My love for the handheld system has been reignited (and some of my faith in Square-Enix at the same time):
The World Ends With You...

Well, reignited is probably too strong of a term in my case. I never had much interest in handheld systems until now. I'd just assumed that they were used exclusively for Pokemon games and that everything else was just an afterthought. Heck, the whole reason I bought a DS in the first place was for Pokemon.

(By the way, you should probably know now before you hear it from someone else and get the wrong idea: I own a pink DS... it's a long story, don't ask)

TWEWY is a damn near perfect game. I've spent weeks playing it so far and have been really struggling to find a fault... but this isn't about TWEWY.

The handheld market seems to be growing stronger and stronger by the day. The DS and the PSP have all but revolutionised portable gaming forever. Such amazing games are being released on these systems now that portable gaming is becoming harder to ignore. These things are not out of the ordinary though, this is just the natural way any gaming system/platform evolves. No, it's the new possibilities that got me thinking.

Which new door

The dingy tavern was silent. Looking around you see several buxom wenches (probably selling themselves to the drunken soldiers that pass through) and unconcious drunk patrons slumped over chairs and on the floor. You spot Tobias Masters sitting over in a dark corner. He gestures for you to sit at his table. His face hidden by dark hood, he leans over the table and whispers:

"Do not speak, we haven't much time..."

You look surprised and just as you try to ask about what's happening, he raises a hand to silence you.

"Please listen carefully... there are those who would hunt me down and flame me for what I am about to tell you and if you happen to agree with me then they will hunt you too"

You give Tobias a puzzled look.

"They are the trolls, they wander around and flame people like you and I for expressing our opinions, that is why I called you out here so late at night... hopefully they're all sleeping or looking over their extensive porn collections by now. Come closer to me child, you must hear me quickly...&

See this? This is STAMINA.

Get used to it because it’s going to be in just about every MMO available… or every F2P at least.

There’s been a huge amount of debate around the stamina issue for Atlantica, with the vast majority of people calling for a boycott of the game if the stamina system is not removed. But I suppose you wanna know what stamina is, right?

For the uninitiated, stamina is a system that limits players to 100 random battles per day (reduced to 50 once the player passes level 50). 100 stamina is offered from the beginning of the game and one point removed for each battle the player is in. Once the stamina counter reaches zero the player receives no experience points or items from any further battles. Stamina resets once every 2

So, another WoW expansion is on our doorstep and already it calls for my soul. I want to scream and run away, but I feel a strange euphoria wash over me as if hypnotised by this sirens song. I've managed to quit twice already - last time the Burning Crusade expansion brought me back and it looks like it's about to happen again. I can hear its voice, singing a soothing melody that assures me that all is safe and warm here, come closer and do not fear us... for we love you and we miss you... come home dear Tob... come home...

Try as I might I don't think I can fight it, even though I'm have no rational desire to go back. See, the problem is with the people now.

Blizzard (despite all of their best efforts) has managed to create an environment that is incredibly hostile towards a lot of gamers. The mistake they made was that their game was too good.
WoW attracts almost every type of gamer, wrenches their souls away from their bodies and locks them into place, forcing them to continue playing. This was a beautiful thing when the game launched four years ago, offering up an experience like no other. Now this experienced has sadly degenerated into a war of souls... and no, I'm n

World of Warcraft Killer. It's become an actual term in the gaming industry.

It's the Shangri'la of gaming, a mythical paradise that all gamers and developers dream of but no-one knows if it actually exists, or even if it can.

Dethroning WoW has become the ultimate goal of game development - it's the ultimate title that can be bestowed unto any game - but maybe we should take a step back and have a look at this ideal with a more critical eye.

Now, everyone who has had WoW negatively affect their lives in some way, please raise your hand now...
1...2..8...312... Hmm, that's a lot.

Alright, now for all the non-gamers who've had their lives impacted by a friend/relative/partner who has a WoW addiction, please raise your hands...
...Oh my, it's about the same amount, if not more.

Don't start throwing your rocks yet guys, I know you get awfully defensive when it comes to your precious Azeroth, but hear me out.

Did you see all those hands? Yeah, that's one helluva lot of people who've been affected by just one game. I should know, I'm one of them (WoW claimed my soul during closed beta... I wasn't part of the beta, I was hooked just hearing about it). My concern is simply this: Do we

This is a response to Lean's article: How MMOs Can Be Used by Terrorists?. I was going to post this as a comment on the article, but I didn't have enough room, hehe.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yep, once again the American Military Intellence (an oxymoron if I ever saw one) has gone and made an incredibly stupid move. Turns out World of Warcraft can be used as a communication medium for terrorists! Who knew?!

Well, I did, for one, and I've known all along... how did I know, you wonder? Easy. It's because...

...wait for it...

...I'm not a total frikking idiot, is why.

OF COURSE terrorists can communicate through World of Warcraft... anyone can. You might find a child-porn ring being run through Mabinogi's servers or even an international drug and slave trading organisation that works through Second Life or an online prostitution racquet running through 3feel. Any form of communication can be used for these purposes.
The irresponsible part is that now they've managed to get people worried about this by releasing a blatantly freaking obvious statement that will achieve nothing but panic.

Allow me to app

Well, almost PWNT anyways. The arch-nemesis (read: serial nuisance) of the video games industry is on the verge of a total boning, with a judge from his Flordia Bar trial recommending he be found guilty of 27 out of 31 misconduct charges.

You can find the full story here

While it's not quite a guilty verdict yet, 31 charges has got to be a pretty tough bullet to dodge. The full report is due on September 2nd so mark it on your calendar and start building a few effigies.

I think Entegy said it best: "Perfect. The banhammer is set, all we need is for it to drop now. :D"

-Tob