Video Games

I wanted to lead off with this story from our “correlation does not equal causation” department. Prepare yourselves for a potential uptick in the online video games turn kids into anti-social monsters hysteria. Since 97% of teens ages 12-17 now report that they play some form of video games, whether computer, web, portable or console, researchers have shifted from studying the differences between kids who game and kids who don’t to studying the differences between various types of gamers. Enter the new study from the Pew Research Center. It seems that they found a correlation between playing online multi-player games (versus playing with someone in the same room) and a decrease in “civic activities” (going online to get information about politics, raising money for charity, trying to persuade others how to vote in an election, etc.). I’m just waiting for some talking head to latch on to this one as yet another example of how online games are destroying society. On the up side maybe someone will use it as a club to beat Blizzard into including LAN support for Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2. WHY WON’T BLIZ THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!1!!1!one!!

More news under the fold

Boardgames

Nominees for the 2009 International Gamers Awards have been announced

General Strategy Games, Multi-Player Category

• Automobile (designed by Martin Wallace; published by Treefrog / Mayfair Games)
• Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game (Corey Konieczka; Fantasy Flight Games)
• Diamonds Club (Rüdiger Dorn; Ravensburger)
• Dominion (Donald X. Vaccarino; Rio Grande Games)
• Le Havre (Uwe Rosenberg; Lookout Games / Ystari Games)
• Roll Through the Ages (Matt Leacock; Gryphon Games)
• Small World (Phillipe Keyaerts; Days of Wonder)
• Snow Tails (Fraser & Gordon Lamont; Asmodee Editions)
• Space Alert (Vlaada Chvatil; Czech Games Edition / Rio Grande Games)
• Steam (Martin Wallace; Mayfair Games)

General Strategy Games, Two-Player Category

• 2 de Mayo (Daniel Val; Gen X Games )
• Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! (Uwe Eickert; Phalanx Games)
• Day & Night (Valentijn Eekels; Mystics.nl)
• Die Saulon der Erde: Duell der Baumeister (Stefan Feld; Kosmos)
• Kamisado (Peter Burley; Burley Games)

Historical Simulations

• Barbarossa: Kiev to Rostov (Tony Curtis & Vance von Borries; GMT Games)
• Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! (Uwe Eikert; Academy Games / Elfinwerks / Phalanx Games)
• Devil’s Cauldron (Adam Starkweather; Multi-Man Publishing)
• Espana 1936 (Antonio Catalan; Devir)
• Fields of Fire (Ben Hull; GMT Games)
• Red Dragon Rising: The Coming War With China (Bruce Costello; Decision Games)
• Spanish Eagles (Brien J. Miller & Stephen C. Jackson; Compass Games)
• Storm Over Stalingrad (Tetsuya Nakamura; Multi-Man Publishing)
• Unhappy King Charles: The English Civil War (Charles Vasey; GMT Games)
• Warriors of God (Adam Starkweather & Makota Nakajima; Multi-Man Publishing)

MMO

New superhero MMORPG Champions Online has gone gold and is essentially ready for release. The closed beta has ended and the game is available for download now but if you don’t already have one of the 50,000 keys for the open beta that started today chances are you’re out of luck. The open beta ends August 24 and the game is scheduled to launch September 1.

In other “games that have gone gold” news, the free-to-play version of Dungeons & Dragons Online Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited won’t be delayed a second time. Massively is reporting that it has gone gold and is on schedule for its revised release date of September 9.

Movies

Variety is reporting that Bryan Singer is set to direct a Battlestar Galactica movie for Universal. Before you get excited, the project is supposedly “a complete reimagination” of the Galactica universe and will not be connected to either the 1970s original or the reboot series that ran on the Sci-Fi channel. Original series creator Glen Larson is set to help produce the new movie.

Rumors about this have been swirling around teh intarwebs, but Bloody Disgusting is reporting it as confirmed that Robert Downy jr. is looking to replace Tom Cruise as Lestat in the latest attempt to bring Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series to the big screen. You know, because its gone so well in the past…

TV

Entertainment Weekly’s Hollywood Insider is reporting that Adewale “Mr. Eko” Akinnuoye-Agbaje is looking to return to Lost in its final season.

“I’m here for them. Adewale is open for business. We have had talks about some things they might do for the final season and there are other dead folks coming back allegedly but at the moment it is still a maybe. A strong maybe but I have not shot anything yet or signed any contracts. But I’m hoping.”

Mr. Eko was always one of my favorite characters so I’d love it if he showed up again!

RPG

Wizards of the Coast has announced that the next campaign setting to be released for 4th edition is going to be Dark Sun! Dark Sun was a favorite setting for those who favored a darker and grittier feel to their campaigns in previous editions. James Wyatt of WoTC’s R&D department describes it this way on Wizard’s web site;

Dark Sun is a sort of post-apocalyptic fantasy, a world that’s been blasted and ravaged by out-of-control magic. The arcane magic of the world draws its power from the life force of things around it, and if it’s not wielded carefully, it can transform nearby plant life into ash and drain other living creatures of their vitality. That’s why the world is a desert, its civilizations concentrated in a handful of city-states ruled by evil sorcerer-kings and its wilderness haunted by marauding nomadic bands.

The gods of the setting are absent or dead, replaced by elemental spirits tied to the ancient primordials. Shamans and other primal characters draw on the forces of sun, sand, wind, and precious rain. Wizards practice their magic in secret or openly serve the sorcerer-kings. And psionic power is more common than on other worlds — which is handy, since this setting will come out a few months after Player’s Handbook 3, which introduces the psionic power source.