It’s time again for March Madness. For those of you who don’t follow sports, March Madness refers to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men’s Division One basketball tournament, which occurs during three weeks in March. During which sixty-five universities duke it out in 64 games. So popular is March Madness that The NCAA now streams it live on the Internet with a service called March Madness on Demand (MODD); and so ardent are March Madness fans that Comcast has sponsored a button on the viewer called “The Boss Button” which, when pressed, throws up a fakespread sheet, so that fans can watch while at work without getting busted.

Have you ever wanted to be able to play a computer game by just thinking what you wanted the computer to do next, without having to lift a finger – ala Star Trek, or Neuromancer? Well, now you can, with the release for sale of the OCZ Nueral Impulse Actuator, or, as some are referring to it, the Brain Mouse. (Can’t wait? You can order the OCZ Nueral Impulse Actuator here.)

With the release of Grand Theft Auto IV (“GTA IV”), the number of GTA Widows seems to have risen exponentially. Stories of husbands and boyfriends glued to the screen, spending hours on end drunk driving and killing hookers with their cars while playing GTAIV abound.

It’s long been apparent to our readers that we at the Internet Patrol are not exactly blind fans of online gaming. And we don’t exactly holding up gambling sites as paragons of Internet virtue, either. So news from last week’s e-crime congress in London, bringing to light a
case of the bad (a gambling site) being brought to its knees by the
worse (a botnet), has us pondering the larger implications.

If you purchased the game Grand Theft Auto SanAndreas, you may be entitled to a refund under the terms of the Grand Theft Auto San Andreas Hot Coffee settlement. Grand Theft Auto San Andres (GTA San Andreas) was shipped with explicit content which could be revealed by the third-party Hot Coffee mod. The GTA San Andreas Hot Coffee lawsuit was filed after children and others were unwittingly exposed to the Hot Coffee hack in San Andreas.

The Nintendo Wii is back in the news, being blamed for the closure of as many a 20% of Namco’s game arcades. And when it’s not vanquishing gaming arcades, the Nintendo Wii can be found going to medical school.

In response to the online killing of an online character who was part of an online group, by members of a rival online group, in an online game, members of the dead character’s group retaliated by murdering a member of the rival group – in real life.

Fans of the wildly popular on line Scrabble like game on Facebook called Scrabulous, which was created for those who like to play Scrabble on line, may soon be unable to play Scrabulous, if toymaker Hasbro has their way. Scrabulous, which was invented and coded by Indian brothers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, infringes on Hasbro’s copyright and trademark rights in that venerable crossword board game, Scrabble, and, similarly, Internet Scrabble, says Hasbro. Hasbro owns the rights to Scrabble and Scrabble on line in both the US and Canada, and their position is if you want to play on line Scrabble, then play online Hasbro Scrabble, at one of the Internet Scrabble sites, not Scrabulous.

You may have already heard about Free Rice .com, the place where by playing a game to strengthen your vocaulary free rice donations are sent to the hungry. And you, like us, may have thought “this can’t be real.” But we’re here to tell you that it is real, and FreeRice .com, the brainchild of John Breen, is fun, educational, and worthy! (What more could you ask?!)

Authorities in Guangzhou, China are reporting that a man has collapsed and died after playing online games at an Internet cafe for three days straight. According to news reports, the man collapsed after a “three-day Internet gaming binge.” Neither the man’s name, nor what he was playing, have been released.

Ask any 8-11 year old what Webkinz are, and you’re likely to get a rave, full of the sort of wild-eyed enthusiasm usually reserved for older Kool-aid drinkers. But ask any parent of said 8-11 year old about Webkins, and you’re likely to get a groan, if not an outright oath (and we don’t mean of allegiance). Because the Webkin rage – spawned over at Webkinz.com – is the newest avenue to online gaming addiction in children.

Of all of the nifty mobile cell phone games we’ve seen, this one is really nifty! Taking its cue from the Wii, this game utilizes the camera in your cell phone to detect motion, and lets you aim and throw lawn darts, in 3D!

I read an article this week about “virtual rape”. Yes, really. That would be virtual sexual assault on your virtual online character or persona. This is all coming out now because, I kid you not, someone from Second Life reported a virtual rape to the police in Brussels. And they are investigating it. Oh for pete’s sake, give me a break! How tenous a grasp on reality do these people have? And how the heck can there be “forced online sexual activity”? Isn’t that nearly an oxymoron?

Brian Tanner was parked outside his local public library in Palmer, Alaska, using their free wifi, when police confiscated his laptop. It’s true that he was using it to check in on his Internet-based game, Conquer Club (similar to Risk) – but it’s also true that Brian Tanner, who is 21, is a moderator for the Conquer Club portal, and so it’s not a case of some teenager with an Internet game addiction.

The new Nintendo Wii may have a funny and hard to remember name (is it the Nintendo Wii? Nintendo Wie? Nintendo Wee? Whee? Oui?), but it has managed to do what no other gamebox has done before – revolutionize game box gaming by incorporating genuine real-gesture remote control. It’s also got built in Internet wi-fi access, and Bluetooth.