Welcome to our new and improved Weekly Wrap Up.  Instead of pretending that we have the last word on the news of the week, weÂ've turned the reins over to our forum community, and each week weÂ'll be posting your comments on the biggest stories.  Of course, IÂ'll get my say too, but you already know what an ego maniac blowhard I am, so donÂ't look so surprised.  Naturally, IÂ'm not going to be able to post every smart or witty comment made, nor every direction a given discussion turns, so if you said something really smart and didnÂ't get any credit, youÂ'll be best served to keep your martyrdom to yourself. 

So, letÂ's get started.  WeÂ've got three big topics that have dominated the forums to hit.

Warhammer Online Cancelled  –

Spunior posted the original article and quoted the following:

It is with a great deal of sadness that I have to inform the community that we have decided to discontinue the development of Warhammer Online and will be closing down this website with immediate effect.

This has been a difficult and painful decision but it was taken following a following a full review of the progress of the game, costs to date and future costs of the project. As a result both Games Workshop and Climax Development Limited, the computer games developer, have agreed to terminate the development project.

Eezy_Bordone points out that gamers are truly never happiest as when complaining:

Come on, even if it had come out we would all be lamenting and bitching about it not following the tabletop game.

Paladin lets a little cynicism slip with:

Although I'm hardly disappointed (the game just didn't look good) I'm a little surprised the game has been cancelled. [Â"…] I am surprised they didn't push on a little longer to release a crappy product and sell some boxes to recover some costs. GW has never been afraid of people hating them.

And Shaolin_Monkey let slip a troubling rumor thatÂ's spreading:

Some rumour from the GW forums is that Climax misappropriated funds given to them by GW.

Instead of putting the money they received into Warhammer Online they were sinking it into other projects, they also allegedly provided false progress reports to the people in charge at GW.

ThereÂ's also some good discussion on what MMORPG is likely next to get canned.  TurbineÂ's D&D Online seems to lead the inauspicious pack along with MythicÂ's game, that Roman one – itÂ's Imperator, guys.  Never a good sign when people canÂ't remember the name of the big game youÂ're making.

Elysium says: Yup, IÂ'd guess itÂ's going to be Imperator, a game thatÂ's generating no buzz, getting no coverage, and simply doesnÂ't seem to have a strong enough hook to get people excited.  Mythic will need to do some serious PR work to get this one back on the radar.  As for Warhammer Online, IÂ'd honestly forgotten anyone was working on this.  

Mateo posted some links to the increasingly troubling reports that MicrosoftÂ's next console might not be backward compatible.  Not surprisingly, people got many an undie in a bunch.  Obviously a lot of the comments were either Â"˜I donÂ't care, IÂ'm still buying itÂ', or Â"˜Microsoft must be insane, I wonÂ't be buying this!Â' 

Paladin brings up a good point about why backward compatibility can be so valuable through the clever use of Boolean equations:

I assume Sony is doing backwards compatability again, right? If so, PS3 = huge library of games right out the door, Xbox2 = a few crappy launch titles. Hmm, yeah.

I haven't even finished most of my Xbox games yet. Why would I buy a new Xbox console that won't let me do that? I'm not going to keep 2 Xboxes around.

KillerTomato hears the distant rumblings of war drums coming from the Redmond campus: 

Does anyone else get the impression that there are some serious wars still being waged inside MS as to what to do with the XBox 2? I get the definite feeling that NOTHING is final yet - extremely troubling if MS still wants to ship in '05.

Swat swats the PS2, and joins the Â"˜who caresÂ' crowd – lines are being drawn:

The PS2 on the other hand.. that thing's coughing up dustballs and bathing in cobwebs.. if it wasn't for MGS3 I'd ditch it for the DS fund.

In regards to backwards compatibility. Who cares? I think I've played FFVII a couple times for nostalgia sake on the PS2, but other than that, 90% of 3D games do NOT age well, so therefore a huge portion of the PSX Catalog is not worth playing.

Certis says something I wouldnÂ't call stupid, a high-water mark for him:

Backwards compatibility is not a big deal for me either. It looks good on paper but I can't recall ever tossing a PSOne game into the PS2 to have a good time. I would only do so if I could find a copy of Bushido Blade!

Duckilama invokes the name of MBAs and their obsessively capitalistic tendencies:

Well, if you ask the MBAs, they'll tell you the same old story - it's all about the exclusives, man! And the Live! service! And the technical superiority of our console, man! Dude!

[Â"…]

someone, somewhere, has justified every decision with a spreadsheet showing how it "helps" the XBox initiative/business unit, whether that's with sales, licensing, market share, whatever.

Mex pointed out he predicted this long ago and then did a dance which I assume was obscene.

Gameguru dares to point out that backward compatibility is a new phenomena.  Obviously he doesnÂ't know how quickly a thing can go from feature to entitlement:

I'm scratching my head trying to think where there is such a huge importance placed on backwards compatability when basically there has only been one console to feature backwards compatability out of the box (i.e. no addon) Sony's PS2.

Before then to get backwards comp. you had to purchase an addon.

So why is there now such a huge outcry for it? Simply because Sony did it once?

And, I think Dr. Ghastly (Incidently, I would flee any hospital where, over the intercom I heard, Â"Dr. Ghastly, paging Dr. GhastlyÂ") sums it up nicely with:

All I hope for is kick ass games.

Elysium says: thank you Ghastly, give that boy a prize. The truth is that gamers talk a big game before a console is released, but once itÂ's the first and only next generation console on the market, then suddenly that indignance is going to be replaced with the sound of credit cards being swiped.  Yes, there are some who will have to be careful with their cash flow and, like Mateo, might have to wait until itÂ's a cost effective purchase, but IÂ'm betting, like Microsoft, that they are in the minority.  The PS2 was not successful because it was backward compatible, it was successful because it was the only new technology on the market for a year and it had developed brand loyalty.  MicrosoftÂ's rush to market in 2005 is a crucial move, and with the significant hardware changes going on, I think the loss of backward compatibility will facilitate hardware development and may even keep the price down.

Also, everyone misspelling compatibility made me want to throw myself off a cliff.  You guys will be the indirect death of me!

Our own Pyroman drew attention to some comments from ValveÂ's Gabe Newell - "Valve is finally getting tough on Counter-Strike cheat creators, according to a post by Gabe Newell on HL2-Fallout, who confirms: 'We've started taking legal action against cheating (cheat-sites, cheat creators,...) both in the US and abroad.'

Then Pyro let us know what he thought on the matter.  He is, to say the least, outspoken on these issues: 

First off, Valve doesn't have any right to claim a tough on cheating stance, they purposefully drove away the Punkbuster guys several years ago and left everyone without an anti cheating solution until theirs was 'ready'. Two, what legal action can you take against a cheater? Claiming they're trying to circumvent your DRM by using a wallhack? Hell, aimbots are often proxies between HL and the Internet, there's no way that's illegal. Once the data leaves the program and hits the wire it's definitely your data. This has actually been proven in court, websites have sued people running proxies for altering their copyrighted data. They lost.

A few posts down Pyro pointed out that on further research the problem was that the cheats involved binaries being released in full, but he still felt it was a futile move.

DonÂ't come to El_Dino for sympathy, cheaters.  HeÂ'll just smack you down!: 

As far as I'm concerned, cheaters should be prohibited in any possible way, even by only dragging them to court just because you can.

Any single asshole that spoils the game for hundreds of people gets no s[y]mpathy from me, even if he is being "o[p]pressed" by the big bad company.

Later Dino gets pushed around by Pyro and Ghastly and backs down a little bit on the screw Â"˜em and sue Â"˜em angle.  Frankly IÂ'd like to see online cheaters get jail time, but whatever.

Par gets technical.  They say the devil is in the detail, so IÂ'm wondering what demonic forces he is invoking here.:  

One thing that has piqued my interest is the fact that there is not a single declaritive statement by Valve as to what comprises "cheating".

[Â"…]

This topic is just too abstract. Its like Microsoft patenting double mouse clicks. Valve is just throwing their weight around.

SwampYankee doesnÂ't like smoke or red fish:

Really. Just shuddup and finish HL2, already. I for one am tiring of smoke screens and red herrings.

Certis waxes with the level-headed smart again.  Damn I hate saying that.: 

Now what exactly is the problem with Valve doing everything they can to ensure that the general gaming public doesn't get easy access to cheats? Companies invest a lot of money into blocking cheats and preventing players from using them. Why wouldn't they?

1dgaf seems to think only people who break the law should be prosecuted.  He must be a hippy!: 

Valve should only be pursuing people who provide others with the tools to cheat if those tools are illegal .

If the people Valve are going after aren't doing anything illegal, Valve are trying to make some kind of moral stance a legal one and they shouldn't. The amount of people a cheater pisses off is irrelevent.

Zedian said Down With Valve several times.  That may or may not be relevant but I appreciate his tenacity.

Dr. Ghastly threw in against CertisÂ' position and entered into a healthy debate.  DonÂ't worry Ghastly, I wonÂ't let him ban you for not agreeing with every word the dark one speaks!:

I support tools to detect and remove cheaters off my server. As a supporter of the U.S. Constitution I also support the right to the 1st amendment. As long as the tools do not break DRM/copyrights, I support their existence. It's like saying I support the existence of guns, but certainly not the illegal use of them.

As for the EULA, please cite the specific text that says installing thier softwre means they have full control over your box. You're forgetting a LOT of cheats are client side hacks into things like DX9, OpenGL or video card drivers. There isn't anything illegal about any of that. You may not alter the DRM/copyright material that Valve owns, but past that I am free to do whatever I want on my box (as long as it doesn't also violate other agreements..)

Pyro gets down to what I agree is really the heart of ValveÂ's blunder here.:

...but it was really Valve's attitude that set me off, acting like they could sue people because they were cheating with their game. Actually they have specifically went after people, who have shut their sites down, however it's still not clear which files they allude to. I just don't like the way they're handling the situation, I guess is the problem. They're purposefully being vauge to scare anyone who writes cheats.

Elysium says: And there it is.  The real issue here is that Valve has lost credibility with their customers.  This is obvious enough with all the anti-Valve histrionics scattered about of late, and it is an exaggerated reaction to a developer that really is trying to redefine and strengthen the role developers play in their own franchises.  In many ways, Valve is taking some of the more protectionist roles of a publisher, and before we lose perspective I think thatÂ's a basically good move.  IÂ'd rather see a general move toward developers with more control over their intellectual property than turning over those rights, and thus cash, to the publishers.  But all that aside.

Valve has a PR problem.  They made big statements with moving Half-Life 2 onto shelves quickly, and got burned.  Gamers are already suspicious of Steam, havenÂ't forgotten the Team Fortress 2 debacle, rolled their eyes at Condition Zero, and are now watching as Valve seems to be mimicking the RIAA in going after café owners and gamers themselves.  I donÂ't mind Valve protecting their property, but they really need to rebuild bridges with customers as well.  If you get the gamers on your side first, then not only will you have a strong position to take against cheaters, but youÂ'll also bolster your target audience. 

CÂ'mon Valve, when you announced Half-Life 2, we showed you that we want to love you long time.  Gamers want to be on your side, youÂ've just got to sell it better!

- Elysium