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Quick show of hands: How many Bitmob community members will be able to make the nerd comedy show/Bitmob Meet-Up tonight in San Francisco, CA? Please let us know in the comments below.

I need to know how many free gifts I should attempt to bring to hand out to you guys. But I have a feeling we won't have as good of a turnout due to timing, spring break, and lighter-than-usual wallets (don't forget our discount Bitmob promo code, though) -- which means those that do show up will have a better chance at getting something cool!

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Editor's Note: Frank again reminds us that video games can have a positive influence on the world. I agree with him, and I hope he continues this series. - Jay

If you asked most people to write down their opinions of the average gamer, the word charitable would probably not be on that list. However, this perception may soon change. Video-game  charities pop up every day, and the amount of money they donate is far from insignificant.

For an idea of how widespread video-game charities are becoming, all you need to do is head towards Google. A search for the phrase 'video game charity' currently shows 19,100,000 results. While many of these hits point to articles such as this one, you don't need to look much further than this very site to see solid evidence that game charities have become pervasive.

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Anyone with any geek cred can quote the Aliens and Predator films (but not Aliens vs. Predator -- that'd be embarrassing). But it takes a special kind of nerd to answer our alien-related questions. Can Rebellion's Tim Jones, project lead on the recently released shooter Aliens vs. Predator, tackle our 5 Hit Points quiz -- and survive?

(Edit: Forgot to mention...special thanks to our own Michael Donahoe for coming up with the questions for this edition of 5HP!)

1. Bill Paxton is no stranger to Aliens or Predators -- and fan-made arcade games. What type of arcade game did a fan build to celebrate the actor's cinematic career?

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Editor's note: Daniel's walk down memory lane is a brilliant beginning to a new meme on Bitmob. To join in the fun, write about your own gaming decade and tag it "My Gaming Decade." I'll collect them all in a future post. -Brett 

If you’ll forgive me for saying so, I had a great decade. Each year of the 2000s ended better than the last. I was reminded of this when I read Stephen Totilo’s brief recap of his “gaming decade” on Kotaku. Inspired, I present to you a summary of my gaming decade:

2000: I discovered the magic of console modding. My modded NeoGeo was largely a novelty, allowing me to access the DIP switches and uncensor certain fighting games, but my modded Dreamcast became my gateway to imported games from Japan. I’m certain this prolonged exposure to a language I couldn’t understand piqued my interest in Japanese, convincing me to take a night class that fall.

2001: Those lessons inspired me to visit Japan for the first time, where I fell in love with...a Golgo 13 sniper arcade game. Whereas most gun games cast you as a cop, giving you an implicit mandate that your on-screen targets are dangerous criminals, Golgo 13 -- Japan’s favorite professional hitman -- has no such ethical considerations. When the game asked me to snipe a woman’s high-heeled shoe so she’d fall down a stairway to her death, I didn’t even blink. I had never played such an amoral game before.

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In case you missed (or forgot about) the original announcement, here's a friendly reminder: The Bitmob community intends to revisit Delta Halo this Friday for a few rounds of Team Slayer.

Be prepared to shed blood at 5 p.m. PST. If you haven't played Halo 2 on your Xbox 360 yet, you'll have to log on about 20 minutes early in order to update the game and download all of the free multiplayer maps.

Bitmob co-founders Dan Hsu and Demian Linn are set to host the games, but they won't be alone. Brett Bates has called shotgun on the Warthog and Rich McGrath won't be far behind with a few plasma grenades. If time permits, Greg Ford may even make an appearance.

Don't worry -- I made them promise to take it easy on you!

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Brawl in the Family is one of the funniest comics on the web, but these "blueprints" -- drawn by Dr. Wily himself --  are on a whole new level of hilarity. Click the image to see the whole, much longer comic:

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Editor's note: Inspired by used books, Chase has an interesting idea on his hands. But I fear that it's implementation wouldn't unfold exactly as he imagines. The hint system of Demon's Souls generally works because all available messages consist of preset text. Left to their own devices, I think too many players would succumb to the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory. Despite Demon's Souls safeguard, the misuse of "sticky white stuff" is evidence enough for me. -Rob

I like to read books. I don’t do it often enough -- as evidenced by Atlas Shrugged, a collection of Edgar Allan Poe short stories, The Basic Kafka, and plenty more titles all gathering dust on my shelf -- but I try.

My favorite things about books -- that are, sadly, fading away due to devices like the Apple iPhone and Amazon Kindle -- are the abilities to write in the margins and look through the footnotes.

I love to pick up an old, dusty book and see into someone else’s mind by reading his comments. It’s like a mini time capsule. Unfortunately, this is a feature games haven’t really incorporated.

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One thing stood out to me while I was attending the Nintendo Media Summit this past week: Metroid: Other M sure has a lot of talky talky. That isn't so much a problem for a video game -- it's just a little unusual for a classic Nintendo franchise, especially one that used to star a silent protagonist.

But yes, you'll hear a lot of talking in Other M, which is due out June 27 for the Wii. Samus Aran talking to other characters. Other characters talking to each other. Samus talking in her head. Talking everywhere. It's all a part of the developer's goal to humanize this robotic personality.

We sat down with Nintendo of America's localization producer Nate Bihldorff to learn more about this more realistic Samus, why they wouldn't give the same treatment to Link or Mario, and whether we'll see our star in a wii bikini. (You do know who's developing this game, don't you?)

Bitmob:  Why Samus? Relatively few Nintendo characters are made to be "real." You don't hear Link talking about Ganondorf or Mario wondering what Bowser is up to...yet you hear Samus talking about the Mother Brain, Ridley....

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The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is particularly challenging. But without the use of one's eyes, the Water Temple and the Deku Tree are next to impossible.

This was the challenge Jordon Verner, a young Ontarian gamer, faced. Regardless of his blindness, the teenager was determined to best the caverns and dungeons of Hyrule. So where did he turn? The Internet, of course! Posting videos on Youtube, Jordon asked for help in completing the entire game -- help he never expected would come.

But assistance finally arrived in the form of a fellow Zelda fan from South Carolina, named Roy Williams. This is the story of one gamer helping another overcome a serious disability, and the move-by-move walkthrough they wrote together. Break out the tissues, because there's no shame in crying [via Geekologie].

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Isn't spring supposed to be happening soon? I'm tired of feeling chilled to the bone as I endeavor to bring the Community Spotlight to all of you on time with naught but a giant bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper as company....

Chris Cosmo Ross starts us off as he strips the Halo series of wasteful filler and boils the spectacle and strife of the games into one imagery-laden poem. Tobias Dodgen is next and wonders if a video game will ever achieve the seemingly endless success that Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon has.

Brian Shirk takes a look at Final Fantasy 2, and how this much-maligned game had a great deal of influence over the rest of the series. Finally, Andrew Hiscock conducts an interesting interview with that surly video game squirrel, Conker.

Game Poetry: Halo
By Chris Cosmo Ross
Poetry doesn't necessarily lend itself to video games, despite the often convoluted poetics of Solid Snake as he discusses love. Cosmo combines this sometimes challenging literary style with the Halo series.

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I say the following with the utmost sincerity and with no hint of irony whatsoever: I love the chicken wings at Hooters. And apparently, so does at least one jokester....

On this week's Mobcast, comedian and former 3DO/Sega/Sony PR dude Dave Karraker expressed his similar love for those hot wings, so we decided that we'd make Hooters the destination for Saturday night's Bitmob Meet-Up, right after the geek comedy show -- Cross Platform Comedy 3.0 -- down the street.

This is your last reminder to come join us for some nerd-humor laughs, a few drinks, and a few thousand pieces of meat that happen to be the same color as the waitresses' short shorts. Also: free stuff.

Update: Yes, we'll be giving away free stuff at the after-party. My apartment is overflowing with goodies (games, t-shirts, posters, etc.) that we've been saving for our fans, and I need to unload. East coasters, don't worry -- our own Brett Bates has you covered as well at our meet-up at PAX East. Uh, sorry middle-of-the-country people...but here's a bone for you:

If you help us promote the last two Mobcasts (which featured the comics from Cross Platform), you could win a download code for Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx or a free, random game from our pile, which we'll send to you.

Details on the contest and this Saturday night's events (including a promo code for a discount off the show) below.

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Editor's note: Think video games are a big waste of time? If so, check out Brian's humorous list of other things many people do that are far more boring and pointless. -James

As gamers, we share a sense of identity. We're all lazy man-children (or tomboys) who sit around in our underwear chugging six-packs of Mountain Dew, so that we can stay awake to beat the game. Besides being lazy, we're all unintelligent, repulsive bastards who burn books in bonfires. And who knows, we may even eat babies.

All jokes aside, any of us with an ounce of intelligence realizes that most stereotypes about video games and gamers aren't true. I mean, we all know that they don't really rot our brains, right? They may occasionally distract us from more valuable pursuits, but they don't dumb us down or turn us in to mass murderers.

Since we're now all aware that video games aren't a waste of time, I'm going to provide you with a list of handy alternatives that'll make your days go by faster than an Olympic skier on a training run. If you're looking for activities that'll truly insult your intelligence, I encourage you to keep reading.

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