knight37

What? No COUPON CODE for existing Lumines PSP customers?! SCREW YOU, MICROSOFT, YOU GREEDY BASTARDS!!!!11!!one

But really, $15 is reasonable. I rarely get far in these games anyway.


Now back to Ridge Racer! Riiiiiiidge RACER!!!!!

Talking about "cell phones" as if it were a single platform is where they are making their big mistake. Not every game is available on every cell phone. My phone, a Palm OS Treo 650, while powerful enough to run pretty much any cell phone game you could throw at it, doesn't offer many games and the ones it does offer aren't compatible, with say, a Windows CE phone, or a Symbian phone, or etc. And it's very confusing because gaming sites have done a piss poor job of explaining this. "On Mobile: The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion!". Okay, on WHAT mobile? What carrier? What phone models? It's a confusing mess.

I buy most of my games either bargain bin or used. My favorite place to get nice-quality used games is at the game trading site:

http://www.gametz.com

The site has a really good rating system and you find find honest traders there and some really good deals. It's good for the "sellers" because they are getting a good value and not the crap that GameStop gives them, and it's good for the "buyers" because it's still quite a bit cheaper than GameStop's used prices. Cut out the middle man!

The whole concept of someone taking a picture of something at a trade show and then slapping a watermark on it so the pic won't be passed around the net it just friggin' stupid. It detracts from the image greatly.

You want me to come to your site? Putting an annoying watermark on your images is a good way to make me decide NOT to come there. Does me, the reader give two shits if someone else steals your pic? No. I want to see whatever the hell you're trying to show.

Site logos in the bottom corner somewhere do not bother me, it's the ones where the watermark goes all over the image that piss me off. I can put up with the corner logos, even if they sometimes cut off something important.

"It's sort of social. Demented and sad, but social." -- The Breakfast Club.

Online social skills don't really buy you much cred in the real world guys. I'm just sayin', not hatin'. Besides there's just as much anti-social behavior being learned in these games as there is social behavior, if not more so.

The RealArcade Game Pass is actually a pretty cool deal. I have blogged about it before, but in a nutshell, you get a new full-game every month for $8.

And there are some "real" gems on that service too. RPG fans should definitely check out Geneforge 1 & 2 which are on there as good old school turn-based RPG goodness. They have a lot of good Shmumps, and tons of puzzle games. Plus tons of quirky little games that are a good time waster for a few hours, like Diner Dash. I love the pirate/trader game Tradewinds also.

If you want to blame anyone for this, blame your own government. Under the current (and previous) administraton, the US government is doing everything they can to remove your rights to privacy completely. I will not at all be surprised when they have mandatory electronic chips implanted in your forearm so they can track where all of the citizens are at all times.

WAR IS PEACE.
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.

You people that have never played an MMORPG and don't think it's addicting need to sit down and STFU, you just do not know what the hell you're talking about.

I have seen normally responsible, healthy adults with good jobs and families LOSE IT ALL to EQ1 and/or WoW and other games of this sort. I knew one guy addicted to EQ1 who couldn't stop playing at home, alienating his wife and children to the point of ending up in divorce, and also played the game at work which eventually got him fired. We're talking about games that because of the way they are set up, encourage you to play for hours on end, avoiding responsibilities and relationships in your real life.

MMORPGs are just as addictive as gambling and other activities that obsessive/compulsive personality types gravitate toward. Should they come with a warning label? Absolutely. Something along the lines of "Certain types of players of this game may end up spending unhealthy amounts of time playing to the detriment of their real life relationships and responsibilities. Please play with caution, and if you find yourself falling into this category, quit playing and seek counciling."

There is a REASON that China and other Asian countries are trying to come out with legislation to put built in "time outs" to these types of games. Such as only allowing you to play in the game for a certain number of hours per day then locking you out, etc. PEOPLE HAVE DIED from ignoring their own physical needs for too long while playing these games. For some people they just BECOME their character in the virtual world and everything in the real world is completely out of their mind.

So in short, this doctor is spot on. WoW and games of its sort ARE addictive, and should not only come out with a warning lable, but should also put built-in safety guards to prevent people from playing excessively in the extreme.

Oh and to the poster who said "who cares, do we really want these people in our society anyway", just wait until someone you care about becomes addicted to something like this and see how you feel about it then. Not all the people who became addicted were social rejects to start with, we're talking normal family men and women, not to mention kids.

Let me add my 2 cents about GameTZ - www.gametz.com. This site is awesome. It has great forums, excellent match-making services, and a really great trade tracking and feedback system. By far this is the best place on the internet to trade games, and I've tried them all. Give it a shot, it's a lot better than getting Jack and Schitt from EB or GameStop (aka BORG of Gaming).

This is almost as petty as the Oblivion pay-mods. Did someone dedicate 2006 as "Nickel & Dime Year" when I wasn't looking?