Gamasutra - What First-Person Shooter Creators Think About Subscriptions.
Mark Long, CEO at Seattle, WA-based Blacklight: Tango Down developer Zombie Studios said, "I know I’ll get flamed for this, but I’m going defend Bobby Kotick here. ... Merging [business models of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft] makes a ton of sense when the vast majority of Call of Duty players are playing online. How is the fanbase going to respond? If there was an MMOFPS version of Call of Duty with World of Warcraft-quality RPG elements under the hood, I’d bet it would be the biggest game in history. I’d play it. I’d play the f**k out it."

BitMob - Medal of Honor: A Missed Opportunity.
You may be thinking to yourself, what's wrong with that statement? It's true; it's a game. Let's not kid ourselves. The problem is that the "just a game" argument has become the biggest cop-out in the industry. Hell, I'd go so far as to say it's one of the biggest cancers plaguing the industry and community.

BitMob - Do Game Stories Actually Matter?
A game without story only needs to be a good game. Both are difficult to create for vastly different reasons. In my opinion, to play a game is not to experience the swooping thrills of an unpredictable storyline. For this we have novels, films, and our own convoluted lives. When a game captures me it does so through some ephemeral magic and a formula comprised of challenge, gameplay, surprise -- namely, fun. Story only serves to limit a creator's imagination. It hems in what should be infinite: the boundaries of the game's imaginary world.

ChinaGeeks - StarCraft 2 in China- “We Gamers Really Suffer”. Thanks Mike Martinez.
China may be [insert phrase about economic development here], but in terms of video gaming, it is very much still a third world country, from an official standpoint. A mix of protectionist import regulations and overzealous self-censorship on the part of some gaming companies has given the outside world the impression that Chinese gamers exist in some kind of bizarre gaming hell.