PixlBit

Quite a bit, actually.  You'll notice that our user base has...grown.

Wasteland 2 ended up with near $3m, so I'm going to say it ends up at about 3.5m on Torment.

Business Analyst at a software company here in Tampa, Florida and freelance writer (beyond PixlBit).  Amazing what you can do with an English degree.

The terms are more used to describe story conveince mechanisms.  Both of the genres (western and Japanese RPGs) have RPG elements - leveling up, skills, etc... - but where they usually differ is the mechanism used to convey plot and story.

JRPGs are more fixed - the main character is usually fully fleshed out.  There is a very specific story to be told in this case. 

Western RPGs usually star an undefined main character, with a greater emphasis on player choice.

Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games tell very specific stories, with you inhabiting an established character.  With western RPGs like Mass Effect or Diablo - your character is more blank slate, and the story is much more broad.

So it doesn't matter where it comes from, it's more of a styalistic approach to how you want to tell your story.  As you show in the image, Dark Souls is more western in its approach - this can happen.

I could write an entire article on this, but I think you get the point.  I'm hoping that we'll eventually get away from the locale based terminology and more towards descriptive terminology regarding the nomenclature in the future.

Spec Ops: The Line is one of the best video games I've played in a long time - not because of the gameplay, but because of the statement it makes about the culture of gaming. 

Seriously, if I taught an "Important Video Games Today" class, it would be on the syllabus.

Damn right you're looking at me! You know, I'll likely still end up with a PS4 (love me some of their exclusives) but from my vantage point, the real interesting and new things that are happening within actual games are happening on the PC, and that's what is moving me more than sheer tech.

Though I completely understand your stance, living in Japan and all.  You'd be better off being a lepper than a PC gamer there.

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 usually not one for collector's editions, but the "Wizard's Edition" is one of the better I've seen.  It's a shame Namco bungled the release.

And fixed...Thanks for pointing that out!

Upon seeing this story image, I went straight to Amazon and picked up a copy of the book.  After all, I'm going to be a father soon and you can never have enough books to read to the kiddies.