The Bitmob Mailbag, June 25 Edition
Written by Greg Ford   

June's been a pretty good month for games...but instead of playing them we've been reading your e-mails. You know, the ones you send to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Oh look, here's a few of them right here...just under this perfectly fine looking picture:

Hey Bitmob,

I have been listening to your podcast weekly. I had an odd compulsion to sketch the Bitmob staff that I could not control, resulting in the above picture.

Forgive me for any poor representations of you, as I had trouble finding reference material to base my drawing off of. Anyway, I felt you should see what your podcast has done to me, and that I should warn you of the side effects of listening. You really ought to put that on the label.

Stefan Bautista

Bitmob: This is great on about 1,000 levels, and for that, we thank you. (And yes, you got us all right, so to speak.) Oh...one last innocent question. You're not watching us right now, are you...? *not nervous laugh* Ha ha *not nervous laugh*... Cheers!



Hey [Bitmob community member Thomas Lin],

Extremely well-written article:

http://bitmob.com/index.php/mobfeed/Metacritics-8.3333-and-why-it-needs-to-change..html

I agree with you on most of your points, but I especially agree with you on the need for games publications to simply do away with the very vague and ambiguous A - F scale. I've been telling people for a while now that the truly interesting article would be an investigation as to exactly why a site like 1UP/EGM would go from the very elegant and precise 0 - 10 scale (centered around 5.0 being "average") to the poor A - F scale. I had a conversation in early 2008 with [former 1UP Editorial Director and current Bitmob Co-Founder] Shoe about this, but that call was in confidence. I would think that would be a powerful piece -- but it might also uncover some not-so-flattering aspects of our industry.

Anyway, just wanted to again extend my compliments for a solid piece.

Best,

Marc Doyle
Metacritic.com

Bitmob: Poor A-to-F scale? It's not like every kid who goes to school in this country isn't familiar with it and would know exactly what's meant by a "B" grade. Oh wait, they are? Shoot, looks like this scale might actually have some merit.

Marc and Thomas bring up a good point, but it seems to favor number-crunchers and databases. As some of us at Bitmob were instrumental in the 1UP/EGM review-score changeover, we can say that all these factors and lots more were considered before we made the switch. But enough about us, what do you all think about letter grades when it comes to games?



Hey Bitmob,

It seems one of the main reasons why games launching this fall are a bunch of really polished sequels is the fact that developers do not have to waste money and time learning new hardware and can instead focus entirely on making kick-ass games. How do you think third-party developers feel that now if they want to go multiplatform they potentially have to design for three motion controls in their game? That just seems expensive. By introducing three new motion controllers, have The Big Three managed to fracture not only the user base but the developers as well, in which case we all lose?

-Thomas Lin

Bitmob: What are you talking about? That Peter Molyneux Milo-kid thing took, what, a couple hundred bucks max to produce, right?

Here's the thing: We imagine most third parties will take a wait-and-see approach or do slapped-on motion support (see: every Wii/PS2/PSP port-o-rama). It will be the first-parties who will have to prove these devices to be more than novelties. And only then will we get more Milos.



I am curious as to if you guys are looking for or allow people that have podcasts related to gaming to be showcased on your site? I see that you have a couple of podcasts from other people from the industry and was wondering if there is room for a podcast from the community.

The podcast is Handheld Heroes at handheldheroes.net.

Andy Breeding

Bitmob: Gaming podcasts certainly aren't in short supply, and we already have plenty of them in our queue. But don't hesitate to post links to new episodes of your podcast in the Mobfeed to get additional eyes on it. And hey, you just got featured in the Bitmob Mailbag!



And that's that. Another week, another bag closed. Keep 'em coming. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it : You know what to do.

Comments (13)

Wow, we look really angry.
Demian Linn , June 25, 2009
Looks like you all are about to go gang up on some one for eating your cake.
Toby Davis , June 25, 2009
OMG -- that picture is amazing.
Michael Donahoe , June 25, 2009
And check out what I just found in the Inbox, from reader Nick Chester of Destructoid:



Love it!
Greg Ford , June 25, 2009
I think Marc Doyle needs to re-read Thomas Lin's article, because I'm pretty sure that's not at all what the article was saying (though I guess I could be reading it wrong). Using the number scale just tricks people into thinking reviews can provide some quantitative analysis, when the scores are really just representations of a qualitative judgment. "10/10" doesn't really mean "This game = 10 x goodness;" it's just shorthand for "I believe this is an excellent game." Metacritic and most review aggregator sites in general make the assumption that where there's numbers, there's math, which is plainly untrue.
T.J. Lynch , June 25, 2009
This is now my background.
Derek Greenwood , June 25, 2009
Good god, that's scary!
Dan Hsu , June 25, 2009
I think Stefan needs to draw robert ashley as well.
Toby Davis , June 26, 2009
Greg Ford looks so angry.
David Kuhn , June 26, 2009
In that drawing Greg reminds me of the guy on the left (sorry, I don't know my Conta):

Michael Burridge , June 26, 2009
Well that didn't work out. Here's the link: www.blogcdn.com/.../2008/11/bfw-contra-art2.jpg
Michael Burridge , June 26, 2009
Everyone in that sketch looks like a variant of Niko Bellic to me. Maybe it's a statement on humanity, and how we're all a little revenge-seeking Slavic on the inside.
Karen Chu , June 26, 2009
Up, Up, Down, Down...
Greg Ford , June 26, 2009

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