Gaming news in review

Despite the Chicken Little-like cries from the stuffy suits claiming Internet pirating is killing their industry, the game biz is booming. With interest increasing in the gaming world, more tales come of the weird, the legal and the controversial.

And no, this isn’t just referring to the “World of Warcraft’s” deal with Mountain Dew to sell “Gamer Fuel” with theoretically attractive “night elf” women on the can.

Video games encompass a lot more than the Nintendo (what grandparents call every video game console) and “World of Warcraft.” All those facebook widgets and whatsits like myFarm, Friends for Sale and Chain Rxn are drastically increasing the number of “gamers” out there (though they’re called “casual gamers” by the Funyun-eating, Final Fantasy-loving lot).

Among these games, “Mafia Wars” recently made obscure headlines for hitting four million daily users, a feat accomplished by aggressive inbox spam. Game studio Zynga, who holds six slots in the Top 25 Facebook “games of the month” chart, revealed that “Mafia Wars” makes up approximately one-third of their traffic.

 When talking about the success of the game in a GameSutra interview, Zynga’s executive producer Bill Mooney said, “‘Mafia Wars’ is on its way to becoming a cult classic.” Interesting, a “cult classic” with four million daily users.

It is rare when these social games cross over into the real world, but in China social gaming recently sent the government into frenzy. Controversy spread quickly over a virtual currency called QQ coins, made by company Tencent Holdings, and used for their virtual universe of social, casual and non-casual games.

QQ coins were originally intended for purchasing ringtones, fancy armor and weapons for games and virtual gifts for instant messaging. The coins are bought using real money, however; a variety of other outlets began accepting them in place of money.

Many fear QQ coins may topple the Yuan, their other, less interesting currency. Even women, colloquially known as “QQ girls,”were offering “intimate” chats in exchange for the coins. Things got even more complicated when people started dodging anti-gambling laws by gambling using the fake money, then converting it into real cash.

 So what is a heavily-regulated, strictly-enforced communist country to do in such a crisis? Why, heavily regulate and strictly enforce those regulations, of course!

In the past few months they’ve been creating new regulations, making it more difficult to trade QQ coins. While this has raised their scarcity and sent their price up 70 percent, the virtual currency is still functioning strong.

In other gaming news, a Swedish court recently sent the creators of popular Internet torrent website, The Pirate Bay (a haven for illegal downloading) to jail for a year with fines nearing $900,000 each. Don’t fret though; the tale does not end there. In “Bay’s” darkest hour, game networking company Global Gaming Factor purchased the website for $7.8 million.

While the website won’t be used for illegal downloading anymore, the purchase will bring the creators into the green. In a press release, Global Gaming Factory stated it intends on monetizing The Pirate Bay in a way “that benefits everyone.”

According to GGF CEO Hans Pandeya, they plan on “introducing models” that will ensure “providers and copyright owners get paid for the content that is downloaded on the site.”

Pandeya also said, “… GGF will have a strategic position [in file sharing] …The Pirate Bay has a global brand and holds a key  position with over 20 million visitors and over one billion page views per month.” Right, because Napster was so popular after it was bought out.

Not everyone downloads games though. In fact, video game sales have experienced little decline. After only four days on the market, “Wii Sports Resort” has become the third-fastest selling Wii game in Japan, trailing behind obvious hits “Super Smash Bros. Brawl” and “Mario Kart.” It still has a long way to go if it’s going to overthrow international hit, “Wii Fit.”

Brian Crecente, managing editor of game blog Kotaku, wrote,”What Nintendo did is they tapped into that desire people have to be healthier … everyone wants to work out, but nobody really wants to put the effort into it.” True that.

 Speaking of the Wii, it has recently been getting buzz due to the rise in the number of its female gamers.

Console sales have risen around 5 percent, and many are attributing it to the console’s attractive, non-intimidating design. Seems fairly accurate, considering the PS3 looks like a small, demonic fridge unit.

  For more game news visit:

GameDaily.com

GameDev.net

N4G.net

GayGamer.net

TIGSource.com