François

Without being too negative, I agree with most people that the NPR approach isn't working for me. I like the informal silliness. The business and technical logistics and P.R. flubs not important enough to me to fill a podcast... and I work in games. I think the audience for that stuff is very small.

However, that's not to say there is no place for serious journalism about games. You might try to fill the void left by A Life Well Wasted -- an attempt at This American Life for games. Something with a more personal editorial voice, and more personal topics like why games matter to us... or if that's too hard, just turn up the Hinkle.

I think the music fits well for most of the video, especially the ending, but definitely not the combat game play montage in the middle. Listen again and ignore that part. Don't dismiss it because it's not normally your taste. It's something a little different and I welcome it.

Cram a ton of people on the same 5meg dsl connection, with half the people playing other games / browsing the internet/ etc, and show me it still works flawlessly through bnet...

Battle.Net has always been for match-making. Once you enter the game, data is transmitted directly between players. If you're on the same LAN, your dsl connection doesn't matter.

But that was the case in my Starcraft I days. For all I know Battle.Net in Starcraft II will bounce your packets off the moon.

I also have this problem. I mp3 is the right length I think (1:27), but it contains nothing but very quiet white noise from start to finish. Ho hum.

...But I fully approve of the aforementioned nonsense, because it made me rich as _hell_.

As a game programmer working in California, I can account that sometime in late 2006 (or early 2007 maybe?) some developers at our company on the lower end of the pay scale were reclassified as non-exempt, meaning that they became hourly rather than salaried and received overtime.

So it seems this new law is only reversing (partially) that very recent change - which didn't make sense in the first place...

If you're a junior making overtime and you want to work late to perfect your code or art (juniors tend to be young, idealistic, gung-ho bachelors who take longer to learn their way through everything), you need your boss's approval, and they may not be willing to pay to let you do that. Meanwhile a senior (generally older with kids at home, doing the same work but faster and better) is more likely to be asked to stay late to pick up the slack, because their overtime is free.

When crunch comes, everyone throws in, but an hourly junior working 90 or 100 hours/week might make as much or more than a senior (with many years more experience) working the same hours. The only compensation for seniors was a couple extra weeks of vacation at the end of the project. Huh?

Did anyone play the Graveyard? I played the demo and as far as I could tell, the game goes like this...

You sit on a bench.

That's real artsy, but I need to know more before I start droppin' Hamiltons. Word?

I'm going to read Justin's review now. If I do not read the words "Fifty-cent's injuries result in a sudden fountain of actual half dollars, just like Sonic the Hedgehog", then all these years of playing games HAS BEEN FOR NOTHING.

I'm not saying piracy is ethical, but the market is a force of nature. The majority will always do what is best for their own wallets. And if that choice is unethical, then the majority will be unethical.

Arguably the whole economy of the First World is profiting from the exploitation of the labor of the Second and Third Worlds. Nearly every purchase you make is perpetuating an unfair trade with the people making your products. But no amount of proclaiming this will cause any real change. Altruism will never prevail over consumerism.

If your product is available for free somewhere else, then the only remaining value in selling it is the convenience of a smooth delivery. Successful devs will price their games accordingly, and act against piracy services that become too convenient. This seems like the only possible future. I don't think there is a future where the majority of gamers stop pirating simply because it's wrong.

I don't think that being from Japan inherently makes you intolerant of a first-person camera. Many people new to first-person games complain about motion sickness. If more people in Japan began playing these games, less would complain about motion sickness.

Marketing has some power to introduce new tastes to a market, but it takes time. I bet EA spent very little marketing these games in Japan. They would rather invest in audiences already indoctrinated.

Anyhow, I think Mirror's Edge could be successful in Japan, if it were better advertised. Mercenaries would have a harder time on account of the mediocre production quality.