Salon.com > games

Cast of “The Hobbit” gets erotic

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 20:00:00 +0000

In the best "Hobbit" interview you will ever watch, Andy Serkis (Gollum) admits that he would have sex with the Eye of Sauron, Martin Freeman (Bilbo Baggins) rationalizes why he would have relations with an Orc, and Sir Ian McKellen says he would marry his own character, Gandalf.

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h/t Vulture

How consumer brainwashed are you?

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 19:54:00 +0000

For his 15th birthday, I gave my son an iPod Touch, a piece of technology that would have seemed like the purest magic to me when I was his age. He likes it, a lot, and I like to watch him use it a lot, because paying attention to how teenagers interact with modern consumer technology is an endlessly fruitful way to learn about where the intersecting forces of capital and entertainment will push society next. But even with long experience at this voyeuristic style of technology journalism, I was a little taken aback when I saw what he was doing with his new favorite toy last Sunday.

He was playing Logos Quiz, a game that is based primarily on the ability to identify corporate logos.

I was appalled and amazed. We've all become quite used to product placement in our entertainment, to living in a world in which TV shows like, say, "Hawaii 5-0" don't even try to hide their primary function as vehicles for Victoria's Secret and Microsoft Surface marketing campaigns. But to make the ability to recognize a brand into the product itself -- that's pure genius. A 15-year-old's attention span in 2012 is perhaps the most fickle thing to ever exist on this planet -- to see my son trying to guess whether a certain squiggle signified BMW or Mercedes Benz was astonishing.

Edward Norton, Snoop Dogg to play “Words with Friends” for charity

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 12:43:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Look out, Alec Baldwin.

Edward Norton, Jonah Hill, Snoop Dogg and several other stars are slated to play in a celebrity tournament of the popular online game "Words With Friends" for charity. The celebs will begin facing off against each other in matches of Zynga's Scrabble-like word-building game on Thursday.

Norton, who is playing for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Fund, is confident that he will dominate the tournament, which also includes such celebrity players as Eva Longoria, Kristen Bell and John Legend — but not Baldwin — vying for $500,000 in prize money for their charities from American Express.

"I have to give myself time-outs on 'Words With Friends,'" said Norton in a telephone interview Monday. "I've gone through phases where I'm like, 'What am I doing? This is much too much of my day.'"

"Words With Friends" players will be able to join their favorite stars' teams during the "Words With Friends Celebrity Challenge," as well as watch the celebrity matchups online and donate to their charities through Norton's fundraising site, CrowdRise.com.