I’ve already posted about why the video games industry should do away with review scores and now I’m here to talk about why we should keep them. The industry as a whole has always been about providing gamers the best game possible on the platform of their choice. In this generation and economy we find ourselves giving a more critical eye to games then ever before. Games have increased in retail prices at $60 a pop and have bigger budgets then anyone would ever imagine 20 years ago. They are also turning into a more cinematic age and we find ourselves turning to our media and so called “games journalist” to sit back, play the game and rate the game to see if it is worth our hard earned money. If we got rid of review scores all together, the industry probably wouldn’t know what to do with itself if all there was is a wall of text as a review.

What we see is only a handful of sites (including yours truly) that do not use review scores. We all believe that the current ratings scale is hurting the industry and the industry places too much emphasis on the individual scores from each outlet. However, how can the video games industry benefit from the use of a review score? Video games can certainly benefit from using the entirety of the review scale. These days it looks like review scores aren’t going below a 6.0/10. If publications were to consistently use their grading scale, and the entire scale mind you, there wouldn’t be so much controversy or backlash among Internet folks. Nothing hits this point home then when Gamespot awards a 7.5 to The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Although no matter how you slice it, there will always be someone waiting to complain or dissect why your review sucks and why your score should be higher or lower. It shouldn’t deter you from moving on to the next to review and experience more that the video games industry has to offer. “There is something for everyone” as the saying goes.

Grading a game should not feel like hard work. If you build a proper case and present your facts and findings in a professional manner, the score should reflect that. Review scores can work on paper. You don’t have to eliminate them completely to prove a point, otherwise as a publication you’ll find yourself trying to gain success in readership and only one blog has shown to be successful at that is that of Kotaku. While some readers will be lazy and simply scroll over your review just to read the score, they’ll at least still be taking into consideration the points and issues you raise to back up your score. They may not agree with it, but you are making your case and can argue their points if they find something they disagree with. When you have smaller blogs such as ours, it becomes imperative to gain any sort of advantage you can in the industry to make your voice heard and recognized.

In order to gain success you will have to conform to what’s been in place since the video games industry has exploded. This can be achieved in many ways whether its by being different and grading your reviews on a harsher scale or modifying what’s already there and making it your own to stand out. You could add in a “pros” and “cons” section to add into your review thus lessening the impact of what would just be a score. You shouldn’t just remove review scores all together; because then you make it harder on writers to make their case if all you have is a summary at the end of your review as well as making public relations companies confused. Having a score makes it easier for PR companies to present this to publishers and developers alike, so they will be in contact with you more frequently. If you’re looking to gain trust and consistent contact, using scores may be the only way you could do that if you’re a rising blog looking to make it or break it especially on the Internet where everyone thinks their a critic. In essence, you could use the 1 – 10 rating scale in a variety of ways. You could add in a description and do away with the point increments, and just keep a whole value.

Point increments just simply make things a bit to complicated since you’ll have your review judged just as harshly. Assigning whole values makes things easier for everyone and makes the discussion afterwards more interesting. Clinging to an idea thinking it will catch will most likely not be effective in the long run. If you open yourself up to what’s there and make it your own, you can get your message across and find yourself having more success.  You don’t have to change overnight, but if you work at it you can be successful. Review scores can be used as a starting point for any up and coming publication to make it their own and allow your fellow staff to feel comfortable where they are writing and enjoy their work without shooting themselves in the foot by sticking to one end all be all philosophy.

Many media outlets from blogs to professional outlets have some sort of rating scale for their reviews. Publishers release games early to these outlets to give them an ample amount of time to conjure their thoughts and post their reviews around the game’s launch date. These reviews often come with a review “score” usually something along the lines of a 1- 10 rating scale.

This is where we get to a moment where readers generally seem to just look at the score not the actual content of the review. We’re going to look at this argument with the idea that the video game industry could easily do away with the “scale” of grading a game. A game in this day in age has everything from a story, characters, gameplay, multiplayer and all sorts of features to be taken into account when judging a game. If the video games industry were to do away with a grading scale, words would then be judged on the review. This becomes important because it not only judges reviewers integrity but their facts and content. It would take away the useless and baseless argument over “why game X got a better score then game Y” when each game is different.

If a reviewer can clearly state in their review why the game lacks or excels in certain areas and provide a well thought-out review without adding a score, more power to them. If you add a score to that review, people generally will simply gloss over your review, look at the score and then comment and criticize your review score if you are different then the rest of your fellow outlets without looking at your reasons for backing up that score. People have become to obsess wondering what this particular outlets score is going to be or what grade a new title will receive.

Games should not be automatically guaranteed any kind of score right out of the gate no matter what the “journalist” or publisher dictates. It appears from the way triple a titles have been “graded” scores don’t seem to go below a 6/10. If we got rid of review scores all together, readers will undoubtedly be concentrated more on the effort put in the review. “Journalists” would then be judged to a higher degree and there would be a greater amount of quality and not quantity within the industry. Publishers and developers also need to realize that they shouldn’t concentrate so much on the idea that they need to make a game as best they can so they can earn a certain score among the media. They should be concentrating on making the best game they could possibly pull together and gamers should be excited for a new game and not the “score” of the game.

The mistake here, you see, was drawing the art with your eyes closed.

But people aren’t perfect. Mistakes are still made.  Here are the most common.

The Magic Bullet

This one is fairly rare but it’s always annoyed me nonetheless. It’s a shame it’s attached to one of my favourite PSone titles.

Can you see it yet?

You see, there are four components to a cartridge: a case, an explosive primer, the propellant, and the projectile bullet itself. The only part of it that leaves the gun through the business end is the bullet; the other components are either reduced to ash or removed (often ejected) from the chamber to make room for the next cartridge.

Seeing a bullet in flight depicted as the entire piece – casing, bullet and all – is pretty jarring. It’s jarring because the only way you’d ever actually see an entire cartridge zipping across a room like this would be if somebody threw it.

You know, like Topper Harley.

Research Fail

In this day and age, where simple fact checking doesn’t even require a trip to the library, there’s no excuse for dumb mistakes. It’s befuddling how often people are content to push ahead with something without sparing a second to check it’s actually correct. Check out this cover for Pilot Down: Behind Enemy Lines.

The explosion would also likely obliterate his insides. But I digress.

It’s a bad piece of artwork in the first place but the problem here is that it’s annoyingly inaccurate. Why is this fighter pilot wearing this patch on his flight jacket?

This patch actually represents the 101st Airborne Division, the Screaming Eagles. The 101st Airborne is a light infantry division trained for air assault operations. You know, they’re the paratroopers in the likes of Band of Brothers and Brothers in Arms.

This guy is a fighter pilot, not a paratrooper.

Grasping at Straws

This is what happens when suits and spreadsheets get involved in the creative process.

“Listen, Karl? It’s Karl, right?

“It’s Mike, actually.”

“Mike, what we need from this game cover is something that resembles the DVD packshot. Can you do that?”

“Sure. Do we have all the necessary clearances?”

“Not as such, no.”

The end results only call attention to what your game doesn’t have.

Oh, Eddie, you so sly. Stop your hidin’!

Beverly Hills Cop, from Blast! Entertainment, was not released in the US. It shouldn’t have been released at all, to be honest. Blast! obviously couldn’t afford anything beyond the title itself because it has nothing in common with classic 1984 action comedy. Blast! couldn’t get a piece of Eddie Murphy so it went with a packshot without him. Without anybody, in fact.

Check out the car again. They even had to crop off the Mercedes logo.

For your reference, here are the two DVD covers they’ve cribbed this disaster from.

Yup.

Unnecessarily Confusing

You must remember this, surely?

“Hold it. You ain’t goin’ no damn wheres.”

What the hell does this have to do with anything? Is this game about banjos? Beards? It’s like space Deliverance. It’s completely baffling.

Some designers clearly think if they plonk something zany on a packshot people will just have to pick it up. It may work, but ultimately you just end up mystifying everyone.

Photoshop Disaster

It’s kind of remarkable that these elite athletes do so well with such severe arm-related disabilities.

Where is Ronaldinho’s elbow? I never noticed this before. It cannot be unseen.

The thing about these ones is that they might be easy to miss the first time around, but once you see them you can’t unsee them.

Lifted Wholesale

Ah, Phoenix Games, you scamps. You see, Phoenix Games specialised in this kind of bottom-of-the-barrel dross. In fact, it wasn’t even bottom-of-the-barrel. It was the more the mould and scum that accumulated in the moist, dark area underneath the barrel. Phoenix Games’ crack team of plagiarists were always on the lookout for existing properties they could pillage. Sometimes they got pathetically desperate. Snow White and the Seven Clever Boys?

Boys don’t have beards. You know who have beards? Dwarves.

I don’t know how anybody could seriously hit Ctrl-S on something like this without dying a little on the inside. Phoenix Games didn’t limit itself to lifting from Disney though.

Look, it’s Land Before Copyright Infringement.

Using Stock or Stolen Images

You may have seen this one before. It’s a good one.

Oops.

See the watermarks? They’re the watermarks stock photo websites apply to their picture previews so it’s difficult to rip them off. Quite the faux pas.

It’s cheap and lazy to use stock photos on video game packshots. To be fair, using watermarked images as placeholders is admittedly common. Nobody wants to waste cash on a whole bunch of images some bigwig may hate and request new ones. The mistake made here was sending it out pre-release. But hey, at least it was noticed before all the boxes were printed and it hit shelves, right?

Man, it would be super embarrassing to grab a watermarked image from somewhere, put it on your packshot, print it and sell the game before anybody caught it. Surely that’s never happened, right?

Wat.

Source: IGN

With the launch of Batman: Arkham City upon us at midnight tonight to be exact if you’re in North America, this thought comes into question as to why developers should focus the same amount of dedicated time and resources to build other super hero titles. Rocksteady Studio’s decision to take on Batman was the best decision you could ever make in development. Previous to Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman hadn’t seen a release in the video game world since Batman Begins in 2005. Continually the games have received disappointing review scores and poor feedback from fans. It was in 2009 that Rocksteady Studios released Batman: Arkham Asylum and critics and fans raved, this is what a superhero game needs to be and how it needs to be made.

You could easily apply this method to other superheroes; bring together a team of talented and devoted developers who are also interested in the mythos of the character you are developing. There are plenty of superheroes you could tackle and release into the wild while not being attached to a movie release date. This is the one problem superhero titles constantly face is that publishers often see the movie-tie in games as quick cash-ins and are more often then not made poorly and don’t fully realize the character’s potential. Take for instance, Superman; this character has had horrible history in the games industry. His last releases were back in the days of the Nintendo 64 with Superman 64 and let’s not forget the dismal Superman Returns title back in 2006. Superman 64 was based on the popular days of the Animated series and barely had a plot and just involved Superman flying around through circles trying to “defeat” Lex Luthor or Braniac on occasion.

Rocksteady could easily build a world around the character and a story to fit comfortable with purists and fans of the character. In order to build a Superman title you have to create a world in that realism is first and foremost a priority. The biggest difference between Batman and Superman is that underneath it all, Batman is just a man but Superman is a god among men. To build any Superman game you’ll need to have a restriction on the character. You shouldn’t be able to fly anywhere around the world, or use X-Ray vision to destroy some of the buildings in Metropolis (in which case Superman wouldn’t anyway), you’ll have to have Superman set in a restricted area. Here are my thoughts on how I’d see a Superman title being made out.

Take Superman set in Metropolis and introduce players to the world around you. Set Tim Daly as the voice of the Man of Steel with Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor, Dana Delaney as Lois Lane, and the rest of the studded cast of the Animated Series. If they can do it for Batman, why not Superman? Introduce players to playing as Clark Kent learning the ropes of the Daily Planet, earning various side quests performing reporter duties taking pictures of small time events and crimes. When an action for Superman occurs have players run to a designated area of the map to change to Superman and fly off to save the day. If you’re wondering at this point what the villain should be, lets make it an epic battle with Brainiac to kick things off. Develop the characters and story with a strong script behind it and plot and you have yourself a top notch Superman title.

Now to throw in multiplayer, you would have to stick with the challenge rooms that Rocksteady has developed with the two latest Batman titles. It would be ridiculous to have some sort of online multiplayer with Superman and other villains fighting it out in various types of online games. If you keep it simple with things like challenge rooms, it makes you appreciate the work put into the character and brings out the strength and abilities you could use to get the high score and earn achievements or trophies.

So in essence, I could see a Superman game being developed if taken with enough care, dedication and respect to the research put into the character and plot development. With the amount of care taken into Batman, Superman would need as much respect and considering it’s a character with rich history and mythos, there is plenty of source material to work with. So, I pose this question, what kind of plot would you want to see if Rocksteady developed a Superman title with the same dedication as Batman?

1: Facebook

While fairly obvious, it’s amazing what the power of Facebook can do. Create a page for your game and make it your update and news hub.  Get all your friends to ‘like’ your page and make them make their friends do the same.  If your page reaches a certain number of followers you can change the page’s domain name to something resembling your game. Not only does this improve your search ranking when people look for your game, but it makes you look much more professional.  While not an app, the Minecraft Facebook page is an excellent example of what to do with a dedicated Facebook page: they let the community vote on certain content, provide news and talk to the community.

2. XDA Developer Forums

If your game is free, start ranting about it on the XDA forums. These forums are specifically designed for promoting and improving your game. If you are polite, follow their forum rules and get your presence known you could gain a huge following. Better yet, some will download your game and give you constructive feedback: the greatest thing an app developer could hope for.

3. Twitter

Twitter is a double-edged sword: it’s an incredible tool for spreading the word, but you need a fairly large following in the first place to do so effectively. Twitter is better used later in the marketing game, when your Facebook profile has gained some followers. Make sure your Twitter and Facebook profiles provide different kinds of information. For example, your Twitter page can tweet upcoming improvements while your Facebook page talks to the fans and provides in depth media coverage. NEVER copy and paste information from one medium to the other, it looks lazy and if people can receive the same information from Facebook or Twitter, why bother signing up to the other?  A good example of using Twitter to promote a game is the PopCap Games official Twitter page; the company creates hype for its new games but more importantly responds and talks to their community.

4. App Review Sites

Many would think this is the first priority, but the truth is if your game doesn’t have a large fan base most companies will not bother reviewing it. There are some great app review sites out there such as playandroid.com and androidtapp.com, beware though, if your game is not up to scratch be prepared for an honest review!

5. Your Existing Fan Base

By far the most important tip on the list, your existing fans should be your primary concern. Build a rapport with them, get them involved in your game, but most importantly: talk to them. These people are going to tell their friends about your game, if you have built a relationship with them they will say nothing but positive things. As an example, for our game, we let our fan base choose the next map pack theme and had them vote on different ideas. Things like these make your fans feel a part of your game, and if they feel like they are part of your game, they aren’t going to uninstall it in a hurry.

There are hundreds of other great ways to advertise your app, these are just the ones we had the most success in. If you want to see our game (shameful plug) check out: https://market.android.com/details?id=processing.android.test.turtleslide and tell us what you think.

If you have any other good methods share them in the comments below! Good luck with your app!

In order to write this article for you folks I had to use math. I really don’t like math. So you better enjoy this!

Today, I bring you “my” version of the ten best video games of all time. To get to my conclusion, I scoured the internet for ten lists of the ten best games that span over the last three years. Next, I calculated which titles appeared constantly in the ten different lists. Using the average rating of each of these games, I came up with a new “Top 10”.

Drum roll, please..!

10. Goldeneye: 007 (N64)

9. Street Fighter II (SNES)

8. Resident Evil 4 (Gamecube)



7. The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past (SNES)

6. Super Mario World (SNES)

5. Grand Theft Auto IV (Various)

4. Super Mario 64 (N64)

3. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)

2. Tetris (Various)

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)

There you have it! Was anyone even remotely surprised that Ocarina of Time was number one? If so, let me know what title you think deserves the title of the best game to ever be created (it doesn’t have to be on this list). Any titles out there you’re surprised didn’t make the cut? I would have bet money on Final Fantasy VII showing up on here, somewhere..

Earlier this year, Fumito Ueda (director and lead designer behind Shadow of the Colossus) expressed his concern involving the industry and a belief that Western games could cause problems for Japan’s own gaming industry. Ueda mentioned that the Japanese movie industry suffered a similar fate in the 1970s where it fell into decline due to the blockbusters made abroad.

While Brian Ashcraft (Kotaku’s Japan-based writer) pointed out that two of the three consoles are Japan created, he does believe the change in TGS could be fueled by the rising interest Japan gamers have in games developed outside of the country. The Tokyo Game Show’s big booths this year were smaller with Electronic Arts and Sega combining theirs into one- a first in the show’s history. This, as well as Ashcraft’s statement seem to make Ueda’s suspicions plausible.

When asked about a possible decline, Jeff Brown (EA’s vice president of corporate communication) denied the possibility. “Japan is still in the world’s top three game markets and TGS is an important promotional beat for publishers in that market. For the worldwide market, the value of TGS is determined by the number of retailers, industry analysts and journalists who attend. The September timing of the show provides a good platform for promoting games that will launch in the Western holiday.”

A Microsoft spokeman also believes they still rely on the annual show. “We’re excited about TGS this year as part of our commitment to supporting local events, activities and ways to reach new and existing audiences,” he explained to Kotaku. “Japan is home to some of the most legendary creators in our industry, and TGS is a great opportunity to highlight the creative talent of Japan’s leading third party developers and reinforce our commitment to this unique market.”

The downsizing of TGS’ booths could easily be tied to the lack of major console launches this year. The biggest news this year will likely come from Sony and Nintendo- who boasted their new and upcoming handhelds, as well as an impressive number of upcoming titles. It may simply be due time for another generation of consoles to spark a new wave.

You see it every week on the Xbox Live charts provided by Major Nelson, Call of Duty: Black Ops is constantly in top 10. It shouldn’t be any surprise to anyone; Black Ops has an addictive multiplayer style. But, what makes it so addicting? Yes, it is pretty obvious the title is a first person shooter, but we’re looking at content here. The game has quite a bit of content for you to mess around with, more so then most average first person shooters out there. From Team Deathmatch, too Domination, to Free for All and many others, the variety is there to keep you playing. The game ships with 14 different maps, not counting the downloadable content. These maps are based on the single player campaign, so some of them might look familiar. These on their own are enough to keep coming back for more, but people want variety and that’s where the downloadable content steps in.

The first map pack was First Strike, which was released back on February 1^st, 2011. The pack in total gave us four new maps and a zombie map. The four maps were “Berlin Wall”, “Discovery”, “Kowloon”, and “Stadium”. Stadium was a fast pace arena style map that really gave you no chance for sniping spots. You’ll have possibly an opportunity for campers, but of course that’s something you deal with in every first person shooter out there. I think it would be safe to say that our favorite map here on this map pack is “Berlin Wall”. It adds a bit of strategy and makes you think about where your position is. There is also what is known as “no man’s land” if you decide to cross into the middle of the wall before being gunned down by machine gun nests. There are plenty of places to hide including a record storm, which is easily where you could hide C4 or other devices to your advantage.

A few months down the road (in April) and Treyarch releases a second map pack entitled “Escalation”. This pack introduced the following maps: “Zoo”, “Hotel”, “Convoy”, and “Stockpile”. Stockpile is a map you’ll find a lot of people hiding around corners. It has open spaces, and more strategic places you could take advantage of. In games like Domination you’ll more then likely find campers in every corner of the map looking to defend their points as they can. I find one game mode that is one of the better ones out there is “Search and Destroy”.

Finally, the last complete map pack for multiplayer was entitled Annihilation and contained 4 new multiplayer maps. These maps included: “Hangar 18″, “Hazard”, “Drive-In”, and “Silo”. Our favorite of this bunch is Drive-In, it’s close quarters combat and can easily net you a few surprise knife kills as well. There are a few spots for sniping as well which I have found to be quite comfortable if you know how use them. Hazard is a major sniping zone and you’ll find yourself hearing the words “SNIPER!” more then a few times when in-session. Both sides of the map offer long distances for the “Long Shot” challenge if you can pull it off. Some of the easy spots include inside the billboard as well as the sand traps and bridges on the northern part of the map. By now, everyone has learned the majority of these maps, so my advice to you? Keep up with everyone and train on the maps inside Combat Training. One of the greatest achievements to the Call of Duty experience is Combat Training. It offers an opportunity for you to get a feel for how the maps look and what you can expect to see when you venture into the online world.

So, with all these maps released for Black Ops over the year, can we expect to see the same kind of support in Modern Warfare 3? I would certainly like to see Infinity Ward add more widespread maps with more space for sniping. Maps like Hazard were fun in this respect providing a lot of space while still having room for close quarter combat. Other maps like “Berlin Wall” were very entertaining and with the added “No Man’s Land” aspect of the map, it left you with a more strategic style of thinking. We can only wait and see what Infinity Ward will do once Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 launches on November 8^th, 2011. What would you like to see in Modern Warfare 3’s multiplayer?

The panel would have been pretty boring if it weren’t for Jaffe who stirred up some heated back and forth when he made the following comments:

“The amount of emotion for me personally, that gets elicited by most video games…is so miniscule…I like the idea of games being games and movies and storytelling being its own thing…If I want to cry or be emotional I’ll just go watch a movie because it’s better at that… I’m all for games that are about narrative and experiences…but I want the whole experience to be about what’s happening in my brain as a player. I don’t want to watch your fucking movie, I don’t want to watch your cut-scene, I don’t want to see your fucking set-piece, just to say, ‘Look at our fucking set-piece.’ No…My brain is active when you give me a challenge or something to explore, or something to discover. It’s not active when I’m watching your cut-scene…Would I ever make another [big budget] game? Yea but I want to do it if we can figure out a way on the team [that] the gameplay is the story and the story is the gameplay. They have to be married and intertwined, or I’m not interested. I’d rather make an iPhone game.”

Jaffe is essentially saying that he believes video games have a bad habit of separating the mechanics and gameplay from the actual story experience. In essence, a game will tell you to stop playing and thinking while it presents a big story moment such as a cut-scene or set-piece. He is right. That is essentially how most games do it. That is the standard that has been set for telling a story in a video game by such games as Half-Life, Uncharted, and even to Jaffe’s own admittance, God of War.

What Jaffe is talking about is the visceral, raw emotion elicited from a game. The excitement of getting that high score in Pac-Man CE DX, or going on a tear in COD and earning an attack helicopter, or that nervous, delicate excitement one might feel just before finally getting that last trophy needed for platinum. Jaffe’s argument is that, if games can elicit this kind of excitement from gameplay, then there should be a way to elicit an opposite but equal kind of emotion from gameplay, such as sadness or melancholy.

So if gameplay and story should be more intertwined, how can this be achieved? He doesn’t give too many examples, but one that he does give is the original Deus Ex. (I doubt he likes Human Revolution with its frequent CG cut-scenes.) That game presented its story through conversations with other characters and every decision the player made contributed to the outcome of the story. Decisions on the battlefield even contributed to the outcome of the plot, so while the player was enjoying the stealth and action, the plot was forming around them, not the other way around.

Are there any other games that do this? Has a game’s mechanics ever made you cry? Well, of course, in fact the control scheme in Deus Ex: Human Revolution has made me throw my controller in anger on several occasions. But I don’t think that’s what Jaffe had in mind. OK sure, there are games such as Limbo, Bastion and Ico that use minimal cut-scenes and story intrusion to elicit that kind of response, but it is those limited cut-scenes and audio cues that give the game context to tell the story which in turn gives the game emotional weight.

Without this context, games would simply be Angry Birds. There needs to be some kind of context whether it’s GlaDoS speaking in the background, the conversations with other characters on the long rides in Red Dead Redemption or the excellently produced cut-scenes of Uncharted. However, I will agree that games don’t do as well at eliciting emotional responses from their stories as they do eliciting them from gameplay. However, where I differ from Jaffe is that I don’t believe games could elicit a sad emotion in the same way they elicit an excited emotion.

A game isn’t going to make me cry because I got a high score. It isn’t going to make me cry because I beat a final boss. Human drama, something I can relate to, something that brings forth a painful or happy memory; that is what will elicit that kind of response from me. Do games do this as well as they could? No. However, instead of going deeper into that I will simply state that I think games are headed in the right direction on this front.

Another argument could be made that people who aren’t gamers aren’t going to be playing big, complex games and that games such as Angry Birds and Plants Vs Zombies could try to integrate story and emotion into the gameplay in simple ways such as Bastion’s use of Rucks’ constant narration. This could bring those emotional responses into the smaller, mechanics intensive space present on the iOS platform. This would be a great way to add depth to that dollar priced iPhone game that your co-workers secretly play on their coffee breaks.

Then again, why bother? David Jaffe admits that he no longer has interest in trying to elicit an emotional response from the player. He wants his iPhone games to be free of the constraints of story. He wants his video games and movies to be separate. I would argue that video games can do both. Right now is an exciting time in gaming, with a wide array of experiences available ranging from one dollar games such as Tiny Wings to downloadable’s like Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, to huge-budget epics like Skyrim. Gaming has diversified and expanded to fit a wide array of tastes and preferences. The silver lining in Jaffe’s comments is that there is room in this industry for both points of view. What could be so bad about that?

The saying is that first impressions go a long way, and make an initial impact such to define a persons overall liking/disliking of a particular person or thing; in this instance, a video game. So, demos, as they are so thoughtfully and helpfully granted to us for free, should probably give us a great insight into a game and leave us wanting more, so much more that we will stop at nothing to delve into the last pieces of shrapnel at the bottom of our wallets (or even credit card), throw that recession bullshit to the wind and fork out on a game that, from the demo, we simply just want to continue.

A brilliant example of a demo that did this was the Fable II downloadable chapters provided on Xbox Live after the launch of the game. I happily did the first chapter and fully immersed myself into the world of Albion; upgrading my character and powers and kicking some serious ass, only to then be hit with a ‘buy the full game now’ prompt screen when I was just beginning to grasp the concept of the game and was enjoying it fully. As you can probably guess, I was sucked into buying this game, and after playing it through fully, was so glad I did. So yes, game demos can be good, but, they can also be very bad, and fail poorly…

Fable II's beautifully crafted world of Albion.

Dead Space is one example of a bad demo. It failed to make me want to move on and it threw me into the midst of a shit-load of crazy Necromorphs, starving for ‘noob’ blood and guts. They must have been getting pretty full because they were well fed a good few times. Dead Space however, (upon buying it anyway due to numerous people and magazine reviews telling me it was amazing) was amazing. The best survival horror game I’ve ever played and I was sucked in from the spine-tingling start and just itched for more. So why did they not use the first 15 minutes of the game for the demo? That would have worked fine!

In honesty, the demo for Dead Space kind of put me off the game and I put off buying it for a while, until it came down in price. Yes, I realise now what a mistake this was, but in my eyes the poor demo was to blame. The hype around the game before and on release had me interested, but as I was being given a demo of the game for free before purchase, I did the obvious thing; downloaded it. In this particular case, that was probably a bad idea.

Demo at its worst; survival horror at its best.

It’s not that the demo didn’t give a good idea of the style of combat gameplay and mechanics used, or even what type of a game it was intending to be. It did those things well. Where it failed was that it dumped you into one of the tougher parts of the game (combat wise) and left you to fend for yourself. The demo was by no stretch a true representation of Dead Space. The atmosphere provided throughout this game in the brilliantly created and terrifyingly realistic environment did not shine through in the demo, nor did the engaging story or the characters within. Dead Space has a vast array of qualities that were not given their time to shine in the demo. It was too focused on showing off the combat, guns blazing side of the game, rather than it’s more appealing, spine tingling ability to make you as a player hesitate around almost every corner.

It’s obvious that demos as a marketing tool are very effective, but think of some of the best games you have ever played and ask yourself; ‘did I play a demo for them before buying?’. In my case, the answer to this question for all of my favourite games would be ‘No’. Gears of War demo? No. Halo, Final Fantasy 7, Deus Ex demo? No, no, no. Don’t get me wrong, I have bought games based on their demo, but none that I would ever regard as one of my personal top games. I have always found that the games that I don’t have demos for are the better ones, but why? Maybe it’s because the story is allowed to build from the start and I am able to engross myself into the game. Maybe it’s because nothing has been given away (other than video footage) before playing the game. I can’t quite put a finger on why.

Maybe we should question how we may feel about our favourite games if we had played a demo of them before purchasing…

What do you think?

Plantronics was kind enough to send over their GameCom X95 wireless gaming headset and we put it through its paces for an entire month. We’ve delved into games like the Gears of War 3 beta, Call of Duty Black Ops and others, read more below to read about our impressions of this hefty headset.

Plantronics X95 gaming headset provides gamers with a full surround sound experience whether you gaming on your  Xbox 360. We decided to take a look into what makes this headset work through extensive gaming sessions through many games including the recent Gears of War 3 beta and other titles with heavy use of surround sound quality. Plantronics has been in the business since the 1960s and over time have managed to make headsets comfortable and more affordable for the everyday gamer. Over the years, Plantronics have expanded to provide headsets for office, mobile and now gaming uses. We now take a look into the gaming world and they have provided us with a sample of their GameCom X95 headset for Xbox 360.

As a headset, the X95 is sturdily built and structurally sound. The first thing you notice when you take it out of the box is it’s padding underneath the headrest to provide comfort for those long gaming hours. This is Plantronics highest quality headset around in the business. Inside the box you’ll find the GameCom X95, wireless adapter and components, 2 AAA batteries, and the adapter that connects your headset to your controller. You’ll also find a “Get Started” pamphlet to help you set up everything to get up and running. Once putting on the headset, it felt comfortable thanks to the soft cushioned material from the top of my head to my ears on both sides.

The right and left ear pods have two separate controls for volume and a button for use of the microphone. Speaking of, the microphone sits folded inside the headset hiding from being a distraction if your not playing online. However, once in use the microphone is of much better quality then the one provided by your Xbox 360 system. I have been playing the Gears of War 3 beta, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Mass Effect and other titles and each time every game left me completely immersed in the experiences. Despite all my gaming time with Microsoft’s wired headset, I never noticed the incredible detailed sounds my game provided through the main TV speakers. The GameCom X95 headset provides 44 mm speaker surround sound and that means you hear everything. From the sound of birds chirping in the background or the sounds of gunfire in the distance in Gears of War or Black Ops. It’s very easy to get lost in the world of any specific game your playing, as that is how good the quality is of this product.

Finally, one thing you’ll notice is that you could go on for hours on end without the headset becoming a nuisance. I never felt as if I needed to take a break because of the headset becoming caught up in my hair or otherwise. It’s a unique upgrade that you should certainly consider in your gaming budget. It’s is a great piece of wireless gaming equipment. Be sure to check out Plantronics.com to purchase your own pair of GameCom 95 headsets for $99.99. You’ll also find headsets available for Playstation 3 owners as well.

It’s the time year where, publishers, developers, and the video game press gather this week at an event known as the Electronic Entertainment Expo otherwise known as E3. It’s a big time of the year for hardcore gamers and other interested folk as Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft prepare to take the stage with their press conference keynotes. There certainly won’t be a shortage of new software, and hardware announcements and even plenty of surprises this year. Nintendo seems to be planning big announcements for its successor of the Wii and there are certainly other announcements that are forthcoming that make this year’s E3 different than in the past. In the vein of these new console announcements it usually signifies a big change in the video game industry in an attempt to continue to remain relevant in an ever-changing industry. What can we expect from each company and what company has the most at stake? Read on to find out.

Nintendo: The Wii is seeing its last legs this year; it’s a known fact that the system is declining in sales and Nintendo has dropped the price already this fiscal quarter. Third party support seems nearly non-existent and the companies own support comes from the last title that will be developed for it; The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. It was the same situation back when the Gamecube was nearing its last legs until Twilight Princess slide right into the Wii’s launch catalog. Fortunately for now, the company has the DS and the 3DS to fall back on. However, the 3DS is getting off to a slow start and if you remember the original DS had a similar start and now it’s become of the favorite handhelds of it’s generation certainly after some key games were released.

What to Expect: Wii HD or in other words, Project Café or whatever you want to call it is the successor to the Nintendo Wii. It’s certain that all eyes will be focused on Nintendo’s presser tomorrow morning, as it will be the shining star. There will certainly be some demonstrations showing off the consoles capabilities, gameplay, and graphics including some actual gameplay demonstrations though don’t be surprised if you see a tech demo reel as well. You can probably expect to see more info revealed about Skyward Sword as well and possibly a new gameplay demonstration of the title. We also wouldn’t be surprised if this is the moment where Nintendo will try to convince third party publishers that this is the console to invest in. We have been hearing rumors lately of a touch screen with front facing camera on the controllers. We will also get to see how well the system is or surpasses that power of the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The console won’t be out until next year, so it’s certainly a project to keep an eye in the coming months and weeks ahead.

Now let’s not forget Nintendo also has other items on its agenda. Everything from more announcements for the 3DS probably tied to the e-Shop. Super Mario 3DS was recently announced and we’re certain we’ll see a gameplay session for that title considering it’ll most likely be the flagship title in the next round of releases. And finally we have the 25^th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda series, and Nintendo is said to have something up its sleeve to celebrate the event.

Microsoft: While the Xbox 360 is certainly the oldest console in the bunch, they added a few extra lives too it with the addition of the Kinect camera. Though, despite its launch catalog; third party support has been rather non-existent for the peripheral much like the Wii. Outside of that, however, Microsoft has enjoyed some rather exciting titles in its third party catalog over the last few years and looks to even take that up a notch. The only unfortunate downside is that its first party catalog is considerably lacking outside of Gears of War 3 and Forza Motorsport 4 and the rumored Halo: Combat Evolved HD remake.

What to Expect: You can certainly expect to see Microsoft realize this gap in support and come to the rescue; first with Kinect in particular with Star Wars Kinect and Kinect Sports 2. It’ll also be interesting to see if the company will realize its potential with its first party games to be released with Kinect support though I’m sure we do know that Kinect only titles are first priority. In regards too its third party support, don’t be surprised if you come too see presentation for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or even a slight tease of Assassins Creed Revelations before Ubisoft’s presser. What could they surprise us with, this year? Possible new console hardware announcement to keep up with Nintendo, maybe even a Halo 4 reveal teaser trailer. I’m sure a lot of fans would be excited if Activision Blizzard jumped on board for Xbox Live. There are plenty of things to look at as the d-day hour approaches for Microsoft’s press conference. Let’s hope it’s not leaked early to ruin the surprise.

Sony: Sony has seen its fair share of troubles over the last few months. Its PSN network was hacked and taken down for several weeks before finally being restored and all is well again. It’s welcome back program designed to keep around its loyal consumer base since day one. Since the company is starting too pick up steam again we can certainly see them showing us how the attack affected them and what they have to show us in terms of new upgrades too the Playstation 3. Also a major priority on the list is Sony’s new handheld system to rival the 3DS. There are rumors circling that it will be called Playstation Vita, but these unconfirmed reports are just that of course, to be taken with a grain of salt.

What to Expect: Sony will most likely treat us with the charts and graphs routine much like in previous years. Showing how the console has kept pace with the Xbox 360. The company will most likely go into little detail about the recent hacking and be optimistic about the future of its network and newly restored confidence. A high priority on the list will certainly be the NGP handheld and its price range announcement, and final showing of its retail unit. Don’t be surprised too see the entire launch catalog revealed including the new Uncharted title with demonstration. The Playstation 3 will get to share in its own excitement as well with new updates to the Playstation Network service as well as more detail on upcoming games for the summer and fall and possible teased reveals of future titles. Also, we’ll see appearances from Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception along with gameplay and beta reveal. Twisted Metal will certainly make an appearance with beta reveal as well as others.

The summer release drought has been a permanent fixture in the gaming industry. However, this year there’s been a different drought: a Spring one. The only notable releases over the past few months have been overly expensive map packs, which were normally free back in my day.

“But Chris, there’s loads of games coming out in the next two months!” I hear you cry. True, but what exactly are they outside of Portal 2? Homefront is a rubbish brown FPS like everything this gen, Crysis 2 is destined to disappoint going by its multiplayer demo and the 3DS has a shockingly bad launch line-up.

How did it get this bad? Well, let’s not delude ourselves here. The DS launch lineup was fairly basic, with the usual array of shovelware and Mario 64 being just about the only options for gamers. However, shouldn’t system launches be accompanied by something appropriately epic?

Moreover, should games that were supposed to be out at Christmas be pushed to spring just to avoid the heavyweights? These types of titles get pushed further down the line to summer or even towards the end of the year. Homefront and Crysis 2 are two such examples. They got pushed to now just to avoid getting roasted in the pre-Christmas sales mania ruled by Call of Duty: Black Ops.

From what we can tell with Homefront, it doesn’t like the extra time was actually used to improve the game. Instead, THQ got carried away and believed their own hype and commissioned a bizarre array of DLC. Crysis 2′s multiplayer demo showcased a game that was just as shallow. Crytek has betrayed the fans of the Crysis series by essentially making the game Call of Duty: Future Warfare.

It appears that developers are now questioning themselves whether all this hassle is worth it. If your game doesn’t have space marines, warfare or some form of retarded motion control it will struggle to sell. So many studios have closed over the past year because they haven’t managed to adapt to this now stoic mainstream, whereas others have been neutered to appeal to this frankly shallow demographic (Rare, for example).

So, what can we do to stop this madness? We must stop buying average games and support those that innovate and really try for our time. Stuff like Portal 2 should be ruling this industry. You know the type of game: titles with actual characters and at least a valid attempt at story-telling. Games will never be art, but they can at least be intelligent and challenging in different ways. This used to be the type of thing gamers loved. Metal Gear Solid was draped in madcap plot twists and equally weird characters, but this quirky side to our traditionally quirky industry is being challenged by the “faux-quirky” (waggle, motion tosh) and the new mainstream: shoddy warfare rubbish.

So how does this fit into our starting thesis? To stop the drought, we need to get back to our old gaming mindset and remember we now have more ways to have a dialogue with publishers. They must understand we want games all over the year, not just when its most profitable for them in relation to their competition. Just look at what happened with Activision, they eventually got the message and cancelled Guitar Hero and the Tony Hawks series.

Publishers are beginning to wake up and realise we have a voice and we need to show them that we should still be their target audience. We are loyal folk in an industry now dominated by people that identify Mario as a character in a sports title as opposed to his magnum opus: Super Mario 64 and this is wrong. To defeat the drought, we must defeat the non-gaming and “faux-gaming” (Call of Duty playing) hordes that are content to blindly screw up our once great industry.

We’ve shown you some of our concerns for Kinect so far thanks to this article. However, what about how Kinect could possibly become a phenomenon for Microsoft in the future? We’ve seen the tech demos when the controller first appeared on the scene as “Project Natal” with Milo among a couple of mini games. But, this past E3 has shown us the full power of Kinect and what it will bring to Xbox 360 gamers around the world and those more importantly connected to Xbox Live. Read on for a few pluses as to why Kinect will be a rounding success once it launches this November.

1. Wireless Sign In To Xbox Live

While some of you may not think this isn’t a big deal when it comes to Xbox Live, but trust me it is. How many times has the process taken longer to kick in when you sign into your Xbox Live account via a standard controller? Wouldn’t you appreciate it if you had a more unique way of doing so? With the Kinect presentation at Microsoft’s press conference one of the developers from the Kinect team showed just how to do that. You’ll walk up to your Kinect and Xbox 360 and wave a friendly hello. The Kinect will instantly recognize your Avatar as it will always remember your face. From there you can sign into Xbox Live and be on your way. How easy was that? It’s painless and requires practically no work on your part. Let’s move on.

2. The Games

The part everyone loves a good debate about. What kind of games can we expect to launch with the device? What can I possibly do with my Kinect? While we’ll be getting into the social networking part of the device soon enough, the games are what will keep everyone coming back to it. Microsoft was pleased to announce that once the controller launches on November 4^th it will come with 15 titles for you to get your hands on. Some of which were actually presented at the conference. You’ll see releases like Dance Central from Harmonix, You Shape: Fitness Evolved from Ubisoft and even my favorite property, Star Wars from LucasArts. These titles are exclusive to Kinect and Xbox 360 and will all hopefully launch on time when Kinect launches. There’s plenty more to come in future announcements of course.

3. The Social Interaction

With details continually emerging about Kinect, Microsoft decided to give sports fans something work with. It was announced by two Sportscenter broadcasters that ESPN will be available exclusively on Xbox 360. The service will let sports gamers and fans alike view any number of live games via internet streaming of sports like College Football and Basketball, the MLB, the NFL and Soccer. This is a big step for Microsoft to emerge with new ideas for social interaction. With Kinect players will be able to play trivia games during broadcasts among other activities.

There are still many more things we have to discover about Microsoft’s upcoming motion device. We’re still months away from its November 4^th release and we are certainly going to be learning more and more things as the days pass. Right now we’re sitting at 14 official launch games set to appear on store shelves the day of. It only gets exciting from here on out what publishers will be learning and developing with the new hardware.

Kinect sure has had a lasting impression on a good deal of us, ever since its introduction into the gaming world as ‘Project Natal’. The technology that Microsoft has put behind this revolutionary motion controller is absolutely astounding. It is the only device I’ve seen that picks up input without any handheld peripherals such as the Move controller or the Wii Remote. However, there are a few concerns about Kinect that probably should be shared before people get too hyped up about it. Microsoft has a little paving to do before this thing is ready to hit the road. Here are five concerns about the Kinect that, hopefully, Microsoft can fix up before it finally makes its debut. Continue reading for more info and five concerns expressed about the Kinect.

1. Voice Recognition

In more than a few demos, Kinect didn’t always understand what people were saying, and these were folks without accents and in rooms without a lot of echo or noise. Kinect has a setting for audio that monitors the amount of ambient noise and tries to filter it out. It’s impossible to get a for sure answer until we actually get to test it out ourselves. Accents are a bigger concern. Maybe Microsoft can enlist some help from Ubisoft; EndWar used voice commands and was quite a success with it.

2. Catching Your Movements

Some Kinect games are spot-on with the tracking. Child of Eden (Ubisoft) has a good 1:1 tie on your movements and the actions on screen. Dance Central does a good job of catching your dance moves. But then there are games like Kinect Adventures, which has delays between your movements and the avatar’s action. There aer several more months of development time and Microsoft will definitely need them to perfect this device.

3. Sorry, No Sitting Here

According to the developers who gave the demos, Kinect will only work when you are standing. Sorry Wii fanboys out there, looks like you aren’t playing tennis on the couch anymore. This also includes menu navigation. All the cool options to grab a slider and advance through frames of a movie you are watching only work when you are on your feet. I really hope they change this one up a bit, I’d hate to be enjoying a good movie night with some friends just to get up and pause every time we need an intermission. Kinect, so it’s been said, has problems handling your skeletal frame when you’re sitting down (it sounds reasonable). However, the voice commands still do work, but every game demo and simple menu navigation shown so far has been done with people standing.

4. Games for Gamers

There are some good Kinect games being shown at E3, but with the exception of Ubisoft’s Child of Eden and the Star Wars game, they are all geared towards folks who have never used an Xbox 360 controller. We’ll use Nintendo’s term for it—‘bridge’ games. This makes sense, because Microsoft’s main goal with the Kinect is to open up gaming to a broader demographic and introduce new people into gaming. However, Microsoft could take some initiative like Sony did with Killzone 3, and make Gears of War 3 Kinect-compatible.

5. Kinect on Non-Kinect Game

The final concern applies to what happens six months after Kinect is released. If successful, publishers will want in. The easiest way to do this would be to add some cheap Kinect feature to a game just to get a “Compatible with Kinect” sticker on the box. Sony looked like it was having a grand ol’ time making pre-existing games Move compatible via downloadable game updates, and they actually looked pretty successful. But Kinect is still a bit iffy.

Kinect has a lot of potential, but it also has a number of pitfalls that must be avoided. Hopefully Microsoft is up to the task. We want Kinect to succeed. This thing has been long-awaited, and I would like to say that it ranks up there with the Move considering you have absolutely nothing in your hands.

Blowing off a party for a Mass Effect 2 session is nothing for a gamer. Your Average Joe of a friend, however, will look at you with bemusement and think you’re absolutely insane. There’s this border between the Average Joe gamers and the hardcore that is becoming more apparent as gaming gets older. Don’t get me wrong, the Average Joes play games and enjoy them, but they don’t see what we see. We see gateways to different worlds, we see unlimited freedom to do as we please, and most of all we see a world in which we are the most important thing.

The Average Joe might have other stuff going on in their life for games.  Or maybe they were hardcore gamers back when they were young and jumped ship in their old age. My Average Joe housemate regularly visits my room to watch me play games or join in on the festivities. He recognised Fallout 3 from his old childhood Fallout days, and could immediately relate to the game. If I had popped in Left 4 Dead 2 instead he would have blown his mind thanks to the sheer velocity that would have pulsated throughout my TV. To take this study to the next level I played some Borderlands co-op with him.

The results were fascinating. As a hardcore gamer, I was trying to get through the game quickly to see what it would offer me in terms of narrative content, characters, and weapons that could make Russia feared again under the oppression of Western might. My housemate just wanted to shoot things and dick around. I would regularly be waiting at an area’s exit point for him to finish mucking about with the levels. He also had no concept of the game’s mission structure. He would travel person to person accepting every mission, but was only interested in completing the one currently on his HUD. When I changed the mission, he would get perplexed as if I had just shut down the game without warning. His previous experiences with games were so linear that when given this sandbox world he expected the mission structure to be point to point.

What he did enjoy though, was finding new equipment and weapons. As my housemate progressed through the game, he would start to meticulously analyse the stats on everything he came across. He would hold on to sentimental weapons and focus on using the most powerful equipment he found. He didn’t play around with the game’s class system’s suggested weapons, and instead was normally just jumping about with a combat rifle.  Not for a lack of knowledge, but because he wasn’t told any different by the game.

Developers and publishers could learn from such case studies. The user interface in games is still in its infancy. There are attempts out there trying to push UI elements into the new gaming age, such as Splinter Cell: Conviction. This game is putting the contextual elements within the game (jumping, sneak kills, etc.) on the piece of environment they relate to. If that’s not enough,  objectives are written in giant text across the gameworld. It’s treating the gameworld as a canvas and bonding the player with the protagonist in control.

“Modern games seem to have the same narrative for the genre they portray. For me, gaming has lost flare since the mid-90s. It shot up again after online gaming started but has quickly died down,” said “Average Joe” Sam Jamasebi, from London. “The stories are all basically the same (especially war games) however there have been a few games which have blown my mind with how they create images and gameplay – going back to the basics – like LittleBigPlanet, which had simple controls but still made you think about how to complete the level.”

This also showed me how different we all are in what we want from games. Hardcore gamers enjoy sprawling locales, but we rarely cover every square inch. We know that the missions/objectives in a game will take us to the most interesting places and we visit a few other intriguing destinations, but our minds are focused on completing the game. In Borderlands’ case, we are also gripped by the levelling up system and pursue that more than anything. The Average Joe sees cool stuff but is always aware that what they’re playing is just a game.  Hardcore gamers are willing to become more immersed in a game.

Average Joes also seem to care less about a game’s quality or lack thereof. It might be stating the obvious, but during my travels across game shops and supermarkets I would witness people purchasing bargain bin games, primarily for the Wii. The Average Joe consumer wants affordable products. They don’t see the money value in full-priced games because they don’t normally see them all the way through to completion. They want to grab a game, give it a play for a while and then leave it. They aren’t obsessed with gaining unlockables and achievements; they just want a minor distraction from life while hardcore gamers want full-on escapism.

“I live for games; I shut off all real life and warp myself into the game. I want to live in that environment. I use them for escape and to feel like I have a better life,” says ‘Daz’ (Xbox Live gamertag: Kivlov). “I wouldn’t class myself as a hardcore gamer, but the time I do have to finish games and small OCD’s I have force me to finish a lot of my games 100%, which is mostly achievements’ fault. It’s also one of the reasons I don’t like weird zombie and mutant games. I wouldn’t want to be there in real life so I wouldn’t want to play it. Same goes for movies and TV.”

I accidentally researched how the Average Joe reacted to mainstream game ads during one for the new Aliens vs. Predator game. As a hardcore gamer, I was wary of the title as we know that licensed games are usually atrocious. However, the others in group were excited by the advert. They claimed that it looked like a “quality game”, and then immediately linked the game to the films. This was interesting as I tried to tell them not to expect much after playing the multiplayer demo on Xbox Live, but they were adamant that the game would be strong because of the strength of the franchise.

All this isn’t a bad thing. Average Joe’s can be stereotyped as contributing to the industry’s mixed press reaction, but in the end they are playing games to have fun. They don’t care about being told what they’re doing is right or wrong by someone with a controller glued to their arm as long as they’re enjoying their own experience. In many ways, they are the better “gamers”. They attempt anything and thrive on multiplayer experiences. However if the gaming industry wishes to progress on an artistic level, there needs to be some changes. Games and systems need to be cheaper to attract more people to play them.

The Xbox 360 is making strides in this area with the £100 Arcade version of the console, but games are still too much at launch. Not many people can spare £40 a time for a brand new title, so most Average Joes are stuck playing older and/or cheaper titles. There needs to be more balance to the industry, and securing that with a new pricing structure is key. In the meantime, we hardcore gamers must not be afraid of Average Joe and instead must do our best to introduce him to our world.