When the likes of Steam, Origin, Battle.net and League of Legends went down in recent weeks, it wasn’t through a traditional DDoS attack. Instead, they used a new type of attack to bring down services that otherwise would have been prepared. [Ars Technica]

An anonymous developer explains why third-party publishers and developers aren’t so gung-ho on the Wii U. [Digital Foundry]

Microsoft did a very silent Xbox One promotion with Machinima. Machinima partner videos featuring Xbox One content would receive $3 per thousand views from Microsoft but no one disclosed anything. [Ars Technica]

At some point in the near future, I’m going to start streaming and producing videos under the et geekera banner. Until then, read up on the growth of Twitch. [ReadWrite]

And rounding up the Ars Tehcnica links of the week, a tech startup has developed a sort of auto-aim rifle designed for ultra-precise shots. [Ars Technica]

The hacker who reopened the Steubenville rape case could face a prison term that’s up to five times longer than the rapists. The law doesn’t always equal justice. [HackRead]

Last weekend, Mega boss Kim Dotcom was the subject of two very different profiles by 60 Minutes and Vice. Interestingly contrasting views of the man. [Warming Glow]

Mashable just raised $13 million to fund an expansion effort. Anybody want to give et geekera even 1% of that to hire some writers, produce more content, move off of WP.com, make the site look better and turn this into a cutting edge operation? No? Just thought I’d ask. [CNN Money]

Apparently a recent episode of Agents of SHIELD quietly incorporated a piece of Mass Effect 3 concept art. Who knew? [Eurogamer]

Which actor is the deadliest in Hollywood? Not as in who has killed the most careers but who has killed the most people on-screen. [Randal S. Olson]

I don’t think that anyone would be surprised if I mentioned that I was a fan of the doge meme. Now, the meme has an origin story. [Verge]

A lot of people blame the bomb that was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within for Squaresoft having to merge with Enix to survive. The truth runs much deeper than that. (Note to self: Watch and review The Spirits Within and follow-up with Advent Children.) [NeoGAF]

History tells us that Bitcoin might be popular now but, like other private currencies, it will eventually die off. [Bloomberg]

Did you know that there’s a Guinness World Record for the largest video game collection? A New York man owns a collection of over 11,000 games. [Business Insider]

Metacritic did a roundup of their gaming review scores over the last twelve months. By their metrics, it was a rough year in gaming. [Metacritic]

The UK’s new internet porn filter isn’t just stopping people from accessing porn. It’s blocking access to websites about sexual education, sexual health and porn addiction. This is why you shouldn’t be censoring the internet. You only screw it up. [BBC News]

My list of my favourite games of 2013 is coming up soon. To warm you up for that list, here’s The New Yorker’s list of the best games of 2013. [The New Yorker]

Daniel of NerdCubed fame did an informal AMA about the current state of YouTube and what he’s planning to do given the terrible state of YouTube’s Content ID system. [/r/Games]

Mark Zuckerberg is selling $2.3 billion of his Facebook stock but nobody panic. [Mashable]

A full-sized air-powered Lego car? A full-sized air-powered Lego car. [Uproxx]

Was your country a late cut from the Xbox One launch territory list? Well, you might be waiting until Q3 of 2014 for an official console launch. The same sources who first leaked the changed launch territories say you’re in for a long wait for your Xbox One. [Gamereactor]

4chan did it again. Their latest prank tricked people into bricking their brand new Xbox Ones with promises of 360 backwards compatibility. [Daily Dot]

The managing director of GOG talks about the next generation of consoles forgoing backwards and the fight to preserve games for an industry where the publishers don’t want to look back. [PCGamesN]

“There’s a uncomfortable irony in the Call of Duty series’ twin fascinations with the destruction of the United States and brainwashing.” Richard Woodsworth on the message of Call of Duty. [Edge Magazine]

Cliff Blezinsky, formerly of Epic Game, has been making the rounds on the podcast circuit. This week, he was on both the Joe Rogan Experience and Pointless with Kevin Pereira. [Joe Rogan Experience / Pointless]

If there’s a golden boy at Gawker Media, it’s Neetzan Zimmerman who Gawker can count on to generate millions of page views each month. How does he do it? [Wall Street Journal]

After the PS3 was slagged for its interface, it’s the Xbox One’s turn this generation. [Edge Magazine]

Are you an aspiring professional League of Legends player but want to make a buck streaming games other than LOL? Well, you can’t do that if you’re in the League of Legends Championship Series. Riot’s contracts with players has a banned games list that players can’t stream. [onGamers]

Well, since I gave Forza 5 a hard time over its microtransactions, equal treatment of Gran Turismo 6’s microtransactions is needed. Also, why didn’t I know GT6 was out this week? If I had known, I would have tried getting a review copy or at least bought it. Oh well, no loss, right? [Eurogamer]

With Porn Hub announcing PS4 compatibility recently, Destructoid asked the porn website about the viewing habits of console users. Naturally, Porn Hub provided them a detailed analysis of the last console generation with some NSFW details. [Destructoid]

Did you catch all the Easter eggs in The Day of The Doctor? In case you didn’t, here’s a hopefully mostly complete list. [Wired]

Indie Game Magazine is charging developers $50 for an “in-depth, unbiased” review of their games. That sounds totally above board. [Destructoid]

The legendary Charlie Brooker has a documentary on TV this weekend called How Video Games Changed the World. He talks about the difficulty of making video game TV in an interview. [The Guardian]

In a sign that I’m getting old and shouldn’t be using proper punctuation in my texts any more, using a period might be a sign that you’re angry. No, using proper punctuation is a sign that you’re not 12-years-old. [The New Republic]

European astronomers have discovered a new solar system that is the closest mirror to our own. [Universe Today]

Sony’s not making money on each PS4 unit sold. Here’s the breakdown of roughly how much it costs to put one of their new consoles on the shelf. [All Things D]

Speaking of the PS4, Sony is still insisting that the failure rate of the console is under 1%. I kind of wonder how much all the reports of hardware problems is down to the fact that this is the first console launch in the social media age. [Kotaku]

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of competitive StarCraft even though my idea of competitive StarCraft is my battles in bronze league. Anyway, here’s a look at the epic Jaedong vs. Dear match from BlizzCon from the crowd. [PC Games N]

If you’ve played a terrible PC port that fans have fixed, you know the name Durante. Here’s a profile on the PC port fixing genius. [Wired]

Is Crash Bandicoot back in the Sony Computer Entertainment fold? IGN thinks so. To hell with Uncharted 4, get Naughty Dog to drop everything and make Crash Bandicoot 4. [IGN]

Video games are growing in popularity in Iraq. While they may have previously been frowned upon, they’re seen as a social activity and a safe activity given the dangers in the country now. [The New Yorker]

A lot has been made out of corporate-sponsored review events being held for next-gen consoles and games. Here’s how they really work. [/r/Games]

Tom, of personal favourite gaming blog CalmDownTom.com, explains why he and his site didn’t review Call of Duty: Ghosts. [Calm Down Tom]

Skipped out on an early next-gen console for a new PC like me? Well, you’ll be glad to know that your DDR3 RAM is almost out-of-date tech. DDR4 RAM is coming down the pipe in the next month or so. [Hardware Pal]

By the way, if you’re worried about the early reliability of the PlayStation 4, reports indicate that less than 1% of units aren’t working right now. This article reports a failure rate of under 0.2%. Sony’s official line is 0.4%. It’s not perfect but at least it’s not red ring of death bad. Nothing could be that bad. [ARGD]

Are you an aspiring in the UK or Ireland and want to land a lead role in one of the biggest summer blockbusters of 2015? Well, they’re holding open auditions for Star Wars: Episode VII in London, Glasgow and Dublin starting next week. [BBC]

The folks at Wired look into the design process of the new PlayStation 4 and the major role played by former game dev turned PS4 hardware guru Mark Cerny. [Wired]

Remember that super secret job threatening thing the games industry was doing that could end Adam Sessler’s career and everyone was up in arms about even though there wasn’t a shred of evidence what he could be on about? It turns out that Sessler was making a mountain out of a… thing not even big enough to be a mole hill. [Original Gamer]

Good news: A new study says that gaming helps your brain. See, we all knew that gaming was a good thing. [Polygon]

How big are eSports and eSports sponsorships getting? Mainstream business publications are starting to take notice of where marketing dollars are going. [Fortune]