the behind-the-scenes content of our software, in addition to the expected end-user experience. That’s sorta scary.

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Security Concerns = More Macs

Just about every time I’ve hired someone in the past, I’ve always let them choose their hardware and software. If they want a Mac, they get a Mac. If they want a PC, they get a PC. I hated the fact that I was once forced to get a PC (Windows 3.1 at the time) instead of a Mac. It was a decision based on price. But why pay me a premium to work 40 hours a week only to cripple my work output by forcing me to use a system that I felt wasn’t the best for how I work?

But I realized recently that my “get them what they want” policy isn’t valid any more. You see, there is a cost to having a PC that goes beyond the sticker price: virus and malware protection. If I got an employee a PC, I’d need to spend some time keeping up with its security. Since I would hire creative types, not really system engineer types, then this maintenance would be my responsibility. So I would need to expend real effort for every PC user to make sure our network wasn’t compromised.

Now, let’s forget for a second that this is more likely to happen to a PC. We all know it is. But even if PCs and Macs were equally endangered by viruses, it would still mean that I would need to maintain two separate types of systems. More work for me. So it is easier to just standardize on one system: Macs. We’re mostly Macs now, anyway.

So if I hired more people right now, I’d give them iMac G5s. Done. Perhaps if one convinced me that they would be capable and willing to maintain their own security on their own machine, I would let them get a Windows PC. But the default option would be a Mac.

Now, that being said, I do have a PC. It is my test machine for the Windows platform. (OK, and I use it to play games like Half-Life and Doom 3.) But since it is not a development machine, I don’t worry about it so much. If it became infected, I could just wipe the hard drive and start over. I wouldn’t even loose any work time as I’d be busy working on my Mac while re-installing and updating Windows on the PC.

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I’d also have to admit that another option would be to standardize on Windows. Just become an expert at Windows security and implement it across your whole network. If I did that, I’d probably use a service like Aunty Spam’s Real Time Security Alerts to keep up to date with all the issues. Windows security is a field where you have to constantly keep up with the latest info.

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iTunes/iPod Issue

So I bought a new album from iTunes this morning. I’ve bought several before, but still prefer to by physical CDs because of the DRM headaches that come with a download. One of those headaches happened soon after my purchase when I went to put the album onto my iPod. It wouldn’t transfer. I didn’t get a little + symbol when I went to drag it to my iPod icon in the iTunes interface.

After consulting many forums, I tried lots of things: restarting, restarting the iPod, re-installing the last iPod update, re-formatting the iPod (erasing all the music on it), switching to an automatic iTunes/iPod synch and transfering all my music to the iPod again. After an hour of this, I still didn’t have this album on my iPod.

Then I found a little post tucked away in a forum: you need to play a song on the newly purchased album to complete authorization of the purchase! That’s all I needed to do. I just played the first few seconds of the first track. Then I could transfer the album to my iPod. Couldn’t there have been an error message or some such that told me this? Or the album would check authorization automatically when I tried to transfer the music? Apple is usually so good about such things.

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