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Here's some interesting news for the legally oriented among us: According to Go Nintendo, an ex-Midway employee is suing everyone's favorite company over the Wii remote/nunchuck concept.

Apparently this Patrick Goschy is claiming that he had the idea more than ten years ago and therefore is entitled to money; as far as patents over the technology go, there's no word on whether he had any or not.

Meanwhile Nintendo is claiming that Goschy had zero involvement in the Wii's creation, and that includes ideas. View the video below. Looks familiar, eh?

And no he's not wearing pants.

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According to the Cumberland Times, a Frostburg State University students was arrested after comments he made on Xbox Live.

The 19-year old reportedly mentioned to fellow Call of Duty 4 players a threat of shooting up the school. Apparently the student went into much detail about how he would even do it.

Police followed up with the reports by working with Microsoft and Xbox Live to track down the suspect through his internet address.

Following his arrest, he reportedly told investigators he was joking and had no intention of following through with the threat. He could face up to a year in jail and/or a $5,000 fine.

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According to GamePolitics, the Florida Bar trial against Mystery Florida Attorney (MFA) has completed, but after hearing him talk for two weeks, the judge needs some serious alone time. The ruling has been delayed until next month so Judge Dava Tunis can review the transcripts and maybe clean some crazy out of her ears.

After the trial had wrapped up, MFA's last motion with the Federal court to vacate the trial was denied. So he went ahead and filed another one.

Until then, MFA is free to sow discontent and further his reputation as a lawyer.

Watch this space for more updates.

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If you've been following entertainment news lately you're probably aware that the Writers Guild of America (the people who write our TV shows and movies) are on strike because studio executives refuse to increase the percentages of online and DVD sales distributed to the writers.

Writers fear they are being treated unfairly, so they strike. They stop working, showing management how important they are.

If you've been following video game journalism news lately, you're probably aware that Jeff Gerstmann, an editor from GameSpot was apparently fired because Eidos put financial pressure on them of CNet, their owners, over a negative review Gerstmann gave to Kane & Lynch.

If I were a writer at GameSpot now, I would be terrified to submit any writing in fear that my job could be at stake for simply crafting an opinion: what their job requires. I couldn't do my job if it became apparent that credibility was for sale.

I'd go on strike. I'd stop submitting reviews or news. I'd stop working.

That's what I'd do, maybe it's what GameSpot writers should do.

Interesting to note, there haven't been any reviews posted at GameSpot today or yesterday. Maybe they're already refusing to submit reviews.

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According to a post by a moderator at the linked page of the GameSpot forums, if anybody at the GameSpot (not Eidos) side of this issue is to be blamed, it's CNET, not GameSpot itself. CNET handles advertising for GameSpot and all other property sites, and they handle hiring/firing.

From the thread:
This makes sense to me. CNet, as owners of GameSpot and damn near a thousand other websites, would be the ones handling HR and marketing rather than having each individual property doing it themselves; that would be redundant.

So who should we blame here? Eidos for pressuring CNet into firing Gerstmann over a bad review of a game they've been paying CNet to promote, or CNet for caving to pressure and firing a journalist for doing his job?

UPDATE: However, there would of course be people within GameSpot's management that can fire people. Complete control wouldn't be handed over to CNet.

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We have it on good authority from a source close to GameSpot that Jeff Gerstmann, a GameSpot employee for over 10 years and more recently titled as an editorial director was abruptly fired yesterday.

While there is no official reason for this, many people (our source included) and convinced that he was fired because of a somewhat negative review of EIDOS's Kane & Lynch: Dead men. EIDOS had been advertising pretty heavily on GameSpot recently, and apparently the 6.0 didn't please them.

We received the following statement from the Human Relations department of C|NET after inquiry.


Interestingly, the online gaming-themed comic Penny Arcade has just published this strip, featuring the firing of Gerstmann. How they knew about it is anybody's guess at this point, as no news story has been posted for it yet. Keep in mind that there is no official confirmation from any parties about the firing.

Today there was no episode of On The Spot, a video segment that Gerstmann typically hosts.

GameSpot's 6/10 review of the game, while low, isn't unique. GamePro and GameSpy also gave the game 60% scores, with no high-profile outlets giving any scores above a 90%.

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Next-Gen has a story on US Senator Leland Yee, who is warning parents about picking up games in which players "torture women and racial minorities" this holiday season.

In a recent statement Sen. Yee commented that, "Unfortunately, some parents don’t realize that in many top selling games, the player actively participates in and is rewarded for violence, including killing police officers, maiming elderly persons, running over pedestrians, and torturing women and racial minorities."

The Senator claims that "If there are violence and sexual themes in the title and cover picture, you can assume these themes are also in the game. Avoid the 'first-person shooter' and 'third-person shooter' killing-machine games."

Sen. Yee also seized upon the Manhunt 2/ESRB "issue" and took the opportunity to state that not only is the game on many a child's Christmas list (sounds like some fact checking is in order) but that "It was recently revealed that the game – which many [be] called the most violent videogame ever produced – has accessible content designed for an Adults-Only (AO) rating."

He continues, "Despite the graphically violent scenes which were supposedly removed in order to receive the downgraded Mature (M) rating, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has refused to re-rate the game."

I will admit that I don't like certain companies (Rockstar) bullying ratings boards and pushing out crap titles like Manhunt 2 just to shock the senses (and, consequently, worsen matters for the rest of the industry), but someone tell me where in Call of Duty 4 I was forced to torture a woman or racial minority?

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Here's a new take for the anti-video game camp, as The Sun - a tabloid based in Europe - has claimed that the reading skills of English children have "slipped" due to games.

The Sun reports that a recent literacy study found that at least a third of ten-year-olds spend more than three hours a day playing games as opposed to reading.

A nice little quote from The Sun:


What's funny is that a lot of games, in particular RPGs and strategy titles, involve quite a bit of reading of either dialogue, manual, or menu-system instructions, but either way I fail to see how any of this is the gaming industry's fault.

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For those of us in North America who have been trying (and failing) to locate a Wii at the base price (No, I do not want all those fluffy, stupid games in those overpriced 'value' bundles), we can take solace in the fact that we're not the only ones having difficulty in our Wii quest.

The subject has been receiving some attention in the UK as well, with Max Console.net accusing Big-N of of issuing press releases regarding the Wii's high demand and stock shortages to encourage sales.

Max Console.net reported on two articles discussing the issue from two separate UK newspapers. You can view an image of these articles here; their content should sound familiar.

For its part, Nintendo has responded to the story with the following statement:

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It's approaching almost a month since the Writers Guild of America, for television, film and radio, has gone on strike. While writers are waiting for demands, some are turning their attention towards a new option: video games.

Variety magazine recently talked to one such writer, who commented that "It has been an interesting shift. The literary agents are now saying, 'Why don't we get our clients over there during the strike?' even though in the past they thought the money wasn't good enough or the work is too demanding."

Video game writers as a whole make far less than their screenwriter counterparts. This is due in large part to the fact that game writers are not in unions.

This new interest in games for writers is making the WGA consider adding them to the union. So much so, in fact, that they even plan to feature an award at the Writers Guild Awards this spring.

"By recognizing the skill and craft of video game writing, the Writers Guilds intend to raise the profile of these writers so that they can get WGA contracts and benefits for this work," WGA West president Patric Verrone said.

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