Yesterday we had a fun discussion about the best thing to happen to gaming in the last five years. Today I want to talk about the worst thing. While EA’s Online Pass has been making the news lately, I’m sure there are worse things we can think of, right?

Gaming evolves at a ridiculous pace. Thinking about the videogames I played as a kid and what I play now…it’s just crazy! The improvements made in the last couple of years — just a few years! — are also impressive. Today I’d like to know what your favorite gaming innovation is from the last five years.

I was wondering what social networking services you fine ladies and gentlemen use. Out of necessity (have to promote the site and all), I used most of what’s out there. Twitter is my favorite. Facebook can be kind of fun. LinkedIn and Plaxo are boring, but necessary for business. I’m late to the party with Foursquare, but totally love it. Not only do you get to see where your friends are hanging out and discover new venues, you also get useless points for going to places and checking in on Foursquare — it’s like Achievement Points, but for living!

At Google I/O 2010, I was fascinated by a number of comments delivered by vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra during the show’s keynote sessions. His not-subtle-at-all jabs against Apple were entertaining and a little curious. Here are two of my favorites.

Whether I’ve “known” you for a few weeks or few years, one thing we have in common is that we love to play games. You’re probably thinking, “Duh!”, but stay with me for a sec. One thing I don’t know about you is where you play games. Do you have your living room decked out with a crazy surround-sound system? Perhaps you prefer playing in bed while leaning on your favorite pillow. Maybe you’ve constructed an elaborate man/woman cave for gaming. Today I want to hear all about your gaming setup. So please take this poll and tell me about your rig!

Google Android’s voice recognition is pretty outstanding. I’ve been loving it on the Evo 4G and I’m surprised that it works so well. The voice capabilities of the phone got me thinking — if voice recognition can be effective on a mobile phone with a 1GHz processor, then shouldn’t it just completely rock on a console with a multi-core CELL chip? Sure, games like Seaman and Hey You Pikachu were gimmicky, but I think the right developer could use today’s voice recognition and console power in a really fun way.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how Google TV, the Chrome Store, and HTML5 can change gaming. Seeing a version of LEGO: Star Wars running on HTML5 and delivered through the Chrome Store made a lot of lights go off in my head (What? You don’t have lights in your head?!?). The next day, Google announced Google TV along with its launch partners. “A-ha!” I said to myself, “There’s the final piece of the puzzle!”

People raised their eyebrows at Nintendo when it announced that it was going with a dual-screen handheld for its next portable system. Even more people laughed at the notion of an underpowered console that relied on a “gimmicky” motion-control scheme. In both cases, the company sold millions of units of hardware. With that in mind, do you think the company will sell millions of Wii Vitality Sensor accessories?

It used to be that you needed a console, a controller, and cartridge/disc to enjoy a game. While the prices of consoles and games haven’t gone up too much over the years, you have to spend more money than ever to play games. On the hardware side you have accessories, on the software side you have DLC, and on the services side you have Xbox Live Gold. All of that stuff adds up!

The NBA playoffs are moving on without the Cleveland Cavaliers, but the most interesting NBA story of the year remains with the team — where will Lebron James play in the 2010-2011 season? After the Cavs were eliminated, James’ demeanor and answers seemed to indicate that he was leaning towards leaving his home franchise. Where will the best player in the NBA end up? I want to hear your thoughts on the matter!