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No Comment: Woman buys wooden iPad
This is a completely hypothetical situation: Someone in a McDonald's parking lot says he picked up an iPad for a cheap $300, and wonders if you'd want to buy it off of him for just $180. You decide why not (because reputable salesmen always just hang around in the parking lots of fast food places, right?), and take your new tablet home, only to find that it is in fact a wooden block, not the shiny piece of technology you'd hoped for. And what's more, it's not just a wooden block, but it's a dirty, makeshift fake iPad, complete with an Apple logo on the back, icons on the front, and some sort of weird fake Best Buy sales ticket. Sure, the thieves could have just sold you a brick in a box, but nope, they went all out on this one. Wait, this isn't a hypothetical situation? It actually happened to an, erm, unfortunate lady in South Carolina? Oh. Wait, she really did buy an iPad for $180 from a couple of guys outside McDonald's? Oh. Well then. No comment. [via TechCrunch]
Hiroshi Ishiguro's Geminoid-F humanoid mimics Earthlings, is definitely the beginning of the end (video)
Hiroshi Ishiguro (or his evil android twin, one) is back in business, and nearly four years after his Geminoid HI-1 startled youngsters everywhere, the Geminoid-F has arrived to consternate the grown-ups. Shown off this weekend in Osaka, Japan, the lifelike lady you see above (pictured left, just in case you were wondering) was designed to mimic human facial expressions that are fed in to its internal computer. The rubberized face has a rather insane amount of flexibility, enabling it to pull off subtle gestures that have thus far been impossible to replicate on a robot. Sly grins, angry glares and totally-fake smiles are all possible now, with developers hoping to have these in hospitals and the like in the not-too-distant future. Currently, copies of the humanoid are expected to sell for around ¥10,000,000 ($105,780), though it'll likely be robotics research organizations doing the majority of the buying. Hop on past the break for a video that's guaranteed to leave you stunned -- and while we're not fluent in Japanese, we're pretty sure someone asks if they "can rock that bad Larry on their dome."
Desperate for a Pre, woman uses car to create Sprint's first drive-thru store
NBC Chicago is reporting that an elderly woman who "apparently couldn't wait to get her Palm Pre" from a local Sprint store -- and yeah, we're pretty sure that's not the case -- decided to plow her car right through the entrance. Best of all, a security camera captured the whole incident. No one was hurt and the store will apparently be fixed in time for tomorrow's big day, so if that puts your mind at ease, head on over after the break to witness, and possibly enjoy, all the mayhem. [Via PalmPre.org]
GameStop training video light on training, heavy on hilarity
Oh, GameStop. We have plenty of reasons to laugh at you. You call us up during dinner to coax us into trading stuff in, and you ask us about strategy guides and pre-orders every time we try to shop in your store. Now, it would seem you also like to employ what we've dubbed the "poor man's Lara Croft," as this very real training video shows. The video is kind of like watching a clown get the crap kicked out of him. You want to intervene, but every time he gets punched in the nose and you hear that honk sound, you can't help but laugh. Watch Ima and her amazing Zack Morris impressions after the break.
Bandai's latest handheld helps women "understand" men
For the longest time now, we were under the impression that it was men looking for miraculous ways of understanding woman. Clearly, we've had the whole thing backwards. Bandai has apparently polled thousands of opinionated males in order to fill its latest handheld with data that woman aged 20 to 30 will pay ¥2,499 ($28) to know. In all seriousness, we can't imagine this thing having a very good search mechanism, so its actual usefulness is definitely questionable. One thing's for sure, though -- handing one of these to your SO / ex-lover with a smirk is guaranteed to get a rise.[Via ShinyShiny]
Guildwatch: Salute to guildleaders
Who are these poor souls who lead our guilds, who gladly (in most cases) take on what is definitely a part time job (if not full time) in order to outfit 25 people with epic gear and provide an online social outlet? Who are these folks, that they bend over backwards to make everyone they've /ginvited happy and sometimes get so stressed that they, for lack of a better term, flip out and /gdisband? We don't know where you guildleaders get your drive from, but from signing the charter to /gkicking everyone and ninja-ing the guild bank, we salute you.Time once again for Guildwatch, your weekly look at drama, downed, and recruiting news from around the realms. As always, your tips fuel this space-- send them (anonymous or otherwise) to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Click the link below to see today's GW.
Guitar Hero II ad by Gorillaz animation director
You know that badass commercial for Guitar Hero II that we first showed you that later came to Marketplace? Yeah, the one that looks strikingly similar to Gorillaz music videos' artistic style? Well, evidently that comparison is with good reason, at it turns out that the credits to the animation go to Peter Candleland, the Gorillaz animation director from Passion Pictures had a hand in the style of the 360 rock title's TV spot, so the similarities are justified. We also hunted down the animator for the piece, Robert Valley, and a lot of his other work is consistent with the feel throughout. Still, the "Woman vs. Meteor" ad is right up there with Mad World in our books, what about you?
SXSW: Getting Girls Into The Game: Designing and Marketing Games for Female Players
Boyfriends aren't the only ones facing dilemmas. Publishers and developers have been struggling to develop games that appeal to women, because they represent a huge demographic who haven't traditionally been associated with the video game market, and that translates to lost dollars. But how do you begin to approach making a game for girls, or is it even a mistake to set out to do that from the beginning, rather than just making a game that's fun?The panel first asked the question, "What constitutes a female gamer?" Jame Pinckard said, "Women aren't just this monolithic block of 'gamers', they all want different types of games. Just because a Barbie video is made for a 12 year old girl, doesn't mean a 26 year woman has to play it." Sheri Graner Ray took it a step further, adding "There is no definition of a female gamer, and trying to tack a label to them does a disservice. The female gamer is simply a female who plays games. She's just a diverse as any other market out there."
How to get your girlfriend to play video games
Speaking from years of experience, we know how hard it can be to get your girlfriend interested in playing video games. Granted, it might be impossible to drag her into play-til-dawn Halo 2 sessions online, but dropping into casual gaming with a Wario Ware: Smooth Moves round or two is entirely doable. Need some tips? Wikihow has an entry up on how to get your girlfriend to play video games, which offers up some gender stereotypes like this: "Don't get games that involve things like strippers, prostitutes, and sex. Unless she has a really good sense of humor about such things, she probably won't like it." Well, where's the fun in that? Oh, we keed, we keed. True, most of the article is common sense, and it might actually be helpful to some of you out there who have had a hard time getting your significant others interested in jumping into the game with you. However, some of it is just plain whacked, like explaining to your girlfriend how to stretch and uncramp her hands. If your girlfriend doesn't know how to do this already, then you've got more serious problems.For those of you who need a girlfriend in order to find this article useful, check out Wikihow's hilarious "How to get a girlfriend if you're a nerd" entry. We're not sure whether to laugh or cry. For all of you female gamers out there, let us know how they could improve this entry, and don't worry about being gentle ... blast away.[Thanks, WebPimp]
Female game shoppers persuaded by freebies, determines survey
Attention would-be game marketers: According to the "Customer Focus Tech Savvy" survey, Gen-Y females are suckers for the ol' special offer -- who isn't? Thirty-two percent of participating females, born between 1977 and 1994*, agreed that "special offers like free items or discounts" are the most important factor in deciding where to purchase video games. Not surprisingly, "parents" and "adults" (the other vague statistical categories polled) agreed.Retailer owners may also take solace in the discovery that almost no one surveyed thought herself attracted to helpful staff or demo kiosks. Just stick with the swag and pimply-faced dimwits.*Range used by survey; official Generation Y range varies: "there is no precise consensus as to which birth years constitute Generation Y. For instance, while the periodical American Demographics typically uses 1976 to demarcate the start of Generation Y, the demographers Howe and Strauss have consistently used 'the High School class of 2000,' or those born in 1982 as their demarcation" [Wikipedia].
Women make majority of casual gamers
eMarketer covers two recent studies, saying that casual games make up the most popular genre, and women are the majority of casual gamers. According to a May, 2006 study by AOL, 29% of respondents said that casual games were their favorite genre, with strategy games rating a distant second place at 17%. A survey just released by PopCap says that 76% of casual gamers are female, and 47% are 50-and-older.But marketers can make numbers mean anything; another way to look at the initial survey is to say that 70% of respondents had a favorite other than casual games. (1% said they weren't sure of a favorite.)However you interpret these surveys, we like the idea of games reaching a more diverse audience. Only after that happens can games be as culturally significant as books and movies.[Via: Adrants]
Ridge Racer 2 intro and gameplay video
There's something about the PSP and its great affinity towards CG women. The Ridge Racers series is famous for the CG model Reiko Nagase posing seductively on top of the cars. The upcoming Ridge Racers 2 is no different, as it continues the tradition. This video showcases some of the gameplay from the upcoming sequel and also shows you the sleek intro sequence as well. The game hasn't been announced for US release yet, but will be available in Japan in September.[Via IGN]
Women do the lion's share of mobile gaming, sez study
Cellphones seem to have a way of busting gender stereotypes. First we hear that men are more likely than women to buy a phone as a fashion accessory (Nokia probably wishes they'd caught wind of that before showing the decidedly feminine L'Amour Collection), and now we're being told that some 59% of all mobile gamers represent the fairer sex -- at least that's what research firm Parks Associates has concluded in surveying some 2,000 Internet-connected gamers. "Women are the foundation of the gaming market, and as an industry, we need to cater to their preferences," says Parks Associates' director of research John Barrett. Of course, if this means more games like Spore dropping on our phones, us boys say, "bring it on."
Text sex: the naughty MUD that wasn't
In this week's Escapist, MUD legend Richard Bartle takes a look at a project that was never released -- an erotic, text-based massively multiplayer game. According to Bartle, sex via text has the advantage of being completely freeform, allowing anything and everything, and holds a greater appeal for women.An interesting design twist means that the act of intercourse itself was implemented "using a modification of the classic MUD combat system". Instead of getting points yourself, however, you gained points based on your partner's prowess. Sadly, the game was not to be -- the company behind it ran out of money -- but comparing it to today's heavily graphically-oriented sex games, we have to wonder whether 3D is the answer to everything sex-wise.
