You know that little gold farming side business you have over in China, the one where you sell off large chunks of virtual currency that you have amassed in certain online games for real-world cash? Well, thanks to a new law, it looks like you’re going to have to close up shop for a while, or at least until China gets its groove back. Ok. So you're going out of business permanently.
The Great Australian Firewall will try blocking websites that host or sell video games not suitable for children under the age of 15.
A spokesman for Senator for Victoria Stephen Conroy told The Age on Thursday that the government's internet censorship regime will extend to downloadable and web-based games that don't meet Australia's MA15+ rating standard.
It's amazing how a huge global phenomenon can begin. In 1984, Russian mathematician Alexey Pajitnov was playing with one of his favorite puzzles when he had an inspiration: How about creating a computer version?
Pajitnov wrote the program in his spare time, simplifying the idea to make it easier for those of us who aren't math geniuses. He used shapes made of four squares -- hence "Tetris," which comes from the Greek word for four, "Tetra."
With the big three gaming-system makers all previewing new or upgraded motion-sensing controllers this week, a new arms race is under way in the video game industry. Joysticks and push-button controllers seem to be on their way out, replaced by simpler, more intuitive devices -- similar to Nintendo's Wii -- that let gamers move their arms and legs to guide their avatars' movements onscreen.
While Xbots and the Sony Defence Force argue among themselves, and Wii-mers (Wii-ers?) throw ever more ridiculous shapes pretending to play the tambourine or something, there is another group of gamers who quietly, happily, enjoy the best gaming platform yet invented - the PC.
On the official World of Warcraft website, Blizzard has posted the first details regarding the upcoming patch titled "Call of the Crusade". Patch 3.2 is currently "in the works" without a set release date. The following content has currently been confirmed:
It can’t get any better than this for gamers: The Sims 3 video game has been leaked on torrents two weeks before its official release. This is just unbelievable, as a few weeks ago, the an unfinished version of the Wolverine movie was leaked on torrents about 30 days before its premiere. According to Electronic Arts and Maxis, the game will officially be released on Junde 2, and for the moment none of them reacted on The Sims 3 leak on torrents.
As any legit PC gamer will tell you, copy protection can sometimes really suck. And now, game developers are starting to agree. With any digital intellectual property, those who hold the rights will always want to protect their investment. Given the digital nature of the works, however, it’s often easy for pirates to copy and illegally redistribute.
The fight against video game copying and piracy continues, and the latest endeavour in the video game industry is aimed towards the Nintendo DS and the R4 style flashcarts. Gamasutra.com spoke with the CEO of Metaforic, Andrew Mclennan, regarding video game piracy and their plan to fight it on the Nintendo DS:
EMPLOYEES AT TROUBLED game maker 3D have released stills and footage of how far they got with the legendarily late Duke Nukum game.
The game was delayed more times than the second coming of Jesus and was one of the reasons why 3D appears to have gone to the wall. According to Techspot some of the games design team have posted what people who had waited nearly ten years for the sequel will now miss.
