Hudson to (hopefully) make a welcome return to the Wii VC in March with Detana!! TwinBee

It has been too long, Hudson. Too long. The last time you released a TurboGrafx-16 title on the Wii Virtual Console was October 2008 (when you offered up the wonderful Gradius II and the not-so-wonderful Digital Champ Battle Boxing).

All will be forgiven in March, though, if you release Bomberman '94 and Detana!! TwinBee (neither of which were released outside of Japan back in the day). (Hudson's own VC website suggests it will happen, though it has been wrong in the past.)

With those two gems out of the way, hopefully you'll finally turn your attention to Parasol Stars, one of the best games to be released for the TurboGrafx-16 (in my humble opinion). Maybe you could release the Japan-only Rainbow Islands as well?

Final Fantasy IV follow-up on its way to WiiWare

I know I said this site would contain more articles and commentary and less "news items" than it did in the past, but I can't help myself with this one: According to the Entertainment Software Rating Board's website, Square-Enix is bringing the previously cellphone-only game, Final Fantasy IV: The After, to WiiWare.

Here's a summary of the game that appears on the ESRB site:

"This is a 2D role-playing game in which players embark on an adventure involving magical crystals and a mysterious kingdom. Players traverse across a field map or through dungeons and can enter into turn-based battles along the way. Players use a menu screen to select attacks or magic spells against tiny enemies (e.g., leopards, birds, knights, fish monsters, etc.) that blink and disappear when defeated. An item called "Bacchus Wine" is occasionally used to defeat enemies in battle."

(A more detailed description of the game can be found on its Wikipedia page.)

The ESRB listing doesn't reveal when the game will be released. It also doesn't reveal whether the game will be sold as a single download (as is the case for most WiiWare games) or if it will be sold as several separate "episodes" like the original release, though one seemingly in-the-know poster over at NeoGAF.com suggests it will be the latter.

Microsoft Shoves Gay Gamers Back Into the Closet (take two)

When gay video gamer Michael Arnold went to log on to Xbox Live, the online service for Microsoft’s popular Xbox 360 gaming system, on July 12, he thought he was on his way to another multiplayer marathon of Halo 3. Instead, he found himself face-to-face with a baffling message that said his gamertag, THCxGaymer, had been deemed offensive and had to be changed before he could proceed to playing the popular first-person shooter.

At first, the message bemused Arnold, who had been using the gamertag (think username) since he bought his Xbox 360 two years ago. “It didn’t make any sense,” he says. “I thought, in this day and age, someone’s censoring the word gay? Who still considers that offensive or vulgar?”

Arnold’s confusion quickly turned to chagrin, especially after numerous e-mails to customer service went unanswered and an hour-long call to the company’s toll-free support line proved just as unhelpful. “[They] said my gamertag probably had been considered profane and pointed me to the Xbox Live terms of use,” Arnold says.

After he got off the phone, Arnold says he went over the terms of use “line by line.” The result of his research: “My gamertag didn’t violate any of them. It wasn’t profane, sexually explicit or a pejorative slur. It wasn’t hate speech. It didn’t contain references to any controlled substances or illegal activities.”

Arnold’s gaymertag, as he puts it, isn’t the first to meet Microsoft’s axe: In early May, “thegayergamer” met a similar fate and a few weeks later “RichardGaywood” (the name of an actual person) followed suit.

So far, Microsoft has been mum on the subject other than to say fellow gamers filed complaints against the gamertags and that they violated the company’s terms of use. Stephen Toulouse, program manager for the Microsoft Security Response Center, added a bit of context on his blog when he commented on the “thegayergamer” situation: “There could be an argument that the text is not pejorative to homosexuality and should therefore be allowed. But there is no context to explain that.”

Neither Arnold nor Gaywood are impressed by Microsoft’s response (or lack thereof), but that doesn’t mean they’re ready to turn their backs on Xbox Live. At least, not yet. “I'm not really annoyed at all this, just bemused by how stupid it is,” Gaywood says. “Between this and the two times my Xbox 360 has had to go back to Microsoft for repair, though, it's hard not to start suspecting them of being idiots.”

(Note: This article was written last August. It was supposed to appear in an upcoming issue of a bi-monthly LGBT publication but was "killed" in early February.)

Microsoft Shoves Gay Gamers Back Into the Closet (take one)

It’s hard to imagine the word gay offending anyone anymore. Microsoft seems to think otherwise, though, as evidenced by the company’s recent campaign to rid Xbox Live, the online service for its popular Xbox 360 video game system, of gamertags (think usernames) that include the contentious term. One of the first such gamertags sent to the gallows: thegayergamer.

So far, Microsoft has been mum on the subject other than to say a fellow gamer filed a complaint against the gamertag, after which it was found guilty of insinuating sexual innuendo—an act not condoned by the company’s terms of use.

Stephen Toulouse, program manager for the Microsoft Security Response Center, added on his blog that “there could be an argument that the text is not pejorative to homosexuality and should therefore be allowed. But there is no context to explain that.”

Gay gamers aren’t the only ones being forced to make their Xbox Live identities a little less fabulous. Shortly after Microsoft got rid of thegayergamer, it got rid of Richard Gaywood’s gamertag, too.

Toulouse initially told Gaywood (who, coincidentally, is not gay) that his gamertag had been singled out because it revealed his real name—another no-no according to the company’s terms of use. “Eventually … I got him to admit that the ban came about because of [my gamertag’s] content,” Gaywood says. “He said, ‘There's no context to tell the community not to be offended, that you are not trying to skirt the rules.’”

Although Gaywood describes the situation as “astoundingly stupid,” he isn’t turning his back on Microsoft or the Xbox 360. At least, not yet. “I'm not really annoyed at all this, just bemused by how stupid it is,” he says. “Between this and the two times my Xbox 360 has had to go back to Microsoft for repair, though, it's hard not to start suspecting them of being idiots.”

Rene Rivers, whose gamertag, sleepygaymer, has yet to meet Microsoft’s axe, offers a similar assessment. “The policy doesn’t make any sense,” he says, especially since the company’s own games for the system feature gay content. “Mass Effect has a lesbian love scene. [Soon-to-be-released] Fable II has gay marriage,” he adds. “So it’s OK to play a gay character, but you can’t be gay in real life?”

(Note: This article was written last July. It was supposed to appear in one of the August issues of a bi-monthly LGBT publication but was "killed" in early February.)

Microsoft acknowledges gaymer gaffe

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last two days, you've likely seen the news that Microsoft recently suspended a female gamer's Xbox Live account because her profile mentioned she is a lesbian.

It look little time for the story to hit the gaming and gay press, and even less time for gamers of all sexual identities and persuasions to call on the house that Bill Gates built to address the matter.

Well, Microsoft did just that earlier today when it allowed Stephen Toulouse, program manager for policy and enforcement on Xbox Live, to talk to MTV News' Stephen Totilo. (Which, as you'll see in the next few posts, is quite a step forward from how the company's PR department handled earlier, similar situations.)

"It is true that as a matter of policy, the expression of relationship preference in gamertag profiles and tags is not allowed across the board, whether that's heterosexual or other," Toulouse told MTV News before admitting that the policy is, "inelegant. And it's inelegant because the text-box field is freeform."

Toulouse suggested his employer is looking into a more elegant solution, such as allowing gamers to check off boxes or use symbols to denote their gender, sexual orientation or other qualities.

"That's the type of thing we're looking at as a solution," he told MTV News. "I can't talk about future plans, except to say we want to provide the capability for our users to express relationship preference or gender without a way for it to be misused."

(Note: Last summer, when Microsoft first made headlines for suspending the Xbox Live account of a gamer whose name and gamertag were Richard Gaywood, I wrote an article on the subject for a well-known LGBT publication. I later revised the article to include the story of a gay man, Michael Arnold, whose Xbox Live account met a similar fate after gamers complained about his gamertag, THCxGaymer. Since neither version of the article were published by the unnamed magazine, I am going to publish them here.)