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This is big enough to warrant an update I think. Reader Shawn B. found, in the great Xbox Live Loot Bonanza, that you can in fact get your gold plated Gears of War 2 Lancer, for free, off XBL via the web. In fact. I just did it. Here's the URL.

The Gametop Premium Gears 2 theme also is up and downloadable. Remember, the account holder needs to be 18 years old.

The rest of my original post is on the jump. More »

History is fun!

On the LOC Preserving Virtual Worlds Project

I've mentioned my love for the delightful How They Got Game, which catalogues some of the neat holdings of the Stanford Stephen M. Cabrinety Collection (among other things); now, they're getting some love from the Stanford alumni magazine, which highlights the Library of Congress 'Preserving Virtual Worlds' project (including, naturally, the Stanford initiative). Curator Henry Lowood discusses what Stanford is doing, and how, while Beth Dulabahn of the Library of Congress talks about why the LOC is behind all of this: More »

final fantasy XI

Three New FFXI Expansion Chapters Announced

At VanaFest, a Final Fantasy XI event in Japan, Square Enix announced three new expansion chapters coming to Final Fantasy XI. Furthermore, the FFXI character Shantotto was revealed to be a playable character in the forthcoming Final Fantasy Dissidia.

Reader Boko was at VanaFest and caught the announcement, pointing us to the new splash page set up for the expansion packs. The titles of the three are "A Crystalline Prophecy - Ode of Life Bestowing"; "A Moogle Kupo d'Etat - Evil in Small Doses" and "A Shantotto Ascension - The Legend Torn, Her Empire Born."

The rollout begins with Crystalline Prophecy in the Spring of 2009, followed by Moogle and then Shantotto. All three will be available for around $10 and will be purchased online.

There's more via the FFXI Creator's Voice Blog. The full announcement from that site is on the jump. More »

Game design

Disjunctive Play and Otherness: Between

Jason Rohrer (of Passage, Gravitation, and others) has put together a very different experience in his latest, Between. Hosted by Esquire as part of their 'Best and Brightest 2008' feature, it's a two-player game with a twist. In his latest Gamasutra feature, Ian Bogost takes a look at the game and the element of disjunctive play we find — a game designed to highlight just how far apart we all are, not bring us together: More »

In Brief

Editorial Calls for Aggressive, Obama-Led Regulation of Used Game Sales

On the assumption that President-elect Obama is indeed interested enough in these issues — and with Detroit and Wall Street cratering, that's a Hulk-sized leap — an editorialist at Kombo has appealed for aggressive, White House-led regulation of the games industry once the new administration takes over. More »

only in China

Giant Online Revenue Falls, Still Rockin' the Chinese Market

Despite declining stock value, Giant Interactive — the company behind the intriguing MMO Zhengtu Online, which is a mix of MMO, gambling, real money transactions, and gold farming — is still tearing up the Chinese market. Steve of PlayNoEvil has some interesting analysis up of some recent numbers, which have indicated the the average revenue per player has dropped to around $41 USD (RMB 282). Giant is moving to encourage 'steadier' playing, instead of simply buying up cash shop items like there's no tomorrow, so the drop was expected. Still, the money being made is pretty impressive for a domestic game (drop and all): More »

Better business

Sam's Club Will Swap RRoD'd 360s, Refund Difference if Necessary

Keep this in mind if you're console-shopping on Black Friday. Via Consumerist comes word that Sam's Club, dealt with courteously and calmly, replaced a red-ring-of-death Xbox 360 with a working unit, let the poor guy keep his hard drive so he didn't lose his games and gamesaves, and, since all they had were cheaper bundles, refunded him the difference in cost. And, I might add, did all this without the BS replacement plan that some other big box retailers require for just such a swap.

Of course the machine needs to be under warranty (three years for red ring defects, pretty good bet it is) and you should keep your receipts in just such an instance. But if you (or, if it's a gift, whomever gets it) lives near where it was bought, this is loads better than waiting the two weeks to a month to get your refurb unit from Microsoft's brain replacement facility.

This doesn't surprise me, actually. I recall my Dad swapping out a defective chainsaw at a Walmart once, no questions asked. He explained that it was more profitable for them to take on the hassle of a defective, warrantied unit, figuring the customer satisfaction benefit would definitely bring them back and result in word-of-mouth recommendation. Which is what's happening here. So, good on Sam's Club. Anyone know of any other retailers who'll do this for free, tell us in the comments.

Sam's Club Lets You Swap Out Red-Ringed Xbox Hassle-Free [Consumerist]

Call for papers

CFP/Scholarship Application: Foundations of Digital Games '09

I spoke to Professor Jim Whitehead of UC Santa Cruz yesterday, and at the end of our conversation he brought up the 2009 Foundations of Digital Games conference. FDG will run from 26 - 30 April, 2009, and takes place on a cruise ship. In addition to the typical call for papers (due 19 December), the organizing committee is offering between 10 and 15 scholarships for undergraduates (due 20 December), and five spots for doctoral students. The whole thing sounds like such a ridiculous combination that I can't imagine it won't be a good time, so if you're an interested party and have research that may fit the goals, check out the application. The FAQ for the undergraduate scholarship offering is below, and more information can be found at the FDG 2009 website. I don't have any appropriate research for this year's conference, but I'm certainly planning on attending. More »

Robots playing Guitar Hero are not new; one playing the game with up to 98 percent precision is, however. Wired found the Cythbot, a creation of southern California engineering firm Cyth Systems, at this week's Robo developers conference in Santa Clara. It's not actually for sale. Nor is it much more than an aluminum cage with pneumatic "fingers" to hit the frets, while a camera tells it what's coming. Cythbot can play in both solo and compete modes, getting as high as 98 percent, but usually on average around 75 to 80 percent. This is disquieting news, as Isaac Asimov and Stephen Hawking predicted that 100 percent on "Through the Fire and the Flames" is when Skynet becomes self-aware.

Cythbot "sees" the pucks coming via a camera hooked to a doohickey that measures light intensity, and once it crosses some threshold it instructs the mechanical parts to activate the strum bar, with the corresponding pneumatic finger playing its fret. This one will actually play the whammy bar notes, unlike the earlier mod by a dad who set up an optics device to play Guitar Hero and finally defeat his son.

Lots more technical discussion at the link.

Guitar Hero Robot Plays Video Game With Electronic Precision [Wired]

With everything lurching forward to Black Friday, Kotaku turned its mission of public service toward assisting you with your holiday purchases, be they for yourself or others. Gift guides for all the consoles went out, supplemented by reviews of Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, Need for Speed: Undercover, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm and, of course, Left 4 Dead. We didn't forget the news, either. The launch of the New Xbox Experience certainly provided its share. Here's our highlights.

The PlayStation 3 Gift Guide
The Wii Holiday Gift Guide
The Portable Holiday Gift Guide
The Xbox 360 Gift Guide
Holiday Game Review Madness
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Review: A Pretty Good Start
Animal Crossing: City Folk Review: Crossing Over Again
Need for Speed: Undercover Review: You're Not Good, and You're Not Bad
Left 4 Dead Review: 2 Good 2 B 4gotten
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe Review: Finish Him
Talking About Super Columbine Massacre RPG (Exclamation Point)
Vexed by Online Bigots' Language? Psychologists Say They Want You to Be
NXE Experiencing New Errors More »