As a slight to her sex (I don't know about her gender) and her rank, I find this doubly offensive. But I mostly dropped in to let you know that you got linked by Critical Distance (http://www.critical-distance.com/2009/10/25/october-18th-25th/ -- now also on RGameSetWatch: http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2009/10/the_week_in_game_criticism_oct.php) and Context Clues (http://vghvinet.ning.com/profiles/blogs/context-clues-for-october-1824) this week.

I'm a little surprised the book deals with the ethical-unethical judgment paradigm and doesn't keep to the ethical-nonethical spectrum, classifying games by whether they offer the potential to be placed on the ethical-unethical spectrum. That probably won't take it off my "to-read" list either way, though.

Reminds me of the term "ludonarrative dissonance" that Clint Hocking coined to describe the way the story and game mechanics are out of sync in parts of Bioshock. It's worth reading up on if you get the chance; I find just about anyone who mentions the term tends to have interesting thoughts about games.

That's an interesting idea, Clint. The idea of redrawing the boundaries of the magic circle is appealing and worth keeping in mind. I have to admit that my initial evaluation of the appeal in Ben's writing was the dramatic narrative where he tightens the focus, more as Justin and others have noted. But I'll watch to see if one side "wins" or if they evolve into a tasty melange. I sometimes wonder about complaints regarding AI and accuracy of enemies, as I found the AI to be surprisingly nuanced and reactive, responding to unknown threats and jumping at noises in surprisingly realistic and intelligible ways. Is there a significant difference in how the AI reacts at different difficulty levels, or between the 360 and PC versions?

Not that I feel like I have the time, but it'd be really interesting to break down, via MDA rubric, the aspects of MLB '09's "Road to the Show" mode in comparison to a more standard (J?)RPG. I wouldn't be surprised if the main difference (besides pitch/swing in lieu of attack/magic) would be in how tightly prescribed the story is.