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"Hey, my Mom and Dad wanted to drive out to Lake Geneva to see their new house on Saturday, want to go?" said my wife.

"Eh, I was planning on gaming, but I guess we can go if we're just going to see the house," I replied.

Two days later I found myself grumbling in my mind, seething with anger as my in-laws decided to take a detour and walk down by the lake. I knew it! I knew this would happen. I knew I would get stuck hanging out all day again while I could be spending valuable time playing Diablo III!

Halfway through the walk on what was a beautiful spring day, my wife knew that I was pissed. She asked me why, but I was too embarrassed to tell her the truth.

I didn't want to be there; I wanted to be at home collecting loot! I can sell it for real money! Doesn't she understand that?!?!?!

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The Community Spotlight features some of the best unedited articles that didn't quite make the front page. This week, we rage against one of the worst aspects of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, explore what happens when PS3s get uppity, describe the doldrums of a gaming backlog, and more.

I hate you, Lawrence Barrett
By Trevor Hinkle

Shamefully, I still haven't played through Human Revolution, but I know one of the key criticisms of the game: The boss fights were too hard. Here, Trevor explains why (and gives a sneaky way to win the fight that the developers probably didn't intend).

My PS3 is actively trying to keep me from playing games
By Ron Dippold

If you own a PlayStation 3, you know that it requires system updates. Frequently. And so do its games. And those updates take a long time to download. Ron gives his account of trying to begin Infamous 2, with frustrating results.

The doldrums of an interminable gaming backlog
By Justin Davis

I'm guiltier of this than most; I never seem to have the energy to plow through the games I ought to play. Justin's got a good attitude about this conundrum, though: "My lengthy backlog weighs heavily on my mind sometimes but it isn’t worth speeding through my games just to clear it out. "

The agony of victory: Drinking heavily and playing games
By Leigh Harrison

Leigh's accout of how alcohol can change how a game (Just Cause 2, in this case) is perceived and played is pretty interesting: "A sober me found the pacing and lack of direction infuriating while the drunkard tired of its repetitive nature when modifications removed the padding." What's your favorite game to get drunk to? 

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This month, I’ve asked the Bitmob community to dig deep and come up with five different introductions for one of their articles as part of the Bitmob Writing Challenge. In case you missed the rules the first time, here they are again:

• Write an article on any topic.
• Create five different introductions to your piece. I’ll allow you to decide how long your introduction will be, but each variation should have a change in length or tone. For example, if instead of writing a paragraph, compose a four-word sentence. If all five intros are four-word sentences, then you should try harder.
• Use the best introduction at the beginning of the article and include the others on a second page using the “Add Page” command at the top of the Article Editor toolbar. On that page, write a short explanation about why you feel the chosen lead is the strongest one.
• Post the article with “Bitmob Writing Challenge” in the tags by August 30, 2012. It will appear in the Mobfeed and GamesBeat’s Unfiltered page. At the end of the month, I’ll post a roundup containing all of the articles.

Some people may wonder why they need to create so many versions of their opening paragraph. Fortunately, I had a situation in which I made several different introductions for my article on Street Fighter X Tekken. Some are just variations of each other, and you don’t need to go as in-depth as I did with these explanations. And why did I lead off with the Oompa-Loompas? Continue reading to find out.

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With the recent job offer from Irrational games asking for a developer who has worked on a title that scored 85+ on Metacritic (an arbitrary number for sure, but no more than asking six years of experience instead of four or five), the copy/paste machine that we call the Internet is in full rage mode again against those practices. Typically, two parties are blamed: either the evil developers and publishers who put that much emphasis on the Metascore, or Metacritic itself.

And while everyone loves to complain about how Metascores are arbitrarily defined aggregates of arbitrarily chosen reviews with an arbitrary (and secret) weighting, the most guilty party of all, the one without which all of this could not happen, is silently left behind: the review scores given by so-called "professional" reviewers that are at the basis of the aggregation. Review scores are at the heart of our gaming culture and they need to go.

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You've worked hard. You've created what you think is an incredible game. But no one's buying, and you're sick of turning one pack of ramen into three days' worth of sustenance. You wish those damn journalists would just take one little peek at your pride and joy, because you're sure they'll fall in love and lavish it with words of praise, giving it the attention it so desperately needs. 

Well, I'm here to help. Maybe.

I noticed that a lot of you indie developers recently started following me and even pitching me on Twitter. This gave me this (hopefully cool) idea:

Pitch me your underappreciated, underexposed, totally awesome indie game in a single Tweet. We'll pick out the top 3-5 pitches then write about those games in an upcoming article (or articles) on GamesBeat.

Note: Make sure you end your post with both @DanShoeHsu and the hashtag #GBpitch to help make sure we see it. One pitch per developer, please.

So yes, we're totally basing this coverage on your 120-character pitch, not the game itself -- better make them words count! And please don't waste our time with shovelware. If we find your "pride and joy" to be complete crap, we reserve the right to change our minds (or to write really, really mean things about it).

The deadline for this is Friday, August 24. Make sure to follow @DanShoeHsu or @GamesBeat for further updates on this project!

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The results from our latest Bitmob Wants You writing prompt are in! We asked you to take a moment and share your thoughts on the phenomenon that is indie games, and eight of you rose to the challenge with excellent articles (some of which have already hit the front page). Many thanks to all who participated.

Without further ado, then, I present the Indie Games Collection. Check out the summaries below, click through, and enjoy.

(Oh, and if you missed out on this challenge, never fear -- we'll have another one for you very soon!)

Clown Stripe, meet Seffy Roth
By Jacob Reyes

Jacob tells us about iOS title Dungeon Village, from those purveyors of digital addiction, Kairosoft. This particular game is about creating an RPG-style "town" that wandering warriors can use to stock up on goods, but as Jacob points out, Kairosoft sticks to a familiar formula that doesn't change much between titles.

How I became an indie gamer
By Mark Reeth

Mark saw himself as a mainstream, hardcore player who didn't need to bother with what he considered inferior products from indie developers. Then he tried puzzle-platformer Trine. Suffice it to say that it changed his tune.

Click through for more of your articles.

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Earlier this week, Bitmob community writer Mark Purcell offered up three books that he believes would make great video games. His list is excellent, and it gave me a lot to think about. Not just about other works of literature that would benefit from this kind of adaptation, mind you. I immediately thought of a couple dozen books that would make terrible video games. But then I thought of some awful page-to-screen adaptations that I don't think I'd be able to resist, and after all of that thinking, I had to go lie down for a little while.

I had very strange dreams. When I woke up, however, these projects were still with me, and they were glorious. I'd definitely try them. Maybe.

Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

The book:

An "erotic" novel that started its wretched life as Twilight fan-fiction, E. L. James' story is 500 pages of bondage, passion, and increasingly awkward metaphors. Plus, butt sex.

The game:

I imagine Fifty Shades of Grey: The Game playing a lot like developer Quantic Dreams' quick-time-event-laden Heavy Rain, except with nothing interesting happening, ever. Taking the role of Fifty Shades heroine Anastasia Steele, players would use timed button presses to pout, fill out non-disclosure agreements for their sub-dom relationship with the mysterious Christian Grey, and generally be completely amazing in every way.

I can't wait for...

...the scenes in which I have to carefully manipulate analog sticks and shoulder buttons to simulate awkward deeds that repressed, sexually clueless people think are totally hot.

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The gaming industry lives in a curious place right now. It’s male dominated -- sometimes to a smugly elitist degree -- and hypersensitive to its own undercurrent of sexism. So when John Hemingway, lead designer on Borderlands 2, told Eurogamer that the sequel to Gearbox Software’s surprise 2009 hit would include an easier-to-play character featuring, "for the lack of a better term, the girlfriend skill tree,” he essentially charged face-first into a buzzsaw of controversy.

In fairness, this came right on the heels of several egregious examples of abusive behavior directed at women. That’s on top of the harassment girl gamers put up with on a daily basis. Now “girlfriend mode” seemingly announced to the world how the ladies just aren’t good enough to play video games without a lot of coddling.

Except that’s not what Hemingway said, and that’s not what “girlfriend mode” is for.

I’ve met a legion of female players who could cheerfully take me apart in any game of my choosing, and I’m here to tell you that a “girlfriend mode” addresses a real use-case scenario, one the industry must understand better and should cater to in every co-op game. And that is neither sexist nor elitist. Quite the opposite, actually.

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Writing a story and having it make the front page of Bitmob brings about a great feeling, one I have been lucky enough to experience on a number of occasions. In the interest of sharing that feeling with my fellow Bitmob community members (especially the newer ones), I thought I’d present a few tips I’ve gathered in my two-and-a-half years writing for this site.

There are two main factors in getting to the front page: what you write about and how you present it.

I’m only going to focus on the “what to write about” factor today, as Bitmob has done a fantastic job educating proper presentation through its Bitmob Writing Tips series. I urge you to read all of them (even the out-of-date ones) as they are extremely helpful.

Again, this is information that I have accumulated over the years through my own experiences and observations, and I don’t speak directly for any of Bitmob’s editors.

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You've been bugging us about bringing back the old Mobcast, so here it is, under the new name of BYOT (for Bring Your Own Topic)!

Because GamesBeat was able to find a sponsor for our podcast, we're able to revive it, but we changed the name since "Mobcast" fit better with "Bitmob," and Bitmob will soon be moving completely over to GamesBeat. Makes sense, right?

For the pilot episode, the GamesBeat crew (two of whom have been on Mobcast before) talk about the good, bad, and downright crappy in gaming in 2012 (so far). Give it a listen and let us know what you think. And if you dig it and would like to help us spread the word, we're giving out some sweet prizes, including i7 Core Processors, video games, and more. Check out the show for more details.

Listen:

Download (right-click and "Save As"): [.mp3]

Subscribe: [iTunes] [RSS]

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The video game industry has tapped several mediums for inspiration including film, TV, and comic books. But we haven't seen much in the way of classical literature. Sure, we've seen Dante's Inferno and Warriors: Legends of Troy, but neither of these truly grasped the essence of the source material. Here is a short list of books that I believe could become compelling video games.

1. The Iliad

As mentioned before, there has already been a game based on the Trojan War. This time, however, instead of being a Dynasty Warrior clone, let the adventure into Troy be an RPG. Have the game revolve around the Acheans story arc. The main character should be Odysseus. Along with other companions, you can participate in the story of the Trojan War through the eyes of the great tactician. What makes him a great protagonist is that he sees most of the combat during the poem, and he also gets secret missions. I know Achilles is the actual central character of the poem, but he spends most of his time complaining and not fighting. 

The biggest addition would be the gods themselves. They were an essential part in the poem and should also be a main pillar in the video game. There were times when the gods Athena, Apollo, Aphrodite, and Ares actually fought alongside the mortals. This would make for very interesting boss fights.

Out of all classical literature, The Iliad has the highest potential of being an amazing game.

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