That long, huh?

What really loses my respect, hype wise, is the PLayboy yearly "girls of gaming" issue. When Hellgate was included the year before it came out, I pretty much became super skeptical, and lost respect for Bill Roper. When that issue comes out I usual peruse the line up to keep up who's a hack with no shame.

Of course AoC was involved this year, and I love that game. So maybe I'm a hypocrite; I think it's somehow more honest because there nipple's acutally in the game.

Rabbit, your comments on NCSoft regarding their "innovation" and Auto Assault were interesting.

I was in the beta of Auto Assault. It did "hit." It was a great concept. The thing is they did just about everything they could to make it terrible, Virtually zero customization, confusing interface, clunky controls... I mean, who WOULDN'T like an MMO where you could drive around running things over?

Also they claim that they're an innovative company that'll keep trying new things yet the only really new thing they've brought to the table is Guild Wars. It was unique in so many ways: no subscription fee, no grinding, brilliant instancing system, dual classing, and the closest thing the industry's ever seen to real episodal content. Yet they axed that to work on Guild Wars 2, which looks like a WoW clone. Forgive me if I'm cynical.

I'm not attacking you on this Rabbit, just saying the nice, forthcoming lady you spoke to was giving you a PR line.

I need it after the beating I took on Saturday to ensure Gaald's master plan had enough time to boil over... There I go again...

OMG PODCAST OF THE YEAR! Redefining the genre with innovation even as it refines core concepts to be pure podcasting goodness! Winner of the coveted perfect 11 score!

That is all

I've got to weigh in here on the whole Rock Band / GH email discussion.

Since the split with Red Octane, Harmonix has stated that their software is (and will continue to be) "open source" in the sense that any peripheral developer who wants to can get the specs needed to make their peripheral work in Rock Band. They welcome the kind of interoperability that Rabbit is saying makes sense for this kind of genre (just like it did in the flight sim genre).

Red Octane/Activision, on the other hand, have made it very clear (both now and in the past with the earlier GH games) that they are actively pursuing a policy of exclusivity. The do not *want* other peripherals to work in their game (and in fact the EULA actually goes so far as to specify that you are not allowed to use a peripheral not specifically approved by them to play the game). Try starting GHIII with a Rock Band guitar activated on the system and see what happens (answer: you get a special message saying a non-approved peripheral has been detected, and that you need to deactivate it and restart the game). When Harmonix did exactly what Rabbit suggested they do (spent hours coding a patch that would enable the use of the GH controller in Rock Band) Activision pressured Sony into not releasing it. Activision has also announced their exclusivity with Aerosmith, so that Aerosmith will not be releasing their music for any other "rhythm games" (gee, I wonder which rhythm games they are thinking about here...) Presumably, Activision will continue to pursue exclusive arrangements with other bands.

My point is that in this case, at least, one side of the competition does not *want* any kind of synergy whatsover between products, as they believe they are in a war to maintain their dominant (and what they had probably hoped would be an exclusive) position. SO it really doesn't matter if Harmonix wants to "play nice", because there's only so much one side can do. If Activision and Red Octane want to make it hard for people to own both Rock Band and Guitar Hero, there are things they can do to make it hard (and they are doing them). They are banking on the idea that, given that hurdle, the majority will stick with the better-known GH series and Rock Band will eventually be starved out. If they remove that hurdle, then in their minds they are extending Rock Band a lifeline, and they have no intention of aiding their competition. In short, they *want* to force consumers to choose between one or the other, because they are confident that in such a scenario they would come out ahead.

And might I add to my previous post that this situaiton totally sucks a**, and that in my opinion Activision and Red Octane are scumbags. It's clear that they have no problem screwing over their customers in their pursuit of profit. I realize that most companies are like this - it's just that they seem particularly adept at communicating that message.

A rare time when I'm inclined to highlight all of Miserere's words and simply say "QFT"

Because they couldn't ink exclusive deals with them.

Am I the only person who likes the Rock Band guitar more than the Guitar Hero III guitar? I just like the button placement and pick a lot better, and neither of my guitars (or drum or mic) have broken on me yet.

Ah thank you Elysium. And is there no deal with Nirvana? I would have thought they would have included Smells Like Teen Spirit on GH 3.

TO my mind, the wireless GH3 guitar is just better in every way, and I use a wired GH2 guitar as my bass. I'm already on my second Rock Band guitar, and it really hasn't been used since it came back from EA.

Too bad the effects switch is in a horrible spot and the guitar in general just lacks feedback to the user. I don't feel like I'm "playing a game" as much as I do "using a controller" with that - thing.

Hearing you guys sing the praises of certain controllers reminds me of when people used to go waaaaaaaaaaay out of their way to get the old IBM clicky keyboards. I'm not saying it's good or bad, just parallel in my mind.