LEGO Indiana Jones Demo Shipping with New Indy DVDs
Comment by: MajorMcMuffin
Nominated by: Tarr

Indiana Jones isn't racy, unless your son is really young. I thin I was about 10 when my father watched Raiders with me, and I'm well adjusted. At least, I like treasure and hate Nazis.

Confessions of an ESRB Employee
Comment by: 108
Nominated by: ggodo

While we're at it, what's with the "EC" ("Early Childhood") rating? If "E" is for "Everyone", and "Everyone" means "all human beings", does that mean that the ESRB considers young children to not be human beings?

I must say, anything that looks you right in the eye while it's taking a shit can't quite be any more than a lowly animal, though hey, give them a chance — they get old enough to hold guitars, eventually. They evolve, like Pokemon.

Or:

If "EC" is for games meant to be suitable to young children — as in, games that require no reading skills, et cetera — then shouldn't "E" for "Everyone" be changed to "EwcR" — "Everyone who can Read"?

Or is this a moot point because understanding the name of that rating, itself, requires reading skills?

Or:

You know what would be a hell of a challenge for a game developer? Make a game that's rated "EC" and still a deep, full experience on par with Shadow of the Colossus.

Let's see Jonathon Blow make that.

Yes!

Stuff We Already Know About Female Gamers: Now In A Study!
Comment by: ach77
Nominated by: onomeister

I am a female gamer who has never played the Sims, and never wants to. I know, that makes me an anomaly.
I have a question for all of these people saying "oh, looks like most of those female gamers are 'casual'". Are you defining casual by the amount of time played, or the types of games/platforms played, or some combination of both?
I ask because people seem to be saying that Sims = casual, and DS = casual, across the board. Is this really accurate? Would you call a total Sims addict who plays 20 hours a week "casual"? If so, why? Because that person isn't playing an FPS or other suitably "hardcore" game? And it seems like a majority of Kotaku readers own a DS, so why is it automatically casual? Am I a casual player if I enjoy Professor Layton, Phoenix Wright, Contra, FFTA, etc on my DS?
It seems like a lot of people think that the subject matter of the games you play determines whether or not you're "hardcore". By this logic, you're "hardcore" if you play any FPS (or TPS like Gears of War), games like Devil May Cry, God of War, Ninja Gaiden...you know, the "manly" games. Whereas you're a "casual" player if you play things like Mario, Rock Band, Professor Layton, Cooking Mama and yes, the Sims, no matter how many hours per week you play them. Games like Uncharted, Rachet & Clank, Oblivion, etc seem to inhabit some sort of grey area.
From a marketing perspective, I suppose that the number of gaming platforms you own also factors into the equation. Someone who games only 10 hours per week but owns 2 consoles, a handheld and a PC is probably a more valuable target and has more "hardcore" potential for game companies than someone who only owns a PC but plays WoW or Sims 25 hours per week.
The point of this long diatribe, I guess, is that there is room in this market/community for more than one type of hardcore gamer. And on average, female hardcore players may very well play different things than male hardcore players. The gaming community, especially developers and publishers, would do well to recognize this.

Infogrames Want to Buy What's Left of Atari
Comment by: cowboyman

I really hate people who make fun of failing corporations like Atari, THQ, Midway. (Yes, Im looking at some commenters at this thread). Fair enough, they release bad games more than everyone else, but they are the ones that produce some of the most original content, unlike "successful" corporations who rely on formulaic games.

Lest we forget, Rockstar (an unknown publisher then) self-released GTAIII and was supposed to publish Halo (til Bungie moved to MS); Midway published Burnout (when nobody thought arcade racers would be profitable); THQ published Company of Heroes (one of the best strategy games of the recent years) because no one else wanted to; Atari Neverwinter Nights (when Bioware was still seen as a non-mainstream developer); and many more equally deserving.

My point is that these publishers deserve not our ridicule. They might be guilty of releasing bad games (like ALL publishers!), but at least they are the ones ready to publish new and original IPs "successful" publishers ignore.

Man Hack Bejeweled, Wins Wife
Comment by: designateddrival

Nerds can also unlock the Girls achievement. Huzzah!

Gary Gygax's Video Gaming Legacy
Comment by: Islandkiwi

I owe this man a lot. When I was a kid in the late 70's - early 80's, D&D was a new kind of experience. Playing it with my friends allowed us to puzzle-solve, deduce logically, and think creatively. I mean, you could create your own stories. We branched out to Gamma World, Top Secret, then there were the new games like Ultima and...what was that car one, we friggin' loved that game.

The point I'm trying to make is that D&D opened a creative door that got me and my friends thinking, rather than being mindless hooligans we became thoughtful hooligans. The result has been an explosion of sci-fi/fantasy books, games, and movies. From a more personal perspective it allowed so many of us to think...we always think learning takes place in the classroom, but for many of us learning also took place in small groups, with small statues and dice.

I stopped playing sometime in intermediate school, but I went on to college and law school and became the man I am today. Games like D&D encouraged creativity and critical thinking, and I personally believe that the experience of putting my brain to use helped me get to where I am today. And it's funny, even twenty years later I can still recall some of those missions I played with my friends. They were good times, and I thank Mr. Gygax for inviting us all to play.

Game Industry Turns Tables on the Press
Comment by: quen

I want to come out strongly against the 'maturer than thou' crowd who claim to have grown out of review scores.

I'm 31 and I definitely use scores (especially metacritic) as a filter for buying games. It's easy to tell from the text of a good review what type of game something is, whether it sounds like the sort of thing I'd like... but usually hard to tell how good it is, beyond the 'abysmal' or 'fantastic' exceptions. Most games are basically OK, but I don't usually want to play games that are basically okay. It can be hard to tell the difference between basically okay (about a 7 on most of the stupid review scales) and actually good (about an 8) just from the words.

If there's a game I know about and am looking forward to (say, the new Phoenix Wright game - yes I know it came out a little while back, I haven't picked it up yet) then I probably won't bother looking at reviews at all, unless I start hearing bad things about it or something. If I did, though, I might check the score wasn't really bad. A 6 would make me rethink the purchase. More usually if there's a new game which kind of sounds cool but I don't know much about it, I'll definitely be more interested if it gets an 8 or so.

Another advantage of scores is that you don't necessarily want to be given details of the plot or gameplay. Some games are better unspoiled. You can look at a review score and if it's high enough then you don't need to worry about such details.

The other issue with reading reviews is that some reviewers dislike good games (and vice versa). Say I read the 1Up review, the guy from 1Up didn't like the game, does that mean I shouldn't buy it? probably not if everyone else likes it. That's why, in terms of picking games to buy, a metacritic score is so much more valuable than any single review score - and also than the text of any single review.

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