...then, I even liked the DOS app to let you control a knight walking on a hex grid that came with Fallout 1... :p

MMOs are about building your character if you play by yourself on a private server. What I found was a level of camaraderie unmatched in any other game, and long-lasting ties that have persisted far longer after I played the game than the whole duration of time I played. When I finish an offline RPG I kind of get that "well, that was a neat movie!" feeling and then it's over.

MMOs offer genuine human drama because that's unavoidable when dealing with genuine humans. Ups, downs, genuine empathy. I felt for these people because they were and still are real people. I see NPCs as info kiosks - there is the service type that allows you to save, buy items, heal, etc; the plot type, who tell you something key to the story; and the filler type who say things like "I love my puppy! YAY!" and waste your time. I don't feel anything when I talk to them, I generally just parse what they say for mission keywords.

So if an RPG is a rollercoaster, then an MMORPG is a motorcycle: Less exaggerated hyperbolistic thrills, no guaranteed experiences, but also more danger, genuine thrill, more to see and do, more social experience, and most importantly - no inescapable track. It is what you make of it, and you can choose to run the same small circuit a million times, or you can go out, see the world, and make a life for yourself.

Aside from that, you remember the bit about not wasting a good rebuttal on an absurd assertion? Rather than passing further judgement or rising to grasping ad hominem attacks, I'm going to bow out now and allow what has already been said and the average quality of our comments to speak for themselves.

Good day, sir.

Also, due to geographic location of Sony, and of raw coltan, they probably get like 97% from Australia, 2.9% from Canada and Brazil, and 0.1% "other" even if they didn't care whatsoever for this crisis (and actually, I doubt they even knew of it until this was levelled at them.)

I was just launching more absurd hyperbole to illustrate how tangential this issue is to Sony itself.

This was not the "Sony Corporation Tantalum mine." They were not hiring mercenaries to fight for their components.

In fact, the "journalist" tears his own hypothesis to shreds with the paragraphs:
"SONY and other companies like it, have the benefit of plausible deniability," he said, "because the coltan ore trades hands so many times from when it is mined to when SONY gets a processed product, that a company often has no idea where the original coltan ore came from, and frankly don't care to know." He adds, "But statistical analysis shows it to be nearly inconceivable that SONY made all its PlayStations without using Congolese coltan."

SONY still uses tantalum in some of its parts, Satoshi Fukuoka, a spokesperson SONY from Japan, said in an e-mail. He said they are satisfied with responses from suppliers the tantalum they use is not "illegally mined Congo coltan".

It is absurd, whimsical, and even dangerous to make such a damning claim based on spinning an interesting statistic. He's basically calling Sony murderers because they make electronics. It would be like blaming Fisher Price for the deaths of Iraqis because some say the war is over oil, and they make a ton of items out of plastic. The exception being that as far as Sony can tell, none of it even comes from the mines in question anyhow.

I'd go as far as to say that John Lasker should have his post revoked as a writer, and probably should even be sued for libel. Sony wouldn't even break a sweat trying to prove their case.

But... this was really one of those cases where the base story is so absurd it doesn't even warrant a serious rebuttal. Then, you've shown me that some people don't quite grasp that.

Also, what's with the rings? lol...
Stan "The Mandarin" Lee...

But I have no tolerance for buggy games since I find every bug in them the moment I start them up... fingers crossed for a working, polished product.

I never new who was in the band though, and I've heard Mike Patton's name. Wow! Who would have guessed...

...

Then, in another thread Brian said people wanted interviews cut up like this. Still, I'd have watched a 15-30 min interview after setting aside the time. Now it feels as if he's getting as much hype as Halo 3.

He launches stings on places selling mature games to his son, but he'd rather Manhunt and Super Mario Galaxy be on the same shelf.

LMAO at the cats/dogs/Zelda part!

Does he take himself seriously at all now? He had to be kidding in parts, but... was that whole thing self parody?

I can't tell, he was so far removed from reality anyway...

@Erwin:
I agree. I don't hate him. I'd take him seriously and mercilessly oppose, except he was usually so incompetent it was kind of like a sideshow to amuse us.

I think he should never practice law again, but I hope he finds something that works without returning to harass our community.

You have to overdesign. Make a costume for everyday wear, not one you hope lasts to the end of a 1-2 day con. Things like sitting down or getting glomped (ugh) shouldn't damage it. Keep it comfortable - light, breathable, and poseable. Bonus if you can actually see out of it. Also he seems pretty good at this, but never cheap out and use a mismatched fabric. Imagine Superman in a fuzzy felt bodysuit.

Being a nerrrrrrd, I'd probably have put a 40mm fan in the helmet and used cyan EL wire for the glowing bits.

But in the end, I'm just suggesting, not picking apart his costume. That would be a hard one to do, and his looks pretty good. It's just tough to endure costumes made more for looks than wear.

DoA3
DoA4
Lost Oddyssey
uhhhh... Forza I guess. I'm underwhelmed by the sim aspect, but I could really use some smarter sim AI and I've heard so many impressive stories about theirs. I've never tried GT5P online, but I'd assume Forza 2 blows it away...
Sneak King??? I haven't had a good blatant product commercial game since Pepsiman on PSX.

"THIS IS SPARTAAAAAA!"

Really, when watching 300 I felt some of that God or War hyperbole flowing...

As for a "PSP phone" I've been thinking - a phone with hot game abilities isn't really my thing, but if the next PSP could slot a GSM SIM card and pair to a Bluetooth headset (DON'T FORGET A2DP! That would be laaaaame like an iPhone, or OSX 10.4 Tiger!) I think it would be pretty cool. Questionably handy, but it could work if you have a headset always paired or only do outgoing calls.

I don't really know who's at fault now - it sounds like a mess really.

Though I think if the old prez promised the bonus to Itagaki, the company should pay it if they can. 10M円 per year sounds quite reasonable to me. That's almost $93K USD. Then, maybe the promise shouldn't have been made in the first place.

I do think Itagaki is kind of Tecmo's nucleus though. If he leaves AND sues them... well, I hope they don't just fold and vanish. Maybe Fatal Frame and Gallop Racer will help a little?

Ok, I take it back.

'nuff said! That is a truly fearsome juggernaut!
I mean, really... any one of those alone is huge!

*cough*

Please charge $20/mo for this feature or host videos of your game on your own servers...

I'll buy this one though. But those idiots sure picked bad naming... I like the series and I can never remember which one is "On Tour" and which one is "World Tour."

Hmmm.... maybe I should make a puzzle game for Wii where you drag to line up sets of 3 jewels to clear them, then new ones fall from the top. I'll call it... "Wiijeweled"

Microtransaction games like Gunbound will sometimes get my interest for a little while, but it doesn't take long to get sick of being beaten by special tricks used by $300 characters while I run around basically naked.

@Brian Crecente:
C'mon guys, look at him! Brian's a smilin' machine!

Look at his Mii... OMG it's grinning like Mr. Sparkle... GET OUT OF MY HEAD CHARLES! AAAAAGH!

[TT spoiler]

It would be awesome to have her in a game or have an Emi mode for Amy where if she loses she has a chance to bloat up like three sumo wrestlers and scatter blades all over the place!

But that's secondary. I really want PixelJunk Eden and I haven't even picked up any of the others in the series.

I used to love PS Underground. I also used to buy all sorts of magazines at $15 a pop for demo discs (gotta love Canadian book pricing!) However that stopped years ago, and not, you know, having paid for Qore to see what's inside it, it just looks like PS:U again. Not interested, I'm flooded in demos, movies, articles, and even behind the scenes stuff already. Gating it off just ensures a small audience.

@jstevenson:
That's cool. Respect to you guys. I'm just digging on Qore mostly.

---

There's only one game that would make me buy Qore to beta test it, but since I'm not here to cry out my love for the series I'll leave it at that. (It'll have me willingly buying a download though...)

So all sorts of "amateur" artists/remixers get their work featured in a new version of the game they remixed music from - how cool is that?! Congrats to all of you!

This just confirms that I was right to stop expecting anything and dismiss them for now. It's not like I'll be starved for games on other systems in the meantime!

@Shiryu:
Yeah, I didn't realize how much I'd missed those, but if I had them at launch I'd probably still be playing them. Right now I have 10 games on my shelf on the "to do" list, but all my other systems take priority right now.

@Ken:
I wish I could see it. I wanted to like it, and I love a good physics sandbox, but it looked like a repetitive waggler. Sorry. If I ever see something impressive I'm all over it. I'm still kind of sorry for grabbing Zack & Wiki actually - it was original and cool, but only fun while surfing GameFAQs. :/

@VonDante:
...but coming in at the end of the GameCube, I picked up a half dozen or so games without even checking reviews and I felt like I'd stumbled onto another Dreamcast. There are hardcore-ish first party titles for Wii, but for me, F-Zero or Starfox would make a world of difference.

I like that a certain amount of swearing, offtopic, or NSFW is tolerated, but I'd fully expect punishment if someone brought it to a problematic level.

Sometimes I catch myself commenting to comment then I try to hold back. I don't know if I come off as a know it all - I regurgitate whole historical timelines but I always try to be respectful even in the cases where I think someone's an idiot - if I take issue it's with the words, not the poster, friend or foe. Actually a few times I've argued with someone on here only to mutually friend each other. Kotaku is great...

Brevity? HAH! What's that? I always post a whole article worth, but when I proofread it, if I cut anything, I'd be missing a point I need to address... so with that, I'll just STFU right here.