It’s been a great year for games and as we consider the past year, we would like to pause and reflect on the big stories that rocked NothingButSoftware. A year with upsets, surprises, and plenty of odd stuff; these are our top 5 picks for the most popular NothingButSoftware Stories of 2008.

5.) Maple Story Murder
Simply because it was such an odd story it grew in popularity, and was even given a specific name for the incident “Maple Story Murder.” A story from the land of the rising sun in which a Japanese woman was jailed for deleting another persons character from the MMORPG Maple Story. As ridiculous as it sounds it is true, and it was one of the oddest stories we covered this year!

4.) Mila Kunis WoW Confession
Apparently Mila Kunis is a big World of WarCraft fan, and the WoW community loves it! This story dropped during The Max Payne movie release when Mila’s popularity was already growing and this story boosted it even more, at least with wow fans.

3.) The Little Big Planet Recall
Most Likely the Biggest upset this year was the Little Big Planet Recall. When the release of this title was quickly approaching a sudden world wide recall was issued, because quotes from Islamic text could be heard in the video games background music. Sony decided to play it safe pushing the game back another week until the quotes could be edited out of the background music.

2.) New Street Fighter Chun-Li Pics
Although the New Street Fighter film seems like nothing to write home about, the buzz surrounding this film was quit popular here at NBS.  When the latest photo’s of Kristen Kreuk as Chun-Li were released we did a post on it and it became one of our most popular stories this year.

1.) F.E.A.R. 2 Weirdest Press Release Ever

The oddest story we have covered this year, and most likely our most popular post in history the “F.E.A.R. 2 Press Release.” Although there is a lot of meticulous planning involved in a major press release this one takes the cake. The Entire F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin release was centered around targeting specific Video Game Contributors and sending them creepy unmarked mail, with locations to creepy destinations, to obtain creepy briefcases. Mike Fahey of Kotaku was one of these targets and he had to drive to a storage facility in the middle of the night on thanksgiving to pick up his briefcase. Inside the briefcase was nothing more then promotion material for a F.E.A.R. 2 event in New York, but all the mystery in just obtaining a briefcase of promo material was uber weird.

At long last my dream has come true a new batch of educational games are on the way to cultivate my mind and enlighten me to the international community. For all you gamers who nodded off in geography class while your teacher was talking about tribal rituals in South American Jungles, here’s your chance to catch up on the lesson.

National Geographic has announced that they will begin developing video games.  The non profit educational outlet has announced National Geographic Games which, is part of their profit division National Geographic Ventures. NGG has already released one title “Herod’s Lost Tomb” which was released for mac and Iphone. NGG has stated that some games will be developed in house and others through partnership.  NGG has said that their main focus is to release games that further geographic knowledge.

As excited as you gamers must be to hear this, we have decided to compile a comprehensive list of possible games that NGG could release in the near future. Enjoy.

1. Tribal Drum Hero
Honor your family and the ancestors who have come before you not to mention pick up chicks by tribal drumming. You will play before your family, your tribe, and then compete against other tribes in drum offs. The stakes are high, but so are the rewards; because if you fail at drumming the ancient rhythms of the god’s you lose a finger but if you keep perfect beat you get the neighboring tribal chief’s virgin daughter.

You will also get to play these popular tribal hits:
“Party like a Cherokee” -by the Native American Cherokee
“Big Girls Don’t Cry When They Get Malaria”- by the Jharkhand tribe of Palamu
“I’m Bringing Skinning Back” - By the cannibal Asmat tribes of Papua

2. Woodchuck Breeder for Gameboy DS
Tired of Dogs, Rabbits, and I know your sick of kittens. Well then here is the latest heart warming, I feel fuzzy inside, simulated pet game with all the fun of having a pet and none of the responsibilities. In“Woodchuck breeder” you will help protect the population of these fascinating creators by raising and breeding them. As you progress through the game you will develop new breeding skills such as; selecting the right type of wines, purchasing Barry White albums, and overall setting the right type of mood for breeding.

3. Kill Zone “O” Zone
Help protect the planet from global warming.
Progress through your journey to achieve a planet free of pollution by doing your part.

Here are a few of the exciting missions you will get to play:
-Turning off your lights when you leave a room
-car pooling
-and the funnest mission of them all standing in line at the refinery with a bag of Pepsi cans

4. F.irst E.ncounter A.rachnid R.eaction
A great game for Kids! This game takes you on a journey through the most dangerous spider ridden realms of the world, and teaches kids all the really cool facts about spiders.
Such as:
Goliath Bird Eating spider - of South America that could potentially eat your hand if it wanted to.
The Black Widow - which is native to Southern States of the US such as Florida, be careful on that Disney Land trip!
Brown Recluse - Which is Highly venomous an native to the US and could quite possibly be in your house. Isn’t that a neat fact kids!

5. Education - The Game
Learning is fun! Who needs guns and explosions when you can cultivate your mind.  Education the game will teach you the power of imagination, through comprehensive in depth studies of geographical regions and the indigenous people that live in them, and their effect on our world as a whole. Now that sound like a fun game!

A 43 year old Japanese woman was jailed today for murdering her husband…her on-line husband.

When the 43 year old music teacher realized her on-line husband had divorced her in the MMORPG MapleStory, she then proceeded to login under his name and password and delete his character. When the man had realized his on-line character had been deleted he proceeded to call the police. The virtual assassin was apprehended by the authorities and jailed for illegally accessing a computer, and manipulating on-line data. The perpetrator could be facing a five year prison sentence or a fine of up to $5,000.

The Woman was quoted as saying ” I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry.”

I personally think she jumped the gun she could have suggested on-line counseling, or maybe an on-line trip for them to rekindle their romance. It’s a shame that so many on-line marriages are failing now.

Here is the yahoo Story
Woman jailed after killing virtual husband

EA Sued - Electronic Arts is facing a lawsuit today for supposed copyright infringement. The suit involves their NCAA sports game series; in which the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV) anthem was used without the permission of the composer.  Gerald Willis the composer of the anthem has filled a lawsuit and his lawyer Ellen Winograd has stated that the anthem “was not written for commercial use.”

Willis is demanding 1.5 million dollars from EA for using the anthem titled “Win with the Rebels.” Willis claims he heard the track on 10 separate EA titles and is demanding  $150,000 for each violation. The university itself has not been named in the lawsuit.

Here is the list of titles in which the anthem was used

NCAA Football 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
NCAA Basketball 2009
NCAA March Madness 2006, 2007, 2008
NCAA Baseball 2006, 2007

Have you ever had an interest in working for an intelligence agency but were not quite sure you had the credentials? Do you worry about a long grueling process of background checks, interviews, and psychological testing? If that person is you then worry no more because MI6, Brittan’s Secret Intelligence Service is now recruiting on Facebook.

As odd as it sounds it is true; MI6 is looking for unique ways of recruiting, and one of those new avenues is through Facebook. A spokesperson was quoted as saying “The Secret Intelligence Service’s open recruitment campaign continues to target wide pools of talent representative of British society today. A number of channels are used to promote job opportunities in the organization. Facebook is a recent example.”

The agency has made there interest in finding new agents through Facebook clear considering, there page includes a competency test, contact information, and links to the main Secret Intelligence Service’s main site. The best part of the MI6 personal page would have to be the comment wall; which has been converted to a mini job applications post for people interested in the agency. Individuals have listed skills including everything from interrogation techniques, to baking cakes; all of which include contact information for MI6 to respond if interested.

If you have an interest in working in intelligence or if you would like to just have a peek at the madness for yourself I have taken the liberty of posting a link. Pop in, and have a go chum!!!

Facebook MI6 Page