Wonderland

L4D custom bead sprites

Willya look at the Francis on that.

He would hate it. I however, do not.

Battle of the Planets (band) shirt

Band shirts. The quickest way to salute your tribe... my favourites: the original 'tendos, the L4D team, and now, Battle of the Planets from our Matt, who also produced the fantastic getexcitedandmakethings tee. Dial your nerd-hipster meter to 11:

Also, way cheaper at 16 euro, whereas the L4D ones were coming in at like 30+ dollars.

Harvey Nicks' streetfighter-esque ads

Harvey Nichols, for you non-UK residents, is a very chi-chi department store selling expensive designer gear. And yet, they've turned to Street Fighter and pals for inspiration for their latest sale ads:

That's just freaky. And it kind of works.

(Thanks Lee!)

Another Perfect World

More4 (Channel 4's deep-thinking digital channel) did a documentary on virtual worlds, featuring no less than Raph Koster and pals.

True Stories presents: Jorien van Nes and Femke Wolting's fascinating insight into online virtual worlds. Second Life, World of Warcraft, Metaplace, U World - all virtual worlds where the user can create their own paradise, far removed from real life. People can create societies that range from the democratic to the dictatorial, have avatars that resemble their ideal and can engage in actions that their real life personality would never dream of doing, from cyber-sex to virtual crime. But who creates these worlds and are they the right people to be crafting idealised societies that pretend to address and solve the inadequacies of the real world?

You can watch it on Channel 4.com although apparently that's only to UK users? If you're not one of those, well, you don't need me to tell you how to use Pirate Google or YouTube. I welcome the day when global release rights are negotiated at the point of commission...

Cogs

I'm reviewing some indie games at the moment, and one of them is Cogs. I thought you might like to see it: it's one of those anti-dementia, hangover-fixing games, and The Escapist loves everything about it (except the price).

Seeing as I have a hangover right now (we went to see Derren Brown last night, and it was good), Cogs is very welcome.

Huge set of 56 needlepointed Space Invaders fridge magnets

Look at these beauties:

Here is a huge set of fridge magnets modeled after the popular retro video game, Space Invaders. You get 56 fridge magnets in total, including:

- 50 aliens (that you shoot at in the game)
- 1 UFO (flies across top of screen in game)
- 1 Laser Cannon (that you control in the game)
- 4 Stationary Defense Bunkers

The fridge magnets are all completely handmade in needlepoint and are fully stitched by hand. They measure approximately 1" across in length.

Now these you can buy. Assuming you get there first...! RUN!!

Video game compact mirror

Hand-made, natch. And completely unavailable to buy. Bah!

I think Matthew just sent me this link to make me jealous :-)

(Thanks Matthew!)

Why give away game currency at all?

Dungeons & Dragons Online reckon you can just buy your in-game stuff with real money from the off. How is this different from other games with microtransactions? Not so much - you can just buy more infrastructural things here, including player classes, and even quests - but it feels really different to me. Can't put my finger on it.

Feels.. more like real life, somehow: expensive!

Sociable television (as it should be)

I find television really boring if I'm on my own watching it. With pals it's good; as background fodder to other things (like WoW) it's good. On its own, no good.

So this fixes things somewhat:

Is this an exclusive thing to Sky Sports? Because stick an HBO drama in there (mmm True Blood) and I'm in. That would get me "watching TV" again.

Kev and Alice, the homeless Sims

Kev and Alice are two Sims - father and daughter - created by Robin, a UK-based games design student.

Kev and Alice are homeless.

Welcome to the tale of Alice and Kev.

This is an experiment in playing a homeless family in The Sims 3. I created two Sims, moved them in to a place made to look like an abandoned park, removed all of their remaining money, and then attempted to help them survive without taking any job promotions or easy cash routes. [...]

I have attempted to tell my experiences with the minimum of embellishment. Everything I describe in here is something that happened in the game. What’s more, a surprising amount of the interesting things in this story were generated by just letting go and watching the Sims’ free will and personality traits take over.

Start the story here... it's really sad. And completely compelling.

(thanks Harry!)