Online game Evony has come under some serious scrutiny lately. Touted as "the game everyone loves to hate" by Ars Technica, everything from its NSFW imagery to its game design have been scrutinised. One particular blogger found himself in hot water last year when he received legal documentation from Evony's lawyers for commenting on the specifics of the game in a negative light.

Ars Technica recently published a particularly detailed article prior to being contacted by Benjamin Gifford of Evony, LLC, and Walt Yarbrough, the vice president of operations on the East Coast for Regan Mercantile. It seems that there just might be 'method to their madness' and the two Evony representatives had the following to say about the imagery and the 'scams' to get gamers to pay huge amounts of money:

"In Evony, you can do everything in the game without ever paying. Much of that is based off of the random nature of the game," said Yarbrough. "In many battles, you get awarded random items which are things you would normally pay for—or that you would pay for from a convenience perspective—but many of our highest-level players have never paid for the game... you can take any aspect of our game... and say, 'well, this is what I want to do, but I haven't gotten that item randomly yet, so the game is forcing me to pay for it,' and that's just not accurate... there's nothing that you have to do that you have to pay for." Read More

Absolving and punishing demons for their sins and the slaughter of babies in hell is just some of the game play content featured in Dante's Inferno. But what's fun for some might be extremely offensive to others.

It's no secret that Dante's Inferno has aleady had its fair share of controversy. ¹The INA (International Nannies Association) opposed the game after the 'Bad Nanny' achievement/trophy was introduced. They claimed that the achievement was "offensive to real nannies" and that it promoted "real-life violence". I think what people forget is that the creators of Dante's Inferno aren't sending a message to the world to kill unbaptized children or to cause problems for nannies. It's a fictional re-telling of a poem written more than 700 years ago. Is there such a thing as perspective anymore? Sometimes, I wonder.

So the religious undertones and the bad nanny reference might be unsettling for some. To be honest, if a group of toddlers with knives for arms were making their way toward me, I doubt I'd be asking if they wanted to play 'peek-a-boo'. I mean that would be kinda lame and not a whole lot of fun. Is the message (if indeed, there is one) in Dante's Inferno really as controversial as some people see it? Or is it just another case of people taking what they believe in a little too seriously and projecting that back onto the entertainment medium?

Dante's Inferno is one hell of a game (excuse the pun) and having finished it, I can't wait for the next instalment which allows you to play co-op multiplayer with a buddy taking up the role of St Lucia. Double the carnage! I think Dante's Inferno is sending out the message that nothing, not even religion or babies in hell can be exempt from being included as an entertaining way to let off some steam. I for one can't wait to go back to hell this April. Read More

The literary classic of Dante's Inferno, the first part of the Divine Comedy trilogy, has weathered time rather well. The story is still taught in many classic literature classes and the book is available at most retail book outlets.

However, it looks like Electronic Arts, which is already reinventing the story for its new video game, has gone a step further to come up with its own book cover for the original work, using the new Dante as the cover boy. The new cover trumpets the story as "The literary classic that inspired the epic video game From Electronic Arts."

The book cover appears to be nothing more than a huge ad for the game. The story is unchanged, although there is a new intro by the game's executive producer, Jonathan Knight, and a 16-page full color insert of artwork showing the monsters and villains.

This isn't the first time that EA has engaged in some questionable marketing tactics for the game. They staged a mock religious rally against the Dante's Inferno game at E3 last year. They also set up a web site for a bogus new religious video game called Mass: We Pray that later converted into an ad for Inferno.

The game is due out next Tuesday, and EA already has a huge ad spot purchased for the Super Bowl this Sunday. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.

An unapproved mod for a video game has made the list of the 10 greatest technology disasters, included on the same list with Apollo 13 and the Pepsi riots in the Philippines.

A new Digital Trends article entitled "Epic Fail: The Top 10 Most Terrifying Technology Disasters" plodded through tech history looking for the most horrific technology issues to embarrass or haunt its makers. Rolling in on the very first page was the Hot Coffee mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. According to the article:

Gamers find hidden surprises and Easter eggs (usually quirky in-jokes and references to past titles) in favorite video games all the time. But when clever hackers discovered a full-blown sex simulation known as “the hot coffee mod” built into Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, already-controversial publisher Rockstar Games suddenly found itself in really, really hot water. Boxes were pulled from shelves, industry ratings board the ESRB gave the game a sales kiss of death by stamping an Adults-Only rating on it, and parent company Take-Two Interactive ended up on the receiving end of a class action lawsuit alleging consumer fraud. Politicians like Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton even piled on, trying to introduce new video game legislation in the wake of the event to bolster their family-friendly images. Bottom line: Next time, it’s best to go with decaf.

While the mod may have been a nightmare for Rockstar, the game has sold more than 21 million copies, according to the company, more than 1/3 of that coming after the Hot Coffee mod was revealed in June of 2005. A class action suit settlement was rejected by The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 2008.

I guess this writer has a problem with the headline of the article, which defines the entries as terrifying tech disasters. The Apollo 13 tragedy and the riots that claimed the lives of two people in the Philippines over a Pepsi promotion were truly terrifying for the people that lived through it. Everything else on the list is merely embarrassing and costly, even if somewhat amusing.