Thursday Next

I love the super special editions with things in them. I bought the GT5 one for just under £100, the God of War trilogy for £80ish. The Assassin's Creed White Edition and Brotherhood Codex Edition for about £60. I also acquired the Crysis 2 Nano Edition through shady means... But yeah, generally I'll spend a fair bit on games. Being in the industry I do get a fair few freebies slung my way too which is quite the bonus.

It should still be optional. This is a stupid move imho.

@Yant: That's not the be all and end all though. It's doing it and leaving the customer happy about it. When I bought the Sazh DLC for FFXIII-2 it was in a large part because I really enjoyed the game. It was almost like tipping the waiter. I still haven't played the Sazh DLC, but I don't regret the purchase at all. @Battra: A good point, I'd be interested to see what the lack of availability of used games did to sales (I'd be equally curious to see what effect a magical piracy free world would have).

I'm not sure if you're reading what I'm writing the way I'm intending for it to be read. Here's a point by point summary: 1. Not everyone at EA likes Online pass. In fact some are dead against. 2. Not everyone at EA thinks "Used Purchase = Bad". 3. Some people at EA see people who have purchased used games as customers who are equal to first game purchasers and should be placed on an equal footing with regard to access to online gameplay. 4. Some people at EA feel that the goal should be to engage all (including second hand) consumers and get them to want to buy DLC by making great games, rather than to hobble the experience of second hand purchasers and force them to buy an Online Pass. I'm not sure which part of that is pissing you off, but I'm not getting drawn into a row about it so you can drop the aggressive tone.

Dunno, guess I'm just not invested enough in the franchise to get all nerd-ragey about it. Turtles was fun but I definitely outgrew it. Something that didn't really happen with Transformers.

@Yant: "EA can't have people playing EA games without paying tribute to EA." You make it sound like it's a weird or somehow "wrong" attitude to have to want to get paid for your work. @Ethan Precisely, there's a number of people within EA who see used consumers in just that way. EA may not get the initial cut of the base game, but to be honest, we probably make more money out of someone who buys second hand and gets all the DLC, than buys new and doesn't get any DLC. (I have no numbers to back that up and if I did, I wouldn't be able to share them).

"He accused the Obama administration of being soft on porn" Santorum will be hard-on porn!

Surely it depends on what the character development is going to be. The 80's toons were very much about the immaturity of the Turtles, their impetuous, hot headed nature, selfishness, fits of moodiness and feelings of being isolated. If Bay's version is not going to have that sort of character development (let's face it, it's not going to have character development) then changing it from Teenage Mutants to Grown Up Alien is, if anything a necessary change. If his story is not going to be about how the turtles have spent their formative years underground and now that they have come of age they want to join the world at large (an analogy for how many teenagers felt) then it should not be called TMNT. I completely understand the change, the original TMNT audience (me) is knocking on 30 now. I don't want to see teenagers running around shout "hiya". I don't really want to hear the word "cowabunga" or "radical" either. I'm all about reinterpreting the classics, growing them with their audience. I think the film will be "alright" I will probably go to see it at the cinema and enjoy it for the expensive, flashy, Bay-fest that it will inevitably be.

Played all the way through Costume Quest last night. I think I got it free (thanks PS+) and my internet was down, so thought Id give it a go. Very enjoyable, usual double fine fare. Darksiders is next up since it just went super cheap on PS.

There seems to be a perception that publishers think "used game = bad" that's not really an accurate picture. It's more that someone who buys a used game clearly has money, and is also clearly willing to spend that money on games, but publishers aren't seeing any of that money. The challenge is to get money out of that person to the publisher without pissing the customer off and turning them from a used game purchaser into a pirate. Providing post launch content is one way of doing that. Some studios prefer to see used game purchasers as potential DLC consumers rather than lost retail purchase consumers. There's even some feeling against Online Pass the argument being that if you don't let someone play online for free in the first place then it is very difficult to convert them into someone who is foaming at the mouth for every DLC drop.

Buying houses is a crime in AC:R? That's just silly.

As Bilbo said, "there's nothing wrong in celebrating a simple life."

I don't believe that either console will go new game only. The only way to do it would be to have the console dial-home to authenticate the software. Only 2/3 tops of MS consoles are connected. The PS numbers won't be a world away from that. You're going to shrink your user base hugely by not having pre-owned games. Also, never mind which console Gamestop employees will recommend, specialist retailers may refuse to stock the machine altogether. The PSP Go had all these issues, which is why the Vita has physical media. For Sony to unlearn that so quickly would be surprising.

Indeed. "Pastries" as a product would normally be sweet pastries like a Danish swirl. Pasties are savoury, pretty much a non-branded "Hot Pocket" I guess.

Oh my good lord. It was just a joke. I thought this guy --> would make that obvious.

No, it's not. Games are an untangible form of creative media with the purpose to entertain or engage you. A steak dinner is food. Your face is an untangible form of creative media!

I'd actually be ok with checking things off. Being ticked off is a more polite way of saying pissed off.

That's like refusing to pay full price for a steak dinner if you're asked if you'd like to add mac & cheese as a side.

Was just responding to your suggestion that this might be misconstrued as a kickstarter thing. Also, I didn't say compare with "Retake Mass Effect" (which is rarely used in conversation) I said compare with "RME" (which is the common abbreviation).

Put simply, RME and Child's Play do not have a common interest as such there is a greater potential for them to have a conflict of interest. Child's Play have a goal to raise money for kids. RME have a goal to change the ending of Mass Effect. These are mutually exclusive goals so they should not be associated. While these goals are not in conflict at the moment, there was a chance that they could have been one day. For an example of how RME is leveraged by Child's Play Google RME. You will see that there is nothing about Retake Mass Effect on the front page. Google Child's Play. The second hit is the charity. If you Google RME Child's Play the entire front page is about RME and Child's Play. Clearly the association with Child's Play boosted awareness. Those who are better at Google analytics can probably compare the number of hits before support was pulled as that move has undoubtedly caused a spike, nevertheless the association with Child's Play boosted awareness of the RME campaign. Now, if the association had been allowed to continue and at a later date RME decided it wanted to switch to a Kickstarter model, then they would have used Child's Play to boost recognition and then started funnelling money into their own project, a clear conflict. I'm sure I said this before, but they would have had the same result if they had used any brand. If they'd said "Support RME and buy a Happy Meal" McDonald's would have put a stop to it.

Spoiler tagged in case people want to discover for themselves.

Aha! It's been more than a week since I played. Gonna collect that trophy tonight. Look out for a white cloak if you're online, it could be me!

On magic...

I think you have to take a step back from this and accept that it is PA's charity. If they feel that accepting these donations goes against their principles, if they feel that it compromises the integrity of Child's Play, and if they decide they do not want to be part of the RME message, then that is their call to make, obviously Dean and others would approach the situation differently. That's not to say that either approach is right or wrong. If it were me, I would feel uncomfortable with someone doing something in my name without discussing it with me first, even if it would be to my own financial benefit (but that's not to say that I wouldn't take the money, I'm a mercenary at heart). RME could have said "donate money to this random paypal account and we'll give it to charity", if they had, people would have been reluctant to. They would have doubted the organisations motives and honesty. By associating with Child's Play RME legitimised themselves, and I'd suggest they did so unfairly.

When Bash actually wrote about Japanese culture, I found that quite interesting. More and more his stuff stopped being about "real" Japan and became more and more "oh look at these crazy Japanese folk and their fetishes." I did like his writing style and such, but like Strange says, his content got a bit crap.