As clearly noted in the below video, this is a work in progress tech demo from a sextet of CMU students that touches on some of the more superficial, but supercool, portions of running a D&D campaign on one of the world's more expensive monitors. (And, for the record, one of those students is the creator of the previously Kotaku featured The Science of the Mushroom Kingdom, so nerd respect up.)

Doubtful that I'll reignite my fleeting elementary school passion in playing a tabletop RPG or be able to afford a Microsoft Surface unit any time soon, but a cool application regardless.

Thanks to Theyab for the heads up!

Lots of people - young and old - were having fun dressing up as their favorite game or anime characters. Giggling catgirls and mopey Death Note obsessives wandered the corridors of the Excel Centre offering FREE HUGS and renewing friendships from conventions past. It was infectious, frivolous, colorful and wonderfully daft.

Best of all though - the inspired stunt-booking that juxtaposed outlandishly-attired nerds in one half of the conference facility with a thoroughly baffled Muslim Global Peace And Unity Conference in the other half. Surreal doesn't begin to cover it...

So, I'm reporting from New York City again this weekend and I was determined to come here this time and not spend a bunch of money and to try and be sober at least 30% of the time. In an effort to get out more, some folks I know here decided to do a little gamer meet up in Union Square Park. It was a lovely day; nice weather, cool breeze and scantily clad hotties everywhere.

As I approached the park, it didn't take me long to find the group of people sitting in the shady area, PSPs and DSs shining in the dappled sunlight. We stayed out for about three hours playing Katamari, Tetris, Mario Kart and Lumines. Being NYC, people walked by without noticing they were just inches from sunlight deprived gamers. Thankfully no one burst into flames, got sunburned or dissolved into a pile of dust. It was a perfect blend of nature and technology. You should try it. Just be sure to bring your shades and plenty of sunscreen. Flynn De Marco

A temporary public art exhibit called the "Tagged City Play for Real Players in Real Cities" details a "game" that would played by a "social network" of people with missions who basically hang out at a gas station, get tatted, and then graffiti the poor city of Plymouth, UK. Sound fun? The video didn't make it out to be.

Because it's "art", it can be interpreted in many ways, but it's pretty obvious that this particular experiment is trying to compare the solitary experience of traditional game playing to the non-traditional experience of life with real social interaction. That would be fine, but attaching tattoos and graffiti to an art exhibit? You're right, you art nerds are WAY cooler than us gamers, thanks for heads up! Kim Phu

Judgement Day for 1st Life Game Figures [We Make Money Not Art]

Take two wacky Asian boys, one crazy white girl, the world's biggest MMO and a SOMA apartment for rent and what have you got? Why, World of Housecraft of course!

This ad looking for a roommate surfaced on Craig's List a few days ago and has been subsequently taken down, but thanks to Digg and mirror sites, the image was saved for posterity. Not only is it possibly the nerdiest apartment ad ever, but also the most creative. Someone obviously spent a lot of time creating this image to entice a fellow Warcrafter into their home for fun and geeky times gathered around the glowing warmness of the computer screen's warming glow.

Why the ad was pulled is unknown. Perhaps it was a copyright issue or maybe they just found the perfect person to fill their little house with the geek love it so sorely needs and deserves. (click the image for a full sized version) Flynn De Marco

[via GayGamer]

The Preps:

Two pipin'-hot Bully trailers from GayGamer.net, the first extolling the Nerd clique, the second the Preps.

You know what this game should be compared to? Animal House. Raise your hand if you haven't seen that one. Uh huh...you, you and you, get the hell out.

National Lampoon's Animal House ranks among the all-time greatest school movies ever made, and stars John Belushi in his second-best role, right after Samurai Delicatessen.

I'm going to make a portentious prediction and state that the words "double secret probation" are very likely to occur within this game.

Of course, I was wrong about the whole beard-joke thing in Pirates of the Caribbean II, so my meter might be off. Still. Keep it in mind. Eliza "Bluto" Gauger

Is this getting old yet? I didn't think so, either.

Olskoolninja reports that he snapped this while stuck in traffic on Pensacola Beach, undoubtedly swatting fine mamas away from his sweet ride with a stack of twenties clothes-pinned to a Cuban cigar. Yeah, we know how you roll, Olskool.

Mr. Jetta is apparently not only Roxxor, but also a member of our proud armed forces, seagoing division. This fills me with pride, and I'd like to hear how a life of gaming prepared him for his currently lifestyle. I also hope he's driving the diesel Jetta, which is just a cool little machine. It has pleasingly industrial blue smoke and makes a noise like this: nurglenurglenurglenurgle.

Keep sending them in, gentlemen. Eventually we can compile the largest gallery of roadborne nerdery this side of the Rio Grande. Eliza gauger

I'm not sure any of you are gamer enough to be reading this. I've discovered a simple test to ensure that what I say here will not go over your wee heads. Says Aeropause:

So you think you're a gamer? Well if so you might want to take this 50 question quiz to see if you can cut it out here in the hard and gritty world of game writing where the streets are cold and the women even colder.

You heard the man. Get testin'. Post your results and grind your stinking triumph into the sad faces of your gamer brethren. Eliza Gauger

Ultimate Gamer Quiz [BitPit, via Aeropause]

In his series titled simply "Gamers (a work in progress)", photographer Todd Deutsch has produced a series of artfully-composed portraits documenting the slack jaw, slumped posture and terrible skin afflictions with which all gamers are intimately familiar.

Says the artist's statement:

Gaming is an overwhelmingly male subculture dominated by tech savvy brashness and role-playing games known as first-person shooters. Avid players take over empty storefronts and set up temporary computer networks for 2 days of nonstop video combat. The events are called LAN parties and resemble a cross between the rebellious bravado of a biker rally and the adolescent nerdiness of Boy Scout camp. Gamers often exist on contradictory fringes of mainstream culture. Their association with violent games brands them as time bombs dangerously close to becoming sociopaths, while their image as computer geeks and loners depicts them as sympathetic and endearing underdogs.

I ramble on after the jump.

The blue glow of wireframe spectacles in a darkened server farm. The vague smile accompanying a successful headshot. Energy drink cans and scattered junk food wrappers. A lone girl, seen distantly over the top of a Windows XP monitor array, as if being secretly subjected to the xenophobic Male Gaze of the viewer.*

I am reminded strongly of my middle school days, wherein I expended hours upon hours and the entirety of my allowance, glued to Tribes and Quake 2 in a seedy network gaming parlor downtown. Are these vistas depressing, funny, nostalgic, exciting? Were they taken at a single event, perhaps a convention, or over the course of days or weeks, gathering to gathering? How much of yourself do you see in these gaping boys? Eliza gauger

Entire Gallery Here [via Aeropause]

* I'm allowed to use this term because I went to art school for a year and a half!

Think you have the sack to listen to tunes from possibly obscure games, guess the titles, and get graded on it? I warn you, this guy is a hardass as well as a Werewolf: the Apocalypse LARPer:

I've noticed a lot of people getting incorrect answers lately because they are not giving complete answers. Mario does not count as a correct answer for any game that features Mario, and the same goes with any other series. Please read the About VGMQ section for details.

See? This site serves both as a geek litmus and a game music archive, with the catch being that none of the tracks are titled so you're just downloading blind. I predict Mr. DarkWolf's servers are going to take a pounding after this goes up; he's hosting all the files in mp3 format instead of MIDI. Be gentle, it's his first time. Eliza Gauger

Video Game Music Quiz [Garoux, via Buttonmashing]

Wow, people. This is one of those moments I'm embarrassed to own a PlayStation. Sure, I liked Final Fantasy VII well enough—never did finish it though—but there comes a time when one must take a long hard look in the mirror, reevaluate one's priorities, and put the controller down. Filmed at the Anime Expo 2006 in Anaheim, this anime nerd debate/shouting match is brief, but hard to stomach. The responses to this cosplayer's hot topic, "What video game of Nintendo has made you cry?" are also equally embarrassing. Michael McWhertor