Thanks to Gaming Age forum regulars for pointing to a Reveries.com profile of Nintendo's chief marketing officer Reggie Fils-Aime, subject of E3 adulation for his appearance at Nintendo's press conference. The article argues enthusiastically: "Reggie's high-voltage verbs sent shockwaves of anticipation -- and adulation -- through the Nintendo community", and Fils-Aime explains his own view of why people enjoyed his appearance: "They were proud -- they were happy for someone like myself to come in and articulate a very aggressive attitude, and frankly, have the games and the innovations to back it up. That's what motivated the response that we've seen on all these websites and that part has truly been fantastic."

Radical Rad writes "Virginia Tech has a second Amorphophallus titanum, or 'corpse plant,' ready to bloom and emit its intensely powerful stench. The plant only blooms once every 4 to 20 years and lasts only 2-3 days. Its stench attracts carrion beetles and flesh flies to pollinate it. See this link for photos of the bloom." Instant road-trip excuse.

An anonymous reader writes "Looks like Atari has just announced Neverwinter Nights 2, to be developed by Obsidian Entertainment, the same ex-Black Isle folks who are making Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic 2 in conjunction with BioWare. However, it's 'scheduled for release in 2006', so we've got a while to wait." A post on the Obsidian forums has a single piece of concept art, and it's confirmed that "[Original developers] BioWare will provide tools, technology, and game assets from the original Neverwinter Nights as well as lend creative input and oversight to the development process."

Richard Finney writes "The online version of Forbes Magazine says that Bill Gates has expressed an interest in buying Nintendo from Japanese billionaire Hiroshi Yamauchi." Though this news seems to have been part of a theoretical 'what if' question, the story reports: "'If Hiroshi Yamauchi phones me up, i will pick up at once,' Gates told WirtschaftsWoche magazine on the sidelines of an analyst conference."

elegie writes "321 Studios has gone out of business. Earlier, they came under fire for producing DVD disc-copying software. Specifically, it was argued by movie studios that the DVD-X Copy software and the DVD Copy Plus software violated the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) anticircumvention rules. 321 Studios argued that copying a DVD disc for personal use counted as "fair use" in terms of copyright law. The EFF has said that the closing was not surprising because of all the legal injunctions against 321 Studios."

Thanks to GamesTM for its feature discussing the current state of the videogame trade show. Although shows such as this year's E3 were more exciting, the article argues: "The likes of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the European Computer Trade Show (ECTS) and the Tokyo Game Show have recently been accused of being dull, predictable or lacking substance. Last year, there was no ground-breaking news, no earth-shattering games (only updates of ones we already knew about), and some companies didn't even turn up." Simon Byron of Barrington Harvey makes the point: "In this media-savvy world, information is readily accessible, so of course there are fewer opportunities to be surprised - which is what I think is at the heart of most people's criticisms of trade shows." In light of our previous coverage of trade show significance, how do you see videogame trade shows evolving?

Thanks to IGN Xbox for its article documenting the history of Tecmo's Dead Or Alive fighting game franchise. The piece discusses the "series that brought [Ninja Gaiden developer] Tecmo from an underrated developer to one of the most popular companies in the industry", focusing on titles including Dead Or Alive 2 ("...introduced many concepts that have yet to be fully utilized in other fighting games") and the forthcoming Dead Or Alive Ultimate ("All the buzz is around the online play at this moment, and whether or not Team Ninja will be able to pull it off successfully.") TeamXbox also has an interview with Tecmo's delightfully deranged Tomonobu Itagaki, who declares: "To be thrown off of a cliff by an ugly opponent might make you feel bad even if the fight was fair, but to be thrown off by a beautiful woman... that should make you feel good about losing."

nerdb0t writes "Reuters is reporting that the Finnish Defense Forces have allowed some men to be excused from military service because of 'Internet Addiction.' The service period is 6 months - but that's too long away from the internet for these guys. Is this a joke? Is this a legitimate illness? Hm..where can I apply for disability..."

Thanks to Blue's News for covering the latest developments in a UK videogame violence story, in which the Rockstar North-created game Manhunt was very allegedly implicated in "a grisly murder" - it's revealed: "The game was present in the victim's home, not the killer's... This may present a problem for those looking to turn this case to their own ends." Nonetheless, previously mentioned attorney Jack Thompson is jumping straight on the case, even from an continent away, according to GameDaily, as he rages: "We are going to destroy Rockstar, you can count on that... [ESA head] Doug Lowenstein makes Saddam Hussein look like a post-reformed Pinocchio." Finally, Gamesindustry.biz injects a thoughtful note into the mayhem, arguing: "Rockstar do not emerge from this affair smelling of roses... game makers could help the case a lot by trying to push the boundaries in terms of gameplay, rather than gore."

ajs writes "As you may know, there was a contest between Dan Sugalski and Guido van Rossum over the performance of Parrot running Python byte-code, and the loser was to take a pie in the face. Well, in the end it was between Dan and time and Dan lost... he was unable to get the Python bytecode translator to work sufficiently well for the contest (it was fast, but not complete), but when Dan conceded, Guido was gracious enough to decline to throw a pie, what a sport! The Perl community, however, was not quite so gracious (they wanted to see Dan take a pie for the team), and the final event ended up being a benefit for the Perl Foundation. Meanwhile, see Dan's Blog for details on what sorts of Parrot goodness came of this."

Yeti Von Baseball writes "Now that Doom 3 has officially shipped to stores, Computer Gaming World just posted its Doom 3 review - they also posted about 100 or so new screens." Elsewhere, GameSpy has an in-progress weblog and first-look impressions on the "claustrophobic corridors" of the game, Telefragged posted one of the first reviews, praising "a grand slam of action, story, atmosphere, and pure terror", the BBC reports on how "potential sales could be hit by the extent of online piracy of the game", and Time Magazine has a feature on Doom 3 and id.

thesp writes "We're all waiting for the releases of the next great games (naming no names) which have been mentioned over and over again here on Slashdot. No doubt they will look gorgeous and even be playable on not-too-unreasonable hardware. But there are some games that have an inherent capability to expand to take advantage of higher resolutions and improved rendering as the technology progressed. Would Slashdot like to suggest other titles that, although consigned to multipacks and bargain bins, have aged well and are even more beautiful in their old age, on modern systems, than they ever could be at the time of their release?" This may be subtly different to titles with "Olympian system requirements" at time of release, a category that definitely includes Ultima IX.

An anonymous reader writes "The Army is funding development of new super suits. From the article: 'The Army's future soldier will resemble something out of a science fiction movie'. 'The new system has the ability for each soldier to be tied into tactical local and wide-area networks with an onboard computer that sits at the base of the soldier's back' and 'The helmet has sensors that register vibrations of the cranial cavity so [soldiers] don't have to have a microphone'. The article features several photos of the suits."

Thanks to Gamesindustry.biz for covering the news that Sega has announced Shenmue Online, a PC MMORPG, "being co-developed and co-published by Sega and Korean firm JC Entertainment", as part of "its new plans to enter the Chinese online gaming market." JC Entertainment are the Korean-based makers of Rush Online (formerly Priest) and the popular-in-Asia Redmoon, and the press release on Shenmue-Online.com states the game, part of the sometimes adored Dreamcast/Xbox franchise, will be a "MMO Action RPG in which tens of thousands of players will participate in the virtual world of Shenmue staged in China including Hong Kong in 1980's. Players, acting as militants, will use mysterious powers, kung-fu, Chinese weapons and Qigong in real-time fight-action."

Thanks to Oblomovka for pointing to a Habitat Chronicles post chronicling the early days of LucasArts/LucasFilm Games, including the 1984-era "pair of proposals, one for something we called Lucasnet, which would correspond to what nowadays we'd call a games portal, and one for something we called the Lucasfilm Games Alliance, which would correspond to what nowadays we'd call a MMORPG (and indeed, which looked in concept a lot like what Star Wars Galaxies turned out to be in practice, albeit 20 years later)." The eventual product, as documented by the creators, was Lucasfilm's 1986-launched Habitat, "arguably one of the first attempts to create a very large scale commercial multi-user virtual environment", but the detailed post also strays into defining the Lucasfilm ethos in the '80s, pointing out provocatively: "We were absolutely forbidden from doing any [games] that made use of the company's film properties, especially Star Wars. That was viewed as just like spending money, since these properties were, in effect, money in the bank."

StrikerObi writes "Over at Planet GameCube, we've posted an expanded list of Japanese-announced Nintendo DS titles currently in development for their new dual-screened handheld system. Highlights include a new 'Mana' game from Square-Enix and a new RPG from Game Arts, the makers of the Grandia series." GameSpot's Japanese correspondent provides the full list of games, including the games "previously announced at E3", and also comments: "Among the more interesting developments, Konami Japan will release a Boktai game, while Konami Tokyo will release a Castlevania game for the DS."

An anonymous reader writes "The No Mutants Allowed website has gotten hold of some screenshots of a post-apocalyptic RPG that was in development at Troika Games - the news story claims: 'Due to recent developments, [the prototype has] currently been put on hold.' Did the recent acquisition of the Fallout license by Bethesda kill chances of a Fallout 3 made by the game's original development team?" A recent messageboard post at the Troika-based Terra Arcanum fansite also suggests: "According to several unconfirmed rumors... Troika were also in the bidding for the license. In the end though... Troika were simply out-gunned."

Thanks to GameSpot for its article discussing G4TechTV's recently filmed 'G-Phoria' videogame awards show, due to be shown on August 6th, in which, according to the reporter, "Carmen Electra... and her rocker-husband Dave Navarro played it up as hosts of the second annual awards show, but in reality, the event was overshadowed by the first appearance of the final version of Doom 3 at the postshow party." IGN PS2 has more information on the winners, including "Ryu Hayabusa of Ninja Gaiden fame (Favorite Character), Tony Hawk's Underground (Alt Sports Award), Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Best Innovation), and Viewtiful Joe (Best New Franchise). The ultimate award, Game of the Year, went to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic." GameSpot's article also reveals that "sources [at the awards] let on that Majesco had picked up Tim Schafer's Psychonauts and will publish the game in early 2005", and elsewhere, Anna Nicole Smith's cosplay attempts (Ivy from Soul Calibur II, Farah from Prince Of Persia) were another 'highlight'.

eSims asks: "Most all SysAdmins have the pleasure of picking passwords and while we know the rules for picking good passwords we also know how to have a little fun with them as well. Password choices may be inside jokes about management, comments on the company, or just torture for the users we assign them to, but often they are funny. Without giving away the company secrets what are some of your funny stories about password selection?"

Thanks to GameGossip for its story discussing Korea-originating MMO firm NCSoft's financial results for the first half of 2004. Along with an "operating profit [of] $23 million", specific sales/subscription numbers were announced, a rarity in the MMO world, as the company "reported that Lineage II and City Of Heroes are both doing well, with sales as of the end of June at 86,000 units (Lineage II) and 190,000 units (City Of Heroes) respectively. Meanwhile, as far as active players are concerned, NCsoft reported that Lineage II and [the soon to be cape-friendly] City Of Heroes have 76,000 and 170,000 active players respectively." However, delays to NCSoft's forthcoming titles were also announced, since "Guild Wars has been pushed from Q4 2004 to the first-half of 2005. Meanwhile, [recently re-organized Richard Garriott title] Tabula Rasa has fallen back from Q4 2004 to the second-half of 2005."