There's something about the simulated realities presented by video games that have made people who believe they’re the moral majority want to condemn video games from the very begining, and the controversy over kids being corrupted by games began well before Grand Theft Auto hit the store shelves.

Video games aren’t the original source of the scare, they’re just the latest in a long line of things blamed for inciting violence in the masses, as shown by the unfounded fear and panic surrounding Dungeons & Dragons in the 1970s.

Whatever the reason for the fear, game panic is here to stay, and this irrational fear is the focus of Jesse Walker’s piece appearing in the June 2014 issue of Reason entitled A Short History Of Game Panics.

-Via Boing Boing

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The Begun of Tigtone may sound like a strange title for an animated short, but it’s an appropriately convoluted title that conveys a lot about what to expect from this comedic short directed by Andrew Koehler of Babyhemyth Productions. It’s a parody of the dark fantasy genre, with the cliché anti-hero main character, the video game style questing, and the wizards hard at work wizarding.

The Begun of Tigtone is a really entertaining short if you like dark fantasy, and quite innovative in its own right since the animators used a form of 2D mocap animation technology that warped and deformed the character's faces based on motion capture data.

(NSFW due to animated violence)

-Via Cartoon Brew

For most gamers the mere mention of the title The Legend of Zelda brings to mind the iconic soundtrack from the original NES game, a diminutive pointy eared hero in green, shrub stabbing, chicken tossing and old men in caves who arm kids with swords.

The Legend of Zelda is such an iconic video game franchise that most gamers who have played through every one of Link's adventures feel like they know the game quite intimately, but as Gamma Squad has been rather fond of showing us lately there's a whole lot about The Legend of Zelda that has remained relatively unknown.

It's not safe to go alone- read 20 Fascinating Facts You May Not Know About 'The Legend of Zelda' and arm yourself with knowledge!

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You may remember watching the director’s cut of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and sharing a few laughs with friends, because the final version of the film was released as a comedy, but T40YOV was originally headed in a much darker direction full of murderous subtext and sociopathy. When the filmmakers tested the film with audiences they discovered that audiences laughed at Steve Carrell’s performance no matter how psychotic his character became during the film.

They decided to add some haha (LOL) bits and recut the whole thing as a comedy, and this dark secret ended up on the digital cutting room floor- until right this second. Watch The 40-Year-Old act as originally intended- like a psychopath.

-Via 22 Words

Austin Moore, a silversmith and architectural designer in California, has a large range of rings for fans of every franchise. He covers Doctor Who, Star Wars, Tetris, Super Mario Bros., Batman, and more. 

This simple Star Trek ring with the Starfleet logo immediately caught my eye. It would look handsome on any hand. It's not just a logo slapped on a ring of metal, but a balanced design.

Lighthouses in the Fog (BioShock)

Crest of Hyrule (The Legend of Zelda)

Interlocking Zelda set

I choose you! (Pokémon)

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If supreme leader Kim Jong-Un allowed the citizens of North Korea to play video games, especially those evil games produced by the U.S., he might appreciate all the hard work and grand imagery contained within them.

It’s safe to say, however, that he won’t appreciate his appearance in the new video game by Moneyhorse Games called Glorious Leader!...even though he totally should.

I mean, the game co-stars his best buddy Dennis Rodman and features the Glorious Leader riding around on a unicorn with flaming hooves, smashing through all Capitalist swine who dare oppose the magnificent Hermit Kingdom.

It’s like an old school arcade run 'n' gun, only much better because it stars the mightiest man in the universe- Kim Jong Un!

-Via Topless Robot

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Kids should not be watching Game of Thrones, which goes without saying to anyone who has seen the show, but there’s something about replacing the actors’ voices with kids voices that really works for the show!

Jimmy Fallon presented Game of Thrones with Kids Voices as part of his Suggestion Box segment on the Tonight Show, and whoever made the suggestion deserves a high five for pointing out what the show was missing all along.

Gone are the gruff tones of the manly men who star in the show, replaced with the pleasant sound of kids reading a script for a show that would otherwise scar them for life!

-Via 22 Words

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Are you tired of playing Wolverine with plastic claws and mask? Looking for a way to snikt snikt the right way, with a pneumatic pump pushing out a set of wicked steel claws?

Then you're gonna love watching genius/madman Colin Furze build these automatic pneumatic Wolverine claws, which make him totally ecstatic as he goes to town on some cardboard.

Colin's claw rig is truly wicked in both how it looks and functions, and the making of video does a really good job of showing how they're made, but you'll need some serious skills if you're going to attempt to make a set of claws for your own personal mutant revolution.

-Via Boing Boing

See alos: More dangerous projects by Colin Furze.

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When the audience at Coachella 2012 saw a hologram of the fallen rapper Tupac take the stage they were dazzled, if not a bit scared.

Seeing a hologram of the dead icon perform on stage seemed like an extremely innovative and original idea, but the whole bit was actually based on the old Pepper’s Ghost trick, which has been used by stage magicians and Scooby Doo style con artists since the 19^th century.

If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at one of the oldest tricks in the book you'll appreciate this tutorial video by Joey Shanks of Shanks FX/PBS Digital Studios, which shows you how to make your own Pepper's Ghost setup and try your hand at resurrecting the dead...sort of.

-Via Gizmodo

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Gilbert Gottfried has an unmistakably gorgeous voice, a somewhat brash manner and a unique method of delivering punchlines that's uniquely Gilbertian, and even though he has appeared in many movies, television shows and animated features he hasn’t lent his distinct vocal flavor to very many video games.

Thanks to Game Informer we can now see what we were missing when playing games like Skyrim, Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil without those musical Gilbertian tones in our earholes.

He may no longer be the voice of the AFLAC duck, but it looks like he'll be taking the world of video games by storm!

-Via Game Informer

His nickname may be the Dark Knight, but Batman usually has an intense, or angry, or coldly analytical look on his face, but the recently released photo of Ben Affleck in the Batsuit shows an emotional range that makes for a great new meme- Sad Batman.

Maybe he misses J.Lo, maybe he’s upset about the puffy muscle suit he has to wear, or he deeply regrets starring in Daredevil, or maybe he just misses his Matt Damon bromance days.

Whatever the case, when Affleck assumes the role of Batman he brings a newfound sense of depression to the character- which is hilarious!

Eat your hearts out Clooney, Kilmer, Bale and Keaton, there’s a new Batman in town- and he’s gone full blown Emo.

-Via Kotaku

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George R. R. Martin is now reaping the rewards of the millions of words he shaped into the epic fantasy series A Song Of Ice And Fire, but there’s one thing he won’t be spending his newfound HBO series money on- a new computer.

Martin is content to hammer away on a 30-year-old DOS computer, using WordStar 4.0 to create all of his works from the good old days of Wild C.A.R.D.S. to his newest epic fantasy, and he says it's all because he hates newfangled features like spell check.

His admission is bound to raise a few questions, chief among them for many teens- what's DOS?

-Via 22 Words

Once again, we have a scientific look at a fantasy that explains the utter impossibility of one of our pop culture icons. Godzilla in his 2014 incarnation is the biggest monster we’ve seen yet, which breaks the laws of biology and physics.

Since his first awakening, the radioactive, fire-spewing kaiju has grown 200 feet and put on more than 150,000 tons. Godzilla is now 30 stories tall and weighs as much as a cruise ship. No actual animal could take the pressure of being so massive: It would overheat, its organs would implode, and it would need to mainline butter to get enough calories. For fun, we surveyed scientists to help us break down the beast's biology. If Godzilla were real, he would be an incredible specimen.

Read the nuts and bolts of the Godzilla analysis at Popular Mechanics. -via Laughing Squid

(Image credit: Stephanie Godot/Andrew Rae)

When a kitten says this to you, it's devastating. Flickr member Wendy dresses her cat in different costumes, including the Doctor, Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, and Gandalf. You can see more photos of her here. Now we're here to rescue you, so let's get moving.

-via Fashionably Geek

Some of these names I really like, particularly Madame Maddass and High Krak Oof Mokmok. With so many characters in the Star Wars universe, the efforts to give them all names has reached into some weird corners. Savage Opress? I couldn’t believe it, either, so I looked it up.

Savage Opress was a Dathomirian Zabrak Nightbrother who became a Sith Lord alongside his younger brother, Darth Maul, during the Clone Wars.

A character in the expanded Star Wars universe, Savage Opress has an extensive biography at Wookieepedia. This comic is from Joel Watson at Hijinks Ensue. -via Geeks Are Sexy