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"Fallujah" Video Game Dropped Over Controversy

Posted by Jared Newman on April 27, 2009 at 12:21 pm

fallujahFun shouldn’t have to be the be-all end-all of video games, so I approached Six Days in Fallujah, a game based on a bloody battle in Iraq, with cautious optimism. Maybe this would be the title that takes war for what it is — intense and violent, with deeper consequences than “win or lose” — rather than a shooting gallery in realistic skin.

I tweeted as much when the game’s developers at Atomic Games talked about how they would address that issue. A report that the game included the perspective of insurgents piqued my interest even further. Maybe this game would not simply be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with specific historical details.

It could be all for naught now that Konami has abandoned Six Days in Fallujah. A representative for the company told Asahi Shimbun that the decision came after “seeing the reaction to the videogame in the United States and hearing opinions sent through phone calls and e-mail.”

This doesn’t necessarily rule out the game. Another publisher could pick it up, but will any company want to? The outcry must have been pretty bad for Konami to back down from the controversy, because usually a strong negative response from concerned groups translates into free marketing. I guess it’s easier to justify the fictionalized, cartoonish violence of Grand Theft Auto than the portrayal of an ongoing war.

The other possibility is that Six Days in Fallujah isn’t as deep and meaningful as I had hoped, and Konami knows it. Even so, I’d still like to see this game come to market. The games industry might have learned a valuable lesson on what’s appropriate subject matter for video games and how to approach it. Instead, the stigma remains that games can’t take on a serious topic with anything but pure entertainment in mind.

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Computers on Game Shows: What a Concept!

Posted by Harry McCracken on April 27, 2009 at 10:22 am

JeopardyWhen IBM’s Deep Blue computer beat chess world champion Garry Kasparov back in 1997, my reaction was pretty dispassionate: As someone who’s played only a few games of chess in my life, I simply didn’t have a deep understanding of the game or an emotional attachment to it. But when the news came out over the weekend that IBM is programming a supercomputer to play Jeopardy–well, that’s a breakthrough I can relate to. I haven’t watched the venerable game show much in years, but back in the 1980s, I planned my college courses around it to make sure I was home in time to watch (this was before I had a VCR). I get the game’s subtleties–it’s not just about having an encyclopedic knowledge of both serious stuff and pop culture, but also about being able to unpack the meaning of those questions-phrased-as-answers in a split second. And given that countless very smart people have gone on the show and fallen flat on their faces, I’ll be impressed if IBM’s computer manages an unembarrassing third-place finish. But I don’t have any difficulty dealing with the idea that a computer might someday beat any flesh-and-blood Jeopardy player on the planet.

Thinking about the prospect of a computer taking on Alex Trebek, metaphorical buzzer in hand, led me to the conclusion that game shows in general aren’t a bad Turing Test-like gauge of artificial intelligence. They require knowledge–okay, only a little of it in many cases, but some. They’ve got a social component, by definition. They involve thinking on one’s feet, or the simulation thereof.

So how might a really well-programmed supercomputer fare at other famous game shows of the present and (mostly) past?

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Windows 7: Now With Windows XP!

Posted by Harry McCracken on April 24, 2009 at 9:25 pm

Windows 7How can you ensure that Windows 7 will run Windows XP applications? Make it run Windows XP. That’s the idea behind Windows XP Mode, a free download that Microsoft will make available to buyers of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate. (Here’s Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurott’s report on it.) It’s a copy of the next generation of Microsoft’s Virtual PC virtualization software that’s been pre-bundled with Windows XP, and which lets you run XP apps within Windows 7 as if they were native 7 ones–seamlessly, in theory. Sounds a bit like the experience of using VMWare Fusion’s Unity feature or Parallels Desktop’s Coherence one to make Windows apps show up in OS X.

You gotta hope that there are relatively few instances when Windows 7 won’t be able to run an XP app natively, but this sounds like a useful security blanket, especially for companies that run custom apps. It’s also a sign of the ongoing relevance of Windows XP. Sounds like a smart, inventive move on the part of Microsoft.

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RealDVD on Trial

Posted by Harry McCracken on April 24, 2009 at 5:38 pm

RealDVD logoRealDVD, the DVD-copying application from Real which I reviewed back in September during the brief period it was available before Hollywood stepped in and convinced a court to yank it, is fighting for its life in a San Francisco court. Wired has a good report on the proceedings so far. Maybe I’m just being pessimistic, but reading it leaves me thinking that U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel is inclined to side with Hollywood, not with Real and with the notion that consumers have the right to duplicates DVDs in a way that preserves copy protection, puts extreme limitations on what they can do with the copies, and makes it impossible for them to distribute them via file-sharing networks.

If RealDVD is ruled to be illegal, it’ll be sad. It’ll also be kind of silly.  Kaleidescape makes a neat home entertainment system that does something very similar to what RealDVD does–for thousands of dollars. Telestream’s $39 Drive-In is also much like RealDVD–but it runs only on Macs. And we seem to be nowhere near any scenario that involves users of DVD rippers such as Handbrake–which override copy protection altogether–being thrown in jail.

Basically, the only thing that prohibiting release of RealDVD does is to prevent Windows users who aren’t all that well-heeled–and who bend over backwards to respect copy protection–from creating digital copies of their DVDs for personal use. Everybody else can go on merrily copying their movies. Remind me again just what purpose would be served by eliminating it from the market?

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Is Your Software Secure? Who Knows?

Posted by David Worthington on April 24, 2009 at 4:56 pm

For a story I wrote for SD Times, I asked leading software makers to tell me about the processes they use to develop secure software–and found that most were unwilling to discuss the subject. Some companies will provide specious reasons for not being transparent, including the notion of providing customers with “security through obscurity,’ but I believe that many are simply fearful of appearing disorganized and unconcerned.

How software is designed affects your safety, financial security, and privacy. Poorly-designed software has reportedly enabled foreign intelligence agencies to violate vital infrastructure in the United States (and presumably elsewhere), and it enables those with the know-how to get at your personal information on your own computer.

Consensus is that it is more effective to design software to be as secure as possible as early as possible in its development life cycle. Microsoft and other leading software companies have changed how they develop software to make security a requirement; consequently, vulnerabilities in Microsoft software are down dramatically.

Microsoft now shares its blueprint for developing software with its customers, and has begun to provide developers with free security tools that it uses internally. It did so because its knows that hackers are targeting applications that run on its platform, including third-party ones, as its hardens Windows with additional security.

If Microsoft is rising to the challenge, the other major software makers must be too, right? Wrong. I contacted over 20 leading companies including Apple, IBM, Nokia, Yahoo, only to be largely ignored. Include open source groups in that count. If those companies won’t be transparent, how can you trust the software that powers your cell phone, or stores your financial information?

Believe it or not, I am being told that many companies, including competitors, are asking Microsoft for advice or are simply copying its methods. That’s both encouraging and disappointing.

Some of those companies may be doing the right things, but I’m not encouraged by their silence. Software makers may do security testing after software is developed, or in bits and pieces, lacking a unified, company-wide strategy. However, security cannot be an afterthought, and there is no excuse for the industry to continue place its customers at risk.

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Microsoft Sets Release Date for Windows 7 RC1. Two of Them, Actually!

Posted by Harry McCracken on April 24, 2009 at 4:49 pm

Windows 7Enough with the rumors, educated guesses, and BitTorrent leaks: Microsoft is saying when it’ll release Windows 7 Release Candidate 1, the version that’s likely to be the last major one before the OS is finalized. As Ina Fried reports over at Cnet, developers who are members of Microsoft’s MSDN program can download it on April 30th; everyone else will get it on May 5th. The RC will feature a lot of minor tweaks compared to the beta, but if it involves any surprises it’ll be…surprising! Absent wild-card scenarios like government interference, it seems all but certain that the computers folks buy for back-to-school season and the holidays will get the shipping version of the OS.

I’ll install it and share thoughts when I can get my hands on it; if you give it a test drive, I’d love to know what you think.

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The Trouble With Tiny Windows Computers

Posted by Harry McCracken on April 24, 2009 at 4:14 pm

OQOThings don’t look good for OQO, the company behind a series of handheld computers that ran full-blown Windows. As Eliot Buskirk reports over at Wired.com, the company has lost its CEO and resellers have stopped taking preorders for its next-generation model; rumors are that it’s running out of time to make it as a stand-alone entity.

If OQO folds, it’ll be sad–but the funny thing is that it’s already a pock-marked survivor in the product category of tiny Windows devices. The similar FlipStart PC (backed by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen) was on the market for only a year. And as far as I can tell, Sony has discontinued its pocket-sized UX handheld. Microsoft’s once-hyped Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) platform, meanwhile, is alive but far from thriving.

And yet, the funny thing is that there’s never been more interest in extremely portable computing devices than there is today, nor as many attractive choices. It’s just that very few of them bear much resemblance to the OQO and its direct rivals. Smartphones like the iPhone 3G and T-Mobile G1 are pocket-sized computers by any definition I can imagine; netbooks such as Asus’s Eee PC 1000HE are bigger than the OQO but smaller than garden-variety notebooks.

So how come OQO-class machines have never caught on? I can think of several reasons:

Windows was never designed to run on devices that small. It wants a display with both decent resolution and a fair amount of physical space. They assume the availability of a decent QWERTY keyboard (and I’ve never seen an OQO-class gadget that even had as good a keyboard as I think could be crammed into the available space). They benefit from a mouse, or at least a large touchpad. The whole idea behind these devices is providing the benefits of the world’s most widely-used operating system–such as scads of applications–but the fundamental usability hassles canceled the virtues out for most folks.

They’re full of advanced engineering that didn’t deliver enough user benefit. It’s a small miracle that OQO was able to get full-strength Windows to run on a machine that small at all, and a tribute to the company’s designers. But smartphone engineers have a head start, since they aren’t stuck with the challenge of making a desktop OS run on a tiny device. And netbooks, almost by definition, don’t include any sophistcated engineering–and don’t have to, since they’re large enough that miniaturization isn’t required. (There’s a reason why most netbooks are actually rather chunky.)

They’re too dang expensive. A couple of years ago, the OQO and FlipStart both cost $2000, or more than most people pay for a traditional notebook. Today, OQO starts at a grand. You could buy both a smartphone and a netbook for that, and have money left over.

I know that there are people who are passionate fans of the OQO and similar devices–but there don’t seem to be enough of them to add up to a robust business, and that just isn’t that surprising. Will OQO’s woes scare other companies off from building other computers of this sort? Maybe not: Intel is forging ahead with its Mobile Internet Device platform.  I wish it luck. But I’m thinking that consumers have already rendered their verdict–and as usual, theirs is the only one that counts.

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Apple May Be Immune to Economy, But Stores Aren't

Posted by Ed Oswald on April 24, 2009 at 12:20 pm

applestoreApple certainly made it through this past quarter in great shape. Nobody is complaining about the company’s results, which by all accounts were stellar. However, Cupertino does have a retail arm, and like any other it’s beginning to struggle.

Average revenue per store is down 17 percent – falling from $7.1 million in the year ago quarter to $5.9 million. It could be argued that the only reason overall sales numbers were up slightly (1 percent) was the fact that 46 new locations have been added since then.

(Imagine the Wall Street carnage if Apple hadn’t opened a single store — eek.)

Thus, the company’s gotta do what its gotta do. That means layoffs — 1,600 full time employees will be cut across its 250+ stores. That would amount to about 10% off its current total workforce of around 15,600.

One thing is for sure however: the frantic pace at which Apple had been opening new retail locations appears to be a thing of the past. Sign of the times, ain’t?

More about Apple’s plans can be found in this SEC filing.

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Gamefly Accuses Postal Service of "Discrimination"

Posted by Jared Newman on April 24, 2009 at 10:43 am

gamefly_logoVideo games tend to be frowned upon as second-class media, but the US Postal Service is taking that stance literally, according to a complaint by Gamefly, which rents video games through the mail.

In a 17-page complaint filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission (via Ars Technica), GameFly says that 1 percent to 2 percent of its games are breaking in transit. Even more interesting is Gamefly’s allegation that the postal service gives “preferential treatment” to Netflix and Blockbuster.

Gamefly takes issue with the use of an automated sorting system that has a tendency to damage discs. While the postal service manually sorts out “a large percentage” of DVDs from Blockbuster and Netflix, it refuses to do the same for Gamefly under equal terms.

Adding insult to injury, the postal service boasted in a July 2008 press release that it was helping Gamefly prosper when the company opened a new shipping center. “GameFly may be a relatively new company, but it’s using an old idea— getting USPS to help it grow,” the statement said.

Gamefly filed the complaint on four counts, among them “Unlawful Discrimination Among DVD Mailers” and “Unlawful Discrimination Among Flats Mailers.” The company says it wants the same terms and prices that Netflix and Blockbuster are getting and may seek “additional forms of relief as the evidentiary record justifies.”

With 590,000 discs going out per month, Gamefly is shelling out almost $300,000 per month to replace broken discs if you assume a cost of $50 per game. That hurts enough on its own, but as Gamefly points out, Blockbuster is getting into mail-order game rentals now, allegedly without the same shipping headaches.

This explains why I’ve received a few different varieties of mailers during my two years of membership with Gamefly. I used to get cardboard inserts in the mail, but that practice was abandoned last year at one point abandoned, and has since continued again. Apparently, it was too expensive because of the weight increase, and it didn’t the extra cost still doesn’t stop all the discs from breaking.

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