… And we’re back (sorry folks, was busy with graduating)! Welcome to Geekadelphia’s weekly discussion column, Coffee Talk, where we talk about the finer topics concerning video games, technology and all the other things you can’t talk about with your slightly-less-geeky friends. Have questions or suggestions? Send an email to geekadelphia@gmail.com or tweet with us. Follow me on Twitter if you’d like to keep this week’s discussion alive.

A recent study by UK media research firm Ipsos MORI claims that gamers still like their shinies. The study, which surveyed 1000 folks, shows that 64 percent of them prefer physical media over digital download when it comes to how they purchase games.

According to IGN, senior director of Ipsos MORI Ian Bramley attributes the majority vote to the used games industry. While I couldn’t agree more, aren’t we ignoring one major contributing factor? Join us behind the cut.

A visual breakdown of Ipsos MORI’s results

Sure, I like buying games on the cheap as much as the next gamer (as long as I get to see the disc first), but that really isn’t what keeps me from buying online. While we’ve visited this topic here before, let’s give it another go, shall we?

DRM, or Digital Rights Management, is a hot topic for debate for several reasons. Namely are the restrictions that many publishers place on their titles if purchased online. Everything from limited amounts of installs to requiring an internet connection to enjoy even single-player experiences.

Is this too taboo of a subject for even a top level member of a media research firm to address? Basically what’s going on here is the publishers and developers’ fears of losing hard-earned cash is affecting their policies on distribution. But there is something to say to the fact that these obstacles might just turn users to piracy anyway.

Then the question comes, “Do we really own the things we download?”

The answer is an emphatic no and let’s not get into it much further than that. The bottom line is that if you don’t hold in your hands, chances are you don’t and you merely have the rights to use it.

So, the question ultimately is how do we get around this? The games industry, unlike other entertainment media industries, relies solely on its products. Changing the profit model would be pretty tough (hell, it’s been rough for those music folks, though the focus on live performances and bundled sales is helping) at this point.

It amazes me that more publishers haven’t either joined the Steam network or at least tried to emulate their model of distribution. Honestly, the best we’re going to get outside of direct downloads via your browser is the type of social service that Steam provides (and the deals!). If you’re going to require your users to be online to play your games regardless of said games’ features, at least give them a reason to want to be there.

Maybe then we can finally abandon these hunks of plastic and glass and move on. The biggest issue aside from this we need to overcome is game saves and data back-up (I think I can speak for everyone when I say I don’t like losing the things they paid for). Those clouds are looking like a safe place to go right about now.

Photo by Darko Boehringer

It turns out  that seasoned keyboardist Jordan Rudess — famous for his sonic contributions to Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment – is into tech as much as you and I are. Come to think of it, his devotion is at an even higher level with now two apps under his belt for mobile devices like the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Rudess took the time to chat with us recently about his adventures into the app world through Keyboard Wizdom and Morph Wiz as well as his ideas on the evolution of music and technology integration.

GEEK: What are your goals with taking the Keyboard Wizdom tutorials to mobile devices?

Jordan Rudess: I’ve been very involved with the whole app world, the iPhone and iPod Touch technology, and have been doing a lot of things in that area. And this company that I have been doing videos with, Mac Pro Video, a very forward thinking online educational company. They’ve always been doing cutting edge stuff and it was actually them who came to me and said, ‘Hey, we want to put your course on an iPhone app.’ And I said, ‘Wow, that’s awesome!’

I thought that was a pretty cool idea. You just take the whole course, make it fit and people can carry it around in their pocket. I’m excited about that whole idea. All of that instruction could be in somebody’s pocket; that’s pretty cool!

It’s good timing for me too, because I’m working on some more instrumental apps for the iPad and iPhone.

More after the break!GEEK: Could you tell us a bit more about these instrumental apps that you’re working on?

Rudess: Well, let’s see the first one that will hit had gone under the working title as some people knew about as Morph Pad, but my partner and I decided that we would abandon that title and it’s going to be Morph Wiz. So, you can actually be the first one of the block who knows that.

The plan is to get it out within the month. We’re very excited about it and I put a lot of time and energy into it. It’s a musical instrument app that’s kind of based on a Continuum interface. That’s the foundation of it, but it goes off in different directions.

One of those is the combination of graphics and audio and how they work together. There’s a part of my brain that almost sees them as the same. You tweak a sound and that also changes a graphic and then the other way, so everything works together. What a great platform to start to put those ideas together.

The first thing was to choose some basic waveforms, like the things you’d find in subtractive synthesis like sine waves, sawtooth waves, triangle waves and square waves. The next step was to ask, ‘Well, how do we represent those?’ So, we went and did a bunch of research into what kind of visuals would actually graphically represent those wave forms, but I was also concerned with how the really looked. I wanted something that was, quite frankly, cool looking but that also told a story of what it is. It’s giving you some information while you’re making your music.

Here's how the app will appear in your iPhone.

GEEK: Have you always considered yourself a teacher? Either way, what inspired you to create these tutorials?

Rudess: For a long time I’ve been involved in teaching. As a matter of fact I’ve had an online conservatory of my own called Jordan Rudess Online Conservatories – it’s been up there for a long time. And there are some videos that were up there. I’ve also done a DVD, an independent release that contained all this instructional stuff and that was the foundation of moving forward with the Mac Pro Video instruction project. We went back and lifted a lot of material off of there.

I really enjoy teaching especially with music technology to get my lessons across. That’s why it’s so cool to work with these guys at Mac Pro Video because they have a similar mindset where they want to provide the service and have this business, but they also care about taking advantage of the technology and doing it in cool, up-to-date ways.

I’m also interested in moving forward with the technology and doing something that’s not quite common. I’ve been experimenting with a system called Vokle wherein you go on and stream video and invite anyone around the world to do the same. You can have multiple video chats going on at the same time. That kind of technology really interests me for teaching where it becomes more of an online class in which you can see people and hear them.

GEEK: For someone who just started or who wants to start playing the keyboard and synthesizer, is there anything that they should know before they get into this?

Rudess: It’s interesting because nowadays there are more and more people making music with computers and different devices where they can easily call up different scales and sounds. It’s really easy to start making sounds quickly and there’s nothing really wrong with that. In fact, I’m making an instrument you can run on your iPhone and your iPod Touch where you can definitely choose different scales and there are ways to make it ‘easier’ to make music.

However, I still think that playing a keyboard is a very valid musical skill to have. It’s the best way to get a well-rounded look at what’s going on in music. All throughout history it was the piano and the keyboard has always functioned as this way to see a lot of elements in music at the same time like melody, harmony and rhythm.

I guess it’s because with keyboard you have a full range as opposed to something like a flute where you can’t play flushed out harmony. So, it’s a valid instrument in many ways to this day – that’s why people still play it – but the negative side of it is that you need to have a physical skill to play it the keyboard.

The ‘P’ word comes into play: practice.

Photo by Paul Undersinger

GEEK: As someone who is deeply experienced in both worlds, where do you see the future of the convergence of music and technology going?

Rudess: I think the future involves some sort of technology mixed with the keyboard that we haven’t quite seen yet. For those of you who are interested in what I’m talking about, while I can’t give all the details, you might as well practice a little bit of keyboard because you’ll definitely want to play with what’s coming out in the future.

GEEK: Seeing as you’re advocate of both, what would you say is the greatest advantage of merging technology with music?

Rudess: There’s more and more control that’s been made easier. And in our business with technology, every day the toys keep getting better and better, so it’s just more fun if anything else. I would say that in some ways all this technology doesn’t help people to get quality work done, which is funny.

From a musical point of view, you might have these instruments that have a zillion sounds on them, but does it mean you wrote your song any faster? You still have to write a bridge. You’ve got a computer with a million sounds on it. What’s your melody sound like? There still is that element of having to make creative decisions even in the midst of technology.

GEEK: Speaking of the music-technology merge, Dream Theater has included a good amount of their tracks in both the Rock Band and Guitar Hero games. How do you feel about the presence of music games and how they might affect the original creations?

Rudess: It’s interesting because in every game that Dream Theater has contributed a song to we’re always the hardest one. It’s been funny because you don’t get to the Dream Theater songs unless you’re an extremely advanced gamer – you probably have good rhythm or whatever it takes. I personally haven’t tried to play the Dream Theater songs on any of those; I’m afraid to. I think it’s kind of cool. In playing a little bit of Rock Band or Guitar Hero it’s slightly educational because you have to be focused on where the beat is.

I don’t think anybody in our group has a problem at all with our music being used in the gaming market even conceptually or with the fact that it’s great for publicity. Especially for a band like ours because we’re not a total mainstream band – some of the games are mainstream. It helps bring our name to the public, so everyone is excited in our camp that those opportunities exist. We can be known as, ‘Oh, the Dream Theater tunes!’ We’re the hardest ones!

Interesting in learning more about Jordan or his brand new Morph Wiz app? Join him later tonight in a live video chat via Vokle where he’ll demo the app and answer questions. Want to see the wizard make magic in the flesh? See if Dream Theater and Iron Maiden are touring near you this summer — I know I will be.

Welcome to our new Microsoft Student Insider feature series, Cracking Open the Design Toolbox. Each week (hopefully) we’ll follow my blunders progress through Microsoft’s new Silverlight powered, interactive and socially connected tutorial – that doubles as an achievement driven game – design.toolbox. Not to mention we’ll also provide you tips and tricks on how to access the Expression Studio and how to get started creating some super cool apps, projects and more!

Before even thinking about diving into the design.toolbox, you’re going to need to do two things. First, you’ll need to go here and create a Windows Live ID (if you don’t already have one). This is how you’ll access the design.toolbox, create your profile and avatar and get schooled in design. Second, you’ll need to download and install the Silverlight plug-in on whatever browser you’ll be accessing design.toolbox. As everything in the design.toolbox is running on Silverlight, this is pretty much crucial. Now that the essentials are over with, join us behind the cut as we get into the fun stuff!

Say hello to my little friend (always wanted to say that)!

Once you got this covered, it’s time to create an avatar. Now, you might be thinking, “Sweet, I can just import my Xbox Live Avatar!”

Hold your horses! This is Silverlight we’re talking about here, not XNA Game Studio (though, you can create some pretty awesome 2D games in Silverlight. Hopefully that comes later!). However, these avatars are absolutely adorable and, in my case, extremely accurate. Creating your avatar is simple: just select your little alter ego’s skin tone, hair style, clothes and accessories through the easy to use tabbed system and save it. You can always change this later if you like by clicking the “view profile” button on the bottom left of just about any given screen within design.toolbox.

Now that you’ve created your cute little buddy, it’s time to get to the nitty gritty: the design school. The design.toolbox school follows two tracks: principles and scenarios. The principals track is designed (see what I did there?) to teach you the fundamentals and later advanced practices for good design through a series of instructional and sometimes inspirational videos. This includes everything from attractive and evocative use of color and typography to considering your target audience in all aspects of your project.

A quick look at the avatar creation screen

The scenarios track houses a series of mock projects using the Silverlight browser preview app coupled with how-to videos by prestigious designers. The idea is to follow along the video using the Silverlight browser preview app couple with each video, but considering the amount of time the videos spend within Expression Blend 3, I highly recommend grabbing Expression Studio (more on this later) and following along there. Don’t worry, the project assets for every tutorial are included just under the Silverlight player within the “Download” button (remember to save them in a place you’ll remember and can easily access).

The first set of principles track videos are essentially Robby Ingebretsen’s MIX 09 presentation cut up into a series of eight to 14 minute clips.

His presentation was three hours long.

While a bit of the fat was cut off, the videos can become tiresome. However, Robby’s words are vital for both newbies and professionals who could always use a refresher (and he’s a pretty funny guy, so that helps). One gripe with the way the principal tracks are presented is the inability to jump back and forth between a video too much before the Silverlight player breaks. This resulted in frequent presses of that handy F5 key, which turned out to be a bit of a nuisance. The same goes for what we’re going to cover next, my experience with the scenarios track.

This is where you decide where to take your design training next.

The scenarios track modules aren’t much more than videos that allow the user to follow along using the nifty Silverlight preview web app. However, I again highly recommend using Blend 3 to follow along step by step with the tutorial. Unfortunately, this will surely cause you to run into the same problem as before: the Silverlight player tends to get wonky after one too many pauses or rewinds. Regardless, following along directly through Blend rather than simply watching was much more helpful. Think of it as taking notes during class; it commits the information to memory.

This is exactly why design.toolbox deserves applause: for including the assets for each project just beneath the Silverlight player. I’ve always preferred getting hands-on with my learning, which is half of what design is all about and the folks behind design.toolbox clearly understand that.

So, how exactly does one acquire Blend 3 to follow along with the training program? Well, you can win a free trial of Microsoft Expression Studio 3 right now for starters. Just create a design.toolbox account, direct us to your profile page and let us know what you think within a comment. We’ll give you a week for this one. That is, until May 14, 2010.

For you students out there, hang tight as we’ll more information soon within a dedicated post on how to access Expression Studio 3 for free. Yep, that’s right. Just for being a student. Keep your ear to the ground… or eye glued to the screen. Whatever works for you.

Welcome to Geekadelphia’s weekly discussion column, Coffee Talk, where we talk about the finer topics concerning video games, technology and all the other things you can’t talk about with your slightly-less-geeky friends. Have questions or suggestions? Send an email to geekadelphia@gmail.com or tweet with us. Follow me on Twitter if you’d like to keep this week’s discussion alive.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of social internet juggernaut Facebook, recently announced their updated approach to the web, Open Graph a little over a week ago. To avoid getting bogged down in the web jargon, this is essentially means that Zuckerberg wants Facebook and its user information to be accessible outside of the original website. Does this mean that users’ information will be visible from wherever without consent (you might want to find that tin foil)?

Well, sort of. Profiles will still have the option to be private, but if they wish to share their experiences of the internet outside of Facebook, Zuckerberg’s Open Graph policy will require them to be logged in and be public. How will this work exactly and what will it mean for the future of the web? Since we know you’re just itching to find out, we put it right behind that link down there. See you on the other side.

Warning: This is not a button!

The primary method Facebook will use is the “Like” button. You’ve probably seen it on your favorite sites and blog posts. That is, if you clicked past your RSS feed to notice (who does that anymore?). Much similar to established services like Digg and StumbleUpon, clicking the Like button will automatically share the fact that you read this piece of content and enjoyed it for whatever reason.

Beyond posting it to your wall, “Liking” something will contribute to a greater collection of information based on what you browse while logged in to your Facebook account. Using this information, Facebook could contribute to an organically social web where simply clicking a button while browsing will share your interests and network content better than ever. Not to mention this information might be beneficial to content publishers looking for more tangible metrics with which to rate their offerings (before you ask, we’ve already seen my thoughts on Facebook’s approach to privacy).

It’s alright, we’re all jealous of the guy (Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg)

Instead of sharing clunky links and explaining why you’re sharing, the Like button does both quickly and simply. Speaking of which, Likes share a striking similarity with traditional hyperlinks. They have the ability to provide a direct portal to information on the web. When you post a link, you’re essentially sharing that information and giving the end user the place to find it.

However, links have a fundamental flaw: the connection they have to the greater web is tracked by what websites post that information, not individuals. Sure, tracking links is totally possible, but it takes work. Likes, on the other hand, naturally post that information in reference to a specific user. This makes for a metric that directly displays the people behind the numbers not to mention a tangible network for users.

This raises a few potential “what if’s”. What if this whole Like business takes off? Since Google cannot track Likes as well as it does links, will Facebook become the new standard to which websites aspire to? What if users don’t want their every move on the internet tracked (while logged in on Facebook) for the benefit of publishers and advertisers? This could polarize Facebook’s user base. Or it could mean nothing as one could assume a large majority of Facebook users are unaware of the Open Graph anyway. Perhaps a public service announcement is in order.

The first annual 3D Gaming Summit went down just last week. There is a convention for just about everything these days, even this. Joystiq’s Mike Schramm hosted a panel discussing the global 3D landscape, which “quickly spun off into a debate about whether 3D is really what we need as gamers.”

With Sony jumping the gun on 3D gaming tech (so much so that games can’t keep up with them), what makes the industry’s movers and shakers so sure that this is the next vista for gaming? More on this and a potentially practical application of 3D behind the cut.

Nvidia’s first stereoscopic 3D gaming offering costs more than an Xbox 360 Arcade

To explain why the industry wants to move into 3D gaming so badly — even before a majority of consumers are ready — is pretty simple (albeit long winded). Large corporations like Sony and Nvidia simply need to constantly create new products and technologies to open up new channels of revenue. Reiterating on the same technology or product over and over again becomes bad for profit when market penetration for one product plateaus.

In other words, you can only add or tweak so many features to an existing product or technology before it becomes stale, which then stagnates profits. Why do you think a new cell phone comes out every month, each with an increasingly better camera or processor (said upgrades are usually marginal at best)? Because if they didn’t, the corporations who develop these cell phones would be at a standstill on how to generate additional revenue. This is the exact problem the iPod has run into, especially considering the Touch generation, for all intents and purposes, has dropped the proverbial piano on it.

We are people of the future. We bring peace… and the third dimension!

Now, let’s take this same idea into the realm of gaming. We really can’t go much higher in terms of visual quality when it comes to gaming (lest we venture deeper into the uncanny valley). Not to mention I cannot possibly imagine that video quality clearer than 1080p will grace our televisions before the next generation of consoles begins. Console providers are pretty much scrambling to find new sources of revenue without entering the next generation because there isn’t much justification for it at the moment (at the very least they’re talking about it).

Considering that the core motive behind the past 20 years of consecutive console generations has been higher visual quality, this essentially kills any reason to attempt to move forward. Besides, if I see one of these again, I’ll stage a coup (somewhere). Which also explains to move to motion controls from all three major console providers.

Now that we have a pretty good idea as to why console providers might be looking at 3D, let’s ask that question again:

Why?

Sony entering the 3D gaming industry so hastily could potentially rank up there with Nintendo’s first venture into 3D. Why, you ask? The Sony Move hasn’t even released yet, that’s why.

Join us!

And that leads us to the meat of this week’s Coffee Talk (it was a slow burn): why even think about 3D gaming when not one of the world’s leading console providers has mastered motion control? Playing games in 3D without being able to at least feel like you’re participating directly in the experience is nothing more than a tease. It’s only logical that we master feeling like we’re in the game world before making the visual leap.

The number one disconnect between the player and the game world is that pesky piece of plastic. Why should we continue the pointless game of “How Long Can You Suspend Your Disbelief?!” in the 3D landscape when it’s obvious that the controller is the thing that is first and foremost keeping us from full immersion (if that’s even the point, anyway)?

The first thing I would want to do when confronted with a full 3D game is to walk around and touch things, not remotely move my character via buttons and joysticks like I have been for the past 15 years. Which raises another point. After seeing some off-screen photos of 3D tech demos of games like Assassin’s Creed 2 in 3D, I can’t help but wonder why the hell would we want to play a game in the third person if it were in three dimensions. Silly me thought the point of 3D was to remove the middle man (note: stop thinking so damned much).

Welcome to Geekadelphia’s weekly discussion column, Cofffee Talk, where we talk about the finer topics concerning video games, technology and all the other things you can’t talk about with your slightly-less-geeky friends. Have questions or suggestions? Send an email to geekadelphia@gmail.com or tweet with us. Follow me on Twitter if you’d like to keep this week’s discussion alive.

More than 140,000 people bought a flying, sparkling horse for $25 last week. Now that would be an incredible steal (a flying horse made of stars for $25?! Goodbye to commercial flights!) if it weren’t digital. That’s right, what I guess now to be nearly 200,000 folks — if not more — have bought WoW’s Celestial Steed. As Massively’s Seraphina Brennan points out, that’s half the cost of an expansion pack. We’re going to let that set in and take this discussion behind the cut.

Before anyone gets any ideas about me being coldly against microtransactions, I’ve made good use of them through both World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO) to buy both digital goods like dungeon packs and services like character makeovers. As much as I hate to admit it, the value of digital content pretty much comes down to the price. Is this collection of pixels and bits worth the physical money I am paying for it?

Consider this gryphon’s mind officially blown.

Blizzard has created a reputation for themselves of pricing their digital goods a bit on the insane side. For example, the studio has released various cosmetic pets that follow around your character, acting out cutesy animations and making not-so-cutesy sounds, for a more than modest $10. More recently Blizzard did the same, but to make it more worth the buy, included plush counterparts to the digital pets for $25.

But to charge the same amount for a purely digital license (remember we never truly own digital products, kids) seems ludicrous. However, what’s even more insane is the amount of people that came flocking ravenously like school girls to a Justin Bieber concert (only through their mouse and keyboard) to purchase one of these shiny steeds.

When similar game communities revolt against studios for implementing pay walls that give a slight edge to players with the cash (owners of the Celestial Steed will never need to buy a mount again), it’s only natural to ponder why this happened. After much thinking, I’ve come up with one answer: brand loyalty. A Blizzard fan buying a sparkling, digital pony is to an Apple fan buying the iPad* (and the special coat accessory).

Arguing whether Blizzard produces quality games to justify the unwavering loyalty is like arguing whether Magic Brownies is the best Ben and Jerry’s flavor (pointless). However, this does say a few things about where online games could be headed.

Hikes in price for digital property from various high profile development studios to test whether they can pull it off (this goes for DLC too, folks) is a more a probability than a possibility. It’s possible that more digital goods and services that were once free may eventually become paid services and more digital content and services created with the intent of going for sale. Lastly, expect a large amount of said content and assets to sparkle, be an adorable animal or both.

Oh, and one more thing. Remember that WoW also has a subscription fee.  Microtransactions aren’t just for free to play games anymore. So, I hear DDO will be getting guild run airships some time this summer. Don’t worry Geekadelphians, DDO developer Turbine will be offering 0.9 percent APR financing on all models while supplies last!

*When said Apple fan already owns both a Mac Book and an iPhone… and a Mac Desktop.

Now, I know we’ve touched base on something similar to this before, but this is just too good to pass up. Joystiq recently found a new studio named Killspace Studios via Supererogatory and after some digging found they have recently purchased the domains ApocalypseNowGame.com and WarIsNotAGame.net (just sitting there, waiting). 1UP drew the conclusion that the new studio comprised of former developers from studios such as Obsidian and Pandemic as well as a few others might be creating a game surrounding the award winning film, Apocalypse Now.

You know, that award winning Francis Coppola directed film that starred Marlon Brando and Robert Duvall. The same flick that many believe set the standard for cinematography as one of the greatest films of all time. Yeah, that one. Not to mention the studios founding statement by talent agency, Digital Development Management, says the 40-strong team’s specialty is “action” games for the “[Xbox] 360, PS3, Wii, PC, iPhone [and] Facebook”. Oh boy, this ought to be good. 

While I may be jumping the gun here and counting Killspace out before even seeing the title in action, I find it hard to place faith in any studio who would attempt to reinterpret such a work into a video game. This is because, frankly, there isn’t much else to say, imply or depict about the atrocities of the Vietnam War that Coppola and his crew in Apocalypse Now haven’t already addressed vividly.

I finally understand why fans of artistic triumphs and their creators alike get their panties in a bunch when arguable masters of other creative media attempt to recreate their original works. While it has been done tastefully before and even to point of becoming supplemental to the original piece, more times than not it falls short and can cheapen the original as a result.

Francis Ford Coppola on the set of Apocalypse Now

I cannot wait to hear Coppola’s official reactions to his film potentially being reinterpreted into a video game. One could only hope that he’d be interested enough to involve himself directly and potentially turn this game into something that both compliments and does the film justice.It’s a given that these statements are all capable of sliding down the slippery slope, but that’s the beauty of social media (they let you make comments. Amazing, I know).

Now, the talent of Killspace’s founding team isn’t in question at all, to be clear. It’s merely whether an “action game” can balance the action with the emotion and drama of the original work. Simply throwing in Marlon Brando’s digital avatar whimpering, “The horror, the horror” before his iconic death at the game’s end isn’t going to cut it.

Is it disrespectful to automatically assume that Killspace would cheapen the film like this? Probably, but judging from what other developers have done to literary masterpieces one is allowed to be cynical skeptical. So, to channel my inner Michael Myers:

Discuss.

To end our journey to Las Vegas for MIX 10 in March, Tom Ziegmann and I sat in on Raffi Krikorian’s session titled “Adding the Where to the When of Social Applications” to learn more about our favorite internet obsession, Twitter. More specifically, we learned a bit about where the social is network headed, but still wonder why it’s watching us. It’s kind of creepy.

Thankfully, we later had the chance to ask him some burning questions about geotagging, which helps reveal exactly where the 7-11 is in which your friend just bought milk (you heard it here first, folks). More importantly, we discussed geotagging’s social and security implications as well just who is the real Raffi. Speaking of which, I need to form the search party!

Welcome to Geekadelphia’s weekly discussion column, Cofffee Talk, where we talk about the finer topics concerning video games, technology and all the other things you can’t talk about with your slightly-less-geeky friends. Have questions or suggestions? Send an email to geekadelphia@gmail.com or tweet with us. Follow me on Twitter if you’d like to keep this week’s discussion alive.

We apologize (sort of) for the completely unrelated image, but that reference has been ignored for far too long. Anyway, Nintendo will be releasing an eReader game for the Nintendo DS called 100 Classic Books this summer, says Kotaku. Wait, that’s our inspiring piece of news for this week?

Here’s the catch: the game appears to have no ESRB rating and simply states, “This product does not require age verification.” That’s a bit odd. And here I thought all games required an ESRB rating to be released for retail sale.

Now, it’s easy to argue that this is barely a video game and more of an application, which may not need any sort of rating. While it does still provide influential content, writing 500+ words on a petty argument would be wasting our time. So, let’s keep it light(ish) this week and give a brief history of the ESRB and poke some fun at it, shall we?

ESRB rating stamp collage, not sure if want…

The ESRB, or The Entertainment Software Rating Board, is a self regulated, non-profit organization created in 1994 as an arm of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), according to the ESRB. Essentially, the non-profit spawned out of Joe Liebermans’ 1993 hearings on video game violence as a means to enforce the restriction of violent and lewd interactive content to minors.

In other words, parents didn’t really feel like taking the time to learn about their kids hobbies by, oh, we don’t know, interacting with them and were appalled at the atrocities of the games they were playing. More importantly, parents were distressed about how these ‘sex and murder simulators’ were effecting their childrens’ behavior. While it goes without saying that these game do, in fact, leave an impression, the gravity of that influence is up for debate. Thus the ESRB was born and changed the face of video game content forever.

Well, sort of. Okay, not much has changed at all, but who’s counting?

However, the ESRB has not only gotten in the way of several releases over the years (Manhunt 2, anyone?) but has essentially given many titles the death sentence via the “Adult Only” rating, which prohibits the sale of a game to a minor regardless of consent. This is due to the fact that many retailers refuse to sell AO rated games because of not only their negative connotations, but the liability they place on the store in question. In a way, the ESRB have pretty good leverage over what gets put out by publishers by swinging the good ole AO hammer around.

I pity da’ fools who let their youngins’ play Grand Theft Auto (couldn’t resist)

However, enforcement has become another issue entirely, as it has with jsut about all mature material. Kids will sneak into R-rated movies, download offensive music and pornographic films and share M-rated (Mature Audiences Only) video games until these ratings boards hire a private A Team to smash through the windows of families’ homes every time their little one pops in Grand Theft Auto.

So, what does it come down to? Yeah, you guessed it, the parents. Being a former GameStop employee for over a year (until the insanity took one bite too many of what’s left of my soul), the amount of parents I’d see allowing their kids — and we’re talking children here — pick up M-rated titles was depressing. Now, whether said parents have had all the right talks with their spawn is unknown, but I’d rather not give them the benefit of the doubt.

What’s the big deal, then? It’s not really our problem if my neighbors’ 8-year-old is playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (remember those kids I mentioned last week on Xbox Live?). Well, how about if your single digit son is over your neighbors’ house. Regardless of whether it’s allowed in your household, you can bet your kid’s weekly allowance (parents still give those?) he’s playing that game, slaughtering thousands of terrorists. Unless you want him to grow up to be the next Liam Neeson in Taken, this is can be a bad thing.

The bottom line here is that ESRB ratings mean less than the mindless dribble most of the games they attempt to enforce produce when parents (do I sound like a broken record, yet?) care not to involve themselves with what games their children are playing and, more importantly, how they feel about them. However, the ratings nonetheless exist and will continue to have a gripping effect on the content featured in mature releases in fear of the dreaded AO rating. Unless, the responsibility hot potato game finally stops and paren — damned turntable broke again?