Calls for heavier video game restrictions are once again set ablaze following the German school shooting yesterday, where 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer opened fire in his former high school in Winnenden Germany, killing 16, and himself in addition shortly after. Kretschmer was believed to be a skilled Counter-Strike player, and now European reps in Strasbourg have voted for a resolution in order to prevent retailers from selling inappropriate games to minors.

With all the concerns circulating violent video games, horror author Stephen King joins in on the discussion. Writing novels for more than four decades, he's one of those credible enough to speak about the matter. Instead of writing down what he believes in, King chooses to speak up his mind. Find out what he said in the full article.

The recent shooting in North Illinois University had Jack Thompson appear once again on Fox News, linking yet another tragic incident to violent video games. In this latest development, Thompson faxed a letter to NIU asking for the shooter's history in playing violent video games, ending the letter in what could be construed as a threat of a lawsuit should the documents not be provided. Read Thompson's complete letter in the full article.

 

2K Games' BioShock is still riding waves of success, being top pick for various gamers around the world. The Swedish are no exception either, for the first-person shooter from 2K Games Boston and Australia steals number one spot for their all platforms chart - well the Xbox 360 version, that is.

It also managed to squeeze through four popular PC, MMO games in the region, which include NCSoft's Guild Wars expansion Eye of the North, Creative Assembly's Medieval II: Total War expansion Kingdoms, and Blizzard Entertainment's two-hit combo - World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade - in that order from second to fifth.

BioShock's Games for Windows version settled into sixth place, while Insomniac Games' Resistance: Fall of Man and Revolution Studios' Motorstorm also found a place in the top ten titles, having grabbed a solid seventh and eighth respectively. 

Counter-Strike 1: Anthology from Valve Software at ninth closed the PC game count to six in PC-dominated charts, while PS2 title Guitar Hero 2: Rock the 80's from RedOctane concluded the top ten games. In essence, Guild Wars: Eye of the North topped the PC list, Resistance: Fall of Man trumped the PS3 list, BioShock rocked the Xbox 360 chart, and Nintendo's Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess was king of the Wii mountain.

In the handheld scene, Nintendo's Pokemon Diamond was favored in the DS list, while WWE Smackdown vs RAW 2007 from THQ crushed competition in the PSP chart. Here's the top ten in the Swedish multi-format charts:

1. Bioshock (360)
2. Guild Wars Eye of the North (PC)
3. Medieval II Total War Kingdoms (PC)
4. World of Warcraft (PC)
5. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
6. Bioshock (PC)
7. Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
8. Motorstorm (PS3)
9. Counter-Strike 1: Anthology (PC)
10. Guitar Hero 2 Rock the 80´s (PS2)

Buy: [Bioshock (Games for Windows)]
Buy: [Bioshock (Xbox 360)]

What are they playing over at Sweden? Aren't you curious? This bit of info just might save your life one day, y'know. The region's data trade firm, Dataspelsbranschen (now try saying that as fast as you can, ten times consecutively), has just released the top sales charts of video games for Sweden.

The Multiplatform chart is dominated by the MMORPG mogul that is The World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade from Blizzard. This is followed by Pokémon Diamond on the Nintendo DS. MotorStorm and R:FoM have also landed a place in the multiplatform chart, and unsurprisingly, both titles get bragging rights in the PS3 chart.

The 360 chart has Guitar Hero II fronting the musical act - and smack dab in the middle is Gears of War on fifth place. The Wii has Leon Kennedy and Ashley Graham running up to first place with Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, while Twilight Princess is galloping up to the Top 2 spot.

On the handheld side, the DS chart has both Pokemon (Diamond and Pearl) titles on top, while the PSP chart has Pro Evolution Soccer 6 kicking into the goal - Konami's sports title is enjoying the kingly spot on top.

 Multiformat

1. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
2. Pokémon Diamond (DS)
3. World of Warcraft (PC)
4. Counter-Strike 1: Anthology (PC)
5. Guitar Hero 2 Rock the 80´s (PS2)
6. The Sims 2 H&M Fashion (PC)
7. Pokémon Pearl (DS)
8. Motorstorm (PS3)
9. Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
10. Singstar 90's (PS2)

Check out the Full Article link below for each individual chart per platform!

Gamers turning pro aren't rare anymore, and guys spending lots of time to improve their game are more cool than geeky nowadays. If StarCraft is almost South Korea's national sport, it's not impossible for other countries to realize that video games can be good spectator sports. UK broadcasting company took notice, and will now feature the Championship Gaming Series on TV.

Big tourneys have been on TV before, sure. What makes CGS a lot more epic is how the top 20 players will walk away as pro-gamers earning bread by playing games. Still not exciting enough? "Pro-gaming has reached a level of maturity and reach that makes it a natural fit with Sky's entertainment business," said Adrian Pilkington, director of Enhanced TV and Games for Sky.

In other words, CGS aims to capture not only current gamers, but also intrigue others that aren't into gaming yet. Skeptics would say it's not fun when you're not playing, but Pilkington has something in mind. He told GamePro in an interview:

People will watch CGS for the same reasons that sports fans like watching football or golf - because they want to watch the best players make the best plays. Pro-gamers have incredible hand-eye coordination that you wouldn't believe unless you see it. It's important too that viewers get to know the players and their personalities, so we'll be following the gamers outside of the games as part of each show.

Sounds like American Idol, much? Apparently not, because no reality show can beat massive competitions on TV where we can see the best plays in FIFA, Dead or Alive, Project Gotham Racing, and even the classic Counter-Strike.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like PS3 games are on, while the Wii is still under consideration. "The online qualifications have been open to anyone with an Xbox or PC," Pilkington continued.

We feel sorry for the victims that lost relatives and loved ones during the V-Tech incident. However, it's hard not to feel the same towards the video game industry that takes all the blame.

Recently, a Virginia Tech Review Panel was held and it was suggested that violent video games should be banned like heroin. Why? Panelist Don Phau not only mentioned Jack Thompson's allegations against Counter-Strike motivating Cho Heung-Sui, he also claims that the game is related to the Erfurt school shooting in Germany.

According to this Thompson-wannabe, FPS games were made after the Vietnam War by the industry to make money. He also stated that Microsoft developed Counter-Strike. What's next? Mario's mushrooms are actually drugs?

"These games, I propose, should be banned. The same way you cannot buy heroin; the same way you cannot be a 16-year-old and buy pornography," said Phau. He would've been correct, if we lived a few years ago before the law against selling video games to minors have been passed.

This man is obviously uninformed though, so cut him some slack. He even gave figures: 82% of kids can buy M-rated games. His report is pretty much seven years old, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) president Hal Halpin has given his own two cents on the matter concerning Paul Hwang, the Chinese student from Clements High School in Fort Bend who was expelled for playing on a Counter-Strike map that resembled his high school.

In a statement to GamePolitics, Halpin said that "Paul Hwang's only crime was bad timing. He had the misfortune of uploading his mod during a period of time in which the nation was, perhaps unduly, made sensitive about the supposed link between violence and video games."

Here's the rest of the statement:

It seemed to me that the law enforcement authorities acted with prudence and that the school board should do similarly. This will likely be the first of many such instances where older generations who don't understand a medium, fear it, and as a result there will be reactionary decisions made. It's incumbent upon gamers to persevere and to prove the rule and not the exception. Only together, and over time, can we accomplish such a lofty goal.

A lot of people have pointed to the recent Virginia Tech shooting incident as one of the reasons for the seemingly hasty expulsion. However, some reports also say that Hwang's Counter-Strike map had already been uploaded prior to the Virginia Tech shooting. So, is it timing or something else? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.

We just reported earlier about the rather belated news of the expulsion of a Chinese student. He was expelled from Clements High School because he was spotted playing a game of Counter-Strike on a map that, according to the police, was based off of his own high school's floor plan.

Unfortunately, because many facts have been hidden from the media, I, for one, am very skeptical about such a claim. I've searched high and low for more information on the story, but all of it revolved around relations to the Virginia Tech shooting and some executive board members soiling their underpants fearful of another incident. The most specific of facts were hidden, but to what aim? Fairness? Speaking of fairness...

Authorities claimed that hallways in the map were reminiscent of the student's high school's hallways. Granted that may be so, is the high school made up of just those hallways?

It's sad that we ended up drawing speculations here, but because the evidence (the map layout coupled with the high school floorplan) was never revealed to the media, can you blame us for doing so?

But let's take this into another point of view. There are many issues that gamers and some third-party onlookers have raised with this development, just about equally for and against the rash decision of the district board. First is the issue of maps depicting real-life locations and understanding what map making entails.

The second issue that people have had, which includes the 17-year-old senior's supporters, involves blowing the Virginia Tech shooting to proportions way off the "common sense Richter scale." In fact, it either began to look like the budding of another racial stereotype or, as one district board member claimed, the first of probably many overreactions, thanks to the VA Tech shooting and anti-video game activists. But let's tackle these one by one.

Click on Full Article to read more on this opinion piece.

Recently, a Chinese student in Clements High School was expelled for having played Counter-Strike in a level that had hallways reminiscent of his own school's hallways. Following the parents' appeal for reconsideration, the Ford Bend Independent School District had postponed the meeting because four of the school board's members refused to show up.

The appeal was the fourth part of a long appeal process, ultimately ending up with a meeting with the Board of Trustees.

Defending their stand, the FBISD trustees who stayed away said that the meeting itself "circumvented" the disciplinary process. Board member Stan Magee stated that the meeting could have expedited the resolution of the case. Unfortunately, third-party onlookers have began to say that the board's rash decision was an overreaction to the Virginia Tech incident.

Coupled with the video game-related banter coming from anti-video game media icons, even Magee admits that their resolution was an effect of fear, stating, "I think we overreacted as a result of the Virginia Tech ordeal." Although the Chinese community rallied behind the 17 year old boy, there are many sentiments that have risen against the act despite people applauding the quick response of the board.

FBISD spokeswoman Mary Ann Simpson stated, "This goes back to Columbine. Ever since that horrid incident took place schools today have to take every incident that is reported very seriously." She iterates that these things had to be taken seriously, and that students needed to know that such things aren't taken lightly anymore.

Only Magee, Simpson and Ken Bryant appeared in the meeting on Monday at the districts headquarters. The other four members, namely Steve Smelley, Sonal Bhuchar, Cynthia Knox and Laurie Caldwell, did not arrive for the 5:30 p.m. meeting, which became cause for the meeting to be cancelled.

Ultimately, the 12th grader has been barred from graduating from the school and has been transferred to  M.R. Wood Alternative Education Center. What do you think? Feel free to discuss, but keep it clean people. We might just give out two-cents worth on this, too.