Last week, West Virginia announced their plans to fight obesity in school children by adding Dance Dance Revolution to the gym curriculum. West Virginia: nerding up our youth – one DDR game at a time. [Source: NY Times]

DDR Meets Counter Strike:
[youtube OA3if9TdZM8]

DDR Meets Colbert:

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A looong time ago, I posted this clip of Human Pong, but I didn’t know the back story until today when I found the credits on this clip of Human Space Invaders:

[youtube VczbbiRmDik]

I got the full scoop from NotSoNoisy.com: “GAME OVER is one of the art projects developed by the Swiss artist Guillaume REYMOND (NOTsoNOISY creative agency). It consists of a series of collaborative animation movies which revive some of the very first video games. The pixels are replaced by a group of real human-beings that are moving from seat to seat in a theatre during about 4 to 6 hours. Each “pixel” has its own rules and decides what s/he wants to do for each picture. Once all these pictures are turned into a short animation movie, a giant human-scale video game unfolds “live”.” Sweet. Here’s the final film of the series – Human Pole Position:

[youtube ywqu_8RIDvU]

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Nobody likes a crybaby, Jack.
Oh, Jack … why do you make it so easy for us to pick on you? It almost seems unfair. Almost. Apparently, Jack Thompson got his feelings hurt that gaming blog Kotaku made fun of his latest TV appearance and interpreted this sarcastic comment as a death threat:

Kyle81 says: Actually the VT shootings are now the biggest mass shooting in US history with 31 dead, not just school shooting. Jack should be shot for taking the opportunity to leech off a tragedy to push his own agenda 04/16/07 03:25 PM

So after harassing Kotaku with emails and not getting what he felt was a good enough response, Jack did what any person who gets picked on would naturally do … he requested an FBI investigation of the offender. WHAT?! Get the details here on Kotaku’s site.

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This is rad:

Get this bag or put this image on other stuff …

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TiedTheLeader.com is a great blog that does 22 question interviews every Friday. This week, I gave them 22 answers. Get to know The Game Dame.

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I’m surprised at how many people don’t know the real story behind “420.” So… in honor of today’s date, I want to fill you in on the true history.

420 started in 1972 with six San Rafael High School students. This outcast group called themselves the “Waldos” and they were big fans of the first Grateful Dead spin off band: New Riders of the Purple Sage.

One beautiful day, one of the Waldos received a map to an abandoned pot field. The group decided to meet after school to go find it at (drumroll please) 4:20!!! All day long, they reminded each other in the hallways “Remember, dude… 4:20″ They never found that field, but “420″ became code for marijuana use and quickly spread throughout the Grateful Dead/stoner scene.

So there you have it. The true history. Be proud that you know the real deal.

[SOURCE: Steven Hagar, Former Editor in Chief of High Times Magazine]

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I despise Jack Thompson and those who fight against the video game industry with nothing to back up their arguments. But I LOVE when they get TOTALLY busted in public for being jackholes (half jack ass/half asshole). If you’ve been keeping up with the news, you’ve heard about Cho Seung Hui who massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech. And if you’ve seen any of the videos or read his letters you know how bat shit this guy is. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, it came out that this guy played Counter-Strike. Of course the misguided media mob latched onto that and blamed the video game for Cho’s rage. Fortunately, Chris Matthews challenged and debunked Thompson’s theories. Kotaku has the clip and GamePolitics.com features an excellent chunk of transcript.

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Few people knew that
Pac-Man was on crack.Microsoft and NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. just announced the first-ever Xbox 360(TM) “Pac-Man” World Championship, presented by Quiznos. Fans of the classic arcade game can compete on Xbox Live from April 25 to May 9. The top finalists from participating countries around the world will be flown to New York City for the finals on June 5, with the winner being crowned the Xbox 360 “Pac-Man” World Champion by Toru Iwatani, the creator of “Pac-Man.” Visit XboxLiveTournament.com to register and review full eligibility criteria, regulations and rules.

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ECA President, Hal Halpin
Gamers represent nearly fifty percent of the US population and spend $10 billion annually on gaming, yet they’re constantly misunderstood or even overlooked by politicians and the mainstream press. Formed in 2006, the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA) is a 501(c)(4) non-profit membership-based advocacy organization for consumers of interactive entertainment. The ECA is here to give gaming consumers a voice and to keep us in-the-know about our rights, the anti-games legislation and other concerns.

In order to learn a little more about the history of the ECA and the organization’s future plans, I interviewed Hal Halpin, President of the ECA. Read the rest of this entry »

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I came across this YouTube clip and immediately fell in love with the minds at Mega64:
[youtube hQ-xsBZ_Nqo]

Mega64 is a public access show based out of San Diego, California and includes Shawn Chatfield, Rocco Botte and Derrick Acosta. These guys are freaking hilarious. Shigeru Miyamoto’s guest appearance is brilliant and there are tons of other great videos on their site. Here’s some more info about their concept: “In the not too distant future, a former video game programmer and mad scientist Dr. Poque grows weary of the world’s games. Shunned from society, he invents the most powerful video game console ever created- The Mega64; A machine powerful enough to download old video games into users’ brains, making them embarrassingly real. To prove himself to the reluctant public, he captures ordinary teenagers to beta test the machine 24/7 and document their progress within his secret compound… beneath his apartment building. Lead by the brave duo of Rocko and Derek, this kidnapped crew must endure the digital insanity and learn why video games and the real world should never mix.”

I haven’t watched all of the clips yet, but Hitman was awesome and this Resident Evil 4 one had me snorting:

[youtube 7oXx0qwe0wc]

Click here to visit Mega64 on MySpace.

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