LulzSec, the group that claimed responsibility for the recent Sony PlayStation Network outage and identity theft, is now claiming that they have hacked into the Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZDPS) systems and stolen 400MB worth of data that supposedly contains personal home addresses of Border Patrol agents. The Arizona Daily Star and Arizona Republic have already published articles on this breaking news. And Three Sonorans and Social Citizen here on the Tucson Citizen have already done some basic forensics.

Obviously, at this point, no one has had time to sift through the entire 400MB data dump. For all we know, it could just be a ploy to gain access to other systems via malware in the PDFs and Word Documents within. I’ve seen comments that say some of the files in the data dump contain suspicious malware-like content. So, if you decide to look at it, be sure to isolate it from the rest of your computer network or you might find yourself the next target of LulzSec. A cursory glance at the data suggests it is legitimate. BUT! Only after people have had time to tear it apart will we know for certain.

So, let’s assume this is legitimate for a moment. I have no reason to doubt it isn’t. LulzSec seems to only make legitimate claims. But this is a far cry from hacking a gaming network. In the digital world, the only real loss is time and money and the customer loses a bit of privacy and peace of mind of control over their personal information. Big deal. If you use Facebook, then you’ve already lost those things anyway. In the case of PSN, there is likely no real association to what you do for a day job. And maybe your credit card information was stolen – the question of whether or not credit cards were stolen was conveniently never properly answered. You lost a month of time to play games on PSN and had to play other video games or, dare I say it, actually put on some suntan lotion and go outside and enjoy the amazing outdoors this state has to offer year-round. On the flip side of the coin, publishing real names and addresses of those known to put their lives on the line daily puts their immediate families’ lives in danger. That’s the difference here.

This shows how little people think about their actions and the potential repercussions of those actions. LulzSec is short for “Lulz Security” – making fun of how weak most IT systems are and then exploiting the weaknesses to force the organizations to start thinking seriously about securing their systems For Realz. A noble goal, I suppose. And it is true that most IT systems are horribly insecure. However, there are better things to do with one’s time than intentionally putting real lives in danger. Even playing video games with friends to build relationships is a better use of one’s time.

The gaming community has been keeping a close eye on the highly publicized shooting incident right here in our own little backyard. Unfortunately, lots of wild speculation tumbled out of people’s mouths. The moment someone mentioned that he “played video games”, several media outlets just waiting for that tidbit went and immediately blew it completely out of proportion labeling all these “violent video games” we gamers play as an evil to be purged from our lands.

I’m sure someone will come up with a controversial Flash-based game and publish it based on these events. It’ll probably have horrible controls, audio, and graphics and get rated a 1-star game by the Flash gaming community where it would naturally disappear into oblivion. People who won’t even play it through, nor any other video game for that matter, will call it tasteless and publicly demand it be taken down despite only 100 people having played it. Those stories will then get the sensationalist media treatment which, in turn, will cause more people to play it out of curiosity than if it had been left well enough alone.

There have been seemingly countless studies done regarding violent media, including video games, and violent tendencies. No study ever conducted has conclusively determined that video games are the cause of violence in individuals. Other studies regarding violence in television and movies have also always come up with similarly inconclusive results.

Blaming video games is the easy, popular way out of pointing the real blame where it belongs. At ourselves. That’s a harder pill to swallow. “But I didn’t know Jared! I can’t blame myself for that!” is what we say. But that’s why it is so hard to point blame at ourselves. Because we don’t know someone, it must be someone else’s fault.

Everything I’ve read says that no one actually reached out to this kid to be his friend. People say he was socially awkward, but that is a lousy excuse to avoid a friendship. Friendship invokes change. I know several people myself who are very socially awkward but I try to build friendships with everyone I see regularly and I encourage my more socially awkward friends to be less so – and they are changing and making more friends in the process. I’ve seen it time and time again – it only takes one real friend to prevent a tragedy.

Video games are an outlet for stress. They are much better than blowing up and doing something we later regret. Interestingly, as the number of gamers grow nationally, the amount of violence decreases annually over time. Many have predicted the opposite from their psychological armchairs but have since been proven wrong. I attribute it to video games and general entertainment being such a valuable outlet for so many people. But, it is still important to balance video games, movies, and other entertainment with the rest of one’s life. Hanging out with friends and helping other people are far more important things to do than staring at a computer screen for hours on end. Therefore, the smart thing to do is split your schedule so you get some quality video game time but also get some quality real-life time too. Today is an absolutely beautiful day outside in sunny, warm Arizona. And it is only the middle of January. Go enjoy the great outdoors with your friends.

Hug a friend today.

Feeling adventuresome? Maybe hug a cactus as well.

Gamez is dedicated to those gaming deals that occasionally show up. Today, Steam and Amazon have deals. To aid you in the quest to filter the junk from the good stuff, games listed below have a 75% or above Metacritic rating and less than $20 per game. No opinions are ever made on the games listed.

Slide 1 of 2.
Nation Red
Source: PlayWhat.com box shotSlide 2 of 2.
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
Source: Metacritic.com box shot

Ranked

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (PC, XBox 360, PS3, 2009) – 79%, Rank #589
$19.99
Genre: First-Person Shooter
ESRB: M (Mature)

Unranked

Nation Red (PC, 2009)
$6.99
Genre: Action, Horror
ESRB: Unrated (probably M (Mature))

If you were to buy both games today, it would cost roughly $26.98 or roughly $13.49 each and your brain would turn into squishy goodness.

Percentages and ranks come from Metacritic.com game scores. It isn’t a perfect system, but it is better than nothing.

Zombies? Arizona? What?

Now, what does this have to do with Arizona? Nation Red’s description implies the game is based in Arizona. I leave you with the following official description of the game:

August 17, 1977
Scattered groups of zombies infiltrate remote Midwestern towns. Incapable of using tools or weapons, the invaders are resisted until they retreat back into the desert. Special elimination posses are set up to hunt down any of the surviving undead. Six weeks after the squads started their search-and-destroy mission, the last known zombie was shot and killed.

Present-day
Over thirty years had passed when a truck driver traveling down a desolate Arizona road plows into a wall of undead. Before the driver’s phone signal went dead, he reported some were carrying guns. They’re back and now they are hunting us.