We breed them, kill them, cook them. Millions of man-hours have been spent flinging Angry Birds at them, but has anyone ever tried playing video games with them? A team of livestock ethics researchers and game designers in the Netherlands is doing just that with Pig Chase. More »
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While other researchers are busy teaching robots how to lie, professor Susan Anderson and her husband Michael have taught a robot how to behave ethically. I know which team is getting my research dollar. More »
Not one to back away from controversy, Electronic Arts today mailed out real cheques payable to game reviewers for $US200. More »
Eidos UK’s PR firm has confirmed that British sites planning on posting Tomb Raider: Underworld reviews with less than an 8.0 score are being asked to hold off posting them until Monday. The news originally game from a twitter post from Gamespot UK journalist Guy Cocker, relaying a call he received voicing that very request. A representative from the PR firm Barrington Harvey spoke to Videogaming247 this morning. “That’s right. We’re trying to manage the review scores at the request of Eidos.”
When asked why, the spokesperson said: “Just that we’re trying to get the Metacritic rating to be high, and the brand manager in the US that’s handling all of Tomb Raider has asked that we just manage the scores before the game is out, really, just to ensure that we don’t put people off buying the game, basically.”
You guys are so mean to game reviewers. In sincerity, though, as games themselves seem to be creatures of far more depth than they once were, the role of the game reviewer has come under increasing scrutiny. I like to think that we’re all trying to do the best, most ethical and most useful work we can, and so there’s been a lot of talking amongst ourselves in the games press about what the ideal way of doing our jobs is.
Gus Mastrapa posits in his column at GameDaily that writing really well is the game reviewer’s highest calling, and he goes on to point out what he feels are the reviewer’s seven deadly sins – Measure, Dullness, Doubt, Diplomacy, Forgiveness, Purposelessness and Obsession.
