gaming

News Corp.-owned social-networking site MySpace.com announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with casual-game maker Oberon Games, part of Oberon Media, to create a "channel" of social games.

Slated to launch in January, MySpace Games will allow users of the service to play games against other MySpace members and embed game widgets in their profiles.

Additionally--as it seems that there just can't be a social-networking announcement without talk of the "D" word--developers will be able to submit ideas for new games, and Oberon will be providing a developer toolkit when the game site … Read more

So far, no one has won NASA's $500,000 space elevator challenge after five days of bad weather in Salt Lake City, Utah, and more than enough snafus.

As of Monday, three finalist teams--the Kansas City Space Pirates, The University of Saskatchewan (USST) and the Technology Tycons (high-school kids from California)--were scheduled to perform two tests each of their self-built robotic climbers. To win the prize money, the teams' robots must be able to hoist up a thin carbon tether 100 meters within 50 seconds, under its own power source.

The three finalists emerged from eight teams … Read more

Electronic Arts thinks the current gaming business is a quagmire of inefficiency. The solution, according to EA's head of international publishing? An open gaming platform.

...[I]ncompatible consoles made life harder for developers and consumers.

"We want an open, standard platform which is much easier than having five which are not compatible....We're platform agnostic and we definitely don't want to have one platform which is a walled garden."

Funny how different industries are increasingly coming up with the same answer to the inefficiencies that proprietary competition creates: openness. Open source. Open standards. Open competition.… Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Housework is a lot more fun with a battle axe and a couple of dwarves.

Chore Wars, a game shown off by noted game developer Jane McGonigal at the Web 2.0 Summit recently, gives users "experience" points for various household chores. Collecting those points then lets you advance your profile in the online game.

Swiffer the floor twice a week and get 20 points for charm, that sort of thing. You can also play for virtual gold doubloons. These can be exchanged for rewards, inside your own circle of friends. Earn 200 doubloons and you can … Read more

Take a look at the "D-Box GP-200" game chair posted just a few minutes ago, which looks about as aesthetically polished as its industrial name would suggest. Now imagine it morphing into a designer form worthy of the most Spartan interiors. That would be the "Battle-Rig Pro."

This German-made game station can be built with various color choices and personal specs for integration with any decor, according to Techie Diva. The apparatus includes built-in speakers and anything else that can be accommodated by its various storage compartments.

There's just one catch: Only Germany, Austria and … Read more

Not everyone has the cash to pump into a real racing car, nor the skill to execute a driving technique like a perfect drift. But if you do feel the need for speed, you can still take a seat--in the D-Box GP-200.

It's a bucket seat that's been outfitted with five speakers and three hydraulic jacks that simulates racing action onscreen. Pair it with a PC game like rFactor or Flight Simulator X and you can almost feel the wind in your hair at full throttle. For all this heart-pounding action, its $16,425 sticker price isn't … Read more

OK, folks, here's your chance to show some Playboy bunnies just how good you are at NBA '08.

Wednesday night, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Bloomingdale's locations on Beverly Boulevard and on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles and on Market Street in San Francisco, the ladies with the iconic bunny tails and ears will be on hand, ostensibly for the launch of a new Playboy line of clothes, but also to play some video game hoops with fans.

Now, you may be a wizard at using your joystick to make Shaq slamdunk over … Read more

If you're the kind of person for whom every year is centered around Burning Man, then there's a certain problem you have with the calendar: you can't go to other Labor Day weekend events.

Not that I would know anything about this, of course, because I only go to Burning Man some years, and it's only coincidence that it's happened 10 years in a row.

But anyway, I noticed today that there's going to be a great Lego fan festival in Washington, D.C., next year, called BrickFair. "Fantastic," I thought, as … Read more

To the British, at least, video games are now officially acknowledged as an art form on par with movies and TV.

Well, maybe that's a stretch. But the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced that it has added Sims creator Will Wright as a fellow, a prestigious honor that has previously gone to the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Steven Spielberg and Alfred Hitchcock, according to PC World (via Variety).

This is pretty cool. If you're not familiar with Wright, well, he's generally considered the reigning king of video games. In part that's … Read more