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I'm gonna go ahead and admit straight out that I have an almost unshakable dislike towards movie-licensed games. In the same way that certain people are (often unfairly) judged by the legal system as guilty until proven innocent, I look at movie-based games as bad until proven good. I don't know exactly how this notion got cemented in my brain, but there's no denying it. I've tried to trace it back to some specific experience, but I just can't come up with anything. All I know is that I have a universally negative knee jerk reaction to movie-licensed video games.

So it's been 143 days since my last blog post. Back in June I made sort of a semi-pledge to "take a little time each week to keep this blog updated." Well, that obviously didn't happen, and I'd just like to apologize to all of my regular readers (all three of you) for my lack of follow through. Not that I don't have a good excuse.

According to the Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory, the last five months have constituted a "moderate life crisis" with "50% chance of illness such as: headache, diabetes, fatigue, hypertension, chest and back pain, ulcers, infectious disease, etc." That's probably pushing it, but the point is that with graduating, moving to Seattle, starting a new job, and getting married, I had a lot on my plate.

This isn't the first time Sony tried its hand at giving PlayStation owners the ability to create content for its console—anyone remember the Yaruze? Well, unlike that obscure piece of expensive tech, LittleBigPlanet is a trojan horse—a software development toolkit in the guise of a videogame that will automatically create content that Sony can just take and resell to whomever it feels like. So far gamers are more than happy with this arrangement, but as familiarity with the software and ambition of the content creators grow, so will their desire to reap some benefits from their labor.

"...we could all be working for Sony, crafting and sharing levels that Sony owns outright. Perhaps some of those levels will end up being packaged as downloadable content, much the same way that fruit of some of LittleBigPlanet's best beta players is being packaged with the official release.

But how does the equation change as user-generated content becomes less a matter of remixing existing intellectual property by 'modding' a game and starts to look more like the creation of original work? What happens when the systems game developers build for us are less games than platforms for the creation of new games?

Scanning the local and cable news channels, I haven't seen hide nor hair of this study. You would think FOX News would give it cursory coverage given that IGN is owned by NewsCorp, but that is probably asking too much.

"The study reported that 55% of gamers polled are married, 48% have kids, and those who have started gaming in the past two years are on average 32 years old. 'Based on the research, it's obvious that the gaming market has outgrown many commonly held stereotypes about the relative homogeneity of video gamers,' said Adam Wright, Director of Research for Ipsos MediaCT. 'Today's gamers represent a wide variety of demographic groups: men and women, kids, parents and grandparents, younger and older consumers. All this underscores the fact that gaming has become a mainstream medium in this country that appeals to people from all walks of life.'"

It's hard to imagine anyone using the iconic shape of the 8-bit NES cartridge for anything other than gaming, but artist sLip over at hush monkey studio has done just that by creating artwork in the shape of cartridges. He recently gave an interview over at the-minusworld.com (currently down due to all the traffic from digg.com).

On a more personal note, any reference to River City Ransom and other Technos games, instantly brings joy to my heart.

Either he's one hell of a competitor or he's a brat who needs a timeout.

It takes national tragedies for the government of Finland to A) notice a game where you kill a bunch of kindergarten students and B) take action against it. That means that for a long while no one knew of this game or found it offensive enough to take action. I don't know what is worst.

Update: The Internet did get it right about the camera, but were a bit off about everything else. It may not all be as earthshattering as some were hoping, but according to GameDaily.com, there are some worthwhile additions.

Nintendo of Japan debuts the Nintendo DSi:

The Wii is getting some new software including a PunchOut! sequel: