Obruo

A game called “Super Columbine Massacre RPG” was made about the columbine shooting where you are the shooters, you wander around the school and do largely what they did. They were entered in the slamdance competition which is pretty much a small developer/indy comp… they were finalists until they got canned because the corporate sponsors didn’t like that they were in the competition and threatened to pull support and the president caved in. Since originally being reported however, the president of Slamdance says he pulled it on moral grounds. right. There’s a bit more available at rocky mountain news.

Since then, 5 others have quit the contest in disgust over the practice, even if they didn’t agree with what the game stood for and was.

The first contestant to quit was Braid, followed by fl0w, then in quick succession 3 more dropped– Everyday Shooter, Toblo, and Once Upon a Time.

All of them basically have the same thing to say, but I suggest you read each site, they all have slightly different views and insights. Maybe download the games and give them a go, because their creators show integrity and it’s a rare thing to see in the gaming industry these days… or in people in general.

I hope they all get massive amounts of publicity and they each deserve an award for integrity when they could have viewed columbine being disqualified as making the odds of their own game winning better. If they want to exclude something from entering, but do it upfront, it’s dirty and underhanded to do it after the fact when someone you don’t like is a finalist regardless of the reasons.

If I had a game… I wouldn’t enter it in Slamdance– they can’t be trusted to be fair.

EDIT: Sponsors and other contestants (Book and Volume) have pulled themself from the contest also and even some of the judges are up in arms. Baxter (president of sd) commented… it wouldn’t be so bad if they hadn’t actively TRIED to get SC* to compete in the comp.

EDIT2: Even wired is in the act.

EDIT3: The final edit, no one got an award this year the rest of the contestants that still went or were forced to go declined the award. Good for them!

The RIAA is off its rocker.

Check this little gem out.

The summary if you’re to lazy to click the link is that the RIAA (music industry) is suing a music download site in Russia who sells music for a few cents each song.  About $4 per CD give or take.  They’re suing them for… 1.65 TRILLION dollars.  Last I checked the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) for the ENTIRE country was about 750 BILLION dollars.  Now this is where it even gets better… this only includes the songs from June to October 2006.  They’re charging $150,000 per song.  If they had applied those numbers since the inception of AllofMp3.com which according to a quick whois lookup of the site name, is June of 2000… and we’ll say they sold 8m overall each month average, because at the beginning it would have sold slower and now it’s much faster… is roughly 78 months times 8 million downloads or 624 million total downloads… at a cost of $150,000 per song they’d owe the RIAA 93,600,000,000,000 dollars… yes 93 TRILLION, 600 BILLION… because they sold songs cheaper than apple… who sells each song for $0.99.  Just for comparison… the national debt of the united states is currently capped at 9 Trillion.  The gross domestic product of the ENTIRE WORLD combined is about 45 Trillion…

God, someone who does damages and math for this kinda shit needs flat out shot.  This is STUPID, punitive is one thing and understandable as a discouragement… this is mental.  Any judge who gets this case should toss it out for being to stupid to contemplate until they can come back with a reasonable number of some sort.

Anyways, enjoy figured everyone needed some light hearted stupidity for the holiday season!  Oh and AllofMp3.com is presently is giving a 20% holiday increase for any money you transfer in for downloads.  Merry Christmas!

… Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add “within the limits of the law,” because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. - Thomas Jefferson

…I think the point Cross makes in the article is interesting, it’s nothing really to do with HP or Dell or any other manufacturer, it’s Microsoft.  Their software is just crap.  This story is just for you Asz, my Mac loving friend.

… most of you who know me know that as a general rule, I couldn’t give a flying piss in the wind what actors/musicians/etc think and have to say, but I figure this one is worth posting up … since I pretty much completely agree with it 100%.

This video rated: M for Mature due to foul language and political shit you might not agree with.

Here’s the transcript for those who aren’t video buffs, I think it’s worth reading.

“Freedom is under attack, under attack by hysterical and well funded Christian psychotics, intellectually undernourished leaders who lie and manipulate information, overfed baby huey coward bitch motherfuckers like Carl Rove and their suck up weakling apologists like Sean Hannity, to question their authority is to be somehow unpatriotic, unamerican, and in league with terrorists worldwide… FUCK YOU. With even elections results becoming more and more questionable, the constitution a thing to be manipulated, ignored, and frivolously amended even democracy itself seems to be on the run, so where is the one place you can go and tell your version of the truth, rail against liars, fakes, and propagandists with your own unique propaganda, sign your name to it and let the whole world know how you feel? That’s right, the internet. Perhaps responsible for the most substantial shifts in culture in the last several decades there is so much freedom and potential on the world wide web that one is barely able to get ones head around it. Who in their right mind would dare to regulate or charge websites to be on the internet, who would dare to rain on a parade so fantastic that many of us would not know what to do without our high speed connection and our lives on the internet. Actually, some very powerful forces… telco companies want to make you pay for your site to be carried on the internet, if you cant afford to pay, guess what, thats right you’re cyber history pal. The bush administration wants major internet and phone companies to keep track of where their customers surf all in the name of “the war on terror” don’t you know, how much do you want to bet they want the internet regulated, contained, and thrown into a cell at Guantanamo bay. For a country that talks so much about freedom being on the march, seems to me that some people want anything but, if they come for your freedom you must not only resist you must strike back with a vengeance that will stun them, on this front if your anger and outrage are not at the forefront then you’re already dead, dead to me anyway, fuck these cowards, these traitors, these enemies of democracy, thanks for watching the show this season, never relent.” - Henry Rollins