From Brooklyn's Pratt Institute to the University of Colorado, at least 50 schools around the country now offer courses in video game study, development or design, according to industry groups.

Some of the schools offer full-blown academic programs. The University of Washington offers a certificate in game design; the Art Institute of Phoenix gives a bachelor of arts in game art and design; and the University of Pennsylvania has a master's in computer graphics and game technology.

Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the International Game Developers Association, said the high number of schools adding programs in the past few years shows how the game industry is maturing.

Della Rocca said that in the early "Space Invader" days of game development, one developer could mentor a handful of workers. Now, games can cost $10 million to develop and require 200 workers, making the industry hungrier for specialized skills.

Boys and men play, too, but not quite the same way, it seems. "We have what we call our deviant players," says McArthur. "I hate stereotypes, but they're usually male, and they like to create chaos." A favorite trick for deviants: putting Sims families in homes with no doors or windows, where they're bound to die. At the other extreme: "a lot of our women we call 'dollhousers'," says McArthur. "They like to build their dream house." That takes time, but when everything in it is working right, "then they can spend all their time socializing." Which means more woohoo.

So far, only one game has moved into this arena. It's a free download called Facade, which its creators, Andrew Stern and Michael Mateas, call a "prototype research project." Although the file is a huge 800 megabytes and only fast PCs can handle it, Stern says the game has been downloaded 150,000 times since July.

Facade's minimalist graphics are the antithesis of those in most modern electronic games. The personalities are what count. "We're trying to appeal to the non-computer geek," says Stern, "people who are turned off by games because they're not about people's lives." He says at least half the downloads are by women, perhaps more. "The experience is like standing on a stage with two improvisational actors who are trying to make a drama happen," says Stern. They're a man, Trip, and a woman, Grace, whose marriage is coming apart. You hear them arguing through the door, but when you enter, they tell you everything is just fine. Soon, "they're trying to get you to take sides," says Stern. "You can help them, provoke them, flirt. A lot of the humor comes in when a player acts crazy or out of bounds" -- a deviant, no doubt -- and the characters try to keep the drama going."

In his death throes Hakkar hits foes with a "corrupted blood" infection that can instantly kill weaker characters.

The infection was only supposed to affect those in the immediate vicinity of Hakkar's corpse but some players found a way to transfer it to other areas of the game by infecting an in-game virtual pet with it.

This pet was then unleashed in the orc capital city of Ogrimmar and proved hugely effective as the Corrupted Blood plague spread from player to player.

Although computer controlled characters did not contract the plague, they are said to have acted as "carriers" and infected player-controlled characters they encountered.

What Blizzard's finalized response to the plague remains to be seen, but if their message boards are any indication, it's thankfully tongue-in-cheek. "It appears that the hotfix remedy concocted to combat the recent Azerothian outbreak has not yielded desired results," says one moderator on the official forums. "At this time, our medical staff is continuing to develop an effective cure. We look forward to ensuring the health and vitality of the citizens of Azeroth in the near future."

Take-Two's Rockstar Games publishing house said that starting October 18, it would sell a special-edition of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2 console system. It will include a DVD with a backstory to the game and a documentary film called Sunday Driver.

Take-Two also will release a bundle of Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox system.

Take-Two was forced to pull the blockbuster "San Andreas" off retail shelves this summer after people tinkering with the game's code found a hidden segment that let the player's character simulate sex with a female character.

Take-Two did not disclose the segment, dubbed "Hot Coffee," to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, which revoked the game's "mature" classification and termed it "adults only" due to the newly found material.

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.

Nintendo breaks with more than 20 years of video game history by abandoning the traditional controller held with two hands and introducing an all-new freehand-style unit held with one hand.

The intuitive, pioneering interface allows players to run, jump, spin, slide, shoot, steer, accelerate, bank, dive, kick, throw and score in a way never experienced in the history of gaming.

"The feeling is so natural and real, as soon as players use the controller, their minds will spin with the possibilities of how this will change gaming as we know it today," explains Satoru Iwata, Nintendo president. "This is an extremely exciting innovation -- one that will thrill current players and entice new ones."

When picked up and pointed at the screen, the controller gives a lightning-quick element of interaction, sensing motion, depth, positioning and targeting dictated by movement of the controller itself.

The controller also allows for a variety of expansions, including a "nunchuk" style analog unit offering the enhanced game-play control hard-core gamers demand.

Rosedale said the company hopes a lot of new members will buy Linden Dollars, the online game's in-world currency, which ultimately ends up in the hands of members who create vehicles, buildings, clothing and other virtual goods. Some of that money, in turn, would then be spent on land, further bolstering Linden Lab's bottom line.

"Second Life" is a completely open-ended virtual world in which members can create nearly anything they can imagine and have the 3D modeling skills to build. Anything they create in-world can be sold, often for significant amounts of money.

The company said there are more than $18 million worth of virtual "Second Life" goods sold each year.

Shortly after the first Xbox came out, computer scientists, smart amateur engineers and others started taking it apart and creating modification chips and software for the machine to make it do things Microsoft never intended it to.

Such actions are frowned upon by the hardware manufacturers. In July last year, Sony won a court case to ban the selling of mod chips for its PlayStation 2 in the UK.

In July of this year, a 22-year-old man became the first person in the UK to be convicted for modifying a video games console.

With the 360, Microsoft is aiming to make it as hard as possible to hack.

Last year's pixel-based pictorial was an uncertain experiment. Nobody, including the magazine, knew how it would sell. And publishers weren't sure how the public would react to characters luring readers with come-hither looks.

The reaction -- on both fronts -- was beyond expectations. Playboy has expanded the feature this year (again including a series of articles about the industry, including its picks for this holiday's top games and a look at next generation machines). And finding potential models wasn't a problem.

"Last year, we were selling a new concept [to publishers]," said Alexander. "The response we got last year and the huge promotional bump resulted in companies lining up at our door. I literally had to turn away six or seven publishers."

The magazine's also trying to appeal to the collector nature of some gamers with the feature. Instead of running the digital divas on the slick magazine pages, the pictures are printed on removable 'trading cards'. All totaled, there are 8 cards (which can be turned over and assembled puzzle-like to reflect a larger ninth image). The trick is: Two versions of the magazine are being published, each with only four cards. If you want to see all the characters, you'll need to buy the magazine twice.

Do you think you have what it takes to master the 20 fiendish levels? You'll throw down your mouse, you'll swear it's impossible, but the one thing you'll never, ever do is leave! Match the blocks with the blueprint to create 20 different buildings.

In Second Life and There, players or residents build the neighbourhoods and virtual structures within. They work in a similar way to the Sims games.

Both games are more like physical worlds which focus on social interaction over gameplay.

One Second Life resident called ReallyRick Metropolitan constructed the computer generated memorial for those who perished.

Within hours, virtual candles were constructed and placed around it, as well as other virtual tributes.

A clickable sign in the game takes residents to a Yahoo page where they can donate directly to the Red Cross.

A contribution system to turn Linden Dollars, Second Life's virtual currency which players use to trade in virtual goods, into to dollars is also being developed.

Sony wants the PSP to appeal to more than just gamers. It also plays films, music, and browses the web wirelessly.

The gadget went on sale in Europe on 1 September, nine months after hit Japanese stores and six months after the US.

Sony expects a million PSPs to be sold in the UK before Christmas.

Shops across the country opened their doors at midnight last week to deal with the demand from gamers, with many reporting that they had sold out. Chart-Track also reported that nine of the 24 PSP games which were available at launch entered the Top 10 official UK games chart this week.

Topping the chart was Ridge Racer, with one in five people buying the game along with the PSP device.

According to a recent study from Netherlands-based marketing agency JuniorSeniorResearch, video games have become a central part of the lives of today's children. The study polled 4,000 kids up to the age of 15-years-old (both boys and girls) and discovered that 61 percent play video games on a daily basis.

Interestingly, with all the focus on consoles and handhelds in this industry, the study found that a large majority (65 percent) of children prefer playing games on the PC. Also, only a small percentage (12 percent) admitted to copying their games from friends, despite the fact that PC titles are much easier to duplicate than console games.