Most TV game franchises brand their property all over the market. They will put the game on every handheld device, phone and toilet paper dispenser. Her Interactive the makers of the Nancy Drew series have taken their stamp to another type of video game. Previously they released about twenty point and click adventures, like the last one I reviewed before Halloween. Those were usually good to excellent and got better than average scores. Those all moved along and had fair to good animations and graphics.

The new Nancy Drew Dossier series is somewhat retro. We are waiting for the Wii version of White Wolf of Icicle Creek that is due on December 2. It could be merely a port from PC to console though. The Dossier series premier goes after the PC download market instead of progressing the franchise to 3D and taking it anywhere forward. Read more

“What were they thinking?” You may ask, of two men in the games industry who have made some very insulting comments about women. How low can they go? CliffyB was giving an interview when he came out with some things that you’d only expect two half shit-faced guys to say to each other in private. But no, this was not private it was to a journalist.

He certainly wasn’t thinking of the fourty something percent share of his games that are purchased by a female.

Speaking with GamePro, Gears of War and Halo series creator Cliff Bleszinski explained his thoughts on Beta tests and spoke about his reluctance to offer Beta tests of his games.

A beta is like hooking up with a girl just to say, “yeah, I fucked her.” I know that sounds crude, but it’s the honest-to-God truth. Once you play a beta, you can check it off your list–you can say, “yeah, I played it.” Then you might not feel motivated to get that initial cherry popping from the proper, final game. Read more

The time of year has arrived where I am thinking about what to unload in the “stuff market”. This year I began to contemplate “How do I know what is Obsolete, Old School or Retro?” There are websites like about.com that can help you evaluate your old electronics, and collectibles some charge for the service. Your library will also have books which give the values of antiques which are updated every year, and that’s free. In a box, is the second Panasonic Home Theater System in as many years that has crapped out due to built in obsolescence. My cell does a camera’s job, the job of the landline phone, and the old laptop that I just packed. Those are going into the attic next to the Atari 2600.

The quality that inspires us to chuck some stuff and hoard others may tell us something about our individuality and character. As we jet faster towards the future with each passing day I imagine that like the crew on the Enterprise we will eventually become a “stuff-less” society. All of our important music, literature and movies will simply be known as our “data”. There may be more creative ways for our data to be presented such as the Data Ring, or even more imaginative jewels like a diamond pendant etched with keys to our personal storage. This bank of data will be a log of our lives from the first time we can read and interface until we terminate. Read more

Geek Woman gets the chance to interview three of ladies who are on the team of The Agency which is a soon to be released MMO from SOE.

Tracy A. Seamster Game Designer, The Agency Sony Online Entertainment Seattle

1. Geek Woman : As a Game Designer/Writer on The Agency™ team are you in charge of creating the missions or quests in the game?

Tracy : While I sit in on meetings regarding various missions for The Agency, I am currently working on our Operatives. As an agent, you collect non-player characters who work for you. You build your own agency in this game, and Operatives are the “living loot” you put it together with. They’ll work for you whether you are logged in or not—analyzing intel, building gadgets, running stakeouts and other kinds of spy things. I give them stories to live out, future potential assignments, as well as back stories that may offer insight into who they are and where they’ve come from. We have over four hundred Operatives and they need to be as diverse as possible so that they can have interesting interactions while remaining true to their ParaGON or UNITE ties. Read more

He may be no where nearly as hot as Tania Derveaux but Sen. Byron Dorgan a Democrat from North Dakota has plans to introduce a bill to require net neutrality. This has come as a reaction to the recent situation when the Federal Communications Commission ruled against Comcast.  The new bill called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, would attempt to bar cable and other internet providers from being internet “gatekeepers”. His bill will be introduced in January to prevent the blocking and managing of internet content.
Dorgan, has introduced previous bills on net neutrality. Dorgan has been outspoken on the issue, saying ISPs such as Comcast, AT&T Relevant Products/Services and Verizon Communications are trying to block or manage what has always been a free Internet. What these giants propose to do is to make some of us second class internet citizens. A managed internet could be dangerous for free speech and would prohibit innovation. Once again allowing  giants to overpower smaller businesses.

In April after it was announced that the FCC had convicted Comcast of shenenigans Tania Derveaux made her historic offer to have sex with all virgins who support internet neutrality in their blogs.

“Net neutrality is paramount to safeguard free speech and innovation on the Internet,” Tania’s statement continues. “With only one arguably negative side-effect: an unusual amount of today’s Internet users are virgin (sic). That’s a problem I intend to solve. In history, man has always waged war for freedom. Now it’s time to obtain our freedom with love.”

Spike TV has announced the 2008 “Video Game Awards” show. The sixth annual “VGAs” will bring together stars from video games, Hollywood, music, sports and more to celebrate the outstanding achievements within the video game industry over the past year. The 2-hour show will be LIVE on Spike TV Sunday, December 14 at 9:00pm, ET/PT (tape delay west coast) from Sony Picture Studios in Culver City, CA. Read more

Finally My Japanese Coach DS is here! Since I became a Reiki Master in 1998 I also became a Japan-ophile. Or an Otaku. I am crazy for all things Japanese. I began to attempt to learn the language. It was a daunting task trying to do it all alone. I’ve tried audio language lessons on CD’s, online lessons, made my own flash cards, and I have several books that promised that I would “read Japanese in a matter of hours” yeah right. I think what was missing in all those cases was cohesion between the written and spoken language. Another problem is that when you memorize Kanji symbols, you’ll learn a meaning for the character, but then you need to know how to pronounce it and spell it out phonetically with Kana in order to really get the whole picture. Though I can kind of understand my animes without the subtitles, I often wonder if I am only remembering it from reading the manga or if I am actually absorbing it.

This wonderful learning tool on the DS My Japanese Coach, puts it all together in one neat compact place. And I’ll tell you right now Gamefly is not getting this one back from me. This is the first Japanese learning tool that has made a difference for me. With it on the DS you get that companionable feeling as if a little friend is casually teaching you the language.

It begins with a placement test  when you set up your profile and there is room for data for three people to learn on one cartridge. Or you can use it to retest yourself from time to time. I won’t lie. I scored “Baby” on my first time through. I knew almost as much as a kindergardener in Japan from my previous false starts. What is different about this from those dreaded language lessons in high school is that this seems easy. It is mixed with games and lessons which is what Nintendo does best. You are given separate lessons modes for reading speaking and writing the language as you go along. Read more