Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

Go to hell with Eminem and a new game

A new Facebook game lets you play your way to hell, thanks to Eminem.  Bad Meets Evil is a fighting game, plus clothes store, and music shop, anchored on a new album.

You work your way through a depressing part of town, which could be Detroit, trying to kill people, grin evilly, and grab money by breaking things.  Your negative karma builds up, letting you advance by levels until Hell itself is accessible.

Naturally there's a mechanism for spending real-world money to boost your infernally-oriented powers.

(thanks to Todd Bryant)

Facebook Russian Roulette

Relax, it doesn't involve any actual death.  Just guns pointed at your Facebook profile.  Really:

"You even get the real bullet as a souvenir."

Booze, guns, suicide, and the crazy underbelly of Russian culture: a nice combination of fears to pack into one social media microsite.

(thanks to Todd "The German" Bryant)

Kinect horror game on the way

The Kinect platform is due a horror game, and Rise of Nightmares might be the first one.

This is a horror-adventure game in which players assume the role of an American tourist who must rescue his wife from a deranged scientist.

 

 Sounds like horror (gore) rather than terror (atmosphere) from this kind of description, and the M rating:

[T]he game's content is gritty, violent and gory. Here's the ESRB's description of the game's shocking content:"Players use brass knuckles, knives, hatchets, and chainsaws to kill zombie-like creatures and disfigured monsters inside a mansion environment. Combat is highlighted by exaggerated sprays of blood, and damage often results in dismemberment or decapitation—stray body parts sometimes litter the ground. 

(via Scobletweet)

Dating doppelganger: naturally it's a Japanese game

Another week, another scary game from Japan: Catherine.  Looks like a dating sim gone wrong, maybe via Audition?

(thanks to Todd Bryant)

Fox wants you to fear a new computer game

A new computer game is coming, and you should be very afraid!    "Parents had better beware", begins the article.

Why?  Well, it's violent, and people swear.  Yes, we might expect a game called "Bulletstorm" to be violent, but that's why we rely on journalistic analysis.  And look, the article begins with a soothing visual:

Ah, worse than that, though, the game will encourage kids to rape.  

Carole Lieberman, a psychiatrist and book author, told FoxNews.com that sexual situations and acts in video games -- highlighted so well in Bulletstorm -- have led to real-world sexual violence. “The increase in rapes can be attributed in large part to the playing out of [sexual] scenes in video games,” she said. 

Interestingly, the game doesn't have any sex scenes.  And rapes are actually decreasing in the US.  But pay that no mind - an expert has spoken.

What's the point of this kind of article, beyond boosting the game's appeal?  Several different types of censorship are discussed at the end.

So, to sum up, we have a gory image, incorrect information about various topics, topped off with calls for censorship.  What kind of headline graces this shambling fear-mess?  Will we be gently led into such a passionate text?

Is Bulletstorm the Worst Video Game in the World?

Ah.  Readers will not be surprised to see that headline's entertaining question addressed in any way.

(thanks to Todd Bryant)

Gaming leads to subway horror, almost

A gamer played his way onto the path of an oncoming train.  The Italian lad was hoisted out of harm's way by helpful bystanders, but not before the story entered the potential sphere of games-are-evil-ness.

On the one hand, this could fail to catch on with American media, since it occurred in the forbidden zone (i.e., the rest of the world). On the other, it could cross the Atlantic via the endangered child aspect, much like the South Korean cases do the Pacific.

(thanks to Todd "Germans live to mock Italians" Bryant)

I Spit on your Grave 2.0

Hey Baby is a game that could fit neatly into the fearsome internet idea. It's a first-person shooter, but with an unusual perspective. You play a woman subjected to catcalls and verbal abuse, who then enacts violent revenge. 

You get to shoot down these urban men, and watch tombstones pop up where they fall, each inscribed with their vile come-ons.

Has this won media attention for its celebration of violence? Or is it being used as an example of the classic steam-valve function of violence media?  Or has the gendering removed it from usual game violence discourse?

(thanks to Todd Bryant)

Games about... games

What computer games are there which are about gaming? Nifty idea, this aggregation.

I'd hazard a guess interactive fiction was the pioneer.

(thanks, Jesse "Lost in a maze of twisty tunnels" Walker)

Everything can be a marketing ploy

It was only a matter of time before fearsome digital media became a marketing tactic.  The new game Dead Space 2 has a supporting Website aimed at family fear, to wit: http://yourmomhatesthis.com/. 

It's an interesting anthology of fearsome media tropes.

ITEM: parents being concerned about children's behavior.  Even though the median age of players is in the 30s, this is positioned as mom->child.

ITEM: the note about mental problems ("I think it would make a person insane").

ITEM: emphasis on social deviance.

Naturally there's video:

 

(thanks to Todd Bryant!)

Yet another stab at gaming addiction

Another week, another attempt to see computer gaming in terms of addiction.  This time it's an Iowa-based study of Singapore kids.  Computer games didn't create new problems, but made pre-existing mental problems worse, says the researcher.  About 9% of the kids are addicted to gaming.

Where to begin... for starters, the article linked above helpfully offers some critique.  For example, as one researcher notes,

"If nine percent of children were genuinely addicted to video games there would be video game addiction clinics in every major city!"

Or, as Kotaku puts it, "child after child is a gaming junkie!"

The study offers another fun example of gaming being demonized, and "addiction" used in place of other behaviors.  According to MSNCB's account:

The questions included things like having neglected household chores to spend more time on video games, doing poorly on a school assignment or test as a result, or playing video games to escape from problems or bad feelings.

No one ever turned on the tv instead of washing dishes, or read a novel to escape depression?  Kotaku, again: "Teachers handed out questionnaires to kids, asking them things like whether they skipped household chores to game or if they gamed to escape from problems — both of which sound like normal kid things!"

Put another way, nobody ever found escape in sports, or music, daydreaming?  To put it even more generously, one critic in the article suggests "the new work may be measuring preoccupation instead of addiction." "Addiction" here is a misstatement at best, and demonization at worst.

Apparently Gentile, the researcher, has been working on this for a while, comparing gaming "addiction" to compulsive gambling.

This tv news account takes the study and runs with it.  "Addiction" is now "pathological".  And the story makes a point of connecting to the Arizona shooting.

This study offers two more fascinating bits about fearsome gaming discourse.  First, the way it's gendered:

On average, the kids said they played about 20 hours a week. Between 9 and 12 percent of boys qualified as addicted in this study, compared to 3 to 5 percent of girls.

How often do we see images of supposedly addicted girl gamers?  Is this now supposed to be a male thing?  Will we see an opposition between "sick" boys and "healthy" girls?

Second, an anti-commercial angle.  CNN's article (source of the awesome photo, above) largely describes Gentile's work without criticism.  The only other voice appears towards the end, briefly, and is that of a gaming industry association spokesperson.  Scholar vs business: perhaps we'll see this dynamic applied to more demon-gaming discourse.

(thanks to Todd Bryant)