http://kotaku.com/…

About seventy-five percent of game industry presidential campaign donations went to democrats, based on a sampling of developers and publisher donations over the past two years obtained from the Federal Election Commission.

Kotaku looked at presidential campaign donations for nine companies from January of 2007 through the end of July, 2008. The companies included were Activision, Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Sony Computer Entertainment of America, Take-Two, THQ, Ubisoft and Valve.

The database showed that the nine companies donated a total of about $97,800 to ten candidates, about $61,000 of which went to democratic candidates, while about $36,700 went to republican candidates.

The company with the largest contributions to campaigns was Electronic Arts, followed by Activision and then Valve. The company with the smallest amount of donations was Take-Two. Hit the jump for an avalanche of colorful pie charts and one, single, lonely bar graph.

The graphs unfortunately are scaled down too much to clearly see the legends on all of them but it is clear that while they lean Democratic party, Ron Paul was the favorite Republican. Being that I’m a gamer and a supporter of Ron Paul I’m glad to see this. Especially the Sony breakdown.

Right click and hit play.

Game play footage: http://www.telltalegames.com/strongbad

http://www.kcbs.com/…

For years, the idea of taxing soda to beat back obesity has been tossed around in medical circles. But now, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is proposing a tax on beverages high in fructose corn syrup.

Newsom says obesity accounts for tens of millions of dollars in city health care costs. He cites a recent San Francisco Health Department survey that found nearly a quarter of the city’s 5th, 7th and 9th graders were overweight and that high sugar drinks make up a tenth of a kid’s daily calorie count.

Newsom reportedly wants all big box retailers and chain drug stores to pay into his new “Shape up San Francisco” program, which started this past summer with a walking regimen.

This comes as the state of California is considering slapping caffeine-infused sodas, and energy drinks with warning labels, saying consumption can contribute to diabetes.

This isn’t about obesity. They outright admit it’s about money. They don’t want to or can’t continue to mandate required city health care if the costs keep rising. Lets look at the entirety of this situation. The federal government steals your money through income taxation. They use some of that money to subsidize the corn industry and the fructose corn syrup industry in particular. In addition to that there are import quotas and tariffs on sugar. Those force the domestic price of sugar to more than twice the world price and lowers the cost of high-fructose corn syrup. According to Wikipedia Coca-Cola uses sugar internationally but HFCS domestically. Some believe that HFCS has greater health risks than sucrose. So here we have you paying for a possibly dangerous sweetener to be used in food which San Fran would like to then tax you for consuming. They want to tax you at the cash register so they don’t have to tax everyone else for your greater use of the mandatory health system. Of course the soda companies have something to say about this.

“It makes no sense to single out any one single cause of obesity, which is a complex problem,” said Kevin Keane, a senior vice president of the American Beverage Association, the trade group for $105-billion-a-year nonalcoholic beverage industry.

Keane said that if Newsom really wanted to fight the fat, he would take on computer and video game companies, which Keane said lured children inside when they should “be outside burning calories.”

Another person passes the blame. Lets see who has more sway in the California and San Francisco government: the beverage or videogame companies. Will they start placing “no fatties” taxes on Pepsi or Nintendo? Why can’t these people place blame on those who cause the obesity? The fat asses who eat and drink these things in excess and in the case of children their parents. Why not be honest and say that the reason they want to implement this tax is because people don’t want to actually pay for the socialist single payer health system pipedream they claim they want?

The soda proposal will be introduced to the Board of Supervisors early next year, Ballard said, and would affect only large retailers, not mom-and-pop stores. As for levies on other child-friendly delicacies, Ballard added, “The mayor has no intention of imposing a fee on pizza.”

Yet. Not as if the pizza is worth eating in San Fran.

http://arstechnica.com/…

California, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia have moved (PDF) to extend their antitrust judgment against Microsoft until November 12, 2012. This decree is a modification of last month’s request to a judge that the judgment be extended by five years. The current antitrust decree is scheduled to expire in November of this year.

Firstly, they claim that there have been “continuing problems” with Microsoft’s efforts to document its server communications protocols.

Secondly, the report laments the state of OEM web browser bundling, saying that “no major OEM currently distributes a browser other than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE).”

I’m no fan of Microsoft but it’s laughable to think people actually consider them a monopoly. Sure they own lots of stuff and a whole lot of hardware run their software… but there are dozens of alternatives both for sale in the traditional sense but also free and open source projects. It’s really amazing all this has gone on for so long.

And why aren’t these states going after MS, Sony and Nintendo for having closed platforms? Shouldn’t my 360 game be able to work on my Wii?

http://blog.nj.com/…

We received responses to our Question of the Week about the new gun-like remote wand that Wii is planning to unveil for its first-person shooter games.

Most people think it’s a bone-headed idea.

“Great, this is what we need. Children with guns learning how to aim and shoot. Then we can sit back and wonder what is happening to our country with kids killing kids……what’s next? Could we make it squirt blood, too” one reader commented

A “very concerned grandparent” wrote:
“….Why don’t they enclose an application to the NRA in every box as well….the marketing person who came up with this brain child of an idea should be fired.”

Another reader commented, “I think it’s irresponsible for Wii to come out with a controller that looks like a gun so kids can play games simulating shooting. What kind of message are we sending as parents when we buy these things for our kids?”

ARGH!!! I wonder how many of these whiny people have ever handled a real gun? How many of them have played videogames? Have played Duck Hunt? How many of them have watched any movie with a gun in it? Have let their children watch a movie with guns in them? Have toy guns in their home? Sad thing is I was really disappointed with the design of the Wii Zapper. It doesn’t look comfortable to use. I’ll see when it’s released… as I will now have to purchase one… maybe two… just because.

http://www.dsfanboy.com/…

We hope you’re ready for a Wednesday morning freakout, because that is exactly what is going to happen in this post. We didn’t dare speak our secret wish that the new Treasure game would be Bangai-O; it seemed too beautiful a thought for our real world. But according to the kind NeoGAFfers who post the news from Famitsu every week, a new Treasure game called Bangaioh Tamashii (Bangai-O Spirits) is on the way, with 4-player local wireless and a stage editor.

Of course, there’s always the chance that it’ll be a spinoff puzzle game or something, but we doubt that kind of behavior from Treasure. No, get ready for tiny sprites and huge chain-reaction explosions.

Oh my. I sure hope that is released State-side. If not it’s going to be imported. The Dreamcast version is really good, quirky fun.