-- Gaming --
Everyone else knows the Ghost Recon Future Soldier beta is live right? Where is everyone? I guess I need to check the forums for a CAG night b/c that game is a ghosttown. It also does a terrible job of telling you what to do and what's going on. Maybe there will be more people now that it's open to everyone.. it's open to everyone right?

I really really don't want to buy Journey right now. It's clearly a popular game. It's clearly going to be on sale one day. But on the other hand people literally cry. I heard about this on V.G. Confidential but now I've found it. I mean people are gonna be bringing out the whole "it's art" stupidity, and start talking about how it's a transcendent experience beyond art. just look




Also in the world of gaming I've been catching up with IGN podcasts They got like 8 of them going at once so it builds up fast. Luckily Girlfight their female podcast is dead and I don't listen to the Australian one. That still leaves me with all the rest Nintendo Voice Chat , Podcast Beyond , Podcast Unlocked , Game Scoop (general gaming), Knockin Boots (IRL Romance), and IGN UK (general gaming, UK) . I'm back in January because my phone wasn't accepting IGN podcasts for some reason for a long time. Anyway in the Jan 20th Episode of what I assume is GameScoop (it's unlabeled). At about 45 minutes in: Why, a listener asks, does IGN always take the side of the corporation. He cites NewGameOnlyDLCCode aka "Project $10" going too far in that it hurts people who don't necessarily have internet access. It's one thing to put the online play behind a code, stupid but ok. Batman Arkham City however puts advertised single player content (Catwoman gameplay) behind a codegate. The discussion then proceeds to take a number of insulting tangents

• First they talk about how the CatWoman DLC isn't that good (i.e. "Why do you even care? I played it you wont like it"). So much for the review is just an opinion ehh? Well if IGN says the Catwoman gameplay isn't worth playing then you have no grounds to suggest that it's unfair to be blocked from accessing it. Someone then points out that he reviewed it without the DLC "to see what it was like" he says first, then he admits "it wasn't available yet"
• Second I'm coming to accept that professional game journalists are essentially corporate mouth pieces. I don't mind that but I DO have a huge problem with them pretending not to be. The conversations then starts to take the tone of the offended. (i.e. "We don't support the corporation... we support the artists") Seriously? After all the rubbish I have to hear about publishers this and publishers that and developers are good but publishers ruin games yada yada yada. Here one of the most offensivetocustomers business decisions in this generation of gaming and I'm basically supposed to believe that the artists and creators are the ones who decided this single player content is going to be locked behind a codegate. From now on you're not allowed to tel me Activision ruined Guitar Hero. They didn't develop the game. Neversoft did, it's their fault for putting creative effort behind too many Guitar Hero games.
• Third yet again they've compared used games to cars. It's summer now. I think I have time to jot out a few paragraphs on why used games are not the same as used cars. Like my expectation that I should be able to fully play the game I bought for $5 less than new is the same as someone expecting the 6 free months of On*Star in a model 2010 Ford Explorer.

In short they've just defended Single player advertised content being locked behind a new game codegate. I do think Arkham City made a huge mistake with the Catwoman stuff but there is room to argue for it. They however completely fail to address the listener's concern. If you're poor and you lost internet for whatever reason this month, you bought a game and, unlike multiplayer content, you're being locked out of content you actually could play. After hearing Greg Miller yet AGAIN compare used games to cars I had to stop the episode. I put up with a lot of elitism in gaming. I have 2 articles on various ways the industry is elitist that I've been mulling over in my head for a few months but honestly I don't know if I can stomach listening to the rest of that episode.

TMI: My sisters spend far too much time discussing things that are *redacted*