Is it ethical to put your name on game reviews you didn't write?

Hey, at least your reviews still show up.   

Is there any way to restore ethics and journalism to an industry that has clearly turned into an entertainment industry?

I can't imagine how.  It's a 24-7 cycle that is constantly competing for eyeballs.  Multiply that need by internal bias (either left or right), instant consumer reaction, and momentary worldwide distribution, and it all becomes a game of who gets there first, not who gets it right.  You can always retract later, but they need people to be looking.

The first album I remember buying with my own money was Van Halen - 1984.  My mom took one look at the smoking baby and promptly banned me from listening to it.


The first one I was actually able to keep was Men Without Hats - Pop Goes the World.  Cheesy as it is, I still have a soft spot for this album and listen to it quite often.


First CD's I ever bought were on the same day:  NIN - Broken and Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick.

brought to you with style by the Puertorican Gamer from Brooklyn, NY.

I've seen your handle for years, and it just now hit me what PR_GMR means.   

I'll be putting a bunch of time into Neverwinter, since it's a double AD weekend.

double astral diamonds this weekend.

Neat.  What the best thing to do to earn ADs?  Dungeons?  PvP?  Foundry quests?

Honestly not a big fan (and I hate all the damn cheesy band names), but everyone should experience Van Canto at least once.

LOL, I knew Van Canto would come up.  These clowns are beyond awful.

I'm not a big fan of the way they nickle and dime you for things, but I decided that I like the game enough to spring for a $60 founders pack. 

Went through my first party dungeon last night (Cloak Tower) and was...underwhelmed.  Maybe it was just the party I got hooked up with, but it felt like nothing more than a longer single player dungeon where I have to split the loot.  Also, we started it while the "special event" was active, which was supposed to give us an additional chest at the end with a unique class-specific item.  Sadly, there was nothing at the end except the regular chest...guessing it must have been a bug.  Can't really see myself doing many more group dungeons.

Skirmishes seemed kinda fun, but I'm only seeing one available (Orc Assault) and it's now 8 levels below me.  Do more open up as you progress in the storyline?

I feel I need to apologize for taking my bad mood out on the people here. I happened to be browsing GT when my husband brought a letter from our health insurance in for me to read, and I just got  rather shocked, and yes, angry, so I typed what I did when I usually just read and get on with things.

As someone who is also currently living through insurance billing hell, you have my utmost sympathies. 

Nice.  I don't want to know what happens when you flip the light off and on rapidly.

This...duh.

No one said your opinions were wrong, they're perfectly valid even if we disagree with them.  It was the lack of any context to your comment that amused me.  We (well, those of us not named Eco) generally try to back up our opinions with some info as to why we feel that way.  Hell, I completely disagree with nearly everything MSD says, but I enjoy when he comes into conversations and explains why he feels as he does.  I want to hear both sides of a story, even if I personally think one is absurd.

Oh, and my "LSM" (left stream media?  lame stream media? liberal shit media?  lemur stuffing mongoose?) sources covered the Benghazi hearing quite well, thank you.   My stance hasn't changed much.  Massive missteps were made both before and after the attacks, and they were made by both sides.  I also find it interesting that the 10 embassy attacks (under a GOP President) that preceded this one were no big deal, but this one...boy this one demands accountability.

Whether it is or not, the reaction (and previous lack of reaction) makes this whole thing look like an entirely political move (which it is) rather than honest politicians actually looking for a solution and accountability.

EDIT:  Case in point.  If they were actually interested in getting to the truth about what happened, don't you think they would have let the co-chairman of the State Department’s committee investigating of the Benghazi attack testify today?  Seems to me that you would, I dunno, shift around the schedule to make some room for that guy.

I'll just leave this here...

Simple answer to questions:

No
Hell No

I love it when people bring insightful new opinions and fresh, thoughtful discourse to the discussion.   

Oh hepcat,  you simply do not understand what a herculean feat it is for a married man and father of children to achieve such a glorious and amazing length of rest. 

Words like unprecedented, incomprehensible, statistically-impossible come to mind!

I don't even remember the last time I slept for more than 8 hours at a stretch.  Even if - by some miracle - my sleep doesn't get interrupted by Mrs. Gratch, Little B, the dog, or the cats, my body naturally wakes up at around 5-6 hours.

[Neverwinter]

The site actually worked for a few minutes this morning.  I could at least get in and see how much the Zen actually cost, which is an improvement over the last couple days. 

Of course, I just tried to hit up the forum looking for some info, and get this:

Thanks for stopping by the Neverwinter website!
<p>Unfortunately you've caught us at a bad time. Due to performance issues caused by heavy load, the site will be offline for a brief moment. Please pardon our dust as we smooth things out.
<p>We hope to have things resolved shortly. Meanwhile, feel free to download the Neverwinter client

Things seem to be a bit of a hot mess right now.

No, it's not the latest entry in the Twilight series, but rather a very impressive looking 4X space-themed TBS game.  Anything that draws comparisons to HOMM gets my attention, and I've seen a couple glowing reviews.  $6.99 is a little steep, but it looks awfully interesting.

Has anyone given it a shot?

I've tried multiple times throughout the last couple days to access Perfect World's system to purchase "Zen".  I was mainly just curious to see how much real world money some of this stuff cost.

I have yet to not have their website time out or give me some sort of error message.  I've tried both at home and at work today, on both IE and Firefox.  Most of the time it simply times out, but I've also gotten about 4 different error messages.  Not exactly the way to make someone comfortable with dropping real $$ on their game.   

I've noticed Tucker and Dale, but the little Netflix summary makes it sound like the worst thing or the best thing ever. And often when I roll the dice, I end up with stuff like ATM and The Frankenstein Theory. If you guys swear by Tucker and Dale, perhaps I'll give it a try.

I typically don't enjoy horror movies at all, but was thoroughly entertained by Tucker and Dale.  A strong cast combined with the sheer absurdity of it all make it an absolute blast.

Wondering if I should just pony up the $60. If it came with a bag I might have done it already. Why the $200 and $20 packs come with a bag and the $60 one does not is beyond me.

Well...crap.  I thought I read this morning that the $60 pack did come with a bag. 

Looks like a couple of notables made it on to Netflix:

Cabin in the Woods...

Nice. Been waiting for that one.

Same here.  I've steered clear because I don't typically enjoy horror movies, but might make an exception for that one.

Ah...yeah.  I really don't understand the pricing model of digital content sometimes.  I can usually find much cheaper hard copies of movies.  You'd think the lack of any overhead beyond hosting the content would make it cheaper to buy in a digital format.  

For some reason, animated shows seem to be the worst culprit in terms of pricing.  I really liked "Ugly Americans" and wanted to watch the second season, but they split the season in half and were asking something like $28 per half of the season.  Metalocalypse was also around $30/season, and those are far shorter episodes.  Not sure why they're so crazy expensive.

So, I kept watching Venture Bros in the hopes that it would click, and it finally did around episode 5 (the Bowie references totally won me over ).  Will finish up Season 1, and am seriously considering dropping the $$ for Season 2 on iTunes.  

Seasons 3 and 4 are crazy expensive though...$30 and $37, respectively.  Not sure I'm up for that.

Even the boxed dvd sets?  I remember getting them for around 20 bucks each, if I recall correctly.  Or are you stickin' to digital content only?

Trying to do digital, as 90% of my TV watching is laying in bed with the iPad (no TV in the room). 

After spending all weekend with the game, I think NW is pretty much exactly what I'm looking for.  Fun action oriented combat, something I can play almost completely solo if I wish, lots (hopefully) of good user generated content with great stories (a la Tilt's modules), and something I can log onto for either 1/2-hour or 4 hours and still feel like I'm accomplishing something.  Party dungeons, PvP, crafting, constantly needing to scour an AH...that stuff's totally lost on me. 

I'm seriously considering dropping in for the $60 Founders Pack.

So, I kept watching Venture Bros in the hopes that it would click, and it finally did around episode 5 (the Bowie references totally won me over ).  Will finish up Season 1, and am seriously considering dropping the $$ for Season 2 on iTunes. 

Seasons 3 and 4 are crazy expensive though...$30 and $37, respectively.  Not sure I'm up for that.

@skinypupy9

Just got to level 10, really having fun.  Tilt, I just played your "Hidden Blade" quest.  Nice work man, that was lots of fun.  Haven't done any others to compare it to, but I'm sure it's up there in quality.  I keep seeing notices about "skirmishes".  Are these instances that require a party?  RvR stuff?  Not even sure where to find them, so I'm a bit fuzzy on what they are.

Is there an auction house that you can sell items for gold, or is it all those Astral Diamonds?  Also, am I the only one confused by the number of currencies available?  Zen, Diamonds, Seals, Bounties, and a couple others I'm sure I haven't encountered yet.  Haven't been able to wrap my brain around all of them yet.

Yeah, if a bunch of people go a guild I'll join. Just send me info. I am lazy.

Same here.

I know it's still in beta, but a 4-hour server maintenance that starts at 9:00pm on a Saturday?  C'mon now...

So was this misleading demo ever used again after E3?  Was the same demo released to the public?  Did all the marketing materials, advertising, screen shots, video previews, etc. reference back to this particular demo, or was this a one-off thing created for E3 then shelved?  Asking because I honestly have no idea.

Without taking a stance on the merits of the lawsuit, I can say that yes, advertisements for Colonial Marines were using footage from the E3 demo rather than the actual game for weeks after the game's release.  Here's an article about the UK's Advertising Standards Authority addressing the issue, and I personally saw my share of ads here in the US.

-Autistic Angel

Thanks.  That makes this far more of an issue then. I was under the impression that this was a one-time demo used at E3.  If they still continued to use it post-release, then yes, I'd agree that's a significant problem.

I'm on.  Stromos Tharbane (Guardian) on Mindflayer.

Impressed so far...reminds me a lot of NWN.

Held accountable for people's bad puchasing decisions?  Last I checked, no one was holding a gun to anyone's head requiring them to pre-order something.

Is that what it would take in your world for a game to be considered to have false advertising, or are you maybe just making a point that isn't relevant to the discussion?

You and I obviously aren't going to agree on this one:

-  You think it's blatant false advertising and the developers should be held legally liable (side note:  to whom are they liable?  People who bought the game?  The publisher?  A particular individual?  Just curious what your thoughts are.)
-  I think it was an E3 demo cobbled together from half-baked ideas early in the creative process, oversold by the developers (like they all do), and that people should have waited to see reviews before purchasing the final product.  I also think it sets a very damaging precedent for the rest of the industry if the lawsuit wins.  Why would publishers ever release another demo/preview video/etc. if they could potentially be sued over it?

So was this misleading demo ever used again after E3?  Was the same demo released to the public?  Did all the marketing materials, advertising, screen shots, video previews, etc. reference back to this particular demo, or was this a one-off thing created for E3 then shelved?  Asking because I honestly have no idea.

I loved the first one, the second was 'meh', and MiB3 has the honor of being the most forgettable movie I've ever seen.  It was so bland and so dull that neither Mrs. Gratch or I could have told you a thing about the characters, plot, set pieces, etc. within a day after we saw it.  Honestly, the only thing I remember about it was that Josh Brolin did a good TLJ impression. 

Can't say I'm terribly excited for a 4th entry.

But, when we are surrounded with messages harassing us to "Pre-order now!" and we make that purchasing decision based off a demo that isn't even indicative in the slightest of the final product -- the people involved should be held accountable.

Held accountable for people's bad puchasing decisions?  Last I checked, no one was holding a gun to anyone's head requiring them to pre-order something.

To me, this whole fiasco simply reinforces the fact that we should become smarter consumers and wait to see what a final product is before plunking our cash down for it.   Being pissed off about it is fine.  But unless gamers never want to see another game demo (because the publisher could be held legally liable if it changes by final release time), we may want to rethink the lawsuit angle.

Well, third time is the (not) charm with HOMM VI.  God, some of those scripted missions are awful.  Putting in 2 hours then finding out you've backed yourself into a corner...I just don't have patience for that shit anymore. 

I would kill for a RMG for this game...but since it doesn't have one, off to the uninstall button I go.

Did you see that crap earlier this year about how King was taking 'Slayer' on the road in Europe this summer... without Lombardo, without Hanneman, and without Tom Araya either?  Pretty sure that's not Slayer.

  I missed that one.  King's done a lot of ridiculous shit over the years, but that one may take the cake.

[Devil May Cry]

Not sure yet.  I'm a couple hours into the new Devil May Cry, but the somewhat ridiculous combinations of button presses you need to accomplish to actually be successful is eluding this twich-averse gamer.  I reinstalled HOMM VI last night, but for some reason I can't get the music or VO to work, which makes it all feel very dull.  If I can get that to work, I'll probably land there for the weekend.  If not...who knows.

I wish one of these devs would just make a Diablo game and make us pay for the full game instead of creating IAP gameplay.  The IAP system doesn't look nearly as bad as DH4 so far, but it's still a disappointment.

I'm a little surprised Blizzard hasn't figured out how to clone D2 over the iPad yet.  Seems like that would be a license to print money.

Yeah, he's been fucked up from the spider bite for like two years.  Shitty, shitty news.  Guy was the best of that pair by a mile.  Plus he wasn't a huge douche like Kerry King.

Yup.  King is a colossal dickbag, and Hanneman was the one with all the writing chops anyways.

I don't listen to Slayer much anymore, but it's sad to think that with Lombardo out and Hanneman gone, the band that basically got me into metal in the first place doesn't exist anymore.   

Slayer founding member Jeff Hanneman passes away at 49

RIP.   

Only played one game, not impressed, it's not bad, but not rushing to jump into another game either.

It's a hassle to play. Too easy to move someone you don't want to. The ammo thing is annoying, it gets old quick. There isn't much explanation for things either. I hate the firing a gun mechanic, you have to touch the screen when a moving ball is in a circle, but each gun is different and not at all clear in what you need to do. Like the plasma torpedoes weird build up of a bunch of rounds then you can only shoot a few. All in all I found it to be frustrating when things got difficult, which didn't take long.

And the battles can be slow too. It's either sitting waiting for guns to fire or ammo to build up, or constantly trying to deal with invasions why they blow up your ship.

I changed my mind after reading TA's glowing review...wished I'd saved myself the $3.  Lee's impressions match mine pretty closely.  There's some interesting ideas that totally fall apart due to shoddy execution and controls.  It's simply not very fun.

Yeah, everything I've read points to great ideas hampered by sub-par design.  Heard it's brutally difficult as well.

Think I'll steer clear of this one and just play Epic Astro Story instead.