Raf, 10 days and counting, and no calls from Smed (or anyone else) about the bet.

The source for this was Red Herring. The article is currently archived, and no longer indexed by Google. If you don’t mind logging in, you can find it here:

http://www.redherring.com/ArchiveAccess.aspx?url=%2fArticle.aspx%3fa%3d12839%26hed%3dGTA%2bGets%2b%25e2%2580%2598Adults%2bOnly%25e2%2580%2599%2bRating

The source for the “Spike TV” reference was a GameSpot interview:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6126354.html

That view would certainly seem to be repudiated by the recent NPD study, of which I’m sure you’re aware.

I do apologize if I am misrepresenting your views at all. (I really was rather mean by taking the “punks” quote out of context.) I really do appreciate and respect that you take the time to read what we’re writing.

I have to admit, it bothers me that the investment community can be so dependant on a single expert, but that is a systemic fault of the herd mentality in general and that of the investment community in specific, and not of the person who occupies the role.

–Dave

I think I have described one particular team of developers as “tatted”, which could conceivably have been interpreted as “punks”, but I was merely describing why that particular group would not mesh well with the suits at a public company who was rumored to be looking to buy them.

If I didn’t respect the people who worked in this business, I would not spend time reading comments such as yours.

…….

*glances at Iraq*

In any case, as in years past, there are those who believe that paid online gaming is all a fad anyway.
“I don’t think there are four million people in the world who really want to play online games every month,” said Michael Pachter, a research analyst for Wedbush Morgan, a securities firm. “World of Warcraft is such an exception. I frankly think it’s the buzz factor, and eventually it will come back to the mean, maybe a million subscribers.”

“It may continue to grow in China,” Mr. Pachter added, “but not in Europe or the U.S. We don’t need the imaginary outlet to feel a sense of accomplishment here. It just doesn’t work in the U.S. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

My money is with Smed’s.

–Dave

Moreover, I also recall him once remarking that “SpikeTV is the gamer.” Yeah. That’s us. We’re all about the girls on the trampolines, baby. Can’t get enough of ‘em. Oh, I understand it’s part of his job to make demographic generalizations, at times, but I’m not very good at marching quietly into the tepid oblivion of statistical insignificance. Maybe I’m a foolish young punk, after all.

On a subscription plan, I don’t care who is paying for the subscription, as long as it’s effectively infeasible for more than one to play on it. The console manufacturers have this notion in the back of their heads that they can lock a game down to a single console and eliminate the game resale and rental market, or at least force the merchants to come to them and cut them in, but I don’t think it’s going to work out like they hope.

–Dave

How many people play Yahoo’s Book Worm, I wonder, at least 30 minutes a day? I used to, as did my kids. It’s not portable as such, but you just tell somebody on Aim or Yahoo Messenger to go download their own copy, it doesn’t take u THAT much disc space.

He’s right about the ability to take games over to friends’ houses — and more to the point, sell them at tag sales or informal playground bazaaars. Yes, there’s this idea that once you’ve used the serial number that you can’t resell it…except kids resell them all the time. They simply take over the other kid’s account and they don’t even bother changing the ID information once they have the password. Game companies try to crack down on this, of course, but how much do they succeed? Kids share laptops, they swipe somebody’s public wireless, I’m not so certain it’s easy to control. There’s a lot of this kind of sharing and I think probably no one can even estimate it.

I’m no expert on this by any stretch, but I look at history. Take WoW for example. This was quite possibly the most anticipated MMOG coming. It’s from Blizzard. It’s got Warcraft. What could possibly go wrong?

Had they gone with a full digital distribution model though, would they have sold as many units as quickly? If they offered it both online and at retail, would they have turned off the retail partners? I don’t know, but VUG didn’t think it was worth taking a chance either. Not the only example either.

Michael Chui wrote: They will not vanish in a massive explosion, either. But I think it’s pretty certain that they will become less relevant in the game market, and ultimately minimal, vestigial remnants lasting as a couple shelves in a Walmart for the kids to occupy themselves with while Mom goes shopping. And I’m going to laugh if this not only comes true, but that they set up computers with restricted browsing so that you can shop for games online in the store.

I agree. Even if they change in relevance in some parts of gaming, they still fulfill a need until we’re all jacked into the matrix. Hard to try on clothes with a mouse, and as good as something can look in the mirror at a store while bad at home, imagine how much better it could look on an avatar versus how it wouldn’t look that way at home

And as it happens, the Target by me does have restricted-access computers upon which you can search their store catalog online. Of course, it’s restricted such that you can’t do competitive shopping