Do you read video game magazines? Come on, you can be honest. Just because we try to provide you with all the online gaming news and views you need doesn't mean we don't expect you to occasionally feel the urge to read something printed on glossy paper. We won't get mad. Honest. Why aren't you answering us? YOU THINK WE'RE FAT DON'T YOU!

Oh, we don't know why we're even worried. After all, we were just reading in today's New York Times how magazines are having a real tough time attracting readers, what with their outdated news and limited space. Sure they'll try to lure you in with special issues and in-depth features, but your attention span is so short that you probably won't bother reading them, no matter how much you say you want them. You'll just tune them out like ... hey, are you even still reading this? WHY DO YOU NEVER LISTEN TO US? *SOB*

Pop quiz time, readers. Guess what product a Salon author was referring to in the following quotes:

• "Whether or not Sony was sincere in its claim that a supply crisis led it to cut its initial shipments ... there's little question that the corporation was successful in the arena of hype marketing. Lines of obsessed PlayStation fans were a news staple ..."
• "Don't get me wrong; it's definitely the most powerful video-game machine on the planet right now. But that's not enough. ... There's just not much software available that can take advantage of it."
• "Sony is also under the mistaken impression that including the ability to play ... movies is a huge selling point. ... I'd rather pay less and get a machine that just plays games instead."

If you guessed the PS3, you'd be wrong. No, the October 2000 column that the above quotes come from was talking about the then-recent launch of the PlayStation 2. Careful readers might remember the PS2 as the system that went on to sell over 115 million units worldwide and dominate the console market for the better part of the decade. At the time, though, Salon recommended hardcore gamers opt for the cheaper, easier-to-develop-for Dreamcast and wait on the PS2 for the time being.

Why are we posting this? Mainly because it's always fun to point out just how different media opinion and popular opinion can be, but also as a way of tempering the gloomy predictions that are still surrounding the PS3 nearly five months after its launch. Remember, Sony has come back from negative media attention before, and there's still a chance it could do it again.

[Via Chrominance]

Within 24 hours of the horrific Virginia Tech tragedy, prominent personalities began popping up on TV with their opinions on why it happened and what facet of society and entertainment we should blame. Many in the gaming industry braced for fierce public backlash. But it never really happened.

GameDaily BIZ's media watchdog Kyle Orland (who is also a prolific contributor to Joystiq) chronicles the media's behavior in how they did or did not try to connect video games to the recent campus tragedy and provides a historical perspective and where the industry goes from here. It's a fascinating read that succeeds in summarizing the last few weeks of mainstream coverage.

See Also: What I know about violent games

We know it's been a Jack-Thompson-filled couple of weeks here on Joystiq, but we can't help it if the guy keeps doing newsworthy stuff (or can we?). Anyway, we were kind of surprised to hear today that the latest bit of hate-filled invective Thompson hurled at IGDA president Jason Della Rocca actually came close to developing into something more than name calling. Apparently, Della Rocca tried to accept Thompson's challenge "to one or more college debates, anywhere anytime, to discuss whether violent video games in any fashion caused school killings..."

A series of e-mails, reprinted on Della Rocca's blog, details the back and forth between the pair on the debate's location and particulars. When the subject of money comes up, Thompson reveals that they can "expect to net approximately $3000 or more per event" though he's quick to add that he's "not in this issue for the money." When Della Rocca balks at being paid to talk, Thompson puts it bluntly: "That isn't how it works and I can't justify leaving my family to go to Montreal on a freebie. Sorry. Have to pay the bills."

Now we can understand the need to make ends meet as much as anybody, but when you make a boast to publicly debate someone "anywhere anytime," the cost of a plane ticket shouldn't really be a deal breaker. That is, unless Thompson can't live up to his own taunt to "put your mouth where your money is." As Della Rocca puts it, it seems that sometimes "the critics of media violence are in fact the ones profiting most from real-world violence and fears of virtual violence."

In 2004 it was Ken Kutaragi. In 2005 it was the Halo designers. In 2006 it was ... no one.

Yes, Time's last list of the 100 most influential people in the world broke from tradition and didn't feel the need to include anyone from the game industry. While nobodies like Nicolas Ghesquiere and Rain got coveted spots on the list, the leaders of a $12.5 billion industry got bupkis.

Luckily, you can help rectify this situation. Yes, you, as Time's person of the year, can go independently rate the nearly 200 candidates who are being considered for the 2007 list, including Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto. As of this posting, Miyamoto is ranked 60th, between Indra Nooyi and Albert Osterhaus (a.k.a. two people you've never heard of) with 113 votes and an average rating of 75 out of 100.

The ranking system is based on total points accrued, not the average, so more votes equals a better rank. Vote early and vote often -- it's not like you have anything better to do at work.

[Thanks hvnlysoldr]

It doesn't matter how many times he experiences failure or comes close to no longer being able to practice law -- there is always somebody willing to listen to Jack Thompson. No time was this more obvious than this week following the Virginia Tech massacre. Before the dead were counted, the shooter named or anyone could wrap their brain around what had just happened, Thompson was already on Fox News as a "school shooting expert" spouting theories, and Fox News let it slide without challenge.

The situation was exacerbated Tuesday when the Washington Post impulsively reported video game related information they later retracted. By mid-week information was starting to turn against Thompson and even Hardball's Chris Matthews wasn't buying what Thompson was selling anymore. By yesterday the "Jacklash" was in full effect, the boulder rolled down the hill again and Jack "Sisyphus" Thompson will have to start over again -- without the help of using Take Two as his punching bag.

In GamePolitics' recap of the week's events they have a quote from the International Game Developers Association's Jason Della Rocca, who says, "It's so sad. These massacre chasers -- they're worse than ambulance chasers -- they're waiting for these things to happen so they can jump on their soapbox." But as sure as the sun will rise and the moon will set, Jack Thompson is already rolling his boulder back up the hill, waiting for the next tragedy that he can blame on video games.

When a Washington Post story mentioned that Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung Hui played Counter-Strike in high school, we were intrigued. When the nugget disappeared from an online version of the Post story, we were even more intrigued

To clarify the situation, we caught up with Washington Post Staff Writer David Cho, who was responsible for originally reporting the factoid. Cho said the information was based on talks with some high school acquaintances of Hui's who occasionally saw him playing at an cyber cafe during his high school days.

Cho said there was no solid indication either way whether or not Hui continued to play during three-and-a-half years at college. Hui's college roommates reportedly saw Hui on the computer constantly, but said he was usually writing, not playing games. Cho said a group of Virginia Tech Counter-Strike players he talked to had never heard of Hui, and that Hui hadn't attended a recent Counter-Strike tournament held on campus.

As for the removal, Cho said it was standard practice to replace a rougher online version of a story with the polished print version when it was available. The Counter-Strike connection was removed, Cho said, to make room for more recent, more relevant information. Still, the fact is on file at the Post, Cho said, and it's possible it could make it into a future story.

Here's some light weekend reading about politics, the media and gaming. Earlier this week the U.S. Federal Trade Commission released a report about the gaming industry. The real fun for industry folk was seeing how all the various media outlets would report the news and what their headlines would be. Below is the list, shamelessly ripped-off from Dennis McCauley over at GamePolitics, of various media outlets and their take on the report:

• FTC says content curbs fall short - L.A. Times
• Report says the young buy violent games and movies - NY Times
• FTC: self-regulation of violent content working - Beta News
• Children still see ads for violent content - Advertising Age
• FTC scolds marketers about violent content - AdWeek
• FTC: violence still marketed to youths - Hollywood Reporter
• Report: Violence still aimed at kids - Variety
• FTC violence marketing report show general compliance - Broadcasting & Cable
• FTC Report: Violence Still a Problem in Marketing - TV Week
• FTC: game industry self-policing improving - GameSpot
• FTC: M-rated games still marketed to minors - Next Generation
• FTC: games are better regulated than music, movies - Ars Technica
• FTC report: mixed reviews on industry's ability to self-regulate - Joystiq
• FTC: game industry stricter than movies, music - Kotaku
• FTC report praises, spanks video game industry - GamePolitics

As McCauley asks in his headline accompanying the list above, "Were these media outlets reading the same report?" The various headlines make us think of the classic question: If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to see it, does it make a sound? Some say yes, some say no, some say it explodes into various pieces, some say the Earth Mother picked it back up, some say there is no tree. The various headlines and the stores with them is a good read on the diversity of voice in the media -- especially when it comes to gaming.

How many times have you read a video game magazine or web site and thought, "I could write better than that." Oh yeah, tough guy? You think it's easy writing this stuff? Well, now is your chance to prove it.

Launched Tuesday, Gaming.wikia is part of a group of "open-source magazines" that "allow people to blog, rate content and freely contribute news and information on topics they are passionate about," according to the press release. In other words, it's the collaborative power of Wikipedia mixed with the democratic organization of Digg.

Or maybe not. When we loaded up the site, the top story of the moment was "Motorstorm is Awesome," which included the cogent commentary "I love racing games, but this is just FREAKING AWESOME!" Is this supposed to be an online magazine or a glorified message board?

The problem with letting everyone contribute is that you have to let everyone contribute. Without a large, well-organized community to moderate out the crap, an open-source project like this can go from controlled chaos to just plain chaos rather quickly. If Gaming.wikia can attract this sort of self-policing community, more power to them. If not, there are plenty of satisfactory sources for game news out there already. Like the fine, closed-source site you're reading right now, for instance.

[Via Game|Life]

As we wrap up our GDC coverage this weekend, it's time to talk about the min-E3. The E3 Media and Business Summit, better known as the E3 five lucky children will attend, is now a few months away. This week some journalists received their invites -- many did not.

Australian blogger Jason Hill originally had a piece about how the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia didn't receive tickets. After writing the story Hill received his golden ticket. The ESA told Hill, "It is entirely up to participating companies to decide whom to invite to the event. Thus, if anyone calls ESA to ask for 'tickets' to the event, that's what they will be told."

From the anecdotal information we've received so far, it's a total toss-up as to which outlets are bestowed invites and the number of invitations they are receiving. More information is sure to flow about this issue starting next week.

Nielsen Media Research, best know for its TV ratings, has released an outline the American video game landscape in the form of "The State of the Console" report. Among the more interesting findings:

• 45.7 million U.S. households have at least one game system, out of 111.4 million that have TVs (41.1%). This number has risen from 38.6 million (35.2%) in late 2004.
• 148.4 million Americans have access to a console in their home, out of 283.5 million that have access to TVs (52.4%). Of those, 93.8 million Americans (33.3% of the TV population) actually used a console in the 4th quarter of 2006.
• The top 20% of gamers are responsible for 75% of the console time, averaging 5 hours and 45 minutes of use per day.

Those last two factoids are pretty interesting, as they show console games are still appealing primarily to a very small niche of the potential market, and that a small slice of that niche is responsible for most of the actual playing time. If game makers can somehow attract these uninterested console owners, they'll have tapped into a much larger market than they might be used to.

Read - Summary
Read - Full report (7 page PDF)

The (unofficial) PlaystationTeam posts this list of media formats that are compatible with PlayStation 3:

• Blu-Ray (ROM, -R, -RE)
• DVD (ROM, -R, -RW, R, RW)
• CD (ROM, -R, -RW, Super Audio)
• MPEG-1
• MPEG-2 (PS, TS)
• MPEG-4 SP
• MPEG-4 AVC/H.264.
• ATRAC
• AAC
• MP3
• WAV
• JPEG
• GIF
• PNG
• TIFF
• BMP

Aside from obvious disc differences, PS3 and PSP accept a near-identical list of formats (PSP is compatible with WMA files). It is disappointing that PS3 won't support some of the popular video codecs (e.g., XviD, DivX) out of the box, but if this Linux proposal comes together, then presumably, the compatibility list would grow.

Why do games "journalists" publish so many lies, untruths and half-truths? There are seven reasons, according to GameDaily BIZ: (1) fanboyishness, (2) wimpiness, (3) laziness, (4) inexperience with real journalism, (5) herd mentality, (6) sensationalism, (7) confusion over technicalities.

A solid list on an important topic...

We just wish GameDaily BIZ hadn't unwittingly illustrated one of their own points. By publishing their best criticism under an anonymous pseudonym ("Mr. Media Coverage"), GameDaily proves a corollary of rule #2: few games-industry writers are willing to put their own names down next to honest criticism because they fear reprisals of some sort.

[Update 1: corrected a typo in third paragraph.]

E3 may be over, but  the Joystiq team is still blowing through posts and tying up loose ends from a wild, sleepless week of non-stop blogging. When I posted about Blake Snow getting trampled in Friday's early morning Wii stampiid, I thought the man whose badge Blake "traded" for in the ensuing chaos might step forward. Instead the post provoked a flurry of "I am Spartacus" commenters claiming to be one Quang Nguyen. Fortunately, Joystiq reader Sepll Cehck has tracked down a guy on the web who looks like he really could be the Quangster (pictured at right). The Quang man is welcome to have his exhibitor badge back assuming he's the right Nguyen, although it won't do him much good now. I'm waiting for an email. In the mean time, if a small Asian man approaches you claiming to be Blake Snow of Joystiq, don't believe him.