Men arrested for doctoring video games
According to Mainichi Interactive, four men operating video game software stores in central Tokyo, Japan have been arrested after they tampered with video games in order to "reward" winners with up to one minute of pornographic video.
Three different shops were involved in selling the altered games. The first shop, operated by Yukio Omori, began the placement of pornographic images in the games. His sales supposedly doubled soon after. After seeing Omori's significant rise in sales, the two competing shops proceeded to alter their software.
Russian city places new rules on video game play
According to Itar-Tass.com, the Russian port of Nakhodka has banned select computer games in salons (arcades) that they say "provoke aggressive and merciless behavior of children".
The city also placed a limit on the number of hours children can play the video games. A 6-year old child can play for 10 minutes, while a teenager for not more than half an hour.
Nakhodka Mayor Viktor Gnezdilov set up a special commission - comprised of members of the city administration, sanitary service, firemen and police officers - who will monitor compliance with the instruction.
Epilepsy case goes to court
The family of St. Martinville, Louisiana, Mayor Eric Martin took Nintendo to court in July after their son Michael experienced seizures from playing a Nintendo game.
Upon three days of testimony before a jury, the trial ended after the parties reached an undisclosed settlement on the personal injury claim.
A seperate trial by the family is currently in process. According to the 2theadvocate.com, at issue now is what Nintendo knew about a possible connection between "seizures and video games and whether Nintendo's years of package warnings, self-imposed game-creation guidelines and correspondence with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission were adequate under federal law".
According to court documents, the family said it wants Nintendo to put warnings about the possibility of video games triggering seizures on the video game packages and on the screen while the game is in use.
In defense, Nintendo said it placed warnings in its products about the possibility of video games triggering seizures in photosensitive people. In addition, Nintendo said it has donated funds to the Japanese Epilepsy Association to help fund research into the connection.
They family said it also wants Nintendo to "rank all games according to the seizure risk, reformat all its games to reduce the chance of seizures, fund a nationwide advertising campaign to inform the public about the chance of seizures, allow all game owners to trade high seizure risk games in for low seizure risk games and to establish a refund program so everyone with Nintendo games can get their money back, court documents indicate".
Nintendo said it has had a limit on the number of times per second a light can flash, and a limit on the brightness of certain lights and their duration on the screen. The number of seizures reported to the company by consumers has dropped from 22 in 1999 to six in 2003.
One witness, a physician who is an expert in epilepsy, will give additional testimony later this month. After his testimony is complete, the judge will give the attorneys 45 days to file their arguments before making his final decision.