Practising non-violence makes me stabby.

We've been on a roll this week...

Here's a story from RegHardware, talking about a teen who allegedly attacked his father with regards to a video game. Now, it's not the usual link aka "violent video games cause violence in kids," but rather "parents of violent kid attempt to diffuse violence with video game, failing miserably."

The perhaps aptly-named Mario – aged 16 and from Rome – allegedly stabbed his father with a kitchen knife earlier this week following an argument about FIFA 2009. Online reports said Mario’s 46-year-old father, Fabrizio, tried to offer his son advice on tactics to improve junior's gameplay.

FIFA 2009, for those of you living under a rock but somehow manage to get access to my blog, is a soccer (football) game.

The man is currently recovering in hospital. Mario’s mother - 46-year-old Monica – told a local newspaper: “We bought him FIFA 2009 because we didn't want him playing violent games."

So, how far in someone's biography do we go to correlate violence/stimulus? Would one make the link between FIFA and the kid's violence in this case? Probably not... but if the circumstances were different one might have used such a case as reason to decry video games altogether.

Imagine if the kid had been playing Hello Kitty Online....

The 2008 KOGIA Plays of the Year

KOGIA, which is the Korean Games Industry Association (founded by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 1999 for the purpose of developing the game industry as the key future strategic industry of the country) has announced the winners of its first Global Online Game Awards for 2008.

It probably comes as no surprise that Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft was voted as the world's best role-playing game, and that Nexon's Kartrider handily got the nod for best racing/casual game.

"Other award winning online games include Valve's Counterstrike Source for best first-person shooting game, NCsoft's City of Heroes/Villains for best adventure/action game, EA Sports' FIFA 09 for best top sports game, and CCP Games' Eve Online for best strategic simulation game."

Read the story from Gamasutra here>>

While I'm on the topic of movers and shakers in the games industry, a reminder that the LOGIN 2009 conference (Seattle, May 11-14) call for speaker submissions goes on for another two weeks.

The Call for Speakers is open to all online game industry experts worldwide, whether for console, PC or mobile platforms. Candidates are asked to review the topics of interest and session submission tips on the LOGIN 2009 website and then submit a completed session proposal form and speaker application.

Details here>>

By the way, I'm still in the midst of conducting interviews with those involved in the Korean Games Industry, so if you're based here in Korea, or making a trip here within the next two months send me a note. It's the home stretch now!