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"It's practically policy," said Gary Hodges, an occasional contributor to the site who's been there since its inception. In his 30s, Hodges has "camped" in line for midnight movie openings of films such as Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, names his favorite food as "Ben & Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch", and keeps the first six issues of Nintendo Power on his bookshelf.

He is unmarried.

"Granted, [Joystick Division] never outright asked if I was a manchild," admits Hodges. "But my first post there was basically a love letter to a video game boss from 1986, with drawings. A month later I showed off my extensive collection of 1/6-scale erotic statues of video game heroines.

"They knew who was working for them."

While former contributor Chris Ward refused requests for comment, a quick Google search revealed videos of the grown man having long conversations with his cat (who appears to wear a tie) as Ward prepared a chicken broth he purchased simply because of its obscene-sounding name ("Cock Soup").

Experts are quick to point out that the problem of manchild exploitation in blogging - especially enthusiast topics such as gaming and movies - isn't unique to Joystick Division, or even uncommon.

And it's only getting worse.

"This is something we've watched for years," says Donny Schang, an attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. "But it's difficult to get a handle on because it's so rarely reported. Manchildren don't even think of themselves as exploited. Indeed, these sorts of wretched quasi-jobs are often the only types of work they can perform. I mean, what else is someone like Mr. Hodges really qualified to do? Spray shoes at a bowling alley?"

Asked for a response, Hodges said: "Does he mean that bowling alley with the old Karnov machine? Man, it'd be sweet to work there."