We’re 
just guessing here, but we suspect Jaxxyn Wood’s parents aren’t going to be telling him to put down his controller and go to sleep anytime soon.
The 12-year-old gamer is being hailed as a hero for saving his family from a fire in their Danville, Kentucky home last week.
“Ho 
Ho Ho!” turned into “No No No!” for tons of gamers over the Christmas holiday.
Several major online game networks experienced notable performance issues — and outright crashes — as a new influx of players jumped online.
Now 
that the last gift has been unwrapped, the eggnog’s depleted, and the obligatory family day is over, it’s time to play with your presents.
If you’re a gamer, that means tearing open some shrink wrap and losing a few hours (or days, possibly weeks) to a huge new game or three. After all, you hopefully have a little time off now to enjoy them.
You 
told your relatives you already had a copy of Grand Theft Auto V. You made it very clear to Santa that you didn’t own a Wii U, so there was no need to bring you Super Mario 3D World. But somehow, you once again ended up with games you either already own, didn’t want, or can’t play.
Now what?
To 
succeed on the U.S. hockey team, you have to have excellent skating skills, tremendous stick control, and a wicked slapshot.
It also helps to be really, really good at Asteroids.
Another 
year is nearly in the books, and for gamers, it was a biggie.
Sony and Microsoft released their long-awaited next generation systems. Rockstar Games didn’t just break records, it blew them to smithereens. Players saw tons of new avenues open up, while an increasingly connected world brought plenty of headaches.
The 
staple of the Sunday newspaper made it to the century mark.
On Dec. 21, 1913, New York World published the world’s first crossword puzzle. One hundred years later, the paper is a distant memory, but the puzzles live on.
Embattled 
NSA leaker Edward Snowden has one high tech defender: Mark Pincus.
The founder of Zynga (and current chief product officer and chairman) reportedly asked President Obama to pardon Snowden at a face to face meeting yesterday. The president rejected the suggestion, according to CNN.
The 
Wii U may not be getting tons of attention this holiday season, but that’s not stopping Nintendo from playing Santa Claus.
In a Nintendo Direct broadcast Wednesday, company president Satoru Iwata and Nintendo of America chief Reggie Fils-Aime revealed a number of surprises and updates for both the Wii U and the 3DS — and even delivered some of them to players immediately.
Mobile 
gamers were on a sugar rush in 2013.
Apple has released its lists of the top apps of the year, and no surprise here: Candy Crush Saga was the hands-down winner. King’s addictive social/mobile was downloaded more than any other free app in the company’s iTunes app store, topping both the iPhone and iPad lists.
Chris Morris: Journalist 