The Game Doctor

[The Game Doctor has been a legend in the electronic gaming industry since he debuted in the world's first video/computer game publication, "Electronic Games" in 1981. He has answered software-related questions in more than a dozen magazines and gaming sites. As a long-time fan of POSTAL, he has made periodic pilgrimages to the gopostal.com site and now returns to answer questions for The Urinal. Doctor, your patients await… The Gimp]

Welcome, boys and goils, it's time for another sit-down with the Dr. Kildare of the electronic gaming set. We've got some heavy duty Q&As for you this time, but I'd like to start out with a bit of a plug for yours truly. As many of you veterans know, I've been working this Game Doc bit since the very first issue of the very first game magazine, Electronic Games in 1981. Well, Rolenta Press - which has just released Ralph Baer's must-have autobiography "Videogames: In the Beginning" - will be following up that classic with "Confessions of The Game Doctor" later this year. It's a collection of a couple dozen of my most memorable (and amusing) adventures over the past quarter century, from working as an expert witness in three crucial game trials to tales of the early days of the game industry (scandals, drugs, all that stuff).

Okay, the hype's over. Now let's get down to the questions and answers:

Q: Politicians are constantly flapping their jaws over the "fact" that video and computer games cause violence. Do you know of any game-related event that actually led to someone's death? Just wondering… (El Jeffe, Brooklyn, NY)

A: Actually, there have been at least two game event-related deaths that I know of. About five years ago, in Korea, one of the more enthusiastic participants in the hugely popular online Persistent World game Lineage got so upset when his favorite role-playing character was killed off that he grabbed a gun, made his way to the home of the player whose surrogate dispatched his character, and killed him for real.

Much more recently, however, an online game player from Shanghai stabbed a man to death over the sale of a "cyber-sword" from the game Legend of Mir 3. And this was no kid, either. Qiu Chengwei, 41, fatally perforated fellow gamer Zhu Caoyuan after Qiu learned that Zhu had just sold a cyber sword - a virtual object of great value in the game. The cyber sword was originally won by Qiu and a friend. They subsequently loaned it to Zhu, who promptly sold it (no confirmation on this, but it was believed to have changed hands in an online auction) for 7,200 yuan (the equivalent of $US870). Needless to say, Qiu went ballistic but found that the Chinese courts don't exactly have a lot of laws governing the sale and ownership of virtual objects. So, Qiu took matters into his own hands and dispatched Zhu (who reportedly promised to hand over the money, but I guess Qiu wanted the sword instead), stabbing him several times in the chest with a non-virtual blade.

They definitely take their gaming seriously along the Pacific Rim.

Okay, next question…

Q: Greetings from Germany! I'll keep it short, just a simple Question: Where did you get the Face of the POSTAL Dude? Is it self made or is somewhere out there a guy with exactly this Face? And if someone gave his Face for it, who was it?

That's all that I want to know! (Darky, aka "DarK-KiLLeR")

A: To answer this profound question, I turn the column over to Vince Desi himself. Vince?

"The POSTAL Dudes face was created by our art director, long hair, sunglasses, trench coat, and this was long before The Matrix or Columbine. Here in Arizona, many guys still have long hair, kinda like a dirty western look and feel."

Darky also wanted to know about the possibility of making POSTAL-based fan movies, to which Vince responded:

The fan movies are great. Take a look at the site, as we are in the process of changing it to make more stuff available from Fans. We will be releasing Apocalypse Weekend in May in all its madness, and we will introduce a new weapon called the Boomerang Machete! Trust me; you will never want to put this thing down.

"Thanks for all the support!"