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The rumour mill has lately been talking about an Android-based PSP phone from Sony Ericsson. While the jury’s still out on whether this magical device is real or not, I’ve been thinking about what it means for phone-based games.

That’s right, it’s all but over. The Florida Supreme Court today disbarred the infamous anti-gaming lawyer, Jack Thompson, as well as fine him US$43,675.35 to be paid to the Florida Bar.

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We’ve all heard of Spore, the game where you evolve creatures from the puddle of muck stage through to galactic conquest. It’s a very, very neat game! Unfortunately, it’s not a game worth buying, and the reason for this is (drum roll, please) DRM! I needn’t cover the details of the system that ruins the game, as various reviewers on Amazon.com do a great job themselves. Of the approximately eleven hundred reviews currently available, over half are one-star (the lowest rating you can give), and just about every. last. one. goes on about the DRM.

We've all played Solitaire. Except for the very youngest of us, probably played it with cards instead of (or, as well as) on the computer. It's a good way to lazily blow some time when you're bored and alone. But the game sucks.

Some sad news out of Australia: Rather than encourage adult gamers to keep up the pressure on South Australia's game and freedom hating Attorney-General, Michael Atkinson, Bethesda Softworks is modifying Fallout 3 for Australia due to the lack of an 18+ rating in that country.

In other words, should we tell countries like Germany or Australia to "sod off" and rely on the people living in those countries to agitate or illegally import and play computer games, rather than deal with their stupidly authoritarian censorship ratings boards?

I devised this quite some time ago, back when Fallout was new, and I had played through it once or twice. The SPECIAL system that Fallout used for play had this interesting turn-based combat system, where characters would have up to ten points per round to spend on various actions. What I've done is take off the cap, and have things move more "real-time" (in the strategy game sense).

On Saturday, I took part in a D&D launch event at my local library, in which 4th edition was demonstrated. Participants were given a d20 and a special D&D miniature (mine's an 11 point Elf Warlock, 4eGD 4/5). After we were given an explanation of the rules, all us participants got to fight a colossal white dragon in order to let us get used to how combat now plays out. After fighting the dragon (which we didn't have time to kill, but we did defeat), we participants were split into two groups to run through our Game Day adventure.

Sad news comes to us from Rock Paper Shotgun: Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons & Dragons, passed away. He was 69.

It was that great creation of his that helped open my eyes to the possibility of gaming. And not only my eyes – many of the RPGs we play on the computer and consoles these days owe much to Dungeons & Dragons, and ultimately to Gygax and his collaborator Dave Arneson.

Via GameSetWatch, comes news of Toronto's No Media Kings setting up what they call the Artsy Games Incubator.