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Sorry for the slight delay since the last Bitmob Mailbag, folks. We used to have intern Mike Minotti vet the letters for us, but it turns out he was using the designated mail-reading time to write rambling essays on the unparalleled greatness of the National Treasure movies. Now I vet the letters myself.

If you'd like your rants, questions, or comments about Mike's passion for National Treasure (yes, it's real) featured in an upcoming edition, drop a note to letters@bitmob.com, subject: “Mailbag."

Dear Bitmob editors,

Is there a word you are partial to that you have not been able to use in any articles because it is too obscure? For example, I enjoy the words “defenestration” and “zarf,” but I haven’t had an opportunity to use them in any of my writing.

-Nick Nordstrom

Brett: First off, "zarf"? Is that a Star Trek character? I pride myself on my vocabulary, but I've got no idea what that means.

I like the rest of your question, however, so upon threat of defenestration I asked the wordsmiths at Bitmob to provide their own favorite obscure words. (Mine is "anathema.")

Demian: I'm also a big defenestration fan. Also, "flense." I name all my rogue characters that.

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Editor's note: Michael ruminates on the subtle storytelling differences between Mass Effect and other Bioware-developed role-players, and story-driven games in general. -Demian

While I was at GDC this past year I went to a lecture called "Get Your Game out of my Movie! Interactive Storytelling in Mass Effect 2" by Armando Troisi of Bioware. The one thing he said that stuck in my head since then was the idea of objective and subjective storytelling.

Basically, in a subjective story the player is the character, which is what you see in games like Dragon Age: Origins. The player often creates the character at the start of the game and is in control of that character's actions and decisions throughout.

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Every year, Time Magazine chooses the most influential people in the world and includes them in a list that is conveniently entitled Time 100.

The decade-old list has boasted luminaries like Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs, and Hu Jintao in previous years. With such unquestionably influential people gracing Time's collection, it comes as a surprise that Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, two modest gamers from Spokane, Washington, appeared among them. Then again, the two are responsible for Penny Arcade, one of the most important social icons within the video game industry.

Although you can track their fame back to immature Quake-inspired jokes made in '97, Krahulik and Holkins earned their place in the Time 100 after establishing the Penny Arcade Expo, a famous convention, and Child's Play, a charity for sick children.

As the only figures related to the gaming industry on the list, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik are ostensibly our representatives to Time's worldwide readership -- whether you like it or not [via Time Online].

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That headline caught your eye, didn't it? April Fool's! Oh, wait...

News Blips:

Activision has entered into a 10-year exclusive partnership with Halo developer Bungie. In addition to laying out the publishing terms of a "big action game" on multiple platforms, the deal stipulates that Bungie will continue to fully own their intellectual property. “We chose to partner with Activision on our next IP because of their global reach, multi-platform experience and marketing expertise,” said Harold Ryan, president of Bungie. “From working together over the past nine months on this agreement, it is clear that Activision supports our commitment to giving our fans the best possible gaming experiences.” I wonder where he's been during the past few weeks?

Sony is being sued by a California PS3 owner over its decision to drop secondary operating system support. A firmware update released on April 1 removed the ability to install other operating systems -- such as Linux -- onto the console. The suit contends that "Sony's decision to force users to disable the Other OS function was based on its own interest and was made at the expense of its customers," blaming Sony's continual battle with piracy and hacking as the impetus of the change. Anthony Ventura, the lawsuit's plaintiff, is asking for over $5 million in compensation. Wait -- A. Ventura? Alrighty then! [Kotaku]

Speaking with GamePro, God of War 3 director Stig Asmussen shared the different ideas previous directors had for the story's finale. Series creator David Jaffe envisioned Kratos' total destruction of Greek mythology (with Norse mythology "right around the corner"), whereas God of War 2 director Cory Barlog wanted Kratos to assume a Death-like role, complete with two whirling sickles as blades. And this is why David Jaffe is awesome: Apart from his typically vocal rants, his ideas are completely over the top.

Young kids and early teenagers are increasingly picking up handheld game systems, according to a report by the NPD Group. Sixty-five percent of households that contain a child aged from four to 14 years old own a video game console, of which 44 percent are portable -- an eight percent increase from a previous study in 2005. Only HDTVs and cell phones surpass consoles for intended purchases, with a large chunk (37 percent) of a recent hardware sales figure caused by purchases for kids. Wallet-draining TVs? Cell phones with iron-clad contracts? What happened to buying a simple toy firetruck? [IndustryGamers]

Got any hot news tips? Send 'em over to tips@bitmob.com.

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We've taken the video game preview back.

The Bitmob community waited in the bushes and ambushed the video game press. On pain of death, we took our prize, and like Robin Hood and his merry men, we're giving it all back.

We asked you to write about your most-anticipated games of 2010, and the results are in! (More after the break.)

Red Dead Redemption -- Scheduled Release: May 18
"He's wanted: dead or alive. I say dead. Nothin' worse than hauling a bounty back, slung over the back of my horse, kicking and hollering the entire way. I prefer them quiet and dead and soon to make me temporarily rich. The way it should be. Let this be quick. I long for the cold steel of that rifle. The burning of whiskey in my gut. The brief companionship of a scarlet lady." -- Michael Bradley (read the full article)

"I am a product of watching TV in the 80s. When nothing was on television, I watched syndicated western left-overs from previous decades. The reason Red Dead Redemption is my most anticipated game of the year is that it fulfills my childhood fantasies with an adult story line." -- Nick Berger (read the full article)

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When embarking on your latest spacefaring escapade, be sure to pack a helpful amount of bear-strength pepper spray for those pesky mutants!

Video Blips:

• In Dead Space 2, no one can hear you scream. Then again, I don't think any sound will get past that oversized grille of a helmet. [GameVideos]

Continue after the break for a look at the destructive add-on pack for Just Cause 2, an Air Force pilot doing the time warp again in Singularity, and a short walkthrough of Top Gun for the iPad.

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I'm a pretty big Mega Man nut, so believe me when I tell you that it's hard to find decent Blue Bomber plushie. The solution? Make your own! That's what ShinyGirafarig did, and she made a tutorial on the process for others [via Capcom Unity]:

Scissors required. Heh. I made a funny. ShinyGirafarig also made plushies of some of the Mega Man 9 and 10 Robot Masters. You can see those after the jump.

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Editor's Note: I've always been a fan of complex games. I love getting lost in minutiae and wondering, hours later, where the day went. However, Suriel piqued my curiosity in Greed Corp. Now I'm eager to give this simpler game a try and see if it can capture my interest like it did for him. -Jay

I don't work at gaming website or magazine, so I'm able pick and choose what games I want to review. This approach has many benefits; I don't have to force myself to play through awful games if I don't want to, and I review games that I think I'll actually be able to write something interesting about, rather than re-hashing graphical assessments and "fun factors".

Recently, however, I've tried to reach out of my comfort zone and try games that normally wouldn't appeal to me. Both Greed Corp and Napoleon: Total War fit this criteria quite nicely. My experience in the strategy genre consists mostly of StarCraft and the Advance Wars series. Because I love both of these games, I thought exploration of the deeper recesses of the genre would produce satisfying results. Greed Corp appealed to me because it was lighthearted take on turn-based strategy, much like Advance Wars; Napoleon offered an encompassing realism that would test me.

Though I decided to not review these games, I still played them (and I am still playing them now) simply because they stimulated the same part of my brain -- the part that loves working around rules. What's even more interesting, however, is that these two games produce this effect in me in completely different ways.

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Roger Ebert, just what have you wrought? Several Bitmobbers had something to say on the subject of games as art (and Ebert's rejection of them as such). I've collected all of their articles here.

Ready to give them thumbs up or thumbs down? Then start reading!

The Importance of Video Games to the Human Condition
By Antonio Byrd
If games are indeed art, Antonio asks the next logical question: What should games do as art? His argument stems from cultural examples and the evolution of artistic debate.

Why Games Being Art Doesn't Matter or Shouldn't
By Matt McMillan
I am in the camp of gamers who don't care if the medium is considered artistic or not. Matt makes the case that this question doesn't matter as long as we enjoy playing games. I wouldn't go that far, but this certainly a refreshing take on the debate.

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Editor's note: Read on for an illuminating discussion vis-a-vis the gender politics of Mario and -- oh, wait, that's not what this post is about. -Demian

Disclaimer: This is all for fun, don't take it more serious than it should be. And yes, I consider it a failure of my writing that I have to post this disclaimer.

By now you've heard about film critic Rober Ebert's ranting about why games can "never be art" (never!), and you've probably either read or ignored about two dozen "open letter" responses that each out-reason Ebert in just about every way. The debate almost immediately spilled over onto Twitter, where the film-critic-turned-video-game-disliker spends a majority of his time. I've been paying stupid-close attention to the fracas, and I've noticed three distinct personalities that pop up over and over again in response to Ebert.

I'm not going to try to deconstruct Ebert's silly arguments here. His lame points are painful to read, especially when contrasted with the well-thought-out arguments you can find on websites like Bitmob. No, with this article I'm going to shine a light on three personality types that Ebert and Ebert-related arguing brought to the fore. Please find enclosed the Roger Ebert Personality Test.

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Twitter: Your number-one source for confusing statements from video game designers in 140 characters or less.

News Blips:

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Last week we asked two questions via our Twitter account and Facebook page. They were very different questions, and we received a wide variety of answers! Follow us off-site to chime in on issues of the day, and you may be featured in our weekly Tweetbook Q&A.

We also had a little contest running. If you answered last week's second question on Bitmob, Twitter, or Facebook, you were entered into a drawing for the PSN title Kick-Ass: The Game. Winners can be found at the end of this post.

And here's what we asked you last week:

Will Monster Hunter Tri finally be the game that gets the very popular Japanese franchise to break through in North America? Why or why not?

Via Facebook:

Shawn Wedick, short and to the point: "Probably not. It's kind of boring."

Alex Cronk-Young on previous failed attempts: "It certainly has a better chance than the PSP versions had, but I'll assume it's going to fail like all the rest. The first PSP release was my first attempt at playing a Monster Hunter game, and honestly I had no clue what the hell I was doing. They'd have to make some drastic changes to the gameplay for Tri to catch on on the Wii."

Michael Rousseau on the key ingredient: "With the way the online on the Wii works, no. I think it would have a better chance as a DS title or as an XBLA game."

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