"I don't think the investors give a sh*t about our quality," says John Riccitiello, Electronic Arts’ CEO.

He’s right.

Oh, I know this is one of those quotes that will be dragged through the mud, locked in the stockades and have lettuce thrown at it from torch wielding villagers, but as is often the case we least want to hear that which is most true. Despite the tone and the brazenness of the quote, he’s dead freaking right.

So, let’s parse a bit here, because taken out of context from the absolutely fascinating interview at VentureBeat, the quote is pretty easy to read in a completely inaccurate way. But, lest one think EA's CEO is setting the stage for equivocating on the uncertain quality of EA’s games, this is in many ways the opposite: an affirmation of the effort tempered by the realism that EA is a business, and investors only care so much about quality in the company’s games as far as that quality makes them money.

Beyond that, they don’t give a sh*t.

This week we – the geekospheroid, blogging cognoscenti of the digital age -- were witness to something unique and wonderful. Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog was a rare gem. A musical morality tale wrapped under a meniscus of a superhero tropes. It was a great story, brilliantly realized, completely unique.

But that doesn’t really matter. That's not the point. The reason Dr. Horrible was so good has little to do with the easily reviewable components: the singing, the writing, the acting, the staging, the camp. The reason Dr. Horrible stands out as having been so good is that it’s already gone.

This week, we reminisce about the wonder that was Dr. Horrible with geek-heartthrob Felicia Day. She does a little dance with Rabbit about why humor is so freaking hard, and what she's really looking for in a ... game.

If, like me, you spent countless childhood hours pining for expensive motorized Lego, Capsela, and Erector sets, the aptly named Fantastic Contraption will be right up your alley. You begin each short, two-dimensional level of this impressive physics-based puzzle game with an unlimited amount of five basic components: three wheels and two connectors, each with different properties, that you may assemble any way you choose. Your goal is to build a small machine that will drag, push, drive, or otherwise propel a single object into an end zone.

The first few levels don't require much creativity, and some basic physics know-how will get you through them in no time. It won't be long, though, before you're forced to think way outside the box. You'll be building what look like tiny robot vehicles, with specialized parts that allow them to climb steps, catapult over gaps, and negotiate piles of rubble. The inevitable "Eureka!" moments are immensely satisfying, and you may find it hard to resist the urge to refine successful machines into more efficient and aesthetically pleasing contraptions.

Sign up for an account, and you can save and share your machines online for free. You could easily while away an hour just browsing other users' mind-boggling creations. If you're willing to drop $10 for the full version you can also build, share, and play user-created levels.

Fantastic Contraption is a great example of how rewarding in-game construction can be, especially in a community setting. It's the same principle employed by upcoming titles like Little Big Planet and Spore, just on a much smaller, much simpler scale.

If you'd like to suggest a free browser-based game for Act Casual, send a link and description via our contact form.

I get uncomfortable anytime the mainstream media examines gaming culture. It's tied to the shame that lies at the heart of being a nerd. For example, I can't really enjoy Dungeons & Dragons if I can't be a little ashamed of it, and that probably stems from how I embrace the outsider status I pretend to have. It's okay for me to feel like an outsider, as long as others don't force that upon me.

Seeing The King of Kong, then, was a strange experience. Not only is director Seth Gordon exploring the world of competitive gaming, he's also examining the number one aspect of gaming that gives the mainstream a massive case of the wiggins: how seriously the community can take this kind of competition for such low stakes. Gordon's film puts the road to a world record high score in perspective, but also shows us the bright spots of competing, and how inspiring a competitor can be in the face of, in this case, ridiculous adversity.

I hope you've got some reading you've been meaning to catch up on, because this is not the week to be breaking the bank on your gaming addiction. Without so much as a middling movie tie-in release on the slumbering 360 and PS3, apparently worn out from a long week of announcing not much interesting at E3, only the DS offers up anything of interest.

But fear not, for August brings with it the beginning of the game buying season, and with it week after week of budget stretching releases. This, my friends, is the proverbial quiet before the storm. Breathe deep, save some money, because this will be among the last of the desolate The Week Ahead of 2008.

Oh, and as for Game of the Week? Uh, Final Fantasy IV. Sure, that's sounds good.

Tycho's trenchant comment from 2005 about what was then dubbed the Nintendo Revolution has a truth that is still ringing through the industry. Last year, Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon hit our shores. They were billed as classic or traditional Japanese RPGs.

To someone who knows the genre, that says a lot. It means you're dealing with some variant of moving through a world, running into ugly things which you then have to fight as a group. On your journey, your androgynous Rogue's Gallery of characters are shuffled through a turgid story; angst and cut scenes will be involved. As you progress, the string of ugly things is punctuated with the occasional bigger ugly thing. This pattern builds up to a culminating fight with the biggest ugly thing of all. Estimated playing time starts at 20 hours but can go up into triple digits if you are one of those people who have to earn everything so you crawl through the whole place again to chase down the Iridescent Spaghetti-Strainer of Smiting that causes the bad guy to actually wet himself when you equip it in battle before going off to face that biggest ugly.

Fans of the genre saw the keyword "classic" in the marketing materials for these games, gave a cautious "w00t!" and then made the solemn decision whether or not they wanted to play them based on their taste for that sort of thing. The gaming press had another viewpoint. Even with solid review scores across the board, over and over the text of the reviews complained that the gameplay was too traditional. Gamespot called Lost Odyssey a relic.

Ouch. We've all seen this before, though. If a game isn't considered new and different enough by the reviewer it counts as a downcheck. But I, like many other gamers, don't necessarily classify traditional gameplay as a bad thing. Sometimes, you want something that plays just like something else.

This week I completely forget to mention that our Games You Can Play Now sponsor was submitted by Higgledy. Sorry dude. For those of you who wanted a longer cast, we've got you covered thanks to a metric ton of great emails!

Like most people, I fear change.

I recently heard an adorable and completely true tale from some forgotten corner of the world of a village that elected their long-time mayor back for another term despite his all-too-common condition of being dead. Soft pitch jokes about politicians aside, I was particularly amused by one of the interviewed voters who defended his necrotic choice for elected official by stating that he didn’t like change.

How powerful our basic nature to resist change despite its immutable certainty. We hold fast to the familiar, indulge in our own personal traditions long after their usefulness and relevance has passed. And so, I am reminded of this as I invest myself in the middling irrelevance of another E3.

If you had wondered if E3 was now truly a relic of bygone days, hobbled permanently by the slapstick bunglings of the ESA, then this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo ought to just about wrap things up for you, which will make it easy to tie on a block of cement and toss the whole mess into the East River.

Boom Blox should have been a massive hit. It's a Wii game that allows players to wave the Wiimote around, which is something they usually enjoy. It takes the boring word "blocks" and spices it up with an X. (That's the secret technique game writers have for making the English language pop a wheelie.) Most importantly, it was created with the help of Steven freaking Spielberg, America's greatest resource of wonder and amazement. His name is right there on the front of the box. How can a game sell only 60,000 units in its opening month when the box says Steven Spielberg?

To find out, Gamers With Jobs went straight to the source with an exclusive, hard-hitting interview. When we think Boom Blox, only one name comes to mind. It took a lot of calls and favors, but we finally managed to corner him and get the straight dope.

Who could it be? Hint: Just look at the box.