BBC Radio profiled the efforts, lately highlighted in the game 221B, a movie adaptation of the recent Sherlock Holmes film. In it, players must interrogate witnesses and suspects to gain answers that advance the story.

"Rather than attempting to create an exhaustive list of possible questions and the appropriate response, the characters in the game are capable of making a 'fuzzy interpretation' of what is said to them," the BBC reports. "The intention is to remove the frustration, familiar to any who played the old text-based adventure games, of having to guess the right way of asking a question or giving an instruction."

Other games based on open-ended use of language, spoken or written, include Facade and, of course, Scribblenauts - and even Left 4 Dead. "Each of the characters has a set of voice samples which can trigger based on events, situations and other dialog lines," Rockstar's Alex Champandard said of L4D. "This results in completely emergent short conversations depending on the situation."

The BBC calls it one of "the last uncracked problems" in games design. It's a good read, especially for the humorous kicker paragraph.

AI Aims to Solve In-Game Chatter [BBC Radio]

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Kicking off Kotaku's review of 2009 are the headlines that generated the most heat, if not light, from the preceding year. The conflicts fracture along familiar faultlines - legal claims; violence and in-game content; marketing and etc. And by no means is this an exhaustive list. There were plenty of other decisions, indecisions, gaffes, gambits and shrewd calls made by the games industry - a dynamic capitalist enterprise, of course - and we invite you to continue the discussion of them in our comments.

Knuckleheaded
EA's press promo for Godfather II backfires when the brass knuckles it sends (including a pair to Crecente) turn out to be illegal in many of the states to which they are shipped (including Colorado). It's also illegal to ship them in California, where EA is based. EA asks for all of the knuckles back. Godfather II then backfires when the game sucks.

One Fallujah the Cuckoo's Nest
Konami tiptoed up to the "too soon?" line by announcing "Six Days in Fallujah," a combat FPS based on the deadly 2006 American operation to pacify the region in Iraq. Then developer Atomic Games took a flying leap over the line by mentioning it had consulted with insurgents on the game's initial design. By the end of the month, Konami dropped the project like it was a hot, nuclear-waste infused pop-tart. Atomic continued to insist the project was alive, while shopping it to other publishers. But by the end of the year, Atomic president Peter Tamte seemed to have gotten further with his idea for a "family-friendly" game about Marines pacifying Beirut, instead. That one is scheduled for a January 2010 release. Apparently, in video games, it's all about location, location, location. [Thanks to commenter ashleyillman001 for reminding us of this one.]

Our Legal Team Goes to 11
Activision's lawyers file a face-melting suit against studio Double Fine over Brütal Legend, whose publishing shifted over from Activision to Electronic Arts earlier in the year. Activision seeks to halt the game's release on grounds that Double Fine missed a key deadline when it was accountable to Activision. EA, not sued, still tells Activision STFU, and that they're just jealous in the manner of "a husband abandoning his family and then suing after his wife meets a better looking guy." Double Fine countersues, alleging Activision was trying to kill off Brütal Legend, seeing it as a threat to Guitar Hero. Ultimately, the two sides settle out of court, and Brütal Legend makes its declared release day.

Turn Out the Lights, the LAN Party's Over
StarCraft is a longtime staple of LAN parties, but that tradition will end with StarCraft II. In late June, Blizzard tells Kotaku that the title will not support local area network gaming, and will instead steer players over to "our upgraded Battle.net service." One of the reasons given is that it cuts down on piracy. Predictably, Starcraft enthusiasts head to the Batpoles to draft a petition. Instead of making fist-shaking demands and threatening boycotts, what comes out is more of a polite "please?" The effort has gathered 244,510 signatures to date. But at Blizzcon, executive v.p. of game design Rob Pardo tells Fahey that "Only from the press," is Blizzard still taking flak for the decision. "Everyone else has accepted it."

Edgy Edged Edginess over Edge
Tim Langdell had a terrible reputation within the games industry prior to this year, but his pissing contest with Mobigame over the word "Edge" represents a coming out party. Langdell, excoriated for his aggressive defense of the trademark "Edge," which he registered years ago, has Mobigame's acclaimed title for the iPhone removed from the iTunes App Store in May. The controversy and terrible publicity result in Langdell's resignation from the board of the International Game Developers Association, and ultimately Electronic Arts suing to cancel Langdell's trademarks, over a dispute regarding 2008's Mirror's Edge. Mobigame's game resurfaces as "Mobigame by Edge" later in the year.

Who Sold Out Whom?
At E3 2009, Valve's announcement of Left 4 Dead 2 ignites feelings of betrayal and marginalization in some who bought the original Left 4 Dead barely seven months before. Immediately a boycott group forms on the Steam forums, vowing not to buy or play the new game. Some 10,000 people join it in the first few days. Stern criticisms include: "The fiddle-based horde music is extremely disliked, though the differently orchestrated music is otherwise welcome." In September, Valve shrewdly co-opts the boycott's leadership, flying two of its organizers to Valve HQ to get some hands-on time with Left 4 Dead 2. Both immediately sing its praises. On launch day in November, most in the boycott stick to their guns, but many cave in and play anyway.

Dante's Fiasco(es)
The Dante's Inferno marketing team was apparently on a rampage to execute the most boneheaded campaign of any title in 2009. After sending a bunch of fake religious zealots to E3 to protest the game there, pissing off real religious zealots with the stereotype, they cook up the "Sin to Win" whopper of Comic-Con. Basically, Comic-Con goers were encouraged to "commit acts of lust" by having their photos taken with booth babes, then submit the photos for judgment and a chance to win a "sinful night with two hot girls," plus other amenities. Outrage catches on, and the Dante's Inferno team apologizes. A real booth babe rips them a new one, and a gay man wins a runner-up prize for submitting his picture with a "booth bear."

Made from Scratch
It's a story that combines 2009's trendiest douche moves - lawsuits, and layoffs. In April, Activision is sued by publisher Genius Products and peripheral maker Numark Industries over its acquisition of 7 Studios, conveniently and coincidentally developing a rival game to Activision's own DJ Hero. A court in L.A. orders Activision to give over all the code from the competing title - Scratch: The Ultimate DJ. The two sides settle on a cash-for-code prisoner exchange, and Scratch is rebooked for an early 2010 release. DJ Hero, despite reasonably good reviews and a full-bore marketing campaign, disappoints in sales, which doesn't look good for Scratch next year. Finally, once 7 Studios is no longer useful to this corporate psychodrama, Activision lays off half of its workforce.

Sambo No Amigo
Scribblenauts, the wildly creative DS hit developed by 5th Cell, encounters an unintentional problem with racial sensitivity when writing the word "sambo" creates a watermelon on the screen. In the minor video games market known as the United States, both are overtly racist images with a history going back decades. 5th Cell points out the game is developed for multiple countries and languages, and that the watermelon summoned is in fact a "fig-leafed gourd," by which it is apparently known as "sambo" in Spanish. The game's publisher, Warner Bros. Interactive issues a more comprehensive apology, expressing deep regret for the word's inclusion. Internet tough-guy commenters who don't see what the trouble is with the word "sambo" are invited to say it around their black friends. None has any.

Shut Your Hole
Courtney Love, wife of self-martyred pop star Kurt Cobain, announces via Twitter she's gonna "sue the shit out of Activision," over its insensitive use of her hubby's likeness in Guitar Hero 5 - which includes his avatar singing songs not performed by Nirvana, which means in someone else's voice. Activision's response is all, "Um, RTFA," and points to the contract she in fact signed granting the use of Cobain's likeness as a "fully playable character." Jon Bon Jovi backs Love, saying he nothankyou.jpg'd Activision's offer of an appearance in the same game. Then Gwen Stefani, not one to be out-dramaqueened, and her band No Doubt file a lawsuit similar to Love's. Activision returns fire, suing No Doubt for failure to perform due diligence and breach of contract. Congratulations, everyone now looks bad.

A Lack of Dedication
In October, Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling goes on a podcast with hardcore Modern Warfare fans and announces the creation of the matchmaking service IWNet. You then hear the gears turning in the podcast hosts' heads: But ... that ... means the end of ... dedicated servers ... right? Right. Immediately, petitions and boycotts are announced, gathering some 20,000 signatures in the first day. Infinity Ward sticks to its claim that IWNet will be an improvement. By launch day, the boycott is effectively over.

Video About Gamers' Insensitivity Not Acceptable
Philadelphia Phillies pitcher - and noted Modern Warfare enthusiast - Cole Hamels (pictured) reminds us that "grenades are for pussies," in a faux-public service announcement brought to you by "Fight Against Grenade Spam." That, of course, makes the acronym FAGS and all, or at least partial, hell breaks loose. Infinity Ward, the producer of the video, is upbraided not so much for a veiled homophobic slur, but for a clip that portrays the game's community as dominated by uber-macho, insult-spewing assclowns. Infinity Ward removes the video the next day.

No Russian Was Harmed in the Making
Leaked gameplay footage of Modern Warfare 2 shows that players will - in the guise of an undercover mission - join terrorists as they invade an airport, kill and commit atrocities against civilians. Activision immediately points out the mission is skippable, both before it begins and at any point during it, and is "designed to evoke the atrocities of terrorism." The game, already classified for sale in Australia, is the subject of brief demands to have it reclassified and effectively banned, but they go nowhere. The sequence is removed from versions sold in Russia, and modified in the Japanese and German versions so that players shooting any civilians are given a "game over" screen. The Japanese version courts additional controversy when the mistranslation of "Remember, no Russian," - instructions to the terrorists not to speak in that language - comes out as "Kill ‘em, the Russians." In the United States, Totilo goes on MSNBC to plead for national calm and mainstream outrage fails to materialize.Modern Warfare 2 goes on to sell more than 4.7 million copies in the North America and the U.K. - on the day of its release.

Frumps on the Barbie
Australia's lack of an R18+ classification for video games comes back to the fore when Left 4 Dead 2 is refused classification by the nation's Review Board. Valve's reaction is, in order, to be "pretty bummed," then to appeal the refused classification and then finally publish a spitefully power-sanitized version just for Australia, which might as well have been titled Imagine: Zombiez.

Frumps on the Barbie II or: Australians vs. Predator
Luke attempts to set us all straight on what is and what ain't banning in Australia. But the country's image, that it's a nation of pantywaists tenderly sensitive to depictions of certain manly acts - such as decapitations - persists. And it seems to be having a cumulative effect. Aliens vs. Predator, at first banned - oops, I mean, refused classification - is reconsidered and then, amazingly, classified MA15+ making it good for sale. Then the government asks for public input on changes to the country's game ratings system. Finally Luke, waking up today and reading this last paragraph, bludgeons me to death with a didgeridoo, over the Internet, the end.

Mr. Slaczka will help us ring in the holidays with discussion on 5th Cell's line of creative and innovative Nintendo DS titles, from the wordy Scribblenauts to the tower defense flavored Lock's Quest. 5th Cell's pedigree extends to mobile phone games like Full Spectrum Warrior: Mobile as well, so I'm sure he wouldn't mind bringing that up as well.

Slaczka is the latest in a distinguished line of Kotaku Talk Radio guests, including Randy Pitchford, Amy Hennig, Ken Levine, Tim Schafer, and Clifford the big red Bleszinski.

Tune in Wednesday at 11am Kotaku Time (that's 1pm ET, 10am PT) to call in and ask Jeremiah anything you want about 5th Cell, his games, and what's coming next from this innovative developer.

Look for a reminder post about the podcast at 10:55 AM mountain time (12:55 ET) on Wednesday. The post will include call-in info so you can ask your questions. The show will be live at 11am MT, 1pm ET. We'll expect to hear you calling our switchboard then.

But despite the seemingly obvious educational bent of Slaczka's game, Scribblenauts' potential to teach through fun didn't dawn on the game makers until well into development.

Slaczka said the team at studio 5th Cell didn't discuss the educational possibilities of the mainstream Warner Bros.-published game until they realized the "impact it had on increasing vocabulary, helping with spelling, teaching words in a new language and also creative and critical thinking."

"The game sort of became education through an organic process all on its own."

In Scribblenauts players solve lateral thinking puzzles by writing or typing a word into the DS. If the word is part of the game's more than 22,800-word dictionary, it appears as an interactive objective, creature or person in the game.

If a player spells the word incorrectly, the game suggests possible proper spellings. But knowing what object to summon through typing to make a fireman happy, or break into a safe or distract a zombie is key to solving the puzzles.

A player's vocabulary and imagination deeply impact their experience, Slaczka says: "The more words you know the more crazy stuff you can do."

Game creator Slaczka isn't comfortable calling the game an educational title.

"It has inherent educational potential, but it was never designed with an educational slant in mind," he said. "It was a positive byproduct more than anything else. "

There are also good business reasons to not call Scribblenauts an outright educational game. Traditionally, educational games don't attract mainstream gamers and don't do big mainstream sales.

But Scribblenauts sold 194,000 copies in North America alone in September, the first month it was available and was well-received by reviewers.

While the game isn't marketed as educational, that hasn't stopped some parents and teachers from using the title to help educate.

Slaczka says he's heard anecdotally from parents and teachers who have been using the game to positive effect.

One mother emailed the developer to tell how she bought the game for her son who was having difficulty in school learning to read and write. The woman gave the child a game along with a cheat sheet of ten words for him to try out in the game.

"He learned how to spell those words," he said, "and now she said he's up to two full pages of words that he can spell and understand which I thought was a really awesome story. "

Junior high history teacher Kevin Roughton was most interested in the game's potential to increase a student's ability to think critically. Roughton writes that in the future he hopes to use the game to study different periods in history by limiting the objects they can summon to historically accurate ones.

Writing in his blog, Roughton described how he used the game in his classroom, having the students break into groups to come up with creative ways to solve the problems presented by the game.

"We do not do enough... encouragement of creativity and critical thinking in schools today," he writes. "This forces it!"

Well Played is a weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

The DSi, sporting two cameras and the ability to download games, hit in April. The DSiLL (XL to folks outside of Japan) is all of that a more, well more in the sense of size, super-sizing the screen and mondo-sizing the stylus.

Of course, there were also games, plenty of games. Here's some of the top titles we reviewed on Kotaku.

What DS or DSi games would you suggest picking up for friends or family?

Art Style: Digidrive

Price: $5 (download for DSi only)
Rating: E
Genre: Puzzle
Subject Matter: The world's only game based on directing traffic, but fun
Value: Not many modes, but very deep gameplay, Tetris-like.
Buy it for: People who want an engrossing puzzle game for their commute — and the only puzzle game built well for one-handed play (good for shaky subway/bus rides.)
Read the Full Review

Art Style: Boxlife

Price: $5 (download for DSi only)
Rating: E
Genre: Uh, puzzle box-folding?
Subject Matter: Work in a factory, fold boxes, live the American dream
Value: Second-best of all DSi Art Style games, based on a clever, deep mechanic, and a bevy of modes and unlockables.
Buy it for: Fans of innovative game design.
Read the Full Review

Art Style: Pictobits

Price: $5 (download for DSi only)
Rating: E
Genre: Block-dropping puzzle game
Subject Matter: A Tetris twist with an artsy retro style
Value: Highest of all downloadable DS games, offering many levels, great nostalgia for old pixel art, and a high-quality full chiptunes soundtrack that re-mixes classic Nintendo themes.
Buy it for: Anyone with a DSi, anyone who is nostalgic for the Nintendo Entertainment System
Read the Full Review

Art Style: Precipice
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strong>Price: $5 (download for DSi only)
Rating: E
Genre: Puzzle
Subject Matter: Endless Tetris-style game featuring a man climbing falling blocks
Value: Doesn't have any modes, but its core gameplay is long-lasting.
Buy it for: Puzzle game fans and those who enjoy the DSi's innovative Art Style series
Read the Full Review

Bakugan Battle Brawlers

Price: $29.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Marble-shooting, creature-battling action game.
Subject Matter: Based on the wildly popular collectible toy game and cartoon series, Bakugan follows in the footsteps of Pokemon but adds transforming marbles to the mix. The game does a good job of capturing the essence of the franchise.
Value: With a relatively robust single-player campaign and ability to battle up to three friends on one screen in a slew of interactive arenas, this game is a pretty good deal.
Buy it for:fans of Bakugan and maybe even curious fans of Pokemon.
Read the Full Review

Domo Games

Price: $2 each (five games - download for DSi only)
Rating: E
Genre: Music, Sports
Subject Matter: The NHK TV mascot, Domo, stars in five re-purposed mini-games that were originally made in 2002
Value: Low, because the games are not fun.
Buy it for: Only people who love Domo and whom you don't love.
Read the Full Review

Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter

Price: $29.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Action/Adventure
Subject Matter: Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter is a relatively simple adventure game with similarly simple side-scrolling platforming levels and a touching, sometimes sad story. What makes it unique are its drawing features, which let the player customize their hero, what weapons they use and various elements of the game world all via the DS's touch screen.
Value: Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter's main adventure is brief, but the option to create new heroes, which can vary from flower people to ninjas to robots, extends the life of this charming 2D adventure.
Buy it for: the creative kid who may be too young for a more challenging Nintendo DS game.
Read the Full Review

DSi

Price: $169.99
Rating: N/A
Genre: N/A
Subject Matter: The next step for the DS Lite features two cameras and the ability to download games from the Nintendo store.
Value: While the price isn't exorbitant, more than half a year after launch the Nintendo Store is still lacking in quality downloadable titles.
Buy it for: gadgetophiles, people who love Nintendo, children who don't own digital cameras, anyone interested in a DS but who hasn't taken the plunge yet.
Read the Full Review

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

Price: $29.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Turn-based role-playing strategy
Subject Matter: Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is a thoughtful, modern day remake of an 8-bit medieval fantasy classic, telling the turn-based tale of Marth, heir to the throne of Altea who leads a band of soldiers in a tactical revolt against the Shadow Dragon Medeus.
Value: Over twenty five chapters, loads of characters, ample upgrade options, rare weapons via the online shop, and an excessive six levels of difficulty should ensure that your purchase of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is money well spent.
Buy it for: the fan of fantasy, strategy and epic adventure.
Read the Full Review

Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars

Price: $34.99
Rating: Mature
Genre: Open world action-adventure
Subject Matter: Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars is a 3D, top-down adventure, putting players in the shoes of Huang Lee, a spoiled son of a Chinese gangster. The typical Grand Theft Auto rise to power through sex, drugs, violence and bad driving flows over the course of the game.
Value: There's a lengthy story to be told, with Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars throwing in plenty of side missions and mini-games to keep the player interested.
Buy it for: the Nintendo DS owner sadly lacking in over-the-top violent content.
Read the Full Review

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Price: $39.99
Rating: Teen
Genre: Action RPG
Subject Matter: An action RPG that bridges the gap between Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2. Value: While those not familiar with the Kingdom Hearts franchise will find themselves a bit lost story-wise, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is a lengthy game that fans will love for the back story and RPG fans will enjoy for its depth.
Buy it for: Anyone who is a fan of the Kingdom Hearts series.
Read the Full Review

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

Price: $34.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Action RPG
Subject Matter: Mario, Luigi and their nemesis Bowser band together to fend off a common foe in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. As role-playing games go, it's heavy on the action, light on the story and packed with memorable, humorous characters.
Value: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story offers a lengthy adventure, about 20 hours worth of play time, but after the story's complete, there's little incentive to return to the game.
Buy it for: the younger gamer looking for a long, not too challenging experience (or anyone with a Nintendo DS and a sense of humor).
Read the Full Review

Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again

Price: $8 (download for DSi only)
Rating: E
Genre: Lemmings-like puzzler
Subject Matter: Mainpulate girders and gadgets to enable Mario toys to march to their goals.
Value: Very high due to a generous amount of levels and a level-editor that supports downloaded user-made maps.
Buy it for: Fans of brain-bending puzzle games, as the solutions to some of these levels are hard to engineer.
Read the Full Review

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

Price: $34.99
Rating: E
Genre: Adventure/Puzzle
Subject Matter: The Professor and his protégé, Luke, are out to solve a mystery surrounding a man who never ages and box that kills all who open it.
Value: With a crazy amount of puzzles and a new puzzles to download every week, this is one game that won't ever be very far from your DS during those long commutes.
Buy it for: Yourself and anybody you actually want to give a good gift to.
Read the Full Review

Rhythm Heaven

Price: $29.99
Rating: Everyone
Genre: Music/Rhythm
Subject Matter: Rhythm Heaven is a loosely connected series of rhythmic and musical challenges with very simple controls, requiring little more than good timing and simple touchscreen tapping. Simplistic though it may be, Rhythm Heaven is inventive and fun.
Value: There are dozens of mini-games to unlock and play, with sound toys and more serious challenges for the player who masters Rhythm Heaven's main mode.
Buy it for: anyone with Nintendo DS that can keep a beat or longs for more WarioWare style mini-game fun.
Read the Full Review

Scribblenauts
Price: $29.99
Rating: E10+
Genre: Open world, spell-checking puzzle action game.
Subject Matter: Scribblenauts brings just about anything you can spell to life in the game, backing up a stunningly large visual dictionary with a web of interactions that can surprise and amuse as you work out how to solve puzzles.
Value: With 150 puzzles and 150 action levels, and the ability to use more than 22,800 words to figure out what to do, this is one of the best values this year in gaming.
Buy it for: children learning to spell, people who love lateral thinking and anyone with a sense of humor.
Read the Full Review

The vice president of merchandising and marketing tells IndustryGamers that GameStop has seen fit to use the adjective strong thrice in relation to the Triple's sales, a boost probably helped by the release of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for the PlayStation 3.

Bartel has also handed out "strong" ratings to a few fall games that may or may not surprise you. He tells IGN that 2K Games' Borderlands is showing "strong legs" and is "a very strong title." Netting only one strong is Scribblenauts, "a strong game for the holidays" that will "transcend all boundaries." Presumably in a strong fashion.

That could be good news for 2K and Gearbox, as one friendly analyst theorized that Borderlands was "sent to die" this fall, despite Kotaku editor theories that heavy marketing and positive word of mouth could help make it a success. Following news of the game's scarcity at launch and Scribblenauts solid first month showing, that may not come as a surprise.

PS3 Sales 'Very Strong' Through October, says GameStop [IndustryGamers]
GameStop: Borderlands Has Strong Sales Legs [IGN]

According to NPD data released today, the Warner Bros. Interactive-published DS game sold nearly 194,000 copies in its first month on the market. That puts it behind Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days as the third bestselling DS game for the month.

Scribblenauts was one of only two third party games to make it into the top ten bestselling games for Nintendo's portable platform, a list dominated by Nintendo-published fare. While 5th Cell may already be hard at work on a new Xbox Live Arcade game, surely they won't leaving money on the table by not producing a sequel, right? Right!

5th Cell co-founder Jeremiah Slaczka teases his studio's XBLA game in a new interview with Gamasutra, one that goes way beyond the promise of unannounced potential greatness.

"We're doing an Xbox Live Arcade title next, and it's going to be pretty big," Slaczka says. Oh, and don't hold your breath for an impending announcement. "It's going to be really cool. We're very excited about it... it's totally not ready to be announced. It's far away."

5th Cell's final (for now) Nintendo DS game, Drawn To Life: the Next Chapter, ships next week.

Interview: 5th Cell Wants To Grow With 'Pretty Big' XBLA Title [Gamasutra]

"Wordplay" was the first title, according to the 5th Cell creative director Jeremiah Slaczka. Yeesh. Slazcka himself called it "really lame and not fun and very generic … We've always gone through a lot of names before we kinda settle on a final name.

He continued:

Scribblenauts was also actually a temp name, which is kind of funny that it actually stuck. Because in the beginning, we were just like, well we need something, we always need something for a pitch and what's the project name. So we were like, "Well, this is quirky and interesting, but maybe not completely what we want to go for." But it just stuck. It made sense. And it wasn't generic at all."

Well here's a toast to temp names. Don't think there's much argument that "Scribblenauts" serves this game far more than something like "Wordplay."

Scribblenauts Wasn't Always Called Scribblenauts [Nintendo Everything via VG247]

1. Sony's PSPgo has been the subject of much criticism prior to its release. Which criticism do you feel is most valid?

Its price is too expensive: 35 percent (2,748 total responses)
The inability to play UMD games already purchased is disappointing: 35 percent (2,729)
The device is largely redundant to the existing PSP: 23 percent (1,761)
None of these; the device is fine, it's not a replacement for the existing PSP: 7 percent (580)
7,818 total responses

Equal numbers complain of the price and the lack of UMD. Both are heavy barriers to the Go's adoption, but we didn't ask "Why are you not buying the device," just what the most valid criticism was. This means, theoretically, that for some the lack of UMD does not matter as much as the price, and vice versa. But taken together, if the Kotaku readership is any indication of the core gaming crowd, the PSPgo has two hard strikes against it.

2. Based on what you've seen and read, which motion control system do you feel will be best integrated with its console's offerings?

None of these/Don't care: 27 percent (2,134 total responses)
Microsoft's Project Natal: 26 percent (2,085)
Sony's Motion Control: 24 percent (1,866)
Nintendo's Wii MotionPlus: 23 percent (1,799)
7,884 total responses

3. Which motion control system are you most interested in playing?

Microsoft's Project Natal: 39 percent (3,072 total responses)
Sony's Motion Control: 26 percent (2,068)
None of these/Don't care: 26 percent (2,067)
Nintendo's Wii MotionPlus: 9 percent (701)
7,908 total responses

4. Based on your personal gaming tendencies and preferences, do you feel that motion control systems:

Would not be relevant to the games I play: 42 percent (3,307 total responses)
Would detract from my enjoyment of the games I play: 22 percent (1,725)
Would enhance my enjoyment of the games I play 21 percent (1,682)
None of these/Don't know: 15 percent (1,167)
7,881 total responses

5. How do you feel about motion-control games?

I enjoy them, but I enjoy standard-control games more: 46 percent (3,621 total responses
I do not seek to play these games, but I enjoy them when invited to by a friend: 26 percent (2,076)
I do not enjoy motion control games, and do not want to play them: 14 percent (1,109)
I enjoy them and seek to play games that utilize them: 7 percent (580)
Not sure/Don't care: 6 percent (449)
7,835 total responses

This paints a strongly indifferent picture toward motion control games, as paradoxical as it sounds to say that. Your opinions of, basically, the best motion control system are all in a statistical dead heat - including "Don't care," the overall leader. Given an opportunity to play any motion control system, readers chose Project Natal, reflecting the base's strong preference for the Xbox 360. The Wii's stark underperformance in that question indicates either a disaffection for the console or the lack of perceived novelty in its control scheme after more than two years, and probably both. But the final nail in the coffin is that 42 percent of the readership simply doesn't care for motion controls; a supermajority finds them either irrelevant to the games they play, or that they detract from them.

6. Which platform do you enjoy the most?

Xbox 360: 36 percent (2,835 total responses)
PlayStation 3: 30 percent (2,359)
PC: 23 percent (1,841)
DS/DSi: 5 percent (359)
Wii: 3 percent (226)
PS2: 3 percent (223)
PSP: 1 percent (66)
Mac: 0 percent (30)
iPhone/iPod Touch : 0 percent (18)
7,957 total responses

We asked this as a control, just to establish console preferences and to see if they were consistent with previous answers. In large part they were.

7. Which statement best reflects your opinion of the Scribblenauts "Sambo" controversy?

It was blown out of proportion by the games press: 37 percent (2,850 total responses)
It was not offensive content, and merited no discussion: 30 percent (2,289)
Other opinion/Not sure/Don't care: 20 percent (1,570)
It was a controversy manufactured to harm a good game: 5 percent (424)
It was an insensitive error that deserved an apology: 5 percent (410)
It is a consequence of the lack of diversity in game development: 3 percent (204)
7,747 total responses

No surprise here. The controversy over Scribblenauts - writing "Sambo," a racial slur in the U.S., produced an item that looked like a watermelon - was almost immediately rejected by the commentariat on sites and forums that reported it, with many expressing the strong feeling that it was a gotcha-game invented by a gaming press with not much else to do. Only 5 percent, however, thought it was actively brought up to knock Scribblenauts down a peg.

8. What is the first word that comes to your mind for this game: Halo 3: ODST?

7,120 total responses

Unfortunately, I thought our polling software would aggregate responses using the exact same word, showing at least the top two or three words. Instead, the percentages are all 1/7120th. Scanning the list, "meh" appeared to be a popular choice. "A horse being flogged because it worked once," was another more specific expression of things like "redundant," "overrated" and "cash cow." "Expansion" and "expansion pack" also reflected a disappointment with ODST's singleplayer campaign. Positives included "awesome," "amazing," and "fun." Unfortunately, I simply can't tally up the percentage of positive words versus negative or indifferent. Thanks for participating in this question, but we can't use its kind in the future.

Look for more questions Oct. 10, as we continue to flesh out the habits, preferences and trends among the Kotaku Gamer.

This week we seek to measure your attitudes on the PSPgo, whose pre-release has been marred by retailer unhappiness, criticism of its price point, and disappointment in its lack of UMD support. We're also interested in your feelings on motion control, as 2010 figures to be the year when all three major consoles will have some type of full featured system. Finally, two games we've written about provoked a great deal of reader reaction in comments about them. Approval ratings will attempt to crystallize how you feel about both.

Editor's note: For one of these we're experimenting with an open-ended answer capability. An explanation will precede that specific question below.

Again, you will not see the results of these polls after you vote. They will close tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. U.S. Mountain Time. We will publish the results and an analysis the following Thursday evening.

For this next question, because of the limitations of our poll service, we had to include at least two forced choices. These have been identified as null; do not check either of them. Click the third radio button and type your answer in the space provided in the third field.

This custom Munny figure, by Don Schwabs, is great. Great for the figure, yeah, but also great for the tiny pencil. So cute!

Scribblenauts Munny by Don Schwabs [A Little Bit On The Awesome Side, via Go Nintendo]

Also, this seems like as good a place as any to mention this. Reader Soniking points out that if you write "teleporter" in the game, you're taken to a Scribblenauts version of the 5th Cell development studio. Maybe there you can find out what this announcement's about!

Facebook: Scribblenauts [Facebook, via Joystiq]

Before their most recent game became the talk of E3 and the most buzzed about release of the past week, Washington-based 5th Cell was best known for making Drawn To Life. The 2007 DS adventure let players draw their own hero and items while embarking on a mostly platforming-based quest. Players could illustrate every pixel of their protagonist and draw, among other things, his gun, his wings and the rocket ship he could use in space.

The precursor to Scribblenauts' exhortation for players to write anything was Drawn To Life's invitation for gamers to draw anything.

Sequels to Drawn To Life will be released next month on the Wii and DS. The DS version comes from 5th Cell and, while it is less ballyhooed than Scribblenauts, it may reveal more about 5th Cell's craft and potential as a studio of significance than the game's more hyped younger brother.

I've played through The Next Chapter's first world using a pre-release DS cartridge of the game that I picked up, in person, at 5th Cell's offices a couple of weeks ago. Earlier this week, I wrote about the one time a developer brought a complete build of his game to my office; my 5th Cell visit was the first time I showed up at a studio and walked out with a full build of a new game. What stands out to me about my visit, aside from meeting the 5th Cell team was the company's whiteboard. 5th Cell creative director Jeremiah Slaczka brought me to a board nearly covered in marker drawing and scribble — little wonder what kinds of games this studio makes — and asked me to draw something. This board doesn't get erased. My drawing would stay. I was intimidated by the art on board, but saying "no" wasn't an appropriate answer. I stalled. I almost wimped out. Then, I drew an amoeba. So... maybe I did wimp out?

Playing the new Drawn To Life is a less intimidating version of being asked to draw on that 5th Cell whiteboard. More so than its predecessor, the new game frequently asks its player to illustrate its world. Amid lushly developer-drawn houses and bridges I've had to draw a lighthouse and birds that flap their wings. I've had to draw a beachball for my hero to balance on and a surfboard that lets him ride a wave. I've drawn the health power-ups to be ice-cream cones and the in-game boat to look like a car. The altar from which the player's hero can activate the game's new Action Drawing mechanic looks like a rising stock chart — don't ask me why — and the yo-yo-ish weapon my hero can sling at enemies looks like the ball of fire that a kindergartner or deputy editor might draw.

I've found that, the more the stuff in a game world looks like your own handiwork, the more attached you become to it. But the charm a gamer derives from seeing their creations on screen can be short-lived if the gameplay through which you can animate those creations is lacking. The first game felt shallow to me. I walked my hero around the plagued village of Raposa, which was viewed in the overhead style of most 2D Zelda games and then saw action in simple side-scrolling levels that involved rudimentary jumping and punching. The elements were no different than those in many other 2D games, but their combination, as I experienced in the first game's first few worlds, produced few interesting level designs. 5th Cell's new Drawn To Life appears to surmount this fundamental problem. What was once boring is now fun and varied enough that I didn't want to put it down to write this preview.

This sequel is set after the events of the first game. The seemingly nefarious Wilfre, an inkblot of a possible arch-villain, begins to drain the world of color and warps the citizens of Raposa Village to distant lands. The gamer, assuming the role of god-like creator, is asked by some of the remaining villagers to draw a hero — one who can now have four arms and one leg if you want, by the way. The hero, who I named "M=4," and his friends wind up fleeing their village to the refuge of a small town built on the back of giant sea turtle. Their new mobile home swims them to the game's main worlds. These worlds are rendered as if they are drawings in a book laid open on the DS's bottom screen. At the worlds' edges you can see a book's binding and the pages beneath. In these worlds are structures for the player to color in, characters to talk to, and doorways to the game's side-scrolling action sequences. I played through the game's first main world, the town of Watersong, fighting through some undersea swimming levels, leaping across rooftops and boarding a ghostly pirate ship.

It's hard to articulate how the platforming in the new game is better, but it is, incorporating, to name a few nice features, a simple combo-chaining score mechanic, visually interesting enemies on gondolas and warp-funnels that reminded me of Donkey Kong Country's barrels. What helps the levels is the more frequent need to draw. I was given access only to the most simple of the Action Drawing areas. These mid-level zones are confined rooms that give the player access to a limited amount of ink with which to draw the floating platforms needed to reach an exit. A trailer for the game indicates that other colors of ink that make these platforms springy or movable will become available.

The bullet-point improvements of the new game include a more advanced drawing tool that offers more colors, the ability to swap drawn creations with friends who also have the game nearby and a feature I didn't reach that lets the player transform their hero into a blob or spider with distinct abilities.

When I sat down to talk about the game with Slaczka, though, it wasn't the gameplay features that he said he was the most proud of. It was an aspect seldom promoted for a DS game: The story. 5th Cell games may have cheerful graphics that are associated with simple kids' stuff, but Slaczka, an experienced screenwriter, told me he thinks this story's special. It's hard to grasp its quality having just played a couple of hours of a longer adventure, but there are promising signs. The adventure opens in unusual fashion for a game, putting the player in a very unfamiliar situation, asking them to recall — and draw — a moment they know nothing about. The characters, frankly, don't whine or over-emote the way a lot of kid-game characters do. Early on, the simplicity of a good vs. bad fight is shaded in gray. And apparently there's something up with the game's ending, which the opening credits reveal was drawn by David Hellman, the artist who did Braid. It's clear there's care in this production — how else to explain that when a mid-level moment calls for a song the game suddenly playis a full-length, fully-vocalized song, another DS rarity. How this comes together as a narrative remains to be seen.

There is something to be said about Scribblenauts in all of this. One skeptical reaction vocalized by some players of that game is that 5th Cell may not be able to surround a novel gameplay mechanic with level design and controls that are of equal quality and ingenuity. That criticism could have been levied at the first Drawn To LIfe, but 5th Cell is showing signs with The Next Chapter that, given the chance to iterate with a sequel, they can improve where improvement is needed.

Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter will be available on the DS and the Wii on October 27. The Wii version is developed by Planet Moon (preview here).

We've been enthralled by the concept of Scribblenauts since we first received word of the game in December of last year. Your goal is simple: help Maxwell collect the Starite in each level to proceed to the next. The way you accomplish this goal, however, is where the fun kicks in. By writing words in the lower portion of the DS screen, the associated object appears, allowing you to use it to overcome obstacles standing between Max and his star.

We've put the game's vocabulary to the test on countless occasions. Now it's the video game critics' turn.

Games Radar
If you're like us, you had high hopes for Scribblenauts. This little DS game represents something revolutionary not just for the DS's library, but also (we're being serious) for videogames as a whole. Forgive us if we sound hyperbolic here, but Scribblenauts is one of the most important games to come out this year. Which makes it all the more disappointing that it doesn't quite live up to its potential.

GameSpot
The best part of Scribblenauts is using the massive dictionary to come up with all sorts of wacky ideas. Sure, you could ride a horse from one side of the screen to the other, but why settle for something so mundane? If you have a saddle and a mind-control device handy, you can summon Cthulhu to be your noble steed. When a herd of dinosaurs are bumming you out, you can call forth a superhero to put them in their place, infantilize them with a shrink ray, or just drop a meteor from the sky to trigger a convenient extinction-level event. This creativity is present in the many puzzles as well. In one level, you must transport three deceased criminals from the purgatory in which they currently reside to the pearly gates of heaven. You could construct a bridge between the two eternal planes, but why go through that trouble when an all-forgiving god will absolve them of their sins and transport them to the promised land?

Game Informer
When Scribblenauts is working the way it should, it is an undeniable blast. But unfortunately, this game's skies are not always sunny. The touch-based character controls are touchy to the point that one miniscule tap on the screen can lead to a stage being restarted or a carefully planned strategy falling apart. Moreover, some of the objects I summoned into the world didn't function the way I thought they would. NPCs also get in the way, blocking your ability to pick up an object. These irksome moments pop up more than I care to see. But in the end, I learned to work around them. It's a bit of a crutch, but if you learn to play it through trial and error, you can manipulate the system to work in your favor.

Hardcore Gamer
There are well over two-hundred challenges to complete throughout the campaign of Scribblenauts. Half of these are relatively simple and easy to understand, whereas the other half caters to hardcore and determined players. As you progress through the game, your objectives will become increasingly more difficult, some of which will press you hard for time and quick thinking. This is where the game shines the most as each puzzle is incredibly creative and offers tens, if not hundreds, of ways to complete. There are obvious paths to take, but there are also alternate ways that you may have never considered before.

Play Magazine
Sure, there are frustrations here. Control is the first and most glaring problem in the game. Getting Maxwell from one place to another, using the items we provide him with, is an obvious shortcoming of the game. The physics of the game are unstable; sometimes, we can cheat our way through a room just by jumping at something until we slip past it. Scribblenauts isn't perfect; it's just audacious and unique. I wish I could manipulate Maxwell with the D-Pad. But then again, we're not really controlling the child; we're maestros, conducting the orchestra his reality.

Kotaku
While Scribblenauts is a well crafted puzzle game, its real power is its ability to tap into the soul of the Internet. Finally, someone has created something that puts our vast knowledge of the inane and arcane to use. I can proudly say that I know how to vanquish a griffin, what to summon when I'm confronted by Cthulhu, and why a river is handy when facing Nuckelavee, all without looking it up. Embrace your inner geek, pick up this game.
The writing is on the wall...

You get what appears to be a watermelon.

The word "sambo" is in the 22,802 wordlist we posted previously, between "sambhar" and "samboussa". Other racial terms (not just for African-Americans, but all ethnic groups) turned up nothing. The word "slave" produced an old white man in a tuxedo. "WASP" produces a "wasp". It's worth noting that the characters in the game are a diverse bunch, with African-American models used to depict a variety of jobs including ballerina, firefighter and life guard.

"We are not a racist company and we don't make racist games," Scribblenauts creative director Jeremiah Slaczka told Kotaku when reached by phone tonight. He said that there was no racial intent involving the inclusion of the word "sambo," a term he was not immediately familiar with.

Further discounting any impression that there was an racial intent, Slaczka also told Kotaku that one of the people responsible for finding and adding words to the game was black — to be clear, Slaczka, however, is not saying that an African-American put the word "Sambo" in.

Warner Bros. Interactive, the game's publisher, responded to Kotaku's request for comment Thursday:

"We deeply regret the unfortunate oversight that led to the word being included in the game," a company spokesman said. "The word was included as a reference to a Spanish based term for a fig leafed gourd but clearly upon review the word should have been excluded entirely."

Washington State-based developer 5th Cell said in the game the word sambo refers not to the racial term but to the Spanish term for a fig leaf gourd that resembles a watermelon.

Slaczka said that the word was included in Scribblenauts because it is an ingredient of the Ecuadorian dish Fanesca, which is listed, on Wikipedia, as including a "figleaf gourd," or "sambo." A Google image search of the term "figleaf gourd" produces an image that looks like a watermelon. Slaczka said that it is common to use the same image for multiple words in Scribblenauts and that that is the reason a word meant to depict a figleaf gourd appears to be a watermelon.

In the U.S. though, the word "sambo" has been used to demean and degrade Africans and African-Americans alike. "Sambo" was a common slave name in the U.S., and the late 19th century children's book The Story of Little Black Sambo is cited as furthering the word as a slur. While the book was set in southern Indian, it did play on the blackface iconography and African-American intellectuals have been critical of the pickaninny motifs.

Here is the Online Etymology Dictionary's entry for "Sambo":

Sambo (2)
stereotypical name for male black person (now only derogatory), 1818, Amer.Eng., probably a different word from sambo (1); like many such words (Cuffy, Rastus, etc.) a common personal name among U.S. blacks in the slavery days (first attested 1704 in Boston), probably from an African source, cf. Foulah sambo "uncle," or a similar Hausa word meaning "second son." Used without conscious racism or contempt until circa World War II. When the word fell from polite usage, collateral casualties included the enormously popular children's book "The Story of Little Black Sambo" (by Helen Bannerman), which actually is about an East Indian child, and the Sambo's Restaurant chain, a U.S. pancake-specialty joint originally opened in Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1957 (the name supposedly from a merging of the names of the founders, Sam Battistone and Newell "Bo" Bohnett, but the chain's decor and advertising leaned heavily on the book), which once counted 1,200 units coast-to-coast. Civil rights agitation against it began in 1970s and the chain collapsed, though the original restaurant still is open. Many of the defunct restaurants were taken over by rival Denny's.
sambo (1)
"person of mixed blood in America and Asia," 1748, perhaps from Sp. zambo "bandy-legged," probably from L. scambus "bow-legged," from Gk. skambos. Used variously in different regions to indicate some mixture of African, European, and Indian blood; common senses were "child of black and Indian parentage" and "offspring of a black and a mulatto."

However, included in the loaded "Sambo" term are things like blackface and other tropes like unkempt hair and watermelons — tropes used to degrade and oppress African-Americans into simple, comical characters. In short, to dehumanize and objectify. From the post-Civil War era, food items like fried chicken and watermelon were used to stereotype "darky" African-Americans. The popular culture depiction of African-Americans during the late 19th and early 20th century was stuffing their faces with watermelons and gnawing on fried chicken.

There was even a New Jersey brand of watermelon called "Sambo brand".

The watermelon images and "sambo" slurs reduced African-Americans to two-diminsional characters. Similar sambo and watermelon imagery have been used by those unhappy with President Obama. As The Chicago Sun-Times' Mary Mitchell writes, "The smiling "darkey" eating watermelon was a popular image during America's racist past, and was the one of the stereotypes used by Obama-haters during the presidential campaign."

Both "sambo" and the image of a watermelon carry the baggage of the American experience regarding racism. There is a connection between them. A long, painful and oppressive one.

Thanks Zachery for the tip! [Pic]

Stephen Totilo and Brian Crecente contributed to this report.

I'll reiterate one of my in-game adventures to get you started. The rest is up to you... in comments:

Take for instance a problem I ran into in the 150th or so puzzle I was working on. Confronted by an area teeming with West Virginia's legendary Flatwoods Monster, my initial thought was to take out one urban legend with another. So I quickly typed in Chupacabre. Only I mistyped it and accidentally summoned not the panther-like, blood-sucking lizard of Mexican lore, but the delicious Mexican snack, a chalupa.

Flummoxed, I dropped the chalupa in the hand of one of the monsters and summoned a vampire instead. The vampire quickly attacked the Flatwoods Monster who, seemingly confused by the treat she was just handed, began to swat at the creature with the chalupa. The vampire made quick work of her while I watched on belly laughing.

These are the moments that make this game sing. And they are plentiful.

Scribblenauts Review