Firaxis Studios, the home of video game legend Sid Meier 
and the developer of the forthcoming title “Civilization V,” is the latest game maker to face significant staff cuts.
The studio on Wednesday laid off 20 developers as part of what parent company Take Two Interactive Software calls a “realignment of development resources at the studio.”
Trolls are pretty common in the online game “World of Warcraft.” Unfortunately, they’re pretty common on the game’s message boards as well.
Trolls, slang for people who haunt Internet forums and rip into other posters for seemingly innocuous statements, tend to ruin the fun for other players, who are sometimes seeking help or looking to start conversations.
Facing an onslaught of negative feedback from players, Blizzard Entertainment has reversed its decision to require users to use their real names in forum postings. Since announcing the new policy earlier this week, fans of Blizzard games have complained loudly, pointing out that they enjoy the company’s products because it represents an imaginary world in which they can escape reality.
Hulu is finally expanding beyond your PC’s monitor, but
if you want to take advantage of the service, it’s going to cost you. For the past week, we’ve been running Hulu Plus, the site’s subscription service, through its paces as it ramps up for a broad launch. And we’ve come to a few preliminary conclusions.
We say preliminary since this is a service that’s still in beta – and there’s still time to improve some of the bugs. On the whole, though, Hulu Plus is a content-packed service that gets a lot of things right. And its portability, especially via the iPad, is a welcome and long overdue feature that might be enough to get some people to pony up the $10 monthly charge. It’s far from perfect, though, and there are a few stumbling blocks that could keep others sitting on the fence even after Hulu opens the service up to everyone.
Significant staff cuts have hit Firaxis Studios, the 
home of gaming legend Sid Meier and developer of the forthcoming “Civilization V”. The studio has laid off 20 developers as part of what parent company Take Two Interactive Software calls a “realignment of development resources at the studio”.
That works out to roughly 15 percent of the company’s employees, if recent staffing estimates are correct. The company says the layoffs will not affect ongoing development of “Civ 5” or the upcoming “Civ” Facebook game.
There’s nothing wrong with tightly-scripted video games, but
sometimes, you just want to mess around without stressing so much about reaching the next level. If you’re looking for that kind of wide-open adventure — where gamers can explore and progress without restrictions — try roaming about in these terrific titles.
While they’ve always been interactive, video games began 
as very narrative forms of entertainment. After an initial cut scene, setting the stage for the game, you’d receive your first orders and set off on your first mission. From there, you’d be instructed to do something else – and the cycle would continue until you reached the end of the game.
Storylines are still a core part of titles, of course, but more and more, developers are letting you explore the worlds they create when and how you want – letting you roam at will, performing non-essential missions that boost your enjoyment of the game and extend your playable hours.
Microsoft has always led the video game pack 
when it comes to online integration of its console services. But it recently turned a particularly impressive corner.
For the year ending June 30, sales of online products, such as movies, TV shows and downloadable game levels, were higher than revenue generated by subscription fees. Together, the company estimates that revenue for the Xbox Live service topped $1 billion.
There are a lot of “Best of show” awards given out 
at E3, but none carry the weight of the Game Critics Awards. Respected journalists from major publications team together for these honors, voting on the best games and hardware collectively.
This year’s winners have been announced – and it’s Nintendo’s 3DS handheld gaming system that walked away with the “Best of Show” award. id Software’s “Rage” and Valve’s “Portal 2” both earned multiple awards in sub-categories. (In order for a game to be eligible for an award, publishers are required to give judges hands-on time with the E3 demo. This is to ensure that games are actually playable and not just canned video presentations.)
The Internet is a fascinating thing. Under the cloak 
of anonymity, people often toss off societal niceties and gleefully rip into each other with abandon. No subject is taboo and the most innocent comment (i.e. “Boy, I’m really enjoying this game…”) can make you the subject of some brutal retorts.
Leave it to Blizzard Entertainment, arguably the biggest game developer in the industry, to try to tame the wild, wild west that is the online forum. The company has announced a new policy to its forums, informing users that starting July 27, all posts will be made using a person’s real-life first and last names.
Chris Morris: Journalist 