ScrewAttack - Angry Video Game Nerd DVD Vol. 2

Gameplayer: How do you approach classifying racist content in videogames?

Sue Clark: There are two issues. Obviously the BBFC takes racial issues into account. There is a law about this, which is about incitement to racial hatred, and that’s a stiff test.

Racist matters do occur in all sorts of guises, and we classify them accordingly. If we had any concerns about incitement to racial hatred then, of course, we would intervene. But, as I say, that’s a stiff test, and the law requires it to be a stiff test. The law is designed not to create mischief-making complaints. It has to be a tough test to make sure that things that people just find offensive are not swept into it. We are very alert to racist language and we flag that up, and it is likely that things will get a higher rating if it contains racist or potentially racist material.

A good example is a DVD we had in last year, which is a boxset of the terribly dated ’70s comedy Love Thy Neighbour, which was littered with racist comments because, at the time, that was just what people said. At the time the series was around, it went out at 7pm peak time, and everybody thought it was hugely amusing. At the time it would have probably got a PG, but we bumped it up to a 12, because we were concerned that young children might watch that kind of thing and come out with the racist comments, but we thought that young teenagers would know that it was inappropriate. So we will classify things higher if they contain racist comments.

Full interview here

While the vast majority of our users worldwide are enjoying the New Xbox Experience with no problems, we are aware that a handful of Xbox LIVE users are experiencing audio issues, and are diligently monitoring this issue and working towards a solution. We appreciate our members' enthusiasm and patience, and apologize for any inconveniences.

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On my shopping list were several video games and a console - the Xbox 360. Target had Xbox 360 holiday bundle plus a $60 gift card. Target also had two Wii games I was interested in buying - Go Diego Go Safari for $11 and Boom Blox for $20. Yeah, both games were sold out by the time I got there - about 15 minutes after the store opened. All the bargain video games were off the shelf.

At Wal-Mart, the line was already formed and pretty long for their video game deals including the Xbox 360/Guitar Hero bundle. I went to Wal-Mart first but couldn’t take standing in line any longer. After a 45 minute wait, I just couldn’t take it anymore. Luckily I came back later in the day and was able to buy what I was after - a portable DVD player.

I had wished that Gamestop had a few games of interest that were cheap since they had their buy 2 get a 3rd free deal this weekend. Nothing of great interest at a great price.

It was a fun day and found most of the stuff I was looking for. I was saddened to hear about the New Jersey Wal-Mart worker who was trampled to death when attempting to open the door for Black Friday. I did notice police officers at our local Wal-Mart that is 24 hours, so people were already inside and some waiting in line for the 5am start of the sale.

I haven’t seen any Cyber Monday deals that are that appealing to me. Of course, I’m 95% done with my Christmas shopping. This is so nice. I might enjoy the holiday season this year without having to stress over gifts.

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Not one to just sit around and be outdone by Netflix as it gains customers through Xbox 360, and their recently revealed Rokum– Blockbuster has stepped into the “battle of the boxes” ring.

Yesterday, Blockbuster started selling their MeidaPoint box which, like the aforementioned services, will send movies through your internet connection straight onto your television screen. Unlike Netflix, this new service from Blockbuster does not charge a monthly subscription, but instead will cost the buyer an initial $99 for the box plus between $1.99 and $3.99 to rent a “DVD”. The box comes with 25 pre-paid movies (thus the $99 price tag) and holds up to 5 full length movies, which must be viewed within 24-hours of downloading.

Netflix’s box also costs $99, plus your monthly subscription; however, the biggest selling point for Netflix is that you can rent up to 10,000 movies through their box, unlike Blockbuster’s 2500 “of the best, biggest and most current movies available”. The difference between the two that may sway you one way or the other though,  has to do with the quality and speed differences of the services.

Blockbuster’s MediaPoint box does “progressive playback” instead of streaming, which means that it is downloaded onto the box. With Netflicks streaming service, the video quality is not independent of your broadband’s connection therefore quality may be decreased if your internet connection is slow.

So, on the one hand you can get more movies via Netflix, but better quality through Blockbuster. The choice will mostly boil down to having a fast internet connection. Depending on who your service provider is and where you live, that could be the deciding factor for you. However, if you already own an Xbox 360–both of these products would be a waste of money for you now that you can get Netflix through your console.

Any way you look at it though, it appears as if the days of driving to the video store and trying to find something to watch are eventually going to become a thing of the past. That in itself is a good thing. Convenience and product availability is what matters in the long run, and the old fashioned video store just can not keep up any longer.

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• Blockbuster Expanding Video Game Business
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Tomy's titles based on the internationally popular anime series Naruto is a surprisingly popular game franchise in North America -- and notably, they're also known for solid quality.

But Tomy's latest fighting game title, Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 for Wii, was now faced with an interesting challenge: how to bring North American players the next adventure when the TV series in Japan is as much as two years ahead of what's airing in the West?

Clash of Ninja Revolution 2's Tomy producer Nobi Matsuo decided to leverage the gap by filling it in with original characters and storylines made specifically for the game.

But how does this work with a game licensed from a Japanese cartoon, developed for a U.S. audience, requiring permission from a Japanese IP-holder? It gets complicated, and Matsuo explains the process in an interview with Gamasutra.

How did this game come to be chosen and conceived?

Nobi Matsuo: It was a timing thing. Everything fell in place. We've been localizing [the Japanese titles] for the GameCube; as you know, the Japanese TV shows are as much as a year or a couple years ahead of the U.S. TV show. So a lot of the characters have grown up and everything, so we can't usually use any of the assets from the Japanese side and bring them over to the U.S. side.

Especially when we made the transition to the Wii -- by that time, all the Japanese games that, for Tomy, used all the characters, which were prohibited for us to use. So we basically used that opportunity to start from scratch and put in all our characters, because they didn't exist for the Wii.

We took advantage of that and said "Why don't we go ahead and put in original storyline?" A lot of fans already know the TV show and everything; they know how it's going to turn out: so, rehashing the TV show isn't something that I personally like. So I said "This is a perfect chance."

And then we also started exploring a lot of aspects of Naruto that, I think, would have worked for the U.S. audience. And one of them was the ANBU theme.

The ANBU are like the black-ops organization that belong to the same organization as Naruto. And they exist in the background, so they appear in the TV show; they're always masked; they're always mysterious.

So I wanted to take that angle, because that's more like the description of what we Americans understand as "ninja" -- not some blond-haired kid with an orange jumpsuit. So these are the masked guys with the katanas and everything -- let's bring them out in the front.

So what was the framework? Did you layer in your new material on top of an existing structure?

NM: It was like an iteration... this is basically the fourth rendition in the U.S. So we've been building on the same engines, same developer - obviously improving it. There was a big jump going from the GameCube from the Wii, we added a lot of additional systems.

We established that, and laid the groundwork for Revolution 1, and once we got that, we basically took that out and took a lot of user comments, ideas, things we wanted to put in but couldn't do; and we just started layering and adding it on.

Is this game actually going to come out in Japan as well?

NM: Exclusive for North America. I mean, if there are Naruto fans over in Japan, they're going to have to buy the U.S. version.

That's not exactly the usual situation.

NM: Absolutely. This is a really rare opportunity where we were able to do that. We went ahead and created original characters that never existed anywhere in the world, not in Japan or in the U.S. -- characters from scratch, characters I wanted to see in there from the TV show that never were created.

So we concepted those, sketched them out, and then we sent it to the publisher, the licensor, for Naruto and had them approve it, see if it's within the realm of possibility in that world or not.

Was it challenging to get that license and the liberty to add those new characters and storylines?

NM: Absolutely. Absolutely. It was always a challenge. But it was a fun concept. They weren't very like "Oh, you can't do this; you can't do that"; "Show us what you can do" was their attitude; "and then we'll guide you and we'll help you out." So that's the direction we had.

One of the main characters: she originally started out in a wetsuit type of bodysuit type like X-Men-like thing, and they said "It's kind of going away from Naruto." So we went for more of the Asian feel, the kimono type of thing. And they helped guide us, but not really block us from our creativity. So they were very cooperative with that.

So you're with Tomy. How does that how structure work? There's Tomy and D3 -- who owns the actual Naruto property?

NM: The Naruto property is actually owned in Japan by Shueisha. And then North American license-holder is VIZ Media; from VIZ Media, we pay royalties and stuff.

So, since our game is North American-related, we license through them. But, ultimately, they have to get approval for everything through Shueisha. Since we're running on such a short schedule, we basically CC to keep the VIZ Media guys in the loop while communicating with Shueisha. Normally, you go through it the other way.

We're the publisher for the game: Tomy. D3 helps with the distributing. So that's how it works.

That's a lot of links in the chain.

NM: Links in the chain, and we have a very limited schedule. And so it was a challenge just getting everything in place. But the fact that we were able to go in and put something original and add to the story, to the world of Naruto, is really, really great.

How long did you have?

NM: I think we had about eight months to start. We had to get the contract set up for aiding; we had to get through service, 'cause it's an original story, so we had to hire a writer and then write the entire scenario and then get that approved by the licensor.

And the licensor actually has to go through, step by step, and make sure the names are correct and everything; and that takes a lot of time. So there was a lot of bottlenecks that we had to overcome.

As far as the writing and the characters and the scenario and all that: did you guys generate it yourselves, and then pass it on to the licensor and so on?

NM: Yeah. It passed a lot of hands. You have the artists; we had alternate, separate artists that did it. We had a separate writer. We'd go and pass information back and forth. Obviously, we'd give them direction; they'd start forming something together: "Here's a rough draft. What do you think?" It goes back and forth.

And, once it solidifies, we give it to the licensor. The licensor comes back with all their information, feedback, and we make the adjustments necessary. It goes back to the writer; the writer rewrites it. And we have to resubmit it again. So it's a fairly time-consuming process.

It's actually a committee. It's a line of people sitting up on the table, and it's like "Please, give us approval. Are these models OK?" So all the animation, special attacks, and everything: we all have to put it on DVD, show them the images and stuff; and they'll say "We don't like the color", or, "Speed this up."

It sounds like a more international effort than would often happen with a game like this; is that typical?

NM: It is; it's normal. Even domestically, with domestic Tomy over in Japan, there's a lot of back and forth going on with that.

Actually, the fact that we're international, they've given us a little more leniency, because they're further along, so they know what's going on... in terms of how we could have certain characters interact with each other without it affecting the main story arc of the story.

How does it feel to have it done?

It's an enormous relief, first of all. The fact that we had such a limited amount of time, the fact that we were able to put in so much of that.

Another thing I didn't mention was we even talked to the animation studio that does the TV show, and we basically presented them sketches of all our original characters.

They created an original animated intro; so we actually had the guys who narrate Naruto all the time go in and animate our original characters that we concepted. So I mean it was a very big and challenging effort, but it was definitely good.

[This piece originally appeared on big sister game business site Gamasutra - don't forget to visit, check out the jobs, and subscribe to the RSS.]

For those of you whom enjoy playing your favorite video games while having a chance to win some cool prizes, there are a shit load of Xbox Live Play & Wins going on this long holiday weekend. While the majority of them are sports related, there are a spattering of other genres included in there as well. They all begin at 12:01 A.M. Pacific time on November 28 and then reach their conclusion at 11:59 P.M. PT on November 30, 2008. Simply chase the links for more information if you are interested in participating in any of them.

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Guitar Hero World Tour LIVE Weekend
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