Op-Ed

A game is just a game. My Halo 3 pre-order isn't generating interest for anyone but EB/GameStop, and when I finally cash it out next week, it will have instantly depreciated by about 50 percent. This is what we call economics of the stupid.

If WotC isn't aiming to be the Blizzard of the tabletop gaming industry, it's certainly putting on a good show.

That Electronic Arts pretties up the lawsuits brought against it or that Dow Chemical wouldn't want you to know about what happened in Bhopal is both obvious and a great example of why you should be skeptical of anything derived from a source anyone can edit.

"One of the locations we'll be taking you this evening is a construction site," said the NCsoft representative at the front of the bus. "Because they're using blasting caps, there's a very real danger of injury. So we'll need to collect your cell phones."

Russ Pitts takes a trip to Richard Garriott's Castle Britannia and lives to tell the story.

I'm not a religious man in any sense of the word, but I've heard of the Seven Sins. Employed a few of them, even. But in the gamer hierarchy of evil, no sin is greater than envy. It's the yarn entwined into the fabric of our beings. True, we lust after the latest gadgets, games and gewgaws, but show us a picture of someone else possessing that object we covet and all before us turns to red.

BioShock was released four days ago and is already on most publications' "must buy" lists. Reviews are trending toward 10, and everyone who's anyone in game writing has something to say about it. But should you buy it?

We here at Team Humidor think you should make up your own mind, and to that end, have offered up the following reasons to buy (and not to buy) BioShock.

The game opens, literally, with a bang - your airplane crashes - and you find yourself immersed in the world of Rapture before you even know who you are and of what you're capable. This, like so much else about BioShock is a stroke of genius.

One of the major responsibilities a debate moderator has (other than counting how many times someone says "strategery") is posing interesting and bombastic questions to the panel.

With that in mind, I wanted to reach out to members of The Escapist Forum for questions they might want to ask about the future - and present - of virtual economies.

Where some people have beauty salons or bars, though, gamers have virtual worlds. IRC, instant messaging and message boards are all something most internet users can understand, but there's nothing quite like hanging around in-game to gain a true appreciation for the human need for interaction.

Poor Microsoft. They've been run through the ringer lately. Most recently, they announced that every single Xbox 360 sold has the same defect that can cause the unit to overheat and malfunction, rendering it permanently unusable.

In 2006, Electronic Arts generated nearly $3 billion in revenue, accounting for roughly one-third of the entire gaming industry. With that in mind, a world without EA isn't easy to fathom. But 2007 has been less stellar for the company, with Activision exceeding EA's revenue for the first half of the year on the back of Guitar Hero and movie tie-ins. This draws a comparison to General Motors, which also this year fell from its long perch as a defining industry leader.

This month's target of internet invective is the Resident Evil 5 trailer. This one has been under a lot of scrutiny of late, mainly because, for the first time ever, the antagonists of a videogame are poor black villagers (never mind that they've been zombified, they're still poor black villagers), and the protagonist is white. For some folks, this is unacceptable, and they see no way to do anything about it. Cue: moral outrage.

Due to popular demand, we're going to give a sort of poetry circle / book club thing a try. Vishnu help us.

The game for August is Psychonauts, the wacky, but surprisingly deep platformer by Doublefine. This one got a lot of critical acclaim, but tanked at retail. Which means its right up our alley.

Check out Lara Crigger's fantastic article on the game.

The problem is that, at least here in America, Ebert is right. As a result of social pressures, gaming is not an art form in the United States. It's not art in Britain or Germany or Australia. Maybe it's art in France; they've given Miyamoto medals, after all. But around the world, gaming is restricted, hemmed in and censored by organizations thinking of the children so we don't have to.

This is the kind of song that made Guitar Hero the dream machine it is today. Wailing solos, long slides and furious fretwork ... If we could do these things in real life, we'd be rock stars. But playing a real guitar is hard. And the graphics aren't as good. And, let's face it, not everyone is cut out for life in the fast lane. Sure life is sweeter when you're on the bus, but that bus never stops, and sometimes, you just want to sit at home on the couch and eat Chinese food, while taking five-minute-at-a-time journeys down the road of rock. And for those times, "Round and Round" will do nicely.