While Rhode Island Bill S.2156 drew backing from the Parents Television Council, an unlikely pair has come out against the Bill, which proposes fines and possible jail time for retailers that sell “M” or “AO” rated games to underage patrons.

You might expect that the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is against the Ocean State legislation. The organization offered us this statement from Rich Taylor, ESA Senior Vice President of Communications & Industry Affairs:

Research released by Offerpal Media offers some insight into why so many social gamers are willing to complete marketing actions in order to obtain virtual currency.

The comScore-conducted study among 799 panelists reported that 53.3 percent of respondents would be “very likely” to take part in a marketing action in order to receive social game points or currency, while only 22.8 percent would be willing (and able) to pony up cold hard cash for the same rewards.

A German website (translated) is reporting that the Collector’s Edition of Ubisoft’s Silent Hunter 5 PC game has been recalled in Germany due to the appearance of “anticonstiutional symbols” in the game.

This would indicate that some type of Nazi symbol or imagery was left in the local edition of the game, which is verboten according to German laws. Edge received confirmation from Ubisoft that the game’s standard edition was not recalled, only the special edition.

David Jaffe can breathe a little easier today. According to the embattled developer, Bissoon Dath v. SCEA and David Jaffe, a copyright infringement lawsuit over various themes in the God of War series, was dismissed by a federal court judge last week.

In what could be chalked up as another win for Nintendo Down Under, Australian Customs and Border Protection Service officials have seized an incoming shipment of R4 cartridges, which can be used with Nintendo’s DS to play pirated games.

The seizure is detailed in an IT Wire story from the future, which notes that a question of the legality over selling the R4 carts in Australia now exists following Nintendo’s victory last month over an Australian website that sold the devices.

Chip-maker AMD, through its AMD Foundation, and in conjunction with the AMD Changing the Game program, has provided a $65,000 grant to the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers.

The funds will be used to back the Alliance’s videogame design category in its 2010 and 2011 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. The awards cap a yearly competition among U.S. students in grades seven through twelve that is designed to spur “teenagers’ intellectual creativity, innovation and artistic talent.”

The Alliance expects 700 student submissions in 2011’s videogame awards category. Additionally, AMD’s funds will assist in putting on game design workshops and supporting summer program scholarships.

Autodesk, creators of software such as the popular 3D modeling software Maya, has announced a free “Vehicle for Games” web-based curriculum that will teach post-secondary students the ins and outs of game development.

Created in conjunction with game developers NCSoft and Double Helix, the curriculum was developed to “mirror the requirements of real-world game development,” and is currently in testing at California’s Laguna College of Art & Design.

The curriculum provides “an art director's point of view for various steps of game development.” An additional description offered:

As part of her Let’s Move campaign to end childhood obesity, First Lady Michelle Obama is on the hunt for games that encourage kids to be more physically active and to make better choices about what they eat.

The Apps for Healthy Kids competition officially starts accepting submissions today and will offer up $40,000 in prizes to the winners across two categories—tool and games. Applications will be judged by both the public and an all-star panel that includes Entertainment Software Association (ESA) President Michael Gallagher, LucasArts Engineer Eric Johnson, Zybga’s Mark Pincus and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Judging ends on July 14, 2010.

Left Behind Games, which recently merged with fellow Christian game publisher Digital Praise, will see its titles now sold in Berean Christian Stores.

The agreement came about as a result of a recent trial marketing program that took place last year, which saw four “Family Video Game Night” events take place at Chick-fil-A restaurants in California.  The events allowed attendees to try out games for free and receive a 20.0 percent off coupon to be used at a neighboring Berean store. The promotions resulted in 30 games per week sold and $2,500 in monthly sales at a single store, prompting the expansion of the promotion to the remaining Berean locations.

While the incident isn’t game related, an Australian teenager’s recent run in with the law illustrates the country’s growing web of censorship.

The Herald Sun features the story of 19-year old Nathan Michael Wilkie (pictured), a resident of the town of Timboon in the territory of Victoria. Wilkie was in a supermarket parking lot waiting for his mother and passing time by pumping some music when cops showed up. Police allegedly stuck their heads in the car window and were not impressed by the expletive-laden lyrics they heard from “underground rapper” Kid Selzy, as they arrested the teenager. The police reportedly found the music offensive and derogatory to females. 

Police responding to a report of a burglary inadvertently went to the wrong door and handcuffed a group of game developers.

Denver-based IllFonic was the recipient of the unwarranted armed visit, which GamePron details on their website. The developer’s studio is right next to a medical marijuana dispensary, which was where the alarm was triggered from (probably not the first time or the last either). GamePron also has an embedded YouTube video of the whole incident as captured by a surveillance camera. The developers were cuffed, but quickly released once their identities were verified.

The PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA) has issued a few bullet point statistics from research into the status of the worldwide PC gaming market.

The group’s Horizon Report stated that the global sales of PC gaming software rose 3.0 percent from 2008 to 2009, totaling $13.1 billion last year. The industry has taken a remarkable turn towards digital distribution, which is reflected in the report—less than 20.0 percent of all revenues in the category were derived from the sale of retail boxed copies.

The report, authored by DFC Intelligence, claimed that the “high-end subscription” game market suffered from a lack of new releases and a declining number of users of older products. Additionally, free-to-play and social networking games caused PC game revenue to “decline in some markets.”

Our man Dan Rosenthal is at the Game Developers Conference and filed this report from a lecture he attended last night:

The Serious Games Summit at GDC closed out its first day with a sobering presentation from Allan McCullough and Parry Aftab entitled "Violence Prevention -- Playing A Video Game Can Make A Difference." Sponsored by the Child Safety Research and Innovation Center, the session explained that while games often get criticized as being too violent, the games industry can actually work to lessen the real-world effects of violence and abuse against children through serious games.

A Rhode Island Bill that proposes fines and possible jail time for retail employees that sell Mature(M) or Adults Only (AO) rated games to underage consumers has drawn backing from the Parents Television Council (PTC).

S.2156 (PDF) proposes to label it a misdemeanor to sell “M” rated games to anyone less than seventeen years or “AO” rated games to someone less than eighteen years of age. Fines of up to $1,000 and jail time of “not more” than one year are the bill’s proposed penalties. The bill is sponsored by State Senators Frank Ciccone (D), Paul Jabour (D), Beatrice Lanzi (D) and Michael McCaffrey (D).

In urging the Rhode Island legislature to pass the bill, PTC President Tim Winter stated:

The release of Madden NFL 11 this summer will mark the beginning of a new shift in policy for publisher Electronic Arts—they will sell all the in-game advertisements themselves.

Previously the company had relied on third-party in-game ad specialists, such as Massive Inc. and IGA Worldwide reports MediaWeek. EA’s Senior Vice President of Global Media Sales Elizabeth Harz said the move would allow EA to offer more elaborate,” integrated packages to advertisers.”