If you're thinking about EA problems, then those games they managed to completely mess up are only the tip of the iceberg. After all, I can't deny the fact they also were behind some awesome games, but it's not about EA's games today. What I want to tell you about is another of the EA problems currently unresolved, and that is the company's attitude towards its customers. To be more specific, I want to tell you about censorship on the official EA forums.

The story goes like this - the new version of EA's website and forums, expected to drop by next week, also bring a new policy in the forums. For me, this sounds like dictatorship, and I am sure the same should be true for most of you. Just hear this - the forum accounts will be linked to the EA Master Accounts, "So if we ban you on the forums, you would be banned from the game as well since the login process is the same. And you'd actually be banned from your other EA games as well since it's all tied to your account.<-180x150 Small Rectangle - right-> So if you have SPORE and Red Alert 3 and you get yourself banned on our forums or in-game, well, your SPORE account would be banned to. It's all one in the same, so I strongly reccommend [huh?] people play nice and act mature."

So, if you get a new game from EA that sucks, and it crashes, taking away all your saves - and you spend all your free time in the last two weeks to get to the point where you were before losing the saves, you can't use any dirty language on the forums. In fact, if you get banned for in-game behavior, you lose your forum account. Also, it works the other way around, as described above.

What do you think? Are those EA problems becoming bigger, or am I just paranoid?

For some people, pre owned games are a good alternative to piracy. Obviously, I am talking about gamers on a tight budget, but there's also another kind of customer into such things - the collector looking for releases that you can't get you hands on otherwise. Anyway, the problem is not with the consumer, but with the way shops are selling pre owned games, and the reaction of people from the gaming industry to this.

Speaking for Eurogamer.net at the GameCity festival in Nottingham, Frontier founder and creator of Elite, David Braben, said that "The shops are not giving us a way of distinguishing between pre-owned and new. So the shops are essentially defrauding the industry," when talking about HMV's move into selling pre-owned games.

Well, I think this is not shocking, it's just a move to give the market what it wants. If I, as a buyer, and an additional few thousands, <-125x125 Button - right->would like one day to buy pre owned games from our favorite shop, should that shop leave us go to eBay, or try and do our bidding?

The bad part of the story is that we're getting to that digital distribution part that I really hate only to think about - "We've got a lot of retailers eating our lunch and refusing to sell full-priced games. I've been in a shop where I've tried to buy a copy of a relatively recent game, and I've taken an empty box off the shelf and they've given me a pre-owned copy. That, I think, is disgraceful. Not holding stock of new games, substituting them with pre-owned games at the same or much the same price... That is really destroying the shelf-life of our games."

OK, pre owned games for about the same price of the new ones doesn't sound good at all, but for half the price, that would really be a smart move. Just one more thing - if you're a game producer, this should be a challenge - don't say anything against those selling pre owned games, but offer players something to make them keep those games in the collection, and not throw them away!

I don't know if you like statistics or not, but I am sure you're curious about them. When talking about video games, numbers are everything, especially since we're talking about an ever-expanding market. If I will ever see aliens coming to Earth the official way, I can bet one thing - when leaving, they'll surely have a Nintendo DSi with them...or maybe a Game Boy Advance, that depends on how things are going to evolve until then!



If you want to take a look back, then you should see the August 2008 video game statistics article regarding the July games sales, as well as the October 2008 one, where we talked about the battle in the game consoles arena. Now, we're back to only a part of that battle, namely the struggle in the handheld area...

...with the Nintendo DS vs Game Boy Advance! Sure, it's a battle between brothers, but this is very interesting news in the video game statistics field, <-125x125 Button - right->since the Nintendo DS got ahead of the legendary Game Boy handheld for the first time in history!

Remembered for launching immortal games like Tetris and Pokemon, the Game Boy  sold over 81 million units, while the Nintendo DS recently reached the 84 million mark. The accurate numbers show that the DS has shipped exactly 84.33 million units by the end of September, with no less than 13.73 units sold worldwide in the last six months, while the Game Boy Advance shipments are 81.36 million.

When moving in the software video game statistics field, we find 454.63 million DS software units shipped (20 million Nintendogs!)

To close this nicely, I will also add that the Wii now is getting near to the 35 million mark, with almost 230 million software titles shipped, of which Wii Fit is getting near the 9 million barrier.

That's it for today, see you next time with some more video game statistics! When? Probably after the Christmas shopping spree...or before it! ;)

A quick question that arises in your mind when you encounter a violent video game would be "Who is pro video game violence?" and, for most people, asking this seems to be something normal. There are two questions here - "who," and "why," but before we get to them, let me tell you that my title may be a bit wrong, especially for those new to PlayerzBlog. The reason is that we're going to have two views from the inside, if we include mine. These being said, let's move back in time...



...to the day when I got my Sanitarium copy, not far from the happy day when my desk became the host of my brand new AMD K6 running at the impressive speed of 166MHz and having 32 MB of memory. I won't add anything else, since you can imagine how large was my hard drive or the tremendous capabilities of my S3 Virge video card. Let's stick to the video game violence, shall we?

If you ever played Sanitarium, I bet you remember the beginning, when a guy jumps to kill himself right next to you, and another one near is banging his head into the wall repeatedly. <-180x150 Small Rectangle - right->Obviously, these two alone aren't turning Sanitarium into a violent game, but I think this is the first game containing violence I can think of.

No, wait! There's Wolfenstein 3D, and I got to play that one even before I had my own computer! Obviously, there's more to video game violence than just one or two titles, but this is why I am pro video game violence - if it's needed, better add some violence to the story, as much as possible, than ruin it all by trying to get a lower ESRB rating.

Now, here's the most interesting part from what Emil Pagliarulo wrote on Edge about this topic, when talking about violence in Fallout 3: "We’ve gotten so used to (maybe even enamored with) the game’s violence. Actually it sometimes surprised us when we’d show the game to a spouse or someone outside of the studio, and they’d respond, “God! What the hell is that?!” They’re really taken aback by it. We had been working so closely to the game, we would forget about the possibility of that kind of response. But then again, the reaction to it among others has clearly been, “We want this game.” They like it and enjoy it, so a lot of people are sharing the same mindset that we have."

In the end, we all should remember one thing: it's only a game, no matter if its name is Doom, Fallout, or Undying. If you feel offended by it, just avoid it, and that's all. Pro video game violence? It's just about the same as porn - you take it, or leave it, and you don't usually get to see it before turning 18. So...what do you think? Are you "pro," or "against" video game violence?

As World of Warcraft reaches 11 million subscribers, another great game - although from a completely different category, is running into trouble. The game I am talking about here is Guitar Hero, and the story goes like this - while the game itself is great, users seem to have a bunch of problems with the instrument peripherals coming with it, as can be noticed after a visit on Activision's customer support website...



Leaving aside those problems starting with "How do I...," problems easily to solve by simply reading the game manual, in most cases, there's still plenty for Activision to become worried, since the hardware part of the Guitar Hero: World Tour game seems to cause most problems for those playing it.

When talking about Guitar Hero problems, usually you get to talk about Guitar Hero 2 problems, and if you spend some time on the website I mentioned earlier, <-180x150 Small Rectangle - right->you will end up with the same conclusion for all the games in the series - Guitar Hero is great, while the hardware coming with it is not that good. Just check those few Guitar Hero 2 problems posted there, and you will get a better view of the whole situation.

Now, getting back to Guitar Hero: World Tour, we have the same big problems - drum kit issues("limited to ones in the earlier manufacturing stages," according to Activision), as well as malfunctioning microphones or guitars.

While no official comments from Activision became available so far, it seems afflicted gamers will receive a "tuning kit" from the producer, described as a USB MIDI device. So far, so good, and I really hope they managed to solve this issues, because Guitar Hero is really a breakthrough for me(seeing hip-hop guys playing rock tracks in Guitar Hero YouTube movies is priceless!).