Sunday, September 14, 2008
Nintendo Throws A Party To Benefit Starlight Children’s Foundation
10:30AM Kotaku US Edition | Nintendo invited press, games industry members, and some “A-List” celebrities to an exclusive party last night at their famous Nintendo World Store at Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan. It was all for a good cause, however, as invitees could partake in the silent charity auction and witness the presentation of mobile Wii gaming centres to be used to by patients in New York City hospitals. Oh yeah, there were also some playable games and an open bar there, too. More »
When Gamers Have Teh Babyz
10:00AM Owen Good | Oh, you might think this is soooooo kewte but really, I see about a dozen child protective services cases in this post by Screwattack. It’s a gallery of cosplay kids and since they all appear younger than 6, I’m guessing they were not fully participating in these sartorial choices. You know, dress your kid like Master Chief, you’re just asking for a neglect inquiry. When Gamers Have Kids [Screwattack] More »
As Promised Spewing Zombies
9:30AM Brian Crecente | Deep in the bowels of GameTrailers TV’s latest episode is a first glimpse, albeit a brief one, of the playable zombies in Left 4 Dead and their vomit spewing, tongue-grabbing hijinks. Slow-loading vid on the jump. More »
Is This *Really* a Boomerang Controller Mod?
9:00AM Owen Good | Reader Wakka sent this one in — a purported boomerang PS3 controller mod that’s getting love on a few boards and hack forums. But … looking closely, did this guy really find a controller that already approximated the boom’s shape and finish the rest of the job with Bondo? Back in January, we told you about a Chinese knockoff of the boomerang that was making the rounds at CES. Both pics are on the jump. You make the call! More »
News
Forbes: Spore Downloaded 35K Times Weds-Thurs
8:00AM Owen Good | I’m not sure if this qualifies as a Streisand Effect, but in the case of Spore, the stimulus and the response are palpable. The anti-DRM backlash against Spore is at least partly responsible for the more than 35,000 illegal downloads of the game reported between Wednesday and Thursday, a figure revealed by Forbes in a look at the game’s “piracy problem.” The quotes from hackers, crackers and others in download forums seems to suggest they were provoked by what they see as a needless insertion of DRM restrictions on the game. More »
Dangling the Carrot: the ‘Loot Theory’
7:30AM Maggie Greene | Gamers can be a finicky bunch, moving from title to title in search of novelty — what does it take to keep players motivated and hanging around? Loot, says an essay over at High Dynamic Range Lying — that’s right, the collective ‘we’ are a bunch of donkeys chasing elusive, just-out-of-our-reach carrots around. I’ll buy it as a generalization, since I’ve spent extra hours obsessively going after rare prizes in some of my beloved RPGs, which have the art of loot baiting down to a science: More »
NFL’s ‘Voice of God’ Prevails in Madden Case
7:00AM Owen Good | The estate of John Facenda, the “Voice of God” of highlight-reel narration famously misquoted as calling Lambeau Field “frozen tundra,” has won yet another appellate victory against NFL Films for its unauthorized use of his voice in a promotional video for Electronic Arts’ Madden football franchise. More »
The Childhood Roots of Game Design
6:30AM Maggie Greene | Noah Falstein has an interesting article over at Gamasutra, looking at how a selection of game designers got to where they are today — unsurprisingly, a great number displayed an interest in designing games from a young age, an obsession with rules and mechanics (though frequently on paper), and an influence from and interest in one very, very important game: More »
News
Jeff Gerstman and Capcom Get Plowed and Play Age of Booty
6:00AM Owen Good | Get drunk and play video games? GREAT idea!! Why didn’t I think of that? At least Jeff Gerstmann and Brad Shoemaker at Giant Bomb slugged back the rum with Capcom’s Age of Booty dev team, instead of the more antisocial drinkin’-alone thing. The two sides paired up with each other in a plunderin’ and drinkin’ contest, with the losers sucking back a half-bottle of Captain Morgan’s. Yarrrrgh indeed. Results on the jump. More »
