GameDaily HUD examines game tie-ins, piracy and gamer trust

It's late night and we thought we could get a little more personal with those of you still searching for news morsels before you hit the sack. Our friends at AOL GameDaily run an ongoing discussion column called The HUD that poses four questions to ten games writers each week. Fans and regular commenters at X3F know our readership aren't comprised of your garden variety "FIRST!" posting knuckleheads and actually have smart and well informed opinions. It's with those types of readers in mind GameDaily has launched this discussion platform.

This week on the HUD they examine a hot topic around the X3F water cooler, movie tie-ins. With the recently released Star Wars: The Force Unleashed under our belt they discuss if the game could stand on its own without the Star Wars name. Also, another hot topic of DRM woes and Activision's litigation against pirates sneaks in as well as whether or not gamers can trust their news sources.

Check out the GameDaily HUD and take a look at the responses from such videogame journalists as Chris Grant of Joystiq, N'Gai Croal of Newsweek, Stephen Totilo of MTV Multiplayer Blog, Libe Goad of AOL GameDaily and more including X3F's own third-person loving, Xav de Matos. Then, jump into this post to see this week's four questions and let us know your thoughts on the subjects discussed this week on the HUD.

GameDaily HUD Questions -- September 26, 2008

1. What are you playing this week?
2. If Force Unleashed wasn't set in the Star Wars universe, would it have been a good game? Can a franchise tie-in be more than just a tie-in?
3. Game pirating is in the news again, thanks to Spore's DRM and Activision's recent ramp-up in litigation. Is there a solution to video game piracy? What would you propose?
4. Reviewers sometimes get accused of accepting advertising money for a favorable review. Why should consumers trust that you're giving an honest opinion?