No Rock And Roll Fun

"YOU'RE NOT MAKING CHRISTIANITY BETTER, YOU'RE MAKING COMPUTER GAMES WORSE": Oh, the humanity. Bible-bashing plod rocker Sonny Sandoval, from POD, has turned himself into a computer games mogul. He's invested heavily in Gamecaster and has been given a position as "music director" of the company, although we must stress you can always turn the sound off when you play their games.

Sandoval's big idea is to make video games a spectator sport, something that even Ted Rogers flirted with and gave up as bad job when the 'pong' segment of mid-period 3-2-1 ably demonstrated that watching someone hit a keypad is in way compelling viewing, and - as endless rounds of people playing whatever game it was on Debbie Greenwood's First Class was able to ram home - computer games are fun to play on, but rubbish to watch people playing. Hey, Sonny: have you ever wondered why there's no TV Network dedicated to pinball?

David MacIntosh, CEO of Gamecaster, trots out the tired old "nobody thought Poker would work on TV, either" line, except, of course, people did - that's why it's on television - and, more importantly, there are huge stakes involved in poker. Computer games are not like poker. You're not going to lose all your money in a televised computer game. You might, however, lose all your money investing in televising computer games. We can but hope.