Slashdot Mirror
The War Against Virtual Beer Pong
Michelle Shildkret, 360i on behalf of TIME.com writes "JV Games was all set to release 'Beer Pong' for the Nintendo Wii when parents and lawmakers got a whiff, forcibly renaming the game to Pong Toss and filling its pixelated cups with water instead. But the game is still rated 'T' for teen, and anybody who encounters it will be able to draw clear conclusions as to its intended purpose (drink and get drunk)." Lesson: Don't play games that simulate drinking before you play games that simulate driving, or larceny.
WTF? Just play real beer pong.
Maybe not
Because there sure seem to be quite a few of those.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Lesson: Don't play games that simulate drinking before you play games that simulate driving, or larceny.
... or shooting at politicians. After all, you might miss.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Really, this isn't such a big deal. Now if it was, say GTA or another game, but not this shovelware that has cropped up on Wii Ware. (Review here: http://www.wiiware-world.com/reviews/2008/07/frat_party_games_pong_toss). Seriously, it is a really crappy overpriced ($8) game.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
concerned parents began sending angry letters to JV Games and Nintendo... until JV Games agreed to change the title of the game to Pong Toss and fill its pixelated cups with water.
Well then let's just hope that nobody finds excessive urination offensive.
Or stimulating for that matter.
Honestly, when water isn't safe, where do you turn?
The US has some of the most stringent laws amongst western nations for limiting alcohol access to young adults. You can be taxed, vote, fuck and die for your country, but you can't drink beer until you're 21. Yet, amongst its peers, it ranks close to the top in terms of alcohol abuse and related activities like drink driving.
Similar hypocricy abounds in other spheres of life. The 'most free' nation in the developed world, yet a higher fraction of its population imprisoned than anywhere else. Abstinence only, but the highest rates of teenage pregnancy.
All of these are symptomatic of the US's prohibitionist approach to life -- a trait that can be traced all the way back to the pilgrims, who fled England not to be free from religious persecution, but so that they could themselves persecute without interference.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
Question: What's the life expectancy of a WII and TV in a dingy basement and a bunch of drunk college kids around?
Answer: You mean if by some chance it's not stolen first? Not Long.
It's not what your Sig can do for you, but what you can do for your for your Sig.
This is exactly what happened to the old video game 'Tapper', where you played a bartender serving thirsty customers. Originally licensed by Budweiser. They had to give it a face lift after parents complained (originally targeted for bars, it got into places it probably shouldn't have been in) to Root Beer Tapper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapper
We really need to kill off this nanny state we live in before the next generation is too afraid to go outside at all.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Ok, I get the game has you bouncing the ball in cups of water, but you can overdose if you drink too much water. So shouldn't parents still be pissed off because the game is still portraying something that you can do that could kill your self. I mean usually if you drink too much beer you pass out, so wouldn't drinking too much water be worse. Hmm, I'm confused, maybe becasue I don't have kids yet. Could some one please explain it to me.
Can't we all just get a pong?
Because your adult "child" might play this game away from home! Gotta protect the "kids", right? Why is it video games are the new evil that's replaced song lyrics?
Here's a message to the helicopter parents: Let Go.
AccountKiller
change the pong paddles to flowers, because you could hit someone over the head and hurt them with paddles.
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
All the time these parents spend writing angry letters could be put to use parenting . Talk to your kids about things they shouldn't do (like drink alcohol) and why they shouldn't do them. If you don't want your kid playing that game in the house, don't buy it. If you don't want them playing it at a friend's house, know your kids' friends and their parents. If they are reasonable people, they will honor a request that certain things not be on the activity list when Jimmy comes over to play. And if you've done a good job parenting so far, playing virtual pong isn't going to turn your kid into a hooligan.
Didn't your mother teach you not to do things you would be ashamed to see on the evening news?
This issue perfectly illustrates why we need strong laws protecting freedom of speech. Just having the 1st Ammendment isn't enough. If there was a federal law saying you can't sue over video game content, NO MATTER WHAT, this game would have been released as intended. The fact that you can sue somebody because you're "offended" is nonsense.
It's statements like this that make me support gun control.
If you can't hit your target while drunk, you don't have gun control
By just about any measure, USA is far from 'most free'. For example, look at: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=8247 where USA ranks 31 below , most of Europe and many others. Sure, it might beat China or Zimbabwe, but you'd hope that USA would try to compare itself with people nearer the top of the list.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
You don't have numbers of people behind bars despite strict laws but because. You don't have high teen pregnancies despite but because a lack of sensible sex ed.
That's basically what it comes down to. You know who profits most from strict porn laws? Porn makers. Actually, not only them, but generally the whole movie industry. You can show drivel like Baywatch and you'll have horny teens glued to the screen for the chance of seeing some boobs, at least through the bathing suit. You know what? The show bombed big time here, we have boobs when we want them, and, well, let's say Baywatch wasn't really the show that you'd watch for the story, ok?
Who profits most from strict alc laws? Breweries. Because you can sell whatever crap piss and call it beer and people will still buy it (trust me, I come from a country with less strict laws concerning alc and your beer simply IS NONE). No need to go for quality or taste, people will buy the crap anyway because, ya know, it's alcohol... the big man stuff that you only get when you're 21.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Senator Larry Craig will see you now, "Private" Flayer.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
Write angry letters (not e-mail, honest to God hand-written letters) to your politician about how this is ridiculous and absurd. use the following hard facts:
1. Drinking is a part of our culture. Hiding a part of culture from someone until they're well over maturity creates a dangerous situation, because people haven't yet learned how to handle these things. Aliens, there's xenophobia (kill the evil dangerous things!); covering up all violence, people lose self-esteem and confidence and crumble under stress (ohgod he's threatening to break my arm give him whatever he wants *cry cry* don't even THINK about helping someone else in trouble either way too dangerous wtf); alcohol, they'll seek out the contraband as kids and get into car accidents, or become alcoholics as adults.
2. Companies can market what they want. Parents need to control their kids; without actually raising kids, you can't control them. Imagine if parents simply didn't bother with keeping their kids off drugs; now imagine schools censored all things about drugs. Oh, what's this magic dust? It'll make me happy? Hmm... :) Even with school lectures, kids only really pay much attention to their parents when making decisions like that.
3. I find it offensive that you can breed without a license. I have to learn all the important points of driving (traffic signs, danger and hazard conditions) to drive; you should need to learn all the important points of parenting to have a kid. You need a license to get married already, but no training; put dick A in pussy B.
Really, what the fuck is so hard about this? "Angry parents whine to congress/nintendo about how they don't want to have to keep something away from their kids or try to teach their kids what that something might deviate them into doing" okay so "Angry parents bitch at congress/nintendo about this gross distortion of responsibility and accountability."
Support my political activism on Patreon.
According to Federal law the armed forces can allow drinking by service members as young as 18 on bases in or near locations where the legal age limit is lower than 21 - the military enforces the local drinking age laws. The degree to which such leniency is actually applied differs from service to service (if you're in the Air Force, you're out of luck), but the Army and marines have been pretty good about such things.
Travel the Galaxy! Meet fascinating life forms...
Thank god I can still play all sorts of games where I steal and kill all sorts of things. It's probably a good thing I can't play those games after playing beer pong, too, since getting tipsy might through off my aim. Better still, if I make a game where kids vote in an election, will I need to change it from a presidential election to a student council election? I wouldn't want to teach any kids to break the law by voting underage.
What's the rationale behind them caving in ? So there are a bunch of extremist parents who complained, but they always do! You could give them a video game where you plant trees, and they'd manage to find suggestive phallic themes in the seed/plant/bug things...
Why couldn't this company just say a nice big "Fuck You" and release their game as originally designed and titled ? No one's forcing these church nuts to buy the damned thing, and it's not like the average underage kid can afford their own games.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
I live in the NJ home to over 1,000 lakes.
To actually swim in any of them you have live in the same town and pay a hefty membership fee, or if you love out of town you pay an even higher fee. Just so they can pay for a lifeguard to man a small mud pond.
.
Nintendo sells a console for family oriented social gaming.
Nintendo doesn't need or want a well-publicized association with the frat party beer blast - which it would get from the day the game was first announced.
...is what the brew-ha-ha is all about.
I haven't posted in so long, my sig is out of date.
Okami is rated T, and that teaches your children that drinking sake makes you strong!
Ban this game now before it breeds a generation of sake-drinking hooligans who spend their days drawing circles around plants!
the site says it's rated E http://www.fratpartygames.com/ so wtf? now children can start practicing beer pong young? big victory for overprotective parents!
Other than the cups being "empty," how does this differ from "Ping Cup" in Game Party?
Here's your sig.
I compete in a lot of beer pong tournaments.
In fact I fly out to vegas every year for the world series (mentioned in article) and even placed top 10 for 2008.
Bizarre to see something like pong make its way onto slash dot.
There is another wii variant called Ping Cup in some type of party games package as well.
Personally I don't see the point to either simulations, since beer pong is ridiculously simple to set up an ACTUAL game in person.
All it takes is cups and ping pong balls! Why are you in front of a television - the game is supposed to be social.
Anyway, I can chime in on one aspect that most slashdotters are probably unaware of.
Beer Pong is extremely competitive. When you go to tournaments, it has nothing to do with getting drunk.
Make that shot and win that money. World series is 50k. Smaller local tournaments are 500-6,000 in prize money for 1st.
These politicians need to leave my game alone, damnit.
Beer Pong is not a crime.
The assholes are making me irked at my own country and envy other places' freedoms.
Faithfully recreating the beer pong experience would involve your Wii giving you a nasty week-long cold that you get from the other players who drink from your virtual cup of beer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapper
Had anyone heard of this game before? ./. Good marketing.
Now they're on
Will it have online play?
What's the value of information that you don't know?
No there are no black choppers.
The new prohibitionists and censors are real. That's why this story is on Slashdot. Because they are censoring a beer pong video game.
Ping!
I thought about writing this game a year or so ago. The Wiimote is suited perfectly.
Where I come from, Beer Pong is played with paddles. The proper name for the game in question is Beirut (Bey-root). I've been playing it for probably 8 years now. It's the game of the people, at my university.
We have 2 monumental games here at State Tech. Beirut is the Game of the People. Anyone can play, and even a lucky new person can feasably win. Our other game is Beer Die, which is the Game of the Gods. Typically, you won't win a game (without a very skilled partner), for at least your first 20 games, and that's if you're a quick learner.
I wanted to write these for the Wii, because the Wiimote fits both quite well. Unfortunately, I missed my chance. Multiplayer would be sweet if you couldn't find a suitable sized table to play IRL.
BTW, we do have lots of other games we play. These are just the 2 games that have some sort of status. I don't know if that makes sense. I'm drunk right now.
have been circumscribed
circumcised , my boy circumcised .
I am a circumcised male and consider it nothing less than genital mutilation
Debian FTW
This game has nothing on drinking bomberman or drinking life-force, or drinking 'any game where you have to drink when you lose a life'.
Next up on the "To Ban/Outlaw" list:
1) Rock N' Roll (it's the Devil's music, and can lead to the downfall of society)
2) Skirts that show women's ankles (wearing anything shorter encourages pornography)
2) Unbuttoned Shirt Collars (shows too much skin on men)
3) Harsh Language (degrades society)
4) Marshmallow "Peeps" (people can choke while playing games with them)
5) Four-letter words in Scrabble (can lead to offensive language and degraes society)
6) Contact sports (can lead to severe injury and/or death)
7) Cheese (can cause cholesterol problems)
8) Personal Opinions (can lead to violent conflicts and social disruptions)
9) Anything Sharp (can cause severe injury and/or death)
10) Self-Defense (can lead to severe injury and/or death of the attacker/criminal)
11) Dirt/soil (since it contains dagerous germs and microbes, such as anthrax and E. Coli)
12) Trees (falling out of them can lead to severe injury and/or death)
13) Bicycles (sice they can cause injury to the user and can be a hazard to other traffic)
Better yet, why don't we just lock up everyone under the age of 40 in padded rooms and straight jackets because they might hurt themselves and/or someone else??!
As prestigeous elitist as Georgetown is, they should have realized the lawsuits that they could face from this, since they, and anyone else, cannot prohibit lawful activities taking place within a private dwelling, since dorms, apartments, and student housing are technically private dwellings/residences. It would be the same as banning having sex or playing the Marshmallow Peeps Game in someones apartment/room/housing/etc.
This would be a "losing" legal battle for a campus that tries to prohibit this, but "winning" in the sense that no student can afford to defend themselves.
My school prohibits kegs, since they are considered "Mass Delivery" devices, but that only means you cant have a 'keg' (not counting those 'mini-kegs' you see at 7-11), and you can have as much alcohol as you and your buddies can afford. You can have a truckload of any kind of alcohol, but no kegs. Sorta makes sense, but they are not restricting alcohol or access to it by legal drinkers. If you live in the regular dorms, and have a roomie that is under 21, there must be at least 1 door, not including refrigerator doors (I already tried that) between the alcohol and the person under 21 (the door doesn't have to be locked at all times though). If you live in the student apartments or student housing, you can have any kind of alcohol anywhere. Parties/gatherings of over 15 people require you to fill out a very simple slip stating that you understand and you agree to be responsible for keeping the party under control. Our Police Department even has a shuttle that will take you to and from (until 2am) the downtown bars for free so you don't have to drive drunk.
The only real restrictions we have on alcohol is that you can't make your own, can't have a keg, and can't drink if you are a minor. Smoking is still O.K. as long as you are 25 feet from windows (State law).
Out rules regarding alcohol are simple common sense. As long as someone can care for themselves or is not posing a real danger to others, they are allowed to have fun. The rules (with the exception of kegs) are just the same as any other city or town in California: No open containers in public (except for scheduled events), you must be able to care for yourself, you cannot drive drunk, no underage drinking, and you can't give or buy alcohol for minors.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
Sure!
Tour 1: Women over 400 lbs.
Tour 2: Dudes in drag. Better bring a mask, 'cause you won't be pitching.
Tour 3: All the remaining Second Ladies: Judy, Betty(*), Happy, Joan, Barbara(*), Marilyn, Tipper, and Lynne. In. That. Order. (* = Bonus, cuz they were also first ladies.)
"filling its pixelated cups with water instead"
Scandal! It could be Vodka!
You use the word war, but i don't think it means what you think it means.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
So instead of beer they're going for personal sexual gratification?
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/toss)
Given that most complaining parents are quite happy for violence but not sexual content (e.g. no "soul-corrupting nipples" or it's an 18, but major violence only needs a 15) how can they remove alcohol and replace it with sex?
Once upon a time we used to world proof our children, now it seems we want to child proof the world.
Beer pong is a game played with paddles, throwing ping pong balls into triangles of cups is beirut.
Phil
What kind of sad, shallow person is inspired by someone of a particular skin color becoming President?
Umm, the kind that elected 43 presidents in a row that 'just happened' to all have a particular skin color? Coincidence? Yeah, prolly.
This is quite amusing considering it's just a video game. I don't agree with the approach of facist censorship. It just makes the subject even more 'bad-ass' and 'taboo'. So when kids do get to drink beer they will probably do it behind their parents back or on the street! Besides isn't drinking excess amounts of water in a short space of time also dangerous? :)
This is so stupid I dont even know where to begin [sigh]. It never ceases to amaze me the most out of touch people regarding children, are the ones who give birth to them . . .
Ohh spiteful one tell me who to smote and he shall be smolten!
I'm very glad that parents and lawmakers are spending so much time on kids getting virtually drunk, virtually running over old ladies, and virtually killing hookers.
Clearly, with global warming, increasing corporate consolidation in every industry, multiple wars and genocides planet-wide that we are either funding indirectly, directly, or directly a part of, a decline in the middle class that is readily apparent, a national debt that spiraled out of control under Reagan, and is now MUCH worse, species going extinct across almost every ecosystem, increasing levels of obesity, heart-disease, cancer, and genetic disorders, bread inflating in price over seven fold while the dollar deflates into toilet paper, irregular voting results, procedures, and a subsequent media black-out, questions about building seven, huge set-backs in education, a completely broken health care system, bogged down freeways and corporate toll roads, the sub-prime start of a NEW great depression, cameras on every street corner, and astronauts claiming there is higher intelligence in our region, it is refreshing to see that parents and lawmakers care about the important stuff, like virtual beer-pong. Clearly, their priorities are very much in order.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go back to having a conversation that is being listened to about how my friend was practically raped at the airport by the DHS on my over-priced corporate cell phone that is giving me cancer. Have a nice fucking day.
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
For a lot of grown ups, drinking =/= getting drunk. There is a difference. The lawmakers are stupid, but so is everyone who can't see the difference between drinking and getting drunk.
Its called Ping Toss and its available on Game Party, available at the local sprawlmart for under 20 bucks! Released by Midway I believe, I'd have to go home and look.
I mean, I'm down with being outraged and all, but have you seen this thing? It looks, and sounds, terrible. It's hard to care that the game got castrated, given what a pathetic load it is in the first place.
Bow-ties are cool.
I honestly think that most people simply don't remember their teenage years in sufficient detail to understand what it means to be a teenager. They claim to understand, but their actions and attitudes speak otherwise.
You don't understand me! Just leave me alone!
Bow-ties are cool.
Dude, we are the only western nation. Mexico and Canada are states of the US, and the other 'places' don't count.
Compare "Beer Pong" to "Major League Eating"
- If you assume people are going to mimic what happens in the game, which do you suppose is more reckless?
- Which game, overall, is more stupid?
Bow-ties are cool.
> Last fall, Georgetown University banned beer pong, specially made beer-pong tables and inordinate numbers of Ping-Pong balls and any other alcohol-related paraphernalia in its on-campus dorms â" even in the rooms of students of legal drinking age.
That's great. A ban on inordinate numbers of Ping-Pong balls 'and other alcohol-related paraphernalia'? How many balls do you need to play beer pong anyway? One? Are ping-pong balls alcohol-related paraphernalia? How about dice? I know drinking games that involve dice. And cards. Ban them! BAN THEM ALL!
Jean Rasczak: All right, let's sum up. This year in history, we talked about the failure of democracy. How the social scientists of the 21st Century brought our world to the brink of chaos. We talked about the veterans, how they took control and imposed the stability that has lasted for generations since. We talked about the rights and privileges between those who served in the armed forces and those who haven't, therefore called citizens and civilians.
[to a student]
Jean Rasczak: You. Why are only citizens allowed to vote?
Student: It's a reward. Something the federation gives you for doing federal service.
Jean Rasczak: No. Something given has no basis in value. When you vote, you are exercising political authority, you're using force. And force my friends is violence. The supreme authority from which all other authorities are derived.
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
Our society's childish attitudes towards alcohol give drink a "forbidden fruit" appeal. We need to treat alcohol more rationally so it does not become an implement in the battle of adolescent indviduation. Until then, we will have more stupid binge drinking.
I ... believe in global warming, and condemn all censorship that finds the opposite
While I suppose you could say that I too 'believe' in global warming, it distresses me that the pervasive attitude is that one can either believe or not believe in it. Stating belief in global warming is like stating belief in a round earth, it doesn't really matter that you believe it or not.
At this point it is no longer a subject of debate, the earth is warming. There is almost not debate as to whether or not we contribute to the problem or if it's natural. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control (IPCC) states that is is very likely (very likely is defined by the IPCC as 90% probable) that the causes are anthropogenic.
Read more on the IPCC website.
Wii sports golf made the best Wii drinking game in my opinion. Drink for every point over par and every point you opponents were under par. Good times...
Sounds like a game you play to lose:
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Does America really need another "War"?
I can play FPS games where I jack cars, murder/rob prostitutes, blow up buildings, and slaughter innocent civilians ... but I can't drink?
Um ... Why?
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Anytime a game is active, a game official doesn't magically appear and MAKE someone drink the cup of beer if it is made. When I was in college we used water so we didn't have to mess with nasty beer and gross pong balls. People drank at their leisure and it was socially policed. Using the point that it incites binge drinking is absurd.
... (just look at the sig)
Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?