Another E3 over, and while I loved a lot of the demos, I won't be lulled into a belief that those games will a) come out when they say they will and b) will be as good as they looked. The Ubisoft presentation with Watch Dogs stole the show, but their presenters were terrible. Actually, there was no 'good' presentation at all. I was embarrassed for most of them. Would it be too much to ask to just stick to what you know and hire someone, like a celebrity to host your press conference?Money well spent people!

Gamespot'the on-going struggle with its broken site. I am amazed that they bothered to give out emblems from this E3, when most of us can't see any of them, except for 12 seconds on Fuse before I get a Bonk error. I also enjoyed the fact that when I searched for new games at E3, they didn't show up in the search, but on the E3 game page only. That was awesome.

I don't think we even have to discuss the comments and blogging tool, do we?I didn't think so. A few of us have tried different platforms with varying levels of success. s_h_a_d_o and I have tried out Game Informer. He seems fairly convinced, I've had my challenges. I know one other user has drifted to LiveJournal and dylan is on Blogger, as am I.

Next steps ' let's broaden our testing. I would love to see some of you try these other sites and give me your feedback.

I'm on Game Informer here:http://www.gameinformer.com/members/pokecharm/default.aspx

I'm on LiveJournal here:http://pokecharm.livejournal.com/

I'm on Blogger here:http://orangeyramblings.blogspot.com/

Feel free to follow/friend where appropriate. I realise that there are a lot of tools that aren't everywhere else. LiveJournal and Blogger are blogging sites pretty much exclusively. Game Informer doesn't allow you to follow games, and I can't find any of my previous blog posts, but that might just be me.

We can either accept that Gamespot doesn't care and will never change. The more I accept this, the less time I spend here, because levelling makes no difference, emblems are irrelevant and the community is wasting away. I'm open to ideas, and I have heard adam1808 saying we should all go to Giant Bomb. I'm going to reiterate my issue with this, they are also owned by CBS and I don't trust them not to pull this same thing there, and then we're back where we are. It might also be time for all of us to just move on. The site isn't going to keep us here, we have to keep one another here, but if the site is going to make this impossible, then it isn't the place to be anymore.

As always, please have a civil discussion below, despite that one lurker who I ignore because he is a jerk.

Diablo III should be amazing. After all, it's the sequel to the legendary Diablo series. Blizzard went from Diablo to focus on Warcraft but than later resurrected their famous and influential RTS, Starcraft and now have Diablo III. It should be amazing.

The game is the fastest-selling PC game of all time. It's like a testament to the staying power of what has become my favorite gaming platform and a slap in the face of all the detractors that think PC gaming is dying. Blizzard hit the sales jackpot, selling over three times as many copies of Diablo III in one week than Microsoft has sold Xbox 360 consoles in Japan across six years. It should be glorious.

Except it isn't. I hate DRM. So much that I avoided buying many games that featured it. But it was bound to happen one day eventually. You can't complain about how much you hate something, not with true passion at least, if you haven't experienced it first hand. Oh I felt my annoyance when I played Diablo III a week or so ago and saw a notification pop up telling me to log out of the game in the next ten minutes because Blizzard had to do some maintenance on their game. Oh there was annoyance.

Sure I've had the game for over a week now and have only totaled about four hours of play. Sure, I've been busy. I mean who wants to stay home and play videogames when you have air-pressure nail guns to play with? When you have a hammer to play with? When you have parties to go to? When you have a psychotic woman that needs to be constantly desired by you or she'll cut your balls off? Each of these things are infinitely more entertaining than playing a videogame. They always have been and they always will be. Who wants to play a videogame when you have to exercise? Who wants to play a videogame when you can go buy yourself some nice clothes and shoes? These are, again, things that are more entertaining than videogames. In May I've spent $60 on videogames. In comparison I've spent hundreds of dollars on clothing and shoes. I've spent hundreds of dollars on things for the house like a chandelier, light bulbs for the cieling fans, etc. Hell, I've spent hundreds of dollars on just filling up my gas tank. I've also burned a hole in my account because as what's her face puts it "Baby, you pay for the expensive sh*t because I'm not going to."

I'd rather spend money on all of these things than on videogames. But when my friends, particularly a certain female partner in crime of mine tells me I should buy this game (likely as an excuse for her to complain about her boyfriend as she knows I'm not doing text conversations with her about it), I think to myself "You know what, maybe just this once I can drop $60 on a game and deal with the DRM that it comes saddled with because I enjoy my friends. I enjoy going out with them, I enjoy partying with them, I enjoy mellowing out with them, I enjoy sitting quietly and staring at the sky with them, I enjoy studying for exams with them and I enjoy afternoon naps with them, hell, I just freaking enjoy my friends."

So yeah, I like my friends. A lot. And I figured $60 for days like today where I don't have work and can casually sit around and start up Diablo III for a quick game just to see what's going on for the simple sake of seing what's going on wouldn't be so bad. Until I see a "Breaking News" bulletin on the side that tells me that since 3 PM there have been server issues. And I try logging in. Multiple times. Across about an hour I'd wager. Sure, I read some news on the NBA Playoffs (Go Spurs Go!!), noticed a new season of South Park on Netflix, checked Facebook and started typing up this piece for everyone to read and throughout that entire time I have sporadically tried logging in to Diablo III and have failed each time.

When it comes to lesser entertainment, games are fun. They have their place as a nifty, interactive distraction. And yet I can't play the biggest PC game in years. Why? Because Blizzard decided, in their infinite wisdom, that even single-player needs to be done through their servers. So that Diablo III shortcut on my desktop? Useless. What am I greeted with when I double-click it? A login screen. One that can't log me into the game I paid $60 for because Blizzard decided that they want to track everything people do. I wish I could tell you if Diablo III gets better after the first four hours or if it remains the same, dumbed-down and ridiculously cheesy mess it started as. But I can't. Because I can't log in.

Millions sold in days. What should have been viewed as a reason for celebration by fans and a magnificent study on the true sales potential of the PC platform by publishers that have tried to leave it behind over the years will instead be looked at how one of the largest and most respected development teams botched a chance at something exceptional. Good job, Blizzard. Microsoft, Sony, EA and Capcom couldn't have messed this up any more than you already did. In a way, that's kind of something to be proud of, too. Because it takes a special team to outstupid one of those four.

If you're not following the ongoing developments at 38 Studios, developer of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (KoA:R) and the upcoming Copernicus, and you're interested in game development, you are doing yourself a disservice. What you'll find unfolding is a tale of an up-and-coming studio filled with talented people crushed by business realities.

38 Studios was founded by Curt Schilling back in 2006 under the name "Green Monster Games." Though KoA:R was its first major release in 2012, its release is the product of 38 Studio's acquisition of Big Huge Games (Rise of Nations) back in 2009. Schilling started the company with the intention of bringing a MMORPG to market. Copernicus is to be the realization of that vision.

Along the way some of the realities of running a company got in the way, and to explain requires some context. The company originally leased space in Maynard, MA while still under the Green Monster Games moniker, but struck a deal with the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (RIEDC) to secure a $75 million loan that would bring 450 jobs to the state of Rhode Island by 2012.

What that means is that 38 Studios borrowed this money from the state at what we can assume to be a favorable rate on the condition that 38 Studios relocate to Providence, RI, thereby bringing in jobs to the state. Rhode Island is under intense pressure to bring jobs to The Ocean State. As of April 2012, Rhode Island has the nation's second-worst unemployment rate at 11.2% (after Nevada, which sits at 11.7%).

Unfortunately, it turns out that 38 Studios is having financial difficulty and is cannot pay back its loan in a timely manner- or its own employees. On May 15 local media (NBC) found that State officials were meeting with 38 Studios on concerns about its ability to meet the terms of its loan. While we do not know the full details of the agreement, we do know that 38 Studios defaulted on a $1.125 million payment to the RIEDC as part of its loan package that was due May 1, 2012. It then delivered a check to the RIEDC that 38 Studios Rick Wester said had insufficient funds in its account to cover- so the check was returned. Now you have 38 Studios laying off employees, though how many of its 379 full-time employees (as of the end of March) is unclear. Most recently it came to light that CEO Jen MacLean and Senior VP of Product Development John Blakely are no longer with the firm (Source).

To recap: Thus far you have the state of Rhode Island so desperate for jobs it makes a gigantic loan to a video game company with zero track record to relocate into the state (38 Studios relocated in 2010, KoA:R was released in 2012). This is a huge risk, since you have no cash flow to cover said payments: What exactly was used to secure this loan? Remember: This is taxpayer money being lent to a video game developer.

Then you have 38 Studios who accepted the loan. Somewhere along the lines someone misstated their earning expectations and release dates, because KoA:R sold about 330,000 copies by March, which comes in a bit under $20mm assuming a $60 retail sale... and that's gross revenue, meaning it doesn't take into account distributor fees (Gamespot, Steam, Amazon, etc.).

Analysts put a net asset value of about $20 million on 38 Studios, assuming they could even find a buyer in the event of a liquidation, so it is in the best interest of the State to try and bail out what is fast becoming a sinking ship. Queue the world fly-through of the scheduled 2013 release MMORPG Copernicus:

The kicker is that Copernicus' release date and trailer were announced by Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, who is desperately trying to salvage what still has the potential to become a profitable title- if 38 Studios can get its act together.

Boston Globe Reporter Scott Kirsner spoke with game industry executives and venture capitalists who've invested in other developers of massively-multiplayer games and came up with three likely scenarios for 38 Studios' future (Source):

1. A bigger game studio or media company comes in and offers to take the 38 Studios assets for nothing.
2. Someone acquires 38 studios offices in Maryland, otherwise known as "Big Huge Games."
3. 38 Studios eventually shuts down and files for bankruptcy.

These are all possible, but there are alternatives. 38 Studios could secure additional lines of credit from private investors to continue development on Copernicus and meet its loan obligations with the RIEDC. Or the RIEDC could forgive loan repayments temporarily until 38 Studios gets back on its feet- which seems likely because RIEDC needs to save face both economically and politically. They don't want to lose jobs and the governor does not want to look like a fool.

Personally I am hopeful that 38 Studios can stabilize itself financially and complete work on Copernicus, but we will not know what's going on internally for some time.

The day following this blog post every employee from 38 Studios was laid off (Source). Still unanswered are what 38 Studios did with the money it did receive from the loan (money received details).

You can follow the ongoing saga on this page, or follow Rhode Island WPRI-TV reporter Ted Nesi on Twitter @TedNesi.

Sources
WPRI
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Boston.com

Last week's long awaited release of Diablo 3 greeted both players and observers with yet another high profile spectacle that showed how it really isn't too bright an idea for fans to allow a game company to go unchecked, whether it be due to indifference or blind fandom, in it's bid to consolidate power title by title.

As history has and will most likely continue to show, the toleration of a game's experience and value being entirely funneled through the developer's sphere of control will inevitably lead to the same unfortunate outcome: A mixture of oppressive DRM and methodically whittled down options that put gamers squarely under the corporate thumb well after they've had their fill of pick pocketing.. resulting in the paying fan not only being left wide open to further corporate greed but, as the Diablo 3 launch clearly showed, also perpetually at the mercy of corporate folly.

Only when a company like Blizzard has been allowed to completely dismantle the balance of power between gamer and game maker can a scenario occur where a large number of fans wait out years of anticipation, wade through long lines/download times, and shell out $60-$100 only to finally sit down and be met with this for extended periods of time:

For those who never cared to pay attention to all the noise surrounding Diablo 3, inevitable technical issues on Blizzard's end or busy servers make the game unplayable in any capacity. No multiplayer or singlepayer.. just gaming's most expensive menu screen for the unlucky masses who can't squeeze through in time.

This is all courtesy of restrictive DRM requiring an always-on internet connection(whose aim is every bit an effort to protect it's precious real world money auction house as it is to combat the piracy boogeyman) and across the board gutting of basic features like LAN support over the years. This longtime action RPG franchise is now locked down as tight as an MMO.. and now as unreliable as one to. (who doesn't enjoy constant vulnerability to character hacks regardless of whether or not you care to play online, lag while playing singleplayer, and pretty much all of PC gaming's annoyances with none of it's openness or flexibility? )

The irony ofcourse is that the entire mess was seen coming a mile away.

Blizzard had been gimping their games for increased control and artifically increased profit well before D3 and 'features' like the required always-on internet connection were made know well before release. Yet, despite all of this, the hype and preorders persisted with a mere fraction of the hassle given to the likes of EA and Ubisoft for similar tactics. When it came down to it, Diablo 3 was simply being the clusterf*ck it's fans allowed it to become.

Amid the aftermath of the botched launch, the three biggest groups of contributors to the passivity towards what the franchise was being turned into were content to avoid any semblance of accountability:

- Complaining buyers who showed they're pretty much all talk by still deciding to throw money at a monster they knew was growing out of control.

- Shortsighted fans of other genres who are content with looking the other way because the collateral damage hasn't hit their own favorite franchises (yet).

- Mind numbing Blizzard apologists who seemed to always fail in realizing the irony in the time they spend complaining about those who they feel are spending too much time complaining.. as well as the absurdity of acting as if the developer deserved some sort of an award for trying to clean up the embarassing mess their own excessive greed put them in. No, as usual, there were many among this group that were more than content to aim low and target Blizzard detractors (at times with needlessly antagonistic nonsense) than question the company itself.

(As far as the excuses I keep seeing: I do realize Diablo is MP centric but turning an option into a 'requirement', not a one-time or an occasional requirement but an actual dependence, while delibrately passing the misconception that always-on DRM will magically prevent potential game-ruining cheating on top of all the exaggerated excuses revolving around the supposed lack of 'player desire' for an offline option to justify it is a bit off-putting to say the least.)

The most disturbing aspect though wasn't a few Diablo fans not being able to play their game right away or the melodramatic arguments that ensued because of it. No, the saddest part is actually what proceeded the drama. It's what I'm unsurprisingly starting to notice as time passes and more people are finally starting to consistently play the game.. acceptance.

The reality is that this growing amount of acceptance of these types of messes and adoption of the "what are you gonna do, it is what it is" attitude with the stunts pulled on a game of this scale is what will do the most damage to not only the franchise, but gaming in general over the longterm.

Despite the headaches Blizzard may have endured righting the server issues, they would gladly endure them time and again so long as the end result of paying customers condoning their actions stays the same.

A game like Diablo 3 has no secondhand market, it has DRM tailored to enhance exploitation, and it's basically a herded experience that forces gamers to play on Blizzard's terms and their terms alone. It's a level of control that, whether they would openly admit or not, is the absolute dream scenario that all game companies are currently striving for one layer of fan indifference at a time.

All of which is why it is so vital for gamers to always consider the ramifications of whatever leeway they provide to modern game companies. Much like new laws and taxes in the real world, once a new form of DLC, DRM, or any other change to the standard in which games are made / marketed are allowed to pass.. they never really go away. They tend to only compound.

Many have touched upon the war on singleplayer, physical formats, or used gaming when discussing the currently aggressive climate of the industry, but the fact of the matter is that those are merely fronts for what has always been the real war.. the one being waged on the consumer rights of gamers. That is why it is as important as ever for gamers to be wary of what they allow their wallet to vote for if they care to avoid their favorite games or genres descending into depths they may not want to follow them into.

Timing is everything, isn't it? I should probably start off by saying I had a different blog thought out, but the recent changes to the site have forced me to change the direction of my tone and purpose. Let's all agree, there is no value in rehashing what we all know to be an issue. Since the site was revamped last year, we've seen update after update that installs new features, but rarely, if ever, do we see any bugs or issues being addressed or even fixed. I was enjoying reading the last two community blogs and the resident cheerleader @Gelugon_baat not allowing even one original thought to be heard. And that is, in a nutshell, what we're dealing with here.

Changes are being made, community contributions are being waylaid, ignored, and still we remain.

I had originally hoped to write a blog about something @terryscythe had said, about how fewer and fewer good blogs were written here because the site was pushing the content further and further back. I wanted to offer to create our own community blog, one where I highlighted all the great blogs we churn out weekly, but what's the point now? What value would that have if we can't have discussions and dialogues?

I'm no programmer, so I can't begin to think about creating my own site, pulling off what Giant Bomb did, but an idea has been germinating in my mind for some time, and this is it.

Staying here is optional, stay or go, it is a personal choice. But we are all friends, have been for many years (most of you, I've only been here a year or so) and to lose that connexion because the site no longer wants us here is not a great reason to lose that friendship. My proposition requires all of you to help, follow along and contribute where you can.

1. What site, other than Giant Bomb, can we go to that will allow the interaction (ie threaded discussions and comments that work) that we want?

2. I'm on blogger as well, and @yeah_write has his own blog as well. Is there any system we can use to create some sort of RSS feed for our circle of friends?

3. How long will we wait out Gamespot?

As a side note, I had really hoped we could perhaps begin a blogging series where we all discuss; like that show on this site, My Esteemed Colleagues, gaming, games and whatever else we want, but all touch the same topic within a week or so. Might be interesting. Thoughts, comments?

I want to avoid rants here. Please, I know we're all unhappy and disgruntled and we know that The Suit and his pals don't care, won't ever care, so there's no point in going down that path. I hate wasting energy on things I know I can't change, and this is it.

I know you Rescue Rangers are required to beat the company drum, but please, we're all site users here, let's keep it that way. Let's find a solution, and I fear it will be one that does not involve this site anymore.

Have you ever read a book, watched a show/movie or played a game (ahem…Mass Effect 3) and were hit something really weird at the end? Like something that doesn't fit? Something that's way too convenient; a strange, out-of-place person, character or circumstance that wraps the conflict up in one confusing swoop? Congratulations, you may have just come across a deus ex machina, one of the cheapest literary devices this side of the cliché.

I think TVtropes.com defines it best:

ADeus ex Machinais an outside force that solves a seemingly unsolvable problem in an extremely unlikely (and, usually,anticlimactic) way. If the secret documents are in Russian, one of the spies suddenly reveals thatthey learned the language. If the writers have just lost funding, a millionaire suddenly arrives, announces an interest in their movie, and offers all the finances they need to make it. IfThe Heroisdangling at the edge of a cliff with a villain stepping on his fingers,a flying robot suddenly appears to save him.

The term is Latin forgod out of the machineand has its origins inancient Greek theater. It refers to situations in which a crane (machine) was used to lower actors or statues playing a god or gods (deus) onto the stage to set things right, often near the end of the play. It has since come to be used as a general term for any event in which a seemingly fatal plot twist is resolved by an event never foreshadowed or set up.

Based on all the online vitriol surrounding the Mass Effect 3 ending, you'd think this was the first time gamers have come across this lazy storytelling tactic. But it's everywhere:

From books:Tolkien wasn't above it. Didn't you think it was odd how many times giant talking eagles came to the rescue?

To TV shows:Every other episode of Doctor Who seems to have one:

"Oh no Doctor, earth is doomed."

"No it's not! I've got a supersonic earth-saving wiggly wobbleator!"

Movies:Watch any pre-Daniel Craig Bond film. Amazing how Q always gives Bondthe exactgadget he needs to get out of a very specific situation later on. It's never a general-use spy gadget. It's a pocket snorkel that lets him breathe under water for five minutes, which is the precise amount of time he'll be stuck in a shark tank later on.

And of course games:*UNCHARTED 3 SPOILER WARNING* Toward the end of Uncharted 3, Nathan Drake picks up a portable rocket launcher that looks like some kind of weird prototype. Minutes later this launcher miraculously fires two rockets under water, which result in the large-scale destruction of the massive underground facility the bad guys are occupying. Also, it saves Sully and closes the door on the mysterious container they were hauling out of the water. Convenient!

Look for it and you'll find it everywhere. It's annoying, aggravating and often completely unsatisfying. And yet, it does work in some places. If the story is funny, cool, or quirky enough, sometimes you can overlook it. It's a gamble for the writer to take—you have to trust that the majority of your audience will swallow your silly twist. Shows like Futurama and 24 are both littered with deus ex machina's. The former makes up for it with absurdist humor while the latter (mostly) makes up for it with Jack Bauer's general badassery. Yes it's incredibly stupid that Angelina Jolie's character saves the dude in Wanted with one impossible bullet when he's surrounded by gunned-up bad guys in a perfect circle. Stupid, but kind of awesome, and it fits with the rest of the absurd, fourth-wall-breaking vibe of the film, so it gets a pass.

I was disappointed with Mass Effect 3's ending just like everyone else, but to me, it wasn't a petition-worthy offense. Maybe it's because I write for a living, or because I consume a lot of stories, or because I knew it was coming, but the ending didn't rile me up. I shook my head, uttered a long sigh, and then started a new game. They went for a silly slightly-literal deus ex machina, a god out of the machine. The Matrix trilogy tried the same thing, but it was worse there. Then again the Matrix trilogy took a turn south long before the ending. At least Mass Effect 3 is a fantastic game all the way up to those last 10 minutes.

Anyway, this wasn't meant to be another blog about Mass Effect 3, the internet has enough of those. Just thought I'd highlight the narrative device they used, for those that don't know. It's actually in more places than you might think.

I think, most of the time when it appears in games, it's through a cinematic or through level design ("Look at that, someone left a mounted turret near this enemy encampment"). Throwing in a gameplay-specific deus ex machina would be difficult, because it could require a new mechanic or extra development. Game developers are economical. Why create something the player only gets to use once?

That's not to say it's never been done. There are games that feature single-use items or mechanics that completely shift the tide of the battle or story. At the end of InFamous 2, Cole can pretty much fly. Would have been convenient to have that power earlier on.

Now, the fun part! Movies and shows are easy. What other games can you think of that had a deus ex machina?

Mobile gaming is hot right now; hotter than platform or PC gaming, in terms of hype. Every developer and mom-and-pop is vying for a multi-million dollar success story like Angry Birds, Jetpack Joyride, or Temple Run. The majority of these games are simple, quick to learn, and as easy to put down as they are to pick up. You know, "casual." But for developers the biggest lure is that mobile titles are inexpensive to produce relative to console and PC titles, offering potentially big margins.

In the gaming enthusiast communities, however, mobile games tend to draw a lot of ire, though only some of it is deserved:

• The Wii doesn't hold a candle to the iPhone in terms of shovelware
• "Free to play" generally means, "Free so long as you only play for a few minutes every couple hours."
• Awkward controls
• Intrusive Facebook and other social networking integration
• Social networking that makes no sense in context of the game
• Micro-transactions

Jetpack Joyride

All that said, mobile gaming has a lot going for it, as well: Alongside services like Steam and XBox Live, it is one of those rare places in the video game industry that a half-dozen people can get together, create truly original content on a shoestring budget, and - potentially - earn a significant profit. Considering how limited original content can sometimes be, what with us celebrating over 25 years of Mario Brothers, Ryu Hayabusa, and franchise after franchise of military shooter, it can be refreshing to, say, karate-chop some fruit or take a joyride on a jetpack without having Master Chief, Sonic the Hedgehog, or other long-time character favorites tied-in to boost sales.

Even still, console and PC gamers can get pretty defensive whenever a mobile game garners any amount of press (source). That anyone would say something like Angry Birds could "barely be called a video game," is surprising considered the origins of the medium. The first video game ever was Table Tennis, played on an oscilloscope (Source). Almost any game for the Atari 800 - Pitfall, Frogger, Asteroids, Zork, Zaxxon, Centipede - had about the same depth as what might be considered a modern casual game, and couldn't begin to approach iOS (the iPhone's Operating System) titles like Illusia or Zenonia. If the original Super Mario Brothers for the NES were released today, it might even be termed, "barely a video game," if Angry Birds Space meets the criteria.

Dragonvale - A mash-up of Harvest Moon and SimCity (Review)

There seems to be more than just an association between casual content and mobile platforms, though, but also the conclusion that developers would forego console and PC games for mobile platforms, and therefore for casual games. It's understandable to see where someone might draw this conclusion. Companies only have so many resources, so if they're focusing on mobile games, they might be shifting away from console and PC games.

Fortunately for all gamers, this conclusion does not make sense. Just because mobile gaming is profitable does not mean publishers will abandon or even marginalize other platforms. There is also no evidence to support that any developer has moved from platform or PC gaming to mobile gaming.

If anything, platforms and PC games are taking in more in terms of total revenue than they have at any point in the history of video games, Indie developers are more successful than they've been since the shareware era thanks to low-cost distribution service providers like Steam and XBox Live, and big-name titles are as pervasive as ever. If anything it is more difficult for large developers to compete on platforms with low development costs due to the low price of entry for competitors.

Zenonia 3 - Action RPG (Zero Wing English)

Large-production games like Skyrim and Diablo 3 are like blockbuster action movies. Angry Birds is a romantic comedy. Just because people are watching romantic comedies doesn't mean studios will suddenly stop making action movies, and vice versa. Neither does one becoming more popular or having wider margins mean that the other is going away. So long as there is a profitable audience for both, they can peacefully coexist.

Yes, Angry Birds is a ridiculous success for what amounts to a reskinned version of Tank Wars, but it is not going to cause Blizzard, for example, to stop making Starcraft in favor of making iPhone apps. If anything, Blizzard is more inclined to expand their staff to write games for the new platform.

Further, there is also no evidence that games are getting worse, though "worse" is understandably a subjective term. In recent years you have had dozens of highly-rated, original games such as Limbo, Capsized, Braid, Team Fortress 2, Bioshock, Portal- it would be easy to continue.

Triple Town - Turn-Based Strategy w/ Ninja Bears

So please, there is no need to maintain a "mobile platforms are ruining everything" attitude. There is much great fun to be had from so-called casual games like Plants vs. Zombies, and there is nothing restricting developers from making hardcore games but their imaginations. We should be encouragingnew games and those making them regardless of platform. For all we know a casual title might inspire some developer to go on and develop the next Ocarina of Time.

-Disclosure-

Opinions and speculation of and by Bozanimal are his own and not those of Gamespot.com or its affiliates. Bozanimal is not a Gamespot employee, and is not affiliated with any gaming companies in any way.

Several links within this article may lead to external sites. Neither Bozanimal nor host Gamespot.com or affiliates are responsible for the content of those sites.

All screenshots in this Blog are original shots taken from actual gameplay for this entry.

Index of Editorials by Bozanimal

I few year or so ago, maybe two, I worte a blog about "gamer friends", and how something that many people think is a "anit-social" hobby, can lead to life long friends that you look forward to talking with every day. I went on to talk about a great article that I found (the link to that article is now broken)that brought up the subject of having a contact list of your gamer friends that you can give to your mom, dad, sister, brother, wife, husband, girlfriend or boyfriend, in the event that something happend to you. This list would be used to send emails, post a blogor call people to let them know of your situation if you couldnot do it yourself.

It's a sad, depressing subject, but I feel a necessary one it in todays world where you might know a handful of people, that you really only talk to online. What would happen, or how would you feel if suddenly one of those people just stopped showing up online in games that you play together, or in forums that you always post in? Not knowing what has happened to someone is a terrible feeling.

During the course of the past 15yrs I have made some AWESOME, lifetime friends via video games, and sites like Gamespot. When I say awesome, I mean friends that come to visit, friends that I go visit, friends that I talk to via LIVE almost every single night when I am home. I, in a way, grew up, and lived life with some of these people. I know where they grew up, I know where they live, what they do for a living, have shared laughs, crys in good times and bad. I know their kids, borthers, sisters, and in some cases their parents. Long story short, they are a very important part of my life, these "virtual friends".

I bring this up today because I recently (this past Monday) got back from a very nice vacation and was looking forward to getting on LIVE Tuesday evening to chat it up with the two people that I have been playing wtih almost every night for the past 15 yrs. Our relationships started in the way way way back during PC games where all you could do was type messages. Voice chat programs came out and we then had a chance to talk, where we really started to know each other. We played Half-Life, DoD, NASCAR, C&C;, StarCraft and uncountable other titles. With the release of the Xbox360 we have spent countless hrs screaming, yelling and laughing at each other, the entire time still getting to know each other like family.

I signed in to LIVE at our normal start time of 8pm and sure enough, one of my buddies was already on, waiting in a chat room. We BS'd for a little while, waiting for a third buddy before we would dive into our nightly hockey game. Time passed, the third was a no-show. This is a little odd for him, but not unheard of as sometimes he is a little late. After about 30 minutes of talking politics and vacation stuff I asked buddy #1 if he heard from buddy #2, his response was this.... "no, I have not seen him on at all in the past 6 nights".

This immediately caused me some alarm as I know buddy #2 schedule like the back of my hand, I know he had no vacations planned, and I know he does not travel for work. Barring a complete lack of internet on his end, there was no reason for him not to be on with us.

I told buddy #1 to hold on, as I sent buddy #2 a quick text to see if he would be joining us. The response I got back was a sucker punch directly to my face.

Buddy #1 was lying in the hospital, waiting for surgery that was already scheduled for the following morning. It turns out, the night I left for vacation he had gotten extremely sick and was rushed to the hospital. Two days later he was diagnosed with kidney cancer, which has spread to his bones and lungs. Yesterday he had a Kidney removed, but the prognosis for him is bleak at best. People in his situation based on what they now know,, do not have much time left.

This will be the third gamer buddy, extended family loss I have experienced in the last 10 yrs.

What I am trying to say is this, please make sure you create a contact list of your gamer friends so they can be contacted in the event of something like this. It would have killed me to not had a chance to speak with him again just because of something as simple as a list not being made, or a phone # not being exchanged.

Hopefully in the next two weeks I will be traveling once again to meet my friend, maybe to see a movie with him, maybe a baseball game, maybe to just sit and share stories. The only thing I actually know, it will be to say goodbye.

Apparently I've comboed enough here to get the highest rank, making me stylish.

Wow, this blog was a lot shorther than I expected, so I have nothing siginificant to type about. Erm, well I've been doing more work in college but that's nothing new since I think I've talked about that for the previous three or four entries or something like that. In fact, what the hell have I been doing with my life that's worth noting as new? Welp, nothing much I guess.

In fact, one could say that I'm pretty bored at the moment, considering all the monotony surrounding me.

OH, well I guess I could complain that it's even more of a slap in the face that the Soapbox got removed from the front page now that Gamespot's writers have taken up the editorial writing, most likely because of summer gaming news slump or something like that. I never really understood why they essentially killed this feature, but it's even more of a mystery that this site's writers are creating Op-Eds of mid-to-low quality, some even making me wonder why I haven't been hired by this place as a paid contributor yet.

No seriously, I have a little background from some pro bono game journalism on other places and it looks like what they write is nothing but complaining/advocating with no real analysis to speak of (the nature of Op-Eds, but hey it can get annoying if you grandstand too much without getting some facts in), and mostly on the same topics repeatedly. Also, the definition of "art" in regard to video games is something I've been more often than not opposed to due to their general application that "OH YOU SHOULDN'T CHANGE ANYTHING CUZ VIDEO GAMES SHOULDN'T HAVE INCREASED MALLEABILITY IN COMPARISON TO OTHER ART FORMS" and things like that. Really, they need to stop treating video games the same as movies and music because, after all, that does well for the legal definition of video games, but not the artistic.

To calirfy: the definition of "art" is very different in law than it is in the artistic community. In law, the definition alludes to something that has some sort of value to society, which video games certainly do by way of being able to tell a narrative through interactive means, as well as perpetuate and enrich cultures such as sports and racing, games of which tend to lack narrative on the same depth as action/adventure games and the like; while video games in the artistic community is more concerned with looking on how the form can be manipulated and used to convey a message, and an affective one at that. Stories that fall short on delivery or are about meatheads chainsawing things are viewed as lesser quality as a piece of art than a game with an intricate narrative.

And now this is the part where Mass Effect 3 has to be shoehorned in.

Mass Effect, being a role-playing series in general, is under more scrutiny than, say, Madden 2013 because of the concept of character development being central to the game's overall experience, which then by extension leads into the application of events and their relation to such development (a guy getting shot creates a lot of heavy drama, etc.). This means that the ending, because it has apparently fallen flat in variety and answering plot inquiries, degrades the state of the game as art, thus leading to the conclusion that, through the malleability of the medium, the ending should be changed to increase its artistic value, but then there's debate about business.

Honestly, the right thing for EA to do is to make alternate endings that have been demanded as free DLC if the change should be purely artistic. Then again, this is a company and they need profits so really, the limit should be one dollar for the new endings, given that the amount of people who bought the game would equal a recoup in losses of labor for creating a cinematic.

So, that's basically what SHOULD happen, but then hey when has my advice every been stringently followed in the video game industry?

Also, making this an editorial because only two or three people ever regularly contribute on the thing anyway.

(also because this is about Gamespot and how they view video games as art I guess)