In this week’s edition, EA points the finger at Valve over the Dragon Age 2/Steam problem, and a Chinese couple sell their children in order to fund their gaming habits.
Infinity Ward Welcomes Negative Feedback
While the Call of Duty series has plenty of fans, there are plenty more people who aren’t as keen and aren’t afraid to make their feelings known. This doesn’t faze developer Infinity Ward however; the studio actually welcomes the criticism. Creative strategist Robert Bowling said that negative feedback helped keep Infinity Ward grounded, and also gave it an idea of where it could make improvements. (Link)
EA Blames Valve for DA2’s Steam Vanishing Act
Apparently, EA isn’t to blame for Dragon Age 2 being missing from Steam; the fault actually lies with Valve. EA says that Valve has rather restrictive rules about how developers and publishers sell DLC on Steam that have led to certain EA games disappearing from the service . Crysis 2 was also recently removed from Steam, for what seem to be very similar reasons. (Link)
Tolkien Fans Build Middle-Earth in Minecraft
While you can’t actually visit Middle-Earth, the world of the Lord of the Rings stories, but an amazingly detailed Minecraft recreation might be the next best thing. The recreation covers the entirety of Middle-Earth, from well known locations like the Mines of Moria, to places that the casual fan probably won’t even know exist. Hit the link for a video. (Link)
Chinese Couple Sell Kids to Fund Gaming Habit
A young couple in China sold their three children so that they could afford to keep playing videogames in internet cafes. The pair started selling children in 2009, accepting $500 for their daughter, and $4,600 for each of their sons. The pair said that they never had any intention of actually raising their children, and didn’t know what they were doing was illegal. (Link)
BioWare Holds FemShep Pageant
Now that BioWare knows that people care about the female version of Commander Shepard, the studio has turned to its fans to help determine what she will look like. On its Facebook page, the studio presents six different FemSheps, each with a different face. Fans can vote on which one they like by – appropriately enough – clicking the “like” button on their picture of choice. (Link)
