The gaming industry has changed quite a bit compared to say, five years ago, and our next half-decade looks to bring many additional changes. Let's take a look at a few.

Interesting news this week. Mountain Dew and Doritos have partnered with Activision on a new promotion for "Modern Warfare 3" called "RankUpXP." This promotion will allow gamers who redeem codes from Mountain Dew and Doritos products up to 24 hours of "double XP" gametime (time during which actions in the game result in double the rewards other players get ). This is a brilliant move for both brands. That said, what is Activision thinking?? They've broken one of the most sacrosanct rules for publishers in game advertising: "Don't let an advertiser endanger your bottom line."

One of the challenges brands often face when they look at getting into gaming is cost and time. Concepting a game people will actually play takes a great deal of time and specialized skills. But sometimes, the simplest games can engage thousands of people if the right circumstances come together.

The F2P model relies on providing a large introductory portion of a game to users for free, and assumes that if the game is fun/addicting enough, players will be willing to pay after an initial investment of time. This works on a number of psychological principles related to loss aversion and cognitive dissonance. In short, it's extremely potent and effective.

Free to Play, F2P, Freemium - however you describe it, the business model where consumers get the cow for free, but they need to pay for the milk, the bucket, the stool and the barn, is taking over the Games category of the iTunes app store, as well as the world of online PC gaming.

A few big news items in the past week for gaming: HBO Go is coming to consoles, 3D isn't having a good week, and Diablo III news raises questions for virtual goods.

In roughly two days, independent game studio Addo Games will close out a funding drive for their iPad game in development, "Robots Love Ice Cream" -- a game paid for largely by fan donations through Kickstarter. Currently, the project is underfunded by about $8,000, but after being featured on sites like Destructoid.com, Wired.com, and others, it seems like it might have an influx of last-minute donations to take its developers over the finish line.

EA went ahead and acquired Popcap, a move that has been rumored for weeks. This is a major development, and points to a broader gamble by EA.

"CivWorld," a social game based on the storied "Civilization" franchise, is not exactly tearing up the charts. According to AppData, two weeks after its launch, "CivWorld" has a little under 300,000 active users -- not a small number of people, but it's just not in the same ballpark as Zynga's titles. Why is that?

This past week an article in Ars Technica caught my eye that detailed the monetization realities behind Xbox Live's Indie Games. The outlook was rather grim. Most titles are struggling to break even, and even "successful" publishers consider the response lackluster. One publisher in particular cited a move to the PC as a hopeful pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The talk of the indie side of core gaming got me thinking. To be honest, other than the few critically and socially acclaimed titles here and there (I'm looking at you, "Minecraft"), I'd almost forgotten they were …