Op-Ed

A recurring theme in many of his blog posts is the concept of "brand dilution": Once an intellectual property or brand has made successful contact with the enemy (in this case, you), doing more with the brand runs the danger of weakening it. Games have this problem in spades: Sequels, spin-offs and mediocre ports can lay low even the mightiest of gaming icon.

Every once in a while, we realize we have nothing to publish on Thursday. This usually happens when we've been too busy playing games to actually write about them. Yes, I know, it's a hard knock life.

Today is one of those days. We could have asked somebody else to write something, or we could have told a long, involved joke about something stupid we did one day and put it up here calling it experiential editorial or something. Instead, we decided to share with you our thoughts on what's currently occupying our non-work hours.

I don't know precisely when my laptop stopped being a luxury and became a necessity, but like much of the technology that populates my home and office, I am lost when it is missing.

Miyamoto thinks he can convert the gaming-adverse into the game-dependent. But what would it take to create a world that truly couldn't live without videogames?

Blizzard is filing a lawsuit against MDY, creators of WoW Glider. The outcome of the lawsuit could change the way people access games forever.

Today, I spotted a bit of "reporting" that made my skin crawl. It reminded me of the number one reason that Second Life is getting much more leeway in the press than it should: a lot of the people reporting on it are fiction writers, and are reporting on what they want Second Life to be, not what it actually is.

The appropriate analogy would be the number of people who receive sales circulars for the local grocery store versus how many take that circular to the store, clip out the coupons and buy a ham. A lot of people are registered for accounts on Second Life. These people are all considered residents. But few of them actually play the (not) game.

All this means, if and when Yakuza 2 does appear, not only will it be facing a console generation gap, but not many fans will be lining up to find out what happens in one of the most convincing gaming worlds ever created.

The real reason, though, is that I'm changing. Over the last year I've noticed a subtle, but insidious, change in my playing habits that has made me re-examine everything I like about gaming. It's disconcerting, but it's no longer something I can ignore: I'm becoming a console gamer. I've always played console games, to be sure, but I've always thought of myself as a 'PC Guy'.

This Valentine's Day, if you're looking to land that gamer woman (or man) of your dreams, do what Madison Avenue does, and start by finding yourself a hot chick to show off. Redundant you say? Isn't that the problem in the first place, you may ask? Nonsense. We all know at least one girl who plays games, and believe me, there's a big difference between this "gamer chick friend" and the girl of your dreams. She knows this, even if you don't. So now's the time to finally listen to her, stop imagining yourself in her pants and start using her as bait. Here's how.

We had a chance to speak with the player in question, who asked to be referenced as Kugutsumen. Kugutsumen infiltrates EVE corporation message boards - via "bribery, social engineering, etc." - for in-game currency as a hobby. In the past, he's spied on the largest alliances in the game in order to provide intelligence to other groups. During a fairly routine run, Kugutsumen uncovered a story that's been circulating the internet over the past few days, a story about cheating developers and the CSRs who tried to cover up their indiscretions.

Can we be surprised that digital rights management exists, that protecting digital property is of greater significance to companies than improving the consumer experience, that the industries that can be affected by piracy have lost as much faith in their customers as we customers have in their business practices? Whether intentionally or not, Shawn Fanning's Napster was Fort Sumter, and the media industries were understandably shocked to find that the army massed against them numbered in the millions.

"Does she have breasts? Are they big breasts? Have you seen her breasts? Will she rub them in my face, move them closer to the camera or send me a picture of them? Can I touch them or ... do things to them?" This, believe it or not, is the entire contents of a man's mind in the first five seconds (and every five seconds thereafter) upon discovering a woman who plays games; which is, I dare say, to be expected. Unfortunately, it's what also tends to come out of his mouth. In that vast arena that is everyday life, such thoughts are often put aside if not outright ignored, in order to allow for more civilized interaction. Women need not fear that every other word out of a man's mouth will be in reference to her boobs. Addressed to them, maybe, but not necessarily about them. So why can we not expect the same amount of decorum in the game arena? Women inhabit approximately 50 percent of the meatspace on this planet, so why do so many of us act as if we've never seen one?

My friends who are into gaming are all professionals with demanding jobs, most of them married or in long-term relationships, all of them with greater pressures on their schedules than guiding plumbers around castles. When I ask what they're playing, they usually have a variety of answers: Some of them play games where you can check your brain at the title screen, games like SSX or Need for Speed; some play online games that can be over in minutes; some dabble with the latest hits - but very rarely do they finish them.

Yet, with all of them there is a common trend - none have the time or patience for the hard slog from A to B that so many games still require.

All this week, the Slamdance Film Festival has been going on in Park City, Utah. Curiously lacking in the gaming press has been coverage of the festival's Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition. That's probably because all the big news about the event already unfolded over the months leading up to it: Slamdance's initial invite to the creator of Super Columbine Massacre RPG! to submit his controversial game, the game's nomination as a finalist in the Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition, and then, well, let's be blunt: Slamdance chickening out and dropping SCMRPG from consideration due to what they claimed were concerns over legal threats.