It’s easy 
to get absorbed in a game, but it’s another thing entirely to be so absorbed that you don’t notice the guy next to you has died.
Gamers in a Taipei internet café failed to notice the newly deceased for a staggering amount of time earlier this week. Officials estimate that 23-year-old gamer Chen Rong-yu had been dead up to nine hours before anyone realized it.
THQ 
is taking some drastic measures after a string of sales disappointments.
The game publisher, once the industry’s third largest, has laid off 240 employees and cut its CEO’s salary in half for a year, according to an SEC filing. This follows a recent announcement that the company’s stock might be removed from the NASDAQ stock exchange.
The Obama 
administration is embracing the gamification movement in a big way.
Constance Steinkuehler has been hired as a senior policy analyst at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Sounds like a typical government title, huh? Here’s the catch: She studies video games.
The circle 
of life doesn’t stop — even in the video game world. No matter how popular a game genre might be, it’s always in danger of becoming irrelevant.
Sometimes, that’s due to oversaturation, or perhaps interests have simply shifted elsewhere. While no video game death is permanent, several genres are in deep hibernation — and others are threatening to join them. Here are five game types in serious need of some extra lives.
The game 
that made MMO games a viable force in the industry is going free-to-play.
EverQuest will drop its mandatory monthly pricing strategy in March, as the game hits its impressive 13th birthday — though like other free-to-play games Sony Online Entertainment currently distributes, there will be a tiered pricing plan for players who want more features and content.
Nintendo 
might have a stable of terrific game franchises and groundbreaking systems, but when it comes to online gaming, the company is woefully behind.
It’s hoping to change that with its next-generation system, though, and started down that path by announcing a few details about the ‘Nintendo Network’ late last week
Microsoft’s 
Kinect technology has taken on a life of its own since its introduction 14 months ago. What started out as an amusing new way to play games is now being utilized by doctors and carmakers.
And now, theme park designers.
When you’ve 
got the right group of people, playing a video game online can be a blast. Opponents are evenly matched, the gameplay is never predicable, and you might even make a friend in the process.
Those sessions, unfortunately, are rare. Too often, online gaming brings out the worst in people. You’ll have to deal with tirades, cheaters, and griefers, jerks who get pleasure torturing other players.
There are plenty of bad habits in the online gaming world, but here are ten of the worst.
Once the 
most profitable company in the video game world, Nintendo is now swimming in a sea of red ink.
On Thursday, the company announced a loss of $623 million in the nine months that ended December 31, compared to $639 million in profits a year earlier. And the bad news doesn’t end there.
The PlayStation 
Vita won’t hit store shelves for another month, but some critics are already declaring it a disaster, based on early sales returns.
That’s quite premature — not to mention a bit fatalistic — but you don’t get to become a multi-billion dollar, multinational company without making a few mistakes. For every Walkman and Playstation 2 there exists a handful of other Sony ideas that didn’t ring true with consumers.
Chris Morris: Journalist 