Tonight, Mighty Ape won the award for Best Games-Related Site – an award that Gameplanet should have won –  and lost out to The Warehouse in the Best Online Shopping Site and Best New Launch, Relaunch or Innovation categories.

Now, not winning an award isn’t that big of a deal. I’ve already mentioned that the NetGuide Awards is a popularity contest rather than a recognition of true achievement. What is irritating is that The Warehouse is, by some margin, the worst finalist in our nominated categories.

This year NetGuide decided for reasons unimaginable to tell its voters who to vote for via a drop-down menu for each category. The list for Best Online Shopping Site included 1-day.co.nz, mightyape.co.nz and thewarehouse.co.nz. Now, tell me – if you’re Joe Average voter who doesn’t really shop online, who are you going to choose?

Disappointed.

I was too disappointed with the plans, not because comparitively they are genuine “rip offs”, but because there is no entry-level option whatsoever for people like me who really just want to cross-breed an iPod Touch and a cell phone without ruling out the possibility of wanting to use the data features occasionally.

People are complaining that 250MB is not enough for an $80 per month plan because it doesn’t sound like much, but in cell phone terms it should be plenty for anyone who utilises a wifi network whenever possible instead of using the mobile data.

I would have liked to have seen a plan with 100MB of data or less, with the 16GB phone at $699 purchase price plus a contract of $30-40 per month. Then I would’ve been on board.

Sigh.

Last I checked, sugar had calories. Last I checked, unexpended calories caused weight gain. This is the only thing the study should be trying to disprove, but instead the claim in the press release is that the “current intake of total sugars was actually significantly lower amongst obese children, compared to normal-weight children.” I’m not sure how this proves anything. Study the science, guys, don’t look for trends. Taking a single-factor statistic approach in what should be a purely scientific study is completely bizarre.

Oh, wait – “funded by the New Zealand Sugar Company Limited”. Of course. The world makes sense again.

What a lot of crap.

For starters, the focus (as usual) appears to be on children, and I don’t think I’ve ever met a kid who goes shopping for his or her own food. That’s right – once again someone is calling for a ban of something to benefit children, and once again the actual responsibility lies with parents.

I had written a long rant about sports nutrition and that teaching people about it would help to encourage better habits; but let’s forget that. I’d rather summerise by saying that we should stop banning everything and start encouraging some self responsibility FFS.

(Or, have I got it wrong… maybe Wii Fit is the real answer?)

Copeland’s poor arguments for his cause will likely be enjoyed by gamers, as he advises multiple times that the game has “no redeeming features” and suggests that it is a simulator for learning how to kill in a similar way that a simulator trains astronauts to go into space.

Interestingly he doesn’t call for any other R18 material to be banned, despite his claims that children getting their hands on the game are his primary concern and there is certainly a lot of material out there which is inappropriate for children. Oh, and he also calls the game “Grand Auto Theft Number 4″ at one point.

You can listen to both interviews over at Gameplanet.

I’ve often questioned why it is so much cheaper for me to buy processed sugar/fat snacks than it is to buy vegetables, so I think this is a great idea. The question no doubt will be weather or not the government will recoup its costs down the track… with the theory being that a healthier population will need less healthcare.

I suspect that in reality the change would primarily make the goods cheaper for existing consumers rather than causing a massive market shift – a little over $2 off a $20 purchase isn’t exactly the deal of the century, and packaged snacks are still likely to be cheaper – but it would be a positive step and I’d like to see it happen.

Climate change could cause a drop in beer production within 25 years, a scientist has warned.

Source

I’m scared.

I don’t suppose that soft drink fans will be getting their hopes too high, though – Chinese Democracy has been in the works since around 1994 and it still has no set release date. Expenses to this point apparently exceed $13 million. D:

You might think that as a gamer I would encourage research that might prove that playing games can be as good for your body as exercise. Well… not so much. It all sounds pointless to me.

Aside from the questionable results presented in this first report – amongst other claims they list jogging and cricket as if they yield the same results – what exactly is the study meant to prove? Some games let you move around, and moving around expends energy? No kidding!

The key thing the researchers are forgetting is that fat kids probably aren’t likely to play an energetic game in the first place.

Whilst I welcome the initiative, I’m not convinced. Heavier penalties are all well and good but the chances of a tagger getting caught in the act are unlikely to improve and that means tagging will remain a relatively risk-free crime.

Criminals over 18 I expect will be welcoming the news – it should give them a nice new source of revenue.