It was a nonsense article by Forbes. They really cited no facts, there was a typo, it was ridiculous. Smashpad's right on point in this part:

"What pisses me off most about Forbes article is that supposedly they’re a mainstream publication full of real journalists. And what garbage do the publish? A 202-word brain fart void of a single citation or quotation. Meanwhile, game bloggers such as I are held to much less esteem. At least political bloggers write about something considered important, we write about a form of entertainment which still has problems legitimizing itself with film critics.

But hey, even if I’m not making big bucks like Brian Caulfield (especially from those tiny Google Ads at the bottom of this post), at least I’m not writing articles like him." View

I can't help but echo these concerns in the post:

"Probably the biggest loss though is that of writer Sam Lake, who penned a fantastic story for the first two games and is currently working on Alan Wake. Aside from the graphical beauty and wonderful action in the first two games, the story, mood, and dialogue are what really made the Max Payne games great and partially why the movie sucked so much by comparison.

While Rockstar Vancouver may be a capable studio from a technical standpoint, I’m worried that they may not be able to shape the experience that truly distinguished Max Payne from other third person shooters at the time."

Having a different writer for a game where the story was so essential to the experience is very nerve-racking. I loved Max Payne, but I feel it won't shine the same way in someone else's hands. Sure it's later in his life and so-forth, but when a writer puts together a story like the one in the first 2 Max Payne's they really own that world and character, and it's tough for other even talented writers to capture that. View

I have been all around the game myself but mostly reside in the “small site” bubble. I have been working on my site, Gamer 2.0 ( http://www.gamer20.com) for close to 9 years now, though it has only had that name since ‘07. One of my former writers, Kevin VanOrd, went from us to GameSpot. I have even freelanced at GameSpot.

I would say that there isn’t much difference between smaller and larger sites. Aside from access, I would argue that smaller sites are better if they have a competent staff of writers. I highly disagree that IGN writers can articulate thoughts better than myself or you, Charles King. Actually, I hate IGN precisely because their writing blows.

Plus, I must question some things, like when they say this about 50 Cent: Blood in the Sand:

“So here we are, sitting down to talk turkey on the biggest surprise sequel of 2008. Take a look at the exclusive screenshots, read Blean’s thoughts on the past game (including the tactful admission that “it’s not going to be anything like the first game”) and you might just come away with your hardcore-gamer-cynicism curiously absent, replaced by surprise and cautious optimism.”

Jesus, really? Suck up to THQ much? I mean, it’s just THQ.

Lastly, I’ve seen better examples of “journalism” from smaller sites who oftentimes break more stories than larger sites. Most sites, large and small, regurgitate press releases from public relations professionals, slap the word “News” on the title of the section, and boom, you have a “reported” story.

It’s spoonfed and mostly bullshit

This is game JOURNALISM: http://blog.gamer20.com/200...

We tracked a story down and got info. That is what journalism is. Or this: Jonathan Blow & Others Talk: Redefining “Games as Art” http://www.gamer20.com/feat...

Or…Birth of a Game Studio: A Look at Prophecy Games - http://www.gamer20.com/feat...

What is sad is that our top 10 lists get the most hits. Every other day you’ll see an article on the top of N4G that is “Top 10 Boobs in Games” and it’s frustrating.

Then you put out a review that’s slightly lower than what fanboys expect and you’re “not a real site” or “real game journalists” and you just have to F-CKING LAUGH at what we call “game journalism.”

There are very few game journalists out there. Most are just what I like to call “passionate observers.”

You know who are passionate observers as well? Everyone who comments on these articles and reads these sites. Most of them are just as qualified. View

I definitely agree. But we're a country where college football coaches make twice what university presidents, so is it all that surprising? The mainstream is the land of the lowest common denominator. View

I definitely agree with the list, and my biggest pet peeve is definitely the "incredible badass must save the entire world" scenario. It's "grand" sure, but look at film. When was the last really great film you saw in which the hero saved the entire world. Game stories need to be self contained to the hero's dilemmas. I'm tired of saving the world. View

I definitely agree. I feel some games are closer to it than we've seen in the past. BioShock is a good example, as is Mass Effect. Mass Effect even had an instance of true choice and consequence that added a lot of drama to the events on Vermire. It drew out emotion in me that I haven't felt in a while in a game. Any game that accomplishes that should be considered art.

In addition, it had a fantastic story with a very deep history. Even movies don't have that much content. Only books can rival it. View

Key point from the article:

"IT administrator and avid gamer, Jefferson Scott, believes that “casual” gamers pose no threat to the gaming industry, “As they bring new people into the hobby they also help to bring new development dollars.” He continued, “’Hardcore’ gamers will get the games they want as long as they keep buying them, and the attention paid to the portable and “casual” gaming crowds only help to make sure that money keeps flowing into the developers’ pockets.”" View

Hahaha this was definitely a good read and pretty damn funny too. Best part:

"Well, it starts with all of you, I guess. Give the titles you’ve never heard of a chance. There’s a reason they were made and you never heard of them–lack of money. But any game that actually shows on shelves needs one of three things–money, a prequel, or balls. And balls in a creative medium is always good." View

I just read this and it sounds absolutely awesome. Just the story of a scrappy little company with a lot of volunteer work putting together a game for the 360 and PS3. It's nuts.

From the article:

Prophecy are promising that the game world - consisting mostly of a sunken ship that’s a mile long - will be almost totally destructible. And that destruction will be persistent.

Example: early in the game, you set off a grenade on a staircase. It’ll warp and shred the handrails on the stairs, and three hours later, if you return to that staircase, those rails will still be warped. Another, more ambitious example is in the game’s use of water: being set underwater, if you blow out a window, a section of the ship will flood. You can check this out in a rough, early tech demo below:" View

Looks like the server went down for a second. View

Personally, I think Champion Foosball could work. I mean the Wiimote could definitely simulate the act of playing foosball. It's probably going to be terrible. I want to play Redneck Jamboree HHAHAA, that seems so wrong. View

I think we're going to see a slow progression of these casuals to more immersive, hardcore games. I've known some people who've gotten tired of the casual Wii kind of games and have asked me what I suggest they get for more hardcore kinds of games (obviously they haven't used that word, just more involving types of games).

Unfortunately the Wii doesn't really satisfy that need, so in time I think a lot of those people may go to the PS3 or 360. Wii will still have a big audience, but it doesn't make the hardcores bad customers to target. Hell, we buy the most games. View

As I said though, looking at if from a full year standpoint is a little misleading:

"Well if we remember, September was down (I believe) and October was up, but only by a small margin (a little over 10 percent). If you compare that to the growth before the economic fallout, it's a pretty big drop. There were months earlier this year like March that was up 30-40% over 2007, so for October to only grow so little by comparison to the growth earlier in the year, the industry is showing signs of slowing down." View

Well if we remember, September was down (I believe) and October was up, but only by a small margin (a little over 10 percent). If you compare that to the growth before the economic fallout, it's pretty big. There were months earlier this year like March that was up 30-40% over 2007, so for October to only grow so little by comparison to the growth earlier in the year, the industry is showing signs of slowing down.

I think it'll grow from 2007, but publisher stocks are sliding.

"Six game industry companies (Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, Take Two, THQ, Gamestop and Nintendo) saw their stocks fall an average of 52.53 percent from September to November while the Nasdaq fell 36.91 percent."

Source: Wired Game|Life - http://blog.wired.com/busin... View

Good Lord, do you have this 360 sh*tfest saved in a Word doc somewhere or did you just type that out this one time?

The 360 has had a ton of issues, but they've worked past it for the most part and they're still selling really well. Whether you like what they've done this gen or not, it hasn't changed the fact that they've been quite successful. They've already topped their lifetime sales for the original Xbox. View

Definitely a great list as long as their well done. Those are some of my favorite movies so I'd be tough to please. I wish games gave me the emotional hooks these movies did. Definitely would love a Sev3n game. View

I'm actually really pumped for this game now. The modes, class system and all sounds great. I would like to know how the lag is on the huge 64 player matches, but considering they didn't mention it, I assume it plays without a hitch. View

Personally, I think it has a much better chance than Star Wars Galaxies, only because Galaxies was kind of an unknown. Nobody knew if it was going to be really good.

This time around we have BioWare working on it. While they've never done an MMO, I've yet to play even a mediocre game from the. I even though Jade Empire was a lot better than a lot of people gave it credit for. JE just kind of had the bad fortune of having to follow the amazing KOTOR.

This time it's BioWare, who made one of the best Star Wars games ever made, with one of the best stories in SW lore, and I'm just sure it's going to be amazing. View

You're probably right. I think that's probably why it's a good idea to have the Open Zone left for those retards that spew garbage here on N4G. View

I think the article is spot-on. I think there is a disconnect between easter and western interest. I know that here in the west, we love action and hell the more blood there is, the better right? In the east they couldn't care less for violence. Just add some magic lol View