Penny Arcade comic on Jeff Gerstmann

Penny Arcade sums up this situation (and in a blog post they have several links to the various articles - Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot reviewed the game Kane and Lynch: Dead Men, giving it a 6.0, while Eidos, publisher of Kane and Lynch, had spent many $$$ on ad money to GameSpot.
Result - Jeff is fired.

I just wanted to say -- of course I don't always agree with GameSpot's reviews either, but Jeff's exuberance about the Wii on launch day was one of the things that got me even more jazzed to get one after watching their coverage.

And of course as someone who makes games, I'd like to think that reviewers aren't just in the pocket of the game companies - if someone really doesn't like our games, they should be able to say so (and frequently they do).

I thought it was interesting that the public response so far from Jeff has been in a response to a Facebook message, pointing out that he can't confirm or deny any rumors...

Civil Unions in Sims 2

So rarely do I see a blog post about the detail of Text in The Sims 2, something I did contribute to and have some stories about...
-- that it is kind of sad that it is about the fact that we had to name the interaction for marriage for same-sex couples a "civil union" instead of just calling it "marriage," like the interaction for opposite-sex couples.
At least there is same-sex marriage in the game, as the blogger points out, in Sims 1 same-sex couples could only be "roommates."
I remember this renaming being very frustrating at the time -- it actually was "marriage" for everyone in the beginning but then we had to change it (making two sets of memories, Wants, and interaction trees).