Round Up: Moore/AEIM, BioWare's 3 Mil, Rag Doll Kung Fu

Today's round-up includes news of Peter Moore being named chairman of Association of Electronic Interactive Marketers, the Bioware fan community reaching 3 million members, and Rag Doll Kung Fu signed by Merscom for North American retail, as well as the latest GameSetWatch posts, product news, Serious Games Source news, and Gamasutra job postings. - Peter Moore was today named the chairman of Association of Electronic Interactive Marketers (AEIM), a professional trade organization designed to support the video game industry's marketers and related professionals in seizing opportunities and meeting future challenges. The organization was recently formed by the MI6 Advisory Committee in support of the MI6: Marketing Interactive '06 event to take place this June 27-28 in San Francisco. In addition to Moore, the organization will be led by a board of directors ultimately populated by the committee's founding members and other business leaders in the space. - BioWare announced that its official fan community has reached 3 million registered users. The developer attributed the rapid growth to the popularity of upcoming titles such as Mass Effect, to be published by Microsoft on the Xbox 360 this winter, as well as Jade Empire, the upcoming PC port of the action RPG released for the Xbox in 2005. To celebrate the community's growth, the developer announced its 'BioWare 3 Million Member Celebration', a month long event that will include prize giveaways to reward community members. Those interested can visit the BioWare website to enter the contest, which will award selected winners with the ultimate gaming system. - Merscom announced an agreement with former-Lionhead Studios developer and Media Molecule co-founder Mark Healey to publish Rag Doll Kung Fu for the PC in North America. Widely praised for its originality and creativity at the 2005 Game Developers Conference, Rag Doll Kung Fu is a finalist in the Develop Industry Excellence Awards for Innovation and New PC Intellectual Property. The game, which is scheduled for an August release, will retail for $19.99. The game uses entirely physics-based animation and collision; there are no pre-set animation routines, no button combinations to memorize or locked-in fighting moves. Rag Doll Kung Fu allows players to use a mouse to move the characters' limbs as if they were puppets on strings. By coordinating movements of the arms, legs and body, players can orchestrate impressive attack moves and defensive maneuvers. - The latest updates on Gamasutra sister weblog GameSetWatch include news of layoffs at CCG company WizKids, a historical look at matching tile games, and a video review of Ridge Racer by MightyJustice. - Also updated today: Serious Games Source news on the announcement of the Fifth International Workshop on Virtual Rehabilitation, as well as an exclusive interview with Russ Phelps, president of Intelligence Gaming, plus Gamasutra product news on the release of DemonWare's Lobby Advertising Solution and the launch of GarageGames' 3D Game Builder, and the latest Gamasutra job postings, featuring openings from Activision / Raven Software, Amaze Entertainment, Amritt Ventures, Eurocom Developments Limited, Monolith Productions, NCsoft, THQ KAOS, Vigil Games, Vivendi Games, and Volition.