James

I think the article could perhaps do with a clearer sense of purpose than it currently has. Simply examining the meaning of the word "mature" in the context of gaming seems a little arbitrary. As has already been mentioned, there are two main avenues you can take this: maturity as a criterion for certification (although I don't think there's really much to that – as Pirate Poo suggested, it's really just a concise-if-misleading term meant to mean "not for kids" – which is purely a matter of avoiding harm, and therefore isn't concerned with narrative justification or anything like that), or maturity as it relates to the progress of gaming towards more intellectually and emotionally fulfilling areas, and the associated widening appeal. The latter is probably more fruitful territory, but may be better served by a more complete analysis of the issues, rather than so much focus on a matter of terminology. The categorization of potential meanings has some appeal, but ultimately it's more about words than it is about games, and it doesn't really matter what word we use for a particular thing, as long as we have a word for it, and we're clear on how it differs from other things. All this said, I do agree that a lot of M-for-Mature games are intellectually thoroughly immature. Fascination with gratuitous quantities or extremities of mature themes is generally an adolescent trait, presumably because these things are still new enough to be worth binging on, without the need or desire for any sort of substance behind it. Truly great games will, I think, tend more towards the mature-as-in-grown-up end of the spectrum, but I think the future of gaming depends more on its confidence in itself as a unique medium than it does on its storytelling. The stuff that really excites me does not simply ape films; it provides experiences that would not be possible in the same way (or would not work at all in the same way) in films. Anyway, that's another subject entirely. In conclusion, yes, it's a bit silly that people are so lazy with their terminology, but I don't think many people are genuinely confusing your categories, so I'm not sure how much it matters.

Oh god, now I think I'm you.

Auxiliary bonus points: half-red eye (looks like extreme but very localized blood-shottedness). I like your "Who does this fucking puffin guy think he is?" expression.

None of my friends in the area are in a house-ownership situation. One of them might be approaching it, but that would be in Woking, which is pretty far away from here, and not somewhere I want to be, despite it being quite near where I currently work. Or perhaps because of that. I certainly wouldn't mind doing so, but it doesn't seem like an option for the time being.

I don't know quite how much teaming I'm doing. It was you who launched an attack on Alula, and you who shamelessly swept in to nab my hard-earned bounty from my war with Joflar. (All in good fun, of course.) I think this might be one of those games where everyone else's positions look a lot more secure than your own. In truth, probably any empire can be toppled by a few wrong moves, or a few clever deals and strategic attacks.

Yeah, totally. Unfortunately, we have no real way of determining what the next one will be like. we'd been assured that this one was good by the agent, so apparently we can't rely on that kind of recommendation. Of course, you can't rely on much of anything an agent tells you. They just want to sell you a property. Or let it or whatever. Anyway, thanks.

I think we may have to decide on a date for this or it will end up not happening. I would probably favour this Saturday, but am flexible.

Last Friday I got a phone call telling me the flat my friend and I had been intending to rent had been let out by the landlady behind the agent's back. We'd paid £100 deposit each, which is of course being returned to us, but it still makes me wonder what the point of the deposit was in the first place, and we're both out some small amount of money (he had to pay to get a reference from the bank, and I had bought a weekly rather than a monthly train ticket for the remainder of my time where I currently am, which is not as efficient), on top of which we're back to square one and it's completely messed up my timetable for all this stuff. I don't know how common or uncommon this sort of thing is, as I haven't done much abode-moving before, but it's quite annoying. Everywhere else in the area seems to be intended for couples (which we are not), and has one bedroom much smaller than the other and quite obviously intended for a child or guest or mouse or something. Also, the whole process of finding places and looking at them and working out how much you're willing to compromise is a terrible bore.

Christ, this thing is stressful.

I'm all about nabbing the home stars.

"This is why you need a war hammer." I wonder how many criminals have ever been fought off with a war hammer.

Above you can see my ridiculous single-file strip of territory. My strategy is probably all wrong, but it seems to be working quite well for now.

So many carcasses! Two grossest themes: slicing into faces and chopping up shoes full of meat.

That weekend would probably be fine by me. The next would probably not be, as I will be moving. Abode, that is. Not just my body.

I can see what you're doing wrong here. What you need to do is bash keys at random for half an hour and then bury the whole lot in distortion and unpleasant samples.

I live in the vicinity of here, so sure, yes.

Wait, what?

It's this stuff. I received some promotional stuff about it when it came out, which must have been during my teenage years, and thought, "Hey, that looks cool. Shame I'm too old for this stuff now." Cut to however many years later, and people are making a whole load of cool robotics stuff that solves your Rubik's Cubes and sudokus and things. Vindication for my past self!

Yeah, I think this is more likely. First they will crush our bodies with their physical might, then they will crush our spirits with their superior skill at novelty puzzles. After that, we will descend into a spiral of unparalleled despair and despondency, and will offer no further resistance.

Bad bad games famous on the Internet and so on: Big Rigs. I downloaded that some time (thereby killing the games industry). It's pretty amazing. You can reverse infinitely fast! You stick to the terrain like it's a rollercoaster! The terrain is the only solid thing in the game! The numbers don't fit on the speedometer thing! I'm sure this is old news to everyone, but the reality of the thing really is hilarious. I've never made computer games and am a simpleton, but I can't imagine the developers spent more than a weekend on it. It's ridiculous.

I saw the 7-day chart thing right at the beginning, when all the charts were flat. By the time it got interesting I'd mostly forgotten about it. I checked them out one time, then today I noticed the link and thought "hey, that's probably interesting", then forgot again. My memory is poor. I'm also totally with you on the replays thing, as I think I mentioned. I want to be able to view the whole thing with full visibility at x100 speed or something.

So I guess you guys have probably seen this one: eaRcWB3jwMo

Yeah, I thought I might. But I'm already spending way too much time posting on my phone at work today. No time to pay heed to something as inconsequential as the English language.

That's all fine, but if that's the problem, argue in those terms. I don't the outsude opinions you're concerned about are going to be won over by vehement insistence that games are art. All they need to know is that they're a valid use of one's time and not a threat to all hold dear, or whatever. Getting tangled up in the definition of art will do nothing for that cause. In a recent article, Ebert concedes that some graffiti can be art, but I don't feel the medium is any less hated than it's ever been. It doesn't help that the majority of graffiti is nuisance vandalism; similarly, if you're going to defend games on artistic grounds, you're going to get the bone-headedness of a large portion of the industry's output thrown back at you, which is ultimately counter-productive. I can understand nervousness about public perception of games (although I don't share it myself), but having a knee-jerk reaction to everything negative said and employing every argument available, regardless of how sincere it is, only makes one seem desperate and lacking in genuine and relevant arguments. It reinforces the image I have of gamers as an intensely tribal, insular and childish group. That's part of why I favour communities like Idle Thumbs: the people seem more like individuals. Again, I might be being grossly unfair. Anyway, the way I see it, social acceptance of computer games is on the up. As far as I can tell, there's a lot less stigma around it now than when I was growing up. There may be backlashes, but if anything they're a measure of gaming's recent success. Is "backlashes" even a word?

Winston Churchill described his depression as a black dog. For what psychological state would BigDog be an effective metaphor?