Riot announced today that they are officially taking a stand against SOPA / PIPA. Riot got specific about the dangers of SOPA and how it relates to the LoL community:

• Kills streaming. If any single streamer plays copyrighted music (or alt tabs into a movie or other owned content) on their stream, there is a significant risk of the entire streaming service being taken down. In some cases, it could even result in criminal penalties for the streamer.
• Threatens independent content creation. Services we all use to create and share League of Legends related content, such as YouTube, Reddit, DeviantArt, streaming websites such as Own3d and Twitch, and more would be at risk of shutting down or greatly restricting the scope of legitimate content allowed on their sites.

• Attacks our community. Aspects of our service such as the official forums and potentially even in-game chat, could be taken down or have their features reduced based on user behavior.

• Other harmful effects. SOPA/PIPA undermine established intellectual property legislation like the DMCA, raise serious constitutional free speech issues, and could even compromise the basic security infrastructure of the internet.

Riot even had their lawyer answering questions today on Reddit. To add even more power to the punch, Congressman Jared Polis turns out to be an avid LoL player who has joined Riot in opposition of the bill. Joining other big names like Google, Reddit, Amazon, Twitter, and Facebook, SOPA is justly running into some stiff opposition.

The first update since the 1.0 release of Minecraft should be released tomorrow according to a tweet from Jens Bergensten who took over as Minecraft lead developer back in early December 2011. Jeb's tweet "Also, I think we'll update Minecraft to 1.1 tomorrow..." seems pretty clear that the 1.1 update will go live tomorrow some time.

The 1.1 update will include a number of changes including sheep that will once again re-grow thier wool, the way ladders work, biome tweaks, and more.

AMY takes place in December 2034 in the small town of Silver City (Midwest, USA) after a comet strikes, wreaking havoc on humanity and unleashing a deadly virus that has infected almost everyone. Players take on the role of Lana, who regains consciousness in the midst of all the mayhem. The world she once identified with seems to have been torn to Hell, and most of the people she knew have now become part of a wild horde. Lana feels the virus beginning to infect her and knows she must run as far as possible to escape the nightmare.

The presence of the titular Amy, a seemingly defenseless eight-year-old autistic girl who has curious powers, forces her to make choices that will affect both their lives. Together, they must fight or run from the infected humans, demons and the military, in the hope of not only saving each other, but also the future of humanity.

"Some of the more powerful spells require time to be fully activated and they can't be cast while the hero is involved in melee combat. When an enemy hero begins casting such a spell, you will receive a notification. And here comes the best part: spells and skills that have a casting time can be breached! If the caster is interrupted while activating the spell or skill, he won’t be able to finish it. He stops weaving the spell, and while it won't have any effect the spell’s Mana cost will still be lost."

Tripwire also made a special mention of three mods that had early access to a limited version of the SDK. I've posted some screens and trailers for these total conversions below.

• Rising Storm - A mod set in the Pacific Theater of Operations during WW2
  

• In Country Vietnam - A mod set during the Vietnam War
  

• Iron Europe - A mod set during the First World War

After the former U.S. marine was detained while visiting Iran in August (supposedly to visit family), local daily newspaper Tehran Times published excerpts from a purported confession in which Hekmati admitted to helping create games designed to "manipulate public opinion in the Middle East" at New York City-based developer Kuma Reality Games, under the CIA's direction and payroll.

Hekmati allegedly said, "[Kuma] was receiving money from the CIA to (produce) and design and distribute for free special movies and games with the aim of manipulating public opinion in the Middle East. The goal of the company in question was to convince the people of Iran and the people of the entire world that whatever the U.S. does in other countries is a good measure."

One thing's for sure, this may very well be the first time that a game developer from any country has faced a death sentence over, among other things, the content of their game(s).

“As part of its standard business practice, id regularly evaluates staffing to ensure it has a workforce that meets the needs of the studio,” said VP of marketing and PR Pete Hines in an email.

“As part of that process, some id employees were recently let go, he continued. “id is still recruiting and hiring qualified developers, and development work on future id titles continues unabated.”