Sure the US has a cool president right now but it doesn’t hold a candle to Japan’s Ex-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Not only did he impersonate Elvis on his last trip to the US but now he’s going all superhero on us by voicing Ultraman King in the next big Ultraman movie, Giant Monster Battle: Ultra Galactic Legend. He’ll be voicing the iconic Japanese superhero at the urging of his son (cool dad points too). His raspy deep voice fits perfectly to the King of the Ultramen. Perhaps Obama should take a passage from the book of Conan Obrien and try his hand at anime dubbing. Perhaps he can voice himself.

What better way to celebrate Obama’s inauguration than having him remove some limbs with heavy weapons and sharp objects! Impossible, you say? Not with this magnificent Obama action figure. Packed with 3 pairs of hands, a flag, a mic, stool and two ties, there’s not much this guy cant do.

Protecting the constitution? Pfft, piece of cake. Battling the dark side?

…easy too.

Thanks Pseudonym!

[Obama Action Figure]

(I endorse the Yellow/Green Space Invader)

Democracy has finally hit the MMO world. After a recent scandal in EVE Online, the space trading MMO, where insiders developers meddled with the game’s system, the developer, CCP, implemented a democratically elected player council into the game.

Called the Council of Stellar Management, the group is formed by players, elected by players. Could this be the tipping point for Democracy in MMOs? Not if you ask Jade Constantine, Andrew Cruse, President of the Council of Stellar Management:

And also, CCP, being a European company, is somewhat bolder and more imaginative/daring than most U.S.-based, big corporate clones that would probably be horrified at the thought of allowing their players to be involved in prioritizing development and holding the company to account for its actions. It’s not an exaggeration to describe CCP as a very unique entity in the MMORPG industry and it takes a lot of reckless visionary, daring to take the leap of faith they have with the CSM process.

And if something the global MMO industry is not, is daring. Otherwise we wouldn’t have ten thousand World of Warcraft clones.

[1up]

In these times of heated political discourse and twisted rhetoric, perhaps its best to look at things from a different perspective. How about an anime perspective? In the clip above from Yatterman, a children’s anime currently airing in Japan, we see McCain and Obama duking it out in the best of American political traditions, face-pulling.

For those who didn’t catch it Obama says “yes we can!” and McCain replies “no, you cant!”. Click the jump for 2 other clips with Obama-kun and Hilary-chan fighting for the candidacy… at school, oh yeah and Bill Clinton comes in too, looking better than ever.

Read more!

Microsoft and Rock the Vote are teaming up in an effort to get more young people to vote through the magic of video game console-based paperwork. Microsoft says: “If Xbox Live were a state, it would rank as the country’s seventh largest, giving it approximately 20 electoral votes.” Funny, I guess any two people on Xbox Live have just about as much in common as the members of a state population do. It’s still a bizarre statement though, suggesting that gamers are so out of touch with “the real world” that they don’t even live there any more. This conjures up ideas of a hypothetical science-fiction tale where “virtual states” fight for rights and independence against the denizens of the real world…spooky.

[videogaming247]

Jack Thompson’s famous wrongful death lawsuit against Sony and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City’s publisher Take-Two was finally dismissed by a New Mexico Appeals court. The case concerned a tragic murder by 14-year old Cody Posey of his father, stepmother, and stepsister. While the murders were blamed on violent games, the boy suffered emotional, physical, and sexual abuse from his parents.

While the case originated way back in 2006, it has finally met its slow and painful death due to a technicality. Simply, the plaintiffs failed to appeal the case after it was initially dismissed in December of 2007. Thompson’s had his fair share of fiascos in his career, and this makes things look even more grim for the once-triumphant archduke of anti-video game crusading.

[Game Politics] [The Escapist]

The Mouthless One has landed yet another title in her amazing resume, the Japanese Tourism Ministry just named Hello Kitty the tourism ambassador to China.

Japan hopes that the character’s popularity with children and women will help increase the flow of tourists to Japan.  Sanrio would have you believe that it’s diplomatic mission to China began months ago when a Hello Kitty inspired musical opened in Chinese theaters. However I believe it all started, and on a bad note, years ago when they started mass producing millions of pieces of Hello Kitty merchandise in China.

Imagine how many thousands if not millions of people in China have spent countless hours manufacturing stuff with the face of The Mouthless One! To them this new ambassador might seem more like a tyrant, a cute, pink, glittery tyrant.

[Associated Press]

A recent investigation at the Japanese agriculture ministry revealed that all that hard work their staff had been putting on the computer wasn’t exactly about making more geometrically modified watermelons. It was much more about giant earth-saving robots.

The 6 staffers this investigation focused on had apparently spent countless work hours editing Gundam articles on Wikipedia, about 260 of them. The staffers received a stern talking to (which is the Japanese equivalent of punching your mother in the face) and Wikipedia was banned from all of the ministry’s computers. Then a ministry official released the following revealing statement:

“The Agriculture Ministry is not in charge of Gundam.”

They should just send them to work with Taro Aso, the declared manga otaku and maybe form the Ministry of Gundam, it’s long overdue.

[Tokyomango]

Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate, seems to think today’s youth needs to roll up its sleeves and get to work if the US, nay, the world is to change.  Apparently we should all “turn off the TV and stop playing GameBoy”. Hmm, good news Mr.Obama, we’ve been gameboy free for a couple of years now!

Oh yeah that pic up there? I was bored a couple of days ago, sorry!

[Yahoo News / Via Joystiq]

I guess its true what they say, if you build it, they will come, and if you tax it, they will group. Some of the most prominent Gold Farming companies in Korea have banded together to form their own trade association. Called the Digital Asset Distribution Promotion Association or DADPA, their aim will be to lobby with the government as it tries to regulate online digital asset trading.

Game companies need to catch up and start doing some lobbying of their own, lest these gold farmers turn the scale in their favor.

[Raph Koster's Website]