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Editor's note: Liam looks at where games are trending toward nowadays, with some interesting observations (even referencing Dungeons & Dragons) and one pretty cool analogy that I really dug (paragraph six). -Shoe

You can find thousands of versions of this argument. With first-person shooters, it's Halo vs. Team Fortress. With role-playing games, it’s the single-class character vs. the multi-class party. What all of these boil down to is whether you want to do one thing very well but not do anything else...or do everything but none of it particularly well. I like to call the argument "specialism vs. generalism."

You can make numerous cases to be made for either side, from many areas of our culture. Since this is a gaming website, however, I’ll focus on how games deal with this debate.

Generalism is very prevalent in games -- most notably in mainstream shooters. Whether it’s Gears of War, Halo, or Call of Duty, you can pick up any gun around and start firing it with extreme prejudice. You are a one-man army, with 30 different guns strapped to your back, running around and blasting everything that moves.

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Editor's note: Matthew Hunter Mason comes to terms with his status as a gamer dad. Although, as a non-dad gamer, I'm still with Matthew in that I really like to finish a good game before I cue up the next. -Demian 

Slap me with black armor and call me Ani -- I've gone to the Dark Side of gaming: I'm becoming something of a casual player.

Tenuously made metaphors aside, I'm using the term casual in the sense that I play games in spurts these days rather than the ass-numbing, hours-on-end marathons of my youth. Actually, to dissolve any misnomers that the term has for both myself and you, the reader, I'm officially changing my title to gaming buff. I may not get the play time that keeps me up to speed with the "blink and you'll forget about it" culture we have these days, but I more than hold my own when it comes to staying abreast on the latest news and trendy topics. I like to think that keeps me on some kind of even keel.

This isn't anything new on my end. I've already regaled you with how gaming affects your budget as well as how having a family changes the amount of it you do, but now I've found a new way in which to make myself feel markedly older -- I like to call it gaming monogamy.

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Editor's note: Mike's favorite underrated games certainly deserve the title -- I haven't heard of half of his choices, let alone played them. What would you add to his list? -Brett

Usually, I reserve my blog posts to discuss how gaming can interact with life and effect people's belief structures. I try to elicit a strong response from gamers and dive deeper into the hobby.

This is not that type of blog post.

With the recent re-release of Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber -- one of my personal favorites -- on the Wii's Virtual Console, I got to thinking about good games that aren't well represented in mainstream gaming. The "hidden gems," if you will.

So I decided to draw up a list of my favorite underrated games. I'm going to try to keep it relatively recent, as the more retro we get, the more likely the availability of the games is limited and you won't be able to play them! 

What games are on your personal list of hidden gems?

Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber (N64/Wii)

Ogre Battle 64 is a classic strategy RPG that allows gamers to develop an army based on their own personal tastes. It's incredibly deep and often devious -- you can actually play through and finish the entire game the "wrong" way. Tons of secret characters, side quests, and a story that makes you question the validity of your own goals make Ogre Battle 64 a game to keep.

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The Bitmob Featured Community Writer is a new series where we focus on you, the Bitmob community member. We'll dust off your old articles and give you your just reward: more eyeballs on your writing. We're featuring some of your favorites, some you may have overlooked, and maybe even you!

Our last Featured Community Writer was a hit as Patrick Bonk's fans came out in support and he made a few new ones. Knowing the Bitmob community, I'm not surprised. I now present our next featured community writer: Daniel Feit.

If you read Bitmob, you're probably familiar with Mr. Feit, or at least his articles. He's no stranger to the front page and his Mobfeed posts always get a good response. He's one of our favorite writers because he's on-point, he's relevant, and he's an excellent writer. If you were looking for a Bitmob role-model, Daniel Feit is a prime candidate.

Daniel has a unique perspective here at Bitmob, as he is one a few contributors currently living in Japan. His articles have an "American living abroad" feel to them, so I will always click on something he's written. His subject matter is very diverse, ranging from commentary on specific games to much larger, industry-wide issues.

Aside from posting on Bitmob, he's a freelance writer for Wired's Gamelife blog and runs his own website at feitclub.com. My favorite place to find him, however, is his Twitter account, where he posts hilarious observations on Japanese media and its interpretation of American culture.

Let's take a look at some of his work....

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Bungie's Luke Timmins takes home the "gleeful engineer" award for being incessantly giddy about finding bugs.

Video Blips:

• Halo fans, don't despair at the loss of Halo 2 -- check out this amazing new footage of Halo: Reach's multiplayer beta! I heartily agree with Bungie's Luke Smith and his preference for the sniper rifle -- long-range head shots are delicious, indeed.

Continue after the break for a live-action (!) prequel to Alan Wake, the favorite car and track picks of Blur's development team, and a sky-high trailer for Ace Combat: Joint Assault.

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Editor's note: I'm right there with Alex: I've never played sports games -- unless you count Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and NBA Jam. But I'm not sure there is a thing on the planet that could get me to play a game like Gran Turismo. Everything I would want taken out and added in would basically make it Grand Theft Auto -- and then it would no longer be a racing sim. -James

I am a pretty eclectic gamer. The question to ask me is not "what have you played?" but "what haven't you played?" Despite this, I do not love all games equally. Some genres elude my interest even though they contain some good titles.

For some reason -- like many in the enthusiast crowd -- I rarely ever play sports titles. To add to that, I have started to realize that I just don't enjoy Japanese role-playing games like I used to. Either the games themselves have changed, or I have.

This is hardly uncommon. People dislike certain types of games, or they fall out of love with the kinds that they used to gravitate toward. The question that interests me is what would people would do to change the genres that they either don't enjoy or no longer care for.

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I really want to thank everyone who sent in submissions for this contest. I had a blast looking at each entry, and it didn't exactly hurt my ego to see people draw a character that I created...even if I did bribe them with prizes.

Following is every submission I received, from the earliest to the latest (that'll show you slackers). Now, you may see some Bitmob staffers and at least one family member of mine among the names, but rest assured that they weren't actually eligible for the prizes. I'll post the names of the winners afterward, but if you did indeed win, you should have gotten an e-mail from me.

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Editor's Note: I agree with Cameron's idea only on the most basic, literal level. While nothing physically prevents you from passing judgment on a game without actually playing it, I feel strongly that you do need to experience it in its entirety if you actually want other people to place value on your opinion. I hastily judge things all of the time, but I also don't expect other people to ascribe to my point of view unless I am able to speak from experience and with authority on the subject. Nevertheless, I think Cameron gives us a good discussion point, and I'm curious to hear what the rest of you think. -Jay

On Friday, a certain film critic (who shall remain nameless) published his second attack on video games. In the course of writing off the entire medium (again), he called Braid and Flower “pathetic” on the basis of seeing a few seconds of video of each. In response to this attack, former EGM/1Up writer Nick Suttner wrote an impassioned comment (which he later turned into a blog post) imploring said critic to play some recent games before declaring the entire medium inherently inferior. I’m not mentioning the critic’s name here because I don’t want this to become about his remarks. He’s just poking at a hornet’s nest, then crowing about how immature the hornets are for stinging him. That’s not worth discussing. But Suttner’s “don’t knock it until you try it” argument does deserve a mention because, impassioned as it is, it’s wrong.

A lot of bad arguments in the world sound convincing if you don’t think about them too hard. “Don’t knock it until you try it” is one of them. I don’t have to try acupuncture to know that it doesn’t work. That’s because acupuncture is based on the magical concept of qi, and numerous well-designed clinical trials have shown that its effects are the same as placebo. I don't have to waste my time on it to know that it's a waste of my time.

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7-Eleven is the coolest  gas station chain on the planet. They won that title when they started selling video games a couple of years ago. Now after the whirlwind success of that, they've decided to offer used games as well [via Technabob]:

The pricing goes from $10 to $20. That sounds crazy. Will a new release be 20 bucks shortly after its release?

I want to hear more on how they plan to deal with this. Because if that is the case, they could put pretty much every game resale shop out of business with low pricing like that. But the other side of the argument is who is willing to sell their new game to a store that marks it $20 at most? That means that the cash return is somewhere around five or less dollars.

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Even though the terrible combo of allergies and a cold subsided, I must now contend with my most fearsome opponent yet: final exams. Rejoice that you aren't taking a comprehensive Japanese test while you read today's Community Spotlight!

The Gaming Monogamist
By Matthew Hunter Mason
Having a family puts outrageous gaming habits into perspective. Matthew champions the idea of carefully choosing, then thoroughly completing, one game at a time as opposed to the current trend of experiencing new releases and completing none of them. I kind of miss the days when I could get by with sticking to one thing until I finished it....

Dyslexics in Glass Houses....
By Alex Beech
Alex tackles the tricky subject of interesting and unique writing but does so with comparisons to his own struggle with dyslexia. It's surprising how easy it is to not only fall into writing ruts but to swing in the opposite direction and turn your words into flowery messes.

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Calfironia has already elected a couple of actors to be governor, so why not a gamer?

News Blips:

MMO company GamesFirst's CEO Joshua Hong plans to run for California governor. Although he initially announced his campaign on April Fool's Day, he is indeed running as part of the Free2Play Party. Hong's platform involves better education through technology integration in schools, accountability for state officials, and giving more power to the people. I can't wait to see what type of anti-gamer mud his opponents might throw. [GamePro]

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Capcom has only announced six characters for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 so far. I'll be thrilled if the Marvel Super Hero Squad makes an appearance!

Video Blips:

• Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Producer Ryota Niitsuma gives some insight on where they're at with the game. Apparently they like to pick characters based on how over the top their moves look. Who would have guessed? [GameTrailers]

Continue after the break for a quick Lord of Ultima tutorial, a silly 3D Dot Game Heroes ad, and a behind-the-scenes peak at Lamb of God's heavy metal track Hit the Wall in Iron Man 2.

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