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"Recently, the guild All Good Things on Kargath lost one of their longtime players. Feelan, one of their guild's holy priests, passed away from cancer in early December -- shortly after he was finally able to meet his online friends. Now the guildmates are wondering what they can do to remember their friend in-game. Kesryth suggests that Blizzard add Feelan's character to one of the floating islands in Nagrand, where he can stand and watch the sunset in his favorite zone."

A conversation with Cory Doctorow plunges into the matter at hand so quickly that it's almost impossible not to imagine yourself falling through an internet-era rabbit hole of pop culture and technology. Doctorow is all about synthesizing ideas and spitting them out in as accessible a fashion as possible, and the ground he manages to cover in a single stride can be mind-boggling; he's a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger, father, gamer ... A former WoW player and husband of gaming standout Alice Taylor (also previously profiled here in 15 Minutes of Fame), he's widely known as the co-editor of Boing Boing and author of the bestselling young adult novel Little Brother.

"In this data set, we'll fill in that framework with some quantitative data to get a better sense of what changes from stage to stage. The player life-cycle proposed has 5 stages:" Stages are: starting, ramping up, mastery, burn out, and casual/recovery.

"Needless to say I was intrigued by the indie movie Second Skin and the people that were portrayed in the film. A benefit of the wonder of the internet is the ability to actually locate people that you would never know how to get a hold of. It works wonderfully to reunite old family members, rekindle old relationships and even get in touch with old school members. bustardIt also works great for journalists, luckily I ran into Dan Bustard on Facebook. When I approached him asking if it was who I thought it was he was very apprehensive, he first asked me if he owed me money. After awhile he opened up and he agreed to an interview. And here it is"

"After the Lead Content Designer of World of Warcraft (WoW), Tigole, deemed a new set of rewards ''welfare'' epics, the WoW player community responded in a multitude of fascinating ways. Using rhetorical analysis, gaming studies literature, and a critical analysis of welfare discourse, four rhetorical strategies can be seen in the discourse produced by the playing community. From directly confronting Tigole's statements to lamenting a loss of avatar capital and analyzing the role the changes have on the multiplayer aspects of the game, the rhetoric of ''welfare'' epics offers unique insights into the importance of balance and scarcity in the normative structures of WoW, how players accept and perpetuate the belief that rewards in online games should be ''earned,'' and how WoW's system of rewards has been fundamentally altered since the game's launch."

"According to John Seely Brown, former director of Xerox PARC, massive multiplayer online games demonstrate ways in which groups can manage information and maximize learning. At a recent lecture as part of Stanford University's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series, Brown said that World of Warcraft guilds can serve as models for entrepreneurs in understanding how to succeed in a knowledge-based economy. "

"Blizzard EVP of product development Frank Pearce has told VG247 that World of Warcraft will return to growth this year, moving beyond the 11.5 million subs it's been stuck at since 2008. Speaking with Adam Hartley in an interview in London yesterday, Pearce told us that the launch of Cataclysm later this year, as well as the release of Wrath of the Lich King in China, will bring increased numbers to the MMO. When asked if it had hit its peak as far as the number of players went, Pearce said: "No, I don't think that at all."

The study offers 3 key insights into the evolution of gaming (explained in more detail below): Games go beyond the screen Life becomes play Social matures into societal The study included a Web survey amongst 290 smartphone owners between the ages of 15-54 who self-identified as at least "casual gamers," with nearly half labeling themselves "game enthusiasts."* The survey assessed technology usage and future orientation, attitudes and behaviors around gaming, and possible interest areas for new game experiences.

"The findings come from a Web survey amongst 290 smartphone owners between the ages of 15-54 who self-identified as at least "casual gamers," with nearly half labeling themselves "game enthusiasts.""