Voyager. The yhave dumb luck plot armor, and I could feel like the smartest guy on the ship.

No. There are no people here like that, and if there are I hope I NEVER meet them

..."groupies"? Hmm, I wonder. Anyway, I really like the system so far -- it feels good in the hand, the visuals are nice, and the blue version has the most beautiful paint job I've ever seen on an electronics device. The built-in software is a lot more interesting than I expected, too. The lineup isn't too inspiring yet, but when isn't that the case with a freshly launch console? I wouldn't recommend it to everyone just yet, but once the library inevitably expands I'm sure that'll change.

Go to Bondy in Jinbocho for amazing curry, and go to Mandarake Galaxy in Nakano for videogame shopping. Bam.

Great question. Nostalgia is a huge business. In fact, that's part of what's ailing the industry in Japan: Gamers want to cling to the past, especially because (I am told) Japanese adults are expected to "grow out" of games. So the country has an *amazing* retro game culture, but the future's looking bleak.

But there's more to Japan's troubles than that, and I don't see the same trend repeating here. Sure, us classic gamers are being catered to hand and foot, and God knows I love it. But new games from all kinds of genres are still garnering huge numbers: Call of Duty (FPS), FarmVille (social game), Wii Fit (exercise game), and more.

Most importantly, kids play games and love them. They love Mario and Zelda the way we did when we were kids--and still do. Que sera sera, but I think games will be around long after I've died.

Nobody wants to die.
Like this guy died.
Die. Die. Die Die.
Worms eating your
Eyes

I don't know that I personally ever found the comic strip or the shirts offensive. But it looks like a lot of people did, and I have a lot of respect for their feelings. A significant group of people said they felt pushed away or unwelcome in the games space because of the Dickwolves thing, and those people's right to feel comfortable at a convention or in a web community is way more important than my right to... I don't know, wear a Dickwolves t-shirt, like I felt a strong need to do that anyway?

In other words, there are numerous arguments that favor being sensitive to the offended parties' feelings and no argument I could make that people should ignore those feelings.

Thank god I have never been a victim of a sexual assault. I can't imagine the permanent impact that has on one's life. I do not have the right to tell anyone that their sensitivity about the situation is inappropriate. And from what I've observed from the conversation, it's far from only victims who find the humor insulting or in poor taste.

I mean, even leaving aside the rape culture discussion and your feelings on it: the game industry has enough dick-related jokes to last it forever. I mean, do we really need any more dicks? I don't think the game industry has a problem of being too mature or too diverse, or that it's suffering from a lack of pervy guy "humor." This is just one thing: Penny Arcade will still have fruit fuckers, dickerdoodles and wank humor on the regular. It's not like you're "censoring" anyone by asking for understanding on this one thing.

I love Penny Arcade. But what have we got to lose by having some respect for people's feelings in our community when they speak up and ask us to hear them? I don't want to be part of a community where people say "hey, we're really hurt," and we say, "shut up, bitches."

You misspelled 'their'

Ooh, great question. Some things certainly don't age well-- despite my well-published love of the Metal Gear Solid series I cannot play the first one anymore (remake is fine!)

There are some games that now reveal themselves to be imperfectly designed, counterintuitive and overly difficult but i'll still replay them because of sentimental value and because I've mastered them and love them.

But things I think hold up indisputably well: the first four Mario games, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night , Katamari Damacy, Chrono Trigger.