The iconic Don Bluth animated game Dragon's Lair is now available as an iphone application. Let the endless streams of wrong choices and quarter eating begin. Ok, so quarters are not necessary, but I suspect that at $4.99 for the app, people are going to have buyers remorse shortly after their 32nd try at the barrel scene--right..no left...arghhhhhh! I don't want to leave you with the impression that I don't appreciate Dragons Lair (or Space Ace for that matter) for what it is--a novel idea at gameplay, but I think we all would admit that it falls short as entertainment. The controls and timing mechanism were simple, but deadly. And everyone always managed to walk away from the game feeling cheated somehow--dirty. I don't know how many times I sat back and watched as people would try the same scene over and over again, having memorized the directions and detailed button combinations only to still be thwarted by...well who knows? It's almost as if the electronics in the game were set-up destroy the soul of young men. Mission Accomplished! The only good use I can see for loading this game onto your iphone is to raise your blood pressure, embarrass your friends by telling them you've completed the game in 15 minutes and then handing it to them to try. And of course for nostalgia. But then again, if I wanted to be nostalgic about all the times I was frustrated in my youth. I'd rather call an old girlfriend.

Niche video game retailer Gamestop watched their stock shares fall 8.26 percent this week. They also watched as Wal-mart dove in for the kill, slashing $10 off the most popular games on various consoles including PC. I guess its beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Over the next few weeks, Wal-Mart is gong to slash the price on popular games such as Rock Band: Beatles for the Wii, Left 4 Dead 2 for the Xbox 360 and will even offer shoppers who buy a Wii in its stores for $199 a $50 Wal-Mart gift card. I'm sure other titles are included in the price chop as well. But for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. But were will the opposite (see bad) reaction occur? Following the line of money, it only makes sense that if retailers are selling the game for less, they might put pressure on game developers to charge less for the game. Less money for game development could mean games that have less time and thought put into their development. It could, but I doubt it will. The gaming niche is still a huge sector of the entertainment market, and even though retailers are scraping for bargain hungry shoppers this season, I don't think this 25 day retailer "Thunderdome" is going to impact the way games are made or alter the quality of products yet to come. I'd suspect Wal-Mart will take a loss on its video games this year in hopes that folks will buy more mundane (and marked up) items while they are shopping. Rest assured, Wal-Mart will not lose money. In addition, Gamestop will have to respond. I could see them leaving the prices of their new games at a slightly discounted price, while they drop their inventory of used games well below that of Wal-Mart prices. Again creating competition and choice. Regardless of what happens, I believe gamers will win out in the short run and the long run.

Whoops, Looks like I made a minor mistake and bumped a 7 month old blog. To tell you the truth, I'm a bit surprised. I guess I was tracking the forum by content instead of date--at the very least I guess I should use a little bit of both. But it brought to mind something that I think is interesting. I replied to a 7 month old thread excitedly? I guess some topics are ageless or at least remain relevant for an extended period. Which I think is rare is the gaming world. Only a modest number of new games hold their value over long periods. And forum discussions about new games less so. Anyways, I apologize. It won't happen again. In other news, I seems that voice actors are a little upset that their wages have not kept pace with with the growth of the video game industry in which they work. A real dilemma to be sure. The article I read stated that the actor, who has worked on such games as Halo and GTA, made about $30,000 a year acting and did voice-overs to supplement that income. However, as we know the gaming industry is growing and despite concerns of video game piracy the gaming industry makes boat loads of cash. I'd be interested to see if the rest of the folks that work on creating games feel that their wages are not keeping up with the growth of the gaming industry. Anyone have any stats out there. I'll take a look and get back to you as well. What do you think?

Back in the old days, when my friends and I played more table-top games than video games, my parents would often stroll by and ask, "Who's winning?". This question was often met with an indignant look of disgust until one of us would pipe up--"You don't win". At that point the parent would nod their head slowly and walk away to finish dinner or the laundry, or whatever grownups did back in the late 80's. I was reminded of this memory when I heard about the man who 'beat' WoW. Actually, I was reminded of it when I read the title. Now, I know many people are disputing the fact that since he didn't get "B.B. King" he didn't actually beat WoW. But I think the reason he didn't beat WoW goes beyond that. I think we all agree that WoW is unbeatable. I mean that is not the mechanic of the game. The mechanic of the game is to advance, to live and to develop a character that can dominate in the game. The idea is to live and to explore and experience. and perhaps on some level to share. (Although, I would argue that the sharing part is plays a small roll in WoW. If it weren't for raids, there would be not reason to speak with or cooperate with folks at all. And lets face it, closing yourself in your home or room for days on end level grinding doesn't exactly make you the most social person in the world. And no, arguing about the price of silk in the auction house doesn't count.) No, winning isn't a mechanic in the game and that is by design. WoW wants to make sure that you continue to play the game, if you could win, you might log-off. It's just icing on the cake that WoW is such a good game that you want to log off and indeed, you don't want to win. And the man who beat WoW? I'm sure there are new cheevos for him to chase created in the next few weeks. Ones that are harder and more time consuming to get to. I'd like to see WoW come up with an aging variable. So that as characters progressed they got older. I don't care about the relationship to real hours vs game hours. Someone else could figure that out. But I like the idea that a character have a purpose or at the very least a sense of urgency. That a characters need to accomplish was driven more by knowledge that their time in WoW had a limit and not driven by a lust for achievements. Or perhaps that a characters worth wasn't just measured by what they had amassed, but rather by what they had left behind. B

I've never joined in on a conversation with other video gamers. But, I thought it might be time expand my circle of knowledge a little bit further than the small amount I do already on the web. Specifically, I wanted to reconnect with the games of my past--I'm only 36--but oh, what a difference 20 years makes. I'm hoping to get back into a gaming community that can once again make me excited about gaming. Because frankly, I haven't found much recently that truly distracts my attention in a fun and inspiring way. That's not to say that I'm not amazed at many of the games that are hitting the market, because I am. I mean Dragon Age--awesome. But its a different kind of awesome. One that I can't put my finger on yet. But I hope to try. I have a Squidoo blog that talks about my favorite old school gaming company--Namco. Check it out at http://www.squidoo.com/namco_arcade_machines Later