Deft Creative Ltd.'s, awkwardly sloganed "Dexterous of hand and inventive of mind," demonstrates neither dexterity (though they try) nor inventiveness (no effort here) with this dull leaping-Rudolph ski game. The object is to beat the furthest leap and we're ensured by the agency guy that "All scores on the score board ARE beatable." Glad he made the effort to bang that in because otherwise we were going to lose sleep over it.

Miles outside the city, a delivery truck is in route with a mysterious payload! Suddenly, one of Santa's elves opens the back gate and begins frantically tossing the boxes off of the truck! The artificial trees have mutated and are sucking the spirit out of Christmas. Help the elf beat these bad guys by hitting them with snow balls!

Hi. I'm Ricky Bobby. And if there's one thing I know it's how to win.

Winning is good. Winning is everything.

Now you can feel the awesome power of what's its like to win in my very own video game, Fast Track.

The store, located on a private island in Second Life, is set to open as soon as this weekend. The news has SL residents considering what it means that the first real-world fashion brand has made an entrance to Second Life. Fashion is one of the virtual world's biggest industries, and the fashion business in SL is extremely competitive. So it's not a surprise that the first real-world retail brand to set up shop in SL is a fashion retailer.

The fashions themselves are patterned after American Apparel's real-world clothes, and were designed by several designers, including Aimee, though she wouldn't say who else was involved. The clothing will be priced "high-priced reasonable" compared to other SL fashions, Aimee says. No comment either on where the revenue from clothing sales will go — which leads me to believe it will go to the designers as part of their compensation

Schionning says that it's just an experiment and that the company is not trying to make money with the venture. A token sum will be charged for clothing, but the prices are not yet set. This is "not a profit-making venture," he says.

Its real-life retail outlets typically feature racy, disco-era photographs of scantily clad girls and have been at the center of controversy over the kitschy decor, which has used 1970s Penthouse magazine covers. The 6,000-square foot virtual store is modeled after the hipster brand’s bi-level Tokyo outlet.

The initial fashion selection will offer 20 styles of American Apparel’s signature logo-free casual wear: basic T-shirts, tank tops, undergarments and swimwear. Second Life residents may be privy to real-world promotions and discounts from American Apparel, and the marketing tactic may boost actual sales with a link to the online store, the company said.

Hamburger flipper Burger King is considering a promotion that offers 3 exclusive BK-branded games. Each would feature their own characters (in this case, the actual Burger King) in "popular" genres (fighting, action and racing). The action game is apparently similar to Halo, while the fighter combines Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Just tack on a "with hamburgers," and you get the drift.

One of the earliest titles in the nascent genre is Persuasive's "Disaffected!," which puts players in the role of managing a FedEx Kinko's copy franchise.

"Disaffected!" gives players the chance to step into the shoes of "demotivated" FedEx Kinkos employees, a blurb about the game on Persuasive Game's Web site said. "Feel the indifference of these purple-shirted malcontents firsthand, and consider the possible reasons behind their malaise--is it mere incompetence? Managerial affliction? Unseen but serious labor issues?"

Another new game, from the Italian design shop Molleindustria, skewers McDonald's by taking players though a game experience in which they discover that to make money running the company they must exploit underdeveloped countries and low-wage workers and feed unhealthy growth hormones to cattle.

"Behind every sandwich, there is a complex process you must learn to manage," Molleindustria said in a statement. "From the creation of pastures to the slaughter, from the restaurant management to the branding. You'll discover all the dirty little secrets that made (McDonald's) one of the biggest companies (in) the world."

One of the nicest thing in the game is that they can take pictures of your(as a sheep) while playing so that you'll send them to your friends. Furthermore you can earn more points if you manage to collect Mentos candies during the game.

The goal of advergaming is to encourage consumers to engage in a branded experience--that is, spend time voluntarily with an ad. That is usually more efficient and effective for a marketer than to chase after consumers with ads they are likely to shun. Among the other brands that have added sponsored online games to their marketing tactics are Jeep and Life Savers.

One "huge risk" in advergaming is that sponsors may "become better known for the games" than for their products or services, said Henry Harteveldt, an analyst who is the vice president for travel research at Forrester Research. Orbitz provided Harteveldt an advance look at the Web site so that he could discuss it with a reporter.

Advergaming that is done well "strikes a good balance between being creative and different," Harteveldt said, "and making sure people know who's behind it." He praised Orbitz for making "the brand part of the URL," or Web address. By contrast, some advertisers offer games under names like the Life Savers Web site, called candystand.com.

Orbitz executives have been mulling for some time ways to give computer users regular access to its online games. They first appeared in the form of what are called pop-under ads, that is, banner ads that turn up on a computer screen after a Web site is visited. Many computer users consider such ads annoying and have installed blockers that screen out pop-unders and their counterparts, pop-up ads.