The other perception, of course, is that Second Life is a psychosexual nightmare given virtual form, where giant penises roam the land and disturbed people wear the forms of bears and then have repulsive intercourse.

http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/01/05/second-life-sketches-two-worlds-fame-and-infamy/

More narrowly still, the average citizen of Brazil consumes 1,884 kWh, which, given the fact that my avatar estimate was rough and conservative, means that your average Second Life avatar consumes about as much electricity as your average Brazilian.

http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/12/avatars_consume.php

NCsoft’s Team Beam puts you in command of a Mechanaught – a powerful bipedal walking war machine. On Exteel’s futuristic battlegrounds, these giant robots are the key to ultimate victory.

Choose a high-speed, light-weight model, wielding dual-blades, or choose a lumbering heavy-weight unit armed with a devastating siege cannon. Create your own devastating Mechanaught using thousands of parts and weapons in almost unlimited combinations!

• Exteel is free* to play at the basic level!
• A micro-payment** system allows you to purchase more powerful weapons, skills, and parts for your Mechanaught.
• Create a persistent mercenary pilot who grows in experience and rank through PvP battles.
• Customize your Mechanaught for your own play style. Choose from a extensive selection of parts and arm it from a large arsenal of lethal weapons.
• Combat is an adrenaline-fueled blend of high-speed gun-play, melee combat and think fast or die tactics.
• Decide on one of four battle modes: Death Match, Team Death Match, Territory Control, or Last Stand.
• Purchase Skills that allow you to perform wild, devastating combination attacks.
• A forthcoming detailed ranking system allows players to compare their victories, assists, and defeats.
• Blends the immersive thrill of an FPS with the furious and brutal intensity of Hong Kong gun-play mixed with the feel of classic robot anime.

http://www.exteel.com/us/gameinfo/featurelist.html

Like Capt. Mal Reynolds stumbling in after a bar fight, the short-lived but much beloved sci-fi series Firefly will soon make an unexpected return, not as a TV show, but as a massively multiplayer online game. Now that’s shiny.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72263-0.html?tw=rss.index

We’ve got some, and they’re up for grabs. Pinger is giving away not one, not two, but all three top selling consoles in the All 3 for Free contest. The Grand Prize winner will receive a Sony Playstation3, a Nintendo Wii AND a Microsoft Xbox 360—Sick! That’s not all. The top two runners up each win their own PS3—how cool is that?

To enter, all you need to do is send a Pinger voice message to the Pinger contest gods telling them why you think you deserve to win.

http://www.pinger.com/content/promotions/all3forfree.html?_t=home_all3forfree

The Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver will begin shipping later this month and essentially makes a PC fully capable of accepting any and all first-party Xbox 360 wireless peripherals. The dongle connects via USB and can manage 4 wireless 360 controllers and headsets at a time, as well as the new 360 Wireless Racing Wheel and any future 360 controllers from MS. Installation is a simple driver install, and the dongle has a sync button that ties it to a controller much like the Xbox 360.

http://gear.ign.com/articles/749/749090p1.html?RSSwhen2006-12-04_181200&RSSid=749104

Sony Playstation 3 + 10 Games + 2 Blu-Ray Movies Bundle $1318.90 shipped at Walmart Walmart has the Sony Playstation 3 20GB Console + 10 Games + 2 Blu-Ray Movies Bundle at $1258.90. Search 5303666. Instock as of 1:50am PST. Includes: Two extra controllers, Memory Card Adapter, 10 games, and 2 Blu-Ray Movies. Shipping is $60.

All unwanted games and/or movie titles can be returned after delivery at a local Walmart store for full refund.

http://www.passwird.com/

“The PlayStation 3 is on every teen’s holiday wish list,” said Bob Fulmer, executive director of the non-profit Taco Bell Foundation. “That’s why we’re offering one lucky individual tacos for life in exchange for giving Boys & Girls Club teens a gift that will keep them in the game.”

ttp://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4241&Itemid=2

In most cases, the movements you make to perform an action in the game are completely intuitive. To snap the ball, you flip the Wii Remote upward with a quick snap. To pass, you simply press the button of the desired receiver, and flip the remote forward in a passing motion. When you’re carrying the ball, the Nunchuk acts as your body, while the remote acts as your arms. What this means is that by tilting the Nunchuk from side to side, you’ll juke in the appropriate direction, and by tilting the remote from side to side, you’ll perform a right or left stiff arm. Basic tackles are handled by simply running into other players, but you can level them with big hits by holding down the Z button and pushing both the remote and the Nunchuk forward. Kicks are handled by simply swinging the remote upward after pressing the A button to start a kick.

http://www.gamespot.com/wii/sports/madden07/review.html?sid=6162055

According to WHDH it took 12 police officers to clear the “crazed gamers” and the city blames the Sony Style store.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/18/boston-mayor-billing-sony-for-copley-chaos/

Joytech manages to beat everyone else to the punch and surprises again, this time with a Wii accessories line thats looking mighty fine. The accessories will become available this winter in North America and Europe. Have a look at all the images and detailed descriptions after the break.

http://www.thatgameblog.com/2006/11/17/joytech-accessories-for-wii/

http://www.penny-arcade.com/2006/11/17

…we’ve just gotten word that a dentist in Columbus, Ohio leveraged some of those cavity-filling profits to hire an unbelievable 60 temp workers to stand in line at four area Wal-Marts. Although not a videogame fan himself, Dr. Murry Newlin wanted to spread the Christmas cheer to his grandchildren, nieces, and nephews by picking up 15 of the next-gen consoles…

http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/16/easiest-job-ever-dentist-hires-60-temps-to-wait-in-ps3-lines/

Recent Xbox 360 updates have allowed the system to spit out resolutions up to 1080p, and with the new HD DVD add-on drive there’s more reason than ever to use a high quality VGA signal instead of the more standard 3-cable component. However there’s a bit of a catch — VGA cables for the 360 cost about $40. According to my calculations, that’s about 2 pizzas and a case of beer less to game with. WE don’t know about you, but we find that a pretty scary proposition — yours buddies that swing over for game night probably do too.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/14/how-to-turn-a-standard-xbox-360-video-cable-into-a-vga-cable-fo/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5utCdITPdU

When receiving a player invite, something that is usually pretty ordinary, you must first

1. Consent To Be Invited

In any other Goddamn Live game, you're done. In Tiger, one must then

2. Endorse The Invitation
3. Yield Wholly To The Concept Of Inviting
4. Surrender To The Invitation Beam.

And then, finally,

5. Lift Your Voice In Supplication To Raoul Invitatio, "He Who Maketh The Match"

http://www.penny-arcade.com/2006/10/23

But if you've only got $60, and don't feel like sustaining any major injuries when releasing that pent-up rage, Mazu Kan's Laser Martial Arts game has you covered. This two-person, "contact-free" slugfest contains a pair of wearable sensors that track your punches, dodges, and uppercuts to determine who loses their "10 life points" first.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/13/mazu-kans-conta

But here's the kicker: this morning I check the forums again, and see a message from a user who got a more or less firm statement from Blizzard over the phone that they know there's a serious issue with their character transfer and not to keep on trying to finalize the transfer, as it would always fail but would charge your account 20 euros for each failed attempt.

My heart stopped. I checked my online credit card statement: no charges. I went back to the forums and it turns out that it doesn't appear to happen to those doing the transfer with credit cards, but only guys with debit cards. Dozens of people complain that their entire accounts have been drained by this. They are completely broke; their banks have frozen their accounts.

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/world-of-warcraft/nic

This is what a lot of duct tape (especially around the crotch), cardboard and perspiration will get you.

http://www.aeropause.com/archives/2006/10/gordon_f

The idea for Flight Gear was born out of a dissatisfaction with current commercial PC flight simulators. A big problem with these simulators is their proprietariness and lack of extensibility. There are so many people across the world with great ideas for enhancing the currently available simulators who have the ability to write code, and who have a desire to learn and contribute. Many people involved in education and research could use a spiffy flight simulator frame work on which to build their own projects; however, commercial simulators do not lend themselves to modification and enhancement. The Flight Gear project is striving to fill these gaps.

http://www.flightgear.org/