Game Over: Take-Two Interactive Software Inc

New Players: Begin

Routers

San Francisco - A feisty shareholder revolt at Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. this week offed nearly as many executives as

virtual characters in the video game company's violent titles.

The result was a new CEO and several new board members now leading the company.

Take-Two's stock shares rose $1.36, or 6.5 percent than climbed to $21.10 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. in extended trading Thursday.

Strauss Zelnick, former chief executive of BMG Entertainment, which became part of Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news). in 2004, is the company's new non-executive chairman.

Ben Feder, formerly a senior executive at News Corp was named acting CEO, as the replacement for the now the former CEO and president Paul Eibeler.

In a statement confirming the shareholder vote, Zelnick praised the company's "exceptional brands and creative resources" and vowed that the game maker's new leadership would focus on maximizing its value to shareholders, gamers and employees.

The coup caps several years of drama at New York-based Take-Two, one of the world's biggest video game publishers and a rival to Activision Inc., THQ Inc. and top-selling Electronic Arts Inc.

Take-Two's former chairman and CEO, Ryan A. Brant, became the first chief executive to be convicted of backdating stock options. In February, he pleaded guilty in a New York state court to first-degree falsification of business records in a deal that lets him avoid prison.

In the past, financial analysts have criticized Take-Two for relying too heavily on relatively uncreative sequels, sports games and bloodthirsty "first-person shooters." While so-called hardcore games remain popular with teens and young men, new online genres — trivia quizzes, word games and multiplayer role-playing games — are catching on with women, older players and millions of mobile phone users.

Child advocacy groups and legislators are Take-Two's biggest foes, complaining that the company produces the industry's most violent, mean-spirited games.

In "Grand Theft Auto," players shoot pedestrians and police with reckless abandon. Another hit is "Bully," about a slingshot-wielding 15-year-old at Bullworth Academy boarding school, whose motto is "Canis Canem Edit," Latin for "dog eat dog."

Take-Two is best known for a version of "Grand Theft Auto" that included a hidden, lewd scene that sparked a 2005 congressional uproar.

Programmers at many game publishers hide bonus material or tricks that players may unlock with special codes. "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" had a modification distributed online known as "Hot Coffee," which allowed players to download modifications to reveal oral sex scenes.

The House voted 355-21 to pass a resolution asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Take-Two and its subsidiary, Rockstar Games. With the house vote, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Best Buy Co. and Circuit City Stores Inc. pulled the game, which was the top seller of 2004.

Take Two initially said the scenes were not part of the retail version of the game but were created by third parties. However the company later acknowledged the scenes were contained in its version.

Video game industry analyst Tom Gardner, CEO of Alexandria, Va.-based investment company The Motley Fool, praised the revolt.

"Sometimes institutions play football with small public companies, and they can inflict a lot of damage if companies don't have a large enough ownership stake to protect against institutions that squeeze out profits in the near term," Gardner said. "But in this case, the institutions look quite good: You have backdated options, hidden porn, accounting issues and mismanagement. You have management that was at best incompetent and at worst dishonest."

Video Game Tester Jobs

Computers and Xbox For Guns

MEXICO CITY
(Reuters)

Police have launched a program in the notorious inner-city barrio of Tepito, which police stormed last month, city police chief Joel Ortega said anyone who turns in a high-caliber weapon like a machine gun will get a computer. Owners can swap smaller guns for cash or Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox video-game consoles under the plan.

Newly elected Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has moved quickly to restore order to the chaotic capital by going after well-known crime dens and clearing the city's narrow streets of informal vendors whose stalls have blocked sidewalks for years.

His moves echo those of new conservative President Felipe Calderon, who since December has ordered the military into several states infested by ruthless drug gangs who killed about 2,000 people last year.

Organizers say they have 100 computers ready for the first wave of the program, each worth 8,500 pesos ($769) and equipped with software donated by Microsoft. On the first day, Olayo said the city received 17 guns, including 12 from Tepito
If successful, the program will be extended to Iztapalapa, another area targeted by police where last week 800 officers expropriated a six-block neighborhood filled with stores selling parts torn from stolen cars.

Guns that are handed over will be destroyed by the army. The city promised to protect their owners' anonymity.

Imagine a future where teenagers from all walks of life are inspired to achieve their dreams and goals.

Videogames Driving

It hardly needs repeating that videogames continue to take the blame for many of society’s violence and obesity ills. However, people have become anesthetized after the hundredth ‘Video Game Kills’ article. Increasingly people are looking for new evils that videogames trigger. The hot new issue is bad youth drivers. Several police agencies, communities and insurance companies are blaming videogames for bad driver ‘Need for Speed.’ In one case, a man used the game Grand Theft Auto as an excuse for thinking he could outrun the cops.

In New Zealand, the government has responded to a recent fatal car accident involving teenagers by pointing the finger at videogame, saying they make teenagers feel "bulletproof" when they drive. Anyone who has ever spent a day playing a racing videogame might find feel this way for a moment when you get into a car, but as your brain adjusts back to reality, the reality that you drive a vehicle that probably doesn’t top over 100 mph should also sink in. I

It's hard to imagine that anyone would actually change their driving habits because of a game, unless they were really, well, stupid and reckless. Of course, young drivers have always been known to make stupid and reckless decisions, long before the advent of videogames, just as there has always been violence and obesity too. Why blame video games for human stupidly?

Back before the times of cars and video games, how many dumb youths would get drunk and then race the train jumping across the tracks in front of the train? It happened and there were no video games to blame back than. Stupid people do stupid things regardless of the video game they might have or not have played. People need to take responsibility for their own actions and people need to stop hunting for reasons to support why a dumb deed was done.