The get-kids-voting people behind Rock the Vote recently spread out beyond the limitations of MTV's core demographic and decided to enlist the Xbox Live community, long known to be an e-bastion of enlightened political discourse. So, being the politically (and mathematically!) astute bloggers we are, we took a look at the live poll results, as presented by MyGamerCard.net.

As of press time, Democratic-nom Barack Obama had a commanding lead over Republican oppollnent John McCain, with 4,623 gamerpics in circulation versus just 2,076 – a nearly insurmountable lead of 2,547 gamerpics. That's fine, but what's the real story here? How the pundits and the pollsters – clouded by the corruption and cynicism of a two-party election system – have ignored the dark horse in this election: Gears of War skull face guy, who right now controls a most impressive 87,626 of The People's votes. Ignore the political machine and vote your conscience!

[Via Cheap Ass Gamer]

Right, so the Mario Bros. remake below the jump -- by former Joystiq writer Jared Rea -- might be just the slightest bit offensive (and not in a NSFW way). But, it's also very funny, which has always trumped offense in our book. He says it's the result of a Twitter joke gone too far, but in our book it's gone just far enough.

Mr. Rea does provide some additional explanation for the gag on his blog, but we hope you don't need it (you're not that removed from the outside world, are you?).

Meet 1ickTh3P0l3. He can vote. But why tell him that? When Rock the Vote comes to Xbox Live on Monday (the start of the Democratic National Convention), it won't find the disempowered young citizens eager to be mobilized it's expecting. In fact, the Xbox Live community is a conglomerate of well-organized sub-divisions -- or "clans" -- which communicate through a modified, verbalization of "133t speak" with a large admixture of derisive language; including racial, ethnic, gender, sex, and religious slurs. These nihilistic hatemongers shoot first, typically with rocket launchers, and top it off with a teabag over your dead body. Oh wait, these are just the Xbox Live users under 18. Imagine how the ones of legal voting age spend their nights and weekends ... And you want them rocking what now?

[Image credit: Jeff the Trojan]

Tom Clancy might be this generation's Nostradamus. Although off by about three months, the first level in 2001's Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon is eerily familiar to the past week's events, where Russia and South Ossetian rebels have been fighting with Georgia. Unlike Ghost Recon, however, there has been no signs of US special forces armed with technologically advanced firepower and controlled by a mysterious "player."

Scholars are already sifting through The Great Texts in anticipation of any potential conflicts in 2014 Mexico City.

[Via Game Politics]

"We're in a new era of acceptance for video and computer games."

So did ESA CEO Mike Gallagher kick off his "State of the Industry" E3 keynote speech this afternoon. "When we look back, we'll see now is the time that our industry became an accepted part of our cultural landscape," he added.

The signs of this change are all around us, according to Gallagher, such as the prominent participation of Texas Governor Rick Perry in another keynote speech this morning. "In my predecessor's time, we were fighting government officials, not working with them," he said. While there are still problems with the game industry's image, he said, projects like Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's planned civics education game show that "those who write about the industry in narrow demographic terms are behind the times."

"There are fascinating things going on in your industry that not enough Americans, not enough people around the world, know about. You're in a constant state of evolution -- and yes for all you bloggers out there, I actually used the E-word there."
-Texas Governor Rick Perry makes an oblique reference to his more controversial associations at his E3 keynote speech this morning.

GamePolitics has obtained a copy of the judge's recommendation in the Florida Bar's disbarment case against renowned anti-game violence (or just plain anti-game) attorney Jack Thompson ... and it isn't good. Judge Dava Tunis, who Thompson has referred to as "mentally impaired" and "a raving wild woman" is recommending permanent disbarment in the case, where the Florida Bar had asked for a 10 year suspension of his ability to practice law.

In addition, Judge Tunis recommends that Thompson be assesed a $43,675 fine for the legal costs incurred by the Florida Bar. In May, Thompson was found guilty of 27 out of 31 charges made against him in a misconduct suit brought before the court.

[Thanks, Randall]

Preventing the world from plunging into economic chaos can be dirty, joyless work. Thankfully, foreign ministers of the ultra-exclusive G8 club were handed their very own perfume balls and custom DSs when they gathered in Kyoto recently to lay the groundwork for next week's leadership summit. You'll never guess what Condoleezza pictochatted Miliband. Poor Steinmeier, always the butt of their jokes...

[Thanks Ittousai!]

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced today that the state of Minnesota has paid $65,000 – that's $6.50 for every lake – in attorney's fees and expenses to the organization over its unconstitutional game law. The ESA claims it has now been awarded moneys totaling almost $2 million for fees and expenses incurred by defending the industry in other jurisdictions.

Bringing out fightin' words, ESA CEO Mike Gallagher said that Minnesota's taxpayers should be "outraged" by having to pay this bill after its elected officials ignored precedent and pursued a political agenda. Gallagher wants politicians to get behind the efforts of the ESRB "rather than continue to pursue unconstitutional legislation."

Each week Dennis McCauley contributes The Political Game, a column on the collision of politics and video games:


The video game world was buzzing last week following the New York legislature's passage of a video game statute. In voting overwhelmingly for the bill, New York became the first state to pass a video game law since June, 2006 when lawmakers in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Minnesota all sent restrictive game legislation to their respective governors for signature. The video game industry opposed all of those laws, of course, on constitutional grounds. Since Gov. David Paterson is expected to sign the New York bill into law, there's a natural assumption that the industry will also drag the Empire State into federal court.

But maybe not.

While earlier state laws placed content-based restrictions on video game sales, New York's proposed statute does no such thing. It is largely symbolic, perhaps designed to persuade voters that legislators are doing something to address that familiar cultural whipping boy, video game violence.

So, how impotent is the New York law?

We already brought the fantastic John McCain Space Invaders clone (which has you firing vetos at pigs shooting what we've recently realized are upside-down crosses) to your attention, but The Daily Show picked up on it last night, and added some of their own politically-themed games for your consideration (skip to 4:20 in the video after the break for the bit).

We know they're both fictional, but are we the only ones who would totally play Yes We Cannon? No? Just us? OK.

While most of our time on popular social networking site Facebook is spent trying to impress our cohorts with our favorite bands and films or attempting to propel porpoises into the far reaches of the spiral galaxy, we recently took notice of a new application added by Republican presidential hopeful John McCain's campaign staff: a simple flash game titled Pork Invaders, an obvious parody of the similarly titled arcade classic.

Don't mistake the game's title to mean the Arizona senator harbors any disdain for unkosher meats -- rather, the act of firing vetoes at familiar patterns of descending pigs symbolizes the candidate's contempt for pork barrel spending -- the earmarking of funds for seemingly unnecessary projects. It's not a particularly good game, though it is worth noting when the U.S.'s prospective new leaders enter the intimidating world of game development. We hope for a swift response from the presumptive Democratic candidate's campaign -- Obomberman, perhaps?

[Via GamePolitics]

A new update Team Fortress 2 is now available via Steam and includes major updates to the Pyro class. The basic flamethrower has alternate fire compression blast, the hadouken taunt now kills people and, most importantly, three new weapons have been added, to be unlocked by conquering the 35 new Pyro achievements.

The update also adds two community maps (cp_fastlane and ctf_turbine). Don't forget, Team Fortress 2 is free to play all weekend starting tomorrow. You can pre-load the game now.

Media Molecule's Mark Healey has given our friends at PS3 Fanboy quite the news-splosion. In the latest PS Nation podcast, Healey let loose on LittleBigPlanet details, including:

• There's "a whole heap" of levels that come with the game. "They are strung together in the form of a story," said Healey. "A very loose story, but incredibly funny at certain points."
• You can make private levels and give keys to friends. In terms of riskier, user-made content, Healey said there is a post-grievance system involving sending screenshots to the powers that be. He declined further on what that might mean for the sure-fire controversial level, LittleBigPenis.
• Sackboy plushies confirmed! Said SCEA PR Brandon, "It's on the way. Details will be emerging shortly."
• PlayStation Eye support confirmed. "For example," said Heley, "you can wear a cardboard box and put a sticker of yourself there. And presto, you have a little creepy version of yourself walking around in the game. So yes, you can absolutely do that."

The full audio interview can be found in tomorrow's PS Nation podcast, but for now, you can check out a text transcript of the highlights.

There's usually a wide chasm between video games and the politicians who make decisions that affect the sale and content of said games, so whenever we hear of a civil servant with a ludological streak, it warms our heart. Sure, their trysts with gaming are usually not major aspects in their lives, as a majority of their free time is spent appeasing constituents and kissing babies. However, a Republican candidate for the Connecticut legislature recently outed herself as having an extreme fondness for World of Warcraft, evidenced by her main character: a Level 70 Orc Hunter.

Jeanne Stevens, the aforementioned WoW fiend, is a mother of four and a local business owner in addition to being a legislative hopeful, making us wonder where she finds the time for late night excursions into Zul'Aman. We guess it helps that her father, uncle and kids are all suckling WoW's luminescent teat as well. We only hope that Stevens' story inspire other political figures to reveal their own gaming tendencies -- we hear Cheney can five-star "Psychobillly Freakout" on Expert.