Parents want inquiry on sex crime teacher

2008-12-02

PARENTS whose children attend a North school which employs a teacher convicted of sending sexually explicit text messages to a 14-year-old boy are calling for an investigation.
Lynn Walls was warned by a judge last week that she might face jail after making contact with the victim, who lives in London, through the interactive computer game World of Warcraft.
She encouraged him to send graphic replies to her messages and described in disturbing detail what she would like to do to him. She is suspended from work.
Yesterday, the mother of a nine-year-old child at Laurel Avenue Primary School in Sherburn Road Estate, Durham, called for an investigation into her time at the school.
The woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: "The school seem to be of the opinion nothing happened while she was employed by them, but I think there should be a full investigation into her roles as teacher and as a responsible adult taking the children to the swimming baths.
"I don't want to be named as my child still attends the school and I don't want to cause any bad feelings.
"I just think other parents who have kids at the school should know. She would take the seven- and eight-year-olds to the swimming baths and go on the bus with them.
"The school has told people they can ensure nothing happened while she was there, but how do they know?"
Last week, Walls, 42, of Rose Street East, Penshaw, Sunderland, pleaded guilty at Newcastle Crown Court to inciting a child to engage in sexual activity in November last year. She was remanded on bail after sentence was adjourned for a probation report. She was ordered to sign the sex offenders' register. The length of time she must register will be set when she is sentenced.
Judge Guy Whitburn, who described the case as very disturbing, told Walls she would get maximum credit for her guilty plea. But he warned: "A custodial sentence cannot be ruled out."
World of Warcraft, one of the biggest interactive internet games in the world, has 11 million subscribers. It involves a fictional universe in which players take each other on using their own specially created characters.
Durham County Council director of children and young people's services David Williams said the court case involved matters unrelated to the teacher's work at the school where she was employed.
He said: "There has never been any suggestion whatsoever of this teacher being engaged in any sort of impropriety while at the school and so we shall not be rushing into any special investigation.
"However, there will inevitably be a disciplinary inquiry at some point as a result of her appearance in court and that is when the broader aspects of these matters will be looked at."
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These games are all easy targets for gamers to spew their vitriol.

2008-12-02

You're obviously a gamer, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't be checking this article out. It's my place to assume, then, that there are some titles that you just can't stand to read, see, or hear about because they just seem so, well, stupid. You can't figure out why anyone would want to waste their time on such an insipid game. You're not alone. Gamers love to hate on successful games. Maybe it's because it's the cool thing to down something everyone else seems to enjoy. Or maybe you just don't see the attraction. Whatever your reasons, here are the top five games that people love to hate. 5. Gears of War "Men with no necks rushing each other with chainsaw guns in a monochrome world." Gears of War is undoubtedly one of the most successful shooters of our time. However, that success comes at a price, as there are those who just can't figure out why people seem to enjoy it so much. Often criticized for being set in a rust-red and gray world with beefy mancakes, it just doesn't sit right with some gamers. The story is nonexistent, they say. Online matches are horrible. And what is up with the pseudo-gritty realism? Many feel it's just Cliff Bleszinkski trying to overcompensate for many facets of his personality, and even more find it more worthless than the disc that it's printed on. However, you can't argue with the fact that its sequel sold 2.1 million copies on its release date. Whatever people find to hate about the series, it's sure not hurting sales. Maybe it's the fact that aside from the cover system it feels the same as many a third-person shooter, or that it's too short for its own good. Personally? I have some faults with it but there's nothing like a good, old-fashioned chainsaw to the neck. I'll keep playing Gears. What about all of you? 4. Guitar Hero "It's like mashing buttons on a piece of plastic. Real guitarists are way cooler." As true as that statement may be, Guitar Hero has offered hope to those who haven't a musical bone in their body. With the help of this visceral rhythm game, people who could not previously carry a tune can now at least pretend that they are guitarists for one of their favorite bands. Why do people hate? It's "pointless" to play a fake instrument. They don't understand why you would want to pretend to play on a toy guitar when you could learn how to play a real one like any "normal" person would. But to many, that's what makes it so fun. They don't have the time or patience or natural talent to learn an instrument. Plus, how stupid do you look, standing there with fingers flying away at a rainbow of plastic buttons? My thoughts are, if you don't have the time or patience to learn a real instrument, and you want to experience the thrill of being a musician, then why is Guitar Hero wrong? I surmise it's those who cannot grasp how to actually play that down the series so wholeheartedly. While it does have its issues, it is in no way a "bad" game. 3. Sonic the Hedgehog "Oh, a new Sonic game? You know it's going to suck." Okay, let's be honest here. The Sonic ventures that have been available for us as of late have not been up to par. Actually, I'll go ahead and agree. What's left to like about Sonic? He's such an easy target these days. At least we have the originals to look back upon so fondly. 2. Halo "Weak sci-fi story with forgettable characters and horrible gameplay. Who cares? It's dreck!" It's so easy to hate on Halo. Never mind how many fans it's garnered since its original inception. Naysayers will complain about its story, its characters, and even the gameplay. "It does nothing new," they'll say. Though it may seem simplistic to many, I for one enjoy Halo's story. Its relative simplicity is WHY I like it so much. You can get so much from all the games and novels, also the comics, that it's so easy to get completely involved. It doesn't behave as if it's too "intelligent" of sci-fi for everyone to grasp, and that's what makes it work. However, many disagree, and dog Halo for its accessibility. Somehow they feel they could do a better job, I suppose? 1. World of Warcraft WoW is an infamous timesuck. It's responsible for an astronomical amount of relationship issues, neglect, and even some lives being destroyed. While those are all valid reasons, World of Warcraft is not a bad game. It's most definitely not my cup of tea, but that doesn't mean everyone should call it a horrible game because of the issues it causes. As we know, it's not the game's fault that its players do not know how to play in moderation. Taking raiding too seriously and letting the game own your life is not only WoW's biggest downfall, but the main reason it receives so much hate. Thoughts? Comments? Don't be shy! What are some games you love to hate? Sound off! Chances are the list is quite similar!

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Game news: Big numbers for teens and games

2008-12-02

Associated Press
Real news from the virtual world:
TEEN SPIRIT: Who plays video games? Just about everybody - if they're ages 12-17.
According to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 97 percent of kids in that age group (99 percent of boys, 94 percent of girls) play computer, console or portable games. So what's up with the other 3 percent? Are they being punished? Or are they doing something less anti-social?
Turns out that teens who play games with some element of civic engagement also get involved in their real-life communities. Pew defined various types of "civic gaming experiences," including helping other players, forming online guilds and making decisions about how a country should be run. The survey found that teens who played such games (like "World of Warcraft" or "Civilization") are more interested in current events and more likely to participate in civic activities, like volunteer work or charity fundraising.
The most popular genres among teens are racing ("Mario Kart," "Burnout Paradise"), puzzle ("Bejeweled," "Solitaire") and sports ("Madden NFL," "FIFA"). "Madden" also scored as the third most popular franchise, following "Guitar Hero" and "Halo" - all games that are a lot more fun to play with your buddies.
HEALTHY CHOICE? The stereotype of online gamers, particularly those dedicated to massively multiplayer games such as "World of Warcraft," are fat, red-eyed slobs surrounded by empty energy-drink cans and snack-food bags. But New Scientist magazine reports that such gamers may actually be healthier than most people.
Researchers at the University of Southern California, the Palo Alto (Calif.) Research Center and the University of Delaware surveyed 7,000 players of the role-playing game "Everquest II." They found the gamers had an average body-mass index of 25.2 compared with 28 for the average American. And the average online gamer also engages in vigorous exercise once or twice a week.
On the downside, "Everquest" players were more prone to depression and substance abuse. The University of Delaware's Scott Caplan theorized that players "may be drawn to use the game to help deal with emotional distress."
CONTROLLED EVOLUTION: "Spore," the universe-spanning "god game" from "The Sims" creator Will Wright, has stirred up some controversy - although not, as expected, from creationists outraged by its playful take on evolution.
Instead, "Spore" buyers have flooded publisher Electronic Arts with complaints about the game's digital rights management, or anti-piracy, measures. If you buy a copy of "Spore," you can install it on no more than three computers - which the majority of players won't have an issue with.

But a very vocal contingent of "Spore" buyers has made a big deal out of the restriction. And EA has blinked, promising to change the DRM to allow users to install the game onto as many as five computers.
"We're willing to evolve our policy to accommodate our consumers," EA Games President Frank Gibeau said. "But we're hoping that everyone understands that DRM policy is essential to the economic structure we use to fund our games and as well as to the rights of people who create them."
TIP OF THE HAT: Is Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert the biggest game geek on television (other than the guys on G4TV)? Guests on "The Colbert Report" have included the aforementioned Will Wright and "Ultima" creator Richard Garriott, who's taking Colbert's DNA to the International Space Station.
Colbert has been most enthusiastic lately about MTV Games' "Rock Band," which makes for excellent corporate synergy since Comedy Central and MTV are both part of the Viacom empire. In July, he got the members of Rush to perform their song "Tom Sawyer" on "Rock Band" instruments. And last week, MTV released a downloadable version of Colbert's 1980s synth-pop classic "Charlene (I'm Right Behind You)" that you can play on "Rock Band." It's hilarious and it's free. View the video at YouTube. Search "Rush Colbert Report" and it should pop right up.

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When is an online fad over?

2008-12-02

 

 

 

 

The Internet thrives on fads that burn hot, then burn out. We've all moved past dancing hamsters, pirates battling ninjas, lonelygirl15, and rickrolling. This year, many assumed we'd seen the end of Second Life. But the lights are still glowing.
In September, Reuters quietly shuttered its virtual bureau in the online world. (No one seemed to realize until a few days ago.) The wire-news service had embedded reporters to cover Second Life since 2006. Now, Reuters joins the growing consensus that staffing an online office isn't worth the effort. They marked yet another evacuation from pixelland. American Apparel and Mercedes-Benz have closed up virtual shop. Sun Microsystems and Starwood have severely pulled back.
Each defecting company seems to take a piece of Second Life's legitimacy with it.
So, is Second Life dying? "No," says Eric Krangel, one of Reuters's Second Life reporters. He argues that Second Life is far from gone - it just looks smaller because most people have sped past it, rolling toward the next fad. But there's still a strong base of fans. More than a million "citizens" signed into Second Life in the past month, according to Linden Lab, the company that runs the online world.
"For all the sound and fury over recent price hikes and layoffs at Linden Lab, Second Life has a community of fanatically loyal users," Mr. Krangel wrote in a column. "Since Linden Lab derives its revenue from user fees, not advertisements, Second Life is much more likely to survive the Web 2.0 shakeout than most other startups."
This membership model has worked wonders for World of Warcraft, another virtual realm. With 11 million subscribers paying up to $15 a month for access to the fantasy world, the game pulls in perhaps $1.9 billion a year. No advertisers required.
Second Life is well behind World of Warcraft. But at least Linden Lab has a clear and functioning business model - something Google couldn't lasso with its free Lively world (on which it will pull the plug at the end of the year) and something the new online darling, Twitter, is struggling to capture.
It will be interesting to see if Linden can hold onto those million users now that it's hit this maturing moment - when Second Life grows out of its fad stage and into either a long-term success or a footnote in Internet history. It seems people in "first life" have already decided whether they love Linden's world or just don't get it. And now that the buzz is gone, few new people are likely to crawl down the rabbit hole.
What do you think, readers? Will Second Life carry on? Feel free to use the comments section for words of support - or obituaries.
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Impressions: Mines of Moria is a PVE wonderland

2008-12-01

While much attention has been paid World of WarCraft (Buy wow gold ) and Warhammer Online of late, another key title is often neglected in the MMO discussion: Lord of the Rings Online. Turbine's epic-scale, story-centric, licensed MMO is a worthy contender that has also just recently seen an expansion in Mines of Moria. As a previous subscriber to the Tolkien-born MMORPG, it was with pleasure that I put aside my Warhammer character and returned to Middle-Earth to quest forth into the dangerous new realm of Moria.
If Warhammer Online is the master of PVP and WoW is the jack-of-all-trades king, it wouldn't be entirely uncouth to say that Lord of the Rings Online is probably the victor of the PVE battle. The game has a PVP system-Monster Play lets players take on the role of the various cretins that populate the armies of Sauron-but the focus is clearly on letting players take part in the epic story. The game's use of narrative and of interactive "cut-scenes" that showcase the story of the books from the perspectives of Middle-Earth's inhabitants is worth experiencing. This is about as close as any MMORPG has come so far to having a fully fleshed-out story.
To that end, Mines of Moria reinforces Turbine's high regard for the Tolkien content. As far as source texts and in-game lore go, Mines of Moria is in many ways a biblical recitation of everything that is Lord of the Rings. The expansion builds upon the original's foundation by offering a ton of new quests and some genuinely exciting raid encounters which will have players encountering monsters like the Balrog and the Watcher that are ripped right from the original text of Tolkien's high fantasy. And it does all this with the excellent artistic direction and beautiful environments which have made LOTRO one of the more visually-impressive MMOs around. Turbine claims that Moria is the single largest interior space ever designed for an MMO, and it's certainly a sight to behold.
In truth, there is more than enough content in Moria to justify the price, and those who haven't tried out LOTRO can do so now for the very fair price of $29.99 (which covers the complete edition and a month of play). While most of the PVE content is the standard fare as far as the actual quest mechanics go, the narrated main quests do a great job at integrating both small-group instances and character-specific narrative into the otherwise well-worn "quest-reward-repeat" system. Aside from the new setting and the addition of some lore, Moria follows a predictable though nonetheless enjoyable path from its predecessor, though, as with the books, the overarching story grows more interesting as the Fellowship moves through Moria towards Sauron's armies.
And while the end-game content and the raised level cap found in Moria are two welcome boons for long-time players, the new "Legendary weapon" system is by far the most exciting feature for veterans. Legendary weapons are special, epic items that can be evolved over time. After going through the difficult process of piecing together one of these named items through various quests, these living weapons can be built upon by pursuing various quests and deeds related to the item. This system, in addition to offering a ton of content that involves both the new areas and items and older ones, does wonders for creating a bond between player and item that goes well beyond the ever-addictive drive for individualization. If there's any one flaw in the system, it's that it isn't as retroactive as some of the other content-you'll have to be level 50 and on Volume 2 before you can truly start to explore it.
But like any good expansion, there's also a dose of fresh content to lure in new players. Two new classes have been added to the game, each with its own specific play mechanic that goes above and beyond the relatively simplistic classes the game shipped with. Thankfully, Turbine took care to ensure that parties composed entirely of these new classes were more than viable, so going through the old content again isn't as painful as it usually is for MMORPGs this age.
The new tanking class, the spear-wielding Warden, combines the best of DPS classes with the ability to tank. The class can wear only medium armor, but enjoys improved survivability through rapid morale regeneration and large, class-specific shields befitting of the Spartan-like nature of the class. The class also totes the new Gambit system, which makes it slightly more interesting than some of the other melee classes in the game. The Gambit system requires inputting a string of specific low-level moves in order to build up to a big one. Different string combinations lead to different end effects, and learning which moves to use when is key to mastering the class.
More interesting, though, is the Rune-Keeper, the new "true magic" class. What's so interesting about the Rune-Keeper is the extent to which the team has gone to make the class fit into the lore. As the story goes, there were only a few key magicians in the world of Middle-Earth, so Rune-Keepers use special incantations and stones that have powerful, magic-like effects. Given the spectacular visuals that accompany the class' abilities, it's clear though that this is most certainly a magic-oriented class regardless of the game's justifications to keep the lore sound.
Rune-keepers simultaneously bring to the table strong spell-casting DPS abilities as well as heals, making the class one of the most dynamic in the game. However, like the Warden, there's a neat spin on the standard hotbar gameplay that limits the class' potential to be both an excellent DPS machine and a primary healer at the same time. Dubbed "Attunement," a small meter effectively measures how your character is building up power: the more damage spells you use, the more you are attuned to damage and vice-versa for healing.
It's very similar to the system for shamans that I detailed in our Warhammer coverage, except that here your character actually cannot cast certain spells of the one denomination if it is too attuned to the other. In practice, this makes the Rune-Keeper a surprisingly challenging, though none-the-less dynamic, class to play, though the lower armor prevents the class from soloing quickly early on. Buddy up with a Warden, though, and you'll quickly find yourselves toppling early content with ease: these are powerful classes that will be a force to be reckoned with down the road. A friend and I have sunk about 60 hours into just that pair so far, and the combination is deadly even at level 30.
As far as expansions go, The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria seems to be a great one based on my time thus far. Moria adds more than enough new content to satisfy veterans, while spicing up the older content with new classes and an interesting quest system in the Legendary Weapons that actually reward going back to old places. If you didn't like the game originally then your mind probably won't be changed, but those looking for a storied, lore-filled PVE experience need look no further than the complete edition of The Lord of the Rings Online.
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Wrath of Lich King Fastest Selling PC Game Ever

2008-12-01

Shatters 1-Day Record for Most Sold
According to Blizzard's official press release, World of Warcraft's second expansion, "Wrath of the Lich King has sold more than 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours of availability, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. This eclipses the previous record of nearly 2.4 million copies sold in 24 hours, set in January 2007 by Blizzard's first World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold ) expansion, The Burning Crusade."This is quiet another feat for Blizzard. This shows us how many people are willing to go back to WoW, a MMORPG that is VERY addicting. I've seen friends' GPA get cut to low 1.0's because of this game. I have played WoW when it came out for a couple of months, but thankfully I got out before I really got into it. This expansion is bound to add more cash to Blizzard's already successful MMORPG franchise. In other words, when is Starcraft II going to come out? That's sure to make headlines too.
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Popular Role-Playing Game RuneScape Tops NHL as Canada's Most Searched Online Subject in 2008

2008-12-01

Online Obsessions Revealed: Yahoo! Canada 2008 Buzz Index Ranks Canada's Favourite Stars, Sports, Scandals and More - from UFOs and Miley Cyrus to Britney Spears and the Stock Market
TORONTO, ONTARIO, Dec 01, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- In a shocking upset, the NHL, the top ranked search term for the past two years, falls to the number two spot on The Yahoo! Canada 2008 Buzz Index behind newly-crowned winner RuneScape, an online game where players create avatar adventurers who embark on a series of quests in fantasy worlds ranging from dangerous castle dungeons to rugged mountains filled with monsters.
Now in its fourth year, Yahoo! Canada's annual compilation of results explores the search habits of millions of Yahoo! Canada users, and provides unique insights into consumers' interests and emerging trends. RuneScape (Rune-Scape) is recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's most popular, free MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) and has more than 10 million registered users.
"It's the rise of the mass-market internet hobby," says Dr. Kim Blank, pop culture expert and professor of literature and cultural studies at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. "Millions of people belong to this virtual community where they can accumulate powers, develop skills, and partner with other players in order to continue their online fantasy quest in real-time. RuneScape allows you to control your own narrative, where you get to be the hero, and this is a big part of the attraction."
Sports still score with Canadians as UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) makes its debut on the top 10, taking ninth spot overall. A mixed martial arts league now sanctioned in select parts of North America, the one-time fringe sport has gone mainstream. With the NHL solidly in the number two spot, WWE takes sixth, and NASCAR comes in eighth.
Stars and scandals rule as top 10 newcomer Miley Cyrus and pop princess Britney Spears place fifth and seventh respectively. This is a demotion for Britney who came in second last year. The third place winner for the last two years, American Idol, rounds out the top ten, taking tenth spot this year.
Service Canada takes third place - could Canadians be getting passports to check out Britney or Miley's next concert, or are we just doing our taxes? The TSX comes in fourth - suggesting Canadians may be worried about the economy and keeping an even closer eye on their stocks.
Top 10 Canadian Searches in 2008:
1. RuneScape 6. WWE
2. NHL 7. Britney Spears
3. Service Canada 8. NASCAR
4. TSX 9. UFC
5. Miley Cyrus 10. American Idol


"The Yahoo! Canada 2008 Buzz Index reflects what Canadians cared most about in 2008. While Britney and the NHL make consistent top 10 appearances, RuneScape and UFC are interesting newcomers," says Peter Harris, Senior Front Page and Buzz Editor, Yahoo! Canada. "Every year is different, and these terms help to showcase our top trends of the times. In 2007, Perez and Paris Hilton made the list, and in 2006 the FIFA World Cup came in second. It's also fun to predict what will make it on the next list - Is the 2010 World Cup a shoe-in?"
When it comes to our U.S. cousins, Britney not only makes a strong comeback, but she dominates, taking the number one spot for the fourth year in a row. Sarah Palin is nowhere in sight, but Barack Obama makes third place his own. It's really the famous ladies who shine in the U.S., with Britney, Miley, Jessica Alba, Lindsay and Angelina taking half of the top 10 spots. Rounding out the U.S. top five is online phenomenon RuneScape - In a RuneScape fantasy world of ice and snow, would Canada beat the U.S.?
"We are extremely pleased that RuneScape is one of the most searched subjects in both Canada and the U.S.," says Geoff Iddison, CEO Jagex Ltd. "After seven years the game is more popular than ever and we are looking forward to many more people joining RuneScape in 2009."
Top 10 U.S. Searches in 2008:
1. Britney Spears 6. Jessica Alba
2. WWE 7. Naruto
3. Barack Obama 8. Lindsay Lohan
4. Miley Cyrus 9. Angelina Jolie
5. RuneScape 10. American Idol


OTHER CANADIAN TOP TENS:
In addition to the overall top 10 search results, The Yahoo! Canada 2008 Buzz Index also compiled the following top tens for 2008. To access the entire Index, please visit: http://ca.promos.yahoo.com/yearinreview/2008/index.php or http://www.yahoo.ca/.
Top 10 News Searches:
The votes are in! Canadians were clearly more interested in the U.S. election than our own. Between bungled TV interviews and Saturday Night Live appearances, Sarah Palin dominated news searches on Yahoo! Canada. Barack Obama wins the presidency, but follows Palin when it comes to online searches. Canadian Elections makes the top five, a solid turnout in a political year dominated by "Joe Six Packs" and "Caribou Barbie."
1. Sarah Palin 6. Couillard-Bernier Scandal
2. Barack Obama 7. Greyhound Beheading
3. Philippines 8. Hurricanes Gustav and Ike
4. Iran 9. Maple Leaf Foods Recall
5. Canadian Elections 10. China


Top 10 Entertainment Searches:
Miley Cyrus and her alter ego Hannah Montana both make the entertainment top 10, with Miley topping the list. Has Britney been dethroned by a new pop princess? Will she come back stronger than ever in 2009? Canadians exhibit their wide variety of interests, with both teen sensations the Jonas Brothers and The Young and The Restless also making the list.
1. Miley Cyrus 6. Megan Fox
2. Britney Spears 7. Hannah Montana
3. American Idol 8. Jonas Brothers
4. Rihanna 9. Young And The Restless
5. Lindsay Lohan 10. Jessica Alba


Top 10 Scandals:
In the number one spot, teen queen Miley Cyrus took a page out of the "How To Create A Hollywood Scandal 101" book with racy photos and a revealing Vanity Fair shoot that she apologized to fans for doing. And who can forget Britney's early 2008 forced hospitalization after a custody stand-off at her house where she was driven away in an ambulance?
Art imitates life as David Duchovny, the former X-files star and current star of Showtime hit "Californication," enters rehab for sex addition. With his wife Tea Leoni coming in tenth on the scandals list, maybe we wondered what she thought about the whole thing?
Stepping away from high pop culture and celebdom, Canadians had our own homegrown scandal with Maxime Bernier and Julie Couillard - a politician and an accused biker gal shacking up - one gets fired, and the other one writes a book.
1. Miley Cyrus 6. Amy Winehouse
2. Britney Spears 7. Edison Chen
3. Lindsay Lohan 8. Ashley Alexandra Dupre
4. Lil Wayne 9. Shelley Malil
5. Julie Couillard 10. Tea Leoni


Top 10 Financial Topics of The Year:
From filling our gas tanks, to filling our shopping bags with cross-border deals, to the current economic downturn, it's been a volatile year for shoppers, drivers, and investors. With an eye on their investments, Canadians keep a close watch on the TSX and blue-chip Canadian companies RIM and BCE, with BCE's privatization plans continuing to make headlines throughout 2008.
1. TSX 6. Canadian Dollar
2. Currency Converter 7. Gas Prices
3. Bank of Canada 8. RIM
4. Exchange Rates 9. AIG
5. Gold Price 10. BCE


Top 10 TV Shows:
Canadians still love Ryan, Paula, Randy and Simon as American Idol is the top-searched TV show in Canada, while Ben Mulroney and the Canadian Idols have to settle for sixth spot. Miley Cyrus's Hannah Montana makes another solid showing on The Yahoo! Canada 2008 Buzz Index. Canadians also went online to find out which B-List stars and everyday hopefuls were dancing their way to the top as Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance make the list.
1. American Idol 6. Canadian Idol
2. Hannah Montana 7. Days Of Our Lives
3. Young And The Restless 8. So You Think You Can Dance
4. Oprah 9. Naruto
5. Dancing With The Stars 10. Lost


Top 10 Athletes:
Even with 14 gold medals, and a world record for winning the most medals ever at a single Olympics, with eight in Beijing this summer, Michael Phelps couldn't beat out soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo as Yahoo! Canada's most searched athlete. Soccer veteran David Beckham makes the list, while tennis star Maria Sharapova, Olympic swimmer and model Amanda Beard, and IndyCar driver Danica Patrick represent the female contingent on the list.
1. Cristiano Ronaldo 6. Danica Patrick
2. Michael Phelps 7. Tiger Woods
3. Sidney Crosby 8. Maria Sharapova
4. Manny Pacquiao 9. Kimbo Slice
5. David Beckham 10. Amanda Beard


Top 10 Games and Gadgets:
Stocking stuffers like iPhones, iPods and Blackberrys will no doubt be popular, with all three making Yahoo! Canada's top 10 games and gadgets list for 2008. With RuneScape leading the way, online role-playing and adventure games like Dragon Fable and Adventure Quest don't require more than a click of a mouse in order to head off into lands unknown.
1. RuneScape 6. iPod
2. World of Warcraft 7. Blackberry
3. Text Twist 8. Adventure Quest
4. iPhone 9. Manhunt
5. Dragon Fable 10. Gaia
Top 10 Odds and Ends:
1. UFOs (various stories and sightings) 2. Bigfoot (alleged dead Bigfoot body turns out to be a rubber suit)
3. Chupacabra (mysterious creature found)
4. Argyria (ingesting sliver turns people blue)
5. Tree Man (mysterious condition gives man bark-like growths)
6. Pregnant Man (transgendered man Thomas Beatie has baby)
7. Giant Squid
8. Svetlana Pankratova (holds Guinness World Record as world's leggiest
woman)
9. Freak Waves (aka "rogue waves," giant waves that come out of nowhere)
10. Spencer Tunick (photographer who shoots crowds of naked people)
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Game sales holding up despite bad economy

2008-12-01

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Bailouts, bankruptcies, liquidations and layoffs have been the business buzzwords over the past few months, but the video game industry remains stubbornly resistant to the gloom enveloping the rest of the economy.
While game industry executives and analysts aren't ignoring the broader economic trends, all the evidence seems to point to a robust holiday season for game makers and sellers and continued prosperity next year.
Part of the explanation for video games' continuing popularity, game insiders say, is the "nesting" effect, in which cash-strapped consumers stop going out and look for ways to entertain themselves at home.
"Clearly, interactive entertainment is a great value in a down economy," said Dan DeMatteo, chief executive at Grapevine, Texas-based GameStop, the largest stand-alone game retailer in the world.
The numbers seem to bear that out.
In October, video game sales jumped 18 percent, according to market research firm NPD Group.
November has been solid, too, as GameStop said in its quarterly earnings conference call this month that initial signs for the fourth quarter are positive.
There are other signs that games remain as popular and lucrative as ever.
Blizzard Entertainment said "Wrath of the Lich King," the latest expansion for its popular "World of Warcraft" online game, sold more than 2.8 million copies in the first 24 hours after it was released Nov. 13.
Blizzard said the sales
avalanche made Lich King the fastest-selling PC game of all time.
Microsoft has also done blockbuster business in the past few weeks. The shooting game "Gears of War 2" for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console went on sale Friday, Nov. 7, and sold more than 2 million copies over the weekend.
Generally, any game that sells more than 1 million copies is considered a big success.
And almost anything sold by Nintendo remains a hot commodity, especially the new "Wii Fit" exercise game for the Wii console, with GameStop and other retailers reporting essentially instant sellouts as copies hit shelves.
That's not to say the game industry is ignoring the trends in other industries.
"We have some concerns about the short term," DeMatteo said, noting that GameStop has frozen hiring at its corporate offices. "We're watching expenses as anybody would prudently do."
Arvind Bhatia, a game industry analyst in Dallas with Sterne Agee, said it's unrealistic to assume that games will be completely unscathed by the broader economy.
"I think we're going to see relative outperformance (compared with the rest of the economy), but I don't think the industry is immune," he said. "To think there will be zero impact is not right, in my opinion."
GameStop did lower slightly its projected earnings for the fourth quarter when it released the third-quarter numbers and said it will open fewer stores next year, after opening more than 600 in 2008.
Electronic Arts, one of the largest game publishers, reported a second-quarter loss of $310 million last month, much worse than the $195 million loss in the same period a year earlier.
Even so, EA did increase its sales to $894 million in the quarter from $640 million.
GameStop's DeMatteo said industry sales are forecast to grow 10 percent to 15 percent next year.
That's a best-case scenario, he conceded.
But if people continue nesting next year, "we could have a best-case scenario," he said.
Some analysts think GameStop is much too conservative in its official outlook.
"The company's total sales growth guidance is pessimistic to the point of being ridiculous," Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter wrote in a report Nov. 21.
Pachter said he expects holiday software sales to be "robust" and said GameStop probably is equally confident internally.
"We believe that management is intent upon setting expectations that it can easily beat, and expect GameStop to do so."
Regardless of the specific numbers, DeMatteo is clearly bullish on the business.
"I think we're being prudently cautious given the environment we're in," he said. "But strategically, long range, do we believe video games are a robust, growing industry? Absolutely. How could you come to any different conclusion?"
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Paedophile Rachata Burasite caught after grooming 13-year-old in virtual world

2008-12-01

A British paedophile who groomed a 13-year-old girl for sex in "virtual world" has been caught after he attempted to meet her in person.
Rachata Burasite, 22, first met the Canadian girl, then aged 11, in an internet site where users adopt the identity of cartoon characters to play games in a make believe world.
It is believed to be first case where a British paedophile has stepped out of a "virtual world" and attempted to make physical contact with his victim.
The pair met on website called Gaia Online which has an estimated seven million daily visitors, most of them teenagers.
Burasite spent two years chatting to the girl online and exchanging hundreds of mobile telephone text messages before flying to Canada spend a month with her .
But when he arrived at Vancouver Airport in July he was stopped by customs officers who discovered he was carrying images of child abuse and carrying a large number of condoms.
Burasite, who lives with his family in Halstead, Essex, pleaded guilty to an offence of "child luring" at a court in Richmond, British Columbia, last month and was sentenced to six months in jail. A charge of possession of child pornography was dropped.
He has already been deported back to Britain because of the time he had served awaiting trial. An Essex Police spokesman said that officers met Burasite when he arrived back at Heathrow Airport and took him to Uxbridge Magistrates' Court where he was added to the UK Sex Offenders' Register.
Earlier this week, a British primary school teacher admitted sending a text message to a 14-year-old boy she had befriended on the interactive computer game World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold ). Lynn Walls, 42, of Sunderland, sent the boy, from London, a series of graphic texts and was warned she faces jail after admitting inciting a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity.
The conviction of Burasite has increased concern that children at increasing risk in virtual worlds, where adults can disguise their true identity behind images of fantasy characters.
Constable Rosiane Racine, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's integrated child exploitation unit, said that Burasite had first met his victim on Gaia Online.
"They spent almost two years chatting online and by SMS before they decided to met each other. The girl knew he was older, but but not how much," the officer said.
"When Mr Burasite arrived, a Vancouver International a customs officer decided something was not right and began to question him. Then he called the police and that was when they found out he was here to meet a 13-year-old girl for sex. He planned to stay for a month.
"The girl's parents were very distressed when we told them what had happened."
Constable Racine said the case should alert parents to the fact that a home computer can be as dangerous for their children as a public place like a shopping mall or park.
"They should tell their children there should be no chatting to strangers. They should be aware of where there children are and the computer should be in the living area, not the child's bedroom."
Gaia Online advises parents to talk to their children about their online activities, check their member profile page, and tell them never to arrange meetings with strangers they meet online. It also has strict rules on discussing child sexuality or abuse.
The Canadian investigation was helped by Britain's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).
A spokeswoman for CEOP said that it was receiving an average of four reports a day of classed as a high risk situation where a child was being abused or at risk of being abused.
The Times contacted Burasite, who refused to comment.
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Gaming Syndrome Raids Users

2008-12-01

The ostensibly static life of a gamer shouldn't be disparaged. It's a passionate story that epitomizes love and determination.
The story begins in the cluttered isles of a big-box retailer, when a sleek design on a garnished box galvanizes the curiosity of an up-and-coming adolescent; call him Slick. The box promises a new world where fantasies can be lived, where new identities can be donned and old ones shed. Hormones fired up, Slick makes a move on the voluptuous box and, with a glimmer in his eyes, runs a credit card debt to purchase it. Slick has now joined the ranks of 11 million other users who have been cajoled into betrothing themselves to the World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold ) , the massive online role-playing game.
Slick installs the game and plays, customizing his avatar, a warlock, and beginning his pursuit of quests, gears and gems. Like the average user, Slick pillages, explores and collects for about 25 hours a week, padding his pride with each experience point. The work pays off; Slick's leveled-up avatar raises eyebrows every time it unleashes the fury of its magical battleaxe. It gets him membership in an exclusive guild where he begins to meet people who, like him, enjoy the simple pleasures that life has to offer, and have pledged to satisfy their Warcraft infatuation with all the irrationality it desires. Slick begins to play longer into the night and becomes his own cult hero. Slick has it all.
That's how Slick views himself. However, the real Slick doesn't embody his name. He's unemployed, single and 35, the average age of a gamer according to the Entertainment Software Association. With dilated pupils and swimming in perspiration, his fingers incessantly click away only to pause when Mr. Bladder comes calling.
Although Slick may represent an aberration of the gaming norms, his story is shared, in part, by others and reveals the more somber realities of the virtual world. A 15-year-old Swedish boy who, earlier this month, played World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold ) for 20 straight hours, collapsed and went into convulsions, shares his compulsive gaming behavior. His neglect of his own life is shared by an American couple who last year, obsessively played the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons while their two children became severely malnourished. Qui Chengwei, who, three years ago, fatally stabbed a fellow gamer for stealing his virtual sword, shares such a fixation on leveling up and gaining influence in the virtual world.
Recognizing the atrophic effects of video games, China, in 2005, began to implement controls that would dissuade its more than 20 million gamers from playing certain online games for more than three hours. After three hours, game characters would have their powers reduced. The controls in China go so far as to force gamers to take a break after five hours.
In America, the U.S. Army embraced the gaming media for the very reason the Chinese government decided to restrict it: addictive power. The U.S. Army pushed video games as a potential recruitment tool to entice adolescents to enlist, and after the success of its free action game, America's army decided to establish its own video game studio. Currently, over 27 million copies of its video games have been distributed, costing taxpayers $2.5 million annually.
The reality of video game addiction has started to get some attention from the medical community. Last year, the American Medical Association's Council on Science and Public Health prepared a report for the annual American Medical Association policy meeting. The report suggested including video game addiction as a disorder in the revised version of the DSM, a manual compiled by the American Psychiatric Association that lists recognized mental disorders. The report estimated that five million young Americans might be addicted. The proposal was denied, but with four out of 10 Americans now playing video games, the debate continues.
Like almost everything else in life, video games are as enjoyable as pumpkin pie, if enjoyed in moderation. However, video games become a prevalent problem when you add people lacking self-control to games that can shove self-control into a corner. So think twice this Christmas season before buying your friend or loved one that embellished box with the sleek design. Otherwise, that Warlock waiting to be played inside could end up ruining your holidays or worse, your life.
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Malware writers target Facebook, World of Warcraft

2008-11-27

According to data from McAfee Avert Labs, the monitoring and research arm of security vendor McAfee, malware attacks are growing at astronomical rates and it's happening for one simple reason: the malware writers are making money.

According to data from McAfee Avert Labs, the monitoring and research arm of security vendor McAfee, malware attacks are growing at astronomical rates and it's happening for one simple reason: the malware writers are making money.
Data from McAfee indicates 245 per cent growth in the number of malware being developed from 2006 to 2007, with a further 300 per cent growth projected from 2007 to 2008. And year to date, McAfee said the amount of malware generated has already surpassed 2006 and 2007 combined.
"Cyber crime has completely altered the landscape we're dealing with today," said Dave Marcus, director, security research and communications for McAfee Avert Labs. "All the malware we're seeing today is driven 100 per cent by money, and is designed to harvest information we're going to see sold on the underground."
Marcus said there's a fully developed underground system that has developed, almost a malware industry. One group discovers the vulnerabilities, another writes the code to exploit them, another spreads and distributes the code, then another gathers the results and sells them on the open market.
Most malware today is password-stealing trojans designed to steal usernames and passwords, usually banking information. Usually malware developers won't loot the accounts themselves, said Marcus, but rather sell the information to a third-party for a premium, a phenomenon known as credit card dumping.
Increasingly, said Marcus, social networking is being used to spread malware, and Web 2.0 is fast becoming a malware writer's best friend. Sites such as Facebook and MySpace are bring "used and abused," said Marcus, as a platform to send malware out into the wild.
"Facebook is commonly used for the same thing. These sites solved one of the big problems malware writers had: how do they get their malware out to you," said Marcus. "It's more important than ever that our technology keeps pace with these kinds of threats, because everything is being distributed through Web 2.0 sites these days."
It's not just social networking sites being targeted, said Marcus. Gaming sites are an increasing target as well. With whole economies developing around online games such as World of Warcraft, through the selling or trading of objects and levels, malware writers are taking note. Also, as people tend to reuse the same username/password combination for numerous logins, if malware writers get it once they can exploit it elsewhere as well.
"The amount of malware is being written because of the amount of money they can steal, and because they can do it with impunity, with very little likelihood of being caught," said Marcus.
McAfee is hoping to give people the tools to fight back with its recently released 2009 line of consumer-level security software. Madhurima Pawar, senior product manager in McAfee's consumer strategy and marketing group, said McAfee's goal with its 2009 line was to be instant, silent, and complete.
Pawar touted McAfee's speed of updates, promising instant definition updates for new threats compared to five to 15 minutes for rival Symantec. Also new is Active Protection. If a file passes the local database but is still deemed suspicious, a fingerprint is taken and is pinged against McAfee's backend server. The process will be seamless for the user, promised Pawar.
"This is how we're ensuring with our 2009 product line we're delivering the latest updates, thus keeping them protected at all times."
Work has also been done to make the software less intrusive to the user, and less of a drain on system resources. Pawar said McAfee has been able to achieve a 13 per cent performance improvement when running a full system scan over its 2008 edition.
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Let the Games Begin

2008-11-27

n these challenging economic times, it may come as a surprise that a well-chosen video game can be one of the most cost-effective gifts possible. Sure, the $60 price tag on some top games can be daunting, but when you realize that the right one can wrangle dozens or even hundreds of hours out of the right player, games can start to look like the smart entertainment investments they are.
But nongamers can get it totally wrong when buying for friends and family. Bad gift-giving usually stems from one basic misconception: If it's a video game, it must be for children.
Every year, parents who would never dream of buying their children a DVD of "Scarface," "Platoon" or one of the "Saw" torture movies blithely buy them violent gangster games, bloody war games and gross-out horror games. Then they're horrified when little Johnny or Jenny ends up spending Saturday afternoon trading expletives with drug dealers and discussing the relative merits of shotguns and flamethrowers. So please, if you would not allow your children to watch R-rated films without supervision, do not buy them M-rated games. Federal studies have shown that the game industry is at least as vigilant as Hollywood in labeling products that are inappropriate for children. But the system breaks down when parents ignore it.
That misconception cuts the other way as well. The average gamer is now about 30; the first generation to grow up playing games is now around 40. And your 35-year-old boyfriend is not going to be impressed when you show up with the latest Pokémon or the new "Price Is Right" game. The best work being done in games these days is in interactive narratives for and about adults. Engaging with a current top-end game involves much more cognitive processing (a k a brainpower) than merely watching hour upon hour of prime-time television. So show some respect; your favorite gamer will adore you for it.
Here are some of the best games of the year, each of which could be the perfect gift for the right person. The shrewd will notice no sports or music games on this list. That is because those are easier to shop for: pick the desired sport or tunes and go.
GRAND THEFT AUTO IV Ideal audience: well-adjusted adults who want to explore a rich, intelligent, politically incorrect digital rendition of New York City. As long as you can accept that a great work of modern entertainment can revolve around criminals - something long assumed in television and films - then it is almost impossible to deny that G.T.A. IV is one of the most compelling games in recent years. The driving and shooting is fun, but the real star of the game is the city itself, rendered with a loving sense of decay and populated with perhaps the best cast of dysfunctional characters to grace a pixel. For Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 (PC version coming in December). Rating: M for Mature.
SID MEIER'S CIVILIZATION REVOLUTION Ideal audience: families interested in fostering an appreciation of both global history and strategic thinking; also, commuters looking to upgrade from Tetris. Civilization is the top strategy franchise in the history of video games. With Revolution the series moves beyond PCs and arrives on consoles and the hand-held Nintendo DS. The premise remains the same: guide a historical culture from the dawn of history to the space age. Nothing feels better than dominating Genghis Khan and Napoleon at the same time. For Xbox 360, PS3 and DS. Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10 and older.
Warhammer Online Ideal audience: massively multiplayer online gamers who cannot satisfy their bloodlust in World of Warcraft（ Buy wow gold ） Don't get me wrong; like more than 10 million other people, I love World of Warcraft. But great games can stand some competition, and Warhammer Online, the new online version of the decades-old British fantasy universe, provides it. Warhammer employs many conventions from Warcraft but gives them a new twist in a game that focuses largely on player-versus-player combat, rather than on battling computer-controlled foes. For PC. Rating: T for Teen.
Wii Fit Ideal audience: couch produce of all ages. Nintendo's best game of the year is not really a game. It's a light exercise system meant to take just a few calories off. The most surprising thing: it works. For Wii. Rating: E for Everyone.


LITTLEBIGPLANET Ideal audience: aspiring game designers and anyone else with excellent eye-hand coordination. The breakout title this year for Sony's PlayStation 3, LittleBigPlanet is in some ways as close to YouTube as games have come. In its essence it is merely a "platformer": you navigate your little beanbag character mostly by running and jumping. The secret sauce is that the game allows users to create their own levels and share them easily with other players online. Rating: E.
DEAD SPACE Ideal audience: people who like being scared. Dead Space is a straight-ahead science fiction survival-horror experience. You, the player, are trapped on a spooky spaceship with a horde of space zombies who want to eat you, or turn you into one of them, or something. You wade through them while engaging in what is charmingly referred to as "strategic dismemberment." For what it is, though, Dead Space is both conceived and executed at a high level. For Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Rating: M.
FALLOUT 3 Ideal audience: old-school role-playing gamers and anyone who wants to see Washington in ashes. The return of the classic Fallout series is a sprawling re-creation of the Capitol area after a nuclear war. The tone is darker and less slyly humorous than previous Fallout games, but the sheer size and ambition of the game impress. For Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Rating: M.
PROFESSOR LAYTON AND THE CURIOUS VILLAGE Ideal audience: puzzle fans. One of the sleepers of 2008, Professor Layton ties together more than 100 beautifully designed brainteasers with an endearing anime-style story. The puzzles themselves are perfectly intelligible to nongamers. For Nintendo DS. Rating: E.
GEARS OF WAR 2 Ideal audience: testosterone-fueled core gamers who like chain saws. When you think about the stereotypical video game, this is what you're thinking about: big guns, voracious alien bad guys, great graphics, huge explosions, cardboard-cutout characters, silly dialogue and cheap thrills all around. Not that there's anything wrong with that. For Xbox 360. Rating: M.
FABLE II Ideal audience: emotionally mature children and most fans of delicate entertainment design. This game is rated M not because it is especially violent or profane. It is rated M because in between casting spells and swinging swords you can have children, you can get married (and have affairs if you choose), and you can buy condoms. Shocking, I know. For children who are comfortable with the basic facts of life, there is no reason not to share Fable II. It's a wonderful game on its own, and it beats handing a child a virtual machine gun. For Xbox 360.
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TV, Games and Epilepsy

2008-11-26

IncGamers favourite psychologist, Dr Guy Cumberbatch has shed some light on the relationship between epilepsy and videogames. Last week, we reported that a Swedish boy had suffered an epileptic fit after playing World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold ): Wrath of the Lich King for 24 hours. After a hospital visit, a doctor said that the boy had suffered from high concentration, lack of food and sleep. We asked Dr Cumberbatch, director at the Communications Research Group, about the link between videogames and epilepsy, if indeed there is one. "There is such a thing as ‘videogame epilepsy' which is really a special kind of epilepsy: photosensitive epilepsy triggered by flickering or flashing lights," he said. He explained although flashing sequences in games can trigger epileptic seizures, the low refresh rate of a television is a more likely culprit, with the higher frequencies (75Hz to 100Hz) being favourable. Dr Cumberbatch also told IncGamers that Ofcom (the Office of Communications), the regulator and competition authority for the communications industry in the UK, has guidelines and rules relating to the degree of flicker on TVs. "Surprisingly, while Ofcom specifies what duration and frequency of flash or flicker is acceptable on broadcast television, the regulator seems to have forgotten to include videogames," he said. "This really is an anomaly because, compared with watching TV, game players tend to get closer to the screen (too close!) which makes photosensitive seizures more likely." "However, we need to remember that as a disease category, epilepsy is a fairly common disorder and most often appears in puberty where it is four times more frequent in boys than in the general population," he continued. "This means that a fair number of young people will have their first seizure while playing a videogame simply because this is a common activity." Dr Cumberbatch also explained that in cases where an epileptic seizure was recorded during gameplay, the most likely cause was fatigue from extended play sessions. He advises regular breaks while gaming.
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Excessive gaming not an addiction: Research

2008-11-26

Washington, November 26: Majority of young people who seek treatment for compulsive computer gaming are not addicted, according to a research carried out by a treatment center which offers help to people addicted to video games.
Keith Bakker, founder of the Smith & Jones Centre in Amsterdam, Europe's only clinic for treating game addiction, has said that 90 percent of the people he sees are not addicts.
After treating hundreds of young gamers since the Smith & Jones Centre opened in 2006, Bakker now realized that instead of a psychological problem, compulsive gaming is a social problem that could be helped better by a stronger involvement from parents and teachers.
Since the opening of the clinic in 2006, Bakker, having treated a number of compulsive gamers, has found that only 10 percent of gamers are true addicts who show addictive tendencies to gaming, as one would to other substances, such as alcohol and drugs. Bakker thinks the traditional addiction counseling is not the way to treat the other 90 percent people who may spend four hours a day or more playing games such as World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold ).
"These kids come in showing some kind of symptoms that are similar to other addictions and chemical dependencies," he said. "But the more we work with these kids the less I believe we can call this addiction. What many of these kids need is their parents and their school teachers - this is a social problem."
The clinic has started to alter its treatment program for the compulsive gamers to focus more on developing activity-based social and communications skills to help them rejoin society. Bakker suggests that parents can be the best solution for stemming excessive gaming.
"This gaming problem is a result of the society we live in today. Eighty percent of the young people we see have been bullied at school and feel isolated. Many of the symptoms they have can be solved by going back to good old-fashioned communication," he added. "In most cases of compulsive gaming, it is not addiction and in that case, the solution lies elsewhere."
Bakker suggests that compulsive gamers can leave gaming behind and rebuild their lives if we offer them a place where they feel accepted and where their voice will be heard.
Video game addiction, also called video game overuse, is a proposed form of psychological addiction composed of a compulsive use of computer and video games, most notably massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs).
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Sex text teacher told she faces jail

2008-11-26

A PRIMARY school teacher who sent a series of sexually explicit texts to a 14-year-old boy has been warned by a judge that she may be jailed.
Lynn Walls, 42, began sending texts to the victim, who lives in London, after making contact with him through the hugely-popular interactive computer game World of Warcraft. She also encouraged him to send graphic replies to her messages and described in disturbing detail what she would like to do to him.
Walls, who teaches at a primary school in County Durham, was arrested after the boy's father found the texts and contacted police.
Yesterday Walls, of Rose Street East, Penshaw, Sunderland, pleaded guilty at Newcastle Crown Court to inciting a child to engage in sexual activity in November last year. She was remanded on bail after sentence was adjourned for a probation report.
Walls, who is currently suspended from her teaching post, was ordered to sign the sex offenders' register. The length of time she must register will be determined when she is sentenced.
Judge Guy Whitburn, who described the case as very disturbing, told Walls she would get maximum credit for her guilty plea. But he warned: "A custodial sentence cannot be ruled out."
Last night a Durham County Council spokesman, who refused to reveal which school Walls teaches at, confirmed that she remains suspended from her duties.
World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold ) is one of the biggest interactive internet games in the world and has 11 million subscribers who go online to take part in the role-playing fantasy.
Created by Blizzard Entertainment, it involves a fictional universe in which the games are set and in which players can take each other on using their own specially-created characters. An upgrade earlier this month attracted massive interest from players. Gamers were first introduced to the universe in the original Warcraft: Orcs and Humans.
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Gaming not an addiction, parents to blame

2008-11-26

Compulsive gaming a response to feelings of anger and isolation.
The issue of 'gaming addiction' has been hitting tabloid headlines of late, following the recent release of a new expansion pack to Blizzard's mighty World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold ) earlier this month.However, a specialist from Amsterdam's Smith & Jones Centre claims that compulsive gaming is NOT an addiction and should not be treated as one.Keith Bakker is the founder and head of Europe's first clinic to work with young gamers. He and his staff prefer to consider compulsive gaming as a social rather than a psychological problem in the young people they work with."These kids come in showing some kind of symptoms that are similar to other addictions and chemical dependencies," Bakker told the BBC, talking about the youngsters he works with, many of whom seem addicted to MMOs (WoW being by far the most popular of the genre).Parents and teachers failing"But the more we work with these kids these less I believe we can call this addiction. What many of these kids need is their parents and their school teachers - this is a social problem," adds the addiction specialist."Eighty per cent of the young people we see have been bullied at school and feel isolated. Many of the symptoms they have can be solved by going back to good old fashioned communication."The root of the problem in under-18s, in Bakker's considered and experienced opinion, is bad parenting. Not addictive videogames."It's a choice... These kids know exactly what they are doing and they just don't want to change. If no one is there to help them, then nothing will ever happen."The Smith & Jones Centre has carried out research which strongly suggests the compulsive gamer's feelings of anger and powerlessness pre-exist the desire to play MMOs and violent videogames."In some cases these people find each other in the gaming world and form a bond based on those feelings of alienation and anger," the BBC reports.
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World of Warcraft Movie Still in the Early Stages

2008-11-26

World of Warcraft （ Buy wow gold ） is definitely a huge game these days. With over 11 million paying subscribers every month, the game dominates the MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) market and enjoys a vast amount of popularity with the fans.Its latest expansion pack, entitled Wrath of The Lich King, has only confirmed the success of the game, as it has registered over 2.8 million units sold in the first 24 hours, making Blizzard, the company behind it, extremely pleased. After all, the best selling PC game in history is something every developer would want to have in its trophy case.All of this attention with WoW has made a few analysts wonder about the old plans regarding a movie based on the action of the popular game. In response to those questions, Frank Pearce, the director of product development at Blizzard, has revealed to MTV Multiplayer that the project is still in the first stages of development. He went on to say that Legendary Pictures, the company tasked with the creation of this movie, is still looking for screenwriters."Legendary Pictures is currently trying to assign some names to write the screenplay and find someone to direct it, so it's still really early in production," Pearce said. "They want to make sure they get the right talent for those different parts, especially the screenwriting, because that's the foundation for the movie."A pretty interesting piece of news, which might make a few fans send their own creations to the movie studio for the chance to get to work on this project. But it's definitely good to hear that Legendary isn't rushing this title and ensures that all of the WoW fans will receive a quality experience.Let's just hope that this movie will wash away the bad reputation that game-based Hollywood titles have created and will offer movie fans reasons to enjoy this new flick.
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World of Warcraft Goes Atari 2600?

2008-11-26

The fictional Atari 2600 WoW release has gone from being just a great joke to becoming a reality.
Initially just an April fools prank from Blizzard, World of Warcraft: The Molten Core was to be the first WoW title to hit a gaming console - albeit a console that stopped being produced 16 years ago. Hilariously, the folks over at Gamer's University have made the fabled Atari 2600 game a reality.
Though it's technically a PC port of an Atari game that doesn't truly exist in cartridge format, The Molten Core is available for free download. The game nails the old school vibe perfectly and is meant to be played by two players at once via joysticks. However, it does work with your keyboard, and the controls can be conveniently re-mapped. The game doesn't quite follow the specs Blizzard jokingly promised, but it's an entertaining jaunt nonetheless.
The gameplay description tells all: "You are a mighty warrior and a mystical healer trying to clear the molten core of its evil and collect teh (sic) loots. Warrior - to attack an enemy, move yourself close enough and press your button. Priest - to heal warrior and self, press button while having mana. While fully healed, attack enemies with your wand for extra damage."
Your quest is to obtain each boss' loots in order to be "L33T" enough to defeat the next one. Conquer them in the improper order and you'll fail. Sound bitchin'? It is.
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Felicia Day gives the rules for World of WarCraft romance

2008-11-26

This could be one of the geekiest things I've ever talked about on Opposable Thumbs, but the content is sure to be relevant to the interests of many, many readers. The Guild's Felicia Day, who is an avid World of WarCraft player in addition to being female and pretty much awesome, has posted her tips for getting a female's attention in-game. Her first bit of advice is pragmatic: "Well, most of the female avatars in World of WarCraft are actually guys," she explains. "So if you're a guy looking to meet girls, you need to make sure to put the person you're interested in through that vetting process."
What other advice does she have for MMO players looking for love?
Don't be a noob."Yeah, I hate to say that, but if you're a noob, you probably won't get a second glance. Just like in real life when a guy drives a Ferrari, it might not be an automatic thumbs-up, but it does catch the eye."
Questing is better than gifting. "You could definitely send a gift or two through game mail, but I wouldn't just keep sending them. Helping someone out on a quest or helping them level up would definitely be appropriate and a good way to get their attention."
You have to look the part. "Your set pieces need to match because I like a guy with detail. You don't want to look haphazard. I understand when you're leveling, you need to take what you can get, but there are always ways to refine the way you look. So tailor your look so it is not horrible-looking together with your set pieces and your equipment."
Don't be afraid to meet in real life. "I think you should definitely take it offline. I dated a guy once who had a great speaking voice, but there was just nothing there when we were together. That happens; people have 'keyboard chemistry' as I call it in the show, and they get together in real life, and it's not what they were expecting."
Be sure to check out the entire interview over at Asylum; it's good stuff. The idea of women having such strong ideas about what they look for in a man while playing World of WarCraft, is pretty wicked stuff. Does anyone out there disagree with these suggestions? Have you ever found virtual love online? Share your thoughts and stories.
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‘Lord of the Rings Online’ Producer Not Worried About ‘World of Warcraft’

2008-11-25

Last week the first retail expansion for "The Lord of the Rings Online" titled "Mines of Moria" was released.
But hot on the heels of the "World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold ) " expansion "Wrath of the Lich King," would "LotRO" still be "the one game to rule them all" for its playerbase?
Right before the game's launch, I spoke with executive producer Jeffrey Steefel about competing with "WoW" and "Warhammer Online" and what Turbine's future plans are for "LotRO."
"Mines of Moria" is the first commercial expansion for "The Lord of the Rings Online: The Shadows of Angmar," which was originally released in April 2007. It raises the level cap from 50 to 60 and adds three areas, two classes and leveling items.
I asked Steefel if he felt apprehensive at all about launching his game's expansion so close to the "World of Warcraft" one, and if Turbine had considered changing the date to move further away from their competitor's release. After all, "World of Warcraft" has 11 million subscribers and those who've left for other games have a tendency to return. (Note: I inquired about the number of "LotRO" subscribers, but I was told that Turbine is a privately-held company and does not release that information.)
"We announced our launch date because it was the best time to launch the product - and then other people announced their launch dates," Steefel said. "We are driven by what we think is the right cycle for the product and our existing players, and then also to bring in new players. But we felt that it was okay [to launch near "Wrath of the Lich King"] because the market isn't quite the same as it was in the past. It's gotten more diverse, and there's always going to be competition. Some of it is gargantuan compared to us, but everything's relative... We're competing against these giant media conglomerates, but we're holding our own, so we're pretty psyched about that."
But the games from these "giant media conglomerates" also happen to have the same theme as "Lord of the Rings Online" - namely orcs and elves. Why should gamers play "LotRO" instead of "World of Warcraft" or "Warhammer Online"? I asked Steefel for his sales pitch.
"Imagine if you could get the fun online gameplay but doing that in Middle-earth, where you'll basically be a part of the story that you saw in the movies or that you read about in the books," he said. "There's certainly several games out there that offer MMO players a lot of different choices and different kinds of play-styles. Somebody who's really looking for that heavy [Player vs. Player] or [Realm vs. Realm] experience, they're going to go play ‘Warhammer.' But if they're looking for the best [Player vs. Environment] game, it's clearly ‘LotRO.' Period. Plus, it's ‘Lord of the Rings!'"
Steefel also claimed that "LotRO" wasn't too affected by the release of new games like "Age of Conan" in May and "Warhammer Online" in September. And he didn't seem worried about "Lich King"'s impact. "We actually saw less of a dent in our subscribership than we had expected," he explained of when "Conan" and "Warhammer" were released. "People do want to go try the thing that's new, but most of them have come back, and we have a lot of new players. At the end of the day, it's about what your game is and what it's providing and not worrying too much about what's going to happen when another game comes along."
I wondered why "LotRO" has succeeded and continues to thrive while others - like most recently "Tabula Rasa" - have failed. An industry veteran and a longtime MMO player, Steefel said that in the early years gamers were more forgiving, like when an online game was broken or had ugly graphics. But nowadays, gamers don't cut online game developers any slack.
Consumers aren't so forgiving anymore, and I think that's why [MMOs] are starting to have difficulty," he said. "It's why ‘WoW, ‘Lord of the Rings' and a couple of the other games that have come out have succeeded... [The game] has to be good, and it has to be good all the time. It has to continue to grow and evolve. It has to be stable, and it has to perform well. And you have to maintain all these things at the same time. It's also hard for game companies to figure out how to be service organizations. That's a whole other part of the business that game companies don't normally have to do... We have people that we have to satisfy 24-seven, and it doesn't stop when we put the box on the shelf."
As for what's next for "LotRO," Steefel said to expect another retail expansion about a year from now. In the meantime, the development team is already at work on the next free content update - called "Books" - which they've been releasing every few weeks since the original game launched. Turbine recently opened a west coast office and is hiring approximately 50 positions, presumably to help work on the previously announced console MMO. Steefel declined to give any details other than that it was still in the early stages of development.
"The Lord of the Rings" expansion "Mines of Moria" is in stores now, and for a limited time, Turbine is offering a lifetime subscription for the game for $199.
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Moving to the Second Classroom

2008-11-25

Teaching in virtual environments can be very productive, says Bill Thompson.
Although it's common to hear technology entrepreneurs and investors express concern about the possibility that Google will move into their market niche and take away their business, the reality is that neither Google nor anyone else is guaranteed success in a new area.
Google's social network, Orkut, has not challenged MySpace or Facebook, online calendar services like 30boxes are still doing well despite Google's Calendar offering, and the recently-launched voice and video add-on to Gmail is unlikely to supersede Skype as a business tool.
Last week Google announced the closure of Lively, the web-based virtual environment it launched in July, in order to 'prioritise our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business', as the announcement puts it.
Lively was only ever available as a plug-in for Windows users, and looked more like a 3-D chatroom than a serious challenge to more established virtual worlds such as Second Life, so it is unlikely to be missed.
But its demise should comfort anyone who thinks that large, rich companies can simply move in on their businesses.
In online tech journal The Register, the closure of Lively was greeted as another example of the failure of virtual worlds, with Chris Williams asking, 'Could it be there isn't a pot of gold at the end of the Sadville rainbow?'. 'Sadville' is the dismissive name the site has used for Second Life in a series of articles describing its failures, defects and inadequacies.
Second Life may get much less press attention than it used to - Reuters has withdrawn its much-trumpeted Second Life correspondent - but it is still being used by many people as a space for socialising, experimentation and, of course, cartoon-like sexual encounters.
It is also the most popular virtual world for teachers and education researchers, perhaps because there are fewer orcs than you typically encounter in World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold ) or the more quest-oriented worlds.
Classified worlds
I met quite a few of them last week at ReLIVE08, a conference on the education and research uses of virtual worlds. I was an invited speaker on the second day, and the conference covered my expenses although didn't pay me to attend.
I'm not sure what my 'outsider' perspective added to the proceedings, but I learned a great deal about the imaginative ways in which these new environments are being used in areas as disparate as language teaching and urban planning.
Perhaps the most useful paper given at the conference came from Sarah Robbins-Bell, a graduate student at Ball State University in Indiana. Ms Robbins-Bell really knows her stuff, as co-author of the book Second Life for Dummies and editor of the Second Life Education Blog.
She looked at 75 different virtual 'worlds' and has drawn up a classification scheme that makes clear the similarities and differences between such diverse worlds as Everquest, Club Penguin, Second Life and World of Warcraft.
She identified characteristics such as the type of interaction between characters, whether the worlds were text- or image-based, whether interactions were competitive or collaborative and whether users could change the game world themselves.
Her classification system is a valuable research tool in its own right, as the 10 facets she identified can be used to describe new environments.
New terminology
They also help us understand the constraints on how worlds work. Ms Robbins-Bell noted that in games where the environment is hostile, such as World of Warcraft, each character can only belong to one group - or guild, in WoW speak.
She believes this is because a strong identification with the group sustains the character when the world is trying to attack them.
Perhaps most importantly, though, her research will help those who want to use virtual worlds for research or teaching to determine which is best suited to their needs, rather than assuming that everything has to be shoehorned into Second Life.
This may not be the best outcome for Linden Labs, the company that built Second Life and is trying to make money out of it. But it will certainly help the teachers who want to go beyond using websites, whiteboards and chat rooms when they venture online with their students.
One barrier that will need to be overcome is the terminology. It has been clear for a while that calling the sophisticated entertainments available on modern consoles "games" makes it easy to dismiss them as less important than books and films, and the phrase "virtual worlds" does something similar here.
Second Life and World of Warcraft are not really "worlds", whatever their proponents might claim. They are sophisticated 3-D environments that allow for a much greater degree of engagement than other tools, and they offer tools for interaction and creative expression that browsers, chatrooms and e-mail do not. However, the grandiose terminology makes it too easy to dismiss their importance.
The organisers of ReLIVE08 seem to realise this. In her paper, Ms Robbins-Bell talked about virtual worlds, but the conference as a whole was concerned with 'Researching Learning in Virtual Environments', a broader and far less confrontational term.
We just need to persuade Linden Labs to rebrand 'Second Life' as 'Additional forms of screen-based interaction'. I'm sure it will catch on.

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Barack Obama adviser is Warcraft gamer

2008-11-25

Barack Obama has appointed a regular player of online fantasy game World of Warcraft as one of his transition advisers, it has emerged.


The man charged with providing the President-Elect with information about the US media regulator spends his spare time fighting monsters and completing quests on the fictional planet of Azeroth.
Kevin Werbach, an academic, is a member of two guilds in the world's most popular online game, playing under the name Supernovan Jenkins.
He has invested so many hours in the game that his "Tauren Shaman" character has reached Level 70, one of the higher ranks.
Mr Werbach, an assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, is to co-author a review of the work of the Federal Communications Commission, to help Mr Obama plan his media policies when he assumes the presidency in January.
Bloggers and gamers have already begun speculating about what impact Mr Werbach's Warcraft background might have on his professional outlook, with some suggesting that his appointment indicates that the new administration may be more open to virtual worlds.
In a blog post written in 2006 Mr Werbach praised massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) like Warcraft for fostering a sense of community.
"What [Warcraft] does is provide an incentive for people to develop new software and ideas for collaborative production," he wrote.
"Many of those ideas will translate to other group activities, including those within the business world. I think MMOGs will be, at a minimum, a significant testbed for these new technologies, because users see a direct benefit and are willing to experiment with new things."
But he admitted that the game's big lure was its entertainment value. "I'm not kidding myself. I play Warcraft because it's fun," he wrote.
The latest expansion pack for World of Warcraft ( Currency: wow gold ) , which has 11 million registered players across the world, was released earlier this month.
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World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

2008-11-25

Believe it or not, it's been four years since World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold ) opened its awaiting arms to would-be adventurers, and nearly two years since its first expansion, The Burning Crusade. Regardless of this slightly languid release schedule, WOW continues to be wildly popular, and thus Blizzard are willing to swing the punch of an expansion at the most competitive time in gaming.Expectations are high, otherwise respectable people are preparing to forget to use the toilet and eat, and over 11 million subscribers are desperate to hit the icy terrain of Northrend. Which is why it's slightly awkward to deliver this review. Wrath of the Lich King, while a phenomenally tight, well-built expansion, lacks the killer instinct and wow-factor (acronym and adjective) that both WOW and The Burning Crusade had.
Depending on what character you're using, WOTLK starts off with you either at odds with or working for the Lich King. And if you have a level 55 character, you'll be able to create a Death Knight, WOW's first hero class.Beginning at 55, the initial experience of being a Death Knight introduces you to the class through a few hours of heavily story-driven quests, beginning above the Eastern Plaguelands in a necropolis known as Acherus: The Ebon Hold. This gigantic floating skull-palace houses your quests, your class-trainers, and the new rune forging (read: Death Knight-only buff application) system. Through these quests you level from 55 through to 59, and acquire as many talents as you would from level 10 onwards.These quests are well-written, fun, and reasonably dramatic, ending with a large-scale battle against the forces of the Light, who eventually free you from the thrall of the titular undead demigod, carefully explaining how you can join the goodie-two-shoes Alliance. You'll even find yourself experiencing a little guilt as you do dirty work for Arthas (the titular Lich King) - killing innocents, stealing horses, and generally doing true, no-nonsense evil. This is refreshingly grim in comparison to some of WOW's somewhat reserved content, and will no doubt create a fair amount of grumbling among the moralistic.Lich King is also an example of how well Blizzard does boxed-in, instance-based content. The instance that you (and other new Death Knights) work within constantly changes as you advance, with once-beautiful countryside becoming plagued and charred. You have a real connection to the world as you progress, gaining gear, levels, talents and a rather dapper steed, which causes dissonance when you reach the end, to be thrown back into the static, yet enjoyable, content of The Burning Crusade. Sadly, once you're past the initial stages, you'll have to move up to level 68 to enter Northrend. And, face it, in the last two years, we've already grinded ourselves enough alts to 70 to get tired of Outland.

Nevertheless, the Death Knight is an endearing, playable and endlessly resourceful class to both play with, as their ability to (when specialised in Blood Talents) solo makes Outland that bit more palatable. That, and those of you who need to catch up to 68 to hit the icy waters will have a slew of grumpy new friends to level up with. Entering Northrend is done by zeppelin or boat, depending on whether you're Alliance or Horde, to either the Howling Fjord (accessed by Menethil Harbour or the Undercity) or Borean Tundra (accessed through Stormwind or Durotar). The Fjord's Valgarde houses the Alliance dangerously close to the newly-awoken Viking giants, the vrykul, while the Horde end up doing more bitch work for the Forsaken at New Agamand. In the Tundra, the Horde's Vengeance Landing is immediately accessible, as is the impressive Warsong Hold, while Valiance Keep is all that stands between the Alliance and a swift reaming by the ever-more-bold undead Scourge.In comparison to the demonic, explosion-filled war zone that The Dark Portal had waiting for you, your entrance to the North is actually rather relaxed. You'll slip in somewhat unheralded and begin collecting quests and go to work trying to establish your side's agenda. Wherever you choose to land, it seems that old habits die hard - The Forsaken are up to new and unusual ways to make members of the Alliance suffer, while the goodie-goodie humans are trying to get along with the locals and protect their supply routes.In fact, you'll find a great many of the initial quests eerily similar to your experiences in The Burning Crusade, with kill X of Y quests, pick up X of Y quests, and bombing runs against large groups of otherwise unreachable opponents.

It's not that these aren't fun or well balanced, it's more that they lack the furious extremes of Outland. While two years ago you were fighting hellboars on charred terrain while juddering devices of the Burning Legion fought overhead, a great many of your first hours in Northrend are spent killing the wildlife or scuffling with the locals. This is an expansion of exploration, and feels more like an expedition, not an adventure.The best example came from my personal experience jaunting around the Howling Fjord in my first few hours. Feeling the advantage of jumping off the beaten track, I sought out Winterhoof, a camp of both Tauren and Taunka (apparently their ancestral cousins), thinking that it would be ripe for the adventuring. On arrival, I received a quest that had me picking up hippogryph feathers around generic, icy/green terrain, amongst a few others involving the killing of elementals and wildlife. I threw up my hands - hadn't I left this shit behind in the Hinterlands?This isn't to say that Wrath of the Lich King is a litany of repetitive boredom - far from it. There are some wonderfully intricate, atmospheric and well-done quests within the Frozen Hell. Zul'Drak, the home of the ice trolls, is simply one of the coolest environments in fantasy lore. You're sent into gigantic troll ruins at the request of gods (gigantic Totem animals), fighting vicious ice trolls protected by eerie dancing tiki masks with floating spears. Lightning crackles in the sky, and Blizzard do their best to build on the lore started rather briefly in WarCraft III expansion The Frozen Throne.In fact, the best parts of Wrath of the Lich King seem to be when Blizzard breaks away from making a successful MMO and focuses on pure, unfettered adventure. Be it the Death Knight quest line, the battles between the Skybreaker and Orgrim's Hammer, insulting a vrykul's mum, or fighting a Scourge Veteran and an army of skeletons alongside a Horde Hero, WOTLK shines when it doesn't feel like it's setting up the treadmill for generation after generation. Lake Wintergrasp is a great example of this. Only accessible past level 77 (when players are able to learn Cold-Weather Flight and mount their respective winged beasts), it's high-level PvP chaos that rewards good teamwork. Either the Horde or the Alliance takes control of Wintergrasp Fortress, where they must destroy the enemy's siege engines and workshops before they can blow the fortress to smithereens.

Unlike your average battleground, Wintergrasp rewards coordination and smaller groups protecting siege weapons, weakening walls, or baiting groups of players into the path of one of the long-range siege weapons' guns. It's important to realise that you can't really win Wintergrasp reliably without playing as a team - have-a-go heroes on their lonesome find themselves torn to shreds, even at 80. No matter how many hours you've denied your spouse or your worklife, you're not going to win in a fistfight with a Demolisher.This is a refreshing take on PvP, but disappointingly closed-off for the average player. Many will (reasonably) assume that this is a counterpoint to the PvP-centric Warhammer Online, only to find that out of the box they're not going to be able to travel there - especially if they don't even have a flying mount to begin with. What could have been a drop-in, drop-out PvP war zone is now a fun little club for the elite to hang out at - which is, now especially, not what it should be in the face of what Mythic has to offer.Wintergrasp isn't the only bizarre geographical choice that Blizzard made with Northrend. Before release, it was stated many times that the continent wouldn't be made up predominantly of icy caverns and different kinds of yeti. While this is certainly the case, much of the continent feels put together seemingly at random. Lush plains roll into barren wastelands, that in turn roll into Scourge-infested terrain, that then subsequently rolls back into icy expanses.

The Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord are the worst examples, and feel rather like eight or nine zones stuck together with varying degrees of success, but much of Northrend lacks coherent artistic direction. Once you leave the loving arms of the Tundra and the Fjord (which takes far too long, in comparison to the transition between Zangarmarsh and Hellfire in The Burning Crusade), progression becomes a little more interesting, but it lacks a vigorous, adventure-like buzz. It's more of a stroll through a series of well thought-out ideas that aren't held together as well as they should be.In all fairness, WOTLK does everything that WOW has always done very, very well. Zones in and of themselves are always dramatic, and at times stunning, particularly Icecrown and Zul'Drak. A great deal of effort has been made to make zones feel bigger than anything Blizzard has created before, as is evident from the vertigo you'll get on flying towards the flying city of Dalaran (see 'Swoop, magic, swoop'). Character models are still cartoony and lacking in detail compared to Age of Conan and Warhammer Online, but environments are still ahead of the competition.This makes scoring this expansion rather painful. There is so much love for the lands, the lore, and the characters in the Warcraft universe, and so many fantastic ideas that exist to go into the Northrend Saga. Somehow, Blizzard managed to take potentially the least interesting idea in history - an entire continent made of ice - and lace it with fascinating ideas, quests, and areas to explore. The problem is that these ideas aren't held together very well, and players have to push through more ho-hum content than we've yet seen from a Blizzard product. I hasten to add that it isn't bad content, but we're now four long years into WOW. If you're on that boat, and want to continue playing a game that is enjoyable and addictive yet, ultimately, doing the same bloody thing it did on its release, then be my guest. You will love Wrath of the Lich King, because it does exactly what many want it to - it elongates a successful game model in a pleasing, easy-to-consume package, much like each year's new FIFA and Football Manager games. The instanced content is excellent, the Death Knight is a well-balanced war machine that looks good in black, and the storyline - once you hunt it down and wring it out of Northrend - is crafted well enough to sate even the most die-hard lore nut. But by any standard, this far into the development of an MMO, and with two years since your last expansion, the envelope should be pushed a little. Blizzard could've shaken up the genre here. Wrath of the Lich King has had two years to innovate, build and refresh WOW, but all it seems to have done is prolong the same experience that people have been waiting to continue for years. Whether or not that's a bad thing is up to you.
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Worried they’ll say I’m a paedo

2008-11-24

I'M a 16-year-old boy in love with a 13-year-old girl. I'm worried what people will say.
I've played a MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) called World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold ) for about two years now. I've got a lot of good friends there but there's one who stands out from the rest.
We met on WoW about a year ago and got on really well straight away. We were just good friends, no more, no less, until recently.
She came online crying over our teamspeak server and I comforted her. Since then we have flirted with each other a lot. We regularly stay up late talking and flirting and we've exchanged photos.
I think she is perfect and she thinks the same about me. We would like to meet up one day but one thing worries me - she is only 13 and I'm 16. My family and friends don't know about this girl and I'm worried how they will react when I tell them I'm in love with a 13-year-old girl.
I really don't want them to think I'm a paedophile that goes after young girls, because I'm not. I know she's too young to have sex and I wouldn't even think about trying it on.
Is there any way I can tell people about this girl without them thinking anything bad about me?

First tell this girl what you've just told me, then she'll understand where you're at. You're absolutely right that she is far too young to think of having sex, so don't let even your online chat get too steamy, or someone like her parents could get the wrong idea - and you into trouble.
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There's no need to make pledges of undying devotion, or to tell the world you're in love. You're both young and both changing fast. Remember too that you haven't even met each other yet, so do keep your feet on the ground.
The internet is a great way to get in touch with people but don't spend your life logged on to the net. Find out what's going on locally. Get out and about and meet up with people in face-to-face real life.
My leaflet Love on the Internet explains pitfalls and safeguards.
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Gamers lose for cheating

2008-11-24

VIDEO game cheats and pirates got some comeuppance last week, as Microsoft and Blizzard together banned or suspended hundreds of thousands of gamers for various infractions.
Microsoft got things started by banning from Xbox Live an unspecified number of gamers who had modified their consoles to play back-up copies of games, which the company regarded as pirated.
There were no official numbers, but the forums where such gamers cruise were full of outrage. ("How dare they ban me for playing pirated games!")
Blizzard, maker of World of Warcraft, was more forthright, saying it had banned 350,000 online players from its older StarCraft and Diablo II titles for using software cheats and hacks during online games against other players.
Cheating is nothing new but what's annoying is that video game companies are having to divert what seems to be a growing pool of resources to chasing and defeating these nincompoops.
That's time, money and labour that doesn't go to making a new game or improving existing titles.
THE recent Dallas Video Festival handed out an award to a documentary on video game violence called Moral Kombat. (Great title, by the way.) The movie is apparently an even-handed look at the explicit carnage found in many games.
I'm sure the issue will flare up again, but it does seem like game violence has ebbed in the last year or so as a hot cultural topic. That's because games won the debate without ever really addressing the issue.
People made a fuss about Grand Theft Auto and its sequels, for example, but the developers simply kept cranking out the games without apology.
After a while, the critics seemed to give up, and GTA continued to sell millions of copies.
Just as a forest fire can reignite after it appears to be extinguished, though, this tussle may not be over.
A game called MadWorlds under development by Sega for the Nintendo Wii could be a flashpoint.
The developers say their game "revolves around the themes of brutality and exhilaration".
That seems designed to get some people riled.
But maybe we've found other, even more politically sensitive topics to get hot and bothered over.
An upcoming downloadable game for PlayStation 3 called Fat Princess has feminists all twitchy because you have to rescue a rotund royal.
So perhaps fat is the new violent.
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GotGame lanserar Rogue, den första webbläsaren som

2008-11-24

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 21 - GotGame, the company that enables gamers to access the in-game content they desire, today launched Rogue, its highly anticipated web browser.
Gamers spend a quarter of their time in game waiting for teammates to log in or games to load. They want something to do during this downtime, but exiting or minimizing the game means missing critical action.
Rogue eliminates this waiting game, enabling PC gamers to surf the web via a fully functional web browser without ever leaving their favorite games. Players can navigate to Wowhead to obtain information about items in World of Warcraft （Buy wow gold ）, or pull up Hulu to watch movie clips between Counter-Strike rounds; these are just two of the countless options available.
In order to use Rogue, gamers simply visit rogue.gotgame.com and download the free application. By hitting a hotkey, users can overlay the application in their favorite games; the browser will appear as though it were a part of the game itself, without disrupting any in-game functionality.
You can see a video of Rogue in action on YouTube or GotGame Videos.
The application is optimized to impact the gaming experience as little as possible. Gamers can set the browser's transparency setting so the entire game screen is still visible, even if the browser is open. This means that they can, for instance, watch online videos overlaying their game at 50% transparency, while at the same time "grinding" for experience in Age of Conan.
Rogue's Notable Features:
Game overlay for Windows XP & Vista
Full CSS, Javascript, and Flash support
Hot key to open/hide browser when in game
Configurable transparency settings
Optimization toggle for faster/slower computers
About GotGame
GotGame enables gamers to access the content and community they crave through a variety of in-game applications and Internet content portals. Through the LIVE and Rogue downloadable applications, GotGame offers gamers advanced communication, browser, and content delivery tools they can use inside of the most popular PC games. GotGame also operates the GotGame Network, which includes one of the most exciting gaming video-sharing sites (videos.gotgame.com), a widely-read gaming news site (news.gotgame.com), and the largest syndicated radio show about gaming in the world (radio.gotgame.com).
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Age of Conan Dev Funcom Confirms Layoffs

2008-11-24

Age of Conan developer Funcom today confirmed reports that it has laid off a number of its US employees.
"We did have some staffing cuts at Funcom this week as well as new positions opening in the organization as part of our ongoing cost based efficiency and performance initiatives that are vital to any business," said a Funcom representative to TenTonHammer.
Though the company did not specify the scale of the layoffs, a rumor out of TenTonHammer claims that 70% of Funcom's workforce has been cut, with its customer service and quality service divisions seeing the bulk of the firings.
Funcom reported in June that its MMO Age of Conan had captured a userbase of approximately 700,000 subscribers, but by August that figure had dropped to 415,000. World of Warcraft developer Blizzard has claimed that 68% of Warcraft players who cited Age of Conan as a reason for canceling a subscription have since returned to Blizzard's game.
Age of Conan producer and game director Gaute Godager left the project in September, citing his dissatisfaction with the title. Since then, Funcom has focused on responding to subscriber feedback, releasing a large, free update to the game last week.
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It's a Small World (of Warcraft) After All

2008-11-24

Video games are evolving into more and more elaborate forms, but they're still dominated by white or Asian protagonists. Writing for The Escapist, Chris LaVigne asks, with all apparent recognition of globalization in other industries, why aren't other races and cultures being represented in video games?
The argument for more minorities in video games has been made before, notably in a 2003 article by Ernest Adams, but discourse usually concerns the portrayals of black and Hispanic people in games like Grant Theft Auto. What LaVigne advocates is a way for games to reflect today's high level of globalization.
As an example of what not to do, LaVigne cites the popular game Tomb Raider, which takes place in Peru, yet the native Peruvians are relegated almost entirely to the background and never speak. And with the glut of World War II games like the Call of Duty series, LaVigne wonders why gamers can't play as "the Filipino soldiers who fought alongside American forces at the Battle of Luzon to free their capitol city, Manila? Why can't we play as the Rhodesians (now Zimbabweans) who fought with the British military against Axis forces? It was a world war, after all. Why don't developers see the value of telling these unique stories instead of giving us the same 'good ol' boy' Yankees and ‘stiff upper lip' Britons that were already clichés when they were first introduced?"
Games like Resident Evil 5 (with African characters and setting) and Prince of Persia are headed in the right direction, according to LaVigne. Hopefully, he writes, developers will stop "babying their audience" and open them up to a genuine representation of the world, digital or otherwise.
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GAMERS NETWORK FOR CIVIL WAR

2008-11-23

Players convene both at the UO and Oregon State University to do battle in an inaugural 24-hour tournament

It's probably the quietest Civil War party in history.
Computer game enthusiasts of all types congregated Saturday at the University of Oregon's Erb Memorial Union ballroom for the inaugural Civil War LAN - a 24-hour Local Area Network gaming party in which players from the UO competed against rival gamers from Oregon State University. The event, staged a week before the annual UO-OSU Civil War football game, is believed to be the first interc