Telus doesn't phone it in

I love this story! An advertising manager for Telus who happens to be a passionate gamer, and a Second Life member by the name Sparkle Dale, convinced her brand to set up shop in Shinda, a downtown area of Second Life's mainland.

Writes Springwise: "The store was designed along the lines of flagship stores in Toronto and Montreal and features phones that are modelled and named after actual Samsung and Motorola models."

The phones are actually being sold for a few hundred Linden Dollars, which equals $1 to $2 American. However, they don't actually allow any voice communication, but rather allow users to tell other avatars that they are busy on a real-lfe call. So while the idea and the intentions are great - it's really too bad the execution and user-benefits are kind of weak.

What's really great is to see a brand take real, relevant steps into the gaming world. They could have easily placed a static billboard in any big name video game, instead they have integrated thier brand into the experience that only an MMORPG could contain.

Less B.O than Comic Con

While enjoying your last remaining days of wearing white slacks and shoes, why not swing on by the Toronto Independent Game Conference, which starts tomorrow and runs until Saturday. It may not exactly be a "robust" conference and the $75 price tag is pretty outrageous, but it does offer gamers/developers a place to connect and talk about the games industry in Toronto. And, unlike ComicCon, there will be no cosplay here.

Lectures I recommend are Toward a Canadian Serious Game Movement" by Tim Carter and "Productive Play: Making Fun Work and Work Fun" by Tony Walsh.

Ninty Ads Noticed

If you've been taking public transit in Toronto or Vancouver, you might have noticed ads for Nintendo's Touch Generation series. Marie, a gamer girl from Vancouver, sure has and posted photos of most of the ads on her 1up.com blog.

What I think is particularly interesting is not the ads themselves, but the general reaction to them. That is she, and many others who commented on her post, are actually excited to see this advertising - they are happy to see Nintendo advertising their products. One person even posted:

"I saw my first Nintedo bus add on Monday. I was so friggin happy about it. I saw another one this morning too. So far only two but I'm happy to see them driving around Toronto. I've yet to see any on the subway though."

As a researcher, it really shows me that hardcore gamers, are a special group of people that wear a huge badge of ownership over the systems they buy and the games they play. Nintendo is a real underdog when it comes to ad spending compared to behemoths Sony and Microsoft - do gamers feel treated when Nintendo finally doles out the money to promote themselves? Marie F's 1UP Blog

Code Pink!

Canada is inching closer to the possibility of pink DS lites at Christmas! At this morning's Nintendo press conference in Leipzig, a model wearing a pink dress and holding a pink DS Lite took the stage as they announced its European release on October 27th.

I am so excited and so jealous at the same time. I need to get my hands on one of these babies. Now that it's not just a Japanese exclusive there's a better chance of the pink DS seeing Canadian retail shelves! Source

The lazy gamer syndrome

Today at the Leipzig Games Conference, Fable creator Peter Molyneux spoke about something I've been spewing on about since demo-ing the Wii at E3. That is, one of the biggest challenges to the Wii is that gameplay is so active that it won't be suitable for active gamers who enjoy nestling in for a few hours to play combat-style games. Also, there's the whole image thing - that it's embarrassing to play active games in your living room, alone or with others. Games Industry reports:
"When Molyneux first realised that players might be able to swing a motion-sensing controller just like they would a sword, he thought the concept was "brilliant! But then I realised, when I looked at myself in the mirror, I actually looked really stupid."
I worry that image-conscious culture we live in will relegate the Wii to just another living room toy and hurt them in the long run. Games Industry

Introducing...

Welcome to Pop & Chips - a born and bred Canadian conversation about all things video games. We're not only gamers, but pop cultural observers pleasantly stuck in the changing landscape of the gaming world. We're here to sit in cross-legged circles and snack on the swirling culture of gamers ,developers, marketers, and everything in between. Won't you join us?