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Gamer babel is a huge copy cat and sell out and has moved to WordPress. This is going to be a new exciting journey into game studies, theory, discourse and w/e. It's really going to be something, so come check it out!

Gamer Wikis

Ok, I only have half an hour until I have to give up the internetz, so I have to write this quickly.

Everyone knows Wikipedia; it's awesome, democratic, easy to navigate, moderated and contributed to by consumers. Wikipedia rocks, and there are several other Wikis that are based off more specific subjects. Wiki leaks is a pretty well known example.

What I really want to talk about is the WoW Wiki and some impressive facts and figures about it. I could paraphrase the information, but instead I will copy and past because I want to go to bed.

WoWWiki has:
1,974,110 registered users.
80,959 content pages.
43,596 images.

Impressive, eh? It's the second biggest Wiki in the world!!!! (second to wikipedia).

There is a guild wars wiki and Chrono compendium. It's pretty awesome, and Wiki's are a great example of New new media changing the way we play games.


I love you all, Good night.



<3

The gaming equivalent of paying for phone sex

This is just bizarre, but I suppose that there is a market for everything. A site called gamecrush allows gamers to pay for "play dates." These play dates are online gaming sessions with a game-sex operator. The user can choose for the girl to be flirty or to talk dirty to them. GameCrush charges $ 6.60 for a 10-minute session. In my personal opinion, this is just sad, and what's worse is that their servers are already full; 10,000 people signed up for the service within the first ten minutes of it being available.

The fact that this service is so successful only reinforces the worst gamer stereotypes, but on the plus side, girls who are willing to degrade themselves in this manner can make 30 bucks an hour, so I guess this will stimulate the economy somewhat.

I can't wait to see what the rest of the gaming blogosphere makes of this. That will probably be the subject of my next post.

Anti-gamer attorney journal resigns

One of the biggest proponents of the ban on mature games in Australia is resigning. Michael Atkinson  has been the South Australia attorney general for twenty years, and he feels that it is time for a renewal in the government. He stated that another reason for his resignation is so that he could spend more time with his family. H didn't mention anything about the video game ban, but he did admit that he was wrong in proposing a law that would censor the internet, and there's an interesting video of him acknowledging the influence of bloggers on this site.

My brain is leaking out of my ears; this semester has really taken its toll. Pray for me.

Facebook bans and Zombie marches

Things are pretty crazy in Australia. My last post discussed a political party that was formed by gamers, and they were running for elections. Since then, The ban on mature games has passed, and gamers are scrambling to change this. Some gamers formed a group  named "Grow Up Australia" on Facebook. It seems that some members of the group were posting hateful comments about the South Australian Attorney General. As a result, Facebook removed the group page because the comments went against facebook's policies.
source

On a related note, Australian gamers are dressing up as zombies and marching in protest of the mature game ban. The protest is happening next week ( the site didn't give me a date), so that'll be pretty cool. It may or may not have happened already because there's a picture gallery up (maybe this is from a different zombie parade?) Anyway, the march is happening in Sydney, Australia.


peep game on the pics


P.S. Spring Break is killing me =\ so many papers to write.

This video is hilarious + NES harmonicas.

The video game bosses' lament

and

Blow on this


that is all.

The audience as editor.

While digging through my overwhelming Google-reader feed, I came across this little gem. It's called swords and sworcery (odd spelling), and it's absolutely beautiful. The video is just a demo, but there is something truly enchanting about this pixelated piece.

However, that's not what this post is about. What's really interesting here is the first comment left on the site.

"There are Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time sound effects all over this. The grass rustle, the creature's voice, and the attack prompt are all from Ocarina. The creature's voice is comprised of Link's battle cries, only pitched-down. And the attack prompt is the Z-button lock-on sound. Just an observation.
Looks amazing. The pixel art is fantastic."

Posted by: Cullen | March 12, 2010 7:09 AM

This comment is bizarre, but it illustrates one of the key characteristics of New New Media, and that is that everyone can be an editor, fact-checker, critic. This "Cullen" guy apparently has an extensive knowledge of Zelda sound effects and was browsing the web at 7 in the morning waiting for an opportunity to enlighten and astound, or something.