How Sony blew it on the Playstation 3

While the Nintendo Wii has been a resounding success in the gaming console market, Sony's Playstation 3 hasn't fared so well. Here's a nice little editorial blaming the machine's lackluster sales and high cost on Sony's decision to use synergy to turn the console into a Swiss army knife for gamers. Not surprisingly, Ars Technica thinks it was unsuccessful.

Swedish Government Takes To Second Life

Second Life, a sort of on-line version of The Sims, is getting more and more like the "real" world it ostensibly imitates. You know the game (is it really even a "game" at this point) is venturing further and further into virtual reality territory when you can conduct semi-official business in it. The Swedish government is even building its own virtual embassy inside the game. I wouldn't be surprised if other government agencies and a lot more big corporations move into the game. Here's Ars Technica on Sverige's Second Life experiment:

The Swedish Institute hopes that the virtual embassy will be modeled after the the newly-opened House of Sweden in Washington DC, and has it begun formal negotiations with its architect, Gert Wingårdh, for rights to create a digital version of the building, according to Swedish newspaper DN. In addition to getting tourist information, users in the virtual world will be able to browse displays, click links to informational sites about Sweden (most notably the Swedish Embassy's digital portal), and get visa information.

The Burning Crusade Against Good Writing

The NYT has a story about the release of The Burning Crusade, a new expansion pack for World of War Warcraft (an absurdly-popular online version of dungeons and dragons). The writer, though, attempts (unsuccessfully) to explain the popularity of the new game expansion:

The Burning Crusade, as the set is titled, went on sale at midnight Tuesday. For people who don’t play online games, it can be a little difficult to describe the freakout many gamers experience as they try to explore and conquer the new content. Imagine the convergence of rabid fans if, say, Luciano Pavarotti were to star in a long-hyped live remake of “Star Trek” at Carnegie Hall, with special appearances by Tom Cruise and Kiefer Sutherland.

It’s a bit like that, except for people who mostly don’t read People, care about Jack Bauer or subscribe to the Met.

If you can actually understand what he's trying to say, post a comment. I'm stumped.