It is an advertising truism that Sex Sells, but so does fear. Whether it is fear of human odours fuelling deodorant marketing or fear of Terror selling a war, manipulating our darkest fears is a surefire way to get the public to sign on the dotted line.

Full marks then for Gamestop's latest ad which is all about the terror, with just a hint of sex underneath some TV-friendly pixellation. The horror.. THE HORROR.

The take home message is that you should always tell your relatives what you want for Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa/Festivus although in this case 'new parents', 'a padlock' and 'a quantum of dignity' will doubtless edge out games consoles and gift tokens.
 

-----Originally from Kotaku

Amy Taylor and David Pollard, a British couple who, until recently, had spent three years together in marital bliss, are both avid Second Life players. So avid, in fact, that their nuptials were delivered in the game's virtual world in addition to, you know, the real one. Unfortunately, digi-Amy caught digi-David in a compromising position with a digi-prostitute shortly after the wedding, leading these two fully grown adults to file for an untimely digi-divorce. However, they remained married in real life, which likely led to a few awkward conversations over brunch.

Digi-David seemed to prove his fidelity by passing a "honeytrap" test later ordered by digi-Amy, in which a buxom digi-Private Eye attempted, and ultimately failed, to seduce his avatar. Unfortunately, digi-Amy recently walked in on digi-David and another avatar, who were conversing with "genuine affection". In response, real-life-Amy filed for real-life-divorce from real-life-David.

This report has been fairly sensationalied by the mainstream media over the past few days -- some outlets state that Taylor's divorce lawyer had already seen a Second Life-related seperation earlier that week, while so

When DH show me this video , I could not believe my eyes, the cartoon girl have all kinds of reactions when you teasing her. It seems like it got human emotional relationships with these objects. Omg, I think Japanese got amazing creativity in this aspect. 

 Wanna find out the truth? see the following video, you'll know how they made it.

-----Originally from 17173(cn)

Four of the most creative minds in the gaming industry share their thoughts on the four things that sell: sex, violence, ratings, and gaming design. David Jaffe (Twister Metal, God of War), Peter Molyneux (Populous, Fable 2), Greg Zeschuk (Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect), and Cliff Beszinski (Gears of War) comment separately on consumer perception and what would make a good game.

Looking at the polls conducted by What They Play, parents would like to see less sexual content on games than violence. Here's what they said:

Bleszinski: Based on the current state of popular thinking, I wouldn't touch sexual themes with a 10 foot pole.

Jaffe: Sexuality in games is really hard to express right now.

As far as violence is concerned, here's their take:

Jaffe: Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about it. There are days where I love it, and am grateful for it, and days where I think the level of violence in our culture is spiritually bankrupting us.

Bleszinski: I'll gladly put a chainsaw in your face, because I think of the violence in Gears of War are slapstick.

Talking about sex and violence, Jaffe says that the ESRB lacks consistency with other media when it comes to giving ratings. &q