Many gamers who've found themselves stuck at a frustrating part of a level are probably accustomed to the world of online video game walkthroughs.  Here is a parody of the form that instructs the player on how to survive the first five levels of the IKEA shopping experience.  Not only clever, but more than a little convincing about how much our supposedly seperate lifeworlds and playworlds can bleed together.

IKEA walkthrough

via The Morning News

Interesting research here published on BusinessWeek's online site.  Broken into age groups and categories of creators, critics, collectors, joiners, and spectators.  As a Generation Xer, I'm a little disappointed by our average showing.

BusinessWeek Online

I have been thinking about my memory lately; it doesn't seem up to par. Grasping for simple words has been a common occurrence. As my brain and I grasp for language we can think of a thousand images, contextual moments, ideas, readings, cultural movements that will surround the word that we are seeking: everything but that one thing I need to articulate. It happens to everyone, but I feel like it is some degenerative disease that has entered me.

But beyond this snarky title is the fact that Japanese women are officially the largest demographic of Wii and DS players.  Maybe the Wii is creating more female gamers.  Maybe its popularity is simply bringing to light something that has been there all along.  Either way, news like this is always good.

Full Story from Joystick 101

This site is about online identity and is itself an online identity for the group of rhetoricians who create, contribute to, and maintain it. In fitting with our site's mission, I will keep a running log of my work as webmistress and site contributer. For this first column entry, let's talk about some web writing and contextualize the forthcoming content:

Web writing hasn't been clearly defined and just as our understanding of texts is shifting, our understanding of web writing is malleable. Web writing is in its infancy and as we write, we define. So, what do I mean when I say "web writing"?

The act(s) of web writing as well as the texts that constitute that writing are complex and varied. So, to begin with, I'll discuss web design and creation as one type of web writing.

Hello and welcome to the first ever edition of ‘Reality’ Check. While I have joked about being the “Captain Bringdown” of StudentAvatar.com, that’s certainly not my intent. The title ‘Reality’ Check encompasses two broad themes. What I do hope to do in upcoming columns is to examine issues that instructors should consider before bringing their classes into an online environment like Second Life.

Before we get too excited about the continuing states of fan participation and the reconfiguring of their favorite texts, let’s pause and remember that we still have often ridiculous copyright laws to contend with (not to mention the lawyers and cease-and-desist kaboshes that come along with them). Case in point, the recent shutting down of the traveling Buffy the Vampire Sing Along tour. Truth be told, I was wondering when this would happen. I just lament that I never got a chance to attend and add my voice to the refrain of "going through the motions."

Full Story from Yahoo TV

“A cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction…” –Donna Haraway (1991)

I have never been very attracted to video games. The last video game that I played for any period of time was Super Mario, and as far as I can recall, I never beat the game. So I surprised myself (and many other people in my life) when I recently invested in a Nintendo Wii. I picked out games and began playing. This has had an effect that I never considered before; I began to dream in video games.

What better way to inaugurate a new column than by making a broad, subjective claim about the largest shift in popular culture over the past ten years? This shift partially involves cultural artifacts so almost completely rendered obsolete that we may soon reach a point where a new generation of boob-tubers doubt they ever existed. Like any obsolete media that barely possesses even marginal kitsch or nostalgia factor (I’m looking at you 8-tracks), we’ll soon wonder why we ever put up with them. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m speaking of the television repeat.