Used Games Boost New Games Market
The upfront on a 60$ game with two hours of play inside has to come from somewhere, right? About 20% of the time, that cash comes directly from older games, turned over at the counter. Used games feeding the next generation of games.
Of course, half of them are last year’s Madden…
Game Politics has more information.
Angry Porn Addict about Evony Online, where are my boobs?
An anonymous reader named Angry Porn Addict decided to throw this one our way via the contact form on the site regarding the advertising scheme for the new play-in-your-browser MMO game Evony Online. While there are a lot of strange things to say about Evony Online’s marketing behavior—but how it is affecting the porn market? Enjoy?
I want my titties. NOW.
I clicked on this ad, and all I got was this lousy game.
And I didn’t even get a t-shirt.
I signed up for this game, and continued playing, in the hopes that reaching a higher level would award me with… what lies beneath the lacy bra. But guess what I get instead!
…
Re-launch of “Hot Blooded Legend” in-game picket by irate Chinese gamers
Gamers who enjoyed the classic version of "Hot Blooded Legend" became incensed that the company would release an updated version. To display their wrath, they logged in en mass and performed their very own in-game picket, clogging up the gates to major cities. Questions may arise as to the usefulness of demonstrations such as this by gamers, but it has a effect akin to real world pickets in slowing, denying, or blocking access to areas while expressing a message. Other protests similar seen in the gamerverse have been the Great Gnome Warrior Crash of World of Warcraft and the SOE Star Wars Online protest. While the WoW protest may have actually had an effect (other than bringing down several shards over and over) the SW protest only elicited weird behavior from the GMs.
Do these sorts of events catch the attention
…
Wii Fit Starts Trend, Fitness Games Mutating Gamers
Of course the tremendously successful Wii Fit would spur on a host of copy-cat games, some good, most bad, a few even better than the original. What with the One Board over in Nintendo HQ spitting out an endless stream of money, and all. Much like the music games, fitness games are catching on and dragging gamers into the world of the physical.
If gamers put in the kind of attention and obsessive dedication into fitness games that we’ve seen in the Pokemons and the Final Fantasies, then our kind are destined to become the healthiest and most attractive strain amongst the humanoid species. Scary.
Detnews.com has more on this trend.
Toys R Us To Launch Game Trade-In Program
Dying relic of a former age Toys R Us recently announced their own game trade-in program, offering gamers gift cards for their trade. This marks the retailer as just one more to hop on the used game bandwagon. What makes this program interesting is its reach. Apparently, Toys R Us is willing to accept the goods from just about any console, including as stated in their press release, the Intellivision. In all, the deal covers more than 25 systems.
The catch is that the gamers need to pony up the original packaging as well as the game itself, which might be a problem with those Atari 2600 games from your single-digit years.
The program is set to begin sometime around September 13th. Check out the press release over here.
Ten Years Ago, The Dreamcast
It was a different time, a lost time, when console gaming was just stretching its wings. High off the success of the NES, the Genesis, the Super Nintendo, the gaming industry was ready to try new things. It a storied time, fabled, hallowed in legend and mystery. It was a time when Sega did something right.
The Dreamcast was unveiled this day ten year ago, a small thing, a white box with a controller designed under alien influence, as if a Martian would return at any moment to reclaim his high score. The Dreamcast played discs, it had a web browser, it ran online multiplayer.
Ten years ago, Sega held the future in its hand.
Then the Playstation 2 ate Sega alive and the Dreamcast was cast down from Sony’s bloodstained teeth as little more than the picked bones of a failed promise. …
FCC Considers Universal Media Rating System
You know, those little tags at the bottom of the game boxes you never look at because of the guns and boobs up at the top? Those are ESRB stickers, slapped on by the Entertainment Software Rating Board. They show the game has been rated in a voluntary process for guns and boobs, then assigned an appropriate label so kids know just how many guns and boobs they’re getting. It’s the industry regulating itself, and it works.
The FCC, who a while back totally freaked out over mixing sports and boobs during that Janet Jackson affair, is considering a single rating system for all forms of media. Games, movies, TV shows, anything the FCC can get its lustful tendrils into. This system, if it ever develops, may well be based around the one used by the ESRB and video games.
CNet has …
The Tester, Sony’s New Online Show, Opens Casting Call
No doubt in an effort to compete with Microsoft’s own “1 vs. 100″ show, Sony has issued the edict to conscript a number of gamers to struggle in a live action show over the Playstation Network. The show, called “The Tester” will reward the winner with a job as a game tester, in Q&A.
That’s the gaming equivalent of becoming one of those tech support guys you call when your Wal-Mart computer pukes its guts out.
If jumping through game show hoops for a chance at a dead-end, menial grind appeals to you, then check out the details and links off the Playstation Blog.
Lockheed Martin Patents New Virtual Reality Machine
Virtual reality is coming ever closer to your living room, and recently, Lockheed Martin has filed a patent for a new type of portable VR machine. The system includes gloves, a helmet, and a stand with motion tracking cameras.
Because the system employs external cameras, it can bring really-real objects and environments into the simulation.
And, yes, of course, you can go into the sim with other people. It’s not just virtual reality, it’s an MMO.
The Baltimore Sun has the story.
Batman: Arkham Asylum Paul Dini Interview
Paul Dini has been as involved with the Bat as anyone who still draws breath upon this earth. He’s worked on the Animated Series, which is probably the finest portrayal of Batman in media, and now, he takes credit as the writer for Batman: Arkham Asylum.
It’s a good job if you can get it.
The Telegraph recently posted an illuminating interview with Paul about the new video game (why aren’t you playing it?), covering inspiration, what came before, and the necessities of video game design. Read it here.
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