Despite a well-documented obsession with LittleBigPlanet and its emphasis on user-generated content, our skills pretty much begin and end with penis-themed level design. This is probably why Sony has tapped New York's Parsons The New School For Design and not us to host a LittleBigPlanet level-making competition.

The event, taking place in New York City from September 21-22, aims to pit 120 students in teams of five against each other over a 24-hour period in order to see which group can create the best custom level as judged by developer Media Molecule, as well as members of the media and Parsons faculty. Winners will see their creation make it into LittleBigPlanet as "a specially branded Parsons section" of the game. We can't wait to see what comes out of the competition. As for the penis levels, that's something best left to the masters.

With the impending launch of the iPhone App Store promising to finally (officially) bring games to Apple's all-in-one portable, a Forbes editorial is again floating the idea that Nintendo's DS may be facing a threat to its market-leading portable perch. The editorial notes that the iPhone combines the touch-screen and microphone of the wildly popular Nintendo DS with the motion-sensitivity of the wildly popular Wii. Add in the support of Sega, EA and Ubisoft, along with the ability to download games wirelessly through the App Store, and you have the makings of a portable gaming game-changer.

The piece makes some good points, but we think we're going to join with The Motley Fool, MacWorld and ZDNet in the ranks of those skeptical that the iPhone is going to take the gaming world by storm. The reasons for our skepticism include the iPhone's high price point, limited on-board storage space and the lack of major announced titles (Super Monkey Ball and Spore will only get you so far).

The MacWorld writer probably summed it up best: "The iPhone, at its heart, is not a gaming machine. Not in the way that the DS is, where every design consideration is given to one task, and one task only: playing games." Hey, since we're already talking about wild speculation, there's always a chance Apple and Nintendo could just merge and make the upcoming "battle" moot.

While we're not sure how comfortable we are with our artificial intelligence constructs having human-like personalities attached to them, we are interested to know what affect those personalities would have on our robot overlords' videogame abilities. So we suppose it's a good thing that the Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence conducted a study to see what types of AI personalities were best suited to games.

The study programmed four artificial intelligence agents to play single-player Age of Mythology with four distinct play styles: aggressive, defensive, normal and neurotic, the last of which was saddled with ostensible drawbacks such as "irrational assessment of resource value" and "tendency to resort to extreme playing styles." Despite these drawbacks, though, the neurotic AI played itself to a perfect 7-0 record and, surprisingly, achieved wins 3-12 minutes faster than its opponent AI, on average. The takeaway from all this? If you see Woody Allen in the Xbox Live lobby, beware!

View - Study presentation slides (PDF)
Read - Study summary at Mind Hacks

Gamers in western Kentucky have one less reason to smile this morning with news that the area's annual gaming tournament, dubbed Gameathon, is likely in jeopardy of taking place this year at all. The reason? According to a report by the Bowling Green Daily News, the event's chief sponsor, the US Army, has opted out of supporting the gaming tournament, stating that the military branch has "other priorities this year" beyond support for game tournys.

Oh really? That doesn't seem to keep the Army from wanting to host this April's Halo 3 tournament over Xbox Live, nor did it stop it from throwing the branch's considerable weight (not to mention an estimated $2 million) behind the Global Gaming League last year. The Army had sponsored the event in 2005 and 2007, and was expected to contribute $5,000 this year, a burden that we guess was simply too terrible to bear.

The Army's decision strikes us as doubly odd considering that the event is something of a showpiece for America's Army, with the title sharing space with Halo, PGR, and Madden in the Gameathon's tournament. For now the event sponsors have begun to look elsewhere for sponsorship, while a post on the event's website appears to hold out hope that the local recruiting office will eventually be swayed to once again participate in the competition. We've strapped on our mental projection helmets, and are sending good vibes their way.

Vocal support in the industry for a single-console solution continues to gather steam, with roustabout game developer David Jaffe airing the case for an uber-system on his blog. On the surface, his arguments have some merit, but we feel the the case for a "unified" console begins to break down when you really examine it. If you will, let us play a bit of devil's advocate with Jaffe's case:

"We have it with DVD, we had it with VHS. We have it with televisions (in the sense that- for the most part- every TV is capable of broadcasting the same signal). So what do we lose by having it for game consoles?"

Jaffe seems to be forgetting that VHS only became the monopoly "standard" after a bloody battle with JVC's Sony's competing Betamax format (edit: brain fart). There was no consortium of companies deciding what would be "best" for the market -- competition simply decided that one format was overwhelmingly better for the price. Sony had similar near-monopoly control in the PlayStation 1 and 2 eras, and it was competition, not cooperation, that brought it about. And for every cooperation success story like DVD, there's a flop like Phillips/MCA's LaserDisc format.

As for television signals, they require a monopoly of sorts because of the limited broadcast spectrum. When you take that away, you get the channel-building, selection-expanding competition between cable, satellite and FIOS TV services.

A little over a half-year after it started, Tournament.com shuts down. The site allowed players to bet on matches in a "skill-based environment" and had the exclusive rights from Valve for competitive use of Counter-Strike Source. The business model failed because the company couldn't get people through the virtual door to pony up their real cash. Hardcore gamers being fickle about what they spend their money on? Yeah, this idea was a winner from the start.

Those who currently have money on the site are asked to contact the site administrator to get it back. Although the site itself says they're "temporarily offline," it's pretty hard to imagine at this point in time how a system like Tournament.com could work. Basically, any adult who doesn't have to stand on a chair to raise their IQ knows that they'll always be beaten by the 12-year-old who stole his parents credit card and does nothing but practice all day.

Yesterday we spoke with independent game publisher Gamecock's Mike Wilson about their alterna-plans for E3. See, a few months back the ESA dropped the hammer on the smaller publishers and Gamecock decided to do their own thing close to Min-E3 Although Wilson says Gamecock didn't have the time to fulfill their vision of making Kentia Hall reborn, they will be living it up with EIEIO (Expo for Interactive Entertainment: Independent and Original) in the Hotel California (such a lovely place) and holding a funeral for E3 on the beach where everyone (not just journalists) will be invited.

OK, so let's do the basics, EIEIO. For those who haven't been following this little saga, what is it and then give us a brief who, what, where, when, why, and sometimes how, of the event?

EIEIO was the funny little name we gave to the event we were planning for E3, basicially as soon as the time and city were announced for E3 late last year. Early this year we locked up a space to do an alternative event, similar what we used to do for E3, just for ourselves and our developers. And then when the ESA announced they were actually only inviting about thirty companies, and almost all of them were public companies, we were inspired to do something a little bit bigger to give a home to these uninvited companies.

But, unfortunately, this year we were unable to secure enough space. And with the ambiguous way E3 is going to be this year, it seems like it's going to be a bunch of rented out boardrooms and conference rooms at various hotels. I'm not sure our efforts are best used to try and set up an alternative event until we actually see what [E3] is going to be like. So basicially, we're going to be using the time to showcase our games to the press. We're going to be at the Hotel California [for the three days of E3], which is a great hotel on the beach in Santa Monica, sort of in the middle of all these bigger hotels all the other guys are at. We're going to bring out all our developers, we'll announce eight projects by then and we're just going to use the time to set up and talk about our games.

The World Cyber Games held their US Open video game tournament last week in New York. The two-day event had 68 competitors waging (hyperbole alert) fierce and epic battle for $20,000 in cash and prizes. Players competed in nine different games (titles and winners after the break).

We overheard that one of the most entertaining parts of the event was the coach for team MoB competing in Gears of War. Their "coach," Godfath3r, was apparently intense and entertaining to watch; when they played, the whole place would gather around and watch the show as Godfath3r paced back and forth behind his players, shouting at his team to help out -- and at the other team to trash talk. Some highlights include:

• "You CANNOT Handle THIS!" - 'We are the Number One team in this place."
• "He is hurt finish him, kill him, kill him, kill him!!!!"
• "Get SOME!!," said at the end of the match and followed by, "Go shake their hands!"

Anybody got the video? Screaming video gamers are always amusing. Especially when they're being serious.

[Via Press Release]

Similar to his previous Spacecute prototype challenge, Danc of Lost Garden has issued another call to programmers looking to flex their muscles. Using the provided tile set, designers are tasked to create a small-scale casual god game. Think Populus, but ... cute. Programmers send in their prototypes for discussion and critique, all in the spirit of making a better indie game.

If you've got the urge to get some game making done, most of the design document is at Lost Garden, you simply have to fill in the blanks.

Game Producer's recent Convince Me To Buy Your Video Game competition tossed the ball in the indie developers' court and made them argue their way into selling a copy of their game. Wild promises were made, editors had their posteriors smooched, and a few devs went so far as to brag about the game's actual features! With the post-contest fog starting to clear, three arguments emerged as the most convincing sales pitches:

• The Witch's Yarn by MouseChief made a sale by boasting quality illustrations, a real-instrument soundtrack, and interactive sitcom gameplay.
• The Code Zone convinced Game Producer to pick up Duck Tiles by offering several discounts along with ... a pony.
• Kudos to Cliff Harris for selling a copy of his game, Kudos, by boldly asking "Can I enter twice?"

A contest like this isn't the best way to uncover hidden gems of the indie world, as offering ponies says very little about the quality of a game. On the other hand, it is a good way for indie developers to stretch their PR muscles.

Although the GP2X Crap Games Competition ended two months ago, games of this calibre deserve to live forever. The goal of the competition was to prove programming skillz and overall manliness by creating the worst game evar for the GP2X. Entries have such clever names as Paint Dry Xtreme, Walking Simulator Extreme, and possibly the greatest crap game of all time, Run, Hitler, Run!. If you've got a GP2X and want to experience the lowest of the low, check out the full games list.

The winners of the competition walked away with fantastic prizes that make Bob Barker and his new refrigerators look like 10p and half a Toffee Crisp by comparison:

• 1st prize: 20p and a Toffee Crisp.
• 2nd prize: The bitter taste of defeat.
• 3rd prize: The even more bitter taste of defeat by the 2nd prize winner.

The results of the latest PyWeek game design challenge have been released! Several dozen games were submitted to the latest competition, all with the theme of "the only way is up". Winners were announced in both individual and team entries and games are available to download from the PyWeek website.

Winning entry Which way is up?, a puzzle/platformer game by Hectigo, uses levers to rotate the game world as you pick your way through blocks and enemies. The top team game, Barbie Seahorse Adventures, doesn't seem to involve plastic female body parts at all. Instead, it's a great looking 2D platformer where you play a seahorse trying to reach the moon.

Also worth checking out is Trip on the Funny Boat, an arcade-style game where you pilot a ship with a cannon over treacherous waters.

Tournament.com is looking for a few good beta testers and giving the participants $1 credit for every match they complete before the official launch later this spring. Tournament.com is looking to become a skill-based tournament environment where players compete for real money. Co-founder Marcus Pearcey says, "Much like golfers or chess players can compete against each other in tournaments, Tournament.com users can prove their skills and make some cash in secure, fair, competitive matches that reward winners with more than just bragging rights." Tournament.com has received the rights to use Valve games Counter Strike and Half-Life 2 for the beta, they plan to announce more titles after the beta.

Of course, this sounds just a tad bit like gambling, but Tournament.com insists this is skill-based competition. There is a list of locations that believe this is gambling and won't allow you to play. Competitors are only allowed to place $150 USD into their account every month to wager $1 to $10 on their competitions -- you must also be 18 or older to participate. The beta testers who receive the $1 credit per round need to use up their credit value before they can cash out. For gamers into competition, the stakes just got real. The $150 cap prevents us from saying that this is just begging for intervention. Tournament.com doesn't sound any different than bars that hold gaming competitions with buy-ins. Just make sure to check that the software is legal to download in your location before you go trying to pwn n00bs for cash.

Ohio University's Post Online brings us a story on the Ohio Game Jam, a competition among amateur designers who try to create the best game possible in only 24 hours. The winning title was developed in only two hours, which is still a longer development cycle than some commercial products seem to have.

Says "Event Overlord" Ian Schreiber: "You don't end up with Shakespeare, but you have some high levels of creativity because of the time constraints." By most accounts, you don't end up with Shakespeare even if you spend years on a game, so that's okay. And a quick-and-dirty contest like this is bound to result in ideas you'd never see in a game developed over three years by a committee. For instance, one of the Jam games used Chuck Norris's head as a projectile. We'd love to play that. But then, we'd also love to be called "Event Overlord."