Op Ed

Slate Magazine - Should the United States ban a Japanese "rape simulator" game?
"Considering the impossibility of policing the Internet, as well as the availability of English RapeLay translations and forums for years before any politician caught wind of the game, it's unrealistic to think that the game could be banished from America. Very few Japanese developers make an effort to sell eroge to the West, and those that do, like Peach Princess and G-Collections, make content modifications to suit foreign norms and laws. (For example, all underage characters' ages get rounded up to 18, no matter how young the character looks.) These Westernized versions are sold in the United States via import sites like J-List and Play-Asia. Neither company sells RapeLay, but they do offer the popular eroge Yume Miru Kusuri. That game, while more edgy than it is violent, does focus on sex-crazed, underage-looking high schoolers with drug problems and suicide fetishes. RapeLay is appalling, but titles like Yume Miru Kusuri—sold in America after being unconvincingly modified so the protagonists are "18," making it tough to peg the games as outright illegal—would make far more constructive targets for political outrage."

Edge Online - Why the -Age of Steam- May Not Last? By Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock, operator of Impulse.
"It's far too soon to assume that Steam will continue to dominate five years out. Thus far, it has largely operated without serious competition. With other services such as Impulse, Games for Windows Live, Amazon.com, GamersGate and others upping their own services with unique and compelling features, expanding their catalogs, and focusing on providing good customer experiences, I would be very surprised if Steam continues to have such a large market share (as a percentage) even 18 months from now."

CNET - Is the video game industry losing the PR battle?
"Based on what I've seen so far from the industry, it's willing to take a beating from government, lawyers, authors, and concerned groups and it does little to fight back. Meantime, I receive e-mails from parents on an almost daily basis asking me why video games are so bad for their kids. Whenever that happens, I write them a short but informative e-mail saying, 'They're not as bad as some groups say and here's research to prove it.'"

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Re: Op Ed
Mar 13, 2009, 12:25
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Re: Op Ed Mar 13, 2009, 12:25
Mar 13, 2009, 12:25
 
Quantity != Quality.

I agree. However, quality is subjective. I find most console games to be mediocre at best. Conversely, the PC is home to my favorite games.

Actually consoles are gaining upgrade abilities already. Modules for storage are already present and I suspect GPU's will be next generation.

Console upgrades are limited at best and highly overpriced. A 360 20 GB HD costs what, $100?

Regardless, consoles provide a consistent development and gameplay experience platform.

Agreed. Hence the whole "convenience" thing.

You blame users for not wanting to upgrade their PC's but then go on to say PC's are superior just because "they can".

...okay. PC's let you upgrade and significantly improve your experience. Consoles don't. I don't really see how I'm wrong here.

"Lots of people know about it" oh ok, glad you can pick an objective medium that can be quantified

You're kidding, right? Lots of people know about WoW and the Sims. Those games have been topsellers for years and are extremely mainstream. If you go into the street and ask people if they know about those games, they'll likely say yes. If you ask any PC gamer if they know about those games, they'll definitely say yes. That = high-profile. Conversely, if you ask somebody about Penumbra: Overture or Geneforge 5, they'll probably give you a blank stare. That = low-profile. It's not a terribly complicated concept.

You can make some dumb argument about having 30 versions of Deer Hunter to play but in reality people get more genre and title variety by picking a console.

Examples would be nice. I've already pointed out how consoles and the PC specialize in different genres. I've also pointed out many PC genres are practically non-existent on consoles. Consoles don't offer more genre or title variety, they just offer different genre and titles variety. Don't mistake your preference for fact.

You don't own a console, I suspect you have no idea the sheer library of stuff available on XBLA, PSN and in-stores.

I sure don't own a console. However, I work with them daily and I have full access to Xbox partnernet, which lets me play the beta versions of XBLA games for free. PC still has more variety. Aside from having a catalog of games dating back to the 90's, you have tons and tons of indie games. You've got Flash games like Shift and Gateway, you've got eccentric stuff like The Path and Zenoclash, you've got old-school adventure games, you've got shooters, you've got platformers, you've got all kinds of sims, you've got traditional RPGs, etc etc. I'm sorry but comparing XBLA or PSN to the entire PC library is a total mismatch.

No, it's not a fact. The PC as a platform is one of millions of hardware configurations.

I don't think you understand. The PC has the ability to provide the best experience. It's up to the user whether or not they want this experience badly enough to invest in good hardware. Same thing applies to consoles, to a limited extent. If you buy a 360 Arcade and play it on your 15 inch SDTV, you aren't getting the optimal experience. You can improve your experience by getting a hard drive and HDTV but that's about it. The PC lets you significantly improve every aspect of the experience.

Most developers are moving to support a single controller on Windows and its a console controller.

Bad developers are doing that. GFW only requires 360 pad support so lazy developers only support that. Good developers support all DirectInput devices.

Steering wheels and flightsticks have died down thanks to their genre's almost disappearing. Consoles have all of those peripherals too, even mice and keyboards!

Luckily, there's no expiration date for PC peripherals. I can use a steering wheel I bought 10 years ago if I want. And yeah, PS3 has mouse and keyboard support... for one game.

Owning both is far smarter than owning one and being an ignorant fanboy.

I agree, champ. Good thing I'm not ignorant, which is fairly evident from the heaps of facts I've used to support my argument.
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