Gaming Blog Network

Some very somber news to report today, serious enough to even eclipse the good fortunes of the ESA, which have recieved a very large sum of money from California as a result of their efforts fighting the state’s attempts at video game legislation. In his letter to the state, the president, Michael Gallagher, made it clear that California “deserves more from its legislators” from this, and expressed disappointment that the state was spending its resources on something that will ultimately prove fruitless.

While I have questioned Gallagher’s leadership in the past, this rebuttal has me thinking that he can wield power after all; maybe he is more the ’speak softly and carry a big stick’ type of leader after all.

The ugly head of video game violence has surfaced yet again, this time in Thailand, where reports are mentioning a 19 year old man murdered a cab driver after playing the popular video game. More information can be found here.

Since this report, Thailand has decided to ban the game from its shelves. This new development has also given new life to Jack Thompson, who will forever be remembered as the resident fly that the video game industry takes great pleasure in swatting.

Gamepolitics is quickly providing more and more information about this event, which can be found here. From what I am reading though, some of the information is not entirely accurate, while other parts of it seem a bit far-fetched.

The ironic part about these reports are that video game violence controversies will never subside. One article that attempts to analyze this quandary was published in Esquire and can be found here.

I sincerely hope that the situation in Thailand will be resolved; of course, it is an unfortunate reminder that in our society, when things go wrong, just blame it on something, rather than someone.