The post-Thanksgiving lull is delightful, but that's not an excuse to slow down with the GameSetLink-related goodness, this time commenced with Vice Magazine's fruity LittleBigPlanet-ness.

Also in here - Russell Carroll on the delights of Wii Music (which is, yes, an excuse to print THAT picture), plus Julian Dibbell on the gold farming kings, what Statestats thinks of the videogame demographic, and the small things on the Vorpal Bunny Ranch.

Ka tan ga:

Wonderland: VICE magazine and Little Big Planet = LittleBigVice
Alice @ Wonderland points out LittleBigPlanet's takeover of hipster mag Vice, with supercute pictures - of course, hipster and mass market are not always intersecting, which might be one of LBP's issues?

Video Games Business & Marketing: In defense of WiiMusic
GameTunnel and Reflexive's Russell Carroll is a smart guy, which makes his passionate defence of Wii Music all the more interesting: 'Some games can change the way you think and act by giving you information that you can only learn by experiencing it. WiiMusic did that for me.'

Wired Magazine: 'The Decline and Fall of an Ultra Rich Online Gaming Empire'
Gold farming veteran Julian Dibbell takes on the 'legend' of gold farming titan IGE, in some style.

Xboxlive.com: My 'beautiful' Xbox Live avatar
You can show people your own at http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/GAMERTAG/avatar-body.png, I guess. Feel free to add yours in the comments and say how true to life they are, relatively - I think mine is reeeasonably accurate.

StateStats For 'Videogame'
Interesting tool that lets you crossreference U.S. states with search queries - for videogames, looks like there's good correlation with high income, high population areas, and bad correlations with suicide and 'voted for Bush'. So there you go!

Vorpal Bunny Ranch: Seven for a secret never to be told.
Mr. Bunny has some good points on some of Xmas' blockbusters like Fallout 3, and the small, evocative things: 'What I'm interested in for this post is not the narrative told by gameplay, optional quests, or personal investment; what I am interested in is the story told in the nooks, crannies, and little details. Those moments that I just pause and think about what was or could have been, particularly in a post-apocalyptic world.'

1UP Zine Issue 4 preview - 'FunSpot Trip'
Raina Lee's zine (unrelated to the Ziff Davis site of the same name) is pretty seminal in that it's humanistic and cultural and smart, rather than OCD gamegeekish, and here's a preview of Issue 4, due out Spring 2009, about a trip to the legendary FunSpot Arcade.

Level Up : The Big Idea: Are Videogame Reviewers Missing the Forest for the Trees When It Comes to Assessing Important and Innovative Titles?
Painful erudition seems increasingly to be N'Gai's MO recently - though I may obviously be biased, working with Leigh, etc - here's her response, and Ben Fritz's rejoinder. [EDIT: I've actually just been persuaded that all three posts are equally meta/confusing. Hurray! Bonus points for anyone who can explain what the argument is to dunderheads like me.]