Last month, I wrote about Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day's announcement of their joint project, Tabletop, a net-show that records rollicking tabletop gaming sessions. The first episode, covering the game Small World, is out, and it does not disappoint. This is 30 minutes of incredibly good fun, with a great guest list:
Wil Wheaton and guests, Sean Plott (host of "Day9TV", a Starcraft II dedicated webcast on how to be a better gamer), Grant Imahara (host of Discovery Channel's "Mythbusters"), and Jenna Busch (geek blogger, writer and host) play Small World!
Video Link to a short feature on the very popular "human sound machine" Hikakin, who has a growing following within and beyond his native Japan. His YouTube channel is here, and well worth a subscribe. Below, his take on the Donkey Kong theme song.
Harris O'Malley takes a run at male privilege in gaming, especially how it manifests as angry refusals to accept womens' complaints about the sexual objectification of female characters in mainstream games. "If a girl wants to see herself represented in video games, she better get used to the idea of being the prize at the bottom of the cereal box. ... It's hard to feel valued or fully included when a very vocal group insists that your input is irrelevant, misguided and ultimately unwelcome." [Kotaku] — Rob
"The world's first commercial electronic video game, Computer Space, was released in 1971. The world's first electronic stock market, the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ), opened in 1971. The world's first scholarly journal devoted to the study of autism and autism spectrum disorders in children, The Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, published its first issue in 1971." -- Justin Wolfe on gaming, the financial system and autism, at The Awl. [Thanks, Choire!] — Rob
Anonymous officially denies that it is responsible for the recent hacking attacks on Sony—well, to the extent that an entity like Anonymous is capable of doing anything "officially," or with one voice. But two hackers identified as veterans of Anonymous tell the Financial Times that the cyber-activist group, or at least cells of the group, are probably behind it.
One Anonymous member told the FT that he saw technical details of a vulnerability in Sony's network that enabled the break-in discussed on an Anonymous chatroom, shortly before the intrusion.
"The hacker that did this was supporting OpSony's movements," the Anonymous activist told the FT.
Another established member of Anonymous who participated in the hacking of security firm HBGary Federal, said it could well have been other members who subsequently hacked Sony.
"If you say you are Anonymous, and do something as Anonymous, then Anonymous did it," said the hacker, who uses the online nickname Kayla. "Just because the rest of Anonymous might not agree with it, doesn't mean Anonymous didn't do it."
Boing Boing pal Syd Garon points us to a wacky piece of arcade-themed art by Hunter Jonakin called "Jeff Koons Must Die."
"It's a 80's style video cabinet with a first-person-shooter game he created, where you run around a museum shooting Jeff Koons' work," says Syd. "It's pretty fucking awesome. Koons comes out to stop you, Big Boss style. I love that you end up fighting an endless wave of lawyers."
From Jonakin's website:
The game is set in a large museum during a Jeff Koons retrospective. The viewer is given a rocket launcher and the choice to destroy any of the work displayed in the gallery. If nothing is destroyed the player is allowed to look around for a couple of minutes and then the game ends. However, if one or more pieces are destroyed, an animated model of Jeff Koons walks out and chastises the viewer for annihilating his art. He then sends guards to kill the player. If the player survives this round then he or she is afforded the ability to enter a room where waves of curators, lawyers, assistants, and guards spawn until the player is dead. In the end, the game is unwinnable, and acts as a comment on the fine art studio system, museum culture, art and commerce, hierarchical power structures, and the destructive tendencies of gallery goers, to name a few.
Got a game idea you know you'll never get around to making? Share it at Gamestorm, a new blog for game sketches, and maybe someone else will! [via Indiegames]
I watched every single video in this guy's YouTube channel of his cockatiel singing themes from various video games, and can't figure out if it's a miracle or a hoax. I have never kept a cockatiel as a pet, but have kept other exotic birds, and I have a hard time buying that it's not faked. But either way, I enjoyed.
Update: Most commenters thinks it's real. I am a jaded internetter, but okay, I'll go with the popular vote. Cockatiels are amazing and life is a miracle!
Puget Systems makes old-school boutique tower PCs for gamers. The last time I looked at one, it brought performance, heft, multiple video cards, and coolant tubing packed into a giant enclosure. It also came with something else: noise. Wired puts it so: performs like a Ferrari, sounds like a Mack Truck.
Its latest, the Serenity gaming PC, fixes it for who hate the hum.
On the outside, it's a classy, if nondescript Antec case. Inside, however, it's calmed with acoustic foam panels, dampered screws and other vibration-reducing handiwork. And while Puget's online configurator lets you change most components, it defaults to selections tested for quiet operation. The result is a pleasing murmur, if not complete silence -- the optical drive spinning up is by far the loudest thing in it.
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I watched every single 
Puget Systems makes old-school boutique tower PCs for gamers. The