I thought this was a pretty cool article. It's cool that you can use games that aren't labeled as "serious" or "educational" games as a medium to teach with. http://edtechleadership.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/world-of-warcraft-invades-language-arts-class/
Following the announcement of SOny's new super expensive console, someone put together these interesting little graphs comparing prices with and without inflation factored in. http://curmudgeongamer.com/2006/05/history-of-console-prices-or-500-aint.html
http://www.animationbuffet.blogspot.com/ And in particular http://www.animationbuffet.blogspot.kr/2010/05/tresher.html That's your best bet for a complicated creature rig that's similar-ish to what you're looking for.