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The game "Disaster Report" portrays cities destroyed by natural disasters  (Source: cache.gawkerassets.com)
Certain games displaying earthquakes and other natural disasters destroying cities have been delayed or cancelled out of respect for those suffering from the disaster

The tragic events that have occurred recently in Japan have caused video game developers to delay or even cancel upcoming games that display apocalyptic themes.

On March 11, an 8.9 to 9.1-magnitude earthquake occurred near Northeastern Japan, leading to fire, blackouts and tsunami. According to The Telegraph, 550,000 people have had to evacuate their homes, 2,414 have been confirmed dead, and 15,000 people are unaccounted for. The death toll is expected to reach beyond 10,000.  

As if that wasn't enough, more trouble lies ahead for those in Japan. The recent natural disasters have caused four reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant on Japan's northeastern coast to spew radiation. Now this nuclear accident is being classified as a level six on the international scale of one to seven. The Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 is the only event in history to be classified as a level seven. 

These disastrous events have claimed the lives and homes of several Japanese citizens, and those who have loved ones in Japan have been affected as well. Out of respect for those who have survived the earthquake/tsunami and for those who have lost someone during these events, certain video game companies have decided to delay, and in some cases cancel upcoming video games that feature themes of disaster. 

Sony has postponed the PlayStation 3 racing game "MotorStorm 3: Apocalypse," which consists of user's racing through different areas that are being destroyed by natural disasters. The game was due to be released in Europe and Japan this week, and in the United States on April 12. While the U.K.release is still being discussed, it is unknown whether the U.S. release will be postponed as well. 

Sega has also delayed one of its apocalyptic-themed games, titled "Yakuza: Of the End," which is another game made for PlayStation 3. This action-adventure game takes place during a zombie outbreak in Tokyo, and is the most recent addition to the "Yakuza" series.  

In February, Capcom released "Marvel vs. Capcom 3," which is a crossover fighting game for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Its plot contains apocalyptic themes of world domination, and Capcom has decided to delay the downloadable characters Jill Valentine and Shuma-Gorath in Japan.

While many video game companies have decided to delay certain games or characters, Tokyo-based video game developer Irem is the first to completely cancel one of its games due to the earthquake/tsunami in Japan. The game is "Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 4," better known as "Disaster Report 4" in the U.S., and it is a PlayStation 3 game that was set to launch in Japan this spring. But this game in particular seems to resemble the current situation too much, with an earthquake destroying a city in the very first scene. 

Many video game companies are showing their support for those in Japan through these actions, and are also sending sizable donations to the recovery effort. Nintendo, which does not have any apocalyptic-themed games to delay or cancel, issued a statement in response to the large amount of support Japan has recent in the last four days.  

"We appreciate the concern shown in the aftermath of the recent disaster in Japan," said Nintendo's statement. "We can confirm that at this time it appears that no one from Nintendo in Japan was injured and there was no apparent structural damage to our company headquarters in Kyoto and other offices and facilities in Japan. Business operations, including future product shipments, have not been affected. Our thoughts and best wishes are with everyone who has friends and family members who may have been affected by the earthquake or tsunami."

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Nuclear Power Plants
By Briliu on 3/15/2011 12:53:16 PM , Rating: 2
With regards to the following in the article:

"As if that wasn't enough, more trouble lies ahead for those in Japan. The recent natural disasters have caused four reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant on Japan's northeastern coast to spew radiation. Now this nuclear accident is being classified as a level six on the international scale of one to seven. The Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 is the only event in history to be classified as a level seven. "

I urge everyone to read the following, which is a briefing from The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan (FEPC) Washington DC Office of what ACTUALLY happened.

http://atomicinsights.blogspot.com/2011/03/informa...

If you're interested, there are several more articles on that site that detail some of the reasons why what happened happened. FUD like quoted above, does nothing but cause unwarranted panic.

Please make your own decisions after reading the facts.




RE: Nuclear Power Plants
By FaceMaster on 3/15/2011 2:38:05 PM , Rating: 1
1) That article is 2 days old

2) I don't see how what it says there is any different from what we already knew about the plant, plus the several recent explosions.


RE: Nuclear Power Plants
By tfk11 on 3/15/2011 4:53:02 PM , Rating: 2
wow...

1) It's a blog. hit the home page for recent articles.

2) You obviously can't read.


RE: Nuclear Power Plants
By tmouse on 3/16/2011 7:50:11 AM , Rating: 3
quote:
1) It's a blog. hit the home page for recent articles.

quote:
2) You obviously can't read.


Lincoln was qouted as saying "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

It is not a blog. ALL Blogs have the word BLOG in ORANGE followed by :Section also in orange. The link (Blog) in grey next to the authors name is a link to their blogs. This has been pointed many times and it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to test by actually clicking on a blog in the recent blogs section to see.


RE: Nuclear Power Plants
By Visual on 3/16/2011 11:13:27 AM , Rating: 3
The blog remark wasn't about this dailytech article, but about the linked atomicinsights blog entry.
Now re-read the Lincoln quote from your own post.


RE: Nuclear Power Plants
By theplaidfad on 3/16/2011 12:20:55 PM , Rating: 2
Oh, the irony!


RE: Nuclear Power Plants
By FaceMaster on 3/17/2011 3:49:41 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
wow...

1) It's a blog. hit the home page for recent articles.


Oh okay, so since it's a blog then age clearly doesn't matter, despite it being about a recent topic where date is evidently VERY important?

quote:
2) You obviously can't read.


I see, you're trying to patronise me for... what ever it is that I did/didn't do. Could you care to explain how I 'obviously can't read' when I have obviously been reading up far more on this topic than anybody else seems to be doing? I'm simply going to assume you're American and wanted to try and be cool by using what I said against me. And you failed miserably.


RE: Nuclear Power Plants
By Solandri on 3/15/2011 4:26:13 PM , Rating: 4
It seems off-topic, but I guess that's Tiffany's fault for including a blurb about the the nuclear accident in an article about natural disasters.

To put what's going on in perspective, the WHO estimates that Chernobyl will kill 4000-5000 from long-term cancer deaths (there were about 50 immediate deaths). It is thus far the only nuclear power accident in history with a significant number of fatalities.

Pollution from coal plants is estimated to kill 30,000 people a year in the U.S. alone. Coal generates about 45% of our electricity, about 2.25x more than nuclear. So if we converted our nuclear capacity to coal, it would cause an additional pollution-related 30000/2.25 = 13,000 deaths per year. Or put another way, our existing nuclear plants could cause 2-3 Chernobyl-scale accidents each year, and nuclear would still be safer than coal.

Wind power has a mortality rate of about 0.15 per TWh generated (it's killed 13 people in the U.S. from 1970-2009). Nuclear power in the U.S. generated 254.8 TWh in 2009. So if we replaced all of our nuclear capacity with wind, we'd be looking at 38 wind-related fatalities per year in the U.S. Commercial nuclear power in the U.S. has had zero fatalities in ~60 years.
http://www.wind-works.org/articles/BreathLife.html

But what about Chernobyl? It's not really fair that I'm leaving out the biggest nuclear accident in history, right? Nuclear power generated about 2200 TWh per year worldwide from 1985 (the year before Chernobyl) to 2009. So that's 52,800 TWh in those 24 years. If all that nuclear capacity in those 24 years had been replaced by wind, there would have have been an expected 0.15*52800 = 7920 wind-related deaths in those 24 years - more than Chernobyl. Put another way, if wind were generating as much power as nuclear currently does, you'd expect wind to kill as many people as Chernobyl every 12-15 years.
http://www.world-nuclear.org/uploadedImages/org/in...

If you go through all the power generating technologies and systematically count up all the deaths they've cause in historical real-world use compared to how much energy they've generated, the conclusion you arrive at is that nuclear is actually the safest form of power generation (wind is the next safest).
http://nextbigfuture.com/2008/03/deaths-per-twh-fo...


RE: Nuclear Power Plants
By Silver2k7 on 3/16/2011 5:14:05 AM , Rating: 1
Yes ok its fairly safe.. but what happends to all the waste material produced by the plant.. If we could build one or a few plants that actually used the waste material instead of just sealing it up somewhere.. then it would perhaps even be more environmentally friendly ?

Some scienze magazine mentioned some way of making the waste materiel decay faster.. now I dont have any links about that but science in that department seems also like a good idea.

Then we have the whole Fission vs Fusion does fusion even produce any unsafe waste ??

Hopefully we can have real fusion plants soonish...


RE: Nuclear Power Plants
By Solandri on 3/16/2011 5:53:45 AM , Rating: 4
That's called reprocessing. Our current reactors use only a tiny bit of the energy actually contained in the uranium fuel. So the spent fuel "waste" still has the vast majority of its energy still within it. That's why it remains dangerous for thousands to tens of thousands of years.

Reprocessing of nuclear "waste" in a breeder reactor uses a different fuel cycle that extracts most of the energy in the uranium. Its byproducts can be sent back to the regular reactors for use as fuel (in fact, one of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant is using this type of fuel). The remaining unusable "waste" after reprocessing is only "hot" for something like 150 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor

The problem is reprocessing produces weapons grade plutonium as one of its byproducts. The U.S. banned commercial reprocessing in the 1970s for that reason. It's also convenient for the anti-nuclear lobby since they can "truthfully" tell the public that nuclear "waste" is dangerous for tens of thousands of years, without telling you there's a way to make it safe in a few hundred years. It's not lying by omission if the truth is illegal, right?

Fusion irradiates the containment vessel and surrounding structure. If you were standing next to an operating fusion reactor, the radiation would kill you (sorry, no Mr. Fusion). But the radioactivity problem is much, much smaller than with fission.

Anyhow, my point is: Nuclear fission is much safer than the conventional alternatives. Yes, we should continue working on making renewables and fusion economically viable and safer. But in the meantime, we should be shutting down our fossil fuel plants and replacing them with nuclear. Nuclear isn't perfect, but it's the best solution we have right now as a stop-gap measure until we can get better technologies developed.


RE: Nuclear Power Plants
By MozeeToby on 3/16/2011 11:10:12 AM , Rating: 2
What happens to the hundreds of millions of tons of toxic coal ash produced every year? What about literally tons of radioactive material released by coal power plants every year? Coal is pretty ugly, it's hard to argue that coal is better than other power sources on any criteria other than price, which is a criteria that it dominates the competition on.

You can't make the nuclear waste decay faster, the decay rate is tied to very fundamental laws of particle physics. Maybe there are ways to make it happen, but it is quite beyond what we are even theoretically capable of doing today. What you can do is reprocess the waste back into a viable fuel by bombarding it with fast neutrons from a nuclear reactor. The reason this isn't done in the US is because one of the products of this reprocessing is potentially weapons grade material, and there are fears that it could fall into the wrong hands. Little known fact, designing a nuclear bomb isn't actually that hard, the difficult part is getting your hands on weapons grade nuclear material.

As for fusion, most of the methods being seriously researched will make the reactor itself radioactive to the point of being dangerous. Less dangerous, less total mass, and less long lived that fission byproducts, but it would still be an issue that would need to be address. In any event, commercial fusion is still 20 years away, and it has been 20 years away for 50 years now.


RE: Nuclear Power Plants
By jeepga on 3/16/2011 8:59:44 AM , Rating: 2
Additionally, keep in mind that the design of Chernobyl lacks a containment dome. There are only a few reactors in the world without containment domes and all of them are in the Ukraine or Russia.


Reality and fantasy
By The Raven on 3/15/2011 1:47:46 PM , Rating: 5
So I don't get it. We want realistic games, but if that realism is reflective of something real then we cancel it? That doesn't make sense. We choose to watch disaster movies and play disaster games BECAUSE of the fear they invoke.

Now I understand that Japanese companies might want to delay release of or flat out cancel these games in the affected countries/areas, but in this case they are the economy which has endured this catastrophy and could use some sales in other parts of the country and worldwide. Of course the marketing dept should be in on the decision to make sure that advertising and such is in good taste, but I don't think that it should be a foregone conclusion to cancel things in light of current events automatically because someone might be offended.

If I had been affected enough by the quake, tsunami, or nuclear disaster in Japan, I don't think I would be playing said games (and I probably wouldn't be playing games at all).

In Sacramento we have the UFL team the "Mountain Lions". Do they not realize that people in the Sacramento area have been attacked and even killed by mountain lions? Yes, I'm sure. That is why they picked the name (actually they held a public vote on it) because it is a powerful dangerous creature.
Now do they have ads all over town with mountain lions with human limbs hanging out of their mouths or something like that? No. THAT would be provocative and offensive. But the line is clearly far off from that point.

Same for these games. I mean chapters of the COD:MW games (some of the most popular games in all the world) take place in Pripyat which was decimated by the tragedy at Chernobyl. This is not WWI we are talking about. There are many people alive who have been affected by that disaster. Do you think they want people to put their heads in the sand about the whole affair and not realize the dangers of nuclear power (FYI I am a proponent of NP, but that doesn't mean I don't want others to be aware of the possible dangers).

And I would think that those people would not be playing those games by choice. We don't have to limit the choices of everyone because some people might be offended if they play the game/watch the movie/read the book. Again I would guess they don't partake in the activity.

I say this not to encourage people to release these games, but to think over the decisions they are making before they say, "Oh let's cancel it because someone might get offended."

Disclosure:
I work for a Japanese company that has been affected by the quake, I speak Japanese, and have lived in Japan when I was younger and have a great love and knowledge of the people there.




RE: Reality and fantasy
By SGforce on 3/15/2011 3:00:23 PM , Rating: 3
I think the fear of selling products that have to do with disasters has more to do with the fear of appearing to profit from it.

Somewhat like creating a movie based on an actual serial murderer, it is better to get the consent of the victims/families before going ahead on the project.


RE: Reality and fantasy
By The Raven on 3/15/2011 3:41:45 PM , Rating: 3
Yeah good point. That is why it is usually a good move to put some of the proceeds to the appropriate organization as a showing of good faith. I just wish that we can all stop assuming that someone will be offended and therefore we need to shut everything down. I mean they are running a business. Someone might be out on the street if they can't make money off one of these games. Then someone will make a game about a homeless person and offend that guy lol.


RE: Reality and fantasy
By tmouse on 3/16/2011 7:57:11 AM , Rating: 2
While I agree with your points, maybe part of the decision was a feeling by the people within the company itself, who may have family affected. Anyway it is their decision to make and at least its not others demanding the games not be released and the company caving in.


RE: Reality and fantasy
By The Raven on 3/16/2011 10:55:02 AM , Rating: 3
Yeah I totally understand if they actually put logical thought into their decision instead of letting emotions dictate their final decision.

I'm not saying that they should or shouldn't cancel these games, but I hate how we are in this climate of people being afraid of offending people who will probably never even see the 'offensive' material.
quote:
Anyway it is their decision to make and at least its not others demanding the games not be released and the company caving in.

Yeah like the whole "6 days in Fallujah" or "Medal of Honor" debacles.


Good lord Tiffany...
By Hieyeck on 3/15/2011 3:58:31 PM , Rating: 5
Every single major news outlet has quoted 8.9. Some blogs have rounded to 9.0.

FUDding us with 9.1 (especially considering all the oodles of sources quoting 8.9) is unacceptable. On the LOGARITHMIC Richter scale, that's about 50% MORE energy than 8.9. Science is inaccurate, but not THAT much so.

Why don't you complain about coal power instead.
The following article sounds a little extremist to me, but Chernobyl really doesn't even hold a candle to how much coal is worse for us:
http://themoderatevoice.com/103840/even-the-worst-...

Not to mention coal ash is radioactive:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=c...

Stop spreading the FUD on nuclear power. Chernobyl was made by Soviet Russia. Even they managed to control a meltdown long enough to evacuate after multiple critical failures and an ongoing fire. Quote me TMI and I will turn it right back on you as it shows just how safe nuclear power is. Partial meltdown at TMI-2 and what was the net result? TMI-1, that's right next door, has just been licensed to run until 2034. Clean up cost just shy of 1 billion over 23 years, a mere drop in the bucket when averaged out. A grain of sand compared to the ongoing war in Afghanistan.




RE: Good lord Tiffany...
By morphologia on 3/15/2011 4:13:16 PM , Rating: 2
Some news sites are reporting 9.1, but they're not anything I'd trust. Like The Judiciary Report, ZDnet and Construction Week Online.

More reliable sources are comparing Japan's quake to the 2004 Sumatra quake, which actually was 9.1.

Aside from that, you're misinforming us far more than Tiffany is, by posting off-topic links to unrelated issues.

Is your soapbox biodegradeable?


RE: Good lord Tiffany...
By Alexvrb on 3/16/2011 12:59:58 AM , Rating: 3
"Misinforming" doesn't mean whatever the heck you think it does. It might be slightly off-topic, but that doesn't mean it is misinformation.


RE: Good lord Tiffany...
By maven81 on 3/15/2011 4:19:16 PM , Rating: 2
"Every single major news outlet has quoted 8.9. Some blogs have rounded to 9.0."

It was upgraded to a 9.0 by the US Geological Survey.

"Chernobyl was made by Soviet Russia. Even they managed to control a meltdown long enough to evacuate after multiple critical failures and an ongoing fire."

I agree with everything else you said, but you're dead wrong here... Reactor number 4 exploded, period. They managed to prevent the fire from destroying the other reactors, but that's a different story. The evacuation did not even begin until the reactor was destroyed and even then they waited a few days if I remember correctly. The initial report only said that there was an accident, and that the causes are being investigated, that's all people were told.
This of course has nothing to do with the safety of nuclear power, and everything to do with how the Soviet government handled emergencies. (I remember a crazy stunt too, making a couple of firefighters run to the roof to put a flag there, in a sort of we've got this under control gesture. I bet those guys died pretty soon, for no reason).


RE: Good lord Tiffany...
By Hieyeck on 3/16/2011 8:40:23 AM , Rating: 3
Sorry, you're right. I should've been more clear - I meant to say total meltdown (as in all reactors).

I was unaware the USGS upgraded to 9.0. Sadly, this panic about the reactors seems to have filled all the pages. Still, 9.1 is a 25% difference and there's no rounding excuse.


Stupid
By chmilz on 3/15/2011 2:06:34 PM , Rating: 2
Really, really stupid.




support and excuses
By tastyratz on 3/15/2011 2:59:46 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Capcom has decided to delay the downloadable characters Jill Valentine and Shuma-Gorath in Japan.


Now that is just an excuse. There is nothing apocalyptic about Jill valentine or disrespectful to the situation. The game is already out.




Ridiculous
By morphologia on 3/15/2011 3:20:37 PM , Rating: 2
The games in question were in development long before the earthquake. Sensitivity is a concern, but it should have reasonable limits; delay and temporary postponement is justifiable but cancellation is not.

The games exist because disasters happen, and have happened many, many times before this most recent one. How does throwing away all the time and money spent on a game help anyone who is suffering from this disaster? Does cancelling the game bring their families back or rebuild their homes?

It would be much more sensible for the companies involved to contribute heavily to the relief effort while acknowledging that their timing is an unfortunate coincidence.

No one is helped by anticipating a negative backlash ignited by the ignorant forces of trendy outrage bandwagoning, and thus tossing your investment in the trash. The only people who think such a thing is appropriate are just posing for the sake of the current trend; venomous outrage is seldom justifiable if you are not directly affected.




But
By shortylickens on 3/16/2011 9:57:32 AM , Rating: 2
Its apparently OK to have tons of video games about murdering arabs while we are in the middle of a war with arabs.

PC is lose, always failing.




By Lerianis on 3/16/2011 1:52:48 PM , Rating: 2
With all due respect, they are games. Who the freak CARES if they are 'too similar to actual life' except people who are too goddamned sensitive.

Hell, if someone wanted to make a game of the 9/11 bombings in America, I would be all for it. Even if they had some of the main characters being the actual real-life terrorists who did those attacks.

People are getting too damned sensitive in the world today. Delay the games, fine.... don't totally cancel them.




I'm all for diverse game genre's
By Samus on 3/15/11, Rating: -1
RE: I'm all for diverse game genre's
By The Raven on 3/15/2011 1:14:48 PM , Rating: 2
If you are serious:
Actually you should check out the trailers. It looked like a pretty interesting game.

If you were being sarcastic:
lol


RE: I'm all for diverse game genre's
By therealnickdanger on 3/15/2011 1:45:19 PM , Rating: 2
I played the first Disaster Report many years ago. It was dumb and boring to me. Can't believe it got three sequels.


By The Raven on 3/15/2011 3:43:32 PM , Rating: 2
Did the mechanics suck or story? Like I said it actually looked interesting. I hope someone can do it right in the future.


RE: I'm all for diverse game genre's
By Samus on 3/15/2011 3:51:14 PM , Rating: 2
nobody appriciates sarcasm anymore. when did DT readers turn into such sourpusses :)


By morphologia on 3/15/2011 3:59:59 PM , Rating: 2
It's a comment forum. Which of course means that it strongly attracts those with nothing better to do but criticize in pointless (and often grammatically horrible) ways. Why else would so many people criticize a blog post for its lack of jouralistic professionalism? :)


RE: I'm all for diverse game genre's
By B3an on 3/15/2011 1:26:24 PM , Rating: 2
So what about movies? How are they any different? Theres tons of disaster movies, especially from America which has perfected the art of making them amazingly bad/cheesy.


By Cullinaire on 3/15/2011 1:28:25 PM , Rating: 2
I missed the sarcasm at first glance because you confusingly compared a genre to specific titles...ha


RE: I'm all for diverse game genre's
By MrTeal on 3/15/2011 1:53:07 PM , Rating: 2
I agree. This is why they had to pull and ban SimCity all those years ago, and stop them from making any sequels. The thought of taking a perfect idyllic utopia and running Godzilla through it was just too much to bear.


RE: I'm all for diverse game genre's
By bh192012 on 3/15/2011 2:35:47 PM , Rating: 2
Look, when a game depicts realistic scenarios that are actually happening in real life, like a "zombie outbreak in Tokyo" you have to be sensitive to the people who are affected.


RE: I'm all for diverse game genre's
By teh cilantro on 3/15/2011 3:30:17 PM , Rating: 2
You don't have to be sensitive to jack squat.

You make a game to make money; just because something in real life happens that resembles what's in the game should not have any effect on the game itself, whether its editing content or delaying/canceling a launch.


By bh192012 on 3/15/2011 4:18:16 PM , Rating: 2
I just think that the zombies affected deserve a little respect.


RE: I'm all for diverse game genre's
By carage on 3/16/2011 2:11:17 PM , Rating: 2
So if an American video game company decides to make a game showcasing the Taliban's side of the story, you would be totally OK with that too?
Or if a German company decides to release a game about Nazi is good and how it was supposed to rule the world, you would have no problem playing it too? (Let's set aside German and EU law for a moment)


RE: I'm all for diverse game genre's
By bh192012 on 3/16/2011 3:51:53 PM , Rating: 2
I think the more interesting thing is that he accepted " a zombie outbreak in Tokyo" as "realistic scenarios that are actually happening in real life"


By teh cilantro on 3/17/2011 6:38:11 PM , Rating: 2
Rule #1 - Cardio


By teh cilantro on 3/17/2011 6:39:09 PM , Rating: 2
If the game looks entertaining, and has a plot intended to last longer than 4 hours... yes.


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