This article can't possibly end well. If anything, from the 370 posts I see as of my comment, it has brought the flame war to Gamespot. I see nothing wrong with the option to skip combat in some games. Some games don't even have combat. If BioWare can make a game that simultaneously appeals to people who want both narrative and combat, predominantly combat, or predominantly narrative. Power to them. The option to skip one or the other would be great. They can still add the feature even if it leads to design choices that make combat inferior to other games. It is, as the author points out, BioWare's game. I just wonder why they even bother in that case. The real problem here is the personal attacks. I don't think it's productive. I criticize games and the gaming industry at large a lot but never individuals. They have their freedom. However, the types of speech not protect by the US Constitution, which no doubt governs the majority of where the attacks happened, are very limited. You can ignore them or fight back, but in most cases you cannot prevent them from being voiced. Libel and fighting words are probably two areas not protected by most laws that attackers used.

Entitlement has no bearing on the core issue. Of course gamers feel entitled. It's natural if they spend $60, 80, 160 or 15 a month on a game. If anything, I think most gamers realize besides their freedom of speech, they have very little if any influence on game devs and publishers. It adds to the emotion of speech. Gamers should be empowered more, not less. They should be entitled to other actions such as deciding which games a company makes and who make them. They should have greater say in what they get for their money. Then, perhaps most gamers will consider personal attacks and flaming an undesirable alternative.

I don't think the publishers are lying per se. Maybe Activision really did make the Prototype 2 CE for the fans, and it was the best they could do. It takes some creativity to make ME3 multiplayer, especially for BioWare which isn't strong in MP. Financial or whatever other reasons to bring back X-Com and Syndicate as FPS are still good reasons, from certain points of view. :) Hopefully this article will encourage more gamers to pay more attention to what they are buying. Know exactly what you are getting. When in doubt, don't buy. If you accept a poorly put together CE edition out of brand loyalty, you only encourage future repeats. Quality and associated production cost will decrease as long as sales can be maintained. Not only that, other publishers may pick up on the trend and decrease the quality of their own games/packages to cash in on buyer indifference. Don't let "finding the minimum acceptance level of gamers" become a trend.

I see dedicated gaming handhelds as fading, not because mobile devices are capable of replacing them, but because handhelds can so easily become mobile devices. All Sony has to do is add calling capability to the Vita, make it 4G or whatever G in its next iteration, make the analogy controls an attachable accessory, and make the core Vita more appealing to a wider audience, maybe Android compatible. And voila! Normally it's just a phone with all the amenities of every other mobile device. If you want some serious gaming during a long trip, attach the analog controls and you get the good o' Vita back. I wonder why Sony hasn't done that already. Casual and mobile games have not revolutionized the quality of gaming. They do, however, appeal to a much wider audience, many of whom do not play games otherwise; in this way they are great business opportunities. But let's not delude ourselves, with the same creative minds at the helm, more control options trample less control options any day. I myself prefer to stream CNN or watch a movie or play chess (or similar games), still the most mind-stimulating game in my opinion; I can do that on just about any device.

Lol. Good fun. Much appreciated!

I don't get the motivation for this kit. Is Mad Catz developing an pro controller for the MLG Pro Circuit? If so, I think they should let the pros test out this kit in actual competition before releasing it to the general public. It'll be like selling pro-level tennis racquets or golf clubs. If they want to release a modular, customizable kit for the casual gamer, they should include all the popular features of today's controllers and add the customizability on top of it. Right now it sounds like a mess, based on the article. It sacrifices features of other casual controllers to let the gamer feel like a pro even though the precision and responsiveness are too poor even by casual gaming standards. However, maybe it's not as bad as the article says; I don't know.

Well said, well said. In addition to the hopes expressed in the article, I also hope this success story empowers gamers. There is a great deal of dissatisfaction among gamers over how big publishers are making games. There is also a fair amount of resignation, ironically because most gamers rightly recognize publishers are in the business of making money. This kickstart effort gives gamers some ownership in the game. Supporters have made a conscious choice, and if the game succeeds, the success is as much theirs as it is Double Fine's. These gamers, and non-gamer supporters, have become publishers of sorts. That may help to solve one of the biggest problems facing the gaming industry today. Why are big publishers risk averse? They are predominantly business people. They care about sales numbers and market share and a lot of other data. They don't play games in any significant amount. How can they if they are serious about their day jobs? They can't innovate because their only source of reliable data is in the past. If devs answered to gamers, if they made games for people who ultimately buy and play them, if they are free to bring their ideas to the public and let interested gamers support them, we'll have the real answer to who is ultimately responsible for the dearth of new IP. How do we get there? That requires the effort of a lot more people a lot smarter than I. Hopefully DF's small stone will have ripples that extend far into the future. By gamers, for gamers.

I am just going to wait until Sony works out all the kinks from the system, add and subtract features according to user feedback, then buy it. Hopefully the Vita will become a fully featured, easy to use mobile entertainment platform with video, music, digital book, camera, camcorder, GPS, and only games that are proprietory. Then I may consider lugging it around in addition to my smartphone.

I hope this news/editorial doesn't contribute to THQ's demise. :) It's interesting reading, a nice break from the game-focused news I usually digest. I think the "strong IP is no longer good enough" claim is not entirely correct. The growing focus of companies across the board on expanding their core IP is argument that strong IP is still king. However, perhaps strong IP no longer means just a good single player game. It branches out into numerous media and business opportunities. That's a more suitable definition of IP anyway. Even so, CD Projekt is doing alright with the Witcher series, which is primarily single player. If THQ could launch a series of The Witcher like games, maybe it wouldn't be in this bind. I think it ultimately comes down to just poor game-making. I love CoH, and a couple of THQ's latest games have been decent though I don't play them. Overall though, its failures have overshadowed its successes. It's not the business model or mismanagement or some other forces of nature, like the uDraw, many of THQ's games are just bad.

@emptyplatitudes You can still get great value on games, no question. You are also right that not everyone is willing to spend more money on games. However, I see many indications that people are willing to spend more money per game than before. Companies more frequently release DLC. Pre-order numbers are higher for more games. More popular games now have some other paid service associated with it, whether it's subscription to a portal or something like this Auction House or just good ol' MMO fees (the $100 NfSW car is just an extreme example). I believe businesses are providing these services because they have reasons to believe people will pay for them. Whether that constitutes the majority of gamers I do not know. That may not even be necessary for these business models to be successful and become more prevalent.