A big part of the game is “stealing” cards from friends, and so a lot of users add other users as friends so that their cards can be obtained. The application’s popularity has also led some users to create Facebook accounts for the sole purpose of playing the game.

Some of those accounts are now being disabled by Facebook, according to this discussion forum on the application site.

What’s curious is the email sent from Facebook to one deleted user, which states that Facebook isn’t a social network (it’s a “social utility”) and isn’t meant to build large groups of new friends. Instead, Facebook is meant to reinforce “pre-existing” social connections:

Please note that Facebook accounts are meant for authentic usage only. This means that we expect accounts to reflect mainly “real-world” contacts (i.e. your family, schoolmates, co-workers, etc.), rather than mainly “internet-only” contacts. As stated on our home page, Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you, not a “social networking site”. It is meant to help reinforce pre-existing social connections, not build large groups of new ones. If this is in direct contrast to what you expected as legitimate Facebook usage, I apologize for any confusion. This is simply the intention behind the site.

Accounts that are used solely for the purpose of applications are in violation of our Terms of Use. Unfortunately, I will not be able to reactivate your account. Sorry for any inconvenience, but this decision is final.

Thanks for your understanding,

Lauren
User Operations
Facebook

It’s true that Facebook has stated clearly that their intention is to be a sort of mirror to the real world social graph. But it’s unavoidably true that new friendships are made on the site, too. Even friendships forged for the sole purpose of playing a game made by a third party developer.

Even former Facebook President Sean Parker (and current stockholder) said recently at TechCrunch50 that he had far more Facebook friends than real world friends.

Facebook’s real message here may be “please don’t make fake accounts just to play this game,” but that isn’t what they’re saying. Techcrunch emailed them for clarification.

Original URL: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/15/facebook-isnt-a-social-network-and-dont-try-to-make-new-friends-there/

The virtual world would be aimed at students and would “simulate real Nasa engineering and science missions”.

The agency has published a “request for information” (RFI) from organisations interested in developing the platform.

Nasa believe the game would help find the next generation of scientists and engineers needed to fulfil its “vision for space exploration”.

“A high quality synthetic gaming environment is a vital element of Nasa’s educational cyberstructure,” the RFI reads.

“The MMO will foster career exploration opportunities in a much deeper way than reading alone would permit and at a fraction of the time and cost of an internship program.”

Space mission
Nasa already has a presence in the 3D virtual universe.

The agency owns an island in Second Life where individuals and groups with an interest in the space programme can meet, share ideas and conduct experiments.

CoLab, as it is called, is the brainchild of scientists at the Nasa Ames Research Center in San Francisco.

The agency hopes that the environment could one day be used to allow the public to take part in virtual missions.

“We at Nasa are working hard to create opportunities for what I might call participatory exploration,” the director of the project, Simon Worden, has said.

“We are looking at how this island can be a portal for all to fly along on space missions,” he told delegates at the National Space Society’s (NSS) conference last year.

“When the next people step onto the surface of the Moon in a little over a decade, your avatar could be with them,” he said.

The latest proposal was published by Nasa’s Learning Technologies Project Office which supports and develops education projects to promote science and technology.

Job seeker
The document says that games are becoming increasingly important in education and could be useful for teaching a range of skills.

“Virtual worlds with scientifically accurate simulations could permit learners to tinker with chemical reactions in living cells, practice operating and repairing expensive equipment, and experience microgravity,” it says.

The document calls for a game engine that includes “powerful physics capabilities” that can “support accurate in-game experimentation and research”.

“A Nasa-based MMO could provide opportunities for students to investigate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics career paths while participating in engaging game-play.”

Other organisations such as the US armed forces already use online gaming as a recruitment tool.

America’s Army for example introduces players to the “seven Army Core Values” and now claims to be one of “the most popular computer games in the world”.

Nasa has asked for interested organisations to respond to the request by the 15 February.

Original URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7195718.stm

The Orange Box
Valve’s The Orange Box, for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, is crammed to the gills with value. There’s so much content that I couldn’t devote more than a few hours to each of the three games in the box.

Storytelling is the strength of Half-Life 2, a critically acclaimed shooter originally released in 2004 and making its debut on Xbox and PS3 in this collection.

From the opening moments, when you step off a train into the grip of a prison city controlled by an Orwellian dictator, Half-Life 2 builds its world and characters in a realistic, subtle fashion that makes most other game narratives seem ham-fisted. It doesn’t hurt that the shooting action is also excellent, or that the package is completed with physics-based puzzles (stacking up bricks on a seesaw so the other half supports your weight, for example).

I sank even more time into Portal, a brilliant experiment in game design included in The Orange Box. In this first-person puzzle game, you get from place to place by creating portals that warp the fabric of space and time.

Retraining your brain to think outside the boundaries of physical space is a fascinating and often challenging concept, supported by a hilarious comedic story line.

If it’s multiplayer action you’re after, Team Fortress 2 is where you’ll spend the most time. Like most squad-based online games, your team has to take over the enemy’s base or capture their flag. But here, you can choose from nine totally different character types every time you respawn.

Do you want to lug around a massive gun and blow away the opposition? Fine. But you can also be a battlefield medic, healing your friends. Or (my personal favorite) become a spy, don the enemy’s colors and infiltrate their base without them even knowing.

Original URL: http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/news/2007/10/gamereviews_1012

Mr Clark, aka Apollooo, took the top medal in the Command & Conquer 3 tournament at the week-long festival of video gaming held last week in Seattle.

The gold is the first the UK has claimed in the six years that the global tournament has been staged.

Britons also took a silver and bronze in other games to put the UK in sixth place in the overall medal rankings.

Medal tally
Mr Clark struggled in the opening stages of the tournament in which he had to take on the top US and German players of the real-time strategy title C&C3: Tiberium Wars.

However, once past the German ace Mr Clark, who plays for the Team Dignitas pro-gaming team, made steady progress through the playoffs before triumphing in the final. For his work Mr Clark picked up a cheque for $12,000 (£5,877).

David Treacy, aka Zaccubus, managed to win the silver medal in the Tony Hawk Project 8 tournament and picked up $5,000. In the final he lost to American Dustin Valcalda.

British guild Infused Gaming, comprising Luke Shakespeare, Callum McManus, Jaden Dennis and Joshua Nino De Guzman, took the bronze in the Gears of War tournament. They share an $8,000 prize pot.

The USA came top of the medal table and scored three gold medals.

In total the tournament handed out cash prizes worth a total of $448,000 over the three days of the gaming festival to gamers. More than 700 players from 70 nations attended the grand final event in Seattle.

Those taking part in Seattle qualified via regional competitions held around the world in the months leading up to the final.

In 2008 the final will be held in Cologne, Germany.

Original URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7033493.stm

Add to those good looks the action, explosions and fast-paced action in the most popular game titles and you might be forgiven for thinking that they would be a natural fit for TV.

However, the history of competitive computer games is littered with attempts that have tried, and largely failed, to put games and gamers on the goggle box.

The latest attempt came to the UK in September in the form of the Championship Gaming Series (CGS). This aims to put pro-gaming on prime time TV on channels run by its main sponsors Sky and Direct TV.

Live matches and footage of CGS tournaments will be shown on Sky One. The CGS is not the only league to be shown on TV. Xleague.TV shows regular tournaments on cable and satellite channels and run its own, smaller scale, league.

The CGS models itself on US pro-sports and it owns the leagues and teams playing under its banner.

The CGS has created teams on five continents and runs its own leagues in which the teams will compete for a substantial prize pot.

All the members of the CGS teams get paid a monthly wage and each team of ten has players who excel at one of the four competition games: Counterstrike Source, Project Gotham Racing 3, Dead Or Alive 4 and Fifa Soccer 07.

Serious play
Andy Reif, commissioner of the CGS, believes that this time around video games have the best chance of making it as a pro-sport that can attract big audiences.

Prior to taking on the job of CGS boss, Mr Reif was part of the team that owned the rights to beach volleyball.

“When we took that over it was kind of damaged goods,” said Mr Reif. “It did not have many fans, sponsors or media platforms.”

By the time Mr Reif left to take on the CGS beach volleyball had become hugely popular, had major sponsors and plenty of TV coverage.

“I moved to the CGS because I thought video games were a bigger opportunity and its already global,” he said.

The important change that the CGS has made is to create its own teams, said Mr Reif. Before now the world of pro-gaming has been fractured – divided by the games people play and the tournaments they enter.

The field was also hard to penetrate for those not heavily involved, he said.

To get over these obstacles the CGS had changed the rules in some of the games it ha adopted, developed special software to make it easy to follow the action in fast-moving games and makes the success of a team depend on all players winning at their chosen game.

For Michael O’Dell, a former manager of UK pro-gaming group Team Dignitas and now a CGS team manager, the competition is what the gaming world has been waiting for.

“It’s taking gaming as it is now to the level of e-sports we have been trying and hoping we would achieve,” he said.

By giving players a salary the CGS has, at a stroke, boosted the numbers of people that make a modest living out of it.

Before now, said Mr O’Dell, the problem pro-players faced was the uncertainty of their winnings. Although there were plenty of tournaments that offer cash prizes there were no guarantees that pro-players would end up in the money.

But said Philip Wride, a former manager of UK pro-gamers 4Kings and now a game industry consultant, the arrival of the CGS has not been welcomed in all corners of the gaming world.

“A lot of European top teams did not bother getting involved with the CGS,” said Mr Wride.

Some did not want to lose top players to the CGS or lose the chance to take part in tournaments, such as the World Cyber Games or the E-Sports World Cup, that offer potentially larger cash prizes than are available in CGS events.

Culturally, he added, Europeans were not used to sports in which the leagues own and run teams. This too, he said, may have been a barrier to people getting involved.

For his part Mr Reif is convinced that video games are poised to become hugely popular and that the players of today will become well-known tomorrow.

“The audience will continue to grow and grow.” he said. “I’ve bet my career on it.”

Original URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7018882.stm