Online gamer Li Hongchen has been victorious in the Beijing's Chaoyang District People's Court for the theft of his virtual guns in the game Red Moon. A hacker stole Li's weapons in February and the company argued that the games had no value except in the game. Li had paid 750 pounds using pay-as-you-go access cards. The courts ruled that those virtual weapons did have value and ordered the game company to return them to the player.

Could this spawn a whole new online auction market for trading virtual arms?

There is a small, but hardcore niche of people literally getting paid for gaming 12 hours a day in South Korea. Some are making as much as 100k or more per year:

KTF manager, Chang Ki-uk, said sponsoring a professional team made good sense for his company. Fifteen million people, or 30% of the population, are registered for online gaming, and that means a big marketing opportunity.

"Online gaming started out as a hobby, of course, but it's amazing how it's taken off as a professional sport. There are three cable channels that broadcast games and 10 professional leagues.

I play games to relax, to unwind a little and sometimes competitively, but I just can't fathom going 12 hours a day at it as a job long term. It sounds fun, but I'm guessing it would get stale within a month or two. Also, with that amount of play there are serious possible long term medical problems (carpal tunnel, anyone?).

Online gaming can be a very competitive place. Earlier this year I decided to track down as many different versions of Pac Man online that I could find. I worked my way into the top 10 of various games, some of them even #1. It was reminiscent of those arcade days in the eighties when we'd line up quarters waiting to compete for the high score and there was a raw thrill of getting in The Zone. Forever I'll be amazed at the guy who played through Pac Man from start to finish, capturing every bonus item and eating all the ghosts for a perfect Pac Man score.

Games generally aren't as fun to me as they used to be. I find myself replaying older titles. Puzzle games like Klax and Wordtris or shooterfests like Robotron or Defender. I've also been replaying Super Mario Bros. 3, which in my opinion is the best "new generation" videogame ever made. Perhaps it is just a sign that I'm getting old if I can't enjoy most of the PS2, Gamecube and XBox titles. Is it weird that the portable Game Boy Advance SP is more fun to me than all three of the leading console systems?