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Psh, you're totally stealing my ideas with PB & Jason! Paying attention to the community?! I called that one!

Not having played it, nor being able to, I don't have much interesting to add about the game, except to say that I probably played MGS2 just as gung-ho as one would play Revengeance, and that's one of the things I liked about that game: if I got tired of stealth, I'd get punished, but I could still complete it, anyway.

Obviously, Revengeance is what I did in MGS2 times ten, and using a sword, but I wonder how different it would feel to someone like me, who sometimes rushed through other MGS games, ignoring stealth to get to the next cutscene.

Probably a lot different, so forget I said anything and have a wonderful podcast. lol

Hmm... Jason Statham is badass! I may watch a podcast soonish, so long as they are not tooo loong. I have never participated in one before, so, uh, what do you need from us?! lol

We usually go for 1-2 hours. This week is a big one thanks to the PS4 stuff. But it's great to put on in the background while doing chores or grinding in an RPG. Give Friday's show a listen and see what you think.

I like the sound of going back to alternating weeks with PstC. This comment is two pronged, the first thing I'll mention is a general topic idea for everybody to ponder for future episodes, and the second part will be my actual question for this weeks NWP.

So here the first part. A while ago I brought a topic to Jesse and Mike that they should do an episode that's all about education and gaming, and the educational value of interactive experiences. They said they would like to do an episode with that theme some time this year. It's a loaded topic and I was pretty vague in my pitch, but I think everybody could make what they want of it and take the discussions where they please, and as deep as they please.

I would really like you and Patrick to cover the same topic and explore my core question I initially asked Jesse and Mike to get the topic brewing. I'm not saying you and Patrick should do it this week when you record tonight, but just keep the topic in mind for the future and see what Patrick thinks. I don't want anybody to rush it. I love Jesse and Mike but the topic is  big and I think it'd be nice to see NWP get involved as well as the site in general. The topic of "are games art?" has been beat to death and nobody wants to keep revisiting it, so we should move the discussion forward into other areas and explain what games have done for us, and what they may be able to do for others.

The thing that got the topic brewing was the initial question I had, it was something like:

Have you ever played games that challenged you cognitively, emotionally, intellectually, or engaged you in any way that school, the government, family, and/or society failed to, or didn't do as effectively? If so, explore and explain some of your various experiences.

My original question was more charged so I cleaned it up, I originally called society hypocritical, our school system archaic, and the government broken. I still believe that, but you don't have to put any of that in there if you don't want lol. Pretty much all of us have been gaming for many years and we have a lot of context and experience. So what have games given us, what have we learned over all these years and thousands of hours sunk into this hobby/passion? Some people in our society still hold up the old stereotypes, some don't want to see adults playing them, some try to legislate for censorship, some think games are a waste of time and you learn nothing from them. Are they right? I don't believe so. When gamers dispute these people often the only thing you ever see is angry gamers in a forum calling the detractors old fogeys and we pray that they all die off so we can inherit the Earth and play games without judgement and opposition.

But why? Let's finally start exploring why it matters, what have we learned from games, and what is their potential for teaching others and being an acceptable additional learning apparatus at teacher's disposal?

Now here's the second part, and my actual question for this weeks show, it's about the marketing of games.

Do you think short 30 second to 1 minute television/internet advertisements do a poor job of representing the games they're trying to sell you? If so, is there anything you would do differently then the marketers whose jobs it is to try and take only 30 seconds of your time to sell you a game that took years to make and will likely be a game experienced over several hours?

What got me thinking about the idea was the Tomb Raider commercial where she's doing pull ups, working out, and some comical inspirational workout music is playing. Also, the Crysis 3 commercial where he shoots down a copter with one hand, and acts like a hot shot while ZZ Top plays in the background. These kinds of advertisements continue to try and sell games with comedy and undermine any message the designers are presenting. Tomb Raider is a brutal story of personal evolution, survival, and violence. Crysis is a story of the apocalypse and fighting all powerful corrupt human corporations, and there's aliens on the side, and a horrid plague that liquifies people.

I don't want to just single out short adverts though, because in general it's incredibly difficult to market games and I've heard some people say it's even impossible and silly to try and encapsulate video games into previews, trailers, and even demos. I've heard that demos hurt game sales, that previews are sometimes useless or misleading like with Aliens CM. Marketers are just trying to do their jobs, so would any of us do something different if our boss came to us and said, "Here's this 10 hour adventure game, or this 60 hour RPG, go sell it to people in 30 seconds or you're fired." Would we do anything differently than what's being done? Would we sell Tomb Raider with comedy to try and win hearts and appear non threatening and non challenging?

Would you be able to sell a Mass Effect, tell tales The Walking Dead, Final Fantasy 13, Spec Ops The Line, or any other game in a 30 second video ad any differently? Is game marketing often just stupid by necessity? Nature of the beast and the format you're using to advertise it?

Your question made for a great discussion, and it gives me an excuse to put in a drop I've been itching to use.

Just as a note Mike, we wanted to broach the educational aspect of gaming in this week's episode (set to record on Thursday).  We'll have some other nuggets in there, but just wanted to keep you posted because, as you said, the topic is massive.

Happy Gaming.

I'm a total podcast addict. I really enjoy the ones about gaming. I listen to them throughout my day. Makes the day go by so much quicker being informed and entertained as I go. So I will have to look into that.

Great to hear! I'll be putting up a blog soon on our upcoming episode so people can participate if they want to.