If You're Going to Ride a Virtual Reality Roller Coaster, Sit Down First: VIDEO

I've posted videos of folks trying the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset before.

Have a look at the hilarity (and potential hazards) that ensue when Brandon gives a roller coaster a try on the machine.

Perhaps it's safer to just take a trip to Tuscany.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

RuPaul's Drag Race Video Game on the Way: VIDEO

Sashaying to an iOS device near you soon.

Watch the trailer, AFTER THE JUMP...

Downton Abbey for the Super Nintendo: VIDEO

Oh, why not? In the meantime, you can download the Chippy theme.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

(via buzzfeed)

Reddit's 'Gaymer' Community Rejects Site Owner's Trademark

Minority groups and labels have always had a complicated, sometimes tense relationship.

The terms and monikers concocted by dominant cultures are often reclaimed, taken back and reworked for the group's own purposes. The term queer is the most common example from the LGBT experience. Other times, though, the groups think of their own nomenclature, one created to provide linguistic insulation from a hostile culture. For example, video game-loving gay people call themselves "gaymers," hence the name of Chris Vizzini's website, Gaymer.org.

Vizzini trademarked that expression, and has been trying to get reddit's "gaymer" community to find a new terminology. To make clear he means business, he sent reddit a cease and desist letter demanding the popular site create its own designation.

Furious flesh-and-blood gaymers on reddit have now filed a petition with the U.S. Trademarks and Patents Office to take back "gaymer." According to them, gaymer belongs to the community and should therefore be exempt from copyright status.

Ars Technica outlines the case and the gaymer case:

The "gaymer" trademark is claimed by Chris Vizzini, who also blogs at his website, gaymer.org. Vizzini sent a cease-and-desist letter to Reddit complaining about the /r/gaymers subreddit. That got the group's attention, and caused it to lawyer up. /r/gaymers now has pro bono lawyers from a major law firm, Perkins Coie, as well as from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The purpose of trademark law is to protect consumers by making sure they know the true origin of goods and services. The /r/gamers petition, prepared by lawyers at Perkins Coie and EFF, argues that Vizzini's trademark is a distortion of the law's purpose, and should be canceled.

"This registration should never have been granted," said EFF lawyer Corynne McSherry in a statement today. "Gaymer is a common term that refers to members of this vibrant gaming community, and we are happy to help them fight back and make sure the term goes back to the public domain where it belongs."

The lawsuit points out, "Public use of the word gaymer dates back to at least the early 1990s, when a growing group of individuals within the gaming community began using it to identify themselves."

"Due to this long period of widespread, generic use, the relevant public has come to recognize gaymer as a common term for individuals within the LGBT community who have an active interest in video games and the online video game community," it reads.

To that point, reddit user Ozuri wrote a post about their own adoption of the term, and how it's interlaced with his or her identity:

… I grew up in an age when being a nerd was not a synonym for tech savvy entrepreneur with a high-paying job at Google; it meant social stigma, awkward interactions with peers and coming in last on the day we ran laps. Coupled with the crippling anxiety of being gay (and for me, being from an evangelical Christian background), being a gay nerd who loved video games was the proverbial hat trick of otherness...

For me, it is the marrying of my hobby and a part of my identity that allowed me to grow into my own as an adult. I am a gaymer.

Mr. Vizzini, you keep using the word 'gaymer'; I do not think it means what you think it means. To the rest of us, it means community. It means pride in our differentness and our small community. It means inclusiveness rather than exclusiveness.

Vizzini defended himself last September, when the embers of this public war were only just beginning to burn on reddit, and told the community there that he was simply defending what was rightfully his:

As a trademark and word mark holder, it's my responsibility to defend the marks, otherwise I could lose them.

I started Gaymer.org in 2003 and began to build Gaymer as a brand. Thats why I trademarked and word marked the name. At that time, there was only one other site around dedicated to gay gamers. I have spent countless hours and thousands of dollars on Gaymer.org. I have done so gladly as it's brought happiness to many people.

I have received many nasty emails and comments on my site, not to mention what's been said on the reddit site.

I cannot stress this enough. I have no problem with other gay gaming sites. I think it's great others exist. The only problem I have is when the Gaymer name is used. That infringes on the word mark. A perfect example of this is gaygamer.net. Its a great website for gay gamers but does not use "gaymer" in its name therefore I have no problem.

It's only when "gaymer" is used in the site name that causes confusion to the public. That is what word marking is all about.

What say you, reader? Does Vizzini have a valid point or is he unnecessarily trying to take a public term private?

Prince Harry Talks Nude Pics, Killing Militants, PlayStation in Candid Interview: VIDEO

A candid interview with Prince Harry by the UK's Channel 4 is making waves in Britain. In the interview, Harry talks about killing Taliban militants, comparing operating his helicopter's gunner to playing video games, the NYT reports:

At one stage in the interview, Prince Harry said that he was not troubled by killing militants. “Take a life to save a life,” he said. “If there’s people trying to do bad stuff to our guys, then we’ll take them out of the game.”

In another edit of the footage, posted online by The Guardian, Prince Harry, who is known as Captain Wales in the army, explained that he was glad to have been “pushed forward to the front seat,” the one reserved for the attack helicopter’s gunner. That was, he said, “a joy for me because I’m one of those people that loves playing PlayStation and Xbox, so with my thumbs I like to think I’m probably quite useful — if you ask the guys I thrash them at FIFA the whole time,” referring to a popular video game series.

The Taliban are not pleased.

He also says that Prince William is jealous of his military career, and comments on the nude photos of him partying in Las Vegas:

"I probably let myself down, I let my family down, I let other people down...but at the end of the day, I was in a private area and there should be a certain amount of privacy that one should expect...It was probably a classic example of me probably being too much army, and not enough prince. It's a simple case of that."

Watch the clips, AFTER THE JUMP...

Male Footballers Can't Deny Their Lust for One Another in Hot Chip's New Video: WATCH

In Hot Chip's new "Don't Deny Your Love" video, the group watches a pro footballer (well, his avatar proxy) come out of the closet. What we did not anticipate was the lustful contagion this moment would inspire, with even the male declaring their lust for one another.

Watch it all go down, AFTER THE JUMP...

The track is the latest single from Hot Chip's In Our Heads album.