REVIEWS Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D Review
Gamers have gone bananas for Nintendo's 3DS, but can this port of Retro Studios' 2010 Wii game make the jump to your portable?

Pandora's Tower Review
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but swords and chains excite me. Should you climb the towers in Xseed's JRPG/adventure hybrid to save your cursed (and tragically whiny) girlfriend?

PREVIEWS The Last of Us Preview
With Naughty Dog releasing a new IP in just a few short weeks, we got hands-on one more time. But don't worry: This is a spoiler-free preview.

The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot Preview

Watch Dogs (PS4) Preview

Release Dates

NEW RELEASES GRiD 2
Release date: 05/28/13

Fuse
Release date: 05/28/13

Remember Me
Release date: 06/04/13

The Last of Us
Release date: 06/14/13

DAILY MANIFESTO

maca2kx: Vox Pop Winner August 2012

Posted on Wednesday, September 5 @ 15:31:44 Eastern by Nicholas Tan

It may be just another editorial about the negative public perception of video games, but maca2kx's examination of the subject is more than relevant as we find ourselves on the precipice of the next generation of consoles. The common observation of video games is that as a game becomes more hardcore, it becomes more violent. Yet violence isn't entertaining to everyone (or casuals, as wildmario would say) who wants to play a video game, which is why our medium has dipped further into the pool of freemium and mobile titles. For developers, the larger the audience, the larger the potential reward.

Similarly, a more hardcore title usually requires a higher difficulty. Yet it, much like violence, isn't entertaining to most people either. So we're seeing games like Portal and Minecraft that tether casual and hardcore elements with a non-violent, easy-to-play but hard-to-master approach. But if the question at hand is the maturity of video game, then I posit one question: Is it possible to create a successful mature video game that doesn't have violence or sex?

Want your thoughts featured in Vox Pop? Write a blog via your profile page and you're automatically entered!

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Winner: maca2kx
Title: Is Gaming At A Milestone?

Excerpt: "Parents see games as toys while fear-mongering news pundits jump at any chance to portray gamers as unstable loners. Despite enormous technological progress since gaming’s inception and even improved acceptance to an extent, true integration into the umbrella of ‘entertainment’ has proved elusive."

Runner-Up: wildmario
Title: Casuals: Enemy of Games or Paranoia?

Excerpt: ""Casual gaming. Chances are if you heard this phrase, you either loathe hearing it as they ruin your favorite games or you just don’t care (hopefully the latter)."

Runner-Up: xDUMPWEEDx
Title: MAG - The Most Misunderstood Game/FPS of This Gen.

Excerpt: "I know you think I'm crazy, and most other people may think I'm crazy as well, but no other game this gen exemplifies 'you get out of it what you put in it' like MAG."

Tags: Vox Pop

Comments

213EDD
Joined: Sep 2007

Posted: Sep 5th, 2012 at 3:44 pm
Proof that MAG is still misunderstood

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wildmario
Joined: Jan 2007

Posted: Sep 5th, 2012 at 5:58 pm
Grats, mac.

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xDUMPWEEDx
Joined: Jan 2012

Posted: Sep 5th, 2012 at 9:30 pm
Congratulations maca2kx! You submitted an expertly written article, and got the win. I think the competition was CLOSE this month though, maca2kx or wildmario could have both won it. Last months winning article was a landslide, this month there was 2 top notch articles written. I'm still trying to think about what to do my blog on this month, but I know that I have to step my game up this time.

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UghRochester
Joined: Jun 2006

Posted: Sep 6th, 2012 at 2:20 am
Congrats, Sam. I enjoy yours and silverstorm's work, especially silverstorm's. silverstorm does amazing research and calculations with graphs.

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maca2kx
Joined: Jul 2002

Posted: Sep 7th, 2012 at 6:58 am
Thanks for the praise, guys. I'll be posting another blog or two this month so let's see if I can at least get a mention next month, too! On another note, the comment counting system is FUBAR. It says there are six comments here not including mine.

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