Rodin's "The Thinker." Courtesy of innoxiuss; edited by Level Up

The Idea: A teenaged male's wish fulfillment story is the best way to make a movie out of The Sims.

The Thinker: John Davis, movie producer

The Source: A Q&A on Collider.com

The Exchange:

To read the rest of today's installment of The Big Idea in its entirety, click on the link below.

1. EGO...trip: cited as a sage and a celebrity, our ego puffs up yet again
2. THR...eat or promise? Activision to triple Guitar Hero titles by 2010
3. NIT...picking? Yes, but this nit is exceedingly deserving of being picked
4. DRM...Protests over Spore's copy-protection evolve rather creatively
5. RND...If Skynet doesn't get us, the peace-loving, tree-hugging aliens will

1. EGO...trip: Level Up's Page 110 sideblog gets a massive update
   
2. MAD...den sacked on Wii, analyst calls platform "inhospitable" to third parties
3. ANN...ie Liebowitz isn't the only person who makes Hannah Montana look good
4. DRM...Too hot? Too cold? Just right? Spore backlash leads EA to ease up on C&C
5. RND...A brief-yet-discursive examination of the hipster rap phenomenon

youwillbeassimilated:

From this week’s PostSecret.

But can Dumbledore really save your soul? Perhaps Cee-Lo would have been a better choice.

1. EGO...trip: Vanity, thy name is Level Up, or, GamePolitics takes notice
   
2. BIO...Shock came out last year. The postmortem, however, continues right along
3. ADS...As Spore gets ready for release, its street team hits the, um, streets
4. RND...He's dead, Jim: Aaron Eckhart explains why he won't be in the next "Batman"

Between penetrating interviews and marathon gaming sessions, the staff of Level Up has been known to click over to The Drudge Report for up-to-the-minute headlines in news, politics and gossip. A few minutes ago, we came across the following headline: "PUTIN TOPS VANITY FAIR NEW ESTABLISHMENT LIST; MURDOCH NO. 2..." We clicked on the story, where, lo and behold, we found the entire 100-slot list from the October issue of Vanity Fair. Here's how Vanity Fair describes the highly scientific methodology behind its rankings system:

The Vanity Fair 100 represents a global, movable band of thinkers, owners, creators, and buyers who are the tastemakers, trendsetters, opinion formers and agenda creators in the worlds of politics, entertainment, media, business, technology, and fashion. Entry into the ranks of the V.F. 100 is based on a number of factors: wealth and influence, as well as such intangibles as vision, philanthropy, and the x factor.

Being named to the list is considered to be an honor of some prestige, and, in the past, we've known publicists who've spent considerable time and effort to ensure that their clients would be so recognized. Previous videogame-related honorees include Electronic Arts chairman Lawrence (Larry) F. Probst III in 2004 (#32, between actor Tom Cruise at #31 and Fox News chief Roger Ailes at #33) and 2005 (#33, below Ailes at #32 but above Cruise at #34). PlayStation CEO Kaz Hirai hasn't yet made the list, but he was named a "mogul in waiting" while seving as the head of the game company's North American operation. So how did videogame luminaries fare this year?

To read the rest of our post in its entirety, including the entire Vanity Fair 2008 New Establishment List, click on the link below:

1. EGO...trip: our panel on sex, violence and videogames gets noticed
2. AND...the geek shall inherit the earth: Ken Levine on nerditude
3. THE...end is the beginning is the end, or, is the console era over
4. RND...They're ba-a-a-a-ck, and truly, nothing is sacred anymore