So I’m watching CSI: Miami tonight. In the show, there a crime spree based on a video game. So, of course, it’s a terrible show. All crime shows where the crime spree is based on a video game are ridiculous, with crazed, psychopaths with no concept of reality. Also, like all other game-based episodes, the game-company owners are less than helpful. In this particular episode, the game creator refused to divulge the contents of the video game, claiming trade secrets, or something. Which, of course, it totally stupid – anyone who plays the game would find these “trade secrets”, and in the real world, every popular game gets a “game guide”, often created by the game’s publisher, which, you know, reveals the game’s “trade secrets”. And if you have to please a board & shareholders, stopping a killing spree based on your game is going to help your share price far more than it becoming public that you actively obstructed an investigation. Stupid show.
Update: so apparently (and I should have guessed this, because no one but the guilty is such an asshole on cop-shows) the game-developer was actually behind the killing spree, giving guns to gamer-kids to play out his game in real-life as some sort of completely bizarre viral-marketing ploy.