sorry for the long title!

From: bitparade.co.uk

[quote]http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/byronclarity/

Videogame violence has been a major issue in British and indeed international politics recently, with a great deal of talk surrounding increased censorship for the artform.

However, all this talk has been unfortunately confined to Parliament and the tabloid newspapers.

As the PM, who ordered the Byron review, and other politicians have so far chosen not to talk directly to the games media, the debate has become one-sided and marred by misinformation, political agenda and emotional blackmail.

To that extent, this petition requests that politicians invloved with the debate on videogame censorship and the Byron review actively seek out dialogues with the games media on the subject, to help paint a better picture of what is happening to the millions of people who make up the British gaming community, to help clear up any factual inaccuracies or just missing information in arguments made, and to make the MPs more accountable for their comments and actions in Parliament.


Earlier this week, Keith Vaz complained about being "pilloried" by the games media, when in actuality, he's merely being called out by people who know more than him for talking nonsense.

Vaz' confusion on the matter could have been easily solved if only he, and his friends in parliament, would simply talk to the people calling him out, and would also serve to challenge those using the videogame violence issue to further their own political careers with the questions they're not being asked by the mainstream media.

As well as that, this will also bring the issue to a wider audience, and given that all signs are pointing to the government forcing greater censorship laws upon games regardless of the outcome of the Byron Review, the more support we can gather to support freedom of expression, the more likely it is that such an action will be politically contentious, and therefore less likely to occur.

200 signatures guarantee us a response from parliament- and given that the Manhunt 2 petition saw 3000 signatures- fifteen times the required amount- that shouldn't be too hard to do.

Sign the petition, pass it into your friends, and make a difference.[/quote]

Picked up Patapon on PSP today after taking a walk into town, and boy was I was starving by the time I was half way there, unfortunately had no cash to get food (had one of those GAME gift cards lying around from Christmas), but hell, getting home, after some cereal and playing the first handful missions of this made it well worth it.

The best thing I can think of describing it as is a 2D Rythym Action Real-Time Strategy game, and as mad as that sounds, it fits the game perfectly.

If you liked Locoroco, then you'll probably like this too!

You start the game by waking up a Patapon, and are given your first rythm, Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon ([], [], [], O on the PSP's face buttons) to move him forward and you eventually pick up 3 more recruits, so you have 1 carrying the flag of the Patapon and 3 with spears.

The strategy element comes into play when you eventually find more variants, such as axe-wielding Patapons or ones carryng bows etc and you find various stat improving items like more advanced weapons and armour.

The second level introduces your first attack rythym, Pon-Pon-Pata-Pon (O-O-[]-O) which enables you to fight back, slowly, against anything that may attack you as you progress along the 2D plane.

Only done the first 3 missions so far, but it comes across as highly enjoyable and I can see me enjoying this much more than I did Locoroco, which felt rather limited in my personal opinion.

Anyone else picked this up yet? Is it out in the US yet?

My Dad and Step Mum visited today, with us living in different parts of the country, they try and visit 3 or 4 times a year, although this years its been more often, probably something to do with my Dad turning 60 next year and worrying he doesn't see me often enough or something.

Anyhow, I got talking to my Step Mum about videogames, and her opinion on them has changed drastically from when I first brought my PlayStation home from my Mums house where I spent the weekends to put in my room (I had a Super NES prior to that that was hooked up in the lounge, but weren't often aloud to play on it, and she was a believer in no TV's in bedrooms, although my Dad talked her round from that somehow). Around this time I was in year 10 at school, so was starting my studies for my GCSE's (this would be 14 years of age then) and she was probably concerned I'd neglect my studies for my games, admittedly, I didn't study half as much as maybe I should have, but I also got the grades at school I felt were probably what I was capable of (nothing stellar, pretty average in fact).

It always caused a bit of friction between the pair of us. You see, I respected that after my Mum and Dad had been seperated for a good few years (around 6 or 7 I think it was before my Dad met my step mum) that my Dad had found someone who made him happy, and some personal things aside, I was happy for him. But she always came across as very pushy when it came to studies, where as both of my parents always tried to give me the feeling that they believed I'd always manage my best and know what the best course of action was for myself. I suppose she was like that because I was the eldest of the four kids that now occupied the house she and my Dad shared (I have two older siblings, and one younger, my elder siblings had long left home though, whilst her daughter was the same age as my little sister and her sone was the youngest in the house).

Anyhow, she pretty much saw my hobby as a big waste of time and money, despite the fact she had an old spectrum tucked away in a cupboard that eventually got chucked out after I discovered it would no longer work.

In hindsight, I can see her point, I was at an important time in my academic life and could of wasted it, but I never felt that I wasn't doing enough work in that sense. Besides, despite her experiments (probably) with the old Speccy (which I think may have been her ex-husbands or even her brothers) she didn't really understand, or know, for that matter how compelling some of the games I was playing were. They allowed me to explore worlds in visual details that could have been in some book I picked up in the library, bringing to life worlds that before I could only imagine. They allowed me to act out action scenes from my favourite action movies, or replay that weeks football matches during the World Cup or whatever other tournament was happening at the time, and besides, it wasn't as if it was all I did, I'd visit friends, play football in the local park, read, listen to music, all the things any healthy teenager does, well, aside from the vandalism side of things.

Anyhow, enough of the history lesson, and back to their visit today. I got talking to her about games, and started talking, rather in depth probably, about some of the worlds I'd visited most recently. The fascination with Rapture's demise, the awestruck feeling as I made my way through the abandoned streets and fields of Pripyat, Ukraine in Call of Duty 4 then holding down a position next to the famous fairground in that area. A real life location that I am absolutely fascinated with. It brought me back to something I told her about previously, something called Urbex, or Urban Exploring, and how videogames are providing so many amazing locations that are so strikingly similar to pictures I've seen taken by people who partake in the aforementioned past-time. It also brought back the old memories of me trying to explain to her my fascination with games, and how, with today's technology, those worlds are so much better realised, more solid and believable and in a way, probably stronger aestetichally than any location I could of imagined reading a book.

I think today, whilst talking to her about this, she finally understood my hobby.

With gaming now become much more mainstream, its suprising that as dedicated gamers, we're still seen as geeks, nerds or generally uncool. Why is this? Personally I have no idea, but I do know one thing. We're never going to be taken seriously if we shy away from our culture whilst out in public. Every other "way of life" so to speak, shoves itselfs in our faces whilst we're out and about, let alone on the internet. Hip hop culture is huge, the current "Emo" phase today's teenagers appear to be going through (or has that moved on yet?) is up and in our faces when out shopping. So why don't we, as gamers, stand proud and decalre that we wont be ignored, laughed out, or generally treated as people that "need to grow up".

I';ve rambled enough, and I've kind of forgotten my point here for one reason or another. But, I think, its about time we stopped disguising ourselves as "normal members of society", worried that we may be labled as some psychopath thats ready to go on a gun rampage. How do I intend on doing this on a personal level? I have no idea, but surely, wearing say, a gaming T-Shirt wouldn't harm matters. After all, its culturally acceptible to wear a band t-shirt, why not show off your favourite game by doing the same? So I say to you, members of Destructoid, get out there and declare your passion for videogames in whatever way you can (within your countries/states laws obviously) and declare "I'm a gamer, respect me".


Be warned though, you may get thrown into the looney bin if you actually stand on something high and shout that, although don't let me stop you if you really want to!

No, not the US State, I mean the country in Eastern Europe which shares its borders with Turkey, Armenia and Russia.

Anyhow, those cretins, the Combine from Half Life 2 seem to have invaded the country



In all seriousness though, this isn't actually true (no shit sherlock!). Basically, the President of Georgia has declared a State of Emergency, and this is how the armed forces and Police are dressed. The above is a photoshop.

I'm not gonna go into the politics of all of this, because I really don't pay attention to that kind of stuff really. But its uncanny how much their uniforms resemble those of the combine soldiers, albeit these guys are wearing white masks.

Anyhow, if your interested in this subject, heres the BBC report.

Heres my second "Skate" video, this time just featuring myself.

Music is "Tangerine" by Brit-Rock group Feeder taken from their "Polythene" album.



For some reason I'm most proud of the bail where I smack my head on the handrail!