Being locked in a room to play Starcraft all day might sound like fun, but for those interned in South Korea's gaming "Chicken Coops", it's far from it.

Starcraft expert Kim Jeong-geon spoke last week of these "coops", which are used by the Starcraft industry to create a conveyor belt of sorts for the nation's televised leagues.

Prospective players sign up to Starcraft "academies" lured by the promise of fame and fortune, and after some testing, those deemed talented enough to progress are then able to join clans or guilds. That's far from the end of it, though.

Anyone wanting to go pro must then pay to live in a dormitory, where things don't sound so hot.

"The standard in pro gaming groups is for people to live together 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with no traveling to or from work, and for those ranked Group 2 or lower, their entire daily routine consists of eating, cleaning, laundry and games," Kim says. "Because of this structure of bringing in young people, developing them and then replacing them when their lifespan is spent and they have been squeezed dry, it has earned the name of ‘the chicken coop.'"

These "coops" are seen as a problem not just for the fact they operate under poor conditions, but because despite paying to live in these dorms and practising day and night, only a minuscule percentage of players can ever hope to make a living out of it.

They're sweatshops, basically, squeezing money out of thousands of people who never had any realistic chance of achieving the goals they'd signed up for.

"Everyone knows about these problems, but if you start talking about players' rights, everyone wants to keep quiet about it, scared they might be branded as an impediment to the growth of e-Sports," Kim continues. "They need to introduce things like a minimum age system for players and limitations on the number of games."

As for the recent scandal in the Korean Starcraft pro leagues, Kim says, "Because players have short lifespans and uncertain futures, you inevitably have a widespread sense of ‘Let's pull something off while things are going well.'"

Labor rights remain nonexistent for pro gamers [The Hankyoreh]

Not with video games. Not with the World Cup. But with that long standing killer app: pornography.

This summer Sony is bringing 3D games to the PlayStation 3, and Nintendo is introducing its "glasses-free" portable gaming device. But as the Japanese 3D television market begins to heat up, the country's porn industry is hoping to cash in. Last year, it was HD porn titles being streamed through a PS3. This year, it's 3D porn.

"Adult videos will likely be an incentive for consumers to buy a 3-D TV," says content analyst Yuji Fujimori, at Barclays Capital in Tokyo. "It's worth paying attention to the move because it's lack of content that's hindering expansion."

Blue movie maker S1 No.1Style is releasing the first 3D adult flicks in Japan this June to coincide with the release of Sony's 3D Bravia television. Panasonic began selling 3D TVs in the US this March and in Japan this April.

A pair of upcoming adult titles (3D X Mika Kayama, 3D X Yuma Asami) star two of the countries most popular porn stars. Kayama is known for movies like Sex of Destiny and Unforgettable, while Asami has starred in films like Yuma Asami and the 100 Masturbaters and Let Us Have a Calisthenic Sex. Customers have expressed interest in the 3D adult titles, but are interested in seeing how the image quality is first before splurging on a new television.

Sony and Panasonic declined to comment on the impact that pornography will have on 3D televisions. Though if video and the internet are any sort of indication, it will certainly help.

Porn Stars in 3-D Lure Consumers to New Sony, Panasonic TVs [BusinessWeek via News On Japan] [Pic, Pic]

If you've ever wondered how much crap it takes to fill a game development studio, wonder no more, as LittleBigPlanet developers Media Molecule are more than happy to show you.

Because the team just moved to a new office - conveniently down the street from their old office - everything had to be packed up, wrapped up, bagged, tagged and photographed. And this is what it looks like.

Lots of monitors, lots of cables, lots of computers and...hey, that Rock Band guitar's not supposed to be there. Get back to work, you slackers.

Office Move [MM @ Flickr]

Love Plus+ plus Nintendo's DSi XL plus schoolgirls. Keyword: plus.

Going on sale June 24 and priced ¥24,000 (US$264), the bundle comes in three different designs, each of the three Love Plus girls: Manaka, Rinko and Nene. Love Plus is a popular dating sim in Japan.

Nintendo's next big game Wii Party will be out on July 8 in Japan, Nintendo has revealed. Ready to party?

Sideshow has gone mad for Prince of Persia, revealing a statue based on the movie that's not $100. Not $200. It's $300 worth of plastic Chesty Jake.

He goes on sale on Sideshow's website on June 3, and that $300 will get you a statue that stands around 18" tall and has interchangeable arms, so you can help Prince Dastan strike a suitably heroic pose.

Does he look a little off to anyone else? Like, this is what Jake Gylenhaal would look like in Prince of Persia 4, when he was 41 years old.

UPDATE - I went and called this the Hot Toys figure, which had been previewed earlier in the week, but this piece is actually a detailed statue, not a figure. We'll bring you pictures of the Hot Toys figure when it's out.

The Metal Gear Solid movie isn't happening. Solid Snake voice actor and Hollywood screenwriter David Hayter dishes what he's heard went down.

"A couple of years ago, a producer friend of mine asked me if I would be interested in doing the adaptation," Hayter, who wrote the big screen version of X-Men, tells MTV. "I think I can say without contradiction that I know it better than any screenwriter on the planet. I've said every word that Snake has said. So I felt well-qualified."

Hayter set to work on a draft. And then, everything just kinda petered out with Hayter hearing that things broke down with Konami, the game's publisher.

"On top of that, I don't believe they were ever able to successfully close a deal between Mr. Kojima and Sony," adds Hayter. "This is all just stuff I've heard."

According to the Solid Snake voice actor, he did come up with a "pretty cool" pitch, but is staying mum about his concept. He would still love to do it, however. "But there are far larger issues in terms of who's going to get the rights to do it and what sort of involvement Mr. Kojima is going to have," says Hayter. "All that needs to be worked out before I would ever come up."

Sources close to the project previously told Kotaku that reason for the movie not happening was money. Sony Pictures was willing to finance somewhere between $40 million ~ $80 million for the film; however, Kojima Productions and Konami balked, believing that the figure was not enough to create a proper cinematic version of the game. By today's standard, the budget would have put Metal Gear Solid at the lower end of the production scale. For comparison's sake, Sony Pictures film Spider-Man 3 had a $300 million budget.

"Video game companies are very protective of their property and there are certain things a studio requires freedom-wise to market and distribute a movie effectively in a global marketplace and sometimes getting those two things to match up is really hard," says producer Michael De Luca, who was slated to produce the film. "And in the case of Metal Gear Solid, the agendas just….not because the parties weren't amicable, it was just kind of impossible to get the agendas to match up."

DAVID HAYTER GUEST BLOG: Whatever Happened To That 'Metal Gear Solid' Movie? [MTV Movies Blog]

Photographer Jason Travis has a neat idea: grab people off the streets of Atlanta and take photos of whatever's inside their handbags or backpacks.

Items found include pens, keys, wallets and...Nintendo handhelds, as evidenced by these two ladies, one rocking the same stylish shade of Pink DS as our own Michael Fahey, the other a timeless Game Boy Pocket in probably its best ever colour scheme: Pikachu Yellow.

What I like about these shots is not just that they give a rare insight into the kind of junk that people think is so important they have to carry it around with them, but that of the dozens of techie and design hipsters Travis has photographed, these are the only two with gaming consoles. These two. Not a single man had one, not even a PSP. What's up guys, too cool for a Game Boy Micro?

You should definitely go check out the entire collection at the link below, there's some really interesting crap to be found in people's private carry-cases. Like passports! Who would have known so many Americans living in an inland city would have their passports handy!

Persona [Flickr]
Jason Travis [J Trav]

Nintendo started out as a card maker, making hanafuda playing cards. Nintendo still makes playing cards. Video games, too.

This July, the company will be releasing three sets of Mario branded playing cards.

These are "premium" cards, and are priced at ¥1,050 (US$11) each set. I like the "dot" cards the most. They're classy.

Mario Trump [Nintendo]

This is a charming short film about everyday people and their World of Warcraft avatars, interviewing a few players while their characters stroll around in the real world.

It's only four minutes long, but in that four minutes you get to meet a number of Irish players who give honest, enjoyable stories of just why it is they play the game, and what it is they're getting out of it.

It's the work of Gavin kelly, Paul Giles, John O'Connell, Will Sharkey and Cormac Kelly.

Well worth a look if you're like me and just write WoW players off as click-happy time-wasters.