Once again more news has transpired in 24 hours than I'm able to handle with the individual loving care that each unique-as-in-snowflake bit of news fully deserves to be treated. So sue me.

Here's what happened:

Bungie cheated HBO out of a Humpday win. Makes you wish there was some large company comprised of adults watching over these boys Luke Smith while at play.

Speaking of cheating, NBA player Gilbert Arenas apparently sets up dummy matches of doubles in social slayer and gets the dummy to quit out, leaving him with the victory and the experience points. MC187 sniffed out the method looking at statistics, and the Washington Post got Arenas to admit to it, who arrogantly asserted it wasn't cheating. Bungie, instead of banning him, pointed to Arenas' apparently legitimately high matchmaking skill ranking as proof of the player's ability and ignored the fact that he's manipulating the experience system. So that's it, it's OK to set up fake social games to get free experience points. If you're a famous NBA player who is friends with top MLG teams. Otherwise, don't. You might get banned.

Speaking of HBO, Bungie AI engineer Max Dyckhoff gave an excellent and wide-ranging interview to HBO about exactly how the Saved Films feature works (it is simultaneously both more and less complex than you'd think) as well as how driving AI works (or doesn't).

Frankie pointed out Halolcats, the content of which is pleasantly predictable.

Shacknews interviewed Wideload's Alex Seropian about being an independent game studio.