First off, I published your letter, so PICK UP THE CHECK! GET YOURSELF A PEN! THAT'S $79 US PAYABLE TO INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT! GET THE ADDRESS OFF THE INSIDE OF THE FLIP CASE! ENVELOPE! STAMP! FLAK JACKET! POST OFFICE! DO IT! RIGHT NOW!
(Pant, pant.)
Okay, now that I've used a year's worth of capital letters . . .
First off, I like your point about full-motion video. We are constantly working to bring you better and better video of gameplay, but we're limited by some constraints:
1. Our user base can only handle playback so well.
2. Video eats up mega disc space.
At our current compression rate (150K/sec, this being the transfer rate of a single-speed CD-ROM drive), 30 seconds of video takes up around 4.5 MB, which would increase articles to (on average) 150% to 200% of their current size. This means that given the same space allotment for articles we normally get, we would have to cut our article count to 2/3 or 1/2 what it is now, an unfriendly proposition. On the other hand, maybe half of the games we cover don't really warrant showing video (static graphic adventures, turn-based strategy games, etc.). What we hope to do is work in more gameplay video for action games, where it's not so much how the game looks but how fast it is that determines its appeal.
As for the foul language issue, we don't restrain ourselves quite as much as the other gaming mags (we're not quite as P.C. as them . . . I don't know, we have this deluded notion that games are supposed to be FUN). However, we're not going to stoop to gratuitously using vulgarity to get a cheap laugh. Young people may find it amusing, but our older viewers are bound to be turned off by the stupidity of it, and believe me, it gets old quickly. (Anybody seen Dice Clay anywhere recently? I though so.) Besides, some of our viewers are younger (or have young children), and I'm sure their parents would prefer that they learn their "colorful metaphors" from Beavis n Butthead or at school.
