BULLIES!

The new Miami vice

Overheard at the very swish, very trendy, very sceney hotel Anna and I have been staying at for the past few days.

“Have you heard about this new game? It’s like a hip sudoku.”

“No. What’s it called?”

“Bingo.”

Celebrity spot

So Will Porter and I totally saw the ladygarden of a minor US celebrity two nights ago.

What a fun job we have.

Revenge of the brick!

Mini-fig review: Lego Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy? Two sore thumbs up! (I’m playing on the PSP).

It led me to this. Win.

Wii don’t know

Last night, Nintendo held a press conference in Japan to announce pricing and launch details for their new console. This is a big deal for both gamers, and the industry. So it’s only natural that the press cover this in detail.

Bloggers, of course, fall over themselves to be the first with the announcements – you should see them at the big events: barging up to the front to take blurred digi-cam photos of the chairs speakers will be using, or hammering their keyboards so loudly you can’t actually hear what’s being said. You’ll probably get a better view if you watch one of the live teleweb-streams

Last night, however, one site, which I’m not going to name, because it’s just cruel, totally outdid themselves.

Their commentary started with the usual pre-amble. We’re here, we’re queueing, we’re so PUMPED. It’s going to be SO AWESOME. What will Iwata (Nintendo’s top Nintendog) announce? What will the launch games be? Then, lights dim, and off we go.

But something’s up. Regular Iwata fanciers, those watching the web-feed, note that he’s wearing the same suit from his last conference. And hang-on, aren’t these sales figures for the DS compared to PSP a little out of date. Hmm. Maybe it’s all okay: after all [siteinquestion] is there, and they’re reporting LIVE!

No. Actually. This is definitely last years conference. WTF?

OMGLOLROFL. [Siteinquestion] pulls their coverage, announcing that they’ve been linked to the wrong feed. No apologies, or back-tracking to announce that actually, they weren’t at the conference. Just a red-faced CTRL-C, CTRL-V monkey, and those foolish, and laughing and pointing from those insomniacs willing to stay up late.

For those who want the details, Reuters has a good precis.

Just. Stop. Talking.

To get a flavor for the problem, consider the following: Imagine a New Yorker-style cartoon. In the foreground is a glum girl in Victorian dress standing on the cheese wheel space in a life-size game of Mousetrap. The girl is imprisoned in the cage that drops down after the Rube Goldbergian contraption has been tripped. Standing outside the cage next to her is the Monopoly Man, holding a bottle of champagne and grinning. The caption reads: “It’s just a game, Alice.”

Clearly Alice would quarrel with the Monopoly Man’s sentiment. But how can the same object simultaneously be a game and not-a-game?

Someone paid him for this?