CITY OF FILMMAKERS:
I don’t know about you, but there are times when I can get sucked into the various video streaming sites looking at machinima films – movies made using the animations available in games like The Sims, World of Warcraft, The Movies and City of Heroes. If you’re someone who makes machinima, you might want to consider putting together an entry for the current City of Heroes/City of Villains “Get in Touch with Your Dark Side” machinima contest:

"No matter if you’re a daring do-gooder or a dastardly deceiver - everyone has a dark side, skeletons in the closet, secret fans of the N-gage ... whatever. We’re asking you to manifest some mischief in a Machinima piece, where games and movies come together, and win some great prizes while you’re at it. So when it comes to trick or treating, lay hard on the tricks, which shouldn’t be a problem with super powers."

The difference between creating machinima in a MMO like City of Heroes and a game like The Sims, is that you’ll need some actors to help you out … which makes it helpful that the Q Pride Prom is happening this weekend. If you’re thinking of making a fabulous gay-themed movie, that would be a great chance to meet up with some potential cast members. Just come up with something more entertaining than the “inspirational video” offered by the contest:

Sheesh, is it really necessary to make use of a yellowface accent when playing the Tsoo?

HAVE YOU MET CAPTAIN HAMMER?:
Can’t wait to see the team-up of Neil Patrick Harris, Joss Whedon and Nathan Fillion when Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog debuts next week? It turns out that Dark Horse Comics has revived their anthology series Dark Horse Presents on their MySpace page and one of the current stories takes a look at Captain Hammer, the nemesis of Dr. Horrible.

It’s only a small taste, so far, but as it’s less than a week before Dr. Horrible makes its debut, it should hold me. I hope.

Lots more Geek after the jump!

SO MANY SUPERHERO MMO UNIVERSES, SO LITTLE TIME:
Dark Horse isn’t the only comic name on MySpace; the intriguing DC Universe online MMO is also there. The game promises the chance to interact with established DC Universe characters and the possibility of the game being affected by whatever story is currently threatening to change the DC Universe forever.

The game certainly sounds promising … and if anyone tells me that there’s a 30th Century or Gemworld zone in the game, I’ll be rushing out to the stores for this one.

That's right, I said the "Gemworld".

POST-APOCALYPTIC GAYS, YEA OR NAY?
I’ve mentioned it many times before, but with Fallout 2 being one of the first gay-inclusive video games to come out, I’m wondering if similar inclusiveness will be found in the highly-anticipated Fallout 3. For a moment, I thought I finally got an answer thanks to the latest fan interview but it’s still up in the air:

Which of the following, if any, will be featured in Fallout3; Romance, Sex, Homosexuality, Nudity, Prostitution, Slavery, Cannibalism, Children, Child killings, drugs, addictions? And of the things that won't be featured, can you explain why they won't be included in the game?

It touches on most of those. Slavery, children, drugs and addiction more than the others, as those factor for into the setting more. In regards to nudity and child killings, no, it features neither of those, as they don't really add to the flavor of the game (I'll get into children in the next question more). I think if you look at Fallout 1, and the footprint it has with the topics you ask about, Fallout 3 is pretty much the same, in that it features the types of things you mention at about the same rate, no more, no less. Drugs and drug addiction play a larger role perhaps, as it's a key gameplay device. I think the heart of this question is "has the harshness and maturity of the world of Fallout 3 been tempered from the earlier games?" and I can certainly say "No, it hasn't been."

Is homosexuality one of the themes included under “most of those”? I’d like to think so, but I’m the cynical type who doesn’t want to order his post-apocalyptic same-sex wedding invitations until I know the event is happening, y’know?

SOMEBODY CALL THE DOCTOR TO FIND THE FANBOY OF 1919 :
I’m sure the word nerds out there (come on, there’s got to be a few of you) took note of the news that the new edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary added over a hundred new words. Among the additions is “fanboy” which the Mirriam-Webster people say first appeared in 1919. I’m surprised to learn the term goes that far back, but so far, my google-fu has failed to find the context for the original mention of the fanboy.

Machinima, however, is not among the new additions to the dictionary. I guess that one will need time.

SEQUENTIAL CHEFS:
Thanks to David Welsh, I now know that Viz recently announced that they will soon be publishing “the granddaddy of food manga” title, Oshinbo. The title is one of Japan’s longest-running series and follows two reporters who seek the ultimate eating experience. However, instead of publishing the entire 102 volume series, they’ll give us a seven-volume sampler, with each one collecting stories focused on a culinary theme.

I’m a sucker for food manga, so Ill be checking this one out. However, that got me thinging about how a good number of gay manga readers I know also seem to enjoy the genre – is there something gay about food manga? There’s certainly a bit of camp to how dramatic characters can get in titles like Iron Wok Jan or Yakitate Ja-Pan! and in the books’ outlandish plots … is that enough to give the genre some extra gay appeal? Are any AfterElton readers fans of food manga?

BEAMING OUT:
Amid all the spectacle of Vegas, there’s only one major sci-fi themed attraction – Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton. That won’t be the case for much longer, though, since the attraction will be closing on September 1. The attraction included two rides, as well as a Trek-themed bar and restaurant.

I enjoyed Star Trek: The Experience for myself a few years back. I certainly enjoyed how they incorporated live performances to make both rides more than just a motion simulator – it’s pretty cool to have actors in Federation uniforms evacuate you off of the bridge of the Enterprise – but I didn’t see myself shelling out the admission price more than once. Afterwards, I wanted to get some neon-colored drink at Quark’s Bar but everything on the menu sounded like they’d give me an immediate toothache. As one of those gays who sometimes likes to escape to the spectacle of Vegas, I’m feeling a bit mixed on the news. As neat as it was to have a place where the spectacle was sci-fi themed, I don’t see myself missing it … what about the other gay geeks out there? Did you get to see the attraction? Will you miss it?