It's a long weekend in the States, it's time to take it down a notch. Earlier this week we got an email from reader Herlich Aguiluz, who told us the story of how his wife woke him up Wednesday morning concerned that their seven-year-old son was awake while "it was still dark." When Aguiluz spoke to his son in the morning it turned out the kid woke up at 1AM and was playing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption all night until his mother came down to fix breakfast. Aguiluz says, "I realized that while my wife was mad at what happened, I was proud and envious at the same time. Proud because I see my gamer-self in him, and envious because it used to be me who stayed up for a new game."

This blogger can remember waking up more than one time at 3AM as a kid to find his mother playing Final Fantasy II (Final Fantasy IV) in the living room -- later on the same thing happened with Final Fantasy III. It's very strange to wake up to the sound of Final Fantasy battle music, walk into the living room and be asked, "What are you doing up?" When that question was obviously a two-way street.

So, let's open it up. Anybody else have those unexpected gamer moments with a family member?

According to an MTV Multiplayer Blog post, August is the most painful month to be a gamer. Historically speaking, that is. For starters, two megaton Legend of Zelda games were apparently delayed in the month of August: Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess. Lair was recently pushed back a few weeks, and if your memory is sharp, you'll recall GTA 4 has been delayed until sometime next year. All in August (or nearly in August, as the blog is careful to say).

Paranoia, or is our collective gamers' horoscope destined to bring us pain every year? At least we have Metroid Prime 3: Corruption to shine a bit of brightness on the gloomy August doom parade.

Film critic Roger Ebert, who originally sparked a blaze of discussion in late 2005 by labeling video games inferior to art like film and theater, reignited talks last week when he "clarified," so to speak, that games could be art but not "high art." Our own Ludwig Kietzmann chimed in on the debate, but the ferocity of his diction is marginal compared to the exhaustive rebuttal laid out by Newsweek's N'Gai Croal.

Taking Ebert to task paragraph by paragraph, Croal criticizes and calls the film critic out on his apparent ignorance to the subject that he is chastising, much in the way Ebert did himself when he pulled quotes from a Hollywood & Games panel with Clive Barker.

Croal's vitriolic and eloquent response warrants notice and discussion, if only for the sheer detail of his counterargument. If we are going to debate whether one medium has the potential to achieve an artistic maturity now in comparison to one more than three times its senior, this is how we should do it.

Here's a scenario regarding Ebert's opinion giving players a "smorgasbord of choices" proves detrimental to its emotional impact:
imagine a situation where a player's task is to save someone he loves, yet no matter what action he or she takes, that person cannot be saved. In that situation, wouldn't giving an audience multiple choices actually be more emotional as it emphasizes the hopelessness of the situation?

This is the tale of Jeff Williams, a web producer, who on his personal blog tells the inside story of the average man at Rockstar games, from just after Grand Theft Auto III's launch, to right before the "Hot Coffee" incident. A feature he says the company was well aware of, but due to massive turnover and disregard for the depths some PC gamers will go, Rockstar ended up lying about their knowledge of "Hot Coffee." That lie, along with other Rockstar games, helped create the video game censorship and regulatory issues we face today.

Although not nearly as devastating as the EA Spouse chronicles, Williams does spin the tale of a company that hit it big with the GTA franchise, a franchise he says had little to do with the Rockstar he worked for, and never found another. Jeff says, "It was obvious to me from the start that the company had built itself on one major hit game. The question was whether they knew how to capitalize on that and create other hit games. Manhunt was my answer, and that answer was 'no'."

By the end he says Manhunt turned a lot of people off, burnout was high, management was inexperienced and it just fell apart with "Hot Coffee," which he says the company was well aware of the whole time. Rockstar still hasn't found another viable franchise as we all sit and wait for Grand Theft Auto IV. A good read to understand the average man's experience at a company, away from the suits and the PR spin.

A Reno, Nev couple who were apparently obsessed with the internets and video games have plead guilty to child neglect. The couple, Michael and Iana Straw, have a 22 month boy and and 11 month girl who were severely malnourished and near death last month when doctors examined them at a hospital. The couple, according to prosecutors, were so obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons Online they neglected their children. Guess it's true what they say about bad games and addiction. The couple faces a potential 12 year prison sentence each.

"They had food; they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games," said the prosecutor to the Reno Gazette-Journal. Now would be a good time to stop reading if you don't want the bad details. Police say hospital staff had to shave the girls head because it was matted with cat urine and the boy had to be treated for a "genital infection." Apparently Michael Straw, an unemployed cashier, received a $50,000 inheritance, which he spent on computer equipment and a plasma TV. Allegedly the couple was simply addicted to video games and there was no drug abuse. Maybe it's time the AMA got cracking on trying to figure out what the real deal is with video game addiction.

The train of good press for Nintendo just keeps chugging along. The latest piece comes from GoNintendo, who had a reader contact Nintendo about their environmental policies. The full response can be found after the break, but a couple things that stand out are that Nintendo purchases recycled paper towels, report covers, message pads, and writing pads. They also use 80% recycled paper in all their shipping packaging.

So, now that we know what Nintendo does to help save our little planet, we wonder what Microsoft and Sony do? We doubt that either tests their products on animals, but are they using recycled toilet paper (not used, there's a difference) and recycling 70% of the waste from their headquarters? We don't know about Sony, but at least we know that Microsoft recycles their broken Xbox 360s. Oh come on, it had to be said.

The Christian Science Monitor along with the National Wildlife Federation reports that videogames are one of the reasons (along with cell phones, TV, and gas prices) national parks in North America have seen a sharp decline in attendance over the last few years. More kids are becoming couch potatoes and developing a "nature deficit disorder", and parks are suffering as a result. The NWF is launching programs around the country to fight the indooredness of these sun-deprived folk whose only interaction with trees is in World of Warcraft.

We love gaming, but we also love nature. While you can't do both at the same time (waterfall hikes with gaming gear in tow can get messy), we can't help but feel there's a deeper reason behind the decline. Maybe Nature just needs a better marketing team to jazz things up, make it more exciting? It's time for Nature 2.0.

[Via Gaming Today]

Communication in online worlds such as Second Life relies on two things: text input, and personal speech bubbles. To engage in a conversation, simply move near another player and their bubble becomes visible. Aram Bartholl decided to re-create this spatially-sensitive text chat in real life with Speech Bubble, a performance art event that took place in Berlin.

Just like in MMO games, players type out their thoughts and attach them to bubbles that magically float above their head. And by magic, we mean they're carried by a hapless slave person tailing them at all times. The result: an intriguing performance that either makes you re-think the impact of instant messaging, IRC, and SMS on society, or forces you to become completely apathetic to the guy standing next you who has a birthday tomorrow.

Check out a video of the event after the jump.

[Via Videoludica]

Tonight in San Francisco, Aaron Loeb, who works at Planet Moon Studios (Armed and Dangerous and Infected) premieres his play First Person Shooter at the San Francisco Playhouse. The guys over at GayGamer.net attended a preview last night and have a review up on their site. The story follows a successful fictional company known for making violent video games. Things go wrong at the company when they are blamed for a schoolyard shooting and the young CEO of the company has to deal with the lawsuit which follows and the parents of the victims.

The SF Playhouse says, "Aaron [Loeb], who now develops videogames, worked as a journalist covering the world of videogames at the time of Littleton, Colorado shootings and 'wanted to write a play about the people caught in the echo chamber of the debate. What must it be like for the people actually accused of making a game that turns kids into killers? What about the parents of the victims? Their children are dead and the news is jam packed with talk of something so trivial as videogames!'"

The play premieres to the public tonight and runs until June 9 at the San Francisco Playhouse. Ticket information is available at the playhouse's website. If you live in the San Francisco area go check it out and let us know what you think. Hopefully after the play's run they'll make a three camera video of it. Sure, it kinda defeats the purpose of seeing it live, but not everyone that wants to see it can make it out to San Fran and it sounds like a good play.

In what is poised to be the most entertaining Game with Fame to date, Aqua Teen Hunger Force voice actor Dana Snyder (Master Shake) and show creators Dave Willis (Meatwad, Carl, Inignokt) and Matt Maiellaro (Err) will be online next Tuesday, April 24, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. ET to play Uno over Xbox Live.

Those interested in playing the trio need to send a friend request to Gamertag ATHFGWF for a shot at landing that anger-inducing Wild Draw 4 against the brow of Master Shake. Of course, the quick-witted Dana Snyder is sure to reward you with an amusing retort.

The only reason God doesn't erase you from the face of the Earth is because you amuse him somehow.

When you think of hubs of international game development, France probably doesn't leap to the front of the list. But the country hosts major game makers like Ubisoft and Atari and famous creators like Beyond Good and Evil's Michel Ancel and Alone in the Dark's Frédérick Raynal.

The country's game making reputation might just grow if the French government has anything to say about it. Wired reports on a recently passed French law granting special tax breaks to French game makers through the "exception Francaise."

The exemption still has to be approved by the European Union, but even if it is, don't expect to see a flood of mindless shoot-'em-ups to come out of the country. French Culture Ministry Adviser Marc Herubel told Wired that tax-exempt games must be "culturally relevant," meaning they have "a narration of some kind and a scenario written in French with elements of adventure or simulation games." So, apparently, some of the most important games of all time wouldn't be culturally relevant enough for the ministry just because they didn't have French narration? Way to fight that elitist French stereotype, there.

Previously: France vies to give artful tax break for game industry

With similar, heavily Japanese influences behind both video games and anime, it's no surprise that there's heavy overlap between fans of both art forms. But what happens when the two worlds actually meet? Anime blogger Azure Flame finds out with a look at what makes a good video-game inspired anime.

The short essay is a little less than comprehensive -- it doesn't even mention the near-ubiquitous Pokemon anime, but the advice for making a good game-based cartoon is still useful. In short: a good game-based anime builds on the world and the story established in the game without being limited by the source material. We agree, and we're still waiting for the Super Mario Bros. anime that explores the plumbers' super-secret outer space battles between giant robots with enormous swords. Don't pretend you haven't pictured it yourself.

Variety has a great article up that calls out some movie critics for derisively comparing the movie version of 300 to a video game. While the movie does rely on computer graphics and special effects, as do many video games, the article correctly points out that this surface comparison inaccurately stereotypes all games as repetitive and violent. As the Variety author points out, "Few horror pics are able to instill the bone-chilling terror of 'Resident Evil 4.' A dramatic filmmaker should aspire to reach the epic scope of 'Shadow of the Colossus.' And those looking to make the next great franchise should should only hope their movies engross viewers half as well as 'World of Warcraft.'"

We think turnabout is fair play here, so we're calling on all the video game critics out there to compare the next cheesy, cut scene filled epic they play to the movies. "If we wanted to fall asleep watching boring, babbling characters we can't even control, we'd we'd go to the movies." Something like that. See how they like it, for once!

Who's at fault for Nintendo's lack of third-party support: Nintendo, the developers, or the fans themselves? Kevin Cassidy, founder of website GoNintendo, places the blame on the Nintendo community for showing reluctance or unwarranted disdain toward third-party Wii games.

The rant, part of Newsweek writer N'Gai Croal's P2P series, makes a point out of Dewy's Adventure, a game he feels internet users have called in "kiddie" based on its looks alone, subsequently refusing to give it a chance. This is a problem Nintendo had when revealing Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker to be a cel-shaded romp with a pre-adolescent Link. Of course, that game sold well on merit of its Nintendo roots. Dewy's Adventure isn't even out yet, so opinions have room to alter wildly between now and its release later this year.

Is the "kiddie" problem inherently Nintendo's, though? Regard Microsoft's Viva Pinata, a game that has been praised widely but suffers from low (though steady) sales. Is the kiddie image of the title affecting other consoles, too? Cassidy opines that Nintendo fans are clamoring for "mature" titles that include violence and gore, but we feel this is a more universal trend that is affecting all consoles.

If you've followed the Game Developers Conference at all, you probably heard about Maxis programmer Chris Hecker comments that the Wii is nothing more than two GameCubes duct tape together (though, to be fair, that's a 0.5 upgrade from comments that the Wii is "GameCube 1.5"). We're willing to wager that "Product X is just two Product Ys duct tape together" is on track to becoming a popular phrase in gaming circles.

Kim Pallister of Microsoft Casual Games has risen to Hecker's defense, which ultimately led to an apology we feel was somewhat coerced by his overlords at EA and Maxis. The major point in Hecker's argument is that having an innovative control system "should not give them a 'get out of jail free card' on the fact that they have delivered an underpowered machine," according to Pallister's interpretation. And by underpowered, Hecker is referring to computations and not the graphics system, which puts his rant in line with what he said last year that the PS3 and Xbox 360 also underperform in terms of computational power while focusing on a graphics-heavy system.

We're not going to take sides on his point that Nintendo needs to "recognize and push games as a serious art form," though the statement does make for a great discussion. We will say all three companies have pushed for more involvement with independent developers. (Microsoft has Castle Crashers and Roboblitz, Sony has flOw and LittleBigPlanet and Nintendo has Line Rider and possibly Telltale's Sam & Max.)

Don't forget about the heap of praise that the IGDA community gave Hecker just last year after winning the Community Contribution Award. Though, to be fair, that award is just two IGF awards duct taped together.