Update: Several commenters have pointed out that the size of the download seems to indicate that your $5 gets you new code, not just an unlock key. The original post is below.
games
By 3.26.09
../../../..//2009/03/26/if-you-use-filefront-finish/
If you use Filefront, finish up your business with them and say goodbye before March 30th, because they’re shutting down. [filefront] (Thanks to RT!)
Watch Out For These Phishing Attempts On Your Steam Account
By 3.5.09
PC World notes that phishers are now targeting Steam account holders. Games are an easy target because you can make quick money off of them and the security isn’t as high as with, say, credit cards. The site that first reported this, SpywareGuide, demonstrates two examples—steamgift.com and steamverification.com—that will attempt to trick you into giving them access to your digital library of games.
Gears Of War Shipped With DRM That Shuts The Game Down After 01/28/09
By 1.30.09
Do you play games for more than 3 years? I do! I still like Super Mario 3, and that’s no lie. Well, if you are like me, you might be concerned about the fact that the PC version of Gears of War shipped with DRM that automatically made the game unplayable after 1/28/09.
Activision Is Looking To Hire A Professional Screenshot Faker
By 1.30.09
As someone who relies on friends to recommend games after they’ve been out for awhile, I’d never heard the term “bullshot,” but now that I have, it makes perfect sense. It refers to a promotional screenshot that looks, um, a little too good… as if it had been… doctored somehow…
Walmart Sells Blank Disc Labeled "Redneck Sh*t" As Madden 09
By 1.25.09
When Michael’s son used his Christmas money to buy a copy of Madden 09 from Walmart, he thought he was buying a copy of Madden 09, not a blank disc that said “Redneck Sh*t.”
Play Anti-Phishing Phil And Learn How To Spot Phishing Attacks
By 1.2.09
Phishing attacks are pretty cleverly designed, because they skip most virus checkpoints altogether and go for the true weak spot in human-computer interaction, the human. Lorrie Faith Cranor, a computer security researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, has been studying phishing attacks to identify new ways to fight them.
The Economist's Credit Crunch Game Makes Subprime Loans Fun Again!
By 12.29.08
We think the idea of “Credit Crunch,” a print-it-yourself board game in this week’s issue of The Economist, is great. We’re not convinced it’s exactly cost-effective to print the board, cards, and money with your own equipment, though—as someone suggests in their comments section, maybe a web-savvy reader should create an online version.
Cellphone Extras Aggregator Mobile Messenger Agrees To Pay Out Triple Damages
By 10.5.08
If you or your teen racked up surprise monthly fees from Mobile Messenger after texting a random code to a strange number because the tv told you to, then you may be eligible for a refund, if not triple damages.
GameStop Takes Buying And Selling Stolen Goods Seriously
By 10.2.08
THE QUOTE: “GameStop takes this situation quite seriously,” said Rory Rhoads, GameStop’s Regional Vice President of Stores. “We are pleased to partner with the ALERT Unit and have taken very deliberate steps to improve our operations. Specifically, we have suspended our cash-for-trade transactions in Shelby County and DeSoto County, Mississippi until February 2009.”
Toy With A Budget More Depressing Than Your Own… The Federal Government's!
By 9.30.08
Think you’d do a better job at balancing the budget than Presidential Candidate X or Presidential Candidate Y? Now you can! American Public Media has put together the world’s most depressing game. You are asked to meet certain goals (you decide what they are, so you can choose to be either candidate, or a treehugger, or a socialist, or a libertarian, or a pr person for Walmart, whatever it is that you actually are) by playing different budget-affecting cards (Example: You can end “No Child Left Behind” and save $110 B.)
Circuit City Wastes Hours Of Your Time, Only To Sell You An Empty Box
By 9.17.08
Reader Chris spend hours trying to buy God of War 2 from Circuit City, only to get stuck with an empty box. Yuck!
Amazon Pulls Negative Reviews Of 'Spore,' Then Reinstates Them
By 9.12.08
Earlier today, about 2200 reviews of the game Spore disappeared from the product page on Amazon.com, almost all of them negative. Did Amazon censor the reviews because of their anti-DRM nature? Amazon says no, that it was a technical glitch, and they restored the reviews by the end of today. An Amazon spokesperson told Ars Technica, “Amazon doesn’t censor or edit customer reviews based [on their content] and we’d only remove a review if it fell outside our guidelines.” Spore’s rating is back to a single star, and it’s #5 on Amazon’s video games chart.
Want More Than One Account On Your 'Spore' Game? Buy Another Copy
By 9.11.08
EA’s DRM spyware on the long-awaited game Spore turns out to have an added side-effect: if you live in a household with multiple players, you all have to share the same account. The game’s manual says otherwise, but after repeated queries on the EA forum, a company spokesperson confirmed this. That’s right—if you’re in a household with several potential Spore players, and you want each of them to have their own account, you will have to buy multiple copies of the game.
Backlash: Anti-DRM Protesters Trash Spore's Amazon Rating
By 9.9.08
Spore, the long awaited new game from SimCity creator Will Wright, has been critically well-received, so what’s up with its Amazon.com score? As of this posting, the game, despite being #1 on Amazon, has 1,494 one star ratings from gamers who are upset about the game’s DRM. Here are some excerpts from the angry reviews:
Electronic Arts Can't Process Address Change, Cancels Your Sold-Out Pre-Ordered Collector's Edition Of Warhammer
By 8.31.08
Electronic Arts immediately forwards all pre-orders to a secretive processing facility, so if you happy to change your address after ordering a game eight months in advance, well, tough. At least that’s what Electronic Arts told Micah when he asked to update his pre-order for the now sold-out limited-run collector’s edition of Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. When Micah pointed out that it might not be the best idea to sell games eight months in advance without a way to update addresses, Electronic Arts canceled his order altogether and told him to find another copy somewhere else.
