General Fuzzy McBitty

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6160576.html Thompson starts another fight as Bully issue simmers Judge recuses himself from Bully case while Florida lawyer turns his attention to Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for "an unauthorized commercial exploitation" of his likeness. By Tor Thorsen, Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot Posted Oct 26, 2006 5:37 pm PT Those who thought the denial of Jack Thompson's attempt to have Take-Two's Bully banned would leave the Florida attorney quietly sulking in the corner apparently don't know Jack. While Thompson couldn't stop Bully from being released, he did have choice words for the judge who heard his case, and he was made to appear before the court yesterday at the request of Take-Two's lawyers to explain why he shouldn't be held in contempt of court. The hearing began with Judge Ronald Friedman engaging in a series of sharp exchanges with Thompson. As can be seen in video of the even posted on Destructoid.com, at one point Friedman summoned a bailiff when Thompson attempted to display a large white cardboard sign. Friedman then proceeded to tell Thompson that he felt "the statements made to this court about this court by Mr. Thompson, I find inappropriate for a member of the Florida bar, unprofessional, and contemptible." Friedman then read several excerpts from letters from Thompson, in which he called the original Bully hearing "a disturbing abortion of justice" and threatened to sue Friedman personally. Another tense verbal exchange between a visibly agitated Thompson and an oddly serene Friedman followed. Friedman then said that he had filed a complaint with the Florida bar and that he was going to recuse himself from the case. He warned Thompson that the next judge "might not be as kind" as he had been. Thompson quickly countered with a brief verbal fusillade of his own blasting Friedman's decision while declaring respect for his office. While Thompson is still in the thick of his Bully battle, he made time today to fire off a cease-and-desist order to Midway Games. He wants the publisher to stop distributing Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, but contrary to what one might expect, he didn't cite the game's over-the-top violence as a reason to stop selling it. "It has today come to my attention that the newly recently [sic] Mortal Kombat: Armageddon contains an unauthorized commercial exploitation of my name, photograph, image, and likeness within the game," Thompson wrote in an e-mail addressed to Midway president and CEO David Zucker and carbon-copied to several news outlets. "You are commanded to cease and desist immediately from the distribution of this game because of this unauthorized, illegal content." (Emphasis in original.) While Armageddon does boast a roster of more than 60 characters, Thompson isn't among them. Judging from a photo of the game included with Thompson's e-mail, he is referring to a character made using the game's kreate-a-fighter mode. The photo was part of a feature on Gaming Target yesterday, which contained formulas for making a number of unlicensed characters from the game's various customization options. Other familiar faces in the feature included Hulk Hogan, Ash from Army of Darkness, director Kevin Smith in his Silent Bob alter ego, and Friday the 13th antagonist Jason Voorhees. A similar issue went to court in 2004 when Marvel Comics sued City of Heroes publisher NCsoft and developer Cryptic Studios claiming that the game infringed on its trademarks by allowing players to re-create trademarked Marvel characters using the game's create-a-character tools. The parties settled out of court in December of last year, and earlier this year it was revealed that the comic company is now working with Cryptic on Microsoft's new massively multiplayer online game based on the Marvel Universe. As of press time, Midway had not responded to a request for comment.

I wouldn't have thought it would be a big deal for anyone to say, "Hey, Sony people are buying Sony products!"

It sounds good on paper if you have no bias. Unfortunately Sony has very little credit for honesty with most people. To say that any SCE employees who bought a PSP from them was doing it to "investigate" seems like a load of shit to me.

http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/ I find it a bit disturbing that Nintendo is being so cut throat with the new Zelda. I have a friend who pre-ordered it on Game Cube over a year ago when we were told that production was going to start within a few months. It seems like poor customer relations to make it so difficult to get on Game Cube. While I realize that support for Wii will be great, it does make me stop for a second and take notice. It's my no means the worst thing I've ever seen in the industry, but for some reason I've come to expect a bit more from Nintendo.

Things I've learned in the past few months: Sony really, really, really hates its audience in Europe. You guys really do get shat on. No PS3 until next year, your release dates are shit (if they even bring some titles at all), and if you try to buy the unit outside your market to avoid all of the crap that you have to put up with they close the company.

Apparently Nintendo doesn't intend the Wii to last until 2010.

You gotta give him: He treats everyone exactly the same way. It doesn't matter if you're a video game company or a judge to Jackie boy.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/bully/jack-faces-jail-over-bully-209583.php A fun follow up.

Actually, it looks like I jumped the gun. The only place this is really going to happen is in Japan.

Interesting. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061016/wr_nm/life_secondlife_tax_dc

Yes... but if you're making real money in a virtual world, you have to pay the real world with real money. If you were just making virtual money no one would care.

I don't think it is a good idea for the government to get into stuff like this... I just find it amusing.

Yes... but from a legal point of view it is interesting. Online gaming has blurred the lines in many of our laws. You pay for a service, yes, but in many cases you buy currency, items... ect. The government is BOUND to want its cut. Virtual markets and real ones are starting to become intertwined. It was only a matter of time before something like this happend.

How is the learning curve with the Wii-mote/chuck? Is it more difficult to use two seperate units that make up one controller... or no? Does any of this violate a NDA?

When is this releasing again?

I sometimes wonder if the "real" JT isn't some homeless actor that rockstar hired to give them publicity.

At the time some of us poked fun at FMV games because the quality of the full motion video was such that it looked like you were watching it through a screen door.

Speaking of Black Dahlia, has anyone else played the old screen door adventure game with the same name?

Sure you can... unless he said something like "Also, she really loves Gears of War!"

Cheers!

I got to the part in GTA SA where Then it got old and I stopped. I think I'm going to play it again though.

I did Fighter's Guild, Wizards Guild, Dark Brotherhood, thieves guild, vampireism... all sorts of stuff... but I still have positive modifiers most of the time. Every now and then someone will yell MURDERER!... but usually they'll follow it with, "hello!" Also, is everyone aware that once you find the cure for vampireism for the Count of Skingrad, he gives you the reward whenever you ask for it? I got several million gold this way.

I did it over the course of several months. The problem with the game is that it lets you do too much with one character, killing the replay value, while doing nothing to your characters choice to join groups that do "evil" things.

I upgraded my PC to play Oblivion... it was entertaining for a while, until I'd completed almost all of the side quests, but barely any of the main mission.

We're not even using the entire DVD-disk.... so a Blu-Ray disk is usefull to us how?