PSP Zoning: Update

I finally managed to reach someone at Ster Kinekor – Nadine Pillay, Ster Kinekor Games’ Marketing and PR Co-ordinator - regarding this last week, and this was her response:

“Hi Matt,

Thank you for you enquiry.

Unfortunately, we are aware of retailers stocking and selling non-European PSP units. However, Ster-Kinekor is not responsible for these units. All units brought in by us are directly supplied by SCEE (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe). We are the licensed and official distributor of Sony Playstation hardware and Software and various other developers in South Africa.

All retailers are supplied by us, however due to the huge demand of PSP; certain retailers could not get stock from us so took it upon themselves to import their own stock. Obviously, seeing that we are the official distributors, they got their stock from just anywhere they could get it.

This was out of our control and by all means not condoned. We cannot be held responsible for the sale of these units and regret that we were not allowed to warn the end consumer.

I trust the above is in order and should you require any further information, please do not hesitate in contacting me, I would gladly assist.

Thank you.

Have a good day !

Kind regards

Nadine Pillay

Marketing and PR Co-ordinater

Ster Kinekor Games – PlayStation”

Now I understand that they can hardly be expected to take responsibility for retailers bypassing them as official distributors, but I would think it is both in their interest and in the interest of consumers that they make this practice (and it’s consequences) publicly known. I would at very least expect notices on public gaming forums and in NAG, and ideally general notices in newspapers and some kind of ‘keep it official’ campaign (yes, I know this has cost implications-but surely it’s worth it to increase legitimate sales from which they profit?). I have responded with a letter to that effect and am still awaiting a response. Watch this space. In case anyone else wants to add their two cents, contact me and I’ll give you her contact details.

Another comic catastrophe waiting to happen?

The BBC News website is carrying a story about a new Batman adventure that will see the Dark Night take on Osama Bin Laden. Frank Miller, the artist writing the ‘Holy Terror’ story openly labels it as American propaganda, and points out that in the past comic book heroes such as Superman and Captain America appeared in similarly ‘current’ storylines that saw them taking on real-world ‘villains’ of the time.

Considering the recent violent uproar in Muslim communities over a series of political cartoons blasphemously depicting their prophet, Mohammed, as a terrorist bomber, one wonders what the reaction to such a comic book would be. Granted, Osama Bin Laden is hardly a religion icon to all Muslims, and is despised by the vast majority of them for smearing the name of Muslims in general, however the group that do support him and the al-Qaeda terrorist group are decidedly more militant and violent than most.

MMOs are bad for you, mmkay?

Last year the Chinese government imposed a limit on the amount of online play per day, per game that young individuals were allowed, supposedly to limit the harmful effect of MMOs on the populace. Players got around this buy just playing more games, or having multiple accounts or ‘alts’ on their game of choice. Well, it seems the government has decided to take things a little further. As of March 1, teenagers in China will be banned from locales offering "audio and video products and electronic games" which "harm national security and incite hatred toward other nationalities." This ban includes internet cafés; karaoke bars and discos, and is part of a drive by the Chinese government to “limit the immoral and harmful content, especially for young people."

I’m sorry, but ‘Immoral and harmful content’? This doesn’t look like a focused project on particular games, music and other media that glorify disruptive behavior or encourage violence or social delinquency; this is a blanket ban on anything that might just encourage original thought. This is the kind of legislation that will ultimately cause the current Chinese regime to fall. History has shown us repeatedly that people do not stand for this sort of legislative smothering. If China were trying to isolate themselves from the rest of the world in other ways, this might just work, but as it stands, they are trying to be an active part of the global economy and develop a culture of consumerism in their country. Consumerist behavior and censorship are directly at odds and simply cannot coexist.

Flying High

While I was growing up, I spent a heck of a lot of time around airfields and aircraft, specifically microlights. This is because my dad is an ardent (obsessive?) flyer. He is also a microlight instructor, and recently he started offering flying lessons to international visitors. This came about after we met up with a group of German tourists paragliding off the hills near where we were holidaying in Croatia. They got to chatting to my dad, and being the blindly hospitible guy he is, he suggested the give him a call if they ever come to visit South Africa. Well as it turned out, they did call-and the rest is history. He now hosts a couple of tourists every year, and they learn to fly while seeing a bit of the African countryside. Personally I think he should be charging them a whackload of money, and making a living out of it, but as things stand, he basically lets them just get away with a meagre fee.

Anyway, one of the guys he has tought has set up a sort of 'fan site' with photos and info, and it's actually worth a look. It's quite interesting and has some really great shots taken from the microlight. It's all in German, but Google does a reasonably good job of translating it. Visit it at www.fly-in-sa.de/.