Rumored Halo 3 Customization Confirmed

Earlier this week, rumor spread across the blag-o-blogs that Halo 3 would feature more in-depth Spartan customization, at least in multiplay (thanks, all you crazy beta hackers!). Today, those unconfirmed tidbits get a strong shove into the realm of confirmation thanks to the fine folks at thefinalfight.com. They've managed to collect images from the new GamePro Magazine detailing the new Mjolnir armor options, new/altered equipment details, and info on the mysterious "chopper" (now known to be a vehicle, the Brute Chopper, which is a bladed motorcycle-esque vehicle with mounted guns). Bungie, I love you too.

http://www.thefinalfight.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=524 (be sure to check the links under "Update")

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Blizzard Announced StarCraft II, Koreans Find New National Sport

At 1am in these parts, Blizzard announced the development of StarCraft II. No release date or pricing has been specified, since its still very early in development, but the gameplay screenshots and trailer video look superb already. Also of interest was the FAQs section (yeah, that's how I roll), where Blizzard stated that there were no plans (current or otherwise) to release StarCraft II on any gaming consoles, but that in true Blizzard fashion, the game would see a simultaneous release for Windows and Macintosh computers. The Windows side of things will fully support Vista and XP, will utilize DirectX 10, and may feature DirectX 10-exclusive graphic effects. The usual fare is to be expected: single- and multi-player gameplay, new units and a return of some older ones, amazing graphics, a new super-engine that apparently will allow for the rendering of much larger units as well as much larger armies (no more 250-unit caps), and more.

So go, check out the glory that will be the new StarCraft. And dammit, if Blizzard pulls a Ghost on us and cancels this project, there's a country out there that will probably find a new national passtime. Like crochet.

StarCraft II Official Site

P.S. At the same time Blizzard was making waves in Seoul, Spike TV's GameHead released info confirming a new Chronicles of Riddick game. This had much less effect on the gaming populace, due largely to the fact that the entire world experienced a massive mutual orgasm while looking the other way. Sorry, Riddick; its not you, its us.

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Louisiana's Roy Burrell Defends his Failed Bill

Despite his bill-turned-law getting overturned due to Constitutionality, State Rep. Roy A. Burrell (D) penned an op-ed piece for The Shreveport Times defending his bill. The article itself is an interesting read for those gamers who try to maintain an open mind (and don't immediately flip out when people don't agree with us). Honestly, though, the comments at the bottom were the more interesting read, including quote corrections from a cop.

Full article at The Shreveport Times.

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An Open Letter to Microsoft, Larry Hryb, "TriXie," and Kotaku

Luke Plunkett with Kotaku recently wrote a fairly heated article about Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb and his most recent podcast, in which he lambasts Gears of War developer Epic as well as 360 owners in general in response to outcry regarding the pricing of the recently-released Gears of War map pack.

You can read Luke's article here. My response to the article, what is now my "open letter" to everyone involved and then some, after the break.

What surprises me is how far off the mark everyone seems to be on this.

Customers seem divided into two groups: those who think the price is too high for the maps (the only good argument I've heard for this is that such DLC should be free within a certain time frame of a game's release), and those who think we should get it free because CliffyB said that Epic, as the content's developer, wanted to release the content for free.

Major Nelson has completely neglected his readers by omitting that last part. He's now made the very public assertion that all we want to do is get free things from Microsoft because all things should be free. The reality is not that we necesarily want the pack to be free, but that developers should have control over their own pricing: Microsoft promised this in the early days (damned if I can't find a link now). And trying to turn this around on Epic is a low blow; Epic has always been a supporter of their customers. The 360 wouldn't be able to hold a candle to the PS3 if it weren't for the RAM than Epic encouraged MS to add, and Epic's games (looking straight at the Unreal and Unreal Tournament franchises) have enjoyed a rare longevity because of free bonus map packs from Epic and continued support of community-driven development. If Microsoft wants the 360 to compete with computer gaming, they need to realize that gamers on that platform have enjoyed completely free map packs and wide-open consumer-developed content for years now, and cater to that expectation that there should be at least some free DLC of substance. But at this point, 360 owners are getting used to MS not living up to their promises: does anyone even remember when MS said that MS-published games would only be $50, and 3rd-party titles would carry the $60 tag? PDZ, Kameo, PGR3 - they all kept the promise. But once the super-hyped titles like Gears came out, promises to consumers were thrown out the window. And now here we are, after paying $10 more than we had been told we'd have to pay, watching MS tell their developers that they cannot offer substantial DLC for free, mocking the very customers – whom they are supposed to serve – when we point out these discrepancies, and then blaming the developer of the only game to really drive 360 sales.

On the flip side, Kotaku takes the customers' most extreme viewpoint of "these are overpriced and should be free" and runs with it. As many people have already pointed out, developers incur expenses developing things like maps. Its not enough to just design a map; it has to be thoroughly playtested and certified to meet MS's quality standards prior to release. It takes time and costs money. Developers deserve to be compensated for their hard work. In that regard, $10 is not that bad for four good maps. $5 would be much more desirable for consumers, but $10 isn't unfair if the quality is good--and we'd expect nothing less from Epic. However, should they decide that they want to offer the fruits of their labor for free, no one should be able to insist that a fee be placed on their goods. Yes, Microsoft runs the store (I get tired of calling it the Marketplace, because markets have multiple sellers in control of their own prices, and thus have market forces such as competition) and have to pay for servers, bandwidth, etc. However, Gold subscribers are paying $50/year for exactly that: servers and bandwidth. In the case of the Gears map pack, MS's expense is already covered (if nothing else, they got their $10 when we bought the game at their inflated price). So if Epic decides they want their customers to enjoy some free gratitude for their loyalty, MS shouldn't block that.

Major Nelson should be ashamed of his unprofessional behavior, but it seems like that is going around the Microsoft offices these days. TriXie pulled a very similar stunt after the responses to the Guitar Hero II song packs, and then turned around and whined that she shouldn't be held to any sort of professional standards because she's not PR. Two words: bull shit. If you're a public voice for a company, you're PR, whether its the job you're paid for or not. Major, Trixie, if you don't want to be the feet that get held to the fire when MS screws over their customers and developers, then don't volunteer yourselves as "community" anything or take credit for anything involving the word "ambassador."

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Borrowed from Kotaku

I was reading Kotaku and ran across this very well-worded OpEd regarding the VT shootings, video games, and our society's reactions to both.

Op Ed: SmartBomb Author on Va Tech Shooting
By Heather Chaplin

About 24 hours after Virginia Tech student Cho Seung-Hui killed 32 people and then himself, I received an email from an editor at a New York newspaper asking me to write a piece about violent videogames.

Was there any link between Cho Seung-Hui and videogames? I asked.

There wasn't, as we know now, and even the editor admitted the next day that it was a request that had come from his editor who'd been scrolling through TV that night.

My editor's editor must have stumbled on Fox News where Jack Thompson hypothesized confidently that authorities would soon find videogames on Cho's computer (they haven't as of this writing), or read the online Washington Post story saying that former high school mates said he was a Counter Strike player (a claim later cut from the story when it ran in print form), or Dr. Phil on Larry King Live lamenting the presence of violent videogames in young people's lives.

I've been writing about videogames for six years now and have answered countless questions about videogames and violence on radio, TV, and podcast. So maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. But there was something about the knee-jerk immediacy of the assumption that videogames must have been involved that took me aback. I wasn't being asked for my opinion, but rather to serve up one more version of an apparently accepted truth: violent videogames lead to violent behavior. Sometimes I wonder if these people don't realize that most Americans under a certain age play video games - that it's really not that extraordinary when it turns out that the sick among us do too.

The deep, deep irony in this case is, of course, that Cho's passion was not Doom - but play writing. I certainly haven't seen any op-eds about the dangers of creative writing.

(Though it may be worth mentioning that the debut of fiction as a popular form of entertainment was met with as much distaste and suspicion in its day as the videogame. Were this several hundred years ago, we may very well have been deluged by anti-creative-writing rants.)

It's natural for people to want to make sense of the disorder of the universe. When tragedy strikes at home or in one's community, one feels a keen need to understand. Why me? Why us? If only we could answer that eternal why, we could put to rest the pain of knowing the universe can deliver up something so horrific. How much easier is to say, it was the videogames! then to come to terms with the kaleidoscope of factors that leads to events such as high school shootings.

Just as I refuse to play blame-the-videogame, however, so too do I refuse to pretend that our mass entertainment isn't part of the equation. Frankly, if you're so defensive about videogames that you refuse to acknowledge that they effect us, then I'm going to have to say you're being as knee jerk as Monsieur Thompson.

I found the snap shot Cho took of himself with two guns raised in the air that he sent to NBC News the most disturbing reminder of this reality. It's an eerily generic reference to any number of pop culture images - from underground rap videos, to game stills, to action movie posters. (John Woo flashed into my mind. Who came into yours?) It was as if Cho were mimicking some vague idea of empowered cool soaked up through years of culture osmosis. His pathetic mimicry gave us a glimpse into who he felt he had become midway through his killing spree. It doesn't give us license to lay the blame for Cho's actions at the feet of pop culture, but it does remind us that yes, duh, our culture influences us.

And let's be honest. As a culture, we fetishize violence - and I don't just mean the faux-violence of games like Postal, Gears of War, or Counter strike, or of TV shows like the seemingly endless spin offs on Law & Order and CSI. The fact is, whether we want to admit it or not, we're seeped in violence both virtual and real. We don't just play violent; we are, deep down at our core, violent.

Look at our history. We've been waging war every day since manifest destiny first became popular more than a hundred years ago - some above ground like the current war in Iraq, others clandestine like our campaigns in the Philippines, Afghanistan, and Central America. You don't become the world's super power by sitting on your heels picking daisies Just a few years ago, we gave the go ahead to our government for a policy of pre-emptive strike. What is that if not an emphatic endorsement of violence as the prime solution to a given problem? Members of the Roman Empire would have been proud.

And as the Virginia Tech shootings reminds us once again, anyone who wants a gun can get one as long as they can pay for it.

Most of us learn how to abstract away the faux-violence of pop culture and to stay numb to the real violence in the world around us. But when one of us does become sick - really sick the way Cho was - perhaps it shouldn't be so surprising that the sickness manifests itself as a bloody reflection of all the culture showed him.

To blame violent videogames for this, let alone videogames as a medium, is short sighted, hypocritical, absurd, and, frankly, a little desperate. It's an argument made by people who fear a medium they don't understand and want a bogeyman more than they want real answers.

Heather Chaplin is the co-author with Aaron Ruby of
Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment & Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution. She writes regularly about games and game culture for publications like the New York Times, the L.A. Times and NPR's All Things Considered

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