For game auteurs

Microsoft's news about giving anyone access to its game authoring tools is good news for parents of "hard-core gamers." It just may be a career-development tool too. "Microsoft is trying to turn hard-core gamers into Xbox programmers," CNET reports. Expected to be available for free later this month in beta form, the software will make it easier for "college students, hobbyists and others create their own games for the Xbox 360 console, for a Windows PC or both," CNET adds (eventually it'll cost $99). A San Jose Mercury News blog calls this "the democratization of videogame development" and reports that Microsoft is calling it "the YouTube of videogames." YouTube promotes the clips of zillions of amateur videographers (often called Web 2.0's "auteurs"), just as MySpace promotes the tunes of zillions of indie bands. In related news, now there's a social network for game designers: Nightlife Interactive, a videogame advertising company, "has launched its own social network site to aid in the research, development, and marketing of its various game offers," according to the company's press release.