Dean(ish)

A 13-year-old boy in China committed suicide about a year and a half ago by jumping from his 24th floor apartment. According to this article from AP via Yahoo! News:

The parents of a 13-year-old Chinese boy who they say jumped to his death from a tall building after playing one of the popular “Warcraft” online games for 36 hours straight are suing its Chinese distributor, a news report said Friday.

Zhang Xiaoyi died on Dec. 27, 2004, leaving behind a suicide note saying he wanted “to join the heroes of the game he worshipped,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

It said Zhang’s parents, who live in Tianjin, just east of Beijing, are seeking 100,000 yuan ($12,500) from Aomeisoft, the Chinese distributor of “Warcraft: Orcs and Humans.”

The suit says Aomeisoft failed to include a warning that the game’s U.S. maker rates it as suitable only for players above age 13, according to Xinhua.

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Would crapping myself be acceptable at this point? Why? Why? Goddamn E-muthafugin-3, that’s why! Seriously, now that E3 is officially underway there are TONS and TONS of new pictures and videos out for new Nintendo Wii action. (I still cringe a little about the name “Wii,” but I’ll skip typing that this time around.) The folks at Nintendo are geniouses; the Wii Remote is creating a whole new angle on all sorts of games - even Mario! - and everyone seems to be loving it. Check out Mario’s upcoming adventure, Super Mario Galaxy - click here to watch a live video.

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When I was in elementary school in Baltimore, we had an in-school arcade called the PAL Center. It was an effort to keep kids off the streets after school. I loved it. Of course, Donkey Kong and Arkanoid were some of my favorites - they were everyone’s favorites - but the game that I loved the most was Mappy.

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Frolf is awesome. André and I went frolfing today during lunch at Orchard Park, which is where we went on Saturday too. We’ve had beautiful weather here in Portland the last few days but it’s actually pretty cloudy today; it even sprinkled a little on our way back. Despite this offset, Dré and I had a good time. I think what I really like most about frolf is:

• it’s a portable game - it can be played pretty much anywhere, anytime;
• discs are reasonably cheap;
• frolf parks are free.

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