It’s July! JULY! You know, that month that brings America independence, fireworks, BBQ, and afternoon and evening thunderstorms. It also means we’re about 6 weeks away from BP possibly finally maybe probably not cutting off their massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Hurrah! Wait, whut?

The summertime song is allegedly destined to be “California Gurls” by Katy Perry featuring Ludacris. But you know, I’m more particular to Kat DeLuna’s “Push, Push” (featuring Akon, cause you know everything features someone.) And then there is that patently silly “Pretty Boy Swag” by Soulja Boy. Wait, he’s a pretty boy? Oh… wait.. no… he says “no homo” in the song. Psha! Like us respectful fags would accept you, assclown.

On to more important news: The economy seems to still blow for most, but thankfully my local economy is really picking up some steam. I’m trying very hard to adjust and make sure I’m putting some away now that I’m not spending so much on things like car payments and full coverage insurance. I could use some health care, god knows. And I don’t mean the kind that comes in a cocktail glass.

Pride Weekend is once again moving in Atlanta. We didn’t have it in June -again- which blows donkey balls. Last year, it was on Halloween which apparently worked out really well. I just went to the parade which was cold but nice as always. The Latinos looked like they were celebrating the hardest. The rest of us should look to that and be reminded what it’s like to have some real fire in our pride. This year Atlanta Gay Pride is on my birthday weekend, October 9th.

But before that happens, I gotta do the Alchemy thing with Kaze up in the North Georgia Mountain. It’s kind of like Burning Man, but on a smaller scale.

Also coming up is another fine edition of DragonCon. It’s Labor Day Weeekend, always, always, always. Maybe you should come and join me. It’s a lot of fun, the most accessible geek celebrities, and will make you rethink that whole “nerds don’t get laid” stuff.

Finally, I’ve been thinking a lot about Magic: The Gathering again suddenly. I bought a terrible terrible version of it on Steam the other day called Duels of the Planeswalkers. It’s also on XBOX. It’s horrid. Don’t buy it. It was a waste of money to be sure. You can’t even build your own deck? WHAT? Magic: Online is cheaper and certainly is making me think about it a bit. There’s also a new Core set coming out in two weeks. Is this something I could get into again? If it’s still played, maybe I could even make some new friends. I’d chalk this nostalgia up to the fact that I’m 31 (almost 32), but that would imply that I’ve grown up in the meantime, which we all fucking know is not true.

Anyway, that’s the update for now. Don’t forget to buy some books.

It looks like some people haven’t been watering their crops.

FarmVille creator Zynga’s monthly active Facebook users have sharply declined. Two weeks ago, the company behind the hugely popular “Mafia Wars,” “Treasure Isle,” and of course, social gaming juggernaut “FarmVille, lost 3.1 million active users. In the last week, 4.2 million more active players fell by the wayside, according to SecondShares. The industry monitor reports that Zynga currently has 244 million active users.

These rapid declines may be due to the fact that Facebook recently changed how members receive notifications and gift requests. As of March 1, Facebook no longer delivers application notifications. These seemingly-constant and often cluttering alerts on Facebook served as free advertising for “FarmVille” and other social network games, regularly reminding users to play.

Things may get worse for Zynga as other video game companies enter the Facebook ring. EA, the company behind “Battlefield: Bad Company 2,” spent $300 million for Zynga competitor Playfish last year, showing a significant investment in the future of social gaming. EA’s first game, “FIFA Superstars,” is reportedly coming to Facebook soon.

Zynga’s success grabbed the attention of a lot of heavy hitters in the game industry, as well as several smaller companies. With this new flood of games, we’ll have to see if the “FarmVille” creator can keep its head above water.

Finally, it seems Facebook did something good for us by silencing the constant barrage of spam coming from many applications. Now if only we could talk the rest of the 244 million people to stop supporting spam disguised as games, we’d be doing alright.

Gone are the days when the Boy Scouts were rewarded solely for outdoor skills like tying knots and building campfires. The group is now adding two more awards for scouts to win – in video games.

The Scouts will award belt loops and academic pins for video game activities that promote education, teamwork and a familiarity with video game ratings, reports CNET blogger Don Reisinger.

Tiger Cubs, Cub Scouts and Webelos Scouts can earn belt loops by explaining “why it is important to have a ratings system for video games,” according to the Scouts. They must also create a schedule that fits video gaming around chores and homework and choose games that have been approved by a parent or guardian.

To earn the academic pin, scouts will have to do a number of things: find an age-appropriate game, research the differences between two gaming systems, play a game with family members and teach someone else how to play as well.

They also have to play a multiplayer game with a friend for at least an hour, put together a list of tips for others to follow on playing a game, play a game that promotes educational skills, compare prices of games at three stores and install a gaming system under an adult’s supervision.

Sony’s PlayStation Network is on the fritz. Microsoft’s Xbox Live network has had its problems. And there was that one Wii system software update that was turning consoles into pretty looking paperweights.

It’s times like this, as we dissect failures in digital entertainment technology, when we have to ask the question: Is it too soon to blame digital rights management?

Two console generations ago, problems like this would have been inconceivable, or at least wouldn’t have had the kind of domino effect they do today. The current PlayStation bug (which is believed to be due to the inclusion of trophies in firmware v2.40) affected games, rented movies, and access to both Netflix streaming and the company’s online storefront–all things that continue to work without issue for users of the newer PS3 Slim hardware. You’d simply never get this kind of problem back when the only thing you could use your system for was to play something off a disc or a cartridge.

Though the main problem is less about progress and more about the security countermeasures put into place to keep consoles or users from doing something they shouldn’t. Using digital rights management has become one of the easiest ways to do this, though it can also make things more difficult for the consumer.

And while DRM may not end up being the culprit in Sony’s snafu, the situation is a startling reminder of how little control we have over these little boxes that are sitting in our living rooms. That’s by design though. All three of the big console makers (Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo) use various types of security to make sure people do not run downloadable games or content that they have not purchased.

(CNet has more)

In a recent email I wrote to a long lost friend. Actually, he’s not long nor lost. Well, he may be long — I never got to check and ew — but he’s certainly not lost. He moved to Maine, you see. Anyway, where was I? Oh shit, still the beginning? Well then, lemme start over.

I wonder if I’m like a circling airliner, just waiting for my runway. Ugh, metaphors? Come on, Jonathan, you’re a talented writer but that talent comes from NOT doing stupid shit like using terrible metaphors. Start over again!

Fine, fine!

I am thirty-one years old. I live south of Atlanta, GA with my mother, my sister, and her boyfriend whom I dubbed Kid Rock Boyfriend. I don’t know what the deal is, but I think I’m waiting for something.

I have a job that I like most days that I go. I think to myself, honestly, isn’t that more than I can say for many people out there? Often, I’ll make more than 15 dollars an hour, and yet just as often, I will mishandle the money so poorly, I’ll barely make it from month-to-month with my simple but very real bills.

There are a few people I have keyed into my phone that I consider my friends. Sometimes I can’t get a hold of them, and I don’t ever see them as often as I want to. Some because they don’t live here and exist only on the internets, some because they have busy lives and I don’t think they’re waiting for anything like I am.

I don’t have a boyfriend. I don’t even have prospects for boyfriends, though you may find me occasionally making out with someone when I got to the bar or nightclub. I’m not exactly sure why that is, but then again, I do live with my mom, my sister, and her Kid Rock Boyfriend. I think more importantly though, I have an aura about me that is warding people away most of the time.

I used to run a website for one of my interests. I closed it when I felt like it was taking up too much of my time without really being all that rewarding. The anime characters used to turn me on, but I stopped really seeing them in that way after a while. Unfortunately, because I closed the site down, I lost pretty much all of my online popularity.

It will absolutely make sales of my upcoming fourth novel decline. I kind of took that into consideration when I pulled the plug, but also kind of ignored it to my own chagrin. Part of me thought that it didn’t really matter. I always said, if I sold one copy that’s all that matters. I’ve also said that if only one person came to pixiesticks.org, it’d be worth it.

I lie to myself, but never to others.

I think I’m waiting on something, but I don’t know what it could be. It’s not like I don’t try and alter the above to make for a more rewarding experience on the planet. I’m about to start editing that upcoming novel. I have new hobbies I find a lot of interest in. I try to approach people and try to make their lives more interesting either as a friend or French Kissing partner. I want my home life situation to be as painless as possible since I still have to stay here, and the same goes for my work.

So… really… what is it?
I don’t know.
Maybe part of it is just this. Putting down what is going on in my life into words and posting them onto pixiesticks. I only post personal posts when something I consider interesting is happening in my life.

But that wasn’t always the case. I was younger… I wrote more about feelings, dreams, desires. Older now, I still have feelings, dreams, desires, but I have to say, it seems they are dull and not colored so brilliantly with idealism. I seem to save that for my novels, as someone critically said about “Freakshow” once.

I am waiting for something. But it’s not a passive form of waiting. It’s not like I am sitting here, watching the calender change. It’s an active form of waiting, if there is such a thing. It’s like I’m trying to hold my ground and maybe even occasionally darting a hand out to claw forward, all while waiting and trying and hoping that things will get better for me.

Remember just a week ago I complained about the uproar over the American Music Awards gay kiss. I said we need more than just Adam Lambert macking on some hottie. We need to push it every way we can.

Well, take The Sims homosexuality embrace and bump it up a few notches.

Too bad it’ll probably get pulled from shelves and shit due to the goddamn ratings board and such.

A Japanese gamer has discovered the solution to that perennial problem – girls don’t like geeks. He’s married a character in his favourite Nintendo DS game.

Japanese gamer marries DS characterLove Plus is described as a dating simulation game. Players do their best to attract and then keep one of three women.

The player, identified only by the username Sal9000, fell for Nene Anegasaki – but felt compelled by love to take the relationship one stage further.

Last weekend he married his virtual girlfriend at a Tokyo technology festival, with a real priest officiating – although the wedding is apparently not legally binding.

The bride managed to say “I do” bang on cue, and they shared a kiss. There’s no sign of the bride’s family, though – perhaps they don’t approve?

(Ed note: I don’t think I wanna marry a video game character, but I wouldn’t mind a lil’ private foursome with Pico, Chico, and Coco)

But Direct2Drive wants to make it even cheaper. I was going to wait to buy this Diablo-esque single-player dungeon crawler upon completing my NaNoWriMo this year. But, well, being that I love coupons, I just had to use this 5 dollah make you hollah off one.

Here’s the link to Direct2Drive
Here’s the code: 5OFFTORCH
Oh and if you got no clue what Torchlight is? You better ask somebody. But beware, it’s highly addictive. Click click clickity click click click.

In a stunning random blow towards transgenders, a Chinese MMO has set up a gender verification process to prevent boys from playing girl characters and vice versa.

But seriously, how good can it be in a society when everyone looks the same?

Haha! Ow! OWWW! Why are you hitting me!

At the Final Fantasy XIII premiere event at the Tokyo Science Museum Square made a number of announcements, most notably the game’s December 17th, 2009 release date in Japan. Additionally, Sony exec Kaz Hirai announced that upon the game’s release Sony will be releasing a PS3 Slim bundle with the game, though pricing is yet to be announced.

Japanese company Suntory (think Pepsi in the U.S.) also announced a special FFXIII drink tie-in, in the form of the Final Fantasy XIII Elixir, which is scheduled to launch this winter in Japan. The Elixir was served at the premiere event, and from what we could tell it has a strawberry-like flavor, and definitely has quite a lot of alcohol in it.

Final Fantasy 13 isn’t out yet, but that’s not stopped Square-Enix from going right on ahead and announcing the next one, Final Fantasy 14. This time, it’s online, and only available on the PS3 when it launches next year.

A brief video of Final Fantasy 14 was shown at the Sony keynote during the E3 conference, and while we don’t know much yet, the graphics are dazzling, and the setting seems FFVII -esque with beautiful rolling scenery.

One thing we do know is that Final Fantasy 14 will be online, just like 11. That, and it’ll only be available on the Sony PS3, at least when it launches next year.

If your kids play interactive video games, like the Nintendo Wii, be on the lookout. The Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force is warning of predators using games like, “Animal Crossing- City Folk,” to target kids.

Using the game you create a character and create your own town and house. When hooked up to the internet you can talk to anyone across the country. Kids playing the game have no control over what other players might be saying. For example, the character we ran across could be the man in California police are warning about.

“There is no reason an adult should have this game,” says Andy Anderson, Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force.

Anderson says adults playing “animal crossing” and similar games are likely doing it for the wrong reasons.

You probably have told your kids never to talk to strangers, but when playing, the heart of the game is building relationships with the animals in your town as well as other players. To really reach the next level, the game urges you to exchange letters, gifts, and favors.

Anderson says it is going to take parents paying attention to keep this problem from exploding.

“The equipment is real expensive and we cannot afford to buy all of the systems and do not have the resources either to examine all of the possibilities,” Anderson explains.

(Ed note: It’s all part of the ongoing attempt to constantly keep parents completely terrified that their children will be buttraped at every opportunity.)

A PC game that allows players to gang rape virtual women – and then force them to have an abortion – has been banned from Amazon.

In Rapelay, gamers direct a character to sexually assault a mother and her two young daughters at an underground station, before raping any of a selection female characters.

The game was intended for release just in Japan, but was on offer to British buyers through Amazon Marketplace, the section of the online store’s website open to third-party sellers.

But Amazon has now withdrawn the game after complaints from users, deeming it to be inappropriate. “We determined that we did not want to be selling this particular item,” a spokeswoman said.

Rapelay was developed by the Japanese production house Illusion, which makes a number of sexually violent games for the domestic market. Their other titles include “Battle Raper” and “Artificial Girl”.

A spokesman for the company said: “We believe there is no problem with the software, which has cleared the domestic ratings of an ethics watchdog body.”

Keith Vaz, the Labour MP for Leicester East who has previously spoken out against computer games that promote violence, condemned the game.

“It is intolerable that anyone would purchase a game that simulates the criminal offence of rape,” he told the Belfast Telegraph.

Rapelay, which was released in 2006, encourages players to force the virtual woman they rape to have an abortion. If they are allowed to give birth the woman throws the player’s character under a train, according to reviews of the game. It also has a feature allowing several players to team up against individual women.

Requires Flash 10.

This is an update to this story.

A six-year-old who recently stole his parents’ car and drove it into a utility pole has passed the buck onto a familiar scapegoat: the video game, Grand Theft Auto.

Rockstar Games’ controversial Grand Theft Auto video game series has been accused of many things in the past. Its violent gameplay, including car heists, bank heists, beatings, shootings, and absentee law enforcement, has been criticized by parent groups and crusaders (or in the eyes of gamers, nincompoops) like former lawyer Jack Thompson for years (Thompson once tried to link the Virginia Tech slayings to late-night Counterstrike sessions. He’s since been disbarred). However, not as of yet has anyone under the age of, oh, ten, blamed the game for a car theft.

Perhaps that should be clarified. The six-year-old Virginia tyke didn’t actually blame Grand Theft Auto for the car heist, but did tell authorities afterwards that the game taught him how to drive. Early Monday morning, the little guy hopped into his parents’ Ford Taurus instead of taking the big yellow bus, and managed to drive it a surprising six miles before slipping over an embankment into a utility pole not far from school. According to reports, he passed several cars, made a pair of ninety-degree turns, and generally drove just as people do in the game.

Thankfully, the boy emerged from the incident with just a few scratches and actually resumed his journey to school on foot after the accident took place.

(Ed note: Yeah, um, as liberal as I am, I don’t think 6 year old’s should be playing Grand Theft Auto.)

* Heretic’s 17th Year Anniversary party was Monday night. Despite offering free alcohol and food from 8pm until 10pm, it was lightly attended. Perhaps it being moved from the usual Octoberish date caused that. They are typically held on a early week night, so that’s not necessarily the concern. I had a good time without many of my usual friends there nevertheless.

* Roleplay with my companion Steph is back. After taking a month off for NaNoWriMo and giving her a bit more extra space with her health (which while still is uncertain how things are, seems somewhat better), we’re finally getting back into things. This is an important part of my life and brings me great happiness so it’s good to have it back.

* I’ve been playing Neopets more often. KeyQuest is highly addictive, especially if you can find people to play with that won’t quit on you. I’ve won lots of lovely things. I’ve also been working more on making my pets look neat as well as stocking my Spooky Food gallery. Thanks Candy the Boy Wonder for the Honey Potion. That’s insane that you gave it to me.

* I have a date tomorrow. I buried this story because I don’t want to make a big deal about it just yet. I can say that it’s someone I work with (though he works nights, I work days) and they seem to really like me. I’m curious and asked if he wanted to hang out after work tomorrow to get to know each other better. I want to take things carefully slow here. I’ll have more on this developing news later.

YAHOO TOP 10 OVERALL SEARCHES FOR 2008

— 1. Britney Spears

— 2. WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment)

— 3. Barack Obama

— 4. Miley Cyrus

— 5. “RuneScape”

— 6. Jessica Alba

— 7. “Naruto”

— 8. Lindsay Lohan

— 9. Angelina Jolie

— 10. American Idol

WASHINGTON (AP) – Too busy playing video games to watch presidential ads on television? Barack Obama has found you, too, by becoming the first presidential candidate to buy ad space inside a game.

Nine video games from Electronic Arts Inc., ranging from the extremely popular “Madden 09″ football game to the street racing “Burnout: Paradise,” feature in-game ads from the Obama campaign. The ads—they appear on billboards and other signage—remind players that early voting has begun and plug a campaign Web site.

The idea of embedding advertising temporarily inside a video game is relatively new, having only begun about 18 months ago, and Obama is the first presidential candidate to buy space, company officials said.

The Democrat’s ads are aimed at gamers who like sports, including NASCAR, NBA, NHL and skateboarding, meaning EA Sports’ motto, “It’s in the game,” now applies to presidential politics as well.

EA spokeswoman Holly Rockwood would not say how much the ads cost, but she said they are running on the Xbox Live versions of the game through Nov. 3. They began earlier this month.

The timing of the Obama ads within the video game varies from state to state. Players in smaller states may see the Obama ads for the whole month, while users in bigger states may see them for a shorter period.

“It reaches an audience that is typically hard to reach—young males, roughly 18 to 34,” said Rockwood. “That’s very appealing to our advertisers.”

For those who still associate video games with clunky “Pac Man” or “Space Invaders” consoles, here’s how in-game advertising works: The Xbox 360 console connects to the Internet, so it can be updated with new features, including ads. In the case of “Burnout,” the game came out in stores in January, but the Obama ads were only inserted this month.

Rockwood declined to say how much revenue the company generates from selling ad space in its games.

“What we’re trying to do is offer ads in games where we’re simulating a real-world environment, so our racing games, our sports games lend themselves to that,” she said.

With the world ending and apocalypse neigh, Blizzard decided, hey, why not have a playable demo of Diablo’s upcoming release. Here’s the great, albeit brief, news story. I should expect more will be updated after the weekends festivities.

I don’t think this post will do me or many of you much good. I mean Craig’s List is kind of a localized type deal. Especially with all the scams and stuff people have to worry about out there. But I thought I’d post it here anyway. Who knows, maybe someone will see it and want to buy it that happens to live in my area.

And maybe they’ll be like such a beautiful uke who’s always wanted a Pink Nintendo DS: Lite. Maybe he’s Asian and has long flowing hair. And is wearing shota shorts despite the fact that lately it’s been like in the low 70′s every day. And breezy.

Yeah, like that’ll happen. But I gotta do whatever it takes right now. I need money and I’m working all I can.

UPDATE: I sold it already. It went rather quickly, which is kind of nice. I’ll miss having it, but maybe when things are better I can obtain one again.

I still need money though. I’m going to try and see if I can come in to work this weekend, but it’s hard since they really don’t want to give me any more hours.

UPDATE 2: Now I’m trying to sell my Sims 2 PC game collection for 50 bucks. Hey, it worked so quickly the first time, maybe I can squeeze more money out of this stuff.

In June, legions of RPG fans were annoyed with EA’s decision to hide the RPG-greatness of Mass Effect beneath a draconian and unappetizing layer of restrictive DRM. Although the reactions to Mass Effect’s DRM were resoundingly negative, the game sold well enough that it did not scare EA away from using the same tactics again with Spore — just as they said they would last May.

Well now casual gaming and Will Wright fans are discovering the joys of Spore, and there is a bit of backlash resonating across the more vocal core of gamers across the great Internets. With Mass Effect, the disenfranchised failed to mount any retaliatory action against EA beyond a mass of extremely long forum threads in Bioware’s ‘Off Topic Forum’ relating their displeasure. But this time around the anti-DRM crowd is becoming a little bit more shrewd — they have realized that forum threads alone do not lead to change, and have taken more direct measures to influence gamers to vote with their wallets, when taking into account the exigencies of escalating EA-DRM.

In what appears to be a first step of an anti-DRM coalition of gamers, Amazon’s Spore page has been flooded with negative reviews of the game, the vast majority not citing gameplay concerns, but instead, issues with the game’s DRM. The game currently has a 1.5 star rating, with 517 (out of 570) review giving the game one star. Amazon is such a huge retailer of software that you have to imagine that this will negatively affect Spore’s sales — or at the very least, at least inform would-be buyers to the extent that the game’s SecuROM system stretches.

What’s so bad about the game’s DRM? Like Mass Effect, the game only allows three installations. Once the game has been installed three times, there is a good chance you are out of luck. Additional installations can be had by EA, but you have to call them up and argue a case — a step many feel that is going a bit too far. Besides ostensibly challenging game pirates, Spore’s DRM also appears to address another big concern of EA: the used game market.

In the last six months or so, some game developers have been lamenting the sale of used games. In short, they feel that they should have a finger in a piece of this used game pie, but in today’s game stores, they do not. Many offline game stores make a big segment of their revenue from the sale of used games, and some game developers — and specifically, most vocally EA — feel that they are getting cut out. Perhaps this three installation limit addresses this issue for them.

Whether or not the second-hand game market is a concern or not, one thing is certain: the game’s DRM did absolutely nothing to stop its mass piracy. The game was available about five days earlier than its official release through pirated channels. As with Mass Effect, the only people suffering from the game’s DRM are the people who bought the game.

The tricky thing in this situation is that EA has no way of accurately knowing how many sales the game’s DRM has saved, or cost them — but things like the annoyance and displeasure of Spore fans everywhere is something that is much easier to judge: “You used to be able to buy a game and play it on your computers, and do with it whatever you wanted,” said one of the 600 negative reviews of the game on Amazon, “…not now! Now you can only ‘rent’ it from them.”

Check out the carnage here.

After years of delays, the universe is set to begin this weekend — and it’s about time.

Tomorrow marks the U.S. launch date of Spore, an ambitious and long-awaited computer game that takes on the broad topics of life, the universe and everything. For publisher Electronic Arts, the unusual game is one of the biggest debuts of the year.

Expectations for Spore are high because the game’s lead creator is Will Wright, an innovator in the industry who is known for taking unlikely-seeming topics and turning them into addictive experiences. Wright’s previous hit, The Sims, stands as the best-selling computer game of all time and was a cultural phenomenon that drew many of its biggest fans from outside the industry’s stereotypical young, male demographic. As a fixture on the top of software sales charts for two years after its release in 2000, the franchise sold more than 100 million titles — bringing in billions of dollars in sales.

Whereas The Sims let players control the daily routines of human-like characters as they went about their careers and social lives in a suburban setting, Wright’s new title, which has been in development for six years, ranges a bit wider in its subject matter.

In Spore, players oversee the evolution and development of a species, starting from its earliest moments as a multicellular organism floating in a puddle. With the right guidance, a player’s virtual life form gains sentience, develops technology and eventually travels into space. The game’s powerful design tools allow players to follow their imaginations and create a giant race of friendly-looking teddy bears, if they like, or monsters that look as if they might have been plucked from a horror movie.

If certain games are about giving players a sense of control and power, then Spore is the ultimate expression of the urge to play God.

(more)

Hasbro Inc., the company that owns the word game’s North American rights, sued the creators of the Scrabulous program on Thursday, less than two weeks after the release of an authorized version of Scrabble for Facebook.

Hasbro said in its lawsuit that Scrabulous violates its copyright and trademarks. Separately, Hasbro asked Facebook to block the game.

In the year since Facebook began letting outside developers write Web programs that Facebook members can plug into their personal profile pages, Scrabulous has attracted some half-million daily users, despite efforts by Scrabble’s owners to end it.

Video game maker Electronic Arts Inc. released an official version for American and Canadian Facebook users last week as part of a broader, year-old licensing deal with Hasbro, yet Facebook users have continued to spend countless hours on the unauthorized Scrabulous.

Now, Hasbro is trying to stop Scrabulous completely and collect unspecified damages.

Mark Blecher, general manager for digital media and gaming at Hasbro, said the Pawtucket, R.I.-based company waited until Thursday to file a lawsuit to ensure that Scrabble fans had a legal option first.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, named as defendants Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, the brothers in Calcutta, India, who created the program, along with their Web design and technology company, RJ Softwares.

The Agarwallas did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment made after business hours in India. A 24-hour number for RJ Softwares went unanswered Thursday.

Facebook, which was not named as a defendant, refused to immediately block the application, pending a response from Scrabulous’ creators.

“Over the past year, Facebook has tried to use its status as neutral platform provider to help the parties come to an amicable agreement,” the company said in a statement. “We’re disappointed that Hasbro has sought to draw us into their dispute.”

By waiting, Facebook risks losing immunity protection from copyright lawsuits. Under federal law, service providers are generally exempt for their users’ actions — at least until they become aware of a specific infringement.

Earlier, Jayant Agarwalla said he was looking forward to competing with the official version, suggesting that Electronic Arts would have a tough time attracting “the attention and patronage of a large and dedicated user base,” as Scrabulous has done.

Blecher said that rather than blame Hasbro for trying to block a popular game, “the fans of Scrabble will appreciate an authentic version.”

Both games are free.

Mattel Inc. owns Scrabble rights outside the United States and Canada and did not join the lawsuit. It has a deal with RealNetworks Inc. to make a legal version available in other markets.

Among other E3 news, this is probably the most likely the one that’ll affect us here at pixiesticks and shotalicious. Considering OVER 9000% of the yaoi/shota fanart comes from Square/Enix products, Final Fantasy 13 is long awaited.

(Though you bitches really should be drawing me more Larsa!)

For more coverage of E3, check here.

Twenty years have passed since the cataclysmic events of Diablo® II. Mephisto, Diablo, and Baal have been defeated, but the Worldstone, which once shielded the world of Sanctuary from the forces of both the High Heavens and the Burning Hells, has been destroyed, and evil once again stirs in Tristram….

Following the unveiling of Diablo III today at the Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational, we’ve launched the game’s official website, with information about the places, characters, monsters, and adventures awaiting you upon your return to the world of Sanctuary. Some of the site’s highlights include:

>The cinematic teaser trailer shown at the 2008 Worldwide Invitational
>A 20-minute gameplay demo video
>More than 60 screenshots and pieces of concept art
>Deckard Cain’s journal, narrated by Deckard Cain himself — stay a while and listen!
>And much, much more

Visit the new Diablo III website now to learn more about the game

Video games will be forced to carry cigarette-style health warnings under proposals to protect children from unsuitable digital material.

The report, commissioned by the Prime Minister in response to a growing moral panic about video games, will conclude that they can harm the development of children’s beliefs and value systems and desensitise them to violence. It will also recommend that retailers who sell video games to anyone under the age rating on the box should face a hefty fine or up to five years in prison, The Times has learnt.

The report, written by Tanya Byron, the clinical psychologist and television parenting guru, is also expected to address the dangers of children’s use of the internet.

“Parents are afraid to let their children out,” she said. “So they keep them at home, but allow them to take risks online.”

She will call for a massive campaign to educate parents, teachers and childcarers about how to ensure that children get maximum benefit from the digital world without being exposed to its dangers.

This will include a drive for greater awareness of inappropriate content such as pornography. Parents will be encouraged to monitor children’s online use and keep computers in living rooms rather than bedrooms. Dr Byron, a Times columnist who has two children aged 9 and 12, said that video and online games could have enormous benefits “in terms of learning and development”, but that there was too little awareness among parents about the associated risks they posed and how to manage those risks.

“You would not send your child to the pool without teaching them to swim, so why would you let them online without teaching them to manage the risks?” she said.

Dr Byron said that the current classification system for video games was confusing and not tough enough. At present only games showing sex or gross violence require an age rating from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and fewer than 2 per cent of titles carry an 18-certificate.

The alternative Pan-European Game Information system is considered to be ineffective because it uses symbols that are confusing and distributors effectively chose their own ratings by filling in a form about their product.

Dr Byron wants a single statutory classification system. Ratings would have to be displayed prominently on all packaging materials, like health warnings on cigarettes, as well as on shop display cases.

“We have to make child digital safety a priority. If you are under 18, you should not be able to buy an ‘18’ game and if you are under 12, you should not be able to buy a ‘12’ game,” she said. She also wants all games consoles to contain blocking mechanisms that would enable parents to prevent children playing unsuitable games on them.

(Ed note: There already are mechanisms on video games that can be used to prevent younglings from playing unsuitable games. There are already labels on all packaging and on displays. And while the ratings system is a bit screwy, of course the developers don’t get to choose their own ratings. But jackoffs who don’t actually understand the industry wouldn’t know that would they?

Sounds fair, no?)

They’re calling for the third main series to begin in 2009 and so they launched the official site for it. I know it’s a year out, and so much information is lacking and still to be revealed… but… well…

Considering just how much they’ve milked the series already, this is going to have to be a really big justification for a new numbered release. I really like the series and continue to get hooked and re-hooked on it over and over.

EA has done alot of things wrong since taking over the project long ago from Maxis. Truly selling out with the commercial H&M Stuff, dealing with SecureROM or whatever it was called problems killing off people’s printers and other accessories, and just the long waits for patches!!

It’ll be interesting how this new game develops.

You know, I’m fairly certain that the Yaoi BL PC market is doing much more amazing things than this DS back massage mini-game. But hey, watch and enjoy anyway right?

Super Smash Bros. Brawl utilizes a double-layer disc which has a large memory capacity. A very small percentage of Wii consoles may have trouble consistently reading data off this large capacity disc if there is some contamination on the lens of the disc drive. Nintendo has specialized cleaning equipment that can resolve this problem.

(for more information click here)

Pico if it really was him, didn’t email me back yet. I wonder if he can’t understand my English just as badly as I couldn’t understand his Japanese. Oh internets, why must you torture us by bringing the world so close together and yet so very far apart?

Hisui on the tag-board wanted me to post the email message directly rather than the image of it, but since many browsers, and apparently mine as well, won’t show the characters, only question marks. That’s why I took the screen shot.

Hopefully someone will be able to figure out what it says. Something about a play-date is all we have so far which sounds very hot.

And of course, I’ll continue to slowly let the secret out about what is happening on March 11th, 2008. I can tell you right this moment, it isn’t the following:

1. It has nothing to do with Elf.
2. Cloverfield Monster is not going to end up confirmed for brawl.
3. I am not going to start a Premium Pixiesticks subscription service.

Keep looking for clues as we get closer to the date!

Hillary Clinton is still outraged that Rockstar Games left a sexually-themed mini game nestled in its best-selling Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in 2005.

You’ll recall the kerfuffle when the deactivated love scene was found buried in the code for the otherwise wholesome car jacking, cop-killing shooter. The unfinished mini-game featured clothed characters simulating sex acts. To access the scene, randy teens had to download and install a special patch developed by a Dutch coder, expending more effort than it takes to find real, human adult content on the web.

That all led some cynics to suspect Clinton of grandstanding when she called a press conference to denounce Rockstar and demand a Federal Trade Commission investigation into San Andreas. The ESRB re-rated the game to AO for “adults only,” raising the minimum age of purchase from 17 to 18 years old — a crucial year in which a teen develops the necessary psychological defenses to resist the Siren song of polygon porn.

But in a response to a questionnaire from the watchdog group Common Sense Media, Clinton reveals today that she still sees the affair as a victory for child safety. She describe her introduction of the doomed Family Entertainment Protection Act as a response to the “illicit” sexual content in San Andreas, and says, as president, she’d support regulation of the gaming industry.

“When I am President, I will work to protect children from inappropriate video game content,” she told CSM.

That puts her on the same page as Republican candidate Mitt Romney, who told CSM that the U.S. needs to “get serious against those retailers that sell adult video games that are filled with violence and that we go after those retailers.” Clinton’s fellow Democrats John Edwards, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson said they’d rather give the industry a chance to self-regulate, at least initially.

Clinton’s Family Entertainment Protection Act would have made it a federal offense to sell adult-rated video games to minors. It never passed, but similar state laws have been struck down as unconstitutional. Clinton’s co-sponsor on the bill, Joseph Lieberman, had his own video game nemesis: Stubbs the Zombie, who, like too many politicians, needs braaiiiins.

Johnny Chung’s site

Haven’t been able to snag an elusive Nintendo Wii yet? So you have missed out on the virtual console? And you probably aren’t really interested in tracking down ROMs and emulation software?

How about this site. You can play hundreds of NES games on your browser without any downloads or anything.

Even people who haven’t played a video game since “Pac-Man” have probably heard something about “Halo 3,” thanks to the kind of publicity blitz usually reserved for summer movies. The “Halo 3″ logo is everywhere, from Burger King wrappers and Mountain Dew bottles to the hood of a NASCAR vehicle. A life-size version of Master Chief, the game’s hero, has even been enshrined at Madame Tussaud’s Las Vegas museum.

According to Microsoft, more than 10,000 stores in the United States will be opening their doors tonight at midnight, the first day “Halo 3″ will be on sale. The midnight mayhem includes four major events — in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and Miami — where gamers will get to play “Halo 3″ with “local celebrities.”

In 2004, when “Halo 2″ arrived, it grossed $125 million in its first 24 hours on sale. That’s more than the worldwide box office generated by “Spider-Man 3″ in its first day in theaters back in May. Microsoft clearly expects “Halo 3″ to surpass that figure — and, perhaps more important, to goose sales of the Xbox 360, which is engaged in a fierce battle with Nintendo’s Wii for home console supremacy.