Video Games

I had been with him through a wardrobe door to Narnia, and down a rabbit hole to Wonderland. So when my 12-year-old son disappeared into a television screen beyond my calls for dinner, curiosity led me to explore the world that lay on the other side. I come back transformed by both wonder and horror, as I believe our children do. I had vastly underestimated the significance of that journey, as I believe most parents do. The PacMan wave came and went. A second wave has hit like a tsunami.

The rapper Future is known for his liberal use of Auto-Tune, but now he's got another charmingly low-rent bit of technology to share. The Atlanta rapper-singer has a great new single in "Move That Dope," which features guest turns from Pharrell Williams, Pusha T and Cameo. To accompany it, he posted an addictive new video game that's a slightly more menacing version of vintage Nintendo titles. " Move That Doh " (a more family-friendly version of the title) sports 8-bit graphics straight out of the '80s heyday of cocaine trafficking.

Blockbuster Inc. plans to allow some customers to rent video games on the Internet. The pilot program will begin during the second quarter and be available to subscribers of its Total Access service. Blockbuster plans to make online video-game rentals available nationally in the second half of the year, the Dallas-based company said.

As a child, Shannon Studstill sold gum to her classmates to finance her weekly trips to the video game arcade. That early investment in "Pac-Man" and "Defender" would pay huge dividends. Studstill, one of the most powerful women in the male-dominated world of video games, now runs Sony Santa Monica Studio, the development group responsible for the company's hit franchise "God of War" and the publisher of such critically acclaimed independent titles as "Journey. " The 43-year-old executive is an anomaly in an industry known for its underrepresentation of women.

National Geographic, best known for its yellow-framed magazine and often breathtaking nature shows, is getting into video games. National Geographic Ventures, a unit of the nonprofit National Geographic Society, will work with game publishers to turn its material into games for PCs, consoles and hand-held devices. "Our content is extremely well-suited for a global gaming audience," said Paul Levine, the National Geographic executive who will lead the new games division. The games will be drawn from a broad range of content and themes across National Geographic's properties.

Electronic Arts Inc. on Tuesday canceled Tiberium, a spinoff of its popular Command & Conquer franchise of shooter games, and said it would lay off an unspecified number of employees at its Playa Vista office. "The game was not on track to meet the high quality standards set by the team and by the EA Games label," EA spokeswoman Miriam Sughayer said. Sughayer said the Redwood City, Calif., developer would strive to place most of the affected workers into other EA projects. "This is not about cutting back financially," she said.

Yahoo Inc. will offer 400 free, advertising-supported games to increase revenue. Yahoo will use Double Fusion Inc.'s marketing technology and NeoEdge Networks' ad networks to sell and place video spots in the downloadable games, the company said.

After putting in a full day at his computer technician job, a 30-year-old Internet game player known as Ebaid went home, logged on to a game called "EverQuest" and started his night job. His game character donned armor, slapped on his sword and began slaying beasts so he could make some real money. Hail the rise of yet another strange creature of the Internet revolution--the professional online game hunter. Ebaid played for hours, slaying every computer-generated monster on his screen.

The amount of time young people spend consuming media has ballooned with around-the-clock access and mobile devices that function practically as appendages, according to a new report. Young people now devote an average of seven hours and 38 minutes to daily media use, or about 53 hours a week -- more than a full-time job -- according to Kaiser Family Foundation findings released today. A few years ago, the same researchers thought that teens and tweens were consuming about as much media as humanly possible in the hours available.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment key franchises Batman/Arkham Upcoming game: Batman: Arkham City (Oct. 18) Developer: Rocksteady (Britain) Lego Upcoming games: Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 (Nov. 1); Lego Batman 2 (2012) Developer: Traveller's Tales (Britain) Mortal Kombat Next sequel expected in 2013 Developer: Netherrealm Studios (formerly Midway Chicago) Lord of the Rings Ongoing game: Lord of the Rings Online Developer: Turbine (Boston)

Electronic Arts Sports and the Collegiate Licensing Co. wanted to use the names and likenesses of college athletes in video games, according to an NCAA document unsealed in federal court Wednesday. The report was among hundreds of pages of documents that U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ordered to be made fully or partially public in the long-running antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA fronted by former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon. The case is scheduled for trial in June and, in the interim, the document dump provides another window into the often contentious issues of amateurism and compensation raised by the case.

The book "Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation" by Blake Harris will be published in May. And it's already headed to the big screen, thanks to Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Variety reports that Rogen and Goldberg are planning to co-direct and adapt " Console Wars ," which tells the real-life story behind the video game industry in the 1990s. It Books will publish the 576-page look at video games on May 13. It's Harris' debut -- and comes with a prologue by, coincidentally, Goldberg and Rogen.

Eugene is thinking about buying an Xbox One game console. but he's worried about extra charges if the device turns out to be all buggy. Buggy tech is a worry shared by most users. You think everything should be running smoothly because a gadget is new, and it turns out the software still needs patching. ASK LAZ: Smart answers to consumer questions A game console is basically a personal computer in new clothes, so it's a very real concern that something can go kerblooey on the coding level.

Humble Bundle is one of those websites trying to make optimal use of our digital world. It combines downloads with a pay-what-you-like system that funnels money to charity. And for the first time, it's trying its hand at audiobooks. This is how it works. Every week or two, Humble Bundle makes a set -- bundle -- of digital downloads freely available. Downloaders are asked to pay what they like: what they think the downloads are worth, what they can afford, an amount that represents their appreciation of the creator.

The new Xbox One and PlayStation 4 fueled a 50% spike in video game console sales in December, compared with a year earlier, as enthusiasts rushed to buy the latest systems. Micrososoft's Xbox One was the top-selling console in December, but Sony's rival PS4 sold more units since the November launch of the new systems, according to newly released figures from the NPD Group. "The newest consoles from Microsoft and Sony are off to a tremendous start," said NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan.

How does a game designer ask his gamer girlfriend to marry him? How about with a video game that ends with a wedding proposal? Robert Fink, a video game artist, teamed up with a few of his friends to develop "Knight Man: A Quest For Love," a video game that proposes to his girlfriend Angel White after she completes an obstacle course. The game is online and available for all to play . "The first thought in my head when I saw her was, 'She's beautiful...and she plays video games...

Less than a week after the Supreme Court refused to carve out an exception from the 1st Amendment for videos depicting real violence against animals, it has agreed to consider California's argument that it should withhold constitutional protection from virtual violence against people. The justices will review a sensible decision by a federal appeals court striking down a state law punishing the sale of "violent video games" to minors. We hope a majority of the court recognizes that the principle in the two cases is the same — that even offensive speech is protected by the 1st Amendment.

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision Blizzard) 2. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda Softworks) 3. Battlefield 3 (Electronic Arts) 4. Assassin's Creed: Revelations (Ubisoft) 5. Just Dance 3 (Ubisoft) 6. Madden NFL 12 (Electronic Arts) 7. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Sony) 8. Saints Row: The Third (THQ) 9. The Legend of Zelda: SkywardSword (Nintendo) 10. Batman: Arkham City (Warner Bros. Interactive) *Rankings are based on North American sales of games sold as discs.

Warner Bros.'s video gaming division has partnered with Wikia, an online social network for pop culture and entertainment enthusiasts, to connect with Middle-earth aficionados. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has teamed with Wikia to create the official interactive community site and a companion iPad application for its upcoming action game "Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor," which takes place between the narratives of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings.

"Family Guy" fans will soon have another pastime that fits with Peter Griffin's preferred level of physical activity: a video game for mobile devices.  Fox Digital Entertainment, the mobile content division of 20th Century Fox, has teamed with San Francisco start-up TinyCo to put out the yet-unnamed game based on "Family Guy," the irreverent animated comedy. The game will launch early next year for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, the companies said Tuesday. TinyCo is working with the writers from Seth MacFarlane's Fuzzy Door Productions on the role-playing game in which players control the characters from the "Family Guy" hometown of Quahog, R.I., through various adventures.  RELATED: More games coverage by The Times   One of the important challenges, said Andrew N. Green, TinyCo's head of business development, is to make sure the humor of the show carries into the game.  "We want you to laugh your ass off," he said.