I hope you’ll join me in raising a glass for Games for Windows magazine, and the hearty pirate band over there. Jeff Green announced in a blog post today that the print version of the venerable publication is going to be discontinued.

Well, goddamn. Here’s a post I hoped I’d never have to write. As you no doubt know by now, we’re closing Games for Windows magazine. We will get to the “positive” to be gleaned from all this in a moment. Because there actually is some to be had, and it’s not even just “spin.” But, that said, you will all have to forgive me if I first take a moment to express what I know many of you are feeling right now: This blows. This is tough. This is just not in any way “good news.” For me personally, the closing of Games for Windows: The Official Magazine is not just a business decision (though, obviously it?s exactly that in reality), but feels more akin, in fact, to the passing of a loved one. Drama much? Well, you can scoff if you want, but the fact of the matter is that I have poured my heart and soul into this magazine, month after month after month, for over 10 years now.

They’re moving to an online-only format, so the editors should be keeping their gigs.

Many thanks to Jeff, Sean Molloy, Shawn Elliott, Ryan Scott, and all the rest of the folks behind them for a quality magazine. End of an era, indeed.

Many congratulations to Regina ‘Brinstar’ Buenaobra on her new gig as Arena.net’s new CM! My two cents? Don’t write about work on your for-fun blog. It gets messy.

But please still write! Acid for Blood is too awesome to stay dead! (The name alone …)

The issue of virtual rights has been raised, first at Kendricke’s blog and then by Grimwell. Kendricke is bouncing off of ideas raised this past weekend at IMGDC, and I really must codify my notes from Dr. Bartle’s fantastic session on government intervention in virtual worlds …

In any case, the bottom line is that having ‘rights’ is more trouble than its worth. I want to make it super clear here that my opinion here isn’t ’siding with the devs’ - it’s a purely selfish notion. Games with ‘rights’ aren’t games anymore. They’re extensions of reality and by definition no longer exist purely for fun. With ‘rights’ comes a legion of unwanted components like tax laws, intellectual property rights, etc, etc, etc … all BS categorically not having anything to do with gaming or fun. I don’t want to have to submit a W2 everytime I join a new gameworld, and then think about my virtual income come tax time.

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I got the feeling in my poke yesterday that Radar was a bit put off by my poking. I want to make it clear, I’m an equal opportunity poker. Yesterday I was tweaked by their strange subscription choice.

Today I’m blown away by their video coverage of a visit to EA Mythic. Seriously. They’ve got a walkthrough of Altdorf, a discussion of armor dyes, more discussion on those fantastic trophies … and … what’s this? CRAFTING. They have a video about CRAFTING in Warhammer. I can’t tell you how long I’ve been trying to get this info out of them, and it’s RIGHT THERE in the video. Brilliant. Seriously guys, great job with this stuff. Nicely done.

My favorite is, of course, a discussion with Josh Drescher and Paul Barnett about the big picture. It’s embedded after the cut for your viewing pleasure.

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Two things, and I apologize because it’s normally rude to poke so sharply, but I just had to:

1. RPS put up this blurb on their site, and then quickly pulled it down: “The Warhammer Online open beta isn’t far off. It’s so close, in fact, that pre-ordering for the retail version of the game will commence today at 3pm, or thereabouts. If you want to get a guaranteed place in the beta then keeping an eye on the WO site is a pretty good idea. Pre-ordering also gets you a couple of rare in-game items, while the slightly more plush (and pricey) collector’s edition will come with a unique Games Workshop figurine, a book filled with luscious artwork, a graphic novel, and - rather more importantly to the gamer - in-game quests that can only be undertaken by collector’s edition owners. Not a bad little package.” Yay pre-orders!
2. TenTonHammer has started doing something almighty dumb. They’re offering ‘premium’ content behind a subscription wall. Case in point, coverage of the WAR Collector’s edition just mentioned above, and a ‘better’ version of Mythos trailer. Guys - this is retarded. C’mon, Gamespot doesn’t even do this with their subscription. They just offer extras and higher quality video. I’m never, ever going to pay you to see news. Ever. It’s going to be all over the internet very, very soon anyway. You can’t keep anything locked up forever. Hell, your subscriber Mythos video will probably be on YouTube by the end of the day. The Collector’s edition info will be released by EA Mythic at some point. This is a bad idea, kind of staggering in its hubris. I paid for Gamespot two years ago, when it was -almost without exception- the finest source for videogame news in the US. You, sir, are no 2006-era Gamespot.

I even wonder if perhaps 1 and 2 aren’t related? Mayhap RPS pulled down the post because EA gave TTH a timed exclusive, and got tweaked when they saw Jim’s post? If so, I’m going to go ahead and say that’s pretty dang stupid too.

Update: Of course, maybe it’s because of the NEW delay, putting WAR out to autumn. Oh mans …

Update 2: Radar notes in the comments that apparently the WAR news being behind the price barrier was a glitch. Which is good!

I’ve been really enjoying writing on MV lately. And why not?

Here’s some great Star Wars Galaxies stuff from the last week or so:

• SWG’s producer talks Chapter 9 testing/hints at Chapter 10
• Star Wars Galaxies soon to feature new pvp badge collection
• Getting the colors right on Star Wars Galaxies’ instruments
• Star Wars Galaxies live update 2 improves Entertainers, Medics

I’m also especially proud of this: a video and screenshot-filled feature all about the FFXI expansion (that, yes, came out last winter.) I’ve actually changed my site banner in honor of it, and slipped a quick fifteen second video that didn’t make it into the article below the cut. I spent a long time putting that together.

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The recent discussion in the Warhammer world about whether or not to have forums sounds very familiar. So does the fan reaction, and so does Darren’s response, which is something like “if they step out of line, ban em’.” I realize I have a sort of skewed perception here, but one thing that I think Slashdot does very very right is the whole ‘don’t ban people -ever’ shtick. Instead of banning folks who get out of line, Slash has the tools available to make annoying posters ‘disappear’ from the perspective of readers. Metamoderation of original comments allows readers to have the kind of experience they want. If you want hate, bile, and hilarity, you can read at that level. If you want only useful or insightful comments, you can read at that level.

The problem with banning is that it feeds into the ego of the troll. See, trolls live and die by the amount of attention they garner. They’re attention whores, basically, though most of them are a different breed than the Guild drama queen or the popular kids in school. On the Bartle grid, they get their jollies on the ‘Killer’ part of the map; they play the game (in forums and on websites) mostly as PvP. So, as they see it, getting banned is a good thing. It’s a further ‘injustice’ they can shout to the rooftops, evidence they can hold out that the Man has him beaten down.

I’ve compared trolls in the past to the rampaging advertisements from that classic Simpsons Halloween episode. The only way to truly kill a troll is to stop paying attention to it. Give other readers the tools to block them out, marginalize them, and forget about them. Banning just creates overhead for staff and feeds into the troll’s cycle of pain.

Obviously I probably fall into the category of someone not smart enough to moderate a forum, but that’s just my two cents.