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The Forever Alone Podcast (F.A.P) Episode 2

Dave Oshry — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:55:03 +0000

On this week’s episode of the FAP it’s serious business. Two industry insiders help us uncover the TopWare Interactive controversy as we discuss the single greatest word known to man… Dicktits.

Our special guests include Destructoid’s Reviews Editor Jim Sterling and former PR Director of Topware Interactive Jake DiGennaro. As you may know there’s been quite a bit of controversy surrounding TopWare this last week – so listen in as Jake and Jim attempt to shed some light on just what in the bloody hell is really going on here.

Speaking of dicktits! We talk about “The Best of Dicktits” with Cliffy B as George “GeoHot” Hotz the rappin’ fool goes into debt and begs gamers for cash. Even worse, Kreyg literally faps to Killzone 3 . . . you’re not going to want to miss this.

EA Raises the White Flag: Playable Taliban taken out of Medal of Honor

Garrett Hartman — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 14:11:54 +0000

Seems like things got a little too hot for Electronic Arts. Heeding the wishes of the ”friends and families of fallen soldiers,” EA has decided to remove playable Taliban from Medal Of Honor.

The game has been quite the flashpoint of controversy as of late once the media seized upon the notion of the inclusion of the Taliban. It snow-balled as military leaders from around the western world gave their condemnation, most recently with sales being banned on all US military bases.

In a staement from the Medal of Honor website this morning, MOH executive producer Greg Goodrich explained the decision as a response driven by feedback from friends and family of fallen soldiers:

“This is a very important voice to the Medal of Honor team. This is a voice that has earned the right to be listened to. It is a voice that we care deeply about. Because of this, and because the heartbeat of Medal of Honor has always resided in the reverence for American and Allied soldiers, we have decided to rename the opposing team in Medal of Honor multiplayer from Taliban to Opposing Force.”

Goodwich continued and stated that the changes will not directly effect gameplay. Here is his full statement:

In the past few months, we have received feedback from all over the world regarding the multiplayer portion of Medal of Honor. We’ve received notes from gamers, active military, and friends and family of servicemen and women currently deployed overseas. The majority of this feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. For this, the Medal of Honor team is deeply appreciative.

However, we have also received feedback from friends and families of fallen soldiers who have expressed concern over the inclusion of the Taliban in the multiplayer portion of our game. This is a very important voice to the Medal of Honor team. This is a voice that has earned the right to be listened to. It is a voice that we care deeply about. Because of this, and because the heartbeat of Medal of Honor has always resided in the reverence for American and Allied soldiers, we have decided to rename the opposing team in Medal of Honor multiplayer from Taliban to Opposing Force.

While this change should not directly affect gamers, as it does not fundamentally alter the gameplay, we are making this change for the men and women serving in the military and for the families of those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice – this franchise will never willfully disrespect, intentionally or otherwise, your memory and service.

To all who serve – we appreciate you, we thank you, and we do not take you for granted. And to the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines currently serving overseas, stay safe and come home soon.

Greg Goodrich
Executive Producer
Medal of Honor

This whole ordeal has been quite interesting, but I don’t like the precedent it sets. Video games should stand as a free form of expression, but often freedom is overridden by bad press and potential loss of money.

New Medal Of Honor Video Strikes with Deadly Precision (Trailer)

Garrett Hartman — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 18:07:50 +0000

EA is really getting serious about showcasing their famous (in some circles infamous) “COD killer” Medal Of Honor. With the fourth video of their Medal of Honor Experience series titled “Friends from Afar”, the experience as a sniper is highlighted.

Watch a 2 man sniper team take down targets and later run into sizable number of Taliban Combatants. The video looks great and highlights MOH’s dynamic gameplay.

Definitely a game to look forward to and it will be interesting to see how the ongoing Taliban controversy effects sales upon it’s October 12th release.

Think it could dethrone Call of Duty?

APB Lets You Make Large Characters- As Long As They’re Male

Demi Adejuyigbe — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 03:45:21 +0000

I haven’t gotten my hands on APB, but from what I’ve heard, reviews for the game don’t seem to be very positive, as they call it repetitive and lacking in value. If what Beefjack says is true, then APB could have another problem on its hands- misogyny.

Let me clarify, actually- nowhere in the game does APB outright say “Women suck.” No, the discrimination here has to do with the character customizations available when you first create your character in the game. Like many games, APB has sliders that you can adjust to give different properties to your character, sliders like height, muscularity- and weight. When you have a male character, and you slide the weight slider all the way up, you get a character similar to the one on the right above. But when you do the same thing with a female character, you get the character on the left- a woman that is not at all abundant in the weight department.

I’m not saying flat out that APB is saying that this is the extent to which women should weigh, or that women that look like this are “fat” by any sense, but you have to admit that the discrepancy between weights between genders is a bit curious. Do you guys think this is weird too? Sound off in the comments.

Spec Ops: The Line Already Generating Regional Controversy Over Dubai Setting

Dylan Duarte — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:18:13 +0000

Spec Ops: The Line, which you can read all about here, is already creating controversy over its setting in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates is considering banning the game.

When speaking about the game, Mohammed al Mutawa, a videogame censor at UAE’s Nation Media Council, said “we will have to review the game first before issuing any decision on whether to ban it or allow it. If it becomes an international matter, various avenues are taken through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to follow this up.”

Greg Kasavin, a producer on Spec Ops, pointed out that although the game takes place in Dubai, it’s a future Dubai where “an unimaginable natural disaster has struck the region.” He also points out that most of the enemies in the game are rogue U.S. soldiers.

This is what happens when you set your violent, savage war game in a real country with a real name that exists in the real world. I really hope the game doesn’t get banned in that region, because I think it would be the result of a huge misunderstanding. Dubai looks like a beautiful place with really unique architecture, and I’m sure that went into the decision to choose the location. I hope the censors realize that.

Army of Two Developers Wouldn’t Have Done Modern Warfare 2 Airport Level

Dylan Duarte — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:32:16 +0000

In a recent interview with CVG, Army of Two: The 40th Day producer Matt Turner said that, while he respects Infinity Ward for doing the infamous No Russian mission, they wouldn’t have done it themselves.

“You’re playing a CIA agent, it’s designed to show the atrocities. It’s pretty awful and if you fail to see that side of it than you’re not getting the whole picture. That being said, I thought it took it a little far; it was pretty out there. But I like seeing that they have guts like that.”

Turner also admits that the early shots of the scene were taken out of context. He also gave Infinity Ward props for advancing storytelling in videogames.

For those not familiar with the Army of Two series, this Penny Arcade comic sums it up nicely. These aren’t exactly people who walk on eggshells.

Kotaku

Should We Be Able To Kill Kids in Games?

Keane Ng — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 19:14:36 +0000

Call me sick, but in my time with Fable 2, I’ve tried to kill kids. Multiple times. You see, my character’s evil. He’d do that. He seduces men and women and takes them under the bridge and puts a flintlock rifle in their faces and pulls the trigger without remorse. He soaks up the upgrades to evil and corruption stats like they’re candy.

But kids, no matter what you do, seem to have an invisible forcefield around them. Just like GTA IV, just like in Fallout 3. Games that are about moral choices, that seem to say – we won’t go this far.

In the case of Fallout 3, lead designer Emil Pagliarulo had this to say on the topic:

We began to think, really what benefit would there be in killing the kids in the game? It just seems gratuitous, unnecessary and cruel.

Some people would say it is necessary, though.

Simon Parkin over at GameSetWatch specifically. For him, the moral depth of making the decision to kill or not kill a child is something from which games shouldn’t shy away or bar themselves from. In putting up a big “we’re not going there” sign, developers who would make a game that, on the one hand, lets you blow up an entire suburb (and probably kill some kids in the process) but doesn’t let you kill a child face to face, are failing the potential of their artistic medium:

In removing the opportunity to kill children in their anarchic game, Bethesda has admitted videogames’ ineffectiveness in providing meaningful disincentives and negative repercussions for in-game atrocities. That the team chose to carve the issue out of their game rather than attempt to engage it head on, speaks volumes.

I side with Parkin on this. Though I understand the pressure on Bethesda to avoid as much potential controversy with their game as possible, I do wish more games (like the first two Fallouts) would allow these kinds of moral choices – and if they do deliver them, to be mature, realistic and brave about it.

What do you guys think?

Metacritic Founder Talks About LittleBigPlanet Low User Score, Fanboys, and the Site’s Future

Chad Lakkis — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 08:05:11 +0000

After reading about the suspiciously low Metacritic user score of 6.3 for Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet, I decided to dig into the story a little deeper. For those unfamiliar with the situation, allow me to fill you in.

Metacritic, who by and large is considered the main source for aggregated scoring on the web, offers two score flavors (one for critics and one for users). This is the case across most sites. The problem is, when you are considered the “go to” resource for pretty much anything, there’s a chance that people will make a big deal out of something on your site that they would normally overlook on another.

That said, this specific instance pertains to the scores currently presented on Metacritic for the LittleBigPlanet game. The first, a 9.5 at the time of this article, represents the aggregated score based on several well accepted gaming review sites such as GamePro, IGN, and EuroGamer. The second, more controversial score, is a 6.3, and is compiled via the average score given by a pool of 2,225 user votes.

Gaming news site N4G, which pulls related news from various websites around the web, features a blog post titled “Fanboys pull LittleBigPlanet’s Metacritic score down”, discussing this very topic. Reading some of the furious responses to the score piqued my interest, so I visited the Metacritic site to see first hand what all the fuss was about. Clicking on the “Read user comments” link near the overall user score brings you to the bottom of the page, where the following statement by Marc Doyle, the sites founder, awaits:

“My advice for our faithful users is to focus your attention on the Metascore for this game and not the thousands of user votes, most of which have been submitted before said users have played the game. This is a gaming community, and if people want to stuff the ballot box, there’s not much I can do at this point. When we upgrade the registration requirements for participation on the site in the near future, this type of thing won’t happen. We’ll post the full legitimate user reviews upon the game’s release. As always, thanks for using the site.”

This prompted me to contact Marc directly in order to get a more complete picture of the situation from his end. Specifically, I felt that gamers would want some clarity regarding the portion of his comment stating that most of the user reviews submitted for LBP were made “before said users [had] played the game.”

Firstly, I wanted to know if he would consider eliminating user reviews submitted before the full release of the game, i.e. reviews clearly submitted based on the open beta alone, or even worse, no experience with the game at all, to which he responded:

” … we won’t be clearing those old scores from LBP when it launches, but we will only post reviews from people who have clearly played the game. All the reviews from fanboys and haters who haven’t played it will just be left out. That is true for all products on Metacritic. Humans actually read all of those user reviews (so we can delete profanity, spoilers, etc.), and those humans are told not to post reviews from people who clearly haven’t played the game.”

He then added that the burden of proof they demand from users submitting reviews prior to a game’s release date is be much higher than those doing so after the fact.

Slightly confused, I asked Marc for some clarification as to how the game could have such a low score, if his team was manually looking over each user review submitted. He stated:

“All the [numeric] scores “count” in the overall user average and total votes tally, but we only post a subset of those as [written] user reviews.”

When talking about the future of the site, as well as other things they are doing to help eliminate this type of fanboy nonsense in the future, Marc had the following to say:

“There will be a Metacritic re-design in the future (can’t say exactly when), and as a part of that process, we’re going to beef up our user registration and community functions so that “stuffing the ballot box” won’t be nearly as easy.

The original idea behind allowing users to write user reviews (and vote on them) was to allow those people (like me) who see advanced screenings of movies and sometimes play games ahead of their true release date to write reviews and have them posted on Metcritic. That’s still the case now.

Over the years, people have, by and large, not exploited the fact that you can vote early. Only recently have people started voting en masse for (and against) games like they’ve done with LBP.

Metacritic’s primary “product” is the Metascore, which is the weighted average of scores from professional critics. We include user reviews for obvious reasons, but because that score can never be 100% reliable, it’s given secondary importance on the site. For example, you can’t sort or search by user scores for any products. That will likely change with the redesign.”

Marc obviously has a solid understanding of the space, its evolution, and the challenges that lie ahead. The fact of matter though, is that currently, anyone can visit Metacritic and leave an abnormally low user score, skewing the average, without necessarily saying anything of value at all. I asked him if this was something the site would be revisiting in the immediate future.

” … nothing should change in this regard until we do the redesign. That tally will remain a raw tally, and only the printed user reviews will be “vetted” as useful reviews from people that we think actually played the game … “

He closed the topic by adding that the specifics of “whatever [they] do with the voting system moving forward [have] yet to be established.”

With October 27th just around the corner, LittleBigPlanet is four LittleBigDays away from being officially released. So while the current 6.3 Metacritic user score has been getting most of the attention on the net, I (like Marc himself), kindly ask that you shift your focus to the 95 out of a 100 Metacritic score the game is receiving from the mainstream media. Everything else will sort itself out in due time.

LittleBigPlanet Delayed Due to Qur’an Misuse

Patrick Steen — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:16:38 +0000

In the past few hours there have been rampant reports of a LittleBigPlanet delay in Europe. Retailers have emailed customers who pre-ordered the game, telling them that the title won’t meet its 24th October release. Sony has now confirmed a worldwide delay, citing an almost unbelievable reason.

LittleBigPlanet has been delayed due to Qur’an references in one of the game’s tracks. The song, Tapha Niang, appears in the Swinging Safari level, showing the strength of LittleBigPlanet’s soundtrack as you climb the necks of giraffes in an African inspired level.

The album the track is from, Boulevard De L’independance, was released in 2006 by Mali artist Toumani Diabate and revered as a modern African classic. Diabate’s talent for Kora playing (a 21-string harp-like instrument) was described as “a magical ability to improvise scintillating runs out of thin air” by UK Newspaper The Observer and Tapha Niang itself, which you can listen to after this link or at his MySpace page, is a modern adaptation of a traditional piece.

The Qur’an references were brought to the attention of Sony by a PlayStation 3 owner who had early access to the game. The included quotations, which are currently unconfirmed, are said to include;

‘kollo nafsin tha’iqatol mawt’, or ‘Every soul shall have the taste of death’

‘kollo man alaiha fan’, or ‘All that is on earth will perish’

The forum poster, whose identity will remain unknown, continued to state;

We Muslims consider the mixing of music and words from our Holy Qur’an deeply offending. We hope you would remove that track from the game immediately via an online patch, and make sure that all future shipments of the game disk do not contain it.

We hope you act immediately to avoid any confusion and unnecessary controversy, and we thank you for making such an amazing game.

Considering Diabate is a devout Muslim, as reported by the Taipei Times, the complaint is even more puzzling. Whether all Muslims find Qur’an quotations in music offensive is not a question I can personally answer, but there was a similar controversy in the 1980′s when Brian Eno and David Byrne removed a track titled Qur’an from their album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.

It’s debatable as to whether Sony should have made the decision to delay the game subsequent to including a two year old song by an African Muslim artist. However, after the controversy over Danish comics including the Prophet Muhammad this could have been a PR disaster for LittleBigPlanet. SCEE released this statement;

During the review process prior to the release of LittleBigPlanet, it has been brought to our attention that one of the background music tracks licensed from a record label for use in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Qur’an,” admitted the company in a statement.

We have taken immediate action to rectify this and we sincerely apologise for any offence that this may have caused.

Media Molecule have already created a day 1 patch for the game, but in a strange turn of events, Sony have decided to replace all current discs so as to support those without internet access. This will be especially costly, since many US retailers have already broken the game’s release date. Media Molecule writes;

We learnt yesterday that there is a lyric in one of the licensed tracks which some people may find offensive, and which slipped through the usual screening processes. Obviously MM and Sony together took this very seriously. LBP should be enjoyable by all. So within 12 hours of hearing about this issue involving a lyric (in Somalian, I believe!), we prepared an automatic day 0 patch and had a new disk image ready; however a decision was made within Sony that the right thing to do for quality and support of people with no on-line was to replace existing disks. They assure us that they are doing everything in their power to get things straightened out as fast as possible, and will announce dates soon.

Some retailers estimate a delay until November 14th, but GamesIndustry.biz understands that LittleBigPlanet might not be pushed back quite so far. We’ll keep you informed.

[UPDATE] – Sony will begin to ship LittleBigPlanet copies to retailers in the US on October 27th. There have been no announcements concerning Europe as of yet. Source: PlayStation Blog

[UPDATE 2] – LittleBigPlanet should be released on October 31st in the UK and presumably the rest of Europe.

[UPDATE 3] – Sony has confirmed that LittleBigPlanet will release in Europe week commencing November 3rd, and more specifically, November 5th in the UK. MCVUK

Gamespot Sings Its Own Song, Talks “Gerstmanngate”

Cavin Smith — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 19:36:04 +0000

Is That a Bull Doing a S*** I Spy?

I’m sure you’re all well aware of the controversy at this point, but we haven’t gotten a whole lot out of Jeff Gerstmann’s firing out of ex-employer Gamespot besides a few vague comments out of public relations. Well, now they’re ready to talk. A new “full disclosure” post on the site attempts to address several questions, but their answers feel less like explanations and more like excuses.

First and foremost, it’s important to note that Gamespot insists they have nothing to hide and that you’re getting the whole nine. “In the spirit of full disclosure” has never been more figurative, though. The post consists of questions “authorized” to by management and we suspect the answers are, too. Take what would likely be the most important of them, “Why was Jeff fired?” The reply:

“Legally, the exact reasons behind his dismissal cannot be revealed. However, they stemmed from issues unrelated to any publisher or advertiser–it was due purely to internal reasons.”

In the previous query as to whether or not Gerstmann was actually fired, they do mention that it was after an “internal review process by the managerial team.” Still elusive, doesn’t explain a thing we don’t already know. But it gets better when they get into the reasons for modifying the written review as well as pulling the video, including an open admission of retroactively modifying content.

“Jeff’s supervisors and select members of the edit team felt the review’s negativity did not match its “fair” 6.0 rating. The copy was adjusted several days following its publication so that it better meshed with its score, which remained unchanged.”

“The morning of Wednesday, November 14, the video was taken down due to concerns of quality. Specifically, its audio was deemed inferior due to a faulty microphone. There were also concerns about the limited amount of footage that was unrepresentative of the game in the review.”

And why wasn’t it reposted?

“Due to the crush of high-profile titles being released the following week, there were insufficient resources to reshoot and re-edit the video review.”

In order to save face, they decided to repost the original video review (opting out earlier because it would “exacerbate the situation”). It would seem more damning now, considering they also point to the Youtube version as if to say, “Look! See! We’re not trying to pull the wool over your eyes! Really, we aren’t! Believe us? Please? We have cake!” But really, microphone issues? If they even tried to hint at a precedent for pulling reviews on bad audio, it would actually sound reasonable.

The article goes on to talk about the way the Kane and Lynch skinned ads were handled, why fellow staffer Tim Tracy split in the midst of the whole debacle, and other credibility issues.

Unexpectedly, Gamespot continues to stand behind a veil of ethical impunity, but it seems to do more harm than good. It’s hard to believe that this was a series coincidences, especially when the answers feel so scripted.

If you’re interested in seeing the rest of the report (and we suspect you are), hit the link below. Apparently, the discussion will continue on the site’s podcast “The HotSpot,” while “On The Spot” will feature a Gerstmann tribute of it’s own.

Source: Gamespot on “Gerstmanngate”