The title says it all. The US Navy is building on their Massive Multiplayer Online War Game Leveraging the Internet (MMOWGLI) to seek solutions for combatting piracy.

“We want to test this proposition: can you get a crowd to provide you with good information?” Larry Schuette, the director for innovation at the Office of Naval Research, the Navy’s mad scientists, asks Danger Room. “Is the wisdom of the crowd really that wise?”

In a purely self-indulgent move I have started a podcast and blog called Not Your Mama's Gamer which focuses on video games from a feminist perspective. I co-host the podcast with two smart and funny women (Alex Layne and Sarah White) and we've been having a ball. We have done 3 episodes and quite a few blog posts already and our fourth podcast is coming up this week. Feel free to check us out and let us know what you think.

Here's an interesting intellectual property case: Sony's Playstation 3 first-person action shooter game, Resistance: Fall of Man, has tread where angels usually go--and the Dean and Canons of Manchester Cathedral aren't happy about it. The interior of the British cathedral has been digitally represented in the game, and players can engage in violent virtual acts within.

Clive Thompson over at Wired's Games Without Frontiers asks the question how is the generation of Dads who grew up playing video games making decisions about what video games to let their kids play?

I like the "Lego Rule" strategy offered to Clive by Wired editor in chief Chris Anderson,

The Lego Company, it seems, has a policy of not producing toys that replicate 20th century weapons. "You can have swords, and you can have laser guns in space, but no actual 20th century guns," Anderson says. So his four children can play games like Halo, since it contains only futuristic, fantasy war, where you're killing only green- or blue-blooded aliens. The same goes for Roman swordplay titles. "But it clearly walls off Grand Theft Auto."

And like Clive, I'm worried, too, about the problem of video game addiction. Maybe, as a sometime gamer, I'll be better equipped to help my son to avoid video game addiction. Certainly, it is important to limit video game time for any age child and to help them understand how to properly prioritize video games within other responsibilities and interests.

For those of you interested in this topic, also see the comments for Clive's post.