“By far the most terrifying film to reach cinemas this week? Well it has to be Filth and Wisdom, because it’s was directed by, and steel yourselves, poor readers… Madonna! Yes, not only was she intent to stink up our screens with her odious acting, she had to go one further! It gets worse, though, because she roped Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hutz into playing a role sure to drive anyone to madness—the wacky foreign person who sounds a bit like Borat yet will reveal to you hidden truths about life and stuff and things!”

Halloween!

The Ontario Game Summit and Game On: Finance were a pair of interconnected conferences just held here in Toronto, both of which were largely interested in how to draw more game development to this fair province.

I feel like I should have more to say about them here, but I think the articles I’m just about to link actually do all the talking required!

OGS 2008: Della Rocca On How Sharing, ‘Clusters’ Can Strengthen Biz
OGS 2008: How Angel Investors Can Help Your Game Business
GOF 2008: Edery – Devs Need To Watch Advergaming, Corporate Training
GOF 2008: DFC Claims PS3 Unlikely to Break Even, PC Not Dying
GOF 2008: Is Digital Distribution The VCR Of The Game Biz?

“Anyway, who cares about our impending financial doom? We’ve got a joke about a celebrity. It’s about Angelina Jolie! The joke is that she’s in the film Changeling, where she plays a woman who embarks on a quest to find her missing child after the LAPD bring her back the wrong one—but who ever heard of Angelina Jolie turning down a free child, right? Cue laughter, applause, etc.”

Another Friday happens, another column posted.

“Wizard101 is an online virtual world with a 3D client. The title allows users to customize outfits and accessories for their wizard avatars, play puzzles and mini-games, adopt magical pets, and learn from seven different schools of magic – collecting cards, which can then use to engage in card duels alongside and against other players.”

It’s been a while since I’ve linked any actual games journalism on this site, but I’ve been pretty busy with behind the scenes stuff and (in particular) my current task of editing Worlds In Motion – where, actually, I’ve done several interviews recently:

Interview: GMG Entertainment On Pre-paid Cards’ Potential In Retail
Interview: Koinup’s Pierluigi Casolari On Social Networks for Virtual Worlds
Interview: Tandem Games On The Microtransaction Model For Web-Based MMOs
Interview: Lazaro Fuentes On The Green Latina Themes Of Hip Chicas

“‘Tis Thanksgiving weekend, which, to be honest, we plan on using to get through all of the video games, films, and books that we’ve had piling up waiting to be played/watched/read (if content is king, then we are absolutely its slave.)”

Not an exciting week for films, no.

“There are a lot of films out this week, and a lot of them played at TIFF. In fact, we caught a few of them at TIFF after their public screenings, so let’s take a break from our usual format and give them proper capsule reviews!”

Capsule reviews of Blindness and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist; neither of which I liked.

Also – I’m on twitter, now. I’ll be linking any interesting work related things there that I don’t think warrant a full post here – as well as other nonsense.