Masterfade

Huh? Internet censorship in countries like China and Iran can easily be bypassed with VPN (Virtual Private Network) services which often cost less than $15 per month or even free (with Ads, of course). There are a number of American, Aussie and maybe Kiwi businesses specializing providing VPN to foreign individuals. They and their employees all earn a living from Internet censorship, same for IT persons on the ground in China or Iran who help users setting up the network and payment subscriptions. Really I see no harm done by Internet censorship in China, Iran or anywhere. Its like a government ran welfare for thousands of formerly jobless youth now employed as human monitors, plus a scholarship fund for IT students know their trade good enough to set up VPN for others.

I could not see how closing down the Chinese version of Google would help making gmail more secure though. Unless the plan is getting gmail banned in China so Chinese activists will not be able to use gmail at all thus remove the incentive for agents to hack the system. Anyway, I may be quite alone in this but I think Internet censorship could be a good thing. It creates jobs in the form of human censors and researchers on monitoring technologies. It also creates opportunities for enterprising individuals and VPN providers. I've read somewhere a lot of Chinese IT students earn a good chunk of money (10 to 20 USD per computer) helping others setting up VPN.

Yahoo pulled out of China years ago. Microsoft must be jumping with joy now, though. I predict when Google's gone most of its users in China would swarm to Bing.

I hold little love for communism but to be fair the Akmal Shaikh case had little to do with communism vs capitalism. By all accounts the death sentence enjoyed strong public support in China. It's doubtful a democratically-elected Chinese President would be more inclined to go against public opinion and commit political suicide by granting Shaikh clemency, no matter how hard Mr.Brown pushed for it.

My top 5 from 2009 1. Sims 3 (Yes I'm serious) 2. Anno 1404 3. Plants vs Zombies 4. Dragon Age 5. Torchlight

Heroin smuggling is considered a much graver crime than murder in many parts of drug-infested Asia. The Brit could probably get away with a far less severe punishment if he had slaughtered, say, a local tour guide.

That's too terrible. They should have dumped their trash into Somali waters.

not really, Bethesda failed to score a preliminary injunction, that's all. Interplay's chance now would be to rush the game out before the court rules on the case proper.

Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada predicts the end of gaming consoles http://www.develop-online.net/features/720...s-online-vision

The decision to delay Brink to Q3 2010 makes sense now.

I'd love to hear LoF's opinion on the recent move by North Korea to wipe out most of its citizens personal savings through currency revaluation.

Internet censorship isn't that bad with paid VPN services costing little more than ten bucks a month. High data charge on the other hand should be considered crime against humanity.

Digital distribution services for PC games generally don't offer the same deal to all content providers like App Store or Android Market do. Different developers get different deals although I won't be surprise if bigger ones tend to cut more favorably. The Gearbox CEO did come out and accused Valve of exploiting small developers shortly before Borderlands got released. Don't know if there's any truth to that but during the same period he also said Fallout 3 sucked because it had dialog trees.

I think Beth generally knows the shortcomings in their games. Remember Emil Pagliarulo's acceptance speech for the GDC Best Writing award? "This is ridiculous" The question is, do they think those problems are major enough to warrant putting resources into fixing them?

Brink delayed to Q3 2010. I wonder if this will have any effect on FO:NV's release date.

are dance pads required?

Shows why direct democracy is wrong.

Gamasutra has a new interview with JVC, here's some quote http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/26182/I...nd__Conquer.php So Command and Conquer Facebook edition confirmed?

Definitely TESV for me. In fact I won't get any new game from Blizzard until WoW gets a major graphics overhaul. That game has been out for five years now and Blizzard still hasn't made any meaningful upgrade to its rather subpar graphics after taking in billions of dollars. Simply inexcusable.

We probably won't be seeing much FO:NV info anytime soon. Brink is scheduled for Q1 2010 and Bethesda still forbids Splash Damage from releasing video footage. I'd suggest Beth's obsession with tightly controlling the flow of information is ripe for Freudian interpretations.

Bethesda is beginning to sell Fallout 3 themed Xbox Live avatar virtual clothing for up to $3 a piece. BioWare's similar offerings for Mass Effect had been available for a while now. DLCs are real bargains comparing to those low-poly versions of in-game assets.

True but I don't think anyone else had managed to release a sandbox MMORPG as successful (commercially and critically) as EVE in the last five years. So calling them the master is only due credit.

I know there's no public information yet, but here are my three questions if I get to ask the devs Which WoD the game is going to use, old or new? (Preferably the old one, since it's deeper and more...massive) Will it be a directed experience or a sandbox? (CCP, of course, is THE master of sandbox MMORPGs, and the WoD setting lends itself very well to a sandbox style game like EVE Online. But storytelling is the cornerstone of WoD, so I'm a bit torn here) Will it include Changelings? (Must be yes or else I won't play it!)

Since this thread has already been necroed, I see no harm done by posting my top ten list. In no particular order: Milon's Secret Castle (Hudson) The Elder Scrolls II : Daggerfall (Bethesda) Fallout 2 (Black Isle Studios) Uncharted Waters: New Horizons (KOEI) World of Warcraft (Blizzard) Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (Firaxis) Planescape:Torment (Black Isle Studios) The Sims (Maxis) Knights of the Old Republic (BioWare) The Elder Scrolls III : Morrowind (Bethesda) It's a shame there's no space left for at least one SimCity and one Heroes of Might and Magic titles. They're golden. Same for Deus Ex and Bloodlines.