In the future, the physical environment becomes little more than a wander-space for distracting ourselves through the elimination of holograms of our alien enemies. Or so this video would have us believe. FreddieW, a filmmaking duo based in Los Angeles, have concocted a vision where lonely Asian nerds spend their evenings in parking lots shooting at digital nothings. We'll be more excited when future motion gaming-tech involves not perpetuating Long Duk Dong stereotypes of sexual unviability. more ›

Bored housewives, teenagers, and grandparents in Liaoning got a special treat yesterday by being witness to the world's first ever Plants vs Zombies flash mob! The game, which is hugely popular here in China, has already had live action reenactment and tributes on comedy TV shows, so seeing choreographed and costumed groups of mobile video game characters in a shopping mall doesn't seem quite so strange. more ›

This guy obviously has no time (or need) for girls! An unnamed grandmaster of the Fruit Ninja arts unleashed holy hell on a series of virtual bananas, pears, oranges and grapes recently on the newly released Fruit Ninja Kinect for the Xbox 360. The game was made available for download on August 10th for $10USD, as part of the Xbox Live's Summer of Arcade promotion, and utilizes Microsoft's Kinect motion gaming peripheral. more ›

Bad news for those of you who were tantalized by our pictures of The China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference (referred to as ChinaJoy) last year. Shanghaii Daily reported today that the government bureaus in charge of the convention decided to place more emphasis on gaming than on cosplay and sexy outfits this year. more ›

World Joyland (环球动漫嬉戏谷, Huánqiú Dòngmàn Xīxì Gǔ) better known as the Warcraft and Starcraft-themed amusement park, has been the subject of massive speculation since the first digital rendering surfaced on the internet six months ago. An amusement park entirely devoted to making your online virtual nerd-topia a reality, the EPIC potential of our MMORPG fever-dreams made manifest led us to the park with pretty massive expectations. more ›

If your dream is to become a game designer and you’re looking for your lucky break, this is it! Shanghai Game Jam is a free event that invites 50 participants (of any skill level) to sign up, team up, and compete against each other to create their own original game by the end of the two day event—folding beds and meals provided. more ›

For those of you worrying over the fate of the new Lenovo-backed video game console, breathe a deep sigh of relief. After missing their November 2010 domestic launch date, CEO of Lenovo subsidiary eedoo Technology Jack Luo announced on Friday that the iSec, short for 'Sports Entertainment Center', would launch in the second half of 2011, and would only be sold outside of China if domestic sales topped 1 million units. more ›

The Wii had barely arrived on the scene when some enterprising Chinese company came up with the Vii, so it's not that surprising that a Chinese version of the highly touted game-changing Kinect (and Move) would be invented now... or, in fact, six months ago. While the name I-dong is reminiscent of some kind of virtual sex toy, its creators insist it is wholesome fun for people who like to move (爱动 - ai dong). more ›

Inadequate sleep and physical exercise aside, go to any Internet Cafe (WangBa, 网吧) in the city and—if you can even see through the dense cloud of smoke trapped by the locked closed windows—you’ll find empty soda bottles and candy wrappers strewn about. It is no secret: gamers don’t treat their bodies well. But cigarettes and junk food are apparently not largest threat to gamers health. more ›

Hey, some of that Expo advertising must be working - because it looks like at least one group of people have noticed Shanghai: video game developers who want to wreak havoc on its city streets. Hot on the heels of Army of Two, comes this multiplatform wonder, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. more ›

Finally, someone got the idea to use gaming to help students instead of shoving them into oft dangerous internet addiction camps. Zhonghua Vocational School, here in Shanghai, has begun the first ever "Online Games" class. The thought is that these kids can learn the valuable skill of working in a group, as well as boost their self confidence, if they play World of Warcraft with proper guidance and supervision. While I'm not entirely sold on the curriculum (there's got to be more educational realms than Azeroth - all it's ever taught me is how annoying Chuck Norris jokes can get), at least its nice to know someone's recognizing that banning these things outright is probably not the way to go. more ›

Remember that video game we showed you a while ago which featured Shanghai being blown up in a terrorist attack? Well, it's out in stores all over our city now, and over the weekend, we got a chance to play it. more ›

As part of China's crusade against pornography, the government has been offering rewards for tips on illegal pornography sites, and It looks like someone's cashed in: though the government won't release a name, they claim a student was paid 10,000 RMB in rewards for submitting tips on 32 porn sites. And what, you ask, would a student do with all that money? more ›

Whether you've convinced yourself that you're an adult or not, somewhere deep inside each one of us is a small child clamoring to be let out. And we find that more often than not, our inner child wants us to take him to the arcade- specifically, the Sega World arcade in the New Century Plaza right off People's Park. more ›

There's a lot to protest about in China: ethnic tension in Xinjiang, forced eviction and resettlement, and even gay rights. Now you can add video games to that list as well. more ›

• Barack Obama and Bill Gates endorse real estate in Xi'an [Danwei] "The developer erected four giant 10x6m billboards around the building, each displaying the portrait of one "spokesperson" coupled with a quote in English and Chinese. In the Obama sign, the quote of choice is 'The values upon which our success depends have never changed,' a slight adaptation from a line in his inaugural address: 'Our challenges may be new....but those values upon which our success depends, honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old'."
• Red tape to test transsexuals' desire [Eastday] "It was revealed last month officials at the Ministry of Health plan to set clear criteria for people who qualify for the surgery, as well as the hospitals and staff allowed to carry it out. Some in the transgender community, however, have raised concerns the new rules could be too strict [...] His fears center on the fact that, if the rules are approved, patients will have to prove they have had the desire to swap their gender for at least five years, and have lived full-time as their chosen gender for two years."
• A Virtual Game to Teach Children Languages [NYTimes Bits Blog] "Kids choose an avatar and pick a scene, like a castle in a fantasy land or a supermarket in the United States. They are confronted with challenges, like dodging flying monsters or buying fruit, all of which ask them to use English. If they hit a ceiling in their language capabilities, they go to the wizards’ library and read so-called magical books that teach them lessons. The company is initially focusing on kids age 7 to 12 in China but plans to expand globally, eventually teaching many different languages to kids all over the world."

We don't know what prompted a bunch of people to reenact the seminal video game, Super Mario Bro.s, but we're glad they did. Live Mario runs through pipes, snags a mushroom to grow bigger, hits a star to become invincible and jumps for the flag. The only thing missing: someone from the Mushroom Kingdom to tell him "Thank you Mario, but our Princess is in another castle." more ›

The show, which featured several other Shanghai performers, included what Houge self-described as “a sneak preview of a sound installation that [he's] working on, incorporating ambient automated filters and algorithmic rhythms.” more ›

Learn more about this project more ›

Before we begin, we'd like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of James Kim. We are not, by any means, trying to discount that tragedy by juxtaposing posts about the Kims with more light-hearted posts. It's the nature of doing a compilation such as this one: we're trying to give a full slice of the goings-on in the Ist-a-Verse: the good, the bad, and the ugly. more ›

What a weekend—the Shanghaiist Halloween Party was a blast! We loved the diverse crowd and friendly vibe. (Local residents, who contacted the police about the noise, were rather less enthused.) We’ll start planning for the next event soon — when we nail down the details, we’ll be sure to let you know. Any suggestions on places to go? more ›

Via p2pnet.net (and also seen on chinatechnews.com and Pacific Epoch) we learn that the Ministry of Culture has banned four video games: Blood Rayne II, Obscure, AV Mahjong and Kong Bu Lao Long (Horrible Cage). more ›

We wonder if there will be major brawls between basketball and soccer fans this week in Shanghai. We sure hope so! Because this week as soccer is being played inside Shanghai Stadium, basketball -- or, at least, some sexed-up replication of the sport -- will be played outside. Something called the NBA Jam Van starts its three-month, 10-city tour of China in Shanghai this week. Billed as "the NBA’s premiere interactive touring program" (there are others?), the NBA Jam Van will annoy soccer fans July 28-31, from 11 am to 7 pm daily. Here's exactly what the NBA PR people want Shanghaiist to tell you about it: more ›

Rainy season in Shanghai and sweltering heat takes many of us into the air conditioned confines of our apartments for recreation. Sick of DVDs? Why not venture into the newest home video games? (Shanghaiist sure has.) Now that we are all officially "victims of piracy," just blame the whole mess on those wascally Westerners, and gaming can be cheaper then ever. more ›