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Comments: 212 +- Your Rights Online: New York State Testing Emergency Alerts Over Gaming Networks on Thursday November 19, @03:47PM
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by
timothy
on Thursday November 19, @03:47PM
from the ideas-can-be-both-good-and-creepy dept.
from the ideas-can-be-both-good-and-creepy dept.
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An anonymous reader writes "Gamers are used to confronting invading terrorists, nuclear attacks, and natural calamities—in virtual form. But those living in New York State could soon receive warnings about real emergencies through their favorite video console. State authorities are testing a plan that would see the Emergency Management Office issue alerts over online gaming networks in addition to regular channels."
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Submission: New York State to issue alerts over Xbox Live/ PSN by Anonymous Coward
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Too small a target? (Score:3, Insightful)
Why not opt-in SMS alerts. Yeah, cell towers get flooded or knocked out in emergencies, but so does the Internet these games run on. Or better yet, electronic notification through an API that can be integrated with any home product - security systems, home pbx, standalone weather radios...
spot suicidal behavior? (Score:2)
Under Empire 2.0, the Department of Mental Health is monitoring some Facebook posts in an effort to spot suicidal behavior
Thanks guys! You are making a real contribution.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
You joke - in NC it is attempted 1st degree murder to attempt suicide.
I remember a guy who attempted suicide - he ate the end of a .22 - failed at killing him self BUT managed to blow most of his brain stem off and became a quadriplegic. He was later convicted of attempted 1st degree murder and sent to jail (no i don't remember for how long).
People can't have it both ways... (Score:2)
It seems every time a natural disaster (or any other disaster) hits, there are always people that complain that they didn't know about it or something like that...
And any time we try to get ways to let everyone know about it, people complain about that, too.
Seems you can't have it both ways... seems like we have to choose to have either opt-in or no-opt. If no-opt, which seems to be the way it is now ("beeeeeep, this is only a test..."), then they have to continue to do things like this. Seems we should a
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
It seems every time a natural disaster (or any other disaster) hits, there are always people that complain that they didn't know about it or something like that...
How about when there was a tornado warning around here and just as I was updating the radar that would tell me approximately where it is, the Emergency Broadcast System cut in on the cable TV and dropped my Internet like a brick. Thanks for nothing, EBS.
Children are likely to get confused (Score:5, Interesting)
Games already contain situations that resemble real emergencies and commonly contain simulated alerts where some government official type tells you what is happening. There a possibility of the alert being ignored because people think it's just part of the game. But far worse is children getting scared or taking unsafe actions to evade perceived hazards because they really believe there is a nuclear attack in progress or that mom and dad turned into blood-sucking zombies. After all they have been taught that they can be alerted to an emergency through a game.
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Re:Children are likely to get confused (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, because it's unthinkable that an adult might play video games, right? Sheesh. I never thought I'd see the "video games are only for kids" sentiment here on Slashdot of all places.
Anyway, let's say an alert pops up that the kid "becomes confused" and ignores it. So what? If the system wasn't in place, they would never have seen the alert, and so the kid's no worse off. On the other hand, if he's the rare kid who doesn't "become confused" by it, it might just save his life.
So I don't really know what you're griping about here.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Call of Duty "blah blah blah" games are intended for adults, not 11-year-olds.
Not that that is necessarily a rebuttal to what you're saying, but you'd expect games intended for adults to show alerts that adults have no trouble recognizing as fake.
If you were talking about Viva Pinata, or another game intended for 11-year-olds, then it'd be a different story.
Dumb idea (Score:2)
Chalk me up for "what could possibly go wrong". Though the answers are pretty simple
1) Real emergency alert being dismissed as phony.
2) In-game alert being misinterpreted as real.
Option 1 isn't a huge problem. Not that it won't happen, but that it's unlikely to actually be of consequence. Most people don't have gaming networks as their only source of information, and those who do are usually safe in their basement anyway (well, unless it's a flood).
Option 2 is a major problem. Right now these are channe
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Couldn't you make the same argument for the Emergency Broadcast System, which seems to work just fine?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Connecticut emergency management officials have apologized for an erroneous message sent to state broadcasters today saying an evacuation of the state had been ordered. State emergency management officials believe someone pressed the wrong button. Instead of running a test of the emergency alert system, midday television viewers and radio listeners were told that the state was being evacuated ........... State police said they received no calls related to the erroneous alert.
Warning! (Score:5, Funny)
Warning... Valkyrie needs food badly!
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Somebody set us up the bomb!
Not a new proposal... (Score:2)
Remember when the Nixon White House proposed something similar back in the 70's - a TV set-top box to warn us of impending doom? People justifiably went apeshit at the idea of such a Big Brother intrusion.
I dunno, the timing is suspicious to me (Score:3, Funny)
I think a couple of employees got their heads together and figured out how to game the System to get a Gaming System.
A likely scenario, boss talking to his team, complete with mock responses:
Keith you will be gaming online. We wont tell you when the alert will come, so better play a couple games.
"Damn!" *wink
You, Stan. Yours will involve a multimedia entertainment mode. See if it interrupts your BluRay viewing.
"I'd have to test it with the new BluRays that just came out. Could you put a note saying, Merry Christmas Darling?"
and so on
Revenue (Score:2)
They're going to attempt to find some way to hook revenue generation into this. I guarantee it. The state's trying to find every possible way to make a buck.
Right now they're trying to force new license plates on everyone (and the design is hideous - '70s-'80s design crossed with an older Alaska plate) at $25 per car. Our current plates work perfectly fine, they're just trying to scrape together money.
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (Score:2)
Do not want (Score:2)
Sigh. (Score:2)
Imagine You're further than you've ever been before in some game you've invested months in, you're 30 minutes past the last possible save point, and after weeks of endless retries you're finally got the seemingly invincible boss down to 10% health and you have 80% health left. It really looks like finally you're gonna make it past him.
Suddenly all the things you need to stay alive are taken away from you. The sound you so badly need to give you early warning of boss attacks is replaced by a horrible 80's mo
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Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't know about anyone else, but sometimes I go into my game and decide to say, "Go away, government, go away news, go away famiily, go away anyone and anything that isn't in the game." I escape. I shut down for a couple hours and just veg. And I don't want to be interrupted. If that means I miss some emergency alert that may save my life, well, that's life, ain't it?
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"Go away, hurricane, go away brush fires, go away rioting, go away tidal wave!"
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Or during the Battle of Evermore?
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If that means I miss some emergency alert that may save my life, well, that's life, ain't it?
Technically speaking, that would be death, not life. At the very least, an emergency broadcast would tell you to save your game because there is a tornado/hurricane/earthquake/zombie infestation coming along that could disrupt power. But seriously, putting yourself in danger for a video game is extremely stupid and selfish... you are not only putting yourself in danger but the using up the resources of and endangering rescuers that have to come save your hide because you were too busy powerlevelling you
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I fail to see how allowing emergency services to send you in-game messages is an "invasion of privacy".
Well it just so happens that I have a private arrangement between myself, and the game provider. All of a sudden the government can come in, without my permission, and a) locate me, because presumably "emergency alerts" issued by the state of New York will ONLY be sent to people located in New York State, and b) interrupt my entertainment.
You know, I don't think
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
In 2005 the State of Connecticut issued an alert on their emergency system, which interrupted both midday television and radio broadcasts. The alert was a Statewide evacuation order.
Pretty serious shit must be afoot, right?
State police later reported that NOBODY called them to find out what was going on, and obviously people didn't evacuate Connecticut.
The emergency system is stupid. It doesnt matter what it says on there.. if I look outsid
Re:Fucking moronic (Score:5, Funny)
That's what's moronic. Emergency Broadcast made sense because TVs were incredibly stupid and didn't have the ability to tell users anything other than what someone happened to be broadcasting.
Our machines have gotten a lot smarter since then. You don't need to interrupt a broadcast anymore, because a computer is capable of interrupting a user directly.
Let me give you an example of how dumb this is. Let's say it's 8 at night, and right now, there is an incoming ICBM. You're watching an episode of Hogan's Heroes that was broadcast at 3 in the morning, and your PVR is recording the 2009 remake of V.
Dumb tech: The V broadcast is interrupted by the government saying, "Hey, everyone, you might want to duck and cover." Your PVR dutifully records this so that on The Day After, when you watch V, you get to see the warning that was broadcast last night. Meanwhile, as the ICBM comes in, Hogans' Heroes plays uninterrupted. You don't duck and cover, and oops, you're not ever going to get to watch the warning in the middle of V explaining that you were supposed to duck and cover, because you got shredded by flying glass while you were obliviously watching TV. When they find your corpse, you're still wearing the monocle that you always wear when you watch Hogan's Heroes. You lose.
Smart tech: V is uninterrupted, since by the time you get around to watching it, there won't be any reason to duck and cover. There's just no reason to fuck with your recording. Your PVR is playing Hogan's Heroes, but also knows that there's this one government feed that you subscribed to, that you've said you want to see with great priority. Hogan climbs out of the tunnel and Sergeant Schultz sees him -- and even though this was broadcast many hours ago before anyone knew about the ICBM -- you don't get to find out if Hogan finally gets shot, because your TV says, "Hey, everyone, you might want to duck and cover." You duck and cover. After the explosion when things calm down, you get to watch what happens to Hogan and (this is the important part) your recording of V is intact without an obsolete warning, although there's this one spot in the recording where there's suddenly a lot of static and people said that shit wasn't going to happen with digital TV, so you feel ripped off. But at least your PVR did the right thing as well as it could. You (relatively, considering what all is happening, with the nuclear war raging and all that) win.
An internet-connected game system is like a PVR, in that it can be smarter. It's capable of listening for more than one thing, so that even the game server doesn't say anything about the ICBM, your game machine can still tell you about the ICBM. And people who aren't getting nuked don't have to worry about all this irrelevant-to-them server load interfering with their important game.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to include non-intrusive alerts. Something like the weather alerts on ForecastFox, where it tells you there is an alert in your area but you choose whether to actually find out what it is.
Also, I'm sure it would be an opt-in service, so you can feel free to remove it at any time (or avoid it completely) if you don't like it.
Re:Fucking moronic (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a fucking gaming network. People are focused on playing the game, not on your emergency announcement. Unless you have a way to literally stop the game (pissing anyone off that isn't affected by the alert) you're wasting your time sending the message.
I'm sick and tired of these idiotic experiments by business people who don't understand the technology and therefore can't work out how asinine what they're suggesting really is. Then between 6 months and 2 years later, when they do have a few people hooked and relying on their ill advised service, they decide the experiment failed and pulled the plug. Fucking tossers.
Uhh... really? It's an *EMERGENCY*. I think when someone tries to go attack New York again, people will be willing to miss a few headshots to get the best possible warning they can. Its not like these announcements are sent out often.
At least, in my head, these are rare occurrences on the scale of Katrina and 9/11 that people would be notified. I think once a year if someone interrupts my game to say "Hey, we're being attacked by god/mormons/terrorists/etc, try not to die", I'll forgive them for ruining my game.
Or are you so insanely entrenched in your game that you'd rather die than be notified of an emergency?
-Taylor
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
At least, in my head, these are rare occurrences on the scale of Katrina and 9/11 that people would be notified.
If you are so disconnected from the world that you wouldn't have known about Katrina without an emergency alert system then you are probably already a lost cause. A hurricane is something that comes with days of advance warning. One would think that the sight of the neighbors boarding up their windows would suggest to most people that something was afoot......
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If this was only used for *real* emergencies, then you'd be right. Unfortunately, the bar for what constitutes an emergency will be constantly lowered until they're sending out alerts for the most inane crap imaginable.
For example, my wife works for a major university. After 9/11 they decided to create an alert system to keep employees and their loved ones informed in the event of major emergencies. The system was intended for things like terror attacks, earthquakes, tornadoes, alien invasion etc. My wi
Re:Fucking moronic (Score:4, Informative)
The scenario you describe can certainly happen, but is also not inevitable.
I work for a major university myself, and similarly to what you described, we implemented an alert system after 9/11 ourselves.
It is opt-in. People can join and leave at will. This fact is critical to making it work.
Every single time a message goes out, we think about how many people will consider that usage frivolous, and how many will unsubscribe as a result. And we think about how many people will then not receive an alert that could have saved their lives, and how many dead students we might end up with as a result. When you spell it out in those terms, it becomes considerably easier to silence any requests to use the system for frivolous purposes.
I think the most frivolous things our system has been used for were "the weather on campus is so bad that you had better not come in today", and "the water in the dorms is contaminated, don't drink it, pick up fresh water at these locations instead". Also for bomb threats and stuff ("clear building ${FOO} as it may explode at any moment").
We do test the system, yeah, something like twice a year. And every single time we use other channels (eg. email, newsletters) to tell people ahead of time that we'll be testing it, when we'll be testing it, and how to opt in. This doesn't just warn them to explain and expect the interruption, it also ensures they can figure out if the messages aren't getting through to them! If you just do the test without letting people know ahead of time, then nobody will ever find out about the people who were supposed to be contacted but who weren't!
---
That said, some system that ties directly into the gaming networks in some novel way is probably not necessary. I know exactly how I'd implement this for XBox Live.
What I'd do is set up a gateway between our alert system and MSN Messenger (or whatever the hell they call it these days). If you're signed into XBox Live with a silver or gold account, and you have an MSN Messenger account tied to it, you can receive instant messages on your console directly. They pop up in a little alert just like an achievement. If the message is short enough it goes into that alert, and if it's longer you have to go to the chat screen to read it. This is fine for this purpose, and will also get the messages out to some computer users and even some handheld users (okay, mostly just both of the WiMo users, but still).
Parent
Re:Fucking moronic (Score:4, Insightful)
Uhh... really? It's an *EMERGENCY*. I think when someone tries to go attack New York again, people will be willing to miss a few headshots to get the best possible warning they can.
Okay first, no one has ever 'attacked New York'. I don't even remember the English doing so during the Revolutionary War, though I'd be generous enough to grant you that. There has not since been a military threat to the entire population of that entire state. Period.
Second, the 9/11 events were a complete surprise. No warning would have done anyone a bit of good. The 'next terrorist attack' will almost certainly be the exact same sort of thing.
Third, how many of the occupants of World Trade I and II were on the damn xbox that morning anyway?
At least, in my head, these are rare occurrences on the scale of Katrina and 9/11 that people would be notified.
For 9/11, see above. Can't alert a surprise attack until it is far too late.
Katrina, on the other hand, was DECIDEDLY NOT a surprise. People had days and days of warning. They were also somewhat used to that sort of thing. It isn't as if additional notification would have changed the impact of the storm. Unless that information is from the future, and contains how surprisingly bad a particular storm will be, it would simply get filed alongside the other twenty-some-odd storms that hit that area per year.
Parent
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Come on, if you've spent 5 hours playing a game, and then suddenly a message box pops up at the bottom of the screen that you never even knew could exist, you're going to notice that.
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Don't worry. When disaster strikes, at least you'll be in contention for a Darwin Award. ;-)
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Who filters the users by region? Does MS and Sony give NY state the list of users that live there or does NY state tell MS to broadcast the message to this region?
(and yes, I RTFA)
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These kinds of emergency notifications should be as hard to opt out of as possible. For a real emergency as many people need to know about it as possible. Unless of course "this is a test of the emergency broadcasting system...".
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I disagree, on both counts, actually.
I would even opt out of the tornado sirens in my neighborhood if it were possible. You see, I live in an ancient one-story home without a basement. In all the years it has stood, no tornado has struck it, and if one did, being in the bathtub would likely not help me much anyway. It isn't like I can call the tornado department and have them come douse the thing. So, I go back to sleep, and trust that things will be okay. So far, so good. And in that light, I'd just
Re:Good Idea! (Score:4, Informative)
Who filters the users by region? Does MS and Sony give NY state the list of users that live there or does NY state tell MS to broadcast the message to this region?
New York State already has an alert system [nyalert.gov]. It's operated on an opt-in basis. You provide the information for the geographical area that you wish to receive notifications for. It currently sends out notifications for severe weather, amber alerts, escaped convicts, etc. It can also do more mundane (weather/event reporting) reports too.
I would imagine that the purposed system would just link into that. You'd simply be able to select "Counterstrike" and "Call of Duty" in addition to "SMS", "Voice" and "e-mail" as a notification option. The onus would still be on you to opt-in.
Parent
Re:Good Idea! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
So, what happens when you're playing Eternal Darkness II and your sanity meter runs out.
They will find the BFG9000 useless, however (Score:5, Funny)
.. would be good for tornado warning:
"There is a tornado in your area. It is OUTSIDE. You do remember where OUTSIDE is, right?"
Parent
Re:They will find the BFG9000 useless, however (Score:5, Funny)
.. would be good for tornado warning:
"There is a tornado in your area. It is OUTSIDE. You do remember where OUTSIDE is, right?"
Follwed by: "Just stay there in your mom's basement, and everything will be fine."
-Taylor
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
now I can hear children blaming race, sexual preference, lag, and DHS broadcasts for their sub-par performance.
How does this one work, exactly? "You're so gay that you keep winning all the time!" Sounds like an incentive to me ;)