After a Disaster, People Keep Doing What They've Always Done, Just More So

In the words of a great man; "After a disaster, people keep doing what they've always done, sometimes just more so."

This man, as a matter of fact.

Last week a troubled man ended the lives of over two dozen children and teachers at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. There isn't really anything else to say about it, it happened. The shooter, Adam Lanza, killed himself during the siege, so he can't be put to trial or made accountable, he has family, but they are already in enough pain having to deal with the fallout from this awful tragedy. On the surface, it looks like this was just an awful tragedy, it wasn't orchestrated or planned, and by the time it had begun to happen it was too late for anyone to stop it. That won't stop people from trying to make someone accountable though.

The standard gun control regulation people come out of the woodwork after events like these. They love to claim that if Adam Lanza did not have access to a gun, this tragedy wouldn't have happened, even though the worst school massacre in US history was a bombing, not a shooting, and considering his mental state, Adam Lanza himself probably wouldn't have been able to get his own gun anyway. Another group that comes to the surface is the "blame the violent media" group. Before the police had even come out with all the details, Fox News was already set to try and place the blame on video games, Facebook, and any other hot-button issue that can get them viewers. An online "Mob" even took to Facebook to track down the shooter and try to find a motive. They ended up finding the Facebook of someone named Ryan Lanza, which was the original mis-reported name of the shooter, and attacked him for having liked Mass Effect.

This brings me back to my original point. "After a disaster, people keep doing what they've always done, sometimes just more so." People who grieve, grieve harder, politicians talk about the tragedy from a political standpoint, and people who love to point fingers and find someone to blame, will continue to do so, regardless of rhyme or reason. When an event like this occurs, there is no one factor that can be blamed for everything, it takes lots of little pieces to send someone over the edge like that.

This isn't about a political message, and it isn't about censorship, and it isn't about right and wrong. It's about learning from the past, healing, and moving on. After a disaster, people keep doing what they've always done, sometimes just more so, for better or for worse.

No blog post next week, being Christmas and all. I hope everyone has a happy holidays, stay safe out there.

Media Censorship is Dumb, News at 11

It's time for another round of Lance getting irrationally mad over stupid things! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay.

Game censorship has been a hot button issue for many years, since the 1992 release of Mortal Kombat in arcades, and later to many major consoles. Mortal Kombat was the first game to depict blood, gore, and death in a realistic and incredibly violent way. Prior to this, game violence was more or less on the level of cartoons, but Mortal Kombat used a system of animated sprites based on images of real actors to achieve a realistic (if limited) graphical appearance. Controversies about whether or not the content was appropriate for children spread like wildfire, and the resulting publicity led to the creation of the ESRB, and equivalent institutions around the world. The game's popularity also led to the appeal and success of games like Doom and Grand Theft Auto a few years later.

Different regions of the world have different laws regarding video game censorship, and censorship in general. The PAL regions especially have been known for some very stupid laws regarding gaming. Australia has been banning games for years

Nintendo of Europe has implemented a policy where, on the Wii U shop, users can only view M rated content, or purchase M rated games between 11pm and 3am. YUP. Apparently, the reason for this restriction is due to Nintendo of Europe being based in Germany, and therefore subject to Germany's censorship laws, and "Under German law, content rated 18+ must be made available only at night."

What kind of ridiculous censorship law is that!? Even the exact wording is hilariously unspecific:

(3) Der Anbieter kann seiner Pflicht aus Absatz 1 dadurch entsprechen, dass er

1. durch technische oder sonstige Mittel die Wahrnehmung des Angebots durch Kinder oder Jugendliche der betroffenen Altersstufe unmöglich macht oder wesentlich erschwert oder.

2. die Zeit, in der die Angebote verbreitet oder zugänglich gemacht werden, so wählt, dass Kinder oder Jugendliche der betroffenen Altersstufe üblicherweise die Angebote nicht wahrnehmen. 

Which literally translates to: "Making it impossible or at least severely hindering minors from accessing the content in question through technical or other means" or "Making the content available at certain times in such a way that children and minors typically don't have access to it." I've seen more specific and ironclad wording in the freaking iTunes EULA. What is the point of having such stringent censorship laws regarding content from nearly every form of media, and then base it on the fact that minors never stay up late? If you want to look at it from that point of view, this law will actually make more children into delinquents, since it will convince them to stay up late, which will in turn cause them to oversleep or be tired in the morning, which could lead to them not paying attention, or outright missing school, which could lead to DELINQUENCY. This is still the 1950's right? Leave it to Beaver is still the model by which we all live?

All this system will do is cost companies money, it does nothing to actually solve any sort of perceived "morality issue". Think about it, if a person is buying, say, ZombiU through the Wii U eShop using a credit card, they have to be one of two things:

(1) A person who has a credit card and is therefore over 18, or has the permission of someone to use their credit card.

Or 

(2) Kids buying this content using a credit card they do not have permission to use.

If your kids are stealing money from you in order to play games that you don't approve of, you have bigger problems than that content only being available at night.

Why Everyone Needs to Stop Freaking Out About the Wii U

Since its launch, I have been seeing a constant barrage of articles bashing the Wii U for numerous reasons. Not enough launch games, not enough upcoming games, terrible online system, sub-par hardware, and more. Console wars are nothing new, and we have been seeing fierce brand loyalty since the Nintendo vs. Sega days (Sega does what Nintendon't!), but seriously, things are getting out of hand. The Wii U hasn't even been out for a full month, and people from all sides are already calling doom, even though the Wii U had a bigger launch than the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Fear not friends! I am here to tell you why you don't have to worry about the Wii U.

The System's hardware is irrelevant.

People all over the internet have been trying to figure out how powerful the Wii U is, but it's a tough nut to crack. Some say it's less than half as powerful as the Xbox 360, while others are praising it for being more powerful than expected. So which is it? Well, comparing two different system's "power level" is not that easy. Are you looking at pure graphical output? How about processing power, or ability to multi-task? More importantly, however, is the fact that it just does not matter.

The Wii was far and away the "weakest" console last generation in nearly every area of hardware, but that didn't stop it from outselling the competition by a wide margin:

So why are some people obsessed with how powerful it is? Nintendo seems to have this whole "cheap, fun, family friendly" console thing down, and this time they're taking it to the next level and including things for the "hardcore" audience. Games like Tekken, Darksiders 2, Bayonetta 2, and more will be available. Even better, the Pro controller was clearly designed with other consoles in mind, so gameplay isn't a problem for people who hate motion controls.

I'm a monster!

It seems that a lot of people are out to try and make the Wii U fail. Some because they don't like Nintendo, some because of their brand loyalty for Microsoft or Sony, but most because they see Nintendo as a baby company now, and they don't want to be a part of it. With the original Wii's basic motion controls and simple games, many "hardcore" gamers wanted to distance themselves (even though Nintendo's biggest franchises dominate the list of best selling video game series). Clearly they have an image to maintain, and when your self-image becomes more important than your enjoyment of a hobby, something has gone terribly wrong. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go watch TV and play Mario at the same time.