Rated M for Mature

To the Editor: In “Scratching the Surface” Richard Garriott is quoted as saying:

“Well, it’s like 20% of the population [of the country] is in this game. Out of five people, someone is going to commit suicide.”

Indeed, The Escapist picks out this observation as worthy of highlighting in a larger font alongside the article. But did he really mean this?

It seems rather more likely that this is two observations combined. 20% is one “out of five people” in the country. And: with a sample that large “someone is going to commit suicide”. I certainly hope there are no countries where one person in five commits suicide.

I’m sure the journalists involved didn’t actually misquote him, but it seems cruel to highlight his slip of the tongue in this way!

-Dom Camus

To the Editor: I really enjoyed the “We Play” article, although I’m not quite sure I fully agree with its presumption that the world hasn’t noticed Eastern European gaming.

Most of Eastern Europe’s new democracies have now joined the European Union, or are on course to do so soon. While these countries are poor in EU terms, you only have to look at Spain, Greece or (most dramatically) Ireland to see what EU membership does to poorer economies: it drags them up to or beyond the EU average.

As the new democracies to the East achieve economic parity with the West, they will give a boost to the whole European gaming market, which is well on its way to being the worlds biggest. Watch this space: the winners of the coming console generation will be the developers who account for European tastes.

-Jim Caris

From The Lounge: [Re: “Gaming on the Orient Express” by Nick Bousfield] I remember reading a small preview for this game in an old gaming magazine. After reading this article I really feel sad about what a wonderful experience one seems to have missed. Being in India, I only have access to the mainstream games, and apart from the rare budget release, adventure games are a virtual impossibility.

I am hoping that online distribution systems like Steam will one day allow for the viable resurrection of lost classics such as this.

Thanks for the piece, I’ll definitely be looking around for this.

-Ravenus

To the Editor: First off, I’d like to state I’ve read a few of your articles and love it. They have been well thought out and quite interesting. But I was wondering if there was a way to get the subscription emails done using text instead of PDF to reduce the amount of space it takes up in the email. Thanks for your time I’m looking forward to seeing more from all of you.

-Rabite

Editor’s Note: This demonstrated to us that we had some misleading language on our site regarding subscriptions, which we have since fixed. When you sign up for a subscription to The Escapist, you are not going to receive the pdf in your inbox each week – not only would this be harsh on your inboxes, but our servers would likely rise up in rebellion. With a subscription, each week we send out a handy HTML email with a link to both the web version and to download the pdf.

To the Editor: I’ve been with you since Issue #1, and have enjoyed every issue since. I’d like to applaud your efforts and wish for their continued success, but it would seem that The Escapist has recently been directly involved in death.

You see, my favorite podcast has ceased to be, because one of the hosts has moved into the fold of the wonderful Escapist. Understandably I’m somewhat saddened that this exceptional podcast has been discontinued (although I’m thrilled that such a talent is joining your ranks). Simply put, this radio program wasn’t like many of the other ones out there: it was informed, entertaining and dealt with more than just reviewing games. Purposeful in its drive, it wasn’t like a lot of the self-congratulatory media we’ve seen in gaming for the past little while, since it dared to be critical and dole out praise when needed.

I’m saddened by the fact that I won’t be able to tune and catch up with the hosts every week, but I’m encouraged that The Escapist has inherited such a fantastic talent. To say that I have mixed feelings on the matter would be somewhat accurate.

-Ben