Emergency Alerts May Be Coming to Your Xbox

[Greg Tito]

Emergency Alerts May Be Coming to Your Xbox

The State of New York is testing a plan which could broadcast emergency alerts over your Modern Warfare 2 match. Great.

At the Interop conference in New York City last week, New York State Deputy CIO Rico Singleton said that the state is considering alerting citizens to possible emergencies over online gaming networks in addition to more traditional networks. The process is in the testing phase now, and is part of the state's initiative to embrace communication over the internet.

It is unclear on which "online gaming network" they are testing the emergency alerts, but one would assume that Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo would all participate. No details were given as to how the alerts would be displayed, but the alerts could be a text scrawl at the bottom of the screen, or, even worse, an interruption of play. Or it might just be a "channel" you could check to see if an earthquake or zombie apocalypse was coming your way.

Singleton said that the plan only makes sense "considering the amount of time our youth spend on videogames." Is it just me, or was that a backhanded reproach of our hobby from a stuffy old politician? Perhaps I'm being sensitive.

It is interesting that a state agency would consider such a move, given the track record for governments embracing new technologies. Of course, the internet has been around for over 20 years so New York's response time isn't exactly lightning fast.

Source: Information Week [http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/state-local/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=221900336]

(Photo [http://www.flickr.com/photos/pacomexico/3598508223/])

Permalink

 

[Kollega]

And how is that bad? If typhoon or a barrage of nukes is approaching, you want to hide or run away - not play Modern Warfare 2. And such emergencies do not occur on a daily basis. Plus, a classic air raid siren sounds totally awesome - even if it means that you're going to be in a middle of shrapnel rain. Don't deny it.

Also, 2000 posts. Yay me, i guess.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

And how is that bad? If typhoon or a barrage of nukes is approaching, you want to hide or run away - not play Modern Warfare 2.

what? what culture do you live in?
If I step outside to run for safety from nukes, I'll probably get stabbed by chavs.
I'd rather play MW2 or stay on my pc. :|

OP: Interesting, and thankfully doesn't affect me.

 

[Doug]

Why would I want emergency alerts from New York when I live in the middle of England? Joking, of course.

And how is that bad? If typhoon or a barrage of nukes is approaching, you want to hide or run away - not play Modern Warfare 2.

Nothing in theory. In practise, I can imagine ham-fished government employees virtually destroying the network they plan to communicate over. but if they get it into working order, its a brilliant idea.

 

[KaiRai]

This would be useful in Britain.

Although I'd like the alerts to be about a politician's assassination so I could celebrate.

 

[LeonLethality]

sounds like a good idea in high disaster areas for it to scroll at the bottom of the screen considering you will be using that tv to play games not watching news

 

[DarkPanda XIII]

Yeah well, unless you do have a bomb shelter nearby, and the bomb/storm is heading your way, you might as well stick to what you are doing. And if you don't feel the storm around you, or the bomb miles, and miles away. then you are one strange dude.

 

[PurpleLeafRave]

I live in England. Oh no, an Earthquake.

 

[mrhappyface]

I just hope the irratating emergency tone that mutes everything won't phase over into the match. I might go deaf from it considering how loud my headphones are at.

 

[Kollega]

*pheep* Congrats.

I find it sad that the gaming is considered so addicting the people would not notice a nuke with a joyous fat man riding it flying past their flat window.

And i find it even sadder that some gamers are indeed in such condition. Not all of them, mind you - but there's certainly people out there who won't notice said situation because they are too busy pwning n00bs in Halo 3/Killzone 2/Team Fortress 2/what have you. I speak from experience here. Say what you want - but for me, such alert would be a good thing.

 

[Kuchinawa212]

Number One, Red alert

I dunno sounds good in theory, but it would really depend on what the magnitude of the situations is. Like oh it's a thunderstorm and the game auto pauses to tell you, terrible idea. But a nuke is heading for you and the game auto pauses, then it's a pretty good idea

 

[elilupe]

And how is that bad? If typhoon or a barrage of nukes is approaching, you want to hide or run away - not play Modern Warfare 2. And such emergencies do not occur on a daily basis. Plus, a classic air raid siren sounds totally awesome - even if it means that you're going to be in a middle of shrapnel rain. Don't deny it.

Also, 2000 posts. Yay me, i guess.

No, he doesnt mean its bad that they are going to put the alerts on game networks, hes saying its bad that they are going to TEST the alerts over the networks, so it could mess up your game for no reason.

 

[Tears of Blood]

I assume that this will generally find negative responses, but this is actually quite good. I like this. It's too bad I don't play online very much, because I would be quite grateful if I had my retarded Xbox microphone strapped to my ear and didn't hear the approaching tornado.

Good on ya'.

 

[CyberKnight]

I think it's smart that they're looking into this. If you need to get a warning out in an emergency, it makes sense that you get that information to people however possible.

I thought it was interesting that, on 9/11, my wife didn't find out about it until I got home from work early -- and we watch even less TV now than we did then.

Of course, she doesn't play video games, either. Maybe something that uses instant messaging networks would be useful as well?

I know the thought of government interference in a private network is enough to "raise shields" in thoughts of privacy and government over-control, though, and with good reason.

 

[Baby Tea]

I think it's a good idea. Especially the 'scrolling text' thing. We already have that with TV, so why not online games?
It could be used very well to great effect!
Of course, it could also be abused and used poorly, but every idea ever has that problem.
I think it's worth a shot.

 

[Treblaine]

Trust me people, this is bad. You don't want the government getting their head into this tech even for something as noble as warning of a disaster.

There are so many other ways that are more suited by their infrastructure and their user functionality. If games about terrorism like Modern Warfare 2 require are warning about something like terrorism, how long is it before some stuffy and out of touch politician or civil servant says "you can't have this in the game. I don't care if it's part of the experience, this is not a game any more, this is primarily a public broadcast system"

Resist this people. There are so many better methods like Twitter, mass email, even texting would be better and easier.

 

[Captain Pancake]

Also, 2000 posts. Yay me, i guess.

Yay you indeed. Welcome to the club. We're better than those 3000 post fools.

Hell yeah! let's hear it for this millenium!

OT: This still begs the question of whether or not they will heed the warning, or stick to their gaming. I can't trust myself with my addictive personality...

 

[Amnestic]

As a resident in a small, off-to-the-side town in England, the only alerts I'd be getting are "It's raining a little harder than normal." or "It's snowing. EVERYBODY PANIC!"

Not a bad idea I suppose, but it just seems a bit unnecessary to me.