@shaunmc Great article, Laura. Miss Parker writes an informative and thoughtful treatise on the gender role of women in games, Shaun writes a review for a bargain-bin James Bond game two years ago that no one has read. ;)

@wbezuidenhout I am only allowed 1500 characters to respond to you, and so I cannot do so without the usual Izzy charm, so forgive my brevity and seemingly lack of social grace in earlier response. But I must say this-- it must excite your heart to see an individual of my caliber respond to a plebian such as yourself. I know you sense my prodigious genius and think to yourself, "It would certainly reflect well on me if I can somehow be in the same conversation as this mozart!" And why not-- I scored a 44 out of a possible 45 on my MCAT [my finger slipped on the last question.] But to answer your question-- We can go back and forth until the cows come home [I am writing to you in my spare time when I am not curing congenital diseases] but the defense of George Hotz you raise is a rudimentary version of the defense his lawyers are trying to raise. And if such a defense was winnable, then why would the client leave the country? At the end of the day, you and I and Gandhi know, this kid done something wrong, son. It pains me to speak to you or anyone else that is not as intelligent, but I force myself to do so by coating my response with self-aggrandizement. It is the only way I can possibly be interested in responding to anyone who is not on my level.

@wbezuidenhout "It's not subjective, it's relative, if your pack of rice had 10 grains less than the next one, will you complain to the store manager about being ripped off?" Now, if you owned a PS3, then you would be quite aware that the days following the release of GeoHotz' hack, it became commonplace to see hackers in online multiplayer games, particularly MW:2. And so your analogy of PS3 hackers being "10 grains of rice" is flawed since online cheaters did become problematic to the rest of the gamers playing fair due to their volume and frequency. Furthermore, I do not have a problem with piracy per se-- it is the illegal modding of games that allows a person to cheat in online multiplayer games that is the root problem since it cheapens the gaming experience for paying customers who are playing honestly. Lastly, yes everyone has an opinion, and strictly speaking no opinion is wrong. But opinions which are supported by concrete and objective facts, as real and unalterable as a rock, becomes an argument. And one argument is better than the other. And you and Tom Magrino, who has yet to respond to my brilliant riposte, are plain wrong. I heard your suggestion of reading the definition of opinions [a very obvious imitation of suggesting to Magrino that he read a grammar book] and so I have a new suggestion for you: Love.

Yeah, this is an opinion Tom Magrino, but it's the wrong one. Bill Budge's accomplishments in the 1980s is not a noble loophole to justify the activities of George Hotz. I could go on about how the modernization of technology makes a difference between the commission of the two computer crimes-- 5700 people didn't download The Pong code like they did the hacks for the PS3, for instance. Millions if not billions of dollars are at stake, not like in the days of Apple II when gaming was at its infancy. And although piracy has not been demonstratively linked to poor game sales, there is no denying that hacking PCs/Consoles to cheat on multiplayer games is what ultimately cheapens the experience for every gamer who paid money to play honestly. Let me reiterate: you have an opinion, but it's the wrong one. And please don't come back to me with, "But it's all subjective, Mister Izzy!" a reasoning which just smacks of laziness. People reason together because, in the end, one line of thought is better and more logical than the other. It's that simple. And you hold a wrong one. O-- and on a personal note-- I know it's an informal blog and everything, but there is no need to write poorly like Stephanie Meyer. Read your Strunk & White and improve your writing skills.

@shaunmc I'm only teasing you. Please tell Chris Watters and Kevin VanOrd that I said hello. You did not answer my question about Jane Douglass or Laura Parker. What are your thoughts on Jessica Chobot of IGN? I wish I had a say on who gets to be Gamespot staffer since I prefer your website over IGN.. but alas, it seems as if this website prizes writing skills over eye-candy. When will you be interviewing Egyptian President Muammar Gadafi..? Er.. I mean, when will you be reviewing "Little Big Planet 2"? ;) All the best and all of my love.

@shaunmc My friend, I respect you, but the last thing you want is to be suckered into a back-and-forth with someone like me who has Shakespearean wit. But don't try to make it out as if this interview is some sort of Richard Nixon / David Frost part II, where the dialogue between two men will forever alter their lives and how history thinks of them. This isn't that. Let's keep it real. You are basically interviewing Mike Laidlaw as if this is a Proactive commercial. C'mon now. The only burning question us readers have left is this: Is Gamespot's Jane Douglass as hot in person as she is on camera? Because, currently, I am a geneticist at John Hopkin's University, and we are currently researching congenital birth defects in the hopes of curing them, but I would gladly give all of that up if you told me Jane is smoking hot. Also, is Laura Parker from Gamespot UK equally hot? Thank you in advance. All the best, Mister David Frost.

@shaunmc Hey Shaun, thanks for stopping by to commiserate with us nerds. But be honest-- if you had asked a question more imposing than what Rebeca Black had to contemplate, Gamespot would've been flooded with calls from EA/Bioware. The question stems were basically limited to: "Which seat is the best seat, Mike, front seat or back seat?" This is a PR piece more than anything. It's not like you're CNN News Anchor Atia Abawa reporting live from the streets of Baghdad. We don't expect you to be. C'mon now-- let's keep it real.

@Gelugon_baat I love you. @kittyrolls I love you too. Anyways, yes, it is exactly as I predicted when the demo was released on the Playstation Network-- this game was a serious falling off from Dragon Age: Origins. I knew it before the world did, I have the gift of clairvoyance. But I'd like to talk more about Shaun McInnis' interview more than anything else. Remember: this is the website that terminated then-editor Jeff Gerstmann for a negative review of "Kane and Lynch" when Eidos bought up so much adspace on Gamespot prior to its release. Do you really think a scruffy-haired Cameron Bright wannabe like Shaun McInnis is going to stand a chance if he even asks any question that would paint a living legend like Mike Laidlaw and a titan like Bioware in a bad light? Yes, Dragon Age II is a travesty. We can only pin our hopes that Bioware's real efforts are being directed at their KOTOR MMORPG and that such focus resulted in the neglect of DA2. And we can only hope that DA3 will be a sort of redemption tour for Bioware. Kiss me-- I'm an optimist.