It should be obvious to anyone who watches the news that, at least in the US, when it comes to how the public at large handles depictions of gratuitous violence or gratuitous sex, reactions usually vary wildly. We're used to violence on movies and television shows, to say nothing of the perpetual sport we as gamers partake in through gunning down criminals and generic "bad guys" through the course of any FPS or action game. We're "desensitized" to this, at least when our impetus is killing enemies in the name of a greater good, and most people don't really balk unless said killing is exceptionally graphic and excessive.

We Fly Spitfires has an entry up regarding Global Agenda and its decision to go the digital distribution-only method. I mentioned in my review earlier that it's only available through Steam, but there's also a limited edition version available through purchase on Amazon's US store. Either way it's expected by Global Agenda's developers that if you want to buy it, you're likely going to buy it through Steam.

Global Agenda is one of a few new science fiction-themed MMOGs that have been announced recently. Developed by Hi-Rez Studios, the title blurs the line between FPS, MMOG and strategy game, delivering something that is a fun amalgam of the three even if it lacks a lot of the depth found in any one facet. As such, Hi-Rez has named their game a "spy-fi" MMOG.

This past weekend I got to attend an exhibit at the Sydney Powerhouse Museum here in Ultimo titled "The 80s Are Back." As a child of that decade, the exhibition was nostalgic all around, but Sunday featured several gaming-related things that were fun to watch. As part of a larger retrospective of culture in the 80s, there were lots of arcade machines set up with retro games available for play as well as a large section on various consoles and computer systems that were released back then, such as the illustrious Nintendo Entertainment System and the Commodore 64.

Heather Logas has worked as a game design contractor on a number of popular titles and is interested in creating her first game on her own. The game, tentatively titled "Dreamtime," is a text-based choose your own adventure in the vein of H.P. Lovecraft and traditional myths. The final game will be for the iPhone, Android and web browsers. Heather is looking for $8500.00 to fund development of this project for two months so she doesn't have to worry about game contracting and can devote her energy to it fully. The hitch is that, though she's received a commitment of $5000.00 so far, if she doesn't meet her threshold by the end of February 1st, the project won't get funded.

On Tuesday, Monte Cristo announced that due to the fact that subscription adoptions were lower than hoped for, they would be suspending the online portion of the game and instead incorporating some, but not all, of the online features into the solo edition. Coming just three months after launch this conclusion is a bit surprising. After February 1st players will not be able to purchase new subscriptions, with online play ending March 8th.

A thread was recently started at the GayGamer.net forums around the following rant about modern gay rights, implicitly blaming the fact that we don't have gay marriage and full equality on things like the overt sexuality demonstrated at pride parades or the effeminacy of some gay men. The latter I have complained about here a few times already, but I added a wall of text to the discussion thread after the majority of comments amounted to "I think this guy is completely right." Sadly the guy isn't completely right and most of his perspective is incredibly nasty and self-hating, but as I've lamented before, it's a perspective shared by most gay people my age and younger. As the GayGamer.net forums require a registered account to read, I was asked if I could post my "essay" someplace else so it could be linked to.