Gamers in Vietnam are going to find their evenings to be lacking by the beginning of March. At the request of the Ministry of Information and Communication, internet service providers in the country are asked to prohibit online gaming between the hours of 10pm to 8am.

The government is trying to regulate what we play and that ain’t right!

It’s hard to be a gamer when our rights to play whatever we want are constantly being challenged. Just look at Australia, whose government won’t allow them to play anything above a teen rating (and sometimes not even that).

The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear Schwarzenegger v. EMA which basically says that any video game deemed too violent would need to bear a 2 in. x 2 in. sticker displaying the numeral “18″ on their front covers and not be allowed to be sold in certain stores. This law is a clear violation of the First Amendment, plus it makes no sense to pass another law prohibiting certain game sales when there is already a similar law already in place. This new law would just make it harder for adults who are of age to be able to buy the game we want.

It seems that the situation in Australia concerning video games ratings isn’t getting better any time soon as the debate will be dragged along again by the South Australian Attorney General, Michael Atkinson.

We previously reported that the Australian government was soliciting public opinions concerning an R18 rating for video games. The government released a paper with arguments for and against the new ratings system so people would be informed before casting their vote. This seemed to be a fair and objective method for consulting the Australian population about an issue that affects them but, now, the whole thing will be moot thanks to Michael Atkinson.

Atkinson said that the public consultation isn’t fair and the anticipated overwhelming vote in favor will be biased because only gamers will vote. Additionally, Atkinson said that because he has received death threats and abusive emails he won’t change his posture on the subject…

If you were looking for individuals with fast reaction times, tons of coordination experience the ability to think quickly in random situations look no further than the Xbox Live community. Playing games online with other humans is one of the best places to use your wits to outsmart and outmaneuver the opposition. Xbox Live is teeming with individuals with potential to become real life agents and this is why a government intelligence organization named GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) will use Live to recruit.

GCHQ is a British intelligence agency located in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire (England), that partners with MI5 and MI6 agencies to protect the UK’s security interests.

GCHQ will run ads for six weeks on Xbox Live’s dashboard as well as within games including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Assassin’s Creed 2 and Left 4 Dead 2.

While gamers and their advocates have long since denounced California’s action as pointless, they gained a powerful ally in the LA Times. In and editorial titled “Violent video games: Who controls the joystick?,” the newspaper has taken the state of California to task for its efforts to legislate an action that should really be left up to parental units.

This is an editorial that any gamer can get behind…

In Iowa, a 32-year-old man may spend 20 years in prison for possession of Japanese manga and will face penalties under the PROTECT Act (18 U.S.C. Section 1466A). Christopher Handley is still in big trouble because of the manga he purchased from Japan in May 2006 that the government claimed was obscene and depicted minors engaged in sexual acts.

Luckily for Handley, he no longer has to face the court system alone as the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has decided to provide their expertise as a consultant to the defense and provide funds for use to support in obtaining…

Last month the Australian Home Affairs Ministry declared that the country’s attorneys-general would mull over whether games with an R rating should be allowed in the country or not. The attorneys-general met recently in Barossa Valley in South Australia and reached a consensus that the final decision can only be reached after taking into account the public opinion.

Australia doesn’t have a R rating for video games which means that…

Dr. Tanya Byron, a clinical psychologist, who is heading an independent review into the ill effects of games and internet on kids, published a report on Thursday (March 27, 2008). In the report titled “Safer Children in a Digital World” she has made several recommendations regarding children’s safety in cyberspace and ways to keep them away from adult content.

She has recommended greater cohesion between the UK government, game industry and parents, and also prescribed a greater role for the British Board of Film Classification in assigning ratings to the game. She wants BBFC to assign rating to all games 12 and above…

Just when we thought the dust has settled, I browse through the web to find Jack Thompson setting his sights on the Department of Defense on GamePolitics.

Thompson had sent a press release to GamePolitics that seems to blame the Department of Defense for the increasing “number of commando-style assaults” by young gamers and sites the mall massacre which took place December 5, 2007 in Omaha, Nebraska as an example and then later in the article blamed the Virginia Tech massacre on an “obsessive high school player of the military-themed CounterStrike.”

Which baffled me, I didn’t remember there being another shooter at VA Tech or did he mean Cho Seung Hui, in which case the only game he ever played according to the state’s investigation on Cho was Sonic the Hedgehog…

In a rather interesting gesture, Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has unveiled her likeness in the virtual world, Second Life, during the National Innovation Summit held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Makati November 26, 2007. She as joined by members of the Department of Science, Technology Secretary Estrella Alabastro, IBM Executive Vice President for the Innovation more »