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Morning Caffeinated! -- Greenlight mail, ladies of the evening, and ArenaNet kudos

Ramblings and musings of occasional significance to the Shacknews audience. This is the morning edition for August 31, 2012. Topics include: Greenlight will mean more mail for journalists, will Whore of the Orient get past the ESRB, a pat on the back for ArenaNet. and Wake up, scrubs, it's the Morning Caffeinated!
John Keefer
7
Welcome to the Friday edition of the Morning Caffeinated, folks. Read it for your you morning jolt of gaming goodness to get you through the day leading into the glorious weekend. I don't know about you, but the season premiere of Doctor Who is looking really good for tomorrow evening. If you've been in Chatty, then you know I've been enjoying the Pond Life prequel episodes. From the good Doctor alarming Rory and Amy into a sleepless night or the "Ood on the loo" (as Ambient80 so eloquently put it), they have been pretty entertaining and a good tease for season 7. The last one is up today and is a bit more ominous than the last four. Will be interesting to see how it all ties together with the Daleks tomorrow night.
* * * * *

Steam Greenlight is here

I'd like to congratulate Valve for launching Greenlight yesterday. It will be nice to be able to vote on cool games and get them onto Steam rather than pledging money the Kickstarter way. As a journalist, I don't donate to Kickstarter because it gives me a vested interest in a game I may need to cover down the road. But with Greenlight, I can vote for games that look promising and not have the financial tie that is strongly frowned upon in journalistic circles. But one of the drawbacks we are seeing already -- which Alice pointed out in her story -- is that we are now being inundated with twice as many emails from developers seeking to get promotion for their games. We were already getting tips about Kickstarted projects, but the torrent will be multiplied with this new service. In the end it is good for gamers to have a bigger say about what they want to play, and it is only fair for developers to reach out for publicity. We'll continue to wade through the emails we get and bring you information about the coolest and most interesting games. It just gives me more incentive now to set up good filters in my email program.
* * * * *

Nice mood shot. Odd name.

With the reveal of a bit of new information for Team Bondi's upcoming Whore of the Orient came an interesting discussion of the game title and whether it could pass muster with the Entertainment Software Rating Board. It will be interesting to see the direction the game takes, and we can assume by the title that they weren't going for an E10 rating any way. But could they be forced to change the title of the game or face an AO rather than an M rating? What would the name be changed to given the subject matter of 1936 Shanghai? Chatty was quick to offer some suggestions, including Hussy of Hong Kong and Happy Ending Lady from the East. It will be interesting to see how that situation pans out.
* * * * *
I know I've dealt with Guild Wars 2 quite a bit this week, but I have to admit I'm impressed with ArenaNet and the transparency they are showing players as the game goes through its initial bumps and hiccups. They have made Reddit a second home for updates, and by all accounts have been responsive to queries from fans about what is going on with the game. I haven't gotten into the game yet, but they have the right idea. The only thing that raised my eyebrows a bit was a comment from ArenaNet CEO Mike O'Brien that the company would shut off sales if too many players started to impact the fun-factor of the game. The sentiment is nice, but color me skeptical (Update: ArenaNet did stop digital sales of the game from their website late yesterday. Thanks EricZBA).
* * * * *
Random bits & Quick hits: Nintendo was really thinking about a knitting machine in the NES days. And a GameBoy was able to be used with a sewing machine. Imagine Sewing Mama as the company mascot instead of Mario. Yeesh! ... The latest Assassin's Creed 3 video finally convinced me to get the PC version of the game. How can I resist a man in a British uniform describing the brutality of the era ... A Metal Gear Solid movie? What gaming movies have ever been really good? I'd love for this one to break the mold. Glad there isn't an Uwe Boll sighting yet. Flashback: The Whore of the Orient discussion got me thinking of really bad game titles. Couldn't think of many, but I didn't remember one with a terrible concept: Custer's Revenge for the Atari 2600. If you don't remember it, you're lucky. What games had you scratching your head on why they were released? Have a great weekend.
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  • Shacknews legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
    reply
    August 31, 2012 6:00 AM

    John Keefer posted a new article, Morning Caffeinated! -- Greenlight mail, ladies of the evening, and ArenaNet kudos.

    Ramblings and musings of occasional significance to the Shacknews audience. This is the morning edition for August 31, 2012. Topics include: Greenlight will mean more mail for journalists, will Whore of the Orient get past the ESRB, a pat on the back for ArenaNet. and Wake up, scrubs, it's the Morning Caffeinated!

    • Mecha Tofu Pirate legacy 10 years
      reply
      August 31, 2012 6:49 AM

      Divine Divinity is a pretty awful game title. The box art for it sucked too.

    • [deleted] 439710436 legacy 10 years
      reply
      August 31, 2012 7:10 AM

      [deleted]

    • Gwyndion legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      August 31, 2012 7:18 AM

      Cool, I made my first official contribution to Morning Caffeinated!

    • Haxim legacy 10 years
      reply
      August 31, 2012 9:01 AM

      Keef, does pledging on kickstarter really have the potential to affect your objectivity more than having a publisher provide you with a review copy of a game?

      • Keefinator legacy 10 years
        reply
        August 31, 2012 9:13 AM

        I know it doesn't affect my objectivity but its just the appearance that it might. We always divulge when a publisher gives us a game. It's part of the job to review their product. I have no financial interest in it at all. But donating to Kickstarter means that I suddenly have contributed to that game being made, the vested interest I mentioned.

        It's a personal philosophy, though. People have said I should donate just enough to pay for a copy of the game. But it is sort of a reverse process that doesn't sit right. Non-Kickstarter games will come to the shelves and I pay my money after the fact. Paying before the fact just puts a different spin on things.

    • glio1337 legacy 10 years legacy 20 years mercury mega
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      August 31, 2012 9:06 AM

      PC is always the platform to get the game on! :P

    • Fenring42 legacy 10 years
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      August 31, 2012 9:16 AM

      Not mentioning PAX >:(

      • Keefinator legacy 10 years
        reply
        August 31, 2012 11:30 AM

        I'll mention it on Tuesday when we have a lot of articles to offer from the show. Steve is there for us.

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