Things that make you go 'hmmm...'

[Glockstar]

Two recent articles over at GameStop got me... well, thinking and questioning. Although the topics of each are very different, I'm pretty sure you'll see how they could go hand in hand. The first article will be posted straight away, the second will be posted in post#2 of this thread - along with my brief closing comments.

Wiis board cruise ships
Norwegian Cruise Line adding Nintendo's new console to its list of seaborne activities; Wii Sports, WarioWare, more played on gigantic screens.
By Tim Surette, GameSpot - Posted Mar 29, 2007 1:13 pm PT

Cruise lines are adding family-friendly entertainment and all the comforts of home onboard their massive ships in an effort to draw customers. For fans of the Wii in particular, the boats of Norwegian Cruise Line just got a bit more friendly and comfortable.

The company has added the Wii to several of its cruise ships, and plans to have the system onboard its entire fleet within the next month. The Wiis will be housed in the "atrium and other public rooms" of each ship and connected to giant monitors for all patrons to see.

The games currently slated to be available on the cruises are Wii Sports, Wii Play, WarioWare: Smooth Moves, and Excitetruck.

Millions of people around the world continue to discover the fun of playing Wii with their friends and families," said Nintendo of America senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications George Harrison. "Norwegian Cruise Line is a great partner, as they offer us direct access to non-traditional gamers."

"Non-traditional gamers"... there's that phrase again.

[Glockstar]

Vivendi, Sony sued over epileptic seizure
New York woman alleges that gamemakers are responsible for seizures suffered by her infant after playing Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly for the PS2.
By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot - Posted Mar 28, 2007 2:18 pm PT

When it was released in 2002, Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly was panned by critics who accused it of offering a choppy frame rate, buggy gameplay, lengthy load times, and a dull story. Last month, the game received a more serious knock against it, as a New York woman whose infant suffered a grand mal seizure while playing Enter the Dragonfly filed suit against Vivendi Games, Sierra Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment America, and a defunct rental store called Hiawatha Video.

The suit, filed in New York State Supreme Court, claims that the defendants were "negligent, careless, and reckless with regard to the design and manufacture" of Spyro, such that the game was dangerous when used in the intended manner, and that they failed to properly warn consumers of that danger. According to the suit, the child suffered severe and permanent disabling injuries that will affect him "in all activities of daily living" and necessitate lifelong medical expenses.

The PS2 edition of Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly came with a notice on the inside front cover of the instruction manual advising consumers that "a very small percentage of individuals may experience epileptic seizures when exposed to certain light patterns or flashing lights." The notice also tells users to stop playing immediately if they experience specific symptoms of epilepsy, and to consult a physician before resuming play.

On behalf of her child, the woman is seeking damages "for such fair and reasonable amount as may be awarded by a jury of his peers," along with whatever other relief the court may deem just and proper. Earlier this week, Sony requested that the woman specify the total amount of damages she's seeking.

As of press time, neither Vivendi nor Sony representatives had returned GameSpot's request for comment.

This is not the first time a gamemaker has faced a lawsuit over epileptic seizures. In August of 2003, Nintendo won a case in Louisiana against a woman whose son died as the result of a seizure he suffered while playing the Nintendo 64. The judge in that case ruled in Nintendo's favor after the woman failed to respond to the publisher's motion for summary judgment.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6168230.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;5

First off, Is this lawsuit about as stupid as the one where the Grandma sued Rockstar after she let her little grandson play GTA, or what?

Finally, well actually... do I even need to say it?

[Mochan]

That's a big thing actually. Bravo, Nintendo.

[Dancer O_o]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm m....I told you, the freaking Blue Hairs will determine the fate of this console race!

[Cuddly Knife]

EVERY GAME I've ever played since as far as I can remember has had the warning of seizures if you play them. This lady is retarded, and if she or anyone were to win a case like this, it would be the end of games as we know it.

[Glockstar]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....
I told you, the freaking Blue Hairs will determine the fate of this console race!

LOL

-

EVERY GAME I've ever played since as far as I can remember has had the warning of seizures if you play them. This lady is retarded, and if she or anyone were to win a case like this, it would be the end of games as we know it.

Thank you.

[Glockstar]

Does anybody else see a correlation here? Does anybody else think that Nintendo (and Norwegian Cruise Lines for that matter) could be asking for trouble by pandering to people who don't know jack squat about a videogame, or playing a videogame?

[Gadfly2317]

Does anybody else see a correlation here? Does anybody else think that Nintendo (and Norwegian Cruise Lines for that matter) could be asking for trouble by pandering to people who don't know jack squat about a videogame, or playing a videogame?

No correlation. . . the lawsuit in question is about a kid, not a blue hair injuring themselves.

I do see a lot of judgementalism in words like "pandering." Creating more variety and expanding the types of experiences electronic gaming encompasses is not pandering, it's a necessity if this industry want to continue to grow. I don't want to see the attempt to draw in new demographics come at the expense of us who've been gaming for 2 decades, but I don't see that happening. I see the DS, for instance, with Nintendogs, Animal Crossing and Brain Training which have all done well and helped the system sell to people who didn't used to game, but Castlevania, Kirby, Lunar Knights, Contact, Mario, Age of Empires, Star Fox, Advance Wars and on and on and on. . . it's not like anyone is neglecting content for real gamers.

And on Wii, No More Heros, Manhunt 2, Zelda, God Father Black Hand, Metroid, Red Steel, Mario, Project HAMMER, Day of Disaster, Sadness. . . that's the first wave of games for us gamers. In fact, instead of pandering, Nintendo has pretty much just thrown a bone to the non-gamers with the no-budget Wii Sports and Wii Play, because a bone or scraps is all non-gamers really need. I don't think Nintendo is so stupid that they don't realize non-gamers will never buy as many games as game junkies.

Nintendo has been a little more vocal about what its doing, and more aggresive in actively trying to bring in new demographics, but it's not like Sony hasn't also succesefully done a lot on that front too. This is one area where MS needs to do a little better, rather than just pandering to the hardcore guns, cars and sports crowd.

[Cuddly Knife]

MS was on the right track with their "Jump In" campaign, because that showed a large variety of people(old, young, male, female) doing things as a group, like the water ballon fight, or the jump roping. Lately though, I haven't seen much of anything for 360. Just a lot of Motorstorm and RFoM commercials.

[Glockstar]

No correlation. . . the lawsuit in question is about a kid, not a blue hair injuring themselves.

I do see a lot of judgementalism in words like "pandering." Creating more variety and expanding the types of experiences electronic gaming encompasses is not pandering, it's a necessity if this industry want to continue to grow. I don't want to see the attempt to draw in new demographics come at the expense of us who've been gaming for 2 decades, but I don't see that happening. I see the DS, for instance, with Nintendogs, Animal Crossing and Brain Training which have all done well and helped the system sell to people who didn't used to game, but Castlevania, Kirby, Lunar Knights, Contact, Mario, Age of Empires, Star Fox, Advance Wars and on and on and on. . . it's not like anyone is neglecting content for real gamers.

And on Wii, No More Heros, Manhunt 2, Zelda, God Father Black Hand, Metroid, Red Steel, Mario, Project HAMMER, Day of Disaster, Sadness. . . that's the first wave of games for us gamers. In fact, instead of pandering, Nintendo has pretty much just thrown a bone to the non-gamers with the no-budget Wii Sports and Wii Play, because a bone or scraps is all non-gamers really need. I don't think Nintendo is so stupid that they don't realize non-gamers will never buy as many games as game junkies. ...

Well okay, I'll admit, "pandering" wasn't the smartest choice of words there.

But don't you think that lawsuit is retarded? Every game - and every game system - I've bought warns of epileptic seizures (and says to stop playing the game if you get dizzy and whatnot). I mean how long has the game been out... how many copies of the game were sold... how many kids/people have been able to play the game and weren't attacked by it...? Couldn't it just be that there's just something wrong with that one kid?

Same with the Grandma who sued Rockstar. The "M" rating on the front was good enough for hundreds of thousands of gamers and purchasers, but it wasn't good enough for her? #@$%ing hogwash.

Well, I don't see Nintendo and NCL having a lot of these warnings to fall back on. I mean, if good solid warnings weren't good enough...

And I'm just talking about liability here, I haven't even gone into the maintenance and repair costs that NCL could incur during/from this thing. I mean can't you just see it, some middle-aged man walks in there, sees this interactive tennis game on this big screen tv, thinks that he'd like to check it out, so he goes over and gives it a try... after taking a swing he thinks 'neato', and he gushes about it to whoever he's with... but then just a couple of swings later the Wiimote goes flying out of his hand, flies over the side of the boat and into the drink. Game over-board!

[ilnadmy]

EVERY GAME I've ever played since as far as I can remember has had the warning of seizures if you play them. This lady is retarded, and if she or anyone were to win a case like this, it would be the end of games as we know it.
I was just going to say that.

I suppose it would be humorous on a much darker level if a cruise full of retirees was found on the game room's floor twitching about after having played Wii Sports for a good hour as the cruise ship is pulling in to a group of journalists trying to get the first scoop into how the Wii on board is faring.

Run-on sentence FTW.

[Glockstar]

Well before this thread rides off into the sunset... I just got one more thing to say:

It occurred to me that the old lady's Spyro game may have been a used game. And thus, it may not have come complete with a manual. So...

What do you want to bet that they win their lawsuit. (Poor Vivendi and Sony. :( ) And that as a result an in-game disclaimer notice becomes mandatory and is put in at the startup of all future games.

[Mochan]

Tell me her name I'll have her kidnapped by one of my eyepatch peg leg pirate crew.