“PROJECT GAMERZ” (their capital letters and ‘Z’, we are not that urban) is designed to stop everyone in South London knifing each other in “turf wars” over who gets to stand outside the best off licenses, by getting children to play FIFA in a youth club.

Or that may be Pro Evo. It’s kind of hard to tell when you hate and avoid all modern games.

After three days all the controllers will have gone missing. Then the game discs. Then the consoles. Then the arson attacks will begin when someone’s arrested for attempting to nick a TV. There’s only one answer to today’s youth problems – labour camps or a war.

PROJECT GAMERZ

Southwark in South London is the location of a test phase for a scheme organised by The Metropolitan Police’s Riverside Safer Neighbourhoods team. PROJECT GAMERZ invites anyone aged between 11 and 18, who live, or attend school, in the Riverside Ward of Rotherhithe, to get involved with their local community through Video Games and eSports. Video Gaming is the fastest growing form of media entertainment in the world, and eSports – electronic sports – is computer and videogames played as a competitive sport.

Riverside Safer Neighbourhoods team feel the scheme is a perfect forum to launch a fresh and innovative social network between young people, neighbourhoods and community centres. Sergeant Rob Evans of the Riverside team said: “The aim of the project is to enable young people to re-connect with their local community in a way that reflects their interests. By creating this social network we hope to encourage responsible participation across the age group, where we can also engage with local youngsters on policing and community issues that can affect them”.

The Metropolitan Police have enlisted the help of XLEAGUE.TV, the only broadcast outlet for eSports in the UK, who offer the opportunity to participate or view major sporting events in the virtual world – online and on TV [PULSE, Sky Channel 208]. XLEAGUE.TV have brought together major brands such as Microsoft, EA Sports, Packard Bell to provide games, consoles, equipment and TNWA Group for the technical delivery and event management for the first phase of the scheme.

[The press release then degenerates into an advert for XLEAGUE, so we’ll save you that]