Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column about card games, board games, and everything else non-digital.

For nearly two years now, Off the Grid has introduced (and reintroduced) Joystiq's readers to some of the best board and card games on the market. The relationship between our modern video games and their non-digital counterparts is very clear-cut. As Gamelab CEO Eric Zimmerman puts it: "a game is a game is a game."

So for those readers who aspire to create games of their own, it should come as no surprise that non-digital games are a great starting place for honing the craft of game design. With no programming skills required, non-digital game design is an easy way to begin thinking creatively about interaction, without the complicated prerequisities of digital game development.

The best leaping-off point for non-digital game design is with the tools. Most gamers probably already have some fantastic equipment in their closets. So let's look at the basic tools of the trade.

A new study released by the Experian Group compares the consumers of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The findings cover age breakdowns, leisurely activities, and personal philosophies about recycling (seriously).

Most interesting amongst the somewhat sparse research points was the age breakdown of console owners. Experian pegs Xbox 360 owners at being within the average age range of 35-44, while placing PS3 users as being over 44 on average. Other than age, the report shows that both 360 and PS3 owners share similar interests (board games, go-carting), and both reportedly watch less television than non-gamers polled (um, probably because they're playing games instead).

Dramantic findings, indeed! The full report is available for viewing online.

Last week we reported that Forza 3's sheer glut of content may mean the game will span two discs -- a feat not performed in console racing titles since Gran Turismo 2 back in 1999.

Fears of frequent disc swapping have been tentatively belayed, however. The Angry Pixel reports that only one disc will hold the "core game" content, presumably with the second disc holding additional, non-integral features. This possible scenario comes from a source at Dhruva Interactive, an India-based game developer contracted to deliver 3D assets for Forza 3.

The source also states that more news on the anticipated racing title is coming "fairly soon," so we'll hopefully get to the bottom of this "2 discs 1 game" rumor in the near future.

Casual game developer PopCap Games continues its slow entry into the console game market, with recent hints suggesting a collaboration with a major console-based game developer.

Speaking to Gamasutra, PopCap co-founder John Vechey referred to the unannounced partnership as "the coolest collaboration ever, I promise." Vechey also claims it will go down as one of the top ten collaborations of all time in the industry. Strong words, Mr. Vechey. We anxiously await the formal announcement (or maybe we'll just distract ourselves with Peggle in the meantime).

Introversion devotees know exactly what Multiwinia is and why they should be excited, but many others might not remember the multiplayer update to award-winning strategy title Darwinia, due out this September. Both parties should check out Rock Paper Shotgun's extensive preview of Multiwinia, showing off just how hardcore the adorable little flat sprites can be.

Multiwinia: Survival of the Flattest will feature the usual smattering of multiplayer modes, built upon the stellar gameplay and gorgeous aesthetic that made Darwinia an instant Joystiq classic. Gameplay modes will include Darwinian twists on deathmatch, king of the hill, capture the flag, territories, and a few more modes unique to the Darwinia universe. We can't wait to wage tiny, tiny war.

Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column about card games, board games, and everything else non-digital.

In real life, scarcity isn't fun. Scarcity is the rising price of gas, or the difficulty of finding a job. In a game, however, scarcity can be incredibly compelling, and make for a very unique play experience. Enter Power Grid, a board game by German designer Friedemann Friese which uses scarcity at every level of its design to produce one helluva strategy title.

The player's task in the game is to power as much of the country as possible (United States on one side of the board, or alternatively Germany on the other). As heads of various power companies (think Montgomery Burns or whoever runs PG&E), your tasks are to buy power plants, purchase resources, and allocate those resources to control as many houses in as many cities as possible. Money's not the deciding factor here; players will be judged and ranked solely on the amount of power they're pushing.

Sony continues to shuffle the upper-level management of their international studios. Gamasutra reports that the company has appointed Michael Denny (pictured) as the new senior vice president of Sony Worldwide Studios Europe, moving him from his former position as Sony Computer Entertainment Europe VP.

Sony has also promoted Scott Rohde, former Sony San Diego Studios senior director, to the position of vice president of Worldwide Studios America. Both Rohde and Denny will manage the internal studios for their regions.

These promotions follow last month's appointment of Shuhei Yoshida as president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide, replacing Phil Harrison. GamesIndustry.biz has posted the first part of an interview with Yoshida, detailing the difficult task of filling Phil's shoes.

Fancy playing your favorite console titles on PC? If our super-fountain of rumors turns out to be gushing truth, you may be able to do just that. Included in the lengthy list of leaks is a device called "Trioxide," which will reportedly allow users to use their home computers to play Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 titles.

How exactly would this work? The brief blurb doesn't say, but our best guess is that Trioxide merely allows users to send video and audio signals from their console of choice to the PC for displaying. This theory is reinforced by the blurb, which states that any games played using Trioxide utilize their original game controllers, rather than the PC's keyboard or mouse.

Joystiq previously reviewed the Elgato EyeTV Hybrid (pictured above), a device that performs a very similar signal-display operation. Unlike the EyeTV, Trioxide would likely be designed strictly for game-playing, and would be optimized for low latency. It might not be the magic bullet people were hoping for, but Trioxide could still be a pretty sweet peripheral by our guesstimation.

Following the Motörhead set earlier this month, more Guitar Hero III downloadable content lands on the PS3 and Xbox 360 today, with the three-song Isle of Wight Track Pack now available on both consoles for purchase and download.

The pack features "Problems [live at Brixton] by The Sex Pistols, "Shoot the Runner" by Kasabian, and "I Predict a Riot" by Kaiser Chiefs. The set costs 500 Microsoft Points, or $6.25 USD on PS3. For a taste, check out the above video for Kasabian's "Shoot the Runner." It's kinda rockin'.

[Via X3F]

In the world of professional game blogging, the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups: the bloggers who investigate the stories and readers who make silly comments. These are the first group's stories.

• Name: Scott Jon Siegel
• Job Position: Blogger / Columnist
• Past Experience/Education: Four years as a Literature and Integrated Arts major at Bard College; Game Politics correspondent from way back in the day.
• Live Outside of the 'Stiq: Just moved to San Francisco, following a six-month stint living it up in the South of France (Bonjour! Où est la bibliothèque?). When I'm not blogging, I'm designing games, and blogging some more. I'm also engaged to an awesome blogger. Imagine that!
• Why I'm blogging: I like writing, I like video games, and I like paying my rent on time, so it made sense. I started as a columnist (Off the Grid's coming back soon, I swear), and graduated into a full-time blogging position once I got out of college.
• First game experience: I really can't remember. Must've been so awesome it erased itself from my consciousness, lest I become incapacitated by its glory. Obviously.
• Favorite games: Rez, Metroid II, Chrono Trigger, and basically everything in this photo.
• What do you really look like? This, plus 16 years or so.

There's more to come every Tuesday and Thursday.

Variety reports that the live-action Turok movie is not being handled by Disney, which publishes the video game series through its Touchstone Pictures label. Instead, the film rights are being handled by Classic Media, the same IP management firm that handled the direct-to-DVD Turok animated film.

What does this mean for the dinosaur hunter's big-screen debut? Variety's Ben Fritz warns us that without the backing of a major studio like Disney, it's likely that Turok won't be on par with major film adaptations like the upcoming Prince of Persia and BioShock flicks. Let's just keep it out of the hands of Uwe Boll, shall we?

Finally. Proof that red team roolz. The scientific journal "Cyberpsychology & Behavior" has published the results of a research study, finding that over the course of 1,347 matches of Unreal Tournament 2004, the red team beat the blue team 55% of the time. Yes, this is actually what passes for science now.

One neuroscientist reasons that the slight red team advantage may be psychological, as the color red could prove distracting to men, "possibly because men flush and turn red when they're angry." As silly as that sounds, the study parallels a similar one performed in 2005, where it was found that wearing red in real-life one-on-one sporting events increased the likelihood of victory.

Acknowledging the findings of the research, Epic Games VP Mark Rein said they won't be changing the classic multiplayer colors of Unreal Tournament anytime soon. At least now you have an excuse for losing all the time, right blue team?

The two USB ports on the back of the Nintendo Wii don't get a whole lot of love, but that might be changing sometime in the near future. According to PC World, a recent posting on Nintendo's job board calls for a Software/Hardware Tester specializing in creating and executing "a test plan for Wii's USB devices."

We already know that Rock Band on the Wii will utilize a USB hub for its peripherals, but the job posting suggests even more USB devices might be enroute. These could include USB keyboards for future online games, or possibly even an eventual external storage solution (though Nintendo's recent disparaging comments on the matter make this unlikely).

[Via Engadget]

Half-confirming earlier rumblings, Turbine has gone on record to state that they are actively developing a console-based MMO. It's not known at this time whether the title is, as rumored, a cross-platform console adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, or whether it is an entirely new title.

According to Turbine Communications Director Adam Mersky, the company intends to fill 100 new positions in 2008, with 60 slots already filled thus far this year. A significant investment from media giant Time Warner is largely the cause of this sudden growth, which proves promising for the MMO developer.

[Via Gamasutra]

As Nintendo's WiiWare service ramps up with new content added every week, avid Wii users are finding themselves burning through the console's paltry 512MB of internal memory quite quickly. So we find it a bit odd that Nintendo's European Marketing Director not only considers the issue unimportant, but thinks it wise to berate those concerned with it by calling them names.

Speaking to Edge Magazine, NOE Marketing Director Laurent Fischer was surprisingly dismissive of the growing space demands of WiiWare titles. According to him, only "geeks and otaku" want the issue actually addressed. Which just hurts.

If by "geeks and otaku," Mr. Fischer, you mean Nintendo's loyal fanbase who download every game released, then there may some truth in that. But calling them names certainly won't keep those "geeks and otaku" loyal for much longer.