Gaming and Culture

In the public preview of the upcoming Xbox Live update that features access to Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm, users under the age of 18 aren't allowed to access the aforementioned social networks. Unfortunately for those users, that will still be the case when the software launches on all Xbox 360s later this year.

According to Microsoft spokesperson Major Nelson in a blog post, Microsoft made the decision to limit access to Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm to those 18 and older because parents won't have the ability "to use Family Settings to customize which of these applications their children can access." Microsoft is also concerned with keeping the Xbox Live environment "age-appropriate."

Realizing it will be a hot-button issue for many Xbox Live users, Major Nelson was quick to point out that it wouldn't be a lasting solution. Microsoft, he said, is working on "an update that gives parents the choice of which social applications their children can access." According to Nelson, after the update is released, children between the ages of 13 and 17 will be able to access the social networks after obtaining parental approval.

So far, Microsoft has not said when the Xbox Live update will finally launch (Nelson said "soon"). The update that gives parents control over access to those social networks will be released "several weeks" after the launch of the Xbox Live update.

Let's hear from you. Do you think Microsoft should limit child access to social networks? Let us know in the comments below.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 has some inspiration from Twitter.

(Credit: infinity Ward)

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 might have been designed by a capable team of Infinity Ward developers, but the company had some help: Twitter followers.

Infinity Ward Community Manager Robert Bowling told Develop Online in a recent interview that during the development of the highly-anticipated release, the developer called on Twitter users for help.

"During development, if we are sitting in a design meeting and we are arguing about something, no matter what it is, I can just turn to what is now 60,000 people and post the same question," Bowling told game developer news site Develop Online. "'Do we think players will like this?' well why don't we ask 60,000 of them and get a good representation of what we think they may like?"

But it was the next statement that might cause gamers participating in social networking to rejoice. Bowling told site that Twitter was "fantastic throughout development" and he "would recommend many, many more people adapted that into their design schedule."

Bowling also said that Infinity Ward didn't ignore any responses to its design questions. He said that developers "listened to all" of the suggestions, but filtered out those that didn't match the company's "design philosophy." Suggestions that asked for more gore, for example, ran against the company's design philosophy, Bowling said.

Regardless of whether or not Infinity Ward incorporated every idea into Modern Warfare 2, Bowling told the publication that now more than ever, gamers are getting closer to the development process.

"The average gamer is so much closer to the people who make the games than they ever were before," he told the publication. "And as a result of that they are so much more developer-aware. No longer is it an Activision game, but an Infinity Ward game, or a Treyarch game or a Bungie game. And gamers know where to go to offer their feedback."

Oh, how things have changed. When I was younger, I sent several snail-mail letters to developers asking for design tweaks in some of my favorite franchises. I never heard back. And it seemed that my plea had fallen on deaf ears.

Today, things are different. The developers of one of the most highly anticipated games to be released in 2009 were listening to gamer suggestions on a social network? Amazing. Let's hope for more of it.

Civilization Network is coming to Facebook in 2010.

(Credit: Firaxis Games)

Famed video game developer Sid Meier, best known for the Civilization franchise, announced on a Civilization Facebook page Thursday that a new title called Civilization Network is on its way to the social network.

According to Meier, he has been "looking at ways of expanding the Civilization gameplay experience to include solo, competitive, and cooperative play to take advantage of the uniqueness of social networks." Civilization Network will allow users to join with friends to "create the world's most powerful, richest, smartest, or just plain coolest civilization," Meier said.

Like so many of its predecessors, Civilization Network will welcome users into a life-like world. Players will be able to take on others in battle, share technological innovations, form a government, win elections, manage growing cities, and more. Meier also said that users can "spy on enemies and work with friends to create the great Wonders of the World." He didn't say how users will control elements of the game.

Civilization fans will be happy to know that users can play as often as they'd like in the game's "fully persistent environment" for free.

Meier wrote on the game's Facebook page that he'll be looking for beta testers, once the closed beta is ready. Civilization Network will launch in 2010 on Facebook.

If you want to stay up-to-date on Civilization Network happenings, join its Facebook fan page here.

If you have been trying to tweet Michael Jackson over the last few weeks without even a squeak of success, might I sing you a song of hope?

A remarkably forward-thinking psychic has decided to hold a seance on Twitter. A "Tweance," if you will.

According to the Sun newspaper, Jayne Wallace, who claims to have been a psychic since she was (at least) 7 years old, will be available to every member of the world's tweeting population on October 30, between 10 a.m. and noon British Miserable Autumn Time (that's 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. PT).

Your rapt attention span and your rapid powers of cogitation will have noted that the date and time enjoy a chilling proximity to Halloween, the night when many dead people may rise from the grave and dance in unison to Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

Does he love Guitar Hero 5? Ask him.

(Credit: CC J Deamer/Flickr)

You have the chance, on this suspiciously auspicious Halloween eve, of picking a deceased star and a question you would like to ask that person, then waiting for your reply from on high--or, who knows, perhaps even from the infernal below.

You will be excited to the point of cardiac incarceration to hear that the Tweance's Twitter page is already active. Be ready with a question the whole world will want answered.

Perhaps you would like to discover whether Guitar Hero 5 makes Kurt Cobain, well, turn over in his grave. Or whether Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy have philosophical disagreements.

Perhaps you might want a TwitPic submission of a smiling James Dean or a confirmation of your suspicion that Che Guevara is hanging with a rather conservative crowd these days.

Or you could be one of those strange people who wonders whether John Lennon and Florence Nightingale might occasionally make out when the afterlife authorities aren't looking.

Whatever your feelings about those who have famously left us, the Tweance is unquestionably your chance to confront your deepest curiosities.

Now that Halloween is reaching its socially networked nirvana, history may now enjoy a radical revision.

Social networking is on the rise, both on and off the job, leaving companies uncertain how to monitor their use by employees, reports new survey.

More than 50 percent of companies questioned said they have no policy to address the use of social networking by employees outside the workplace, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics and the Health Care Compliance Association.

Typically, companies shy away from restricting an employee's actions off the job. But businesses are concerned about employees who use social networking and reveal private details or post inappropriate pictures that could embarrass the company.

Some organizations, such as the U.S. Marines, have already banned their recruits from using Facebook and Twitter. But the survey found that many businesses aren't sure what to do to restrict or monitor such usage.

Of the companies questioned in the survey, 34 percent said they have a general employee policy that addresses all online activity, including the use of social networking, both on and off the job. Only 10 percent said they have a policy specifically geared toward social networks.

(Credit: Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics)

More than half of the individuals said their company has no active system to monitor employees using social-networking sites. Around 32 percent said their company acts only when an issue is discovered.

(Credit: Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics)

Of all those surveyed, 24 percent said an employee in their company had been disciplined for inappropriate behavior on a social network, while 37 percent did not know. The percentage was higher in the nonprofit sector, noted the survey, with 33 percent reporting an employee incident versus only 13 percent in the for-profit sector.

"Business clearly hasn't caught up with what its employees are doing online," said Roy Snell, CEO of the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics. "The risks are twofold. First there remains the business risk of employees doing things online that may reflect badly on the company. The second is that, as business develops policies and procedures in this area, there are going to be a lot of people finding that what they have long done is no longer acceptable at work. During the adjustment period there is likely to be a great deal of friction created."

To conduct the survey in late August, the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics and the Health Care Compliance compiled responses from 798 people in both profit and nonprofit organizations, as well as government agencies.

Roundhouse Interactive and Frima Studio are partnering to create what might be the first community-designed console game.

(Credit: Roundhouse Interactive)

Laughing in the face of the concepts of the "tragedy of the commons" and "don't-design-by-committee," a game publisher has decided to put nearly all of the design decisions for a forthcoming console video game in the hands of a large-scale community of users.

The publisher, Roundhouse Interactive, says it will work with programming partner Frima Studio, but will rely mainly on the whims of a potentially six-figure-large community for the major decisions in the game's creation. The game, which is currently going by the code name The Game Cartel, is expected to be a console game available in December 2010.

In the first interview Roundhouse has given on the subject, Mike Montanaro, the president of Roundhouse Interactive, talked to CNET News about the project, the challenges it faces, and why this project could change the way the games industry puts out new products.

To hear Montanaro tell it, The Game Cartel project--the community itself will be known as the Game Cartel--will allow the community to have a major say on just about every single important decision about the game. And that includes its name. The process is expected to begin sometime during the summer.

"It's going to be a democratic voting system and society," Montanaro said. "We place a bunch of ideas out to the cartel members, and they get to decide the direction it goes, everything from the name of the game straight to what platform, the genre of the game, storylines, playability (and) controls. We're going to guide the consumer through the full development of the game."

One goal of the project, he added, is that Roundhouse hopes to give the average game consumer a view inside the development process that he or she has never had before, "the behind-the-scenes of how a game is made."

The idea is that at every step of the way, cartel members will be presented with a number of options--between five and eight--that they can vote on. The decision of the majority will rule, and as the programmers, Frima will implement those choices at every milestone. "We'll take that direction to the next level, and then open up another round (of choices) and ultimately create a game that is truly decided on by the members themselves," Montanaro said. "It basically gives gamers the opportunity to participate in the creation and direction of a full-scale game."

To begin with, those interested in joining the cartel will be asked to pay a $50 upfront fee that will guarantee them a copy of the game, as well as a series of incentives to participate at every step of the process. Montanaro said the more people get involved--in voting, and in regular discussions on the cartel's forums, on Facebook and in other venues--the more they will be rewarded. They'll also get their names listed in the game credits.

Further, Roundhouse hopes that within the community of cartel members, subgroups will form around specific directions members want to see the game take. Some, for example, may feel strongly that the game should be a first-person shooter, and may be willing to fight for that. Others may see it differently and argue for a different genre. The same will be true, the publisher hopes, at each step of the process.

Montanaro said Roundhouse is hoping to attract as many as 100,000 people to the cartel, figuring that that is enough people to provide a solid brain trust, but not too many to overwhelm the process. As well, of course, at $50 a pop, 100,000 members would mean a hefty $5 million in the bank, up front, for Roundhouse. And, given that Roundhouse hopes to keep the development budget to about $3 million, that would mean a nice profit from the get-go.

Of course, one could ask whether anyone, let alone 100,000 people, will reasonably be willing to pay $50 upfront for a game that won't be published for a year-and-a-half. But Montanaro said Roundhouse has run the number up the flagpole and he insisted that for a lot of gamers, $50 is an appropriate price to pay for getting "elite status" on a project like this. "They don't want it to be something that just anybody can be a part of."

That means, he added, that if Roundhouse can indeed sign up 100,000 cartel members, the list would be officially closed, and everyone else would have to wait for the game to publish to play it or be involved in any way.

To be sure, that's a very optimistic perspective and plan, and there's no way to know yet if Roundhouse is deluding itself or others in thinking that people really will be willing to pony up half a Benjamin for the right to be involved. There seems to be no precedent for such a project, and given the state of the economy, one has to wonder whether gamers--who have, in spite of the recession, proven they've still got the scratch to pay for the games they want--have the funds to pay for a role in such a project.

If it works, however, Roundhouse will have staked out a place in the industry that could pave the way for a lot of copycats. One reason is that the development of console games can often be a $20 million prospect these days, and for a publisher to put out such a game on a $3 million or so budget--Roundhouse is betting that the cartel members would serve as enthusiastic evangelists, saving the company money on marketing, not to mention that the cartel would pay for the right to be part of the development process, normally a very costly line item--would be a very attractive model. Further, said Montanaro, the project offers game consumers and the industry itself an antidote to the problem of never-ending sequels, franchise games, and a general lack of creativity.

Too many cooks?
On the other hand, the project risks drowning in input from too many captains. It's hard to imagine how a cohesive game could come out of such a massive development-by-committee project. Particularly when there's no advance road map. But Montanaro said that is one of the appealing elements of the project, and that Roundhouse is already thinking about a second, and third, go-round.

Still, Roundhouse isn't handing the reins entirely over to the community. Rather, it is employing what it calls a "celebrity" panel of arbiter judges who will help guide the community through the decision-making processes. Plus, one would expect that Frima will apply its development expertise to sticky situations caused by the community's choices, whatever they may be.

Whatever happens, Roundhouse has guaranteed that people will be watching what happens with the project. If it succeeds, it will surely be much copied. If it fails, Roundhouse can argue that it was a (fairly) inexpensive experiment that was worth trying. Whatever happens, one imagines that the discussions over what happens at each step along the way will be highly entertaining.

On June 21, Geek Gestalt will kick off Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be looking for the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.

The Sims 3 sold more than 1.4 million copies in its first week, making it the fastest-selling PC game launch in Electronic Arts history.

(Credit: Electronic Arts)

Electronic Arts may get criticized in the press for its reliance on long-running franchises, but if the record first-week sales of The Sims 3 are any indication, gamers aren't concerned with such matters.

The game giant reported Tuesday that The Sims 3, the latest full iteration of the storied Sims franchise, sold 1.4 million copies in the first week following its June 2 release. That made it, according to EA, the best launch of a PC game in the company's history.

In the newest version, as in the previous iterations, players can create sims--lifelike simulated people with unique personalities--and control their lives while trying to keep them happy and alive. The new game also allows players to create and edit videos they make in the game.

For any new Sims title to set such records is particularly noteworthy, given that the original version of The Sims, released in 2000, quickly became the best-selling PC game of all time. Further, the games and the many expansions released over the years have sold more than 100 million copies.

In addition, the iPhone version of The Sims 3, which costs $10 on Apple's App Store, rose to the top spot among paid applications.

All of this goes to show that just when you think a franchise may have reached its limits, gamers make it clear that they have their own ideas about things. And for that, EA is smiling all the way to the bank.

'The Sims 3' launches officially on June 2.

(Credit: Electronic Arts)

LOS ANGELES--Start saving simoleans, everyone: "The Sims 3" has finally launched.

The latest full iteration of the famous "Sims" franchise--"The Sims" launched in 2000 and became the best-selling PC game of all time, and "The Sims 2" released in 2004--the new game presents a chance for its publisher, Electronic Arts, to bolster its bottom line, even while trying to push the boundaries of what game players are used to.

The original "Sims," from the hit-making game designer, Will Wright, was a game in which players could control a household of, yes, "sims," little people whose daily lives depended on players' attention. The innovations in the game, plus its non-goal-oriented nature, its unique graphics, its ahead-of-its-time game play and a number of other factors quickly made it into a success far beyond what anyone could have imagined. It also spawned a series of expansions that were also successes.

Then came "Sims 2," which improved upon the original title's graphics, incorporated more user-generated content--players could now use a movie feature that allowed players to script and make films starring their sims, while players of the original version figured out a way to do so themselves using the game's "family album" feature--and also spawned a series of hit expansions.

As a result, EA spun "The Sims" off its original studio, Maxis, and turned it into one of the company's main labels. And now, with the release of "Sims 3," EA has both a chance to prove it can continue to maintain its most popular and lucrative franchises, and to win over a new generation of players unfamiliar with the little green diamond that floats over players' characters' heads.

But EA has had a series of layoffs, its much-anticipated "Spore" franchise, which moderately successful, has not been the mega-hit the company likely hoped it would be and it is facing an environment in which the games industry, while still stronger than most, is finally starting to show some cracks.

So how important is "Sims 3" to EA? Well, it's not bet-the-house important--no game could be to such a large company--but it's certainly got to be up there.

And now, as the latest iteration incorporates even more social media, and more user-generated content--players can now not only make films starring their sims, but can also have full editing control over the footage--EA has to deliver with bottom line figures. Will it? Only time will tell. But there's certainly a lot of excitement around the game. And given the franchise's history, it would be tough to bet against them.

It might not be as hotly anticipated as the "Beatles: Rock Band" game, but Microsoft announced at its annual press briefing at the E3 Expo that Facebook and Twitter will be coming to the Xbox Live service.

The press event included short demonstrations of what are effectively Facebook and Twitter clients for the gaming console, aesthetically adapted to the Xbox Live interface.

With the Facebook app, which will be a download from Xbox Live, members will be able to engage in a limited number of features including photo browsing, status updates, and looking at friends' profile "streams."

But what's more important to game developers is the fact that the Facebook Connect standard--which was rolled out first to Web developers, and then to iPhone developers--is coming to the Xbox this fall. This means that players will be able to log in with their Facebook accounts and broadcast their gaming activities on their social-network profiles.

Xbox manufacturer Microsoft made a $240 million investment in Facebook in October 2007. The service now has well over 200 million active users around the world.

Both Facebook products are "penciled in for the fall," Facebook platform program manager Gareth Davis told CNET News. He said that while there currently aren't plans to bring Facebook's virtual currency plans to the Xbox, he implied that it's not out of the question. "We're constantly looking at ways of improving the user experience or the developer experience with Facebook credits," Davis said.

This post was updated at 2:26 p.m. PT with comment from Facebook.