Leading UK mobile network operator, Three, has re-launched its Games Store with a string of highly innovative features including social media integration and a dedicated HD games section. A section featuring an extensive selection of social games which allow users to interact and compete with each other is also in the works but not yet available.
What is available is a browser-baser portal store is a variety of games and apps that will appeal to everyone from casual gamers to hardcore game enthusiasts. The objective of the new Games Store is to create a must-go-to destination for all gamers using Three. The huge range of games, tips, information and reviews, as well as the ability to connect with an active community of like-minded players and fans is the latest addition to a growing portfolio of hosted multi-content services managed by the Livewire Mobile Inc. team in partnership with Three.
The relaunched Games Store will support content across a number of phone operating systems.
Currently, the Games Store includes Android games and apps targeted at the increasing number of Three gamers that use the portal as their mobile gaming hub. A dedicated Android app with integrated Three billing is scheduled to be released ready for devices that will be in-store and available during the holiday shopping season.
“This is an area that continues to grow in popularity and with the biggest 3G network in the UK — and one designed for the high-speed mobile internet — we believe our customers now have access to the very best mobile Games Store in the UK where ever they are,” said Neil Andrews, Head of Media Sales and Content services at Three UK.
EA Online, Zynga and WildTangent represented 30 percent of the top 10 gaining web properties in June according to comScore. The rankings were based on the percent change in unique U.S. visitors to the company web site between May and June 2011.
EA or Electronic Arts saw the number of unique visitors to their website grow by 20 percent to nearly 16 million unique visitors in June from 13,224,000 the previous month. That was enough to put EA.com in the top 100 web sites based upon the number of unique visitors to the site.
It will be interesting to see if EA can sustain this growth in the number of unique users since the company was also a victim of hackers during June. According to the video game maker, hackers breached EA’s BioWare division, specifically the servers related to Neverwinter Nights which is produced by BioWare Edmonton. EA reportedly has identified and secured the server but not before user names, encrypted passwords, email addresses, mailing addresses, names, birthdays and phone numbers were stolen. Electronic Arts confirms that no credit card or Social Security Numbers were stolen. An internal investigation into the breach is said to have been launched but no further information regarding the progress or results of such an investigation is available.
EA did create some excitement during June with some great game news. The debut game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was nominated for seven awards at E3, making it among the most nominated new titles of the conference. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning which is scheduled to hit shelves and game console systems in 2012, is described as an open-world RPG set in the mysterious and magical world of Amalur created by author R.A. Salvatore and brought to life by artist Todd McFarlane. Reckoning is being developed under lead designer Ken Rolston (Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind™ and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion™) and reportedly takes action combat to a whole new level for role-playing games.
The number of unique visitors to the Zynga website, Zynga.com also increased by 20 percent in June. Zynga.com welcomed more than 7 million unique visitors during the month compared to slightly less than 6 million unique visitors in May.
June marked a shift for Zynga, whose social games are commonly associated with Facebook. On 29 June, 2011, Zynga announced an agreement with AT&T that will bring the very latest in mobile social gaming to the US carrier’s Android Market later this year. Though the terms of the agreement were not disclosed, rumors of it may have helped drive more unique users to Zynga.com during the month.
“Zynga strives to provide the best mobile social game experience for our players whereever and whenever they want so our partnership with AT&T will offer an exciting and easy way to access our popular mobile games,” David Ko, Senior Vice President of Mobile for Zynga said at the time. “We are looking forward to working with AT&T with this unique partnership that will truly benefit our players.”
WildTangent Media only saw a 17 percent increase in the number of unique visitors during June. The 20,021,000 unique visitors (up from may’s 17,063,000) to WildTangent.com were enough to make the WildTanget website the highest ranking of the top gainers at Number 67 overall based upon unique visitors.
WildTangent also announced the upcoming launch to Android game service in June. T-Mobile USA is the partner of choice for WildTangent in an agreement announced 8 June, 2011 that will, according to WildTangent, uniquely maximize monetization for developers and offer T-Mobile customers new choices on Android devices.
“T-Mobile customers are among the most active mobile gamers int he industry,” Torrie Dorell, vice president of Applications, Content and Games at T-Mobile said. “This service wtih WildTangent, coming later this year, will give our customers using android devices more ways to discover and access their favorite games.”
It may be worth noting that EA is among WildTangent’s advertising partners, as is Sony.
It is good to seem interest in gaming sites and video game developers growing. Perhaps it’s because reality seems to have stagnated or gotten worse that more people are looking for alternate, presumably better, realities. Wouldn’t it be nice if the two could converge?
One of the great things about attending comic con, any comic con, is the opportunity to see, hear and possibly even meet some of the most creative people in the preternatural universe. Whether it’s artists, writers, celebrities or fans, these events produce an amazing amount of creative energy the leaves attendees exhausted but their imaginations highly charged. Unfortunately, you have to be there to experience it. Well, you used to anyway.
Epix beams The Captains world premiere 22 July, 2011
On 22 July, 2011, EPIX, the premium entertainment channel, is teaming up with Star Trek‘s Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) to give fans across the U.S. an opportunity to interact with the Admiral via EPIX Live from Comic Con, an online Q&A session produced by EPIX in partnership with Cox Communications. Star Trek fans who can’t make it to San Diego this year will be able to interact with Kirk on EpixHD.com.
Those lucky Trekkies who do make it to San Diego, will be treated to a special preview of The Captains, an original EPIX Picture, the Admiral (Shatner) produced and directed. The documentary offers an in-depth look at the Captains from the Star Trek films and series. Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) will join Admiral Kirk and moderator Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) to discuss exclusive clips from The Captains and answer questions from the audience.
At 8 p.m. EDT on 22 July, 2011, The Captains makes its world premiere on EPIX and EpixHD.com. The world premiere is the centerpiece of SHANTERPALOOZA, a 48-hour marathon celebration of Shatner’s film and television work running on the EPIX linear channel, EPIX SVOD service and EPIXHD.com between 21 and 30 July, 2011. SHATNERPALOOZA will also feature the world television premiere of William Shatner’s Gonzo Ballet, an award-winning EPIX Pictures original documentary, produced by and starring Shatner, that offers an inside look at the staging of famed choreographer Margo Sappington’s Common People ballet set to Has Been, Shatner’s 2004 album. The complete collection of six original Star Trek films featuring Captain Kirk, as well as other rarely seen and controversial films including The Intruder, Big Bad Mama, Disaster on the Coastliner and Broken Angel. TV clips including an episode of The Outer Limits from 1964, Iron Chef and even a TV roast will also air during SHATNERPALOOZA.
“From film and TV icon to hipster hero, William Shatner is a man of many talents,” said EPIX president and CEO Mark Greenberg. “We are proud to celebrate him as an actor, producer, director and cultural phenomenon and to bring his contributions to fans at Comic Con and on EPIX and EpixHD.com.”
The online event isn’t the same as being on the ground in San Diego during Comic Con. But it is closer than some fans would otherwise get. Besides, Trekkies have other events to look forward to this summer, including SHATNERPALOOZA.
What will life be like after Harry Potter? The final film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 premieres in theaters on 15 July, 2011. The final book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows hit shelves nearly 2 years ago and Rowling maintains she has no plans to write an eighth book in the series. Leaving fans to ask: What next?
For starters, The Boy Who Lived isn’t going away. He probably isn’t going to grow up much more either. Like Dorothy (Judy Garland) in the Wizard of Oz, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), and BFFs Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) will never grow up for audiences. Author J.K. Rowling is virtually ensuring that with the announcement of Pottermore, a “unique and free-to-use website” that will provide Potter fans with a new online experience centered on the Harry Potter books.
Pottermore will bring some new content to life, as well as create a broader and more interactive experience for the familiar and existing novels. The goal is to inspire and entertain readers as the journey through the books.
“I wanted to give something back to the fans that have followed Harry so devotedly over the years, and to bring the stories to a new digital generation,” Rowling commented at a press conference announcing Pottermore. “I hope fans and those new to Harry will have as much fun helping to shape Pottermore as I have. Just as I have contributed to the website, everyone else will be able to join by submitting their own comments, drawing and other content in a safe a friendly environment — Pottermore has been designed as a place to share stories with your friends as you journey through the site.”
At the press conference (held at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum) Rowling revealed a few of the features Potter readers and fans can expect to see when Pottermore officially debuts in October 2011. She described how fans will be able to discover their Houses and wands experiencing the Sorting Hat and Ollivanders for themselves. Newly commissioned illustrations, interactive “moments” and exclusive writing from Rowling herself will further enhance the reading experience for fans beginning with the very first book, Harry Potter and the Philosophers/Sorcerer’s Stone. Material and the storyline for the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, will go live on the site in 2012.
Pottermore Hogwarts Express (image courtesy of Pottermore.com)
Not surprisingly, Pottermore.com will include an online shop where fans and newcomers can purchase the long-awaited e-books of the popular novels. In fact, the Pottermore Shop will reportedly be the only place where fans can get the e-book version of the most successful book series of all time. This is possible because Rowling owns the e-book rights to all the Harry Potter books (as the Preternatural Post reported earlier this year) and has assiduously avoided selling or releasing them. Further enhancing the marketing potential of the Pottermore.com property is the continuing partnership between Rowling and Sony.
“As I think people know, I am very protective of Harry and have always been very selective with any new initiatives, but I am totally committed to making this partnership with Sony and this wonderful new website a success,” said Rowling. “There are many companies I could have worked with on this ultimate digital expression of Harry Potter’s universe, but it is Sony’s unique philosophy of creativity in harmony with technology that made them my first choice as main partner. The spirit behind Sony’s make.believe philosophy is one that rings true with Pottermore’s own values.”
The Pottermore adventure begins with registration. Fans can currently submit their email address on Pottermore.com in order to receive updates and news as opening day approaches. On Harry’s birthday (31 July) the site will open for registration and an online challenge will be launched. The first million people completing their registration on Pottermore.com will gain early access to the site and help put the final touches no the experience.
“The use of online social networks such as Facebook continues to rapidly increase among all age groups, providing new opportunities for the exchange of sexual information and potential unsafe encounters between predators and the vulnerable young,” states Elizabeth B. Dowdell, PhD, RN, CRNP associate professor at Villanova University College of Nursing, Villanova, PA and the lead author on a new study of sexual predators and online social networking patterns.
According to the findings of this new study, which was conducted by a research team working under a U.S. Department of Justice grant, more than two-thirds (63.3 percent) of internet sexual offenders initiate the topic of sex with middle school students during their first online chat session. The study, which collected data about how participants used social networking sites from 2007 to 2009 is published in the July issue of the American Journal of Nursing (AJN). Participants included student from middle- and high-school as well as traditional 4-year colleges and adult males who had been convicted of a sexual offense online or offline.
Two other findings of the study actually seem to reinforce Facebook’s insistence that only “real” people be allowed to have profiles on the social networking giant (see Facebook Bans Role-Players). the first finding is that although sexual offender and students frequent similar social networking sites, offenders favor MySpace while students prefer Facebook. Avatar sites, such as Second Life, are used by both students and predators. The second finding addresses the dispute over role-play accounts on Facebook and other social networking sites even more directly: the majority of sexual offenders disguise their identity while online.
Students’ experience with sexting (sending sexually explicit messages or photos electronically) differs significantly by sex as well as the type and location of their school. For instance:
56.7 percent of high-school girls reported they knew about sexting compared to only 46.9 percent of boys.
75 percent of students at private high schools knew about sexting while on 50 percent of students at public schools did.
34.9 percent of high school boys participating in the study admitted meeting someone they met online IRL (in real life), with 22.6 percent reporting consensual sexual contact of some kind. 6.8 percent of the boy reported being threatened or sexually assaulted as a result of the meeting.
36.9 percent of the high school girls participating in the study reported offline meetings with strangers. 13.4 percent report something sexual occurring at the meeting and 4.5 percent indicate they were threatened on sexually assaulted as a result of the meeting.
In case there was any doubt, the study also found that the majority of Internet sexual predators prefer communicating with teenage girls rather than boys.
“Students may not be aware that they are engaging with a sexual predator online, and may not report online sexual advances to parents or school authorities, so nurses – especially school nurses and pediatric and primary care nurse practitioners – need to take a leadership role in assessing and screening for victimization or vulnerabilities,” states Maureen Shaw Kennedy, MA, RN, editor-in-chief of AJN.
The same may be true of role-players on Twitter and other social networking sites. No, we are not nurses or the internet police but we do know our communities and know when something seems “off”. As the recent situation with alleged pedophiles on Twitter demonstrates, we are capable of policing ourselves and as long as we understand that we are witnesses, not vigilantes, we can play a role in helping keep our online universes safe.
The British Library and Google have announced a partnership to digitize a quarter-million (250,000) out-of-copyright books, pamphlets and periodicals published between 1700 to 1870 from the Library’s collections. The project will result in allowing access to up to 40 million pages from one of the world’s greatest collections to researchers, students and others around the globe through Google Books and the Library’s website.
“What’s powerful about the technology available today isn’t just its ability to preserve history and culture for posterity, but also its ability to bring it to life in new ways,” said Peter Barron, Google’s director of External Relations. “This public domain material is an important part of the world’s heritage and we’re proud to be working with the British Library to open it up to millions of people in the UK and abroad.”
No dates for when the digitization process will begin or be completed have been announced. The effort will focus on materials that are not yet freely available in a digital form online.
“There is no doubt that the digitization of this unique material will greatly benefit the research process,” Professor Colin Jones, President of the Royal Historical Society and Professor of History at Queen Mary, University of London commented. “Academics are increasingly using new technologies at their disposal to search for innovative ways of investigating historical material to enable us to probe new questions and find alternative patterns of investigation. Digitization gives us the freedom to not only do this quickly and remotely, but also enhances the quality and depth of the original.”
Among the first works to be digitized however, are an account of the hippopotamus (1775) and the tale of the first combustion engine-driven submarine (1858) as well as political pamphlets. In all the range of printed books that will be digitized covers the period that saw the French, American and Industrial Revolutions, the invention of rail travel and the telegraph, the Battle of Trafalgar, and the end of slavery. Material in a variety of major European languages.
The Hippopotamus (Leclerc) Courtesy of the British Library
“Fans can support ASLF without spending a dime — and have some fun in the process,” Dr. Carlisle Cullen (Peter Facinelli) reports. “Fantapper gives me a way to connect with people directly and share the things I’m passionate about — like supporting kids and families struggling with childhood cancer. And who wouldn’t want to be turned into a vampire for a great cause?”
Who indeed? Not only is being Turned for a good cause, it’s mostly painless. You do have to submit a photo of your human self, which is transformed into the image of the new vampire you.
Dr. Carlisle Cullen from The Twilight Saga
A long-time supporter of Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), Cullen (Facinelli) hopes to bring new awareness tot he organization while engaging with fans through Fantapper. The new online effort to raise funds for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Child Cancer invites fans of The Twilight Saga‘s Dr. Cullen or even Dr. Fitch Cooper from the television series Nurse Jackie are invited to submit photos for a special vampire treatment which can then be digitally shared with friends. Humans can email their photos to Peter (at) fantapper(dot)com and watch for the results by downloading the free Fantapper app at www.ifiwereavampire.com. Results can take some time to be delivered, possibly because of the large numbers of photos being submitted, so please, be patient.
Once the campaign reaches 2 million viewers, the Southern California Foundation will make a $50,000 donation to ALSF. The campaign is currently live and will run through Monday, 27 June, 2011. Full details and contest rules (the most viewed vampire wins a iPad 2) are available at www.fantapper.com
We only have one question: How is it that a vampire who doesn’t have fangs is turning humans into vampires that do?
Kids like monsters. No, really, they do. In fact, 50 million kids (and their parents) like monsters so much they are registered members of a new form of children’s entertainment: Moshi Monsters.
A group of Moshi Monsters Copyright Mind Candy
Moshi Monsters, created by online gaming and entertainment company Mind Candy, live at moshimonsters.com. The website is the heart of an experience combining adoptable pet monsters, safe social networking, games, stories, missions and educational puzzles.
The fun doesn’t stop there.
Following its online popularity, Moshi Monsters has launched related toys, books, video games, trading cards and even a Moshi magazine in the UK and Australia. American monster lovers will find books from Scholastic and trading cards from Topps already on shelves, while Moshi Monster toys will launch later this summer. Magazines, video games and other products will also be rolling out in the U.S. in coming months. Mind Candy is also working on music, live tours, a TV platform and a Moshi film, according to company insiders.
“We’re delighted to hit 50 million registered users and have even more ambitions plans ahead,” said Michael Acton Smith, CEO and creator of Moshi Monsters. “Our Vision is to Build the largest entertainment brand in the world for this new digital generation of kids.”
Registration is at MoshiMonsters.com is free for children ages 6 – 12. There is a monthly fee for parent memberships.
Once registered, player adopt a virtual pet monster to create, name and nurture. Once in the company of their pet monster, they can navigate around Monster City, taking the daily puzzle challenge, playing games, solving Super Moshi Missions, personalizing their room, reading stories, showing off artwork or just talking with friends in a safe environment.
This ones for the boys. No, really, it is. If you take a look at IGN Entertainment’s corporate website it states, quite clearly and in big letters “The Greatest Sites Known to Men”. Never mind that the Entertainment Software Association reports that 42 percent of all gamers are female. In any event, IGN is unashamedly masculine and, according to the good folks over at Guinness World Records, they also have the “most popular video games website”.
For the past 21 consecutive months, IGN.com has ranked first among gaming information sites reaching one-quarter of all men online. The highest concentration of IGN viewers being males between the ages of 18 and 34. According to comScore, IGN.com also pulls in double the number of video views of any other games site.
In February 2011 IGN.com attracted more than 20.5 million visitors (based on an audited comScore figure) to IGN.com alone – almost 2 million more readers than the nearest competitor – allowing Guinness World Record to certify IGN.com is the “most popular video games website. The certificate was presented by Gaz Deaves, editor of the Guinness Book of World Records Gamer’s Edition, to Tal Blevins, IGN VP of Games Content, during the E3 Expo in Los Angeles.
We’re absolutely delighted with this recognition from Guinness World Record, and we’re honored to share it will our millions of loyal readers around the globe,” Blevins said.
The lovely and talented ladies over at EricNorthman.net generously invited @TB_PamR to join their Dead Air blogtalk radio show on Monday, 7 June, 2011. With the Season 4 premiere of True Blood just around the corner and the Phoenix Comic Con barely in the rearview mirror we had plenty to discuss!
Kristin Bauer van Straten at the microphone
The first 6 minutes of Season 4 was the first topic of business and met with mixed reactions. The consensus seems to be that Alan Ball’s vision of Faerie is radically different from the one found in the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. Even the name of Sookie’s grandfather was changed, possibly signally the most significant departure the series has taken from its novel roots even as it steals lines from it. Casting seemed to raise some questions as well, both for Earl (Gary Cole) and Hallow (Fiona Shaw). Continue reading →
Preternatural Post 