You Win Cartoon Network… Clever, clever

I was CACKLING when I saw this on Thursday morning – all I could think of is… Fosters, you wily wee monkey, you rick rolled us all – and the best part is, it was so obscure that I bet 75% of the population watching had NO IDEA… Well played, well [...]

The Face of Kids & Games… literally

New York Times photographer Robbie Cooper used a camera behind a screen to capture kids’ faces while they play video games for this video called “Immersion.”
This Is What You Look Like Playing Videogames – Video Games – Videogum
Wow… I am tempted to do something like this for testing – those kids [...]

The Newest Model: Trading Cards

Sony announced a partnership yesterday with trading card company Topps to create a collectible card game for the upcoming free-to-play virtual world Free Realms. The exclusive long-term licensing agreement will produce a digital card game playable in Free Realms as well as a physical card game for sale at retail. The digital version will launch [...]

Random bits and pieces around the net

THERE ARE SO MANY ARTICLES ON MY BROWSER TABS RIGHT NOW.  I would love like another 20 minutes just to ramble about some of them.  Unforch for yours truly, life moves ever swiftly, and I’m still trying to figure out what happened to the remainder of October… (was I in a coma? When did November [...]

I Want This Kid’s Job

DR PEPPER plans to announce on Wednesday that, for the first time, it is promoting a professional athlete on bottles that it will distribute nationally. But the shaggy-haired athlete on the label is not a traditional sports star: he’s a 21-year-old who has a three-year, $250,000 contract to play video games.
Advertising – Gamer Gets Sports [...]

Warning Flags: Online Verification and Youth Social Networking

WHEN it comes to protecting children on the Internet and keeping them safe from predators, law enforcement officials have vocally advocated one approach in particular. They want popular sites, like the social network MySpace, to confirm the identities and ages of minors and then allow the young Web surfers to talk only with other children, [...]

Timeline of Virtual World-age

Here’s a great visual timeline of how virtual worlds have rolled out (props to Raph Koster’s blog for find).
(…And this is officially my shortest post ever, lol)

Interesting Plight: Clearing Possible IP From UGC

The makers of the game LittleBigPlanet, which allows users to create their own levels, have apparently started deleting any and all levels that include any mention of anything that might be construed as someone else’s intellectual property. This seems both extreme and unnecessary. It’s certainly not going to keep fans particularly loyal to the game.
Techdirt: [...]

Heads Up: Sophomore year of Penguins & Coins

Because of the incredible response from so many penguins last year, because we heard from so many of you that you want to do it again, and because you guys worked hard to help change the world last Christmas, the Coins for Change campaign will return this year! 

Coins for Change started with suggestions from many [...]

Monday Notables

Purdue University wants kids to build a supercomputer through video gaming
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/supercomputing-the-video-game/

Youtube pales next to Hulus spiffy multiplex
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/youtube-pales-next-to-hulus-spiffy-multiplex/

Child’s Play kicks off – gamers help children’s hospitals in times of holiday cheer
http://www.massively.com/2008/11/10/this-years-childs-play-charity-event-kicks-off/

Another casual gaming site, Moondo, from an Israeli-based company

http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/11/funtactix-launches-moondo-for-casual-gaming-community.html

Cyworld leaving US Market?

http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/11/cyworld-leaving-us-market.html

Gamers latch on to iPhone, iPod touch
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008371287_btiphonegames100.html

Youtube to post full-length MGM content:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i2a6531019c4147a6d63ee7eba2fde601
Madden becomes the best [...]