M-rated Videogame Sales to Minors on a Steep Decline

Anti-videogame renegades share one common trait. They love to point the blame at the retailer for putting M-rated games in the hands of children, and for the most part, I agree that kids shouldn't be playing some of the games on the market today. However, what's striking is the fact that many kids have far better luck getting a hold of an R-rated movie, or an explicit CD.

In some regards, I believe movies would be far more impressionable than a video game. You might have control of a game, but movies are real. When I was a kid, I used to jump around the house as a ninja... because of movies. I don't remember climbing up a tree after playing Donkey Kong Country or ripping a friends heart out because of Mortal Kombat.

Regardless of all that, the good news is that M-rated game sales to minors is on a steady decline, so it's now difficult for the likes of Jack Thompson to make an argument about it. According to the FTC's undercover work, only 20% of sales occurred to minors with M-rated games. Compare that to the 35% who were able to get into an R-rated movie, 51% who could purchase an unrated DVD and 54% who had no issue picking up an explicit CD.

The fact is, these other markets could take a lesson from videogame sale practises, not vice versa. Surprisingly, GameStop proved to be highest-ranked store for not selling to minors, with only 6% making it out the door. By comparison, Best Buy, Target and Barnes & Noble all sold M-rated games to minors 60%+ of the time.

The survey found that results of the undercover shopping varied by retailer and product. Three movie chains – National Entertainment, Regal Entertainment Group, and American Multi-Cinema – turned away 80% or more of the underage teens who tried to buy a ticket to an R-rated movie. Wal-Mart did the best of the major retailers shopped for movie DVDs, denying sales of R-rated and Unrated DVDs to 75% of the child shoppers.

Source: Federal Trade Commission Report, Via: GamePolitics

TorrentSpy Slapped with $111 Million Court Judgment

In only what could be called an attention-getter, the MPAA lawsuit against TorrentSpy was successful, with the courts ordering the now defunct torrent-tracking site to pay $111 million, or $30,000 for each of the 3,699 infringements documented. This penalty is undoubtedly asinine, as it's very unlikely the MPAA suffered $30,000 worth of damages for each infringement.

The success of this case does send a clear message to current and upcoming torrent site owners. Screwing around with the MPAA (or the RIAA for that matter) is like skating on thin ice. Things might be fine for a while, but the big companies are not going to remain quiet forever.

It's of course unlikely that the previous owners of TorrentSpy will actually pay a dime, as it's TorrentSpy as a company that's charged, not the owners themselves. It does mean TorrentSpy will never re-open or be profitable again, however, but that was a given.

The case, producing what is among the largest fines in copyright history, was bolstered after the MPAA allegedly paid a hacker $15,000 for internal TorrentSpy e-mails and correspondence. "This substantial money judgment sends a strong message about the illegality of these sites," MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman said in a statement.

Source: Wired

UK Notebook Builder Rock Attempts to Sell the Company

Popular UK-based notebook manufacturer Rock has gone into administration and appointed Deloitte & Touche LLP to help sell the company. In a notice on their website, Rock points out that part of the reason for failure is due to "the cash flow difficulties faced as a result of stock misappropriation by a former employee".

This was a shock announcement, as the company seemed to have been operating fine. With it now on the selling block, fans of the company can only hope that someone will bite. According to the notice, they are currently in talks with interested parties and like most business transactions, it might be a few weeks before something happens.

For recent sales, there is no guarantee that it will be received by the buyer. If this is the case, you need to check with your credit card provider and see about getting a refund. If a sale of the company does end up going through, the new owners will likely resume activity as normal, but we can hope that they'd check with buyers prior to building systems to make sure they are still wanted.

The failure of Rock is partly attributed to the cash flow difficulties faced as a result of stock misappropriation by a former employee. This led to suppliers reducing credit limits, further adversely impacting upon cash flows. As a result of the recent difficulties faced by Rock in obtaining regular supplies of key components, Rock had effectively ceased to trade prior to the Administrators appointment.

Source: Rock

id Announces Doom 4 Development

Just two days ago we were wishing Wolfenstein 3D a happy 16th birthday, so it seems appropriate that another old-school 3D-shooter has a new title announced. id Software has just announced Doom 4, a follow-up to Doom 3, which was a follow-up to Doom 2. From what I understand, Doom 2 was a follow-up to Doom 1, but I can't be entirely sure as the naming scheme is somewhat confusing, similar to NVIDIA's.

Very little information is available right now, as id have announced that development has only just begun. So it's too bad that it's going to be a ways off, but at least it's en route. To help usher in the new game, the company is readily looking over applications for new developers. Of the careers, multiple designers are being sought, as are programmers and animators. If you qualify and you feel you can contribute to what we can hope will be a masterpiece, check out their careers page.

No other details were given, but we're guessing it'll run off of id Tech 5 (or perhaps something greater). Given the ending of the Doom 3 expansion Resurrection was pretty conclusive, we don't know where the team will take the Doom story next. Our guess? Probably send a space marine to Hell to fight demons. Perhaps this time he (or she) will pack a better flashlight.

Source: Joystiq

NVIDIA to Simplify Their Product Lineup to Help Appeal to Wider Audience

Most of you who visit this site are hardware enthusiasts, and picking out a new GPU, CPU or any other piece of computer hardware is not likely too much of a hassle. But that's because you know what to look for. You read reviews, like the ones here. You study up on manufacturers websites. You read whitepapers. You know what's going on. But what about those who are not computer enthusiasts? Picking out hardware can be hell!

NVIDIA released their 9800GTX not too long ago, a top-of-the-line single-GPU offering. But is it better than ATI's 9800PRO? Exactly, that's the problem with naming schemes nowadays. The 9800PRO is about five years old, and horribly outdated in GPU lifespan terms, but how's an uninformed buyer supposed to know? Or how about the sheer amount of different models at a given number range? The 9-series just came out and there are already four different ones, with more en route.

Well thankfully, NVIDIA is looking to change this problem, and not a moment too soon. Their goal is to simplify the product range to make it easier on the uninformed consumer. How they plan to do this is unknown, but I'm personally glad I'm not the one in charge, because I have no immediate ideas. Well, except for starting back at number 1 and actually going in order as performance increases. I'd scrap the special product versions as well. GT, GTS, GSO, GTX, GT500... so confusing.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Roy Taylor, VP of Content Business Development, admitted that NVIDIA's current range of products is over complicated and too confusing for many customers. Taylor went on to say the company faced a "challenge" but needed to make its products more consumer friendly.

Source: Games Industry

OpenOffice.org Releases 3.0 Beta, Looking Good So Far

Popular office suite OpenOffice.org has just released it's first 3.0 public beta, and Ars Technica takes a quick look. The new version revamps the application as a whole, updating the look and feel, and essentially making it more of a competitor to Microsoft's Office 2007. That's helped by the fact that Office 2007 documents (.xlsx, .docx, etc) are now supported, although with somewhat poor results so far.

I have no doubts that Office 2007 document support will encourage more people to make the shift to a free office alternative. The fact that 2.4 does not is one of the few reasons I need to reboot my main machine into Windows, so having great support there would be hugely welcome, for many. The initial results are not THAT impressive, as fonts show up different sizes, alignments are a little off and other minor issues arise, but at least it's on the right track. If it gets better from here on out, that's all we can ask for.

So far the beta looks great, but bear in mind that it's a beta for a reason. Bugs are evident, such as crashes, so it shouldn't be used for real production work. Not much sucks worse than losing work in a document randomly for no reason. For those willing to take the plunge, download the beta here.

Enhancements have been made across the board to OpenOffice.org's various components. A new Solver component makes calculating dependent spreadsheet cells much easier (a bonus for Mac users as Excel 2008 reportedly lost its solving component), and vastly improved cropping features in the Draw and Impress apps are indeed more intuitive. When working in Writer, multiple pages can be displayed at once for a bird's eye view of a document, and notes (or comments) on a document are now displayed in a sidebar, paralleling the same UI found in many other text editors.

Source: Ars Technica

May 8th Tech Roundup

Motherboards & Processors
• ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe - PC Perspective
• Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 - Bit-Tech

Displays & Video Cards
• NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX - Digit-Life
• NVIDIA Hybrid SLI and HybridPower - Legit Reviews
• S3 Chrome 430 GT - TweakTown
• "Today's graphics cards: the value angle" - Tech Report

Memory & Storage
• Durapower CR-104 Media Reader - MikhailTech

Peripherals & Gadgets
• Hades Gaming Ares H1 Optical Gaming Mouse - DragonSteelMods
• Razer Destructor - Gaming Nexus
• Wolfking Warrior XXtreme - Bjorn3D
• VL System M-Play Blast LCD Case Display & Remote Control - Tweaknews

Cooling
• Noiseblocker Coolscraper 3.0 - XS Reviews

Chassis & Power Supplies
• NESTEQ ECS7001 700W Power Supply - Techware Labs
• NZXT Tempest ATX Mid-Tower - 3D Gameman
• NZXT Tempest ATX Mid-Tower - TweakTown
• Silverstone Treasure TS01B RFID Enclosure - techPowerUp!

Competitions, Complete Systems & Et cetera
• Contest: XFX 8800GS SLI - Motherboards.org