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Welcome once again to our continuing anthropological guide to the ways of the modern gamer. You may recall thatlast week, a full dissection of the common or garden British gaming chav took over the whole chapter. Things return to normal this week, as I once again bring you a total of two very different and contrasting sub-species in an effort to promote greater understanding of their ways, and perhaps better prepare you for an encounter in the wild....

Looks like actor Shia La Beouf has no idea what the phrase “wrath of a Nintendo fanboy” means.Kotakureports that in a recent interview withBig Download, La Beouf (a self proclaimed gamer) had some snarky things to say about Nintendo’s little bundle of joy: (BD) Have you checked out the Wii Transformers game? (SL) I haven’t been able to play the Wii game because my hand is broken. I’ve just been playing Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3....

This past weekend, at the South by Southwest Interactive conference, Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka lobbed a salvo at the console industry, saying that their games are, “dying.” He suggested that console games cost too much and require too much effort to upgrade. Jeez. You make one ridiculously successful game and all of a sudden you’re the very model of the future for videogames? And you’re doing this from the perspective of someone making games for a fickle and huge marketplace?...

A final retail copy ofNew Super Mario Wiiarrived today, andas promised, the box is fancy. Unlike the normal, boring white boxes that most Wii games come in,New Super Mario Wiiwill hit shelves in a red box. It’s accented by the game’s fancy cover art, which while also in red, also features the Wii logo in a foiled silver. I repeat — totally fancy. To give you an idea of hownotfancy this could have been, I put the art sleeve into a plain old vanilla Wii box....

Rejoice! A faction swapping serviceis coming toWorld of Warcraft. Details and development haven’t been finalized, but Blizzard community manager “Nethaera” said that the service would function how we imagined: a player chooses a character he or she wants swapped and the game will spit out a comparable opposite-faction version of it. Nice. Nathaera went on to add that the swapping service will be regulated in a way that won’t interfere with stuff going on in a given realm and, naturally, players will have to abide by the rules attached to it....

If chilling with the crew that madeBorderlandsand delivering bullet infernos into creatures’ eyeholes is your idea of a good time, then it might be wise to hit a GameStop in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area Tuesday night (October 19-20th). Gearbox Software plans to attend two of the retailers midnight launch events, one in Plano and the other in Ft. Worth, to wait out the release ofBorderlandswith fans. But that’s not all. At the Plano location, plans are in place to have a 4-player LAN setup and operating by, or around, 9 PM Whatever-Texas-Is-On-Time....

Last year when I had a chance to see a demo of Sega’supcomingIron Mangame, I was told that the voice talent hadn’t been nailed down. This was surprising to hear considering the game is based on an upcoming film; surely the film’s talent would sign on to be part of this momentous event! Sure enough, Sega has announced today that the game will feature the voice talents of Robert Downey Jr....

A few companies are gearing up for the 3DS launch this year, and accessory maker Power A is one of them. They had a few different types of cases and even a full 3DS accessories kit to show off today. Power A’s Executive Case for the 3DS is a nice looking black slip case. Inside there’s two bands to hold 3DS games. It should be priced under $15 when it hits shelves in a couple of months....

I know it sounds crazy, but you can actually charge your portable gaming systems with thisnew bracelet charger from Japanese cool stuff maker Thanko. Siliconeraspotted this device, and they say that it can keep a Nintendo DS going for over 22 hours on low brightness. Or 7.5 hours on high. Or 4 if on the PSP. The bracelet connects to multiple devices by way of interchangeable tips, giving your iPod or phone some extra juice as well....

One of the coolest charities around (and the world’s largest game charity) has just kicked off for 2007. If you didn’t know already, Child’s Play is a charity organized by the fine gents behind web comic Penny Arcade back in 2003. Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins created it help the kids of the Seattle Children’s Hospital, but it also served to show that gamers are generally good people. Now in its fifth year, the charity has grown to benefit hospitals in over 25 states and five countries, and new partners are being added constantly....

Swedish developer Shortfuse Games (best known for their Xbox LIVE indie titleColosseum) has announced it’s currently developingAlive & Undead, a 2D brawler set to hit PlayStation Network in the fall of 2010. In the 2-player brawler players choose from Mr. Smith, a vampire Elvis impersonator, or Welson the “femme-fatale witch” hunter. From what it sounds like,Alive & Undeadsticks close to the beat ’em up formula, with the announcement promising air juggles and cooperative attacks to crush hordes of undead creatures....

A man who ended up buying a broken Nintendo Wii from Craigslist tried to contact the seller, only to find that his contact information was false. Of course. Having paid $250 for the broken console, the buyer contacted the police. Luckily, the buyer’s wife was smart enough to note the sellers license plate number earlier during the exchange. It turns out – big surprise – that the Wii console was a stolen one....

A handful of new tracks were announced forDance Central 2during the PAX Prime festivities. As it turns out, developers, your dance game only needs to reference Humpty Hump to get us to write about it. We go through a checklist every day and that’s the only requirement on it.