By Mike Krumboltz, Yahoo! Buzz Log

The event: The World Scrabble Championships.

The place: Warsaw, Poland.

The alleged crime: The theft of a "G" tile during a game.

The proposed solution: Strip-search the accused.

Seriously?: Yes, seriously.

By BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer — Mon Oct 17, 11:21 am ET

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (Activision)NEW YORK — To impress kids these days, it's not enough to make another video game. Mere action figures won't do, either. So Activision is merging the two.

With "Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure," Activision is using some of its "Guitar Hero" technology in a new venture that's part handheld toy, part digital entertainment. Aimed at kids, "Skylanders" is among the latest and most ambitious game in a growing genre that blends a child's physical world with a video game and online media.

Superheroes have proven unexpectedly hard to translate to video games. Superman 64, a disastrous 1999 release, is counted among the worst games of all time, though the list of lousy superhero games certainly doesn't end there. From The Fantastic Four to Iron Man, even the sturdiest super-types have been roughed up on small screen.

Batman: Arkham City (Warner Bros. Interactive)But that wasn't true of 2009 hit Batman: Arkham Asylum, which melded a pitch-perfect comic-book tale with fantastic action gameplay, resulting in what most folks consider the best superhero game ever made.

Until now, that is.

Leaving the claustrophobic passageways, cells, and grounds of Arkham's asylum to take on the whole town in an open-world romp, Batman: Arkham City releases this week for the Xbox 360 and PS3. And according to critics, it doesn't just match the original, it surpasses it. With a stunning 95 average at Metacritic, the verdict's in: go out and buy it, because this, actually, is the best superhero game ever made.

Video game industry critics have long held that people who play violent games become less affected by real world tragedies. Now they might have some science backing them up.

Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar Games)Researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany say a new study finds brain activity from heavy gamers is noticeably different than that of non-players -- and that violent games could be "emotionally desensitizing" after extended exposure.

The results from the study, which were published in the scientific journal Biological Psychology, are bound to be a source of controversy.

After setting five-year retail sales lows for the past three months, the video game industry finally showed signs of life in September — although those vitals weren't as strong as some industry observers were expecting.

Madden NFL 12 (EA Sports)Year-over-year sales were down 4 percent overall, but game software sales (the most closely followed statistic) were up 3 percent, the first positive growth in months.

Analysts had been looking for a jump in software sales of between 4 and 10 percent.

The hardware numbers were fairly abysmal. Sales of console and handheld game systems were down 9 percent, despite the release of several high-profile titles.

And The Joker got away...Every hero needs a villain, and while loads of evildoers have it out for Batman, none make the Dark Knight tick like The Joker. The two characters have been duking it out for over 70 years (The Joker first appeared in 1940's Batman #1), and just as their comic book looks have changed dramatically over the years, so have their onscreen counterparts. Which of these Batman/Joker combos is your fave?

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Reports last week that the Air Force's drone program had been hit by a virus raised all sorts of concerns about cyber-terrorism infiltrating the military. It turns out, though, that the whole thing could be Facebook's fault.

Mafia Wars (Zynga)Pentagon officials say the virus wasn't something that specifically targeted military systems, but was instead a fairly common piece of malware that's used to steal people's online gaming passwords.

Speaking to the Associated Press, officials noted the virus was one that typically targets people who gamble online or play games like Mafia Wars and was "considered more of a nuisance than a threat". And despite reports to the contrary, the Air Force said in a statement, the malware did not affect Remotely Piloted Aircraft operations.

Think marbles are just child's play?

Although the speedy little spheres have been popular toys for thousands of years, today's marble collectors are prepared to lay down some decidedly grown-up quantities of coin for these colorful trinkets.

But what differentiates an everyday glass bauble from a thousand-dollar one-off? Like many collectibles, it's a combination of condition, rarity, demand, and vintage -- but there are five standout classes that consistently draw the big bucks.