Gamertell

A formal Copyright Alliance has been formed to promote the value of copyright in encouraging creativity in artists and athletes, creating jobs for more people and fostering the growth of key industries. Composed of twenty nine member organizations from the arts, technology, entertainment and sports, the Copyright Alliance represents more than ten million Americans engaged in industries that are affected by copyright issues. Serving as executive director is former journalist Patrick Ross, who has more than ten years of expertise writing about and advocating the cause of intellectual property rights.

Included in the Alliance are:

• artists’ unions and guilds
• amateur and professional sports guilds
• publishing companies
• graphic artists
• software designers
• photographers
• radio and television entertainers and employees
• video game developers

The group is also governed by a set of policy principles which will guide them in their educational outreach efforts. These include cultural enrichment, as the group aims to distribute new and creative work to U.S. citizens, increasing progress of science and creativity by upholding copyright laws, advancing educational programs that instruct students on the value of strong copyright and how it can benefit society in general, enforcing copyright laws, balancing the rights of creators with the public good,  global development and fostering and encouraging free expression.

Read  [CopyrightAlliance] via [Kotaku.Com]

• Bye bye Blockbuster?  Hollywood hearts YouTube?  Um, no.
• Pirates (and non-pirates) beware! The gaming cops are out to get ya.
• Global Garde attempts to kill piracy dead

Star Wars Galaxies subscribers can now enjoy a new chapter in their gaming lives. Chapter 6: Masters of the Wild is the latest installment in the Galaxies group, and, with a Beast Master Expertise System, the Azure Cabal Quest Series, and even the new Storyteller Event System, which can allow players to organize and hold their own in-game events. LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment launched the new Chapter recently, and provide the new chapter to regular subscribers for free. Chapter 6: Masters of the Wild is one among several regular, scheduled update that Star Wars Galaxies players will receive throughout 2007.

In the Beast Master Expertise System, players can raise their own Beasts from the egg. In particular, they can create, collect, train, and use pets from the game’s collection of customized animals. Players can harvest DNA from the wild, create and develop eggs, sell and trade eggs, and hatch Beasts, specifically to train them for combat and defense. Over a hundred and fifty kinds of Beasts will be made available to players. In a technique hearkening back to the popular Tamagotchi, players have to keep their Beasts happy, well-fed, and disciplined, or they risk losing their trusty pets. Players have a host of amusements to keep their Beasts loyal. These include different foods to feed the Beasts, tricks to teach them, and travels to planets, all of which can contribute to Beasts with more combat and defense abilities, and which can increase Beast loyalty.

Read [StarWarsGalaxies] via [MMORPGforums]

• Nielsen 2008 console rankings are in, PlayStation 2 is number one
• Rumor: Playstation 3 possibly inching closer toward an early “Game Over”
• Wall Street Journal foresees problems for Playstation 3

Jeff Anderson, CEO of gaming company Turbine, will take questions from SlashDot members next week in a phone interview celebrating the latest game from his design group, Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. When the Massively Multiplayer LOTR game was launched a few weeks ago, gamers and enthusiasts trooped to it and gave it a warm welcome equaled only by that received a few years back by World of Warcraft. The LOTR game is now enjoying a good deal of popularity, and is the subject of many forums and online groups.

SlashDot now invites gamers to ask Anderson questions on Tolkien’s world, what’s new in Middle Earth, how Shadows of Angmar was created, and what we can expect from the universe of elves, humans, hobbits, and orcs in the next few months. The best questions will be answered by Anderson in a phone interview later in the week. SlashDot will also post his responses as soon as they are received, so you can log on to the official Slashdot site to post your inquiries.  So far, questions have dealt with the challenge of setting up a virtual economy for the online game, plans for handling game expansion and increasing popularity, and the gaming company’s opinion on the responsibility of RPG creators with regard to gaming addictions.

Read [SlashDot]

• The Lord of the Rings Online expands into Mines of Moria
• Lord of the Rings: Conquest coming Fall 2008

Game publisher Game Factory announced a monster drawing contest for its Code Lyoko Wii Quest for Infinity game which is slated for release in October 2007.

The artist with the best monster will take home a Wii console and a Code Lyoko Wii Quest for Infinity game. On top of that, both the artist and his creation will be integrated into the game. So if you won the contest, you will see your 2D rendered self in the world of Lyoko as a character, but what role you will play hasn’t been disclosed yet by contest organizers.

Those who didn’t bag the grand prize will still have a chance to see their drawings come to animation via a secret room within the game where monsters created by 2nd through 20th prize winners will make their scary debut appearance. Runners up winners will also receive a Quest for Infinity game.

Artists are asked to submit three drawings of an original monster from May 24 to June 13, 2007.  Selection of winners will be done by a jury comprised of key persons from Game Factory, Neko Entertainment and Moonscoop Productions (Taffy Entertainment).

Quest for Infinity is Game Factory’s second published title for the Wii console and is based on the fourth season of Cartoon Network’s hit animation series with the same title. Code Lyoko is an exciting adventure story of four ordinary teenage students, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd and Jeremy, whose lives become extraordinary on the moment they set foot on a parallel universe, a digital world called Lyoko, where they have learned to use their special powers to protect the Earth and Lyoko from destruction against the evil virus called X.A.N.A.

What are you waiting for? Grab that sketch pad, pen-and-ink your monster, and spook away the people from Game Factory.

Read [PressRelease]  via [GamerShell] Site [GameFactory]

• Playstation 3 plans to expand to the third dimension in 2009
• An open letter to Nintendo:  Time to fix Animal Crossing: City Folk
• AP’s lists of biggest video game disappointments in 2008

You’ll get unlimited health, costumes plusa few other fun extras when you download the Pirates of the Caribbean: A World’s End extra content free at ‘X-marks-the-spot’ wireless hotspots at Walt Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, and Walt DisneyWorld in Florida.

Guests of the Disney theme parks can download the extra contents for free only when they have the game installed in their Nintendo DS from Tuesday May 22, 2007, until Labor Day (September 3, 2007). Some of the bonus content includes unlimited health for Will Turner and Captain Jack and an extra dress for Elizabeth Swann.

The free downloads were begun earlier this week to help promote the release of the movie’s video game version two days before the Pirates 3 movie sailed in theaters. This promotion was also an opportunity for Disney to test and enhance the wireless technology installed in parks early last year.

The Pirates 3 video game has received negative reviews from critics, while users have described the game as “dull.“ For those who love Cap’tn Jack Sparrow, however, they will buy the Pirates 3 video game just for the sake of having it.

Read [BizJournal]

• An open letter to Nintendo:  Time to fix Animal Crossing: City Folk
• Important Importables Mini: Idea Factory to port old favorites to the PSP and DS in 2009
• AP’s lists of biggest video game disappointments in 2008

NASA is currently looking for kids age 13-18 who can spend at least an hour of their time to play Selene, a game that will help teach children about the moon.

Mind you, this is not the typical, boring educational games that teaches children the ABC’s or other school subjects through a purple clad mascot. Selene, named after the lunar Greek goddess, involves a quest, just like most other role-playing games though players won’t be able to finish if they don’t know facts about the moon. It helps to teach children about rock formation, craters, volcanoes and gases in its atmosphere. It teaches children the geography of the moon and how it came about to its current state.

Through Selene, NASA hopes to be able to better determine which type of video games will prove to be effective learning tools for children. NASA expects to have results within the year.

Selene is Windows based and requires Internet Explorer 6, Flash 8 and Java 1.4.

The study is being held at The Classroom of the Future at Wheeling Jesuit University’s Center for Educational Technologies (CET). For parents who would like their children to take part of this program, they can register their kids directly at the CET. They can also visit Selene’s website for more details. Sorry, kid, you really need your mom or dad’s consent to play the astronaut’s game. But if you are 18 already, go ahead and sign up yourself for an exciting virtual trip to the moon.

Read [SeleneVideoGame] via [WTOV9News]

• Man beats girl with game controller
• Video-game pirate fined $25,000
• Boston Anime Conference is set to impress anime lovers and gamers