Okay, you know the story by now.  King.com, the maker of Candy Crush, has trademarked the word 'candy.'

King.com applied for the mark last year and it was approved on last week on January 15. It covers use of the word 'Candy' in games, game accessories, merchandise and other items.  Companies who oppose this filing have a 30 day window to file a complaint.

On Friday President Barack Obama gave a speech laying out his plans to curtail the spying activities of the National Security Agency (NSA) on U.S. citizens and on targets abroad. The president promised to reform the agency's programs, but according to a new poll Americans aren't impressed with the president's plan or didn't pay attention to it.

Last week we asked our readers if they believed that it really took EA Maxis six months of development time to change SimCity from an online-only game to an offline game that supported modding. The majority of you weren't buying EA's claim.

Around 79 percent of the 204 votes cast said that they did not believe that it took EA six months to develop SimCity to run in an offline mode. Only around 21 percent said that they believed the statement.

Last year, Electronic Arts launched its new SimCity game and even though it is and always has been a predominantly single player game, the new title had no offline mode.  This decision was so unpopular that it's likely the major reason EA earned the Consumerist's Worst Company in America award for the second year in a row.

Last week we asked our readers, "Will Nintendo try to quash the work-around for the 3DS region lock?" The voting was almost evenly split between two trains of thought: that Nintendo would patch out its region lock in a firmware update or that Nintendo would find some way to kill the work-around devised by the 3DS community because it doesn't like to make money.

Back in my day, Nintendo handheld gaming consoles were region free.  That's right.  If a quirky little game that wasn't being localized for North America caught my eye, I could feel free to give Nintendo money in exchange for the ability to play it to my heart's content.  Ah, those were the days!

But they didn't last.  No sir, they did not.

It started with the DSi, a revision to Nintendo's previous handheld.  It introduced region locking for titles that used DSi-specific features like the camera.

In last week's poll we were making fun of Walmart when we asked our readers, "You buy your kid a new 3DS from Walmart. What’s worse?," followed by three options: "Finding porn on it," "Discovering that Walmart sold you a used 3DS as new," or that "You bought something at Walmart."

Earlier this week we reported on a Virginia man who bought a 3DS from his local Walmart for his eight-year-old son. To his surprise, when his son and other children decided to look at some fresh photos they'd just snapped with the 3DS' camera on Christmas day, they discovered some rather naughty adult images.

Good news for fans of violent games. A large majority of Americans are keen on getting the government out of the business of blocking violent games from being played. You may recall that for many years, various state and the Federal governments had been attempting to regulate violent games in some way.

Last week we asked our readers, "Do Publishers Know the NSA Is Conducting Surveillance Operations In Their Games?" An overwhelming majority of voters believe that publishers are lying about their knowledge of the NSA's activities in games like World of Warcraft and Second Life, or they are blissfully unaware of what's going on.

A few days ago we talked about a report that showed that American and British spy agencies are playing World of Warcraft, Second Life and various Xbox Live games to spy on us.

Do you think the publishers of those titles know about the surveillance ops being conducted in their games?

In last week's poll, we asked readers if they missed video game cartridges (think Nintendo Entertainment System, SNES, Nintendo 64, Master System, and Sega Genesis era). A slim majority of those who participated in the poll said that digital downloads are their favorite way to get games and that they don't miss the days of carts all that much.

I miss video game cartridges.

They were sturdy and more fun to handle.  No need to worry about fingerprints or gingerly placing them in a tray or slot.  Just jam those suckers in your console and away you go!  Heck, you could dropkick those suckers across the room if you didn't mind getting grounded.

The amount of space is limited only by cost.  You could have battery backups and even custom chips (remember the Super NES's FX chip?).  They were faster too!  No installing and rarely any loading!

In last week's poll we asked you if the results of an investigation into the Dec. 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting would change anyone's minds about gaming's correlation to Adam Lanza's shooting spree that saw six adults and 20 children shot almost a year ago. The majority of those who voted in the poll didn't think the findings of the report would change the minds of those who believe that video games held a strong influence on Adam Lanza and his actions.

Earlier this week, the official investigation report for the shooting at Sandy Hook was released to the public and as any rationally-thinking human being could have surmised 11 months ago, video games had precisely squat to do with it.

But will that matter?

Last week we asked our readers, "Will the Xbox One Suffer Hardware Failures?" Around 436 votes were cast, with the majority of respondents voting giving Microsoft the benefit of the doubt.

When the Xbox 360 launched in 2005, the hardware was plagued with a bunch of console crippling issues, one of which being the famous Red Ring of Death, an LED indication that your game machine is now a giant brick.  Some estimates put the failure rate of the 360 as high as 54%.  Whatever the actual number was, it was so bad that Microsoft ex

A new WPRI 12 Eyewitness News poll shows that a majority of Rhode Islanders have no problem defaulting on the bonds used to secure 38 Studios a $75 million loan in 2010. The company founded by Curt Schilling would later default on the loan payments and leave the state with a debt of $90 - $100 million.

Last week in our poll we asked readers, "Will Reselling Disc-Based PS4 Games Be a Hassle?" Only 176 votes were cast, showing that many of you seemed not to care one way or the other.

Kicking off a series of successive nut punches to Microsoft, Sony announced during its E3 press conference that the Playstation 4 will feature no new restrictions on used games.

Ah but the Playstation Network Terms of service clearly state that you can not resell disc-based software "unless expressly authorized" by Sony.

Wait, so can we or can't we?

Both a Sony rep and Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida have clarified that we will be able to resell our PS4 games.

Last week we asked our readers how they thought the Wii U would fare this holiday season. Around 355 total votes were cast, with a slight majority of participants saying that the Wii U will be ignored more so now that the PS4 and Xbox One are out.

Sit down and buckle in, friends, as I deliver the Understatement of the Week.  Are you ready?  Okay, here goes...

The Wii U ain't doin' so hot.

Nintendo's newest video game console launched just under a year ago, selling through its entire allotment in its first week on the shelf.  By the end of the year,  it had sold just over three million units.  Not record breaking, not a sell-out like the Wii before it but respectable nonetheless.

Last week we asked our readers if they had "ever found a video game legitimately scary?" After 541 votes were cast the majority of readers said that they had in fact been scared by one or more games at one time or another. Around 73 percent (395 votes) said that they had played a video game that they found legitimately scary, while 27 percent (146 votes) claimed that they had never played a video game that scared them.

Occasionally I'll read a review for a horror game (Amnesia, Outlast, etc.) and the author will talk about how freaked out he or she was, how terrified he or she was to play with the lights out, or how he or she couldn't play it alone.

(You know, the English language really needs a non-sexed pronoun.)

I've honestly never understood that.  Games aren't real.  It's just an image on your TV so how can it be scary?

Last week in our poll we asked readers "Will There Ever Be a PC Release of Grand Theft Auto 5?" A majority of the 443 votes cast indicated that a PC release of the game is definitely happening. Around 68 percent of voters (285 votes) said that a port to PC is going to happen and that people should just exercise some patience. Given that GTA IV came to the PC a long time after it was released on consoles, this makes sense to most people.

Let's talk about one of the 118 For Everything But Wii U games, Grand Theft Auto 5.

GTA V released on the PS3 and Xbox 360 last month to rave reviews and record-breaking sales.  And yet, some gamers are still not happy.

No, not Nintendo fanboys.  We're never happy.

Last week we asked our readers, "How do you feel about games that require you to buy toys to access game content (Skylanders, Disney Infinity)?" Nearly half of those who voted said that this practice of tying toys to video games to unlock access to characters, levels, and other game content is a complete rip-off for consumers.

On this week's show, hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight talk about the latest GamePolitics poll, the controversy over a crunch time tweet from Crytek, the cost of Six Strikes, a special needs student being suspended from school for drawing a bomb, and an Illinois State Attorney calling for an "economic boycott" of GTA V. Download Episode 74 now: SuperPAC Episode 74 (1 hour, 12 minutes) 33.1 MB.

How do you feel about buying keys to unlock content in a game you already paid full price for?

Sounds kind of crap, right?  Well what if those keys were also nifty little toys, perfect for collecting and displaying on your shelf?

In last week's poll we asked our readers, "What do you think about Metacritic?." Around 367 votes were cast, with the majority of voters saying that the review aggregation site isn't a bad thing, it is just being used incorrectly.