Spore already is proving to be less accepting of all-walks-of-life (and love making) than Second Life. PC Gamer's Kristen Salvatore created a "Boobalicious" creature, to which EA wrote her a warning about violating their TOS for inappropriate content by way of nudity. Salvatore is unsure of how the Spore "community managers" got tipped off about her tit-creature, but we can only wish it was our job to look for creature porn all day long.
Sex spreads. That should be the replacement adage of "sex sells" for the latest viral videos. Tired of chipmunks and chocolate rain, clips of the Wii Fit Girl spread eagle across the interweb in record time. Feeding off the fanny frenzy, Playboy's Jo Garcia attempts to pwn the Wii Fit Girl in a battle of panties and pigtails. Surprisingly, this very staged version doesn't have the same ass appeal as the original.
Playing purely for the panty shots, a video game clip shows the desperate attempts at catching a glimpse of g-strings. Pairing Zelda against Princess Peach, the Super Smash Bros. Brawl has the appropriately dressed characters fighting often in mid-air. The player attempts to pan around for a shot of pixelated princess panties. We'd recommend that Princess Peach look into at least a knee-length skirts for avoiding being fragged. More importantly, we'd recommend the player to poke around The Accidental Video Game Porn Archive and get over it.
The title doesn't have too much of a ring to it, but guitar gamers everywhere are already singing praises for the new Rock Band plus Guitar Hero mashup controller. Finally, one controller to rule toggling between your two favorite ways of rocking out.
"Rather than wait for Harmonix and Activision to sort out the whole Rock Band/Guitar Hero/PS3 guitar incompatability fiasco, [Nyko has] gone ahead and released their own guitar, one that avoids the whole mess and gives PS3 owners a single peripheral that'll work on both games."
Called the Front Man, the controller is set to rock your world in March.
Aside from the non-stop shooting action or killing off whoever you can to stay on top of a hill, Halo 3 has its sappy moments. Making us feel all awkward inside, a player recently proposed to his girlfriend in Halo 3 using weapons to spell out "will you marry me?". Additionally, gamertag Moviesign asked her to be "his teammate for life." Gamernode responds, "At least it wasn't a virtual wedding, right guys?". Yes, because then it'd only be a matter of time before the Second Life furries invaded Halo 3.
[Thx, Justin!]
Softcore gaming: Plushie 360
Celebrating Italy's Eurochocolate in style, Sony created 150 PS3s out of chocolate. Obviously feeling late to the game from February's chocolate Wii controller, Sony decided to make a massive Sixaxis chocolate controller, alas lacking any of the equally delicious USB and vibration capabilities. With all the chocolate consoles, there may be some fierce competition for Engadget's next birthday cake contest. Geek and gamecakes better have their icing down to a T-ouchscreen.
Leeroy Jenkins invades advertising.
[via]
[A weekly link post of skipped over (and slightly stale) sights and stories]
• World's smallest Pacman game
• Nintendo Duck Hunt sweater
• Transformer handheld gaming
• Star Wars geeks on parade
• USB calculator pillow
Boothbabes take a more honest approach to marketing.
[A weekly link post of skipped over (and slightly stale) sights and stories]
• Mobile gadget geeks prefer gaming over music.
• Japanese celebrate 110th anniversary of their immigration to Mexico with a 110-meter-long sushi roll. Mmm, delicious anti-assimilation.
• Jane Fonda is planning to make an erotic film to prove couples can have fulfilling sex lives in their 70s.
• Computer Ports Are Forever.
• Treat your tush to a cushion of cuddly pandas. [via]
Playing in pixels on the streets of Italy, Nintendo launched a new marketing effort for the Wii. Equipped with office supplies and a bit of spunk, classic characters were cut and pasted in post-it note form. Link, Mario, and Donkey Kong made the list, though somehow Duck Hunt got the chump. Kotaku elaborates:
"These aren't regular Post-It Notes, mind you, as they're adorned with custom "Wii'll Not Forget" advertising on the back, which not only delivers the Wii elevator pitch, but also probably inspires current Wii owners to compulsively purchase Virtual Console titles."
Previously: Pixelated walflowers and interactive post-it notes.
Fashion victim to space invaders, the latest in vogue video game garments are hoodies. Pretty in pink patterns or stylish in simple graphics, the hoodies carried at the Cool Hunter run at a not-so-80's rate of $150 a pop. This should come as no surprise, to a graphic that appears to get away with charging $45 for some stickies. Hey, we are living in a material world, and I am a video game girl.
Nintendo aims to teach teens about STDs, puberty, pregnancy and more. With Oscar-winning lines like "Huh? What?" this sex education video stars an adolescent teen who gets teleported down the NES rabbit hole to a TRON-esque experience. Luigi guides the dazed and confused teen through what testes are, while Mario offers delightful commentary like "totally tubular!". Between the nostalgic blips and bleeps and a clip of "condom boots" saving the day against AIDS, the video ends with a Captain Planet feel-good moment of "Nintendo Power! Safe Sex Is Teh The Best!". Also, what's with Luigi having no accent? Needless to say, this is WTF-approved.
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Oh, who can't forget the interweb's beloved Nintendo Sixty-FOOOOOOOOOOUR!!1!!1! kid? That kind of geek love can only be recaptured by balding old men splooging over the iPhone launch (yes, we're looking at you, Mossberg). So, that's exactly what this guy in a pair of onesie pajamas did. Oh-Em-Gee! Yes! Yes! Yes!
Falling asleep while fragging no longer has to be uncomfortable. To avoid the NES face impressions in the morning, Blythe Church has sewn together a series of stuffed Nintendo consoles, controllers, cartridges and even an NES Zapper. Minus the "wires", these may make for great "baby's first" stuffed toy. In lieu of missing teddy bear eyes everywhere, the emerging generation would have M-I-A controller buttons and stained Super Mario cartridges.
Doritos has recently been hosting a game creation promotion with Xbox. Titled "Unlock Xbox. You dream it. We build it.", the promotion asks for Doritos-inspired video games, with the promise of five finalists receiving the chance to "change gaming forever". Penny Arcade has a delightful response to the Doritos degeneracy:
"They suggest that gamers may find inspiration in their "iconic shape," by which I assume they mean "a triangle." These "Chip Lords" can't even be bothered to make their own commercials anymore. They have heard about the YouTube MySpaces, and they want to get an oily tendril around participation culture."
Offering up a satiable suggestion, they asked, how about: "DORITOS ... we like to think we make a pretty good chip". Wait, wait, wait, even better: "DORITOS ....... ARE CHIPS". Quite possibly the best ad slogan ever, imho.
Trend Hunter recently rounded up their Top 20 Graffiti Innovations. Paired down to the top five "techie" tag trends here, it's apparent that geek goodness has penetrated the paint.
1. Geek Graffiti - vintage video games in pixelated paint
2. LED Throwies - ferromagnetic surfaces + rare-earth magnets
3. Dot Matrix Graffiti Bike - interweb connected and sidewalk suitable
4. Pixel Roller - paint-by-pixels
5. Automated Graffiti Robot - "a tele-operated field programable robot which employs a custom built array of spray cans to write linear text messages on the ground at a rate of 15 kilometers per hour."
Watch out Wii, in two decades this "knockoff of Breakout" could be the new video game fitness fame. Developed by researchers at the University of Udine, the game uses a pulse oximeter sensor as a body-based controller. The pulse oximeter measures the heart rate and physical qualities of the player and adjusts the game correspondingly. What this creates is an extremely slow wayback machine to early 90s computer games. Perhaps it could transform from Breakout to Lumines as a motivator to get your game in shape.
Equipped with a projector, generator and an console, Xbox 360 takes it to the streets, literally. Vanning around Europe, a few Swedes, who are notably one of the top countries in gaming tournaments, roadtripped around for suitable surfaces. Going guerilla gaming, they projected onto and played various buildings. Definitely a recommended DIY experience if you haven't done before.
[A weekly link post of skipped over (and slightly stale) sights and stories]
• Women turned off by webcams, supply still satiates male demand.
• Hot handhelds: Atari controller candle
• Gamecake: Palatable Pacman
• Musical instrument of lemons explores photosynthesis.
• Fibre optic threads light up your rainy day.
Offering more than your average complimentary breakfast and shampoos, a hotel offers luxury by going l33t. The Tomo gaming hotel boasts large LCDs, iPod docking stations and two "gaming suites" complete with PS3/Wii beanbags and a six foot tall projection screen. Of course, what gaming room would be complete without a mini fridge and microwave? The coffee for an all-night 2-player may be free, but the mini fridge vodka will still cost you as much as a Wiimote. Wonder if there's a disclaimer about wrist straps in their insurance...
Probably best that they launched this after Easter. A not-so-adorable Flash game challenges you to save a cute bunny from going to hop-hop heaven. By shocking, shaving, and slicing him open, you have 60 seconds to save his life. That's only the length of the last disappointing Super Bowl commercial you saw! Then again, 60 seconds can drag on. The play-doctor game was created by 10mg interactive, that has a client roster including: Agency.com, JWT, Tribal DDB, BMW, Canon, Coca-Cola, Intel, and Sony Ericsson.
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Intimate interaction is no longer reserved for avatars and vibrators. Jennifer Chowdhury introduces a new way to be playful with your partner's privates by placing game controllers in intimate apparel. The Intimate Game Controllers were created in attempt to bring gamers and girlfriends together in a touch-sensitive way. Chowdhury's research began with a bra padded for Pong, where groping a right or left breast controlled the game.
"The woman's controller is a bra with 6 sensors. The man's controller has 6 sensors as well but in a pair of shorts. Man stands being woman and each has access to others sensors."
Wmmna also directs us to the similar Pong Dress, aimed to "dissolute the boundaries between body and screen." Here's hoping your boyfriend doesn't treat your cleavage controllers like a game of Whac-A-Mole.
While Guitar Hero has invaded everything from consoles to androids, it's kept the keyboard-crazed community out of the liner notes. Thankfully, Frets On Fire takes aim at the otherwise ignored audience. Frets on Fire remains open source and is able to import Guitar Hero playlists as well as offer community-composed tracks. With Windows, Linux, and a "coming soon" Mac-compatible version, the guitar game kicks "monster ass" by Transbuddha standards, and it's sure to entertain laptop lovers across the board.
If you're feeling fixated on Nintendo or perhaps even feeling the glee grow dull on your Wii, a new concept "game" may revive it with some raunchiness. While the Wii Dungeon featured in this video comes sans 6-sided dice, there's still geek goodness to be had. The Wii Dungeon uses the ever-versatile Wiimote to perform spankings. Of course it doesn't hurt that a cute giggly girl demos it for us. Though this may seem out of your league, this game would be surprisingly tame, considering that the Wiimote only measures 3G of motion, while the swing of a baseball bat is more around the area of 20,000G. We'll let the Wiimote get off with a 3G warning spank for now.
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Pac-Man patterns for some DIY Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde.
Drawn out and documented, Opera has created the Ev-Wii-where Challenge that tasks Nintendo fans to take found-art-esque photos of the word Wii. With the obligatory cheesy contest name, it's no surprise that the challenge asks for the photos to be from public places, making sure to call you out as the advertising whore you are to passersby. The Ev-Wii-where Challenge is to celebrate the final Wii Opera browser, due to come out sometime in April.
"Everywhere you turn, there's a commercial or store display. Every magazine cover is plastered with Wii news. Every store is trying to get you to trade in for Wii games. Every website's got a Wii news story almost daily. Wii is more than a success, it is a cultural phenomenon. Wii is everywhere. Well... almost. Let's have a little fun with the general public!"
Is the contest Wiilly cute, or has the Wii worn out its consumer-generated welcome by now?
Kids love their mashups [ Nike: The Second Coming - via]
Experimenting with analog [ Roy Block - via ]
Tell kids to stick their heads in it [ Plastic Bag Chandelier - via ]
Sure you can take it, but can you dish it out? [ Dishmaker - via ]
[Sidenote: A guest blogger may be on the way for the remainder of this week, so stay tuned]
The Netherlands is certainly not a place to be wasted by staring at a computer screen. Where's the need for porn when the Red Light District is just steps away? Apparently needing to remind the populous of negativity for being a nerd, KitKat released this commercial. The ad features a life within a life within a life, based off of non other than the seductive, yet at times scary, Second Life. We can only cringe in expectation of a Forth Life joke.
A site dedicated to gamer glucose.
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As if the annoying chump who prominently displays his Treo and claims he has $100k worth of work on it wasn't aggravating enough at social outings, this one is sure to tip off your douchebag detector. The modded Nokia 3200 goes from chic to geek in just under a couple decades. Although the boys over at Joystiq love to push buttons, the NES controller cell phone may just push yours. There's already enough geek-shirts for boys with toys to be giddy geek groupies, no one needs a Nokia nerd to pull out his NES controller just to wait for people to give the not-so-candid 'what's that!?' question attention. Hello, 1984 called, literally.
Coolz0r commences another contest, calling for campaigns and links to generate the most comments and trackbacks. While it seemingly could be rigged (hmm, wonder why 15 commenters all use gmail...), the contest a couple weeks ago seemed to be a success. The prize last time was Dragon's Naturally Speaking software. This week, the marketing thoughts blog ups the ante with an ergonomically designed keyboard straight from CeBIT. The Wolf King Warrior Gaming Keypad defines itself as the ultimate gaming weapon, though, by the looks of it, it seems more likely to be the ultimate one-handed typing accessory. The Keypad states, "Perfect for PC Gamers looking for a portable game pad or just looking for more flexibility". Perhaps "just" looking for more flexibility, indeed. Coolz0r's link submission contest ends April 7, so CTRL+V those permalinks over.
It seems there's no end to the add-ons with the Nintendo Wii. While boasting physical health (both in exercise and "exercise"), the game play still can make a homebody out of otherwise simply antisocial teens. Nagging its way through your gameplay, the Solar Powered Wii orders you to get some fresh air. The solar seducer captures up to 8 hours of pure pleasure play time while using under 200 Warioware watts. Offered as an alternative to being cramped up in an apartment, you can't be sure if cities like New York actually stay healthier by getting some "fresh air", however, at least there are buildings to block out any gaming glare.
Tutoring for twittering teens and prude prom queens now comes in an accessible format. The USB-driven finger DDR teaches those flirtatious fingers some moves outside of the T9 temptation. As if you didn't feel dirty enough by sliding two fingers into a cardboard cut-out, the finger DDR then prompts you to move them around. Admittedly though, the flashing lights may be more direction than you could ever weasel out of your ex-girlfriend, so take notes.
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Will Wright, the famed game designer behind SimCity, The Sims, and the yet to be released and highly anticipated Spore, flipped through pages of storytelling to an audience of all ears. Linking stories with the shift from passive to interactive media, Wright outlined the social and biological differences between games and film. While games utilize our basic instincts within the brain, film typically provides a rich emotional palette. Rather than push for the complete adoption of one or the other, Wright integrated the two into a cohesive experience.
Relating to a computer mainly consisting of two parts, calculation and communication, Wright's games involve the possibilities of storytelling as well as the experience of sharing it. Wright explained that people enjoy playing with boundaries and then reporting back on their experiments, a theme that had been mentioned at an earlier panel discussing hacktivism and DIY culture. Most notably, this was seen in The Sims, which was regarded as a musical instrument of a game, where people truly became the storytelling tools.
While expression plays a big role in gaming, it's just as significant that the computer also participates. In this sense, story-listening becomes just as active of a component as any other, teaching the computer how to listen to the player's story. While many love to share stories and content, there's always the issue of quality over quantity. Wright believes that by creating better tools, you can increase the quality of content in the community. Example given was Spore, where users could create their own creatures in, what used to take Pixar artists several days, nanoseconds. Wright concluded that by making the player George Lucas and no longer the protagonist Sky Walker, the experience lends towards greater creative amplification and deeper interaction.
Television today is no longer the elephant in the room. Similar to global warming, it has increasingly been gaining momentum and awareness as well as technological contribution. However, while content is king, the overall experience is moving in to claim checkmate. How we interact and interpret television currently is on a static plane of directional geography: surfing channels up, down, left, and right. Helping break the tangible and virtual norms, David Merkoski (Frog Design) narrated the audience through an up and coming product yet to hit the markets.
Appropriately titled Mondrian, the product set to go public next year, is a TV navigation and recommendation Zoomable User Interface (ZUI) that attempts to rethink TV user interaction. A few major differences with Mondrian is that a user no longer needs to be stuck within nested menus while navigating and it has an active anticipation engine that takes in the content, time, and environment you watch in to build a profile and recommendations. It goes without saying that Mondrian becomes an easy target for Big Brother contextual advertisers. While there have already been proposals for all-advertising channels within the ZUI grids, Merkoski remained unclear on any efforts to save the product from advertising overload.
Going more in depth with intuitive interaction, Merkoski gave an insightful overview of remote controls and interfaces. The up, down, left, right navigation is in touch with a geographical grid, while a ZUI typically tries to orient the user in a way similar to how a camera would. The up, down, left, right is not only for the living room screens, but also small screens like mobile phones as well. The original idea for this came from what some might think of as a hyper-interaction culture: gaming. Moving away from the standard, Merkoski used this to account for why people are so amazed with the Nintendo Wii and iPhone. Merkoski ended with a call to inter-action, "There won't be a choice if we don't design it."
In an unholy marriage between Mario and the mafia, Galacticast mashes up the Super Mario Brothers and the Sopranos, dubbed The Supermarios. Between shrink sessions and 1up one-liners, the latest episode delivers an old school favorite with a soon-to-be-old-school flavor. Pipe cleaning jokes are sure to arouse snickers between joystick players and perverts alike. Despite the super powers, it's game over with a weak ending.
Defiant against the Wii weight-loss revolution and taking a page from fatblogging, a man gamed to his death recently. At 26 years old and 330 pounds, the online gamer died after gaming for almost a week long. Neighbors are blaming the Chinese New Year for turning "youngsters" into gaming addicts, saying that since markets and cafeterias are shut down, they don't have anything to do but game. One would think that there would actually be less deaths for gamers tipping the scales at 330 pounds when the cafeterias are closed, but of course gaming has a frag rep to maintain.
Don't worry, it's not the gamers themselves (though looking at the top 10 man-boobs of gamers who have yet to discover the Wii would be a car wreck you know you'd have to see). ScrewAttack announces (almost annoyingly) their top ten video game character 'boobies', leaving you with that uncomfortable feeling that can only come from a grown man saying 'boobies'. What's even worse is that the video asks for age verification, despite the fact that it covers up the VIRTUAL boobs with "Boobies!" words. Anyone can get a better look at fake tits by watching TBS versions of Sex And The City, or the Real Housewives of Orange County, for that matter. "Polygon pillows" aside, don't expect to be titillated.
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Creating a new evolution to the Hot Or Not trend, DeSmogBlog created a global Warming Or Not game. While not actually titled that, the Stars And Stinkers game (embedded above) wants you to vote on who you think is on the Climate Change A-List. The creators have also been considerate enough to create some little web badges and embed codes for all you portable content groupies. For all the Flash stars, you're also able to swap out celeb photos and create your own version. Of course, have to suggest a Cleanest Dirty Whore celeb version for what porn stars are going green aside from their cashflow. Hmm, wonder if Jenna Jameson's hybrid is enough to balance out her role in Up And Cummers 17.
Neatorama does its duty in pointing to something truly 'neat'. An interactive gaming table combines arcadia with a tangible tablet. Like a Wii for Pong (or perhaps Ping Pong for Wii), the Pong Table uses embedded LED lights along with touchpads to create the experience. When turned off, the 2500 LEDs are unnoticeable, leaving the table ready for dinner. In addition to the Pong Table, Moritz Waldemeyer created the Roulette Table for gamers who gamble, as well as the Corian Mirror which reflects a pixelated image of the onlooker in real time with 1000 LEDs.
Students create Super Mario snowman [BoingBoing]
Frag fabric: crochet Pitfall! and Atari [Craftzine]
Leftover game over [BoingBoing]
iPhone: gaming on the go. On second thought, we'd prefer you stay in your basement [Gadget Lab]
You can run, but you can't hide behind your avatar [Engadget]
While many articles are reporting calorie chaos for Wii-fans, one user hopes to rain on everyone's parade. Offering calorie consumption, the chocolate Wii controller helps re-gain those precious calories you may have lost. Following suit with so many other geek-sweets, the white (wiite?) chocolate remotes were made from the original packing. After a few tiring sessions of Warioware, what better to quench your thirst than a man-handled sweaty chunk of chocolate? Though, your roommate may want to know how a lump of chocolate broke their tv.
While gaming can certainly be an addictive sport, a recent murder revealed an addiction that went off the deep end.
"A university student under arrest for trying to withdraw money from the account of a man found dead last month, along with his mother, has admitted to their murder and robbery, police said. “I spent the money at video game arcades. I murdered them so I could steal some money,” the suspect, 21-year-old Hiroshi Shimura, was quoted as telling investigators."
This may be a case study for parents who view video gaming as a negative activity. However, if anything this morbid news will work in favor of kids desperately trying to negotiate with their parents. "You see, withhold my allowance for video games, and I'll lose my shit!".
Making joystick puns too easy, Bonnie Ruberg attempts to talk about sex weekly on Joystiq. This week's 'Playing Dirty' column goes for the easy bait, asking if sex is a game.
"Our culture trains us to think of sex as something romantic and meaningful, as "making love.""
Apparently a few power pellets short of a blue ghost, the culture in question may be mistaken as your parents' basement. Gamers may be stereotypically sheltered, but it's pretty safe to assume that when they search for sex inbetween 1up's and frags, that love-making doesn't rank high on Google.
"Sex definitely exists outside the flow of ordinary life. Even if it's an everyday thing for you, it has its own separate space, both literally (the home, the bedroom, the bed itself) and in terms of frame of mind."
Somehow I'm left with a bad Carrie-Bradshaw-wannabe taste in my mouth. To assume that sex is separate or outside the flow of ordinary life is, for lack of a more compelling word, a sad view. Sex isn't a separate connection in our brain, nor should it ever be regulated to happening within the confines of just "the home, bedroom, and bed". Sex is as mobile as a PSP, please don't treat it like an Alienware desktop.
Feeling a lack of love lately, bowlers around the world may be hitting the lanes to help compensate. While three strikes probably won't be the only XXX's they see across a screen tonight, a new game is hoping to give some love back to the lanes.
Made for the Nintendo Wii, Brunswick Pro Bowling wants to "give gamers a detailed, realistic bowling-center experience, complete with authentic sights and sounds, and official Brunswick bowling gear. Brunswick Pro Bowling will be highly customizable, allowing players to choose everything from their character’s appearance and accessories to ball styles."
Paired with realistic physics, your balls will have a weight and movement you can feel. True guttersluts prefer 3 fingers deep inside, but some pros may tell you that you can get the job done with just the tips.
As Playstation 3 gears up for its March 23 UK launch, others fill the anticipation with awkwardness. As if out of some emo-rave-circa-1997 rendition of Hairspray, the geeks over at Sony tapped into a PS3-inspired fashion show in East London. The spectacle is apparently expected to be individually blogged about by the 120 attendees. Joystiq compares this hipster clusterfuck to Sony's 'All I Want for Xmas is a PSP' fake-blog-fuck-up, based on the pretty-much-forced Word Of Mouth strategy. Just be glad that they owned up to it - like K-Fed working in fast food for a commercial, at least Sony isn't the only fake soul pictured in the set.
Perhaps developed over the numerous power outages caused by ice storms this winter, someone got a little creative with the leftover tea lights. Bringing back the classics, this stop-motion video uses a grid of candles to shed light on Pong, Pacman, Tetris and others. A romantic candlelit console for two.
Perhaps this is the one kind of Life that Mikey really doesn't like. As disgruntled as the four-year-old who hated everything, anti-Second Life-ers have created a snarky site called First Life. First Life claims to be a 3D analog world where server lag doesn't exist and you can even "fornicate using your actual genitals". Yes, apparently even in First Life, there are false claims in advertising. That's how they hook you - rope you in with high hopes of genital fornication and throw you out with a whiny bitch who's "not in the mood" and an expired condom. Hmm, maybe Second Life isn't so bad afterall.
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The recipe for YouTube success seems to be a comfort food everyone grew up with. Destruction of products, the more brand-heavy, the sweeter, and a lack or complete disregard of editing skills creates a delightful snack for everyone to enjoy. The Sony PSP appears to be the latest YouTube star, in a katana-stabbing match. What kind of dork owns a katana, you ask? The same kind that attempts a PSP seppuku with bare feet. Somewhat cringing and yet still hopeful that the little chump would stab and miss, one must realize that not all can reach the YouTube greatness of those past.
As annoyingly frequent as AdRants hourly updates over the Julie Roehm (who? exactly.) debacle last month, apparently mentioning anything about the violently hip Wii console sends in a flood more. Since The Wii Sex Movie was the most popular link last week, it's only considerate to post the sequel. Wanting to milk the viral fame for all its worth, the douchey chump of a boyfriend continues his story, post-dropping-the-soap-in-a-gamer-convention. Don't flatter yourself, anal-Wii-rape boy, Katie Couric shoved things up her ass on national television and look where that got her.
As if straight out of Martha Stewart Living, soccer moms get into the game. Following their very own home recipes, you too can learn how to frag, pwn, and hax0r.
Gamer goodies (left to right): Ms. Pacman bento box, bits2die4 scarf, and Zelda's Link cupcake pixel art.
Just when you thought the holidays were over, Valentine's Day soon approaches in many reluctant minds. With less than a month in counting, a new game aims to bring back the excitement over mysterious Valentines.
"Played on mobile phones, city walls and the web, Love City invites three cities to fall in love via text message. Players act as a matchmaker for their city. The aim of the game is to fall in love. By linking with someone from a different city your score increases."
Users are able to accept or reject messages of love from others in the game. While it may come as a disappointment that it's not for an actual Ménage à Trois hook-up, just be glad you don't turn your VDay into a VD.
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Nintendo takes its chances on the streets of London with interactive "Wii-osks". The Wii-osks are said to be just a pixel in Nintendo's marketing canvas. Equipped with HDTV and a street team of white marshmellows, the sight draws a crowd eager to see air-bowling in action. While no Wii-mote gang violence was reported, Joystiq warns of Americans and their crafty ways:
"Any self-respecting American in a metropolitan city would have asked to demo the unit, taken the Wii-mote, cracked the marketing flack over the head and run off with the system. But alas, these are not Americans."
While a seemingly obvious viral video for the physical benefits of the Wii, someone had to do it. Taking the cake, The Wii Sex Movie (they seriously couldn't come up with a Wii pun for a title!?). The premise is hot enough, but most could probably do without the chumpy boyfriend. For those already tingling about the idea, Fleshbot is offering bonus points to any adventurous couples willing to 1up the video by trying it out on Wii bowling. My mind is already in the gutter.
The Wiibrator eliminates the need to ride joysticks. This seemingly innocent, dirty little device helps you relax to good vibrations. By using the Wiimote, you can control the signals sent to your "x box". With so many reports, one has to wonder if there should be any safety warnings about damage to your goods.
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Arguing over who's clip measures larger this week are a series of internet "super stars". VH1's Web Junk TV calls for your votes to determine the 40 Greatest Internet Superstars. While some have an ass for a face (nsfw), and some are simply considered an ass-face, the candidates prove to make the running competitive. A few highlights: Lazy Sunday, Diet Coke and Mentos, Bank of America, Lonelygirl15, Look at me being serious, Tom, Numa Numa, OK GO, Tron Guy.
What about Dick in a Box? Box in a box? Smirnoff Raw Tea? Shave Everywhere? Leeroy Jenkins? That lame Rolling Rock video that everyone liked? (Yeah, calling you out.)
The latest gaming accessory goes emo. The Game Dutch pillow could be a cross between unsociable gamers needing a hug and a poor cover-up for morning wood.
"Playing video games should be pure, childlike fun--not the cause for chronic neck and shoulder pain. Those are problems real adults should deal with, not thirty-something year old gamers who refuse to grow up."
While the pillow might help with physical aches and pains, we all know that gamers have emotional needs, too. Perhaps this will eliminate the need for the Boyfriend Arm and Girlfriend Lap pillows.
It's always sad when our precious minutes go unrewarded. Typically it's when we get tricked into an advertisement or we get caught one-handed with a shortage of increasingly revealing photos. Apparently wanting to shoot two birds with one stone, a British version of Axe body spray created an advergame involving a minimally dressed woman that you "blow on" to blow off her clothes. Yes, literally blow on.
"Lynx Blow doesn't have much of a setup, just a full screen video of a scantily clad woman in a barren winter landscape and an entreaty to blow into a microphone or headset "to make me hot." Indeed, constant blowing thaws out the woman and eventually blows her top off, at which point she runs off and you can start all over again."
Add to that, that you never actually see her naked and it's somewhat boring for any savvy one-handed browsers. Usually the Brits are known for their up-to-par sexual humor in advertising, but this one certainly falls short.
And no, not talking about the recent buzzword buzzkill when we all discovered that Cisco had the rights to use the word iPhone. However, this may sooth Apple's pains, as that buzzword is now so last year (or a few years ago for those of us l33t geeks - is l33t banned yet?).
Lake Superior State University recently listed their banished words for 2007, highlights from the list include:
Combined Celebrity Names - yes, you may just have to take a few extra syllables to talk about how creepy Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are or just give up trying to make a name for Justin Timberlake and Scarlett Johansson - although, I've become fond of "Scarin".
Awesome - The list claims it's so 1984, but VH1 still loves the 80s.
PWN or PWNED - Oh c'mon, when have gamers ever realized what year it is from outside their basement windows? They're worried about clocking speeds, not actual clocks.
i-Anything - But YouTube would be a lonely place without spoofs! Besides, with Time Magazine's recent lame Person of the Year issue, the focus is on "You", not i.
Or at least that's the hope for one blogger, trying to shed off the holiday flab. Blogging may be predicted as reaching its peak in 2007, but is not considered a sport as of yet. Video gaming, however, is currently picking up the slack in the "sport" arena. While video games are proven to raise your heart rate as you're mentally sending signals to your muscles, it's still a sedentary activity for the most part. Trying to close the gap, however, the Nintendo Wii eliminates hunching over a monitor and replaces it with embarassing, yet fun, physical movement.
To see how much a difference a day (or 45) makes, a blogger created the Wii Sports Experiment to track the benefits, if any, of using the Wii for 30 minutes a day. The results should be in sometime in mid-January. This might be a laugh to some, but hey, we all need our baby steps to meet those New Years resolutions. As he aptly put it, "time to start sweatin’ to the fuckin’ oldies".
Also, ICYMI, Wii and PS3 do the Apple spoof gig, too.
As the buzz fog dissipates from the launch of the Wii and the PS3, we're left with storytelling from our collective Thanksgivings.
Just getting back from lunch with one of the application developers on my team, we shared our perspectives of the buzz fog. The Wii and PS3 launches seem to invoke a familiar story of The Tortoise and the Hare. While the PS3 garnered a huge spike in buzz with people being trampled and shot just to get their hands on it, their buzz could almost be seens as what killed off a potentially larger demand in the larger audience. PS3 spent so much time and effort to become the foaming on the mouths of gamers, that they also created an elitism that isolated themselves. From the general perspective, Sony spent their efforts promoting the cool games you could play, rather than showing user interaction with the product itself.
Alternatively, the Wii Launched two days after the PS3. Originally, many questioned why, as the buzz cloud was so large around the PS3 that the Wii would surely be swallowed up in the midst of the chaos. Now, post-Thanksgiving, it's clear that the Wii has garnered more offline Word-Of-Mouth than jokes about trytophan. Why? Nintendo made the smart choice in promoting "why they're different", as opposed to PS3's "why they're better". From the commercials, to the stories, the simple, somewhat dorky DDR-style of interaction made the Wii friendly to gamers and first-time-gamers alike. There was no buzz about getting trampled, only buzz about people breaking their TVs by playing with the Wii so much. The developer on my team was sharing stories of his grandparents playing boxing games over the weekend, and how his girlfriend broke two glasses and part of a table from getting so into it.
While the Wii almost appears as something straight out of the 80's in silliness, it has successfully made itself accessible by all audiences. While people are no longer asking about if they saw people getting trampled on the news for the PS3, they are, however, sharing their own personal stories about the Wii. To back up the Word-Of-Mouth and advertising techniques, the Wii out-sold the PS3 on the first day and continues to by a significant amount.
