Jonathan Lee Riches is a South Carolina inmate that spends his time behind bars filing outrageous lawsuits. He once filed a suit claiming Venus and Serena Williams wanted to eat his head, and another where he said Barry Bonds used Hank Aaron’s bat to crack the Liberty Bell. He’s filed against Bill Belichick, Michael Vick, and Jeff Gordon along with Steve Jobs and President Bush.

In his latest attempt to sue somebody or something Riches is targeting online game World of Warcraft.

From The Register:

“World of Warcraft caused Riches mind to live in a virtual universe, where Riches explored the landscape committing identity theft and fighting cyber monster rival hacker gangs,” the filing asserts.

“Riches was addicted to video games and lost touch with reality because of defendants. This caused Riches to commit fraud to buy defendant’s video games.”

He adds that he chose World of Warcraft over “working a legit job” and that his “mind became a living video game.”

You can check out Riches’ entire motion here if you’re in the mood to read through the handwritten ramblings of a madman. But don’t completely rule out everything he’s saying.

Take admitted World of Warcraft junkie Curt Schilling. From the outside looking in it seems that Schill’s mind is in a virtual universe where he thinks we give a damn about his every thought. And with his Copernicus video game Curt has chosen video games over working a legit job. I hope Riches’ case makes it to court and he calls Curt Schilling as his first witness.

Of course Game came out with a football helmet on. It was the corniest thing he could do. I can’t knock him though. Technically he skunked Bow Wow 21-0, but they kept playing and the final score was 55-23. Game challenges Dwyane Wade and Ocho Cinco to a game of Madden at the end of the video. I can’t see D-Wade doing it, but I’m surprised Chad 8 5 hasn’t posted a YouTube video accepting the challenge already.

Bow Wow should try to win some lunch money off of this kid:

Seeing Tiger putt the cube like that makes me believe it.. A little. For all I know EA Sports could have faked the behind scenes too.

Many of you are probably shocked to see Tiger Woods walking on water, but if you had listened to Tiger’s father Earl, you would have known this was coming.

“Tiger will do more than any other man in history to change the course of humanity. … He is the Chosen One. He’ll have the power to impact nations. Not people. Nations.”

Cool. Tiger Woods is gonna break us out of the Matrix. Good to see he wasn’t under any pressure growing up. Since he can walk on water why wouldn’t he use his magic Tiger powers to heal his knee?

Here’s the original “Jesus Shot” from the Tiger Woods 08 video game:

Tiger Woods, walking on water, video, youtube

EA Sports combined random fans, NFL stars, Kimbo Slice, and bagpipes playing Amazing Grace in this commercial for the 20th edition of Madden football. The game’s Tuesday release helped shares of EA jump 2.2%, and guaranteed that video game junkies will remain without girlfriends through the winter.

Madden, EA Sports, commercial, Kimbo Slice

I’m usually on the side of a young athlete that wants to turn pro. I have no problem with people like Freddy Adu, LeBron James, or Sidney Crosby passing on school to earn money playing a game they love. In the case of Blake Peebles, I think he needs to stay in school.

Blake is 16 years old and wants to play video games for a living. He turned pro in September 2007 with his parents blessing.

Blake is so dedicated to gaming that his parents let him quit school so he can better concentrate on it.

They pay for home tutors instead. Mom and Dad do this, even though there are very few people in this country who make their living playing competitive video games.

It sucks for Blake’s older brother and younger sister who still have to go to class at an actual school while Blake is chillin at home smoking weed and playing video games. I’m sure the kid is putting in plenty of time with his tutors seeing as his parents, Mike and Hunter Peebles, are very strict and unbending.

That is not to say that it was an easy decision for them to let Blake leave school last September. They would have preferred that he stay in high school with his brother. But he bugged them until they let him quit.

“We couldn’t take the complaining anymore,” says Hunter. “He always told me that he thought school was a waste of time.”

Blake’s mastered Guitar Hero and has brought in around 1000 bucks worth of prizes in the short time he’s been a pro. If he becomes one of the top gamers in the world he can expect to pull in 80k+ a year. Not bad for a high school dropout. I expect to see Blake and his parents on Outside the Lines as Bob Ley and crew attempt to get to the bottom of this disturbing trend.

video games, guitar hero, professional gamer, high school dropout

The first beer pong game for the Nintendo Wii, Game Party, was introduced last year and it was received pretty well. The second beer pong game for Nintendo Wii, Frat Party, has not been met with the same enthusiasm.

“Frat Party Games-Beer Pong” has come under fire from school coalitions, a state attorney general, and now Nintendo has succumbed to the pressure. The founders of JV Games (and creators of Frat Party) aren’t happy.

Their game, originally titled Frat Party Games – Beer Pong, was renamed to the more family friendly Frat Party Games – Pong Toss.

This conflicts with some of Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime’s statements last year about how “Nintendo will not do any screening of ideas” on WiiWare. JV Games co-founder Vince Valenti recalls how they “had a little discussion with Nintendo and there were some angry parties.” The two founders were shocked by Nintendo’s reaction. As Valenti puts it, his company’s use of the word “beer” was “just like you would hear in any movie or on TV.” Co-founder Jag Jaeger said they “wanted to focus on the sport of beer pong, not the alcohol that’s associated with it.”

It’s weak for Nintendo to force changes to the game just because some people got upset. All of the shoot ‘em up video games get endless criticism and yet they keep cranking them out. And even with the changes the game is still beer pong whether you say it in the title or not.

Nintendo Wii, Beer Pong, video games, frat party

Microsoft won’t be happy until everybody in the world is hooked up to one of their products 24 hours a day. They’re hoping to turn us into a planet of cyborgs with every man, woman, and child walking around staring at screens instead of sitting at home.. staring at screens.

The Hotel Sax in Chicago teamed up with Microsoft to show what the homes and hotels of tomorrow will look like today.

You gotta admit that the Hotel Sax setup is a whole lot better than the traditional Nintendo DS/Pay-Per-Porn options. At the same time, I would never get anything done if I was staying there. How could I? XBox’s and hot chicks at every turn and they’ve got neon lights. Everybody knows it’s goin down when they see neon lights.

Microsoft, XBox, Video Games, Hotel Sax

The country is experiencing a major financial crunch but that’s not stopping Americans from spending billions of dollars on electronic relaxation. March of 2008 saw $1.7 billion in sales of video games and gaming consoles, a 600 million dollar increase over the $1.1 billion from March of last year. A lot of the credit can go to the release of new titles.

From GameSpot:

Software sales for the month were up 63 percent year-over-year to $945.6 million. To put that figure in perspective, last March–a month that saw the release of God of War II on the PlayStation 2 and Guitar Hero II on the Xbox 360–only managed $957 million with software and hardware sales combined. While catalog titles like Wii Play, Rock Band, and Call of Duty 4 have driven game sales so far this year, March was dominated by new games.

The overall 2008 numbers will get another boost when Grand Theft Auto IV and Madden are released. Here are the top selling games for March:

TOP-SELLING SOFTWARE – MARCH 2008
Title / Publisher / Release Date / Units
1) Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) / Nintendo / March 2008 / 2.7M
2) Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2* (360) / Ubisoft / March 2008 / 752.3K
3) Army of Two (360) / Electronic Arts / March 2008 / 606.1K
4) Wii Play w/ Remote (Wii) / Nintendo / Feb. 2007 / 409.8K
5) God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP) / Sony / March 2008 / 340.5K
6) Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP) / Square Enix / March 2008 / 301.6K
7) Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) / Activision / Oct. 2007 / 264.1K
8) MLB 2K8 (360) / Take-Two Interactive / March 2008 / 237.1K
9) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare* (360) / Activision / Nov. 2007 / 237K
10) Army of Two (PS3) / Electronic Arts / March 2008 / 224.9K

On top of having three games in the top 10, Nintendo’s Wii and DS outsold the PSP, Xbox, PS3, and PS2 combined. The Wii is too goofy for my taste, but it looks like I’m in the minority with that opinion.

NPD: March game sales skyrocket 57 percent. Courtesy of GameSpot

Tags: video games, Nintendo Wii, sales, economy

When I was a kid, a library wasn’t the place to be. You only went there if you had to do a book report, or to hide out. Times are a changin, especially in Ohio.

Registration begins Monday for the Akron-Summit County Public Library’s third-annual Madden NFL PlayStation 2 video game competition.

The Madden Madness tournament will be Jan. 5-26 at all branch libraries. The top two finalists from each branch will compete at the main library at 11:30 a.m. Jan. 26 until the Madden Madness Super Bowl Champ is crowned. The public is invited to cheer for the participants at the finals.

What’s funnier; a library having a Madden tournament or a library having it’s 3rd annual Madden tournament? I don’t know the literacy rates for the Akron-Summit county area, but since the libraries are throwing in the towel, I’m guessing they’re not good..

When I was first heard about this, I thought it was kind of a good idea.. Lure the kids in with video games, and then hit em in the head with books.. But as I read on I found out the contest isn’t promoting reading in any way, and there’s no age limit. That means libraries in Ohio are gonna look like ESPN’s Madden Nation.. A bunch of dorks with lame nicknames wearing NFL jerseys. The only difference is, when the Ohioans get on the bus, it’ll be to go home.

Library plans ‘Madden NFL’ video game contest. Courtesy of Ohio.com

Tags: Madden, Madden Nation, NFL, Video Games, Illiteracy