Gaming News Journal

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State Senator who penned law at center of high court case says he hopes "guidance" will emerge from justices' decision.

Last week, Entertainment Consumers Association general counsel Jennifer Mercurio explained how the case of Schwarzenegger v. EMA will play out in the US Supreme Court on November 2. Being part of a pro-consumer organization, she also explained why she thinks the California law at the center of the case--which criminalizes sales of "ultraviolent" video games to minors--will be declared unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

California state Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco)

This week, GameSpot caught up with the author of the law, California state Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), to ask him what he thought about the looming hearing. He also shared his thoughts on why he believes the Entertainment Software Rating Board is a fundamentally flawed organization and why games require more content oversight than films.

GameSpot: So the US Supreme Court is going to hear the case of Schwarzenegger v. EMA next week, which will determine the constitutionality of the law you wrote. What do you hope their overall ruling is?

Leland Yee: Well I hope the US Supreme Court will sustain the bill, the law that would ban the sale of these ultraviolent video games to children. At the very least, I believe that the Supreme Court is going to provide some direction to legislators who are interested in limiting the sale of violent video games to children. That's because this law has been struck down twice already--there was an injunction on it which we appealed and lost. Then we went to the federal appeals court and we lost again. So I am hoping the Supreme Court will look at this issue and at least provide some guidance as to what might be possible within the framework of the law.

GS: Now I know you're aware of the ESRB, the ratings system the games use. What is your issue with that? Do you think the system just doesn't have enough teeth, that it just doesn't promote enough what ratings mean to parents, that it doesn't give enough information to let parents make decisions on what games to buy for their children? Or is it that children already have access to violent games and it doesn't matter what their parents do or say?

LY: No, I think the problem with the ESRB rating is that the ratings system itself is rather biased. The ESRB is funded by the industry, so it's like the fox guarding the henhouse. Clearly, they're not going to legitimately and appropriately place any markings on any video games, because it's in the interest of the video [game] industry to sell as many video games as possible. You never heard of an AO rating whatsoever, because that would limit your market share.

The other problem is, as you remember, a while back, when they had the Grand Theft Auto "Hot Coffee" [content] stuck in there, and the ratings system, the ratings board never found out about that. So I think you need to look at a different way of rating and [use] a different technology to figure out the content of these ultraviolent video games.

GS: Now the movie industry has a similar ratings system and almost never issues an NC-17 rating to a film. How come video games warrant the extra scrutiny--backed up by a law criminalizing sales to minors--and movies don't? Is there something in the film model that could be adopted to rating games?

LY: It's a different technology. You go to a movie and you just sit there for two hours and see everything. Within video games, content is so embedded that you are unable to look at all the content in one sitting. For parents, it's hard to really know what the content is as opposed to a movie. Parents can sit and watch a movie. Within a game, you have to be pretty sophisticated to get to a level to see some of the more atrocious [in-game] behavior.

Look, I'm a strong First Amendment person. This bill is drafted narrowly. It's not against all video games; it's not against all violent video games. It's only against this small section of ultraviolent video games. This bill will sustain anybody who wants to make more atrocious kinds of violent games--they can still do that, they can still sell that, they can still make them available to adults. Interestingly, kids can have access to these ultraviolent video games even under my bill. All you have to do is go to your parents, talk to your parents, and if your parents want to get it for you, they can go to the store and get it for you.

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"Q&A: Leland Yee on Nov. 2 Supreme Court hearing " was posted by Giancarlo Varanini, Tor Thorsen on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:40:22 -0700

Source: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6283214.html

TERADATA TELETECH HOLDINGS TECHNITROL TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE

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We tour the amazing scoring and recording facilities at Skywalker Ranch, the terrestrial home of Star Wars...

Set amid the rolling hills and lush forests or Marin County, about an hour outside of San Francisco, Skywalker Ranch is the spiritual home of Star Wars. Built and extended throughout the eighties, it's where George Lucas has his production company and where Skywalker Sound, the legendary audio facility originally known as Sprocket Systems, is based. "George planned Skywalker Ranch as a Mecca for filmmakers and creative artists of all kinds to come and make movies in Northern California," says our tour guide for today, David Collins, LucasArts' lead sound designer and voice director. "That was his dream, and Star Wars afforded him that dream?"

And true enough, the main building, a gleaming white architectural confection constructed in the style of a late-nineteenth century ranch house, is out of bounds today: a writer's workshop is being held there. Instead, we're closely chaperoned into the technology building ("no photos, no filming" is the constant refrain from Lucas staff) and assemble in the Stag theatre, the site's 300-seat screening room. It's a typically luxurious edifice with slight art deco leanings, the gargantuan speakers hidden behind the screens and the walls to maintain the clean design. We're told that the two golden statues at the front of the auditorium were originally part of Emperor Palpatine's office in Episode II. Lucas does love to recycle those props.

"This is George's premiere space to look at films," says Collins. "It's probably the most THX-certified room in the world. Everything is totally custom made. A lot of screenings go on here and at Skywalker Sound when they're making films, they'll come in here to review what they're mixing. Skywalker Sound boasts seven mix stages of various sizes: Avatar, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, all the Pixar films ? they were all mixed here. And in fact, when the building is very busy, they will remove several rows of chairs, put in a console and mix films right in this theatre."

Elsewhere in this building are 32 editing suites and 12 mixing 'pods' ("George has this idea that you should be able to edit and mix at the same time, because that's where digital technology has gone," says Collins). They're used not just by movie companies, but also for TV, advert and trailer work ? and video games, of course.

And then there is our next destination, the scoring stage, a cavernous arena the size and height of a generously-proportioned sports hall. It was built to record full symphonic orchestras and can accommodate up to 120 musicians. "The acoustics in this room make it one of the most flexible recording rooms in the world," says Collins. "There's quite a decay, but what's amazing is you can pull out a series of panels in the walls and completely deaden the sound. We can get the reverb down to about half a second if you want to record a rock band or something. There are also isolation booths so you can set up drums, vocals, guitars? anything you can think of."

The variety of music that's been recorded here is impressive. As well as orchestra work, they've had jazz big bands, pop groups like Nsync and rock bands like Joe Satriani's super group side project, Chickenfoot. We go through to the control room, adjacent to the scoring stage, and meet the award-winning in-house recording engineer, Dan Thompson, who's barely visible behind an enormous multi-channel mixing desk. "We have a lot of classical clients," he explains. "The Kronos Quartet have recorded many records here. The pianist Frederic Chiu has recorded 15 albums. We do a lot of video game scores ? Uncharted was done here. We did some work on SOCOM 4. And of course movie soundtracks ? Hellboy, Zodiac, Jurassic Park III?" I ask about the desk, and he explains it's a Neve 88R (there's a picture of it on the front page of Neve's website) ? "It's the only analogue desk in this building. It's the thing that heats this room," he jokes. "It also turns into a spaceship and takes off," adds Collins.

Right now, the room is set up for a string quartet ? there are just four chairs in the middle of the enormous space, surrounded by spot mics and large wooden slabs called diffusers, each sporting an irregular mosaic surface. "They give the sound a little bit of early reflection," explains Collins. "A lot of what gives a room its character is the way sound bounces off the walls. If you want to sound like a cathedral or a symphony hall this room is suitably cavernous. But for recording, say, a string quartet you want some early reflections in order to make the sound more interesting ? the diffusers provide that, because the sound bounces off them in interesting ways. The microphones pick that up and it brings out more of the harmonics of the instrument."

Collins talks about the chaos in here, when there's a full orchestra to record. "You've got a ton of chairs, a ton of stands ? all of which need to be lit. There are headphones, mics ? it's just a sea of cables." Navigating all this will be one sound engineer charged with checking the headphones, mics and settings for each musician during the session ? "this, by the way, is the coolest job ever," says Collins. "Being amongst the orchestra is just the most amazing sound. I mean, it's one thing to listen to a recording, it's another to be out there feeling the vibrations, feeling the air being pushed out at you. It's overwhelming."

In many ways, the process of recording game and movie soundtracks is similar. In both sectors, due to tight productions schedules, the orchestra will very rarely get any rehearsal time before a session: "They do one or two takes of each cue then they move on," says Collins. "These musicians are sight reading as they go, they're incredibly high calibre. A game will be recorded in one week. They just fly through it." For film soundtracks, the conductor does at least get to see what he's working with: a large screen at the back of the auditorium plays the relevant movie sequence, so he can conduct in time with the action.

For Force Unleashed II, LucasArts employed an 85-piece orchestra, featuring musicians from the San Francisco symphony and San Francisco opera. The team recorded an hour of brand new music for the game over three days and four sessions on the scoring stage. But this is where game and film music start to diverge. The TFU2 compositions then had to be blended in with elements from the original John Williams pieces as well as sections from the first Force Unleashed game to create a three-hour score that can be split into constantly interchangeable elements.

"With a film, you know that everybody's always going to be experiencing the exact same second of music, at the exact same time. It's a linear, passive experience," says music supervisor, Jesse Harlin. "But a video game is an active experience ? and because of that, it takes a very special type of composer who is able to plan for, and work with, essentially modular pieces that can be re-combined in the game engine, depending on what the player is doing. You have to be able to expect the unexpected."

The composer they use is Mark Gritsky, who also worked on Force Unleashed I. "Mark is one of my favourites," says Harlin. "There's a whole musical language to Star Wars that has been established by John Williams and Mark really understands the harmonic and melodic sensibilities that Williams created. He knows how to write new music that exists within the same world: you can seamlessly go from the music of John Williams to the music of Mark Gritsky and it feels like it's all part of the same universe."

Concludes tomorrow!
Part one is here
Part two is here

Keith Stuart

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2010/oct/25/inside-star-wars-part-three

MICRON TECHNOLOGY MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY METHODE ELECTRONICS MENTOR GRAPHICS

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Just after the launch of his latest project, Vanquish, renowned Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami will become part of the ZeniMax Media family -- the Bethesda Softworks parent has acquired his new Tokyo-based development house, Tango Gameworks. The 20-year industry veteran will still run the multiplatform AAA studio, which he said in March would be his next move after working with Platinum Games on Vanquish. At the time, he said he felt the Japanese business ...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GamasutraNews/~3/xEIQ4noQBjU/Mikami_Joins_ZeniMax_With_Tango_Gameworks_Acquisition.php

BHARTI AIRTEL BT GROUP CANON CDW

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Creepy alien slugs are attacking you from all directions, blast them to bits to keep them at bay! How long can you survive?

Source: http://www.freearcade.com/Crawl.flash/Crawl.html

HEWLETT-PACKARD HIGH TECH COMPUTER HON HAI PRECISION IND. HYNIX SEMICONDUCTOR

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2K Games today announced that two downloadable content packs and a final gameplay patch for BioShock 2 would be released for the PC version of the game, reversing a decision announced earlier this month to withhold the PC release. The PC versions of the Minerva's Den and Protector Trials DLC, which have already been released for the console versions of the game, were halted mid-development because of "technical and timing issues," according to a forum ...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GamasutraNews/~3/A9ZdvJOzU2A/2K_Reverses_Decision_Will_Bring_BioShock_2_Patch_DLC_To_PC.php

SALESFORCE COM SAIC ROCKWELL AUTOMATION RF MICRO DEVICES

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Japan-based CAPCOM Co., Ltd. has entered into an agreement to license Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 for its upcoming action game “ASURA’S WRATH,” developed by CyberConnect2 Co., Ltd. for Xbox 360� and PlayStation�3. The game was announced at CAPCOM’s Tokyo Game Show press conference last week. This is the third licensing agreement between CAPCOM and Epic, representing CAPCOM’s commitment to providing its customers with an unparalleled gaming experience.

“Unreal Engine 3 was a huge factor in making ‘ASURA’S WRATH’ a visually stunning and exciting game,” said Kazuhiro Tsuchiya, producer at CAPCOM. “Unreal Engine 3’s integrated development environment helped us ramp up production speed and create a clear vision for the game at the initial development stage. From there, it was easy to share the game’s concept among a large development team, making Unreal Engine 3 an essential collaborative tool with the teams at CAPCOM and at CyberConnect2.”

Seiji Shimoda, game director of CyberConnect2 Co., Ltd., known for its “.hack” series and multiple “Naruto” games, used Unreal Engine 3 to overcome challenges in the development and creative processes.

“At CyberConnect2, we have our own development process and know-how gained from years of development. But this time we decided to reconsider our process to achieve higher quality and efficiency. We tried a lot of different options and determined that Unreal Engine 3 was a perfect solution. Our developers were able to review the game in real time, and they continue to be productive throughout the process. I know we will deliver something amazing to the gaming world, and along the way, we will provide a showcase that will help show Japanese developers how to master the powerful functionality built into Unreal.”

Taka Kawasaki, territory manager for Epic Games Japan, said that the game is a triumph for the Japanese game industry and solidifies CAPCOM’s motivation for using Unreal Engine 3.

“CAPCOM and CyberConnect2 are two companies that are employing the very best of Japan’s creative minds today,” said Kawasaki. “It’s rewarding to support their creative development through the use of our technology. I have no doubt in my mind that they will create titles like nothing we’ve seen built with Unreal to date.”

Established in 2009, Epic Games Japan is a wholly owned and operated business unit based in Yokohama, Japan. The subsidiary provides licensing services and support resources to development teams using the Unreal Engine. To learn more about Epic Games Japan, please visit http://www.epicgamesjapan.com.

About Unreal Engine 3

The award-winning Unreal Engine is known for its cutting-edge graphics and best-of-breed toolset. Unreal Engine 3 maintains those features in addition to multi-core processor support, Xbox 360� and PlayStation�3 optimizations, massive world support and a highly mature tool pipeline. Unreal Engine 3’s consistently evolving toolset is designed to accelerate developers’ productivity for PC and console games, mobile games and applications, training simulations, visualizations and real-time 3D animation. Additional information on Unreal Engine 3 can be obtained through the Unreal Technology website at http://www.unrealtechnology.com.

About Epic Games

Epic Games, Inc., based in Cary, NC and established in 1991, develops cutting-edge games and cross-platform game engine technology. The company has created multiple million-selling, award-winning titles in its “Unreal” series, including “Unreal Tournament 3” for PC, PlayStation�3 and Xbox 360�. Epic’s “Gears of War” franchise has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and won more than 30 Game of the Year awards. Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 is the four-time winner of and Hall of Fame inductee for Game Developer magazine’s Best Engine Front Line Award. Unreal Engine 3 has also been recognized as the number one game engine by Develop magazine. Additional information about Epic can be obtained through the Epic Games website at http://www.epicgames.com.

About CAPCOM

CAPCOM is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment for game consoles, PCs, handheld and wireless devices. Founded in 1983, the company has created hundreds of games, including best-selling franchises “Resident Evil,” “Street Fighter,” “Mega Man” and “Devil May Cry.” CAPCOM maintains operations in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Tokyo, Korea and Hong Kong, with corporate headquarters located in Osaka, Japan. More information about CAPCOM can be found on the company web site, http://www.capcom.com.

Source: http://www.epicgames.com/news/capcom-licenses-epic-games-unreal-engine-3-for-asuras-wrath

ELECTRONICS FOR IMAGING ELECTRONIC DATA SYSTEMS ELECTRONIC ARTS ECLIPSYS

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Filed under: Security, Browsers

Firesheep Sucks, DeviantArt user MyBlackSheep

The last couple of days have seen the launch and explosive proliferation of a Firefox add-on called Firesheep. It's an incredibly simple program that snoops unsecured Wi-Fi packets to grant you one-click masquerading of other users: if you log into Facebook at the local coffee shop, someone can use Firesheep to become you. Seriously, you can go along to any location with an unsecured Wi-Fi network and steal other users' accounts.

Firesheep does this by 'scooping' cookies out of the air. Whenever you log into a website your name and password is only sent once -- afterwards, a stored authorization token is used. This means that if someone has your cookie they can pretend to be you -- and with unsecured wireless networks, anyone can grab your cookie.

This is a huge issue, and you have every right to be concerned -- but there is a solution!

Hopefully you've all heard about SSL and HTTPS, the encryption techniques used to secure Internet communications. The 'secure padlock' icon in your browser is most commonly found when buying things online, but most major sites also use it to secure login and registration. If you see this padlock, you are safe. If you could browse the entire Internet with that secure padlock in place then I wouldn't be writing this post.

Unfortunately, many sites redirect you to an unsecured page after you log in. Yes, your password remains secret -- but what good is that if your exposed cookie can be stolen by anyone on the same unsecured Wi-Fi network?

Fortunately, there are a few solutions for Firefox, and at least one good solution for every other browser.
The key to staying safe is by forcing every connection to use HTTPS, or to go via another connection that encrypts your communication. Almost every website has HTTPS capabilities, but because of the increased overhead that encrypted communication requires, it's often only used for logins and registering. Years ago this might not even have become an issue, but with everyone storing more and more personal information on services like Facebook and Google, and with Wi-Fi blanketing our streets and coffee shops, encryption really is required.

If you use Firefox, these add-ons should do the trick:

HTTPS Everywhere -- this gem from the Electronic Frontier Foundation is about as good as it gets. By default it forces most popular websites to use HTTPS, and you can add your own rules for other sites. This is one of the few add-ons that I use everywhere
Torbutton -- this solution is slightly more involved (it's for power-users), but if you want to be really secure and anonymous, the Tor network is a fantastic solution
Force-TLS -- this is like HTTPS Everywhere, but doesn't come with a built-in dictionary of secure sites. Adding them is very easy, though

Chrome users, due to a limitation of the browser, aren't quite so lucky. There is no way to force HTTPS with an extension. You may have read elsewhere that KB SSL will help you, but it won't. Instead you need to use a secure SOCKS proxy. This isn't particularly hard, it does involve a bit of work.

A guide for Windows users, using SpoonProxy
A guide for Mac users, using Meerkat -- our sister site TUAW has a guide that might help, too

Opera and Internet Explorer users: you too will need to use a SOCKS proxy; just follow one of the guides above.

Ultimately, though, if you use unsecured Wi-Fi networks you will leave yourself exposed. The best solution might not be to install add-ons, but to ask your local coffee shop owner to secure his network with WPA2. The entire problem would go away if big-name websites used HTTPS across the board, too.

Defend against Firesheep by surfing securely with HTTPS originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 27 Oct 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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