Here's a collection of gaming news this past week to help tie you through a low, boring tech week. Yes, I know all to well that a new iPod shuffle came out from Apple, but I've covered Apple a bit more lately than I really care to. In short, I'll say this about the new shuffle witchcra- erm, technology: praise for the new physical size and capacity (4GB), a discontent 'meh' for using this VoiceOver feature (get over the narcissism and just put a simplified LCD on there like everybody else, I don't need any more voices in my head), and curses to the new control system or whatever that is they're passing off for one. However I would rather have this than the Mac Book Wheel that The Onion teased at us some time ago.
Now, without further disturbance let us get to the gaming news.

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First up, word comes from a Famitsu interview (via 1UP) that the letdown of capability in Nintendo products before the Wii (the Nintendo 64 and even more so the Gamecube) hit Nintendo fans and consumers and even some of its most famed developers, like Nintendo's golden goose Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Mario and Link). Miyamoto confessed to the editor-in-chief of Famitsu that there was “a dilemma in [his] mind” over making and selling a product that succeeds against the industry's competition, or developing games and systems that make you popular with your audience. He explained further how he was intrigued with the possibility to work with 3D worlds (Super Mario 64, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time) like the games of his industry competitors in Sony, Sega, and soon-to-be Microsoft, but was constricted to the hardware limitations of older-generations.
This interview with Miyamoto appears to be enough to identify this period as a time of puberty for the then-107 year old company (would that make the Virtual Boy its peach fuzz?). It's development team was troubled and unsure of which direction to take the consoles of yesteryear, and the systems themselves were more like boys among men, overly confident and ambitious in their abilities, but still standing a bit short in the family photos. That's not to say that these weren't fun times for us all, everyone had their fun. I mean, we all remember our first slow dance in junior high, right?

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Celebrity and movie star Vin Diesel may have a knack for video games, and he's been appearing as characters and players in them since the highly acclaimed Chronicles of Riddick title on the aging Microsoft Xbox and the action packed Wheelman soon to be released across both PS3 and Xbox 360. But Vin is apparently taking things a step further and graduating, and is touting his latest idea to Destructoid readers in an interview with Brad Nicholson: Barca B.C., an expansive MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, aka World of Warcraft) set in the days of 200 B.C. where you play a war idol and spend your time and resources on creating a world that is your own. Or, in Vin's words, “Creating an ancient world that is your 'Azeroth.'”
It seems I shot my “ambitious” wad a bit early on Nintendo for this article, because finding the funds, the development team, and the idea to challenge what only a few MMOs have had success with, and then following through with, is not a task for a Hollywood action star (maybe try public office?).
But what is scary, is that Vin Diesel appears in this interview like he knows what he's talking about: “We all know those games take a lot of work to create, a lot of funds. We are just in the first two or three years of putting it together. It could probably take another four years before we see that game. But it is something that is something very high on my priority list of games we’re working on." So now I'm more intrigued in hearing further updates about this venture, he is developing the game with his own company, Tigon Studios, which developed the well-received Chronicles of Riddick title I mentioned earlier, as well as Wheelman.
And for a moment of clarity, Barca B.C. is set in the days of the Punic Wars, where the Roman Republic fought the Carthaginian Empire, which Rome had won after three major conflicts.

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Lastly, let's take a break from excitement to recognize that the Utah senate had passed a game bill into law concerning the penalties of mature-rated game sales to minors (and R-rated movies, too) through retail stores and online retailers, or the policy of restricting sales. This law's purpose, penned by infamous anti-violent video game advocate and disbarred Miami attorney Jack Thompson, is to prevent sales of mature games to those under 17 as well as R-rated movies, only if you advertise that your business doesn't do so. Meaning, if you don't advertise an age-restricted sales policy, you're not forced to restrict those sales by law. Which kind of seems like a waste of resources to me, but I'm no law expert. Either way, this game law is expected to be overturned by the Supreme Court since about four other related laws from other states have had the same fate.