Taking Stock: The Gibson-Goldstein Index

There's some blood in the water this week.

Spore

The free Spore Creature Creator arrives, flooding the virtual universe with monsters like twinkies and ding-dongs.

DRM

The dreaded tendrils of SecuROM ensnare Mass Effect and Alone in the Dark on PC. BioShock keeps struggling, but can't get away entirely.

Valve

The latest Team Fortress 2 update makes the Pyro blow, in a good way. Oh, and the Sniper pees in bottles.

Artistic Integrity

ZootFly's Ghostbusters prototype helps another developer get the license, and a game composer gets upset when McCain uses his work.

Lightsabers

That Wii lightsaber game we've always wanted is finally coming, but sounds much lamer than we'd hoped.

Tecmo

Sued on behalf of every employee for avoiding overtime payments, and the evidence affirms that something just isn't right.

Atari

Sues over negative Alone in the Dark review, alleging writer of piracy.

Intellisponse

A marketing firm leaves its backend open, exposes tons of concepts from soon to be ex-clients Activision and Microsoft.

"he is pony."

QQ user Pippo, who may be contributing to the decline of the Chinese currency.

"Awesomeball didn't make the cut. Sorry."

Valve marketing VP Doug Lombardi on the community-created maps in the latest Team Fortress 2 update.

"We think that this is certainly going to be the best control scheme for RTS games coming out next week."

Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath lead producer Jim Vessella on fixing an Xbox 360 control scheme "lauded by critics."