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Hi, If you feel this is inappropriate, feel free to delete the thread, but let me start with stressing that this is community driven, not for profit stuff and all about games. About half a year ago, I started working on www.techingames.net, from a desire to be able to have something that could track all interesting information about games in a relational manner. Whether it is 4k support, 3D support, multi-player support, narrative techniques, native resolutions, profanity or whatever you want to keep track of, I wanted a unified database that could be expanded by anyone with new features, and importantly, track all information per game version rather than game or game platform, because in this day and age, game X 1.0 isn't the same as game X 2.7, say, and while that was already happening big-time last gen (GT6 is 1.18 now, Super Stardust started with 1.0 in 2007 or so and ended somewhere in the 5.x range), it's even crazier this time. The site was live day one, and I went a little crazy with adding features in the months that followed (adding imdb type functionality, review functionality up to the individual features which automatically generates pro- and con lists, etc. While setting all that up, I thought it would be cool to integrate it into various game forums. So starting with my 'home' forum (15k posts), beyond3d.com, I started working with its owner and thinking about ways to make it as painless as possible to integrate. Today, that went live. Beyond3D.com's forums now support tags to integrate information from www.techingames.net into forum posts and threads. For this first attempt, the iframe embedding with resizing support was chosen over the odata integration (which is there too!) because it allows www.techingames.net to take care of the layouting of the data, which would otherwise be a lot of work on the beyond3d forum side. I'm very happy that we got here, so onwards and upwards! Beyond3D is using tig, tig_compact, and tig_graphics (it's a graphics focussed forum after all) as layout tags to integrate information, as well as tig: in the metatags of a thread. For more information, see: https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/www-techingames-net-integration-faq.56893 To support the integration, the background color of embedded pages is now transparent, which helps with different display themes, and we've also added a display=GameRow option, which looks better at the top or bottom of a thread than the current badge shown by display is Game. Anyway, we've made it super easy to integrate now, so if you're interested, let us know? Kind regards, Arwin (long-time listener)

No drama like E3 drama! But the main event is still to come (soon thankfully) and the fat lady has yet to properly sing. I'm going to reserve judgment until then. I look forward to seeing more on Forza 5 and that it is a launch title helps my willingness to get the XBO at launch (I'm fairly likely to get both, as always, though so far the Playstations have been used way, way more than the Xboxen. This no doubt has partly to do with being in Europe, and partly with no real online gaming community to 'Party' with. I think the online requirement holds for most platforms that have digital only versions (including Vita, iOS). The onky point of contention imho is if they can get away with doing that for discs as well, which I think would be unfortunate and limited only to installs that don't require the disc afterwards.

Ha, that brings me back a ways. Do you remember my weird PSP typing input library from back in the day, called psprint, that made it's way into a couple of emulators?

What if we reverse the situation, and assume that publishers are in fact getting their cut, and it is just GameStoreTM that's getting cut out of the loop. The reverse situation could arise where publishers say to Sony, and maybe from there Steam - enforce the same policy or we won't release the game on your platform. We may or may not be better off (prices can go down, but if they don't we may make less money reselling our copy/licence), but it may become a choice of suck it or forego the game.I personally don't mind if things stay as they are with disc games, but that the EU concept policy that would force DRM publishers to allow end-users to resell their licences. Think of this as a company (real example that the Court ruled on) that bought an expensive lifetime Oracle key, switches to SQL and resells that key to another company. Oracle tried to block that, but afaik failed, with interesting implications. Such a solution may not solve all problems and publishers will likely fairly easily find loopholes like rent-style or per-use licencing formats and such, but in an increasingly digital world it is certainly worth a serious discussion. I would personally, if I hold a licence to a digital game, make it legal for third parties to create virtual machines that can play the game after the hardware has died, at the very least if the platform holder didn't do it, and disallow forcing you to rebuy a game (not dissimilar to how Nintendo is doing right now). Perhaps implement a grace period of, say, 5-10 years or whenever the platform dies and the hardware can no longer be purchased, whichever comes first (last would allow loopholes like manufacturers artificially lengthening the hardware availability and/or increasing the price).

Long time listener, from before the big gap, where my wife was pregnant afterwards I had a little son whom it was great to spend time with, but the first years conversation was leaving enough cycles in the brain for listening to lots of gaming podcasts in one ear. Idle Thumbs was quickly climbing my favorites list for sheer joy and energy, reminding me of my student days. Today thumbs is pretty much the podcast I look forward to the most, but if that was what I wanted to say I would have done it on iTunes Instead, I've come to post here because of the latest podcast planted a seed in my brain that is looking for fertile ground, and who knows it finds it here. If not, it will sink back into the digital earth biding its time and who knows one day someone will find it in someone or other's notebook, next to a sketch of Obama ... Ah, and since I just read the OP and now know I can't make a thread, I'll just announce here that I intend to make a thread called "Moxy and Vim Go Hand in Hand" Which will beg the gods that one day we may see a game with this title. I imagine it would be some type of platformer with two very sprightly characters going through the levels holding hands, finding some clever, cartoony ways of climbing platforms and propelling themselves in and out of situations, and obtain a large range of lovingly animated methods of vanquishing foes with pure enthusiasm, warmth, charm and empathy. And as a designer I would only stipulate that one of the two must be female, both may be, they may be lesbians even, but never under any circumstance may the one called Moxy be the one with ebony cheeckbones ... Kind regards from The Netherlands, Arwin