VGN for February 3rd, 2006

Friday, 03 February 2006

VGN for February 3rd, 2006

Video Game News:

We received the following from a young man who we will call "Mr. Smith."

(CW)TB

Hey guys,

I interviewed for a guerilla marketing business in San Francisco that targeted web forums.

I was told that if I accepted the job, I was to have at LEAST 50 identities on as many forums as I could muster (they wanted 100 eventually), with a goal of 5 posts an hour. The posts had to be well thought out, and the idea was that I was to establish multiple identities with a history on the forums, so that when the timing was right a well written but subtly placed marketing post could be finessed in. And regular visitors would recognize the post as coming from a long time poster.

They had 12 people working there full time, and were hiring 10 more. You do the math. No wait, I'll do it for you: that's 880 posts a day (if minimum was met). However he said the better ones could do around 8 or 10 an hour. And they had different "verticals" so there was the sports guy, and the games guy, the hentai, excuse me I mean anime guy, etc.

But the most critical point was this: develop and integrate the identity. No random "HEY EB GAMES IS AWESOME BUY THIS" stuff.

Kinda spooky.

Didn't take the job. It was a ****ing mill.

Apparently they hire out on LiveJournal and MySpace too.

Take Two and Rockstar sued over Hot Coffee

Robin Arnfield, newsfactor.com Mon Jan 30, 5:55 PM ET

A video minigame allowing users to engage in explicit sexual acts has triggered a lawsuit by Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo. The sex game was secretly included with "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," a video game originally rated M (Mature 17+).

The city says the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) game generated sales of over $600 million and wants Take-Two Interactive and its subsidiary, Rockstar Games, which produced and developed the game, to disgorge a portion of their profits.

Murder and Sex

GTA, released in the last quarter of 2004, has players performing a variety of criminal acts. These include murder, pimping, home robbery, tagging, and drug-dealing. Unknown to the industry-rating board and to consumers at the time, the game also had a sexual minigame embedded in it.

By hiding the adult material, Take-Two Interactive was able to obtain an M rating for GTA, and the game went on to become a best-seller.

Study suggests link between parent and child through video games

By Laurie Sullivan
TechWeb.com Fri Jan 27, 12:58 AM ET

Study Suggests Video Games Bond Parent And Child More than a third of American parents play computer and video games and 80 percent do so with their children, according to a survey released Thursday by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).

The study suggests that 66 percent of the parents surveyed believe playing video games with their children creates closer family ties. Thirty-six percent of parents who play video games introduced their children to the technology.

To put the gaming market into perspective, U.S. computer and video game software sales grew 4 percent in 2005 to $7 billion, according to the ESA. The industry group also said more than 228 million computer and video games were sold in 2005, almost two games for every household in America.

The ESA's study, which sampled 501 parents who have children between the ages of 2 and 17 at home, said the typical parent who plays video games is 37 years old, 47 percent are women, and 45 percent said they play games on both computers and game consoles. While many said they have been playing for 13 years, one-third acknowledged having played video games for 20 years or more.

What I've been playing:

Half Life 2 for XBOX

No time for anything else this week, unfortunately.

Anime news:

Anime Network on Direct TV

posted on 2006-02-01 13:29:54

The Anime Network has sent out an e-mail announcement stating that TAN will be available on DirecTV Pay per View Channel 177. Samurai X: The Motion Picture and Gantz are among the offerings.

We previously reported that The Anime Network is available on DirecTV Pay per View Channel 117. The channel is actually 177. ANN Apologises for this error.

Howl's Moving Castle up for Oscar

Howl's Moving Castle Nominated for Oscar (2006-01-31 10:08:51)
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the nominees for the 78th annual Academy Awards. For the Academy Award for Animated Feature, the nominees are Howl's Moving Castle, Burton's Corpse Bride and Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit. The Academy Award winners will be announced on Sunday, March 5 in an awards ceremony starting at 5pm Pacific standard time.

New Futurama?

According to this site and Billy's own forum, they're going to begin making four new Futurama DVD movies this summer!

Hopefully, before Mega-Con this month, I'll interview Billy West and talk about this exciting announcement!!

Con Corner:

Mega-Con!!

Next Show:
February 24th - 26th, 2006 In Orlando, Florida

Show Hours
Friday 1pm - 7pm (advance ticket purchasers get in at 12pm)
Saturday 10am - 6pm
Sunday 10am - 5pm

Please Note: Some panel and breakout rooms remain open to 11:30pm

Con wrap up:

FX Show

Otronicon

AIM: VGNOROCK