An anonymous reader writes "According to Wired/AP, food stamp recipients will now receive video games instead of brochures and pamphlets, in an effort to educate them on how to get the most benefit. One wonders why someone that can't afford food would have spent money on a computer on which to play these games."

SeanTobin writes "It seems that TransGaming is implementing a new watermarking system to combat piracy. For now it seems that every tgz of Cedega 4.0.1 is individually tagged, and this has been frustrating Gentoo users who (like many others) like to be sure their archives are unmodified. Is this the future of software downloads? Is this tiny loss of personal privacy worth the increase in TransGaming's security?" Update: 08/16 17:42 GMT by S : There's an official response on the TransGaming forums indicating: "We can confirm that Cedega 4.0.1 included some basic watermarking... The objective behind the watermarking was to deal with some peer-to-peer piracy issues that we've been seeing over the past several months... We have suspended the watermarking feature for now and Gentoo users no longer need to be concerned with work-arounds."

azaris writes "The powerful computer chess engine Hydra, running on a sixteen-way Linux cluster, is taking on the many times world champion engine Shredder in a match between the two chess super computers in Abu Dhabi, according to ChessBase.com. So far, Hydra is leading by two clear victories." S!: ChessBase also points to the announcement of a "64,000 square meter International Chess City" in Dubai, planned to cost US $2.6 billion, which "will feature 32 buildings designed to mirror the image of a traditional black and white game board."

darkjohnson writes "If you're looking for an excuse to offer your manager to approve that high end graphics card so you can play Doom 3 at full tilt (on your 'breaks' ;) you might want to check out the Instant Effects' technology as it has the first product (OfficeFX) that justifies upgrading your display hardware so you can do a POWER POINT presentation of all things. Especially true if you're the one stuck with the duty of making them look good. I saw this at Siggraph and was not only impressed with the look but the number of people packed into the booth to see it demoed, competing side by side with real time 3D game renders and high-end effects software."

Thanks to BBC News for its article discussing GBA title Wario Ware's victory in the Edge Awards at this week's Edinburgh International Games Festival. The official webpage explains that the award honors "a willingness to prioritise creativity over a narrowly focused commercial appeal", and Margaret Robertson of Edge Magazine says of Wario Ware: "It's a game which hinges on the kind of video game literacy that millions of people across the world have built up without even realising it." Other nominees for the award included Katamari Damacy, In Memoriam, and Viewtiful Joe.

Thanks to MMORPGDot for its editorial discussing some of the most interesting franchises which are yet to be turned into MMO games. The author mentions: "Personally, I think a franchise game can be just as good as a game with an original world, if not better. It's all a question of what you do with the IP and if you make a fundamentally fun game out of what you've been given", before suggesting MMOs based on Star Trek ("The other great science fiction franchise is easily as deserving as Star Wars of it's own graphical massive game"), James Bond ("More of a realization that I'd like to play in a spy MMOG than anything else, I think a spy MMOG branded as a Bond game would get really good traction"), and Oz ("I think Oz would be an amazing vehicle for a MMOG centered on younger gamers.") Other suggestions?

ruiner5000 writes "If you are not at lucky enough to be at this year's QuakeCon, then you might be wondering what John Carmack and crew are up to. Well, John is a father of a baby boy as of yesterday, so he was not here for his traditional talk on what id is up to. Instead, he appeared on pre-recorded video, followed by normal Q and A session with other id personnel. AMDZone has full coverage of the id keynote, including some pics for your enjoyment. If you want to know about the next engine, the Xbox, OS X, and Linux ports, id's standing on piracy, or Carmack's vision of game engines for movie rendering, then give it a read." S!: There's also continuing QuakeCon coverage over at GameSpy, including a long interview with Todd Hollenshead.

Thanks to Reuters/Hollywood Reporter for its brief story mentioning the "violent 1983 gangland saga" Scarface is being turned into a videogame, courtesy Vivendi Universal. Apparently, "The third-person shooter, developed by [Simpsons Hit & Run developers] Radical Games with a storyline from David McKenna ('Get Carter [remake],' 'S.W.A.T.'), is scheduled to ship in fall 2005." In addition, 1UP/EGM has a sneak peek at screenshots, revealing a visual style not a million miles removed from a big-selling franchise already significantly inspired by Scarface.

SonicHero writes "Part of its Essential 50 series, 1UP has posted a very interesting look back at Sonic the Hedgehog. It discusses how the character came about, how Sega marketed him, and how Sonic ultimately changed the course of the 16-bit platform wars."

Thanks to IGN Pocket for its article revealing more details on Rare's Game Boy Advance puzzle title It's Mr. Pants, a THQ-published game from the now Microsoft-owned UK developer which is "the revival of... a Donkey Kong-branded puzzle game titled DK Coconut Crackers." The title, "a traditional puzzle game in the Tetris sense", includes "crazy, tripped out imagery and music, complete with Mr. Pants singing between levels" - there's more information on 'The History Of Pants' over at fansite Rare-Extreme.

Thanks to Terra Nova for its post discussing "a lengthy, but intensely fascinating and well-written account of an EVE Online [PC MMO] player who brokered a large investment scam by creating a puppet corporation." Terra Nova mentions that the account's nefarious author "does an incredible job of explaining the complexity of MMORPG worlds, the emotional salience of interactions, and how play transforms into work", concluding: "It's a lot of reading, but it's well worth it."

Thanks to LucasArts for its press release indicating a significant restructuring of the company's internal development teams. It's explained that "31 people from the development studio were laid off as the company will be concentrating on fewer titles", and GameSpot has further details, noting "the publisher has farmed out development on its as-yet-untitled Episode III game to [recent Indiana Jones developers] The Collective", and "an informed industry source said the team attached to the early stages of development on Knights of the Old Republic 3 was let go in yesterday's layoff." We previously reported on earlier layoffs at LucasArts in April.

An anonymous reader writes "What's next for the maker of Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein? Chris Morris of CNN Money talks to id's CEO, who tells us the next id game won't be anything like the others. Rather than a re-hash of its sci-fi or WWII themes, CEO Todd Hollenshead says, 'I'd like to try something new.' [Hollenshead also notes that an as yet unidentified developer with 'a name that people recognize' has licensed the Doom 3 engine.]"

Thanks to GameScience for its round-up of financial results for Japanese videogame publishers for fiscal Q1 2004. The piece muses on "disappointing figures for Konami and Sega with a lack of big titles for the period, and with two cancelled titles, Namco also suffered heavy losses. Sony's game division also suffered, while Capcom and Square-Enix had a comparatively good period." The article also notes Nintendo's "large-scale gains", pointing out: "the Gameboy Advance SP continues to enjoy good sales while software such as 'Mario vs Donkey Kong', 'Kirby' and 'Famicom Mini Series 2' was a great success [both series together have sold over 2.7 million copies]", whereas "the bulk of the losses" in Sony's game division can "be attributed to lower hardware sales than usual", as the PlayStation 2 nears the end of its lifecycle.

Thanks to GameSpot for its news that Japanese arcade/pachinko giant Aruze has announced a Linux-based arcade game system for Japanese release this year. Apparently: "Aruze plans to release twenty games for the AP-3 by the end of March 2005, and aims to persuade third party publishers to develop games for the board as well", and furthermore: "The company expects the adoption of Linux to cut development costs for software developers... Aruze also cited the system's high versatility and consistent updates as other factors in its decision." It's also pointed out: "Taito announced in June a similar PC-based arcade board named Type-X. In contrast to Aruze's AP-3, however, Taito's board uses a special edition of Microsoft Windows XP."

An anonymous reader alerted us that "Starglade has an editorial about character development systems, where the author discusses the two most common types of character improvement (classes & levelling, and skill based improvement), and makes some suggestions for future systems in MMORPGs."

Thanks to HomeLAN Fed for details from today's Doom 3 modding seminar held at QuakeCon, with "id Software programmers Robert Duffy and Jim Dose, animator Fred Nilsson and intern Robert Harris in attendance." On the question of the Doom 3 SDK release date, "Duffy said they were aiming for sometime next week but added, 'Don't quote me on that'." Other interesting tidbits include vehicle modding ("Even though the gameplay doesn't lend itself to vehicles, Doom 3 does support vehicles and when the SDK is released a sample map will be included that will have a six wheeled buggy in it"), as well as level-of-detail issues for modders ("Most of the artwork in the game started as a 3D model and things like character models had over 1 million polygons before they reduced them down to be used in the game. id plans to release exporters for programs like Maya and some sample character models for the game in order to help mod artists with their work.")

NeoCode writes "Gamespot is reporting that Warner Bros has bought the developer Monolith Productions. Monolith, in the past, has produced games like Tron 2.0, No One Lives Forever 1 and 2, Aliens vs. Predator 2 and Blood 1 and 2. Currently, Monolith is working on The Matrix Online (aka MxO), the WB-produced, Sega-published MMORPG which is undergoing Beta testing right now." We've previously reported on current WB game boss Jason Hall, who was formerly the CEO and co-founder of Monolith.

Klytus writes "GamingReport.com has posted news that Microsoft plans a preview for all Gen Con attendees of their new online, web-based version of the popular board game "Settlers of Catan". Originally announced back in February, this will be the first look at Microsoft's version of Catan, which will 'debut this winter exclusively at MSN Games', and will offer attendees playable demos and unveiling of the CatanOnline website."

Thanks to GameSpot for its interview with Obsidian Entertainment's Feargus Urquhart, as the ex-Black Isle founder talks about the formation of the Star Wars: KOTOR II developers ("I must have been at least an OK boss, or it was just Interplay almost going out of business, but of the 36 people working here at Obsidian, 18 of them are from Black Isle"), regarding updates to BioWare's engine for the 2006-due Neverwinter Nights 2 ("We are going over almost every inch of the engine to add new features and refine things that are going to stay the same. From a graphics standpoint, we are updating most of the graphics engine to support new graphical features like normal mapping"), and discusses the fate of the Fallout 3 license ("I think the team at Bethesda has their work cut out for them. This is mostly because there is almost nothing that they can do that will make the Fallout fans happy.")