Stoobalou writes “Sony says that it has no intention of reimbursing retailers if they offer users partial refunds for fat PS3s. Last week, the first PS3 user successfully secured a partial refund from Amazon UK as compensation for the removal of the ability to run Linux on the console. The user quoted European law in order to persuade the online retailer that the goods he had bought in good faith were no longer fit for his purposes because of the enforcement of firmware update 3.21, which meant that users who chose to keep the Other OS functionality would lose the ability to play the latest games or connect to the PlayStation Network.”
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MMBK writes “Sid Meier is possibly the most influential game designer ever, having developed the Civilization series, among others. This video documentary looks at his past while he travels to the University of Michigan for the 48-hour game design competition, which was hosted by his son.”
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Amanda Flowers always liked her Wii Fit but now she can’t get enough of it. Amanda claims a fall from her balance board damaged a nerve and has left her suffering from persistent sexual arousal syndrome. From the article: “The catering worker said: ‘It began as a twinge down below before surging through my body. Sometimes it built up into a trembling orgasm.’ A doctor diagnosed her with persistent sexual arousal syndrome due to a damaged nerve.”
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Published by
timothy on
Apr 15, 2010
travdaddy writes “As reported on Slashdot only about a week ago, a passage of a gambling bill in Massachusetts would have criminalized online poker. That passage has been stricken due to the help of a grass-roots organization called the Poker Players Alliance. It ‘quickly got the message to all of its Massachusetts members — around 25,000 people — and over 1,000,000 nationwide to make their voices heard; apparently lawmakers were listening since the language making online poker illegal — and online gaming in general — was taken out of the legislation.’ Another Massachusetts bill may even ‘take [poker] completely out of the gambling genre’ and make it legislated as a game of skill.”
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mr_sifter writes “UK games retailer GameStation revealed that it legally owns the souls of thousands of customers, thanks to a clause it secretly added to the online terms and conditions for its website. The ‘Immortal Soul Clause’ was added as part of an attempt to highlight how few customers read the terms and conditions of an online sale. GameStation claims that 88 percent of customers did not read the clause, which gives legal ownership of the customer’s soul over to the UK-based games retailer. The remaining 12 percent of customers however did notice the clause and clicked the relevant opt-out box, netting themselves a £5 GBP gift voucher in the process.”
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Hugh Pickens writes “Geoffrey Miller has an interesting hypothesis in Seed Magazine that explains Fermi’s Paradox — why 40 years of intensive searching for extraterrestrial intelligence have yielded nothing: no radio signals, no credible spacecraft sightings, no close encounters of any kind. All the aliens are busy playing computer games. The aliens ‘forget to send radio signals or colonize space because they’re too busy with runaway consumerism and virtual-reality narcissism,’ writes Miller. He says the fundamental problem is that an evolved mind must pay attention to indirect cues of biological fitness, rather than tracking fitness itself, and that although evolution favors brains that tend to maximize fitness (as measured by numbers of great-grandkids), no brain has capacity enough to do so under every possible circumstance. ‘The result is that we don’t seek reproductive success directly; we seek tasty foods that have tended to promote survival, and luscious mates who have tended to produce bright, healthy babies. The modern result? Fast food and pornography,’ writes Miller. ‘Once they turn inwards to chase their shiny pennies of pleasure, they lose the cosmic plot.’ Miller adds that most bright alien species probably go extinct gradually, allocating more time and resources to their pleasures, and less to their children, until they eventually die out.”
Who here doesn’t think a TNG-style Holodeck would lead to the downfall of our civilization?
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Zarrot writes “Turbine has listened to the community and backed away from the partnership with SuperRewards that we discussed yesterday. Quoting: ‘Based on your feedback, we’re stepping away from the “Offer” category for now. We’ll keep exploring alternate ways for players who want points to get them. We’ll also continue to innovate in pricing and accessibility because that’s who we are. As of today, the Offer Wall is coming down. We’ll collect all the feedback we’ve received over the last few days and will use it to guide future decisions.’”
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Epic Games confirms the inevitable. Better ready the chainsaw.
A few days after an untimely leak on Xbox Live, Epic Games has now officially announced Gears of War 3 for next April. Details are scant (though Edge speculates on possible new gameplay features), but it will contain 4-player co-op and be an Xbox 360 exclusive. A trailer was released for the game, and designer Cliff Bleszinski had this to say:
“When we released Gears of War more than three years ago, we set out to tell the world an unforgettable story of bravery and sacrifice in the face of insurmountable odds, and a year from now, players will get the chance to experience the final chapter in the story of Marcus Fenix and his companions in Delta Squad. This is definitely the biggest and most dramatic chapter yet in the Gears of War saga, and we can’t wait to deliver it.”
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Zarrot writes “In the next step for their Free 2 Play model, Turbine Entertainment, publisher of Dungeon and Dragons: Online, Lord of the Rings: Online, and Asheron’s Call, has partnered with notorious ‘lead generation company’ SuperRewards. Initial testing by forum users shows that just accessing the page without clicking on any offers sends the user’s email and game login in clear text to SuperRewards. Reports of new spam and fresh malware infections on test systems are already being reported on the company’s forums. Is the Zynga business model the future of Internet gaming?”
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