I’ve always wondered why the rules in Canadian contests always include “winner must answer a skill testing question”, but every time I think about it I forget to actually look it up. Well, just a few minutes ago the question popped up in my head again and I was working on the computer. Wikipedia to the rescue, just search for “skill testing question” and you get this:

The Canadian Competition Act bans games of chance, with the exception of provincial lotteries, and licensed casinos and charity events.
…
[Other organizations] take advantage of the fact that the law does allow prizes to be given for games of skill. In order to make the luck based contests legal the company thus adds a supposedly skill testing question.

It’s amazing what you can find on Wikipedia. A Google search reveals that Darren Barefoot wrote about this last year. I really should have figured this out a long time ago.

Guess the Google game – get a batch of 20 images and try to guess the search term.

Fun stuff. Can you guess the Google?

Link via The J-Walk Blog

Check out an interesting marketing spin off – Lego Star Wars. It’s a video game based on a toy based upon the first 3 Star Wars. phew.

According to Wired News, it’s not a very challenging game and is rather short, but it has good detail.

There are five or six scenes from each movie that you play through, such as a face-down with Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, or making your way through the droid factory in Attack of the Clones. The goals for each scene vary, but most involve jumping around, hitting switches and blowing enemies into their constituent bricks.

Different puzzles require the actions of different characters. For instance, characters with the Force can disassemble and reassemble some piles of Lego bricks, R2-style droids can open certain doors and fly across gaps, and — sigh — Jar Jar can jump really high. Just to mix things up a little, there’s a pod-racing level, and a couple of arcade-style flying shooter levels, which are marred by iffy controls and a lot of trial and error.

The real appeal of the game is seeing Star Wars characters rendered in itty-bitty plastic form. By the end of the game, there are more than 30 different little guys you can be in Free Play mode.

The good guys are cute, but the evil folks are just adorable. Mini-Maul! Sen. Palpateeny! Bite-sized battle droids! The programmers put a lot of work into giving the characters different ways of walking, running and jumping. The Jedi and Sith Lords even have signature lightsaber moves from the movies. As you unlock new characters, you can see them in the between-adventure area, milling around and getting in fights. If you ever wanted to see three tiny toy versions of Obi-Wan Kenobi fighting with a tiny toy version of Darth Maul, this is your chance.[Wired]

Available for many platforms. Here is XB Lego Star Wars from Amazon.

I spent too many hours playing the original Civilization game; I was never a hardcore gamer but I really enjoyed it. After a while it got boring and I never really picked it up again, I even tried versions 2 and 3 but they didn’t do it for me either.
Today Take-Two Interactive Software announced that they have acquired the rights to the Civ franchise and will be releasing version 4 sometime this year. They promise spectacular 3D graphics and all-new single and multiplayer content, but what I think is a good addition is allowing the gamers to create their own add-ons using Python and XML. If the amount of customization possible is good enough then the Civ community will have the opportunity to create a never ending collection of mods that will keep the game alive for many years. Maybe I’ll even play it again :)

Read the press release.