Feb
27
This youtube user JaboOodyDubs has lots of hilarious dubs of infomercials, he’s funny. Check them if you haven’t already.
Feb
26
The Comsumerist writes:
Teresa says that she was harassed by other players and later suspended from XBOX Live because she identified herself as a lesbian in her profile. When she appealed to Microsoft, she says they told her that other gamers found her sexual orientation “offensive.”
Teresa says:
I just recently saw a thing on your site about someones gamer tag being banned because it had the word gay in the tag.
I had a similar incident, only my account was suspended because I had said in my profile that I was a lesbian. I was harassed by several players, ‘chased’ to different maps/games to get away from their harassment. They followed me into the games and told all the other players to turn me in because they didn’t want to see that crap or their kids to see that crap.
As if xbox live is really appropriate for kids anyways! My account was suspended and xbox live did nothing to solve this, but instead said others found it offensive.
Today I received a message from another gamer calling me a fag. I am a lesbian, so they aren’t too smart if they cant get their anti-gay slurs right.
Microsoft does nothing to stop this or prevent it, but instead sides with the homophobes. No one will help me get the word out about Microsoft’s anti-gay policy. Not even the HRC who says Microsoft has a positive image with them. Not to me it doesn’t!
We’ve heard of gamers being suspended for identifying themselves as gay in their GamerTag, and even one case of a guy whose name was actually “Richard Gaywood” but his tag was suspended anyway because apparently the word “gay” is so offensive that it doesn’t matter if its actually your name.
Feb
25
Champagne and high fives all round at SCEI today as the PlayStation Network (natural enemy of Xbox Live) has reached a total of 20 million registered accounts 2 years and 3 months into the service’s life. In fact, half of those signed up in the last 5 months – showing that the growth of the service has accelerated. This announcement puts the service ahead of Xbox Live – which Microsoft announced had 17 million members in January of this year (though undoubtedly that number will have pushed up a little since then so the number is probably far closer than it may first appear).
Neither of those figures takes into account the number of regular users. While anybody can set up a PSN account for nothing and never touch it again – the cost of an Xbox Live Gold membership is likely to encourage more regular use. However, given that the Xbox had a head start, this is still good news for Sony.
Other interesting statistics released by the console manufacturer today include the news that there are a total of 14,500 different items of digital content. [ TVGB ]
Feb
25
Nobody expected the number-one-with-a-bullet rise of the music videogame—least of all the music industry. Armed with little more than crappy graphics, plastic guitars, and epic hooks, play-along titles like Guitar Hero and Rock Band have become an industry in their own right, raking in more than $2.3 billion over the past three years. Album sales fell 19 percent this past holiday season, but the thrill isn’t gone—it just moved to a different platform.
The success of these games is good news for the music biz. They’re breathing new life into old bands (Weezer, anyone?) and helping popularize new ones. They’re even becoming a significant distribution outlet for new releases. So the record labels ought to be ecstatic, right? Nope. They’re whining over licensing fees. [ more @ WIRED ]
Feb
16
Lights of the dormitory of the Wroclaw University of Technology (Poland) were changed by students into one big screen, showing the video game Snake.
