Yes, Chicks Dig Jerks

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/292424/yes-chicks-dig-jerks-kevin-d-williamson?pg=1

How you can use metrics to predict when players will quit

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/170546/How_you_can_use_metrics_to_predict_when_players_will_quit.php

Rant: Even If No One Listens, Let The Diablo III Review Bombs Fall

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/05/rant-even-if-no-one-listens-let-the-diablo-iii-review-bombs-fall/

I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave

http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-free-online-shipping-warehouses-labor

When Games Allow Mods, Beautiful Things Can Happen

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120516/09044318944/when-games-allow-mods-beautiful-things-can-happen.shtml

Anonymity, Darknets and Staying Out of Federal Custody, Part One: Deep Web

http://null-byte.wonderhowto.com/blog/anonymity-darknets-and-staying-out-federal-custody-part-one-deep-web-0133455/

Is YouTube Killing Music Piracy?

http://torrentfreak.com/is-youtube-killing-music-piracy-110605/

Why Patriarchal Men Are Utterly Petrified of Birth Control

http://www.alternet.org/visions/154144/why_patriarchal_men_are_utterly_petrified_of_birth_control__and_why_well_still_be_fighting_about_it_100_years_from_now

BitTorrent is the New Radio, Says Counting Crows Frontman

http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-is-the-new-radio-says-counting-crows-frontman-120514/

Japanese TRON light suit dance routine

http://www.wimp.com/suitdance/

Animal Crossing: A Touching Story

http://www.noddegamra.co.uk/animal-crossing-a-touching-story/114/comment-page-1/

If Modern Humans Are So Smart, Why Are Our Brains Shrinking?

http://discovermagazine.com/2010/sep/25-modern-humans-smart-why-brain-shrinking/article_view?b_start:int=0&-C

Gmail's Security Hole Could Lead to Mass Harvesting of Accounts

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/27863/

This 28-Year-Old's Startup Is Moving $350 Million And Wants To Completely Kill Credit Cards

http://www.businessinsider.com/this-28-year-old-is-making-sure-credit-cards-wont-exist-in-the-next-few-years-2011-11?page=1

Family Secrets: What My Son's Diagnosis Revealed About Our Past

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/victoria-costello/post-50-time-to-unload-your-family-secrets_b_1274878.html

Chomsky: “Jobs aren’t coming back”

http://www.salon.com/2012/05/08/chomsky_jobs_arent_coming_back/singleton/

Emerging Drug of Abuse: OXI

http://www.addictionts.com/2011/12/11/emerging-drug-of-abuse-oxi/

[Portal 2] Want You Gone - Fan Music Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25ClYY5mwbc

Diablo III is doing partial free play wrong.

Diablo III has a Starter Edition (currently requires guest pass) that makes it possible to play a limited amount of the game for free: http://www.geek.com/articles/games/how-to-play-diablo-iii-for-free-20120515/

"As for what the Starter Edition includes: you get to play through Act I of the game up to the Skeleton King. You can’t take a character past Level 13, there’s no access to the Real Money Auction House, and matchmaking is limited to fellow Starter Edition players. Even so, this is just a (free) taster of the gameplay by the end of which you should know for sure if you want to buy the full version."

I call this doing it wrong. That's nothing more than a demo. Doing it right, is what Hellgate: Global does. They claim to be free-to-play, but that's only for the first half of the game. Halfway through, there's a paywall. However, it's possible to buy the needed pass with in game currency from other players. This is very similar to EVE Online's PLEX system, and makes it possible for people with more time than money to get access to the game for free, while also undermining the black-market gold sellers. It also can bring in lots of money.

D3 already has a real money auction house, so it seems silly to me to not allow free players to obtain real money in the auction house by selling goods, and then use that real money to buy the game. Locking them out of the real money auction house just makes it harder for fans to buy Diablo III.

The Best Way to Ruin Your Appearance

http://en.paperblog.com/the-best-way-to-ruin-your-appearance-65283/

The Secret World's Buisness Model

Update: My links died :( Fixed! I think...
http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showthread.php?t=20339
http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=20339

"At the presentation we revealed that The Secret World will feature a traditional paid subscription model combined with micro-transactions through an in-game store."

This sounds like a really bad idea to me. Two other MMOs I'm looking forward to are Guild Wars 2, and Firefall. Guild Wars 2 is asking for initial box fee, and micro-transactions, but no subscription. Firefall is going with no box fee, no sub, only a micro-transaction store. The Secret World is competing with those two games for my attention and money, yet they are asking for box fee, subscription fee, and a micro-transaction store that is likely to have things I want (if it doesn't, then it's a crappy store). That's a lot of money to spend on one game, when there's other games I'm interested in that ask for a lot less. At that kind of price, The Secret World will have to somehow convince me that it's totally amazing, or I'm not gonna spend any money on it. It will have a hard time doing that if I never play it.

A post on the problem of mixing subscriptions and micro-transactions as well as some other random related things: http://www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showpost.php?p=532090&postcount=303 http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:3vpMzy_SDXAJ:www.darkdemonscrygaia.com/showpost.php%3Fp%3D532090%26postcount%3D303+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

P.S. I find it kinda weird how hard it was to find info on the business model they are using. Most MMO web sites have an F.A.Q. that's easy to find and answers the question of how they will be funding themselves. The Secret World didn't. I had to visit the forums to find out if they would have subs or not.

The Lengthening Arm of Uncle Sam’s ‘Pirate’ Justice

http://torrentfreak.com/the-lengthening-arm-of-uncle-sams-pirate-justice-120506/

Pathfinder Online Technology Demo

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1675907842/pathfinder-online-technology-demo

My mom often said that it takes money, to make money. This is an example. They have potential investors who need to see some work done before they are willing to invest, and potential workers who need to see some money before they are willing to work. So they need to raise money to fund the work that will help them raise money.

Teachers urged to address porn factor

http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/teachers-urged-to-address-porn-factor-20120210-1sjtl.html

Worlds Apart – Portrayal of Women in Guild Wars 2 and Tera Online

http://geek.pikimal.com/2012/05/03/worlds-apart-portrayal-of-women-in-guild-wars-2-and-tera-online/

Busted: the politics of cleavage and a glance

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/busted-the-politics-of-cleavage-and-a-glance-20120211-1sy7e.html

Google May Face $10 Million Fine Over Safari Cookie Hack

http://www.webpronews.com/google-may-face-10-million-fine-over-safari-cookie-hack-2012-05

Google is failing at their motto of don't be evil.

Why Starbucks succeeds in China and others haven't

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2012-02-12/cnbc-starbucks-secrets-of-china-success/53040820/1?csp=34money

Megaupload Trial May Never Happen, Judge Says

http://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-trial-may-never-happen-judge-says-120420/

The US is awfully fond of trying to apply its laws outside its jurisdiction.

6 Completely Legal Ways The Cops Can Screw You

http://www.cracked.com/article_18620_6-completely-legal-ways-cops-can-screw-you.html?wa_user1=5&wa_user2=Weird+World&wa_user3=article&wa_user4=recommended

Genetically modified crops' results raise concern

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/30/MN1O1O5SS0.DTL&feed=rss.pageone

Why caring for my aging father has me wishing he would die

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/daddy-issues/8890/?single_page=true

Move Over Diablo III, ArenaNet Unleashes Guild Wars 2 Beta

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/04/26/move-over-diablo-iii-arenanet-unleashes-guild-wars-2-beta/

“If you and I attack a creature, we both get loot and experience, which completely eliminates that feeling in a traditional MMO when you’re playing and someone steals your kills,” said Jeff Grubb, lore and continuity designer, Guild Wars 2. “We don’t think that’s what MMOs are about. You should be playing with other players, not alongside them. We reward players for playing together. You gain experience for resurrecting other players. We’ve seen with beta tests that players form groups where people work together and build a sense of community. We’ve seen these people who don’t know each other and might be annoyed if other players were around in other MMOs, actually like being around others and exploring this world together.”

This is what MMOs need to do more of. What makes MMOs differ from other games, is playing with other people. Devs need to do everything they can to encourage, enable, and assist teamwork and cooperation in MMOs. Otherwise, the players may as well just go play a single player game that doesn't need internet.

Another GW2 preview:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/previews/9593-Guild-Wars-2-Preview

[update: adding more links]
"Guild Wars 2's map exploration is my new addiction":
http://www.gamezone.com/products/guild-wars-2/previews/guild-wars-2-s-map-exploration-is-my-new-addiction

"Exploring the beta and beyond in Guild Wars 2"
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/05/exploring-the-beta-and-beyond-in-guild-wars-2/

As I began to go through the typical RPG character creation process in Guild Wars 2, choosing my race, class, gender, hair color, etc., I reached a set of questions asking me about my parents, whether I was raised rich or poor, how I react to certain situations, and more.

For those who have had an opportunity to take part in the game's first pre-release beta weekend, these questions may still linger in your mind.

In making these decisions, it didnt really strike me that this was anything other than a way to work my answers into a shoehorned moment later in the game, but as I explored Guild Wars 2, I realized that the person playing the game next to me during a recent ArenaNet studio tour event was in a completely different area, despite us choosing the same race and class.

"When you create a character, you fill out this biography and your answers on that determine which set of the first ten hours you get," Colin Johanson, game designer on Guild Wars 2, explained. This ten hour figure seemed pretty hefty to me, so after a few hours, I restarted and chose different answers. I didn't see any of the same areas with my new selections. "Individualization is the one thing that players want the most. Two players shouldn't have the same story, both choices and instances should change the experience," Continuity and Lore designer Jeff Grubb said. It's an interesting experiment at providing players with a different experience every time.

Woah.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2012/05/01/guild-wars-2-beta/

I’ll be honest up front: I’m not an MMO player. Yeah, I dabbled in Champions Online, and I spent more than a few sessions puzzle-solving in Uru Live (a.k.a. Myst Online). But when an MMO-obsessed friend sent me a Guild Wars 2 (GW2) beta key, I gave in to curiosity and fired up the game. The first thing that went through my mind was, “These graphics are pretty decent.” The second was, “Ah-hah, I’m playing Dragon Age: The MMO.” The third was, “I wish I had more than an afternoon to power through this.”

Sexual Isn't Sensual: The Word I Want Back

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brenna-cammeron/sexual-sensual_b_1232515.html

New service lets you post to Twitter and Facebook after you die

http://www.webpronews.com/stay-active-after-you-die-with-deadsocial-2012-04

(Skyrim) Todd Howard DICE 2012 Keynote

http://www.gamespot.com/shows/gamespot-live/?event=skyrims_todd_howard_dice_keynote20120208