NCSoft has announced the North American release of game cards for City of Heroes, Exteel, and Tabula Rasa. Wondering what sort of goodies these card will entitle you to? Head over to the full article for the rest of the details!

Thinking about pre-ordering the Collector's Edition of EA Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning? Then you might want to check out the deal Best Buy is offering, as announced by the Warhammer Online official website. It's not exactly cheaper, but you'll definitely get your money's worth in terms of peace of mind. All the details in the full article.

A powerful new Trojan virus has been discovered. While it's been reported that it can steal almost any kind of information from PCs, it seems to be limiting itself to stealing MMO user account passwords for now. The virus was hidden in digital photo frames that were being sold in Best Buy, Target, Sam's Club, and other retailers. Check out the full article for details.

The residents of Second Life may see less of marketers in their second lives: real-life businesses are slowly abandoning their virtual businesses.

 

In an investigative tour of the marketing islands - private islands are purchasable in-game - in Second Life, LA Times discovered that a lot of shops, like Best Buy Co.'s Geek Squad, Sun Microsystems Inc., Dell Island and American Apparel are either abandoned or empty. Both in most cases.

It's believed that despite the efforts of real life businesses to make their presence known in the virtual world, local residents aren't all that much interested. Most of the popular activities in Second Life tend to focus on things you can't do in the real world. You can always visit a car shop in the real world, why do it when you're inside your 3D skin? It's not like you'll able to savor that new car smell.

Also, it's been pointed out in a recent article by Wagner James AU in GigaOM that while Second Life does have 7.9 million "residents," this does not reflect on the actual number of active players. In reality, the servers of Second Life only peaks at about 40,000 players. That's not a lot of people in marketing terms.

It doesn't work out in the end for marketers because they have to pay not only for their avatars' accounts, but for the islands that their shops will occupy and the design of said shops. The price they pay doesn't balance out with the actual advertising they could accomplish. On average, a real life marketing shop will only get 1,200 to 10,000 visitors in a week. On the other hand, local in-game markets aren't doing bad.

It has also been pointed out in the GigaOM article that Second Life will not be suffering should the corporations totally disappear off the face of the digital world. Corporations only account for about 6% (pointed out to be a generous estimate) of the 8,336 islands Linden Labs have sold. So even if Second Life will experience a void of real life marketing, this virtual world will still turn.

Even as the Entertainment Software Association's (ESA) E3 Media & Business Summit draws closer this week, the invite-only event may have scared off many publishers and developers, aside from consumers, due to extraneous costs and a smaller retail presence. Reports are coming in that companies have declined their invites, while others have wanted to go but never received an invite.

Tecmo (Ninja Gaiden Sigma) was one company that had turned down the invite to the E3 Media & Business Summit, following a history of impolite treatment from the organizers, lower retail presence and a pessimistic outlook on the part of Tecmo. "New show management didn't seem to know what they were doing," said John Inada, vice president.

A representative from GameStop had claimed that the company had "limited folks" who were going to attend the show, but it appeared to major publishers that no retail presence was going to show up at all. Retailers such as Best Buy have been reported to opt out entirely, prompting other publishers to high-tail it out of the event.

"Why should we bother dealing with the ESA's confusion when we can meet with our retail partners separately and then stage our own gamers' day event later on in the year where we set the rules? It just doesn't make any sense," said a source, coming from a publisher not going to E3.

In contrast, XSEED Games (Brave Story: New Traveler) didn't have a choice laid out for them. Even while the publisher decided to go to the event, they didn't receive an invite. "Assuming we had a chance to participate, the costs of securing a meeting area in one of the hotels, from what I've heard indirectly through third parties, would have been cost-prohibitive for us," added XSEED's Ken Berry, head of sales and marketing.

Money was another issue, forcing even some of the big name publishers to re-think their showcasing strategies and host their own events, rather than attend E3. GameCock Media Group (Sector 8) created their own little E3 in response to the new invite-only arrangement.

Publishers believe that E3 needs more tweaking if they're to attend the succeeding events - a possibility that's fast fading after many other companies anticipate 2007 as E3's final year. In an end-note, GameCock's co-founder Mike Wilson said:

We're going to have some fun on the beach and say good-bye to the magical beast of yore that was E3. I'd say there's a fair chance there won't be a show called E3 anything next year, which is why we're saying farewell to it on the beach. But I can't wait to see what emerges.

The Best Buy online store has an ongoing deal at their site that gamers may want to take advantage of. First is a discount on Blizzard Entertainment's highly popular World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, while the second is for GRAW on the Xbox 360.

Originally priced for US$ 39.99 when it was first launched in January, TBC is currently priced at US$ 29.99 over at the Best Buy site - guys who have not yet gotten the latest WoW expansion may want to take advantage of this offer.

Meanwhile, for the Xbox 360 owners, we have a Best Buy deal going down for Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter game. The site currently lists GRAW at US$19.99, which should be a reasonable price for the guys who have yet to try out one of the 360's memorable FPS titles.

That's it for now, and there should be more coming up, so remember to drop by once in a while in case we find more gaming deals for you guys.

God may be deaf to pleads to end wars, world hunger and mega-catastrophes but not to prayers regarding keeping violent video games out of the hands of minors. According to Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS) and Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), majority of retailers have adopted policies that regulate the sales of unsuitable video games to minors.

Last year, ICCR came out with an outline of a retail guideline for the sale of violent video games. This year the coalition noted all retailers they surveyed stated that they:

• Have video game policies to restrict access by young teens to M-rated games
• Display signage about the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rating system
• Conduct employee training programs and ongoing education on the video game rating system for employees
  
• Have established a system to identify the age of the purchaser at the register

In addition, selected big retailers have enforced measures that's minor-friendly. Target does not advertise Mature-rated games in teen publications and puts a prominent “M” on games advertised in store. Meanwhile, Best Buy does not advertise M television. GameStop includes store managers’ compliance with video game sales policies in its manager evaluation process.

The coalition vows to continue to strengthen their efforts to prevent the sale and marketing of violent video games to children. Amen.

A couple of days ago, we announced that the pre-orders for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes are already out. As much as the news brought joy and excitement among fans, certain matters needed some clarifications. Fortunately, online site Ten Ton Hammer was able to catch up with Sigil Games Community Manager Nick "Glip the Gnome" Parkinson for a short chit-chat.

Those who pre-ordered online aren't assured of the same benefits those who placed their pre-orders in person would be getting. In short, pre-order boxes get goodies, the online ones don't. The freebies include beta access and head start play. Glip the Gnome explained though, that retailers are looking for a work-around:
 

Gamestop has said they're trying to get keys from SOE. I'm not aware of that happening, but I am trying to find out from someone over there what the deal is. But for now, yeah, people need to physically get the pre-order box.

Also, Glip mentioned the need to specify what beta access fans would be getting. It seemed that fans thought they would immediately jumped into beta once they get their pre-orders. Sorry to disappoint but these are only for the open beta. Glip expressed some disappointments:

The instructions in the pre-order box (which is on an index-sized card) say open beta no less than 5 times--twice in giant bold letters--and clearly says it in every way we could possibly think of. I really dont know how much more clear we could have been.

Lastly, the three month access does not refer to gameplay. Instead, it means that the collector's edition pre-order box comes with three months of access to Vanguard Station Players, a website with character stats and guild management tools. Other participating retail stores include Best Buy, Fry's and a few others.

Well folks, GameStop is also doing its best to be one of the Power Rangers of gaming safety and responsibility. They've recently come out with their own campaign to educate parents about the Entertainment Software Ratings Board and their ratings for games.

Their campaign, known as "Respect the Ratings", is comprised of in-store and online information dispersal. GameStop and its companion company EB Games are putting up ESRB ratings info in their stores for parents to take a look at when they're shopping for the holidays. In the online sector, they've created respectthreratings.com, which also tries to explain the ratings system and responsible gaming in layman's terms by breaking down each category and explaining it, as well as offering additional resources for concerned parents.

Best of all, because of their Power Rangers team-up and some good press, the ESRB has also made public service announcements for TV viewers to see, which even has GameStop and Best Buy presidents Steve Morgan and Brian Dunn in them. With a polite request from GamePolitics, the ESRB has hosted the ads on YouTube for everyone to watch at their leisure. Enjoy the vids!

One more ad after the jump!

It is human nature to find strength in numbers. When faced with great adversity, people stand side by side to meet the common enemy head on. With that said, it seems that various segments of the society have been viewing the gaming industry as the common foe. And not only that, it looks like they are so keen on trampling these "evil weed."

Accordingly, a new alliance has been formed to combat ill effects of videogames to kids, beginning with educating parents about game ratings. The alliance, if we might add, is looking formidable indeed. It is composed of Senators Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman and ESRB President Patricia Vance. Surprisingly enough, Best Buy President Brian Dunn and GameStop President Steve Morgan complete the "Power Rangers."

Senator Clinton maintained that the renewed movement is in light of the coming Holiday season. It is needless to say that sales for gaming software and hardware will skyrocket during this time of the year. Clinton explained:

We all share in the responsibility of making sure our children play age-appropriate video games, and I'm pleased that the ESRB and retailers are working together to educate parents about the video game ratings and make sure they are enforced.

The group's first action included sending public service announcements to 800 TV stations nationwide, as well as radio and print ads. The PSAs are intended for parents, instructing them to regulate the games their children play. Senator Lieberman seconded:

I have long said that the ESRB ratings are the most comprehensive in the media industry. There are many age-appropriate games that are clever and entertaining. Parents should understand and use the ratings to help them decide which video games to buy for their families.

Over the past few weeks, ESRB was able to come up with various announcements regarding their plans to intensify enforcement of ratings for videogames. In the meanwhile, a big contrast is happening overseas, with some countries considering self regulation for the industry.