It was with a certain amount of melancholy that I traveled to Leipzig this year to attend the Games Convention. As the contract between the Leipziger Messe and the publisher organization BIU expired this year, the latter revealed plans to stage the show in Cologne from 2009 on. An expo called gamescom; the Games Convention brand belongs to the Leipziger Messe.

Driven by the success of this year's GC -- over 200.000 visitors -- the Leipziger Messe just announced their intention to host another GC in August 2009 again, roughly three weeks ahead of the gamescom. However, most major publishers have thrown their weight behind the Cologne expo, making it likely that this was my last trip to what was started seven years ago. I haven't missed a single show since 2002 and, like most regular attendees, got really used to the expo area and the city. Despite the WiFi at the GC still being as stable as a house of cards during a hurricane.

Gen Con has been a bit light on the video gaming front this year. If not for Dragon Age, I might have chalked it up as a bust after my first pass of the show floor. Taking a second look, there are a few games worth checking out thanks to a bevy of Euro RPGs developers and the always plucky Atari giving them a way into North America.

Kings Bounty, Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir and Champions Online, covered here, are just the start. Keep an eye on this space as the weekend marches on!

This week the GWJ Conference Call crew (minus Julian) paid a visit to the Drunken Gamers Podcast. You may also know them from their old name: Team Fremont Live. In addition to having us on the show, they've also launched Robot Panic - a whole new site focused on all the stuff they enjoy like games, comics, gadgets, robot porn and forehead buffing machines. Seriously though, these guys are super talented and have a great chemistry together. I'll read/listen to anything they put out.

Their latest show with our visit is now live and they've also kicked off a new contest so be sure to pay them a visit. Tell em' Steve Perry sent you.

I'm sullenly slouched in the corner of a half-lit club. The music's just been turned down and I've got my voice recorder held out in front of me, like I'm presenting someone with a dead mouse. A male voice booms across the loudspeakers that were playing house trance just a few moments before. "Thank you all for coming this evening! We know you could have gone to other events this evening, and we appreciate you being here." Some scattered laughter from the (almost entirely male) attendees. Across town is the Rock Band concert that (though we don't know it for sure at this point) will end up featuring The Who. Everyone in the room except for me wishes they were there.

"I'm proud to be a part of the world's largest platform for gaming ..." the voice continues, and I tune out. I arrived about 30 minutes ago, along with some bloggers from the Joystiq network, looking to see some PC games; to write about them, to sing the praises of the 'dying' platform that is Windows gaming. Instead of showing off the brand, the event codified, for me, why Microsoft hates the whole 'PC gaming thing.'

It also underlined, in a single evening, absolutely everything wrong, horrible, and debased about the games industry.

I know that the Will Smith sci-fi vehicle Independence Day is the preferred cultural touchstone today. “Welcome to Earth” jokes, and all that. Somehow Hollywood schlock and Brent Spiner’s worst acting role doesn’t bring to mind independence for me, instead leaving me searching for something more substantial in popular media. Instead I’m reminded of a struggle for independence where the underdogs didn’t win, where they were put down and held with a boot to their throat. I’m referring to the struggle of the Browncoats. The war between the Sino-American Alliance and the border planets was nothing but a backdrop for the sci-fi masterpiece Firefly, but in some ways the messages of that conflict ring true today for game writers.

Those of us writing about games professionally have an unwinnable war on our hands. We're struggling for our independence from the developers and publishers that make games, trying as best we can to investigate and explore rather than just regurgitate and repeat. Despite every games writer being a true gamer in their own right, we also seek to separate ourselves from the consumer perspective to best serve them. The result is a group of journalists who are universally disliked. Hated by publishers for not toeing the line, hated by readers for "obviously" being on the take ... games writing can seem like a no-win situation.

I don't care. I'm still free, and they can't take the sky from me.

I love Disney. Not the company, which is increasingly reaching to foul and loathesome depths in its push to get marketoys into the hands of little girls. Not even the man, though obviously he was a person to respect. I love Disney the gestalt, the overall combination of customer service, ambition, creativity and innovation that lets places like the happiest place on earth exist. Their Walt Disney World resort in particular is fascinating, a microcosm of a country all within the space of a few former swampy marshes.

Particularly engaging is the idea that - in almost every way - Disney is the ultimate MMO developer. Though their forays into the genre have been tentative so far, the house of mouse is poised to be the designer of the happiest places on meta-earth as well.

The normally convivial social activity that is pen and paper gaming has a dark side. Not dark like “murder/suicide pacts in the steam tunnels” dark. Actually not even “if there are girls there I want to do them” dark. But still - dark. I’m referring to the inevitable sand in the swimtrunks that every group has to deal with: The Rules. For some, they’re a bane that needs to be beaten into submission. For others, they’re a means to an end, easy stepping stones along the path to a good story. And for still others they’re a secret lover, the only one that really understands them.

The average gaming group will have a mix of all three of these player-types. Getting them to collaborate, amiably, is an epic-level challenge. With a brand-new edition of Dungeons and Dragons just released I’m gearing up to dive back into the fray. I’ve been organizing games for almost twenty years, and running herd on a group of possibly-surly gamers can get complicated.

Consider this a brief anecdotal guide to being a Game Master (GM). When I’m behind the GM screen, this is how I roll.

(Prederick attended Video Games Live and wrote this report. Enjoy! - Shawn)

On April 26th, Video Games Live made its first appearance in New York City. The brainchild of composer Tommy Tallarico, the show promises to bring music from various video games to life with a live orchestra and crowd participation. Given my track record of being an enormous nerd for video game music, it seemed only fitting to attend.

Video Games Live is predicated on the belief that the music in video games is worthy of recognition for its musical achievement. The notion may not make much weight in the mainstream, but to the crowd on attendance that night, it was true.

Since we first started doing the Conference Call several people have asked us how we put it all together. Saying we do it with a couple of tin cans and some string kind of gets old, so Shawn decided we should do a write up for the front page, and then volunteered me to do it. The bastard! (This article is written by Rob Borges, in case you haven't figured it out yet - Shawn)

So what does it take to get the Conference Call up every week? A crap load of equipment, something interesting to talk about (we hope), and someone insane enough to spend hours editing it all together. That last part would be me, by the way.

So here are the answers to all your questions and possibly more than you really ever wanted to know. Enjoy!

The release of Rare’s Viva Piñata was a wonderful, beautiful fluke. The 360 is a fantastic console, don’t get me wrong, but the purpose of the system is pretty clear. It’s ideally suited for playing console FPS titles, hardcore action games, and other M-rated novelties. The non-sporting E-rated games on Microsoft’s console can be counted with one hand – and most of them are just not very good.

Enter Viva Piñata, a colorful and unique flower against the 360’s dark-grey FPS backdrop. It spoke to both kids and parents, easily winning them over. The parental enthusiasm is understandable: A game their kid could actually play? On the incredibly expensive console they’d just bought?

The game is more than just a digital pacifier, though. Gaming parents, reviewers, and even some trash-talking Halo fanatics all awoke to the realization that the game was good. Really good. Now, with a sequel due out later this year, it worthwhile to consider why the original Viva Piñata is as good as it is and why it was the unheeded harbinger of a gaming revolution.