One of the video games I'm looking forward to is Little Big Planet. It's a very very cute family-friendly game that is pretty much the antithesis of what I usually like to play but i fin myself utterly charmed by it.

Anyway, here's a video which shows the introduction to the game. Image quality is so-so but I'm posting it because the narrator is Stephen Fry and there's a distinctly Fay-like comment of "Oh, Bless." a few minutes in.

[link]

I believe this video can only make you smile.

Yeah, LBP is pretty much just ridiculously cute. (Adorable, even!) I've been sucking up all the various videos even before I knew Stephen Fry was involved -- aside from the OMGCUTE, it actually looks like it's got some nice platforming and building stuff elements, which I love when I'm not otherwise occupied with bashing at things.

Oh, hey amych I forgot you were one of the PS3 crowd. We picked up a PS3 last week.

No games yet, just blu-rays. The Nightmare Before Christmas Blu-Ray is astonishing.

The Nightmare Before Christmas Blu-Ray is astonishing.

So Jilli says! I haven't seen it yet, but Blu-Ray quality overall is fantastic.

Has anyone tried Spore? It's a game I'm sort of interested in, but I'm unsure. Not that it really matters I guess, I'm queued up right now as I ever so slowly work my way through Oblivion.

I had fun with an Oblivion encounter last night. I came across a single cavern "room" with eight bandits. Since this was my sneaking and sniping character, I was able to take down one with a sneak attack and then it was just a big fight in an enclosed space where I actually took out the remaining seven bandits.

It must have been a cavern added by a mod, because I've never came across that many bad guys in a contained area. Typically, I have trouble handling more than a couple of guys when I'm not in an open area.

I dinked with Spore a little bit. I like it, but it's sort of a Massively Solitaire Online Game. I think Little Big Planet may be the same; there's another group at work looking at LBG and I have just been dropping their correspondence into a folder for later reading.

So here's a scary story. My DH has a friend from high school, who is a long-time gamer, as is her husband. They live in Utah and are Mormon, but I'm not sure if that's relevant or not. They have two kids, ages 7 and 12, who are perfectly lovely kids and grew up with gamer parents.

Their gaming group is mostly composed of people with kids, all in that same age range. One of the guys in the gaming group just got divorced. His wife got custody.

And is suing to deny him visitation rights because he games.

Seriously. The records she filed with the court say that the gamers are at best neglectful and at worst abusive parents who ignore their children, and the kids cry themselves to sleep at night.

What she said off the record was "freaking weirdos."

So if the court finds that being a gamer makes this guy unfit to have his kids visit, it's possible that the enitre gaming group will be judged unfit parents. Social Services has indicated that they may attend a gaming session to see how abusive/neglectful the environment is. If the court finds that gamers=unfit, then they'll have to stop gaming to keep their kids.

The implications are a little staggering. I can't imagine that the court would find in this woman's favor, but courts do weird things and the fact that it's in Utah and I believe all the gamers in question are Mormon might be a factor.

The case is moving slowly, but I am waiting to see if these friends will lose their right to game.

the fact that it's in Utah and I believe all the gamers in question are Mormon might be a factor.

It can be a factor, but a previous president of the Mormon Church made a formal statement that D&D was a waste of time but not more harmful than anything else that wastes time.

Let me look for a cite.

OK, not finding the official, but I've heard it many times.

Also, Mike Stackpole has been quietly been part of GAMA's Industry Watch Committee since the late 80s, sometimes the sole member, helping to counteract 'D&D players are demon worshipers' and other forms of bad press.

I would consider D&D players being unfit parents would qualify as bad press.

I can give you his IWC email, or try contacting him myself. We've talked a few times...