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Kill Jim Liebowitz mocks all sides of gaming politics
Both sides of the video game violence divide are mocked in the satirical Kill Jim Liebowitz. The video tells the tale of Jim Liebowitz, an anti-games Republican senator from Connecticut who is obviously a composite of Jack Thompson and Joe Lieberman, and how the video game Kill Jim Liebowitz messes with his life. Violent video game creators are also mocked as the developer of Kill Jim Liebowitz explains that any similarity to Liebowitz is coincidental and you don't have to kill Liebowitz in the game if you don't want to. Soon after there's a scene where a man in the background is using a Wiimote -- in a way we wish would actually be that satisfying -- to eviscerate the Liebowitz character to very dramatic sounds. The developer even makes a great causality argument equating video games to corn bread. Following an attack on Liebowitz blamed on the game the developer says, "These kids love cornbread. Should we ban cornbread? I love cornbread."So, what happens at the end? Watch the video and find out a potential fate for violent video games.[Via GamePolitics]
Friday Video: games destroyed the World Trade Center
We know the Moral Kombat trailer isn't terribly new, but the weekly video spotlight isn't about what's new or even what's good. It's a place for us to highlight a video that we think needs to be seen, for whatever reason, be it silly or a little weird or dripping with extra awesome sauce. This week's video is none of those things, but it's worth discussing. The actual film sounds potentially interesting and not so one-sided. Sadly, the trailer ... not so much. It's Jack Thompson and Joe Lieberman with holy light brigade and their vision of a gamer-centric apocalypse, complete with desperate, melodramatic music. And the continual invocation of Columbine and September 11 as a product of video games is just sick-making.There's not much we can say on this subject that can be repeated in any sort of polite society, anywhere, so we're just gonna direct you to the video after the jump.
Did video games lose it for Lieberman?
Was support for video game regulation a significant factor in Joe Lieberman's primary loss to Ned Lamont in yesterday's Democratic Connecticut Senate primary? That's the theory put forth by one blogger, who says that the young children who remember Lieberman from the 1994 video game hearings are now of voting age and out for revenge!We're not buying it, though. For one thing, 18- to 24-year-olds are a historically unimportant voting bloc -- only 36 percent of them voted in the 2000 presidential election (though this group is growing: 47 percent voted in 2004). For another, exit polls (.pdf) show that issues like the war in Iraq and Lieberman's close relationship with Bush were foremost on voters' minds -- video game issues don't even make a blip.Despite the loss, Lieberman has announced he will still be running as an Independent, which means his vociferous calls for game regulation might yet continue to ring through the Senate. Even if he does lose in November, other Senators like Hillary Clinton have shown they are more than willing to take up the cause.
