Women who like to play fast and loose

Are women gamers less faithful? Traditional computer games – which last an age and require great commitment – are played mostly by men. But the new web-based genre of “casual games” – which tend to be short-lived and more whimsical – is dominated by women, according to the Casual Games Association. It found that 74 per cent of paying casual gamers were women, who played with a frequency “that rivals hardcore gamers”.

A male blogger commented: “Most men do not admit that they like playing simpler games that appeal to the casual gamer.”

casualgamesassociation.org

gigaom.com tech.co.uk

Strippascam

A stripper called Melissa is helping spammers to do their dirty work. Fraudsters often use robots to set up phoney e-mail accounts, but they are frequently foiled by CAPTCHAS – those funny boxes with collections of letters and numbers inside. Now ordinary users are being recruited to help, lured by old-fashioned titillation.

Every time that a person successfully enters a CAPTCHA code for a spammer, Melissa, who is a virtual creation, takes off a piece of clothing. If the the code is wrong, she says: “Hmmm, nope, the word you entered is incorrect, honey. Let’s try again?”

techworld.com

trendmicro.com

On the wrong track

Might earth-lovers just see through it? Yokohama, the tyre company, has created a marketing platform dressed up as a “green” social network. The Ecotreadsetters site has sections with names such as “Treehugger” alongside not-so-well-hidden brand messages. A forum called “Be eco-tyre smart”, for example, invites discussion of alignment and rear suspension. As one blogger noted: “I just don’t see the appeal of a social network run by a tyre manufacturer.”

ecotreadsetters.com

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Source: Times Online, Oct 26-Nov 1, worldwide users

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