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Free Games are Great! But the Developers (and retailers like us!) have to eat! So we tolerate that little ad at the start of the game….. Google today is starting a big push into in-game advertising with Adsense for Games and a parallel move into advertising/selling games and music on YouTube through Click-to-Buy .

Again we have nothing against that short unobtrusive relevant ad at the start of the game, or at the very worst occasional ones between levels. But watching the promo video above we are really afraid it is going to be overdone now that Google has landed. We are really not that interested in seeing Big Mac Ads in our games and certainly not multiple ads that really break up game flow.

Going forward we will try to keep an eye on the In-Game ads in the games we showcase on our free games blog and on gamegiants.net. We play every game that we list to sell and we play every game we put on our free games blog. If the ads in a game get out of hand… You won’t see that game here.

On the Democratic side the choice is simple. There is no candidate more hostile to gamer’s interest than Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton sponsored the The Family Entertainment Protection Act in 2005 which among other things would allow government to review ratings, investigate gaming companies and their development processes and audit and fine retailers. What does legislation like this this mean for gamers? Simple less choice and higher prices. But does Hillary stop there? No. Hillary has even proposed a high cigarette style tax on Video Games. Just say No to Hillary.

How about Obama? Barack Obama has public stated the effects of video games on children should be studied and has made a point to encourage students to spend time studying as opposed to gaming. He has turned down donations from the ESA, but on the whole has promoted industry self regulation. On the whole if you are a Democrat Obama is by far the most gamer friendly, and that should be considered when placing your vote on Super Tuesday.

On the Republican side neither front runner is video game friendly. Romney has openly attacked video games and the industry in the press. He also has run ads comparing video games to oceans of filth. McCain is not much better. His friendship and support of Joe Lieberman the co-sponsor of Hillary’s Family Entertainment Protection Act may be of great concern. More so if Lieberman lands a spot in McCain’s cabinet. McCain also supports the DMCA in current form, the law that limits your right to making backup copies of media such as DVDs, music or games. Neither of these Republicans are “gamer friendly choices”. So what should a Republican gamer do?

You may have noticed that we have devoted a lot of space on our blog to Ron Paul. We even shut our store for a day to encourage gamers to donate to Paul’s campaign. Now we admit that Ron has very little chance of winning the Republican nomination baring some major upheaval in the world. But if you look into the guys stances on technology issues, no candidate respects an individuals right to personal freedom more than Ron Paul. He has consistently voted for less government intervention into citizens daily lives. And this includes the rights of gamers to choose: What to play, How to Play, and When to Play it. And as opposed to Hillary Ron Paul is the least likely to impose taxes aimed specifically at your games! If you are a Republican and want to cast an ideological vote Paul is your man. We can not recommend the front runners McCain or Romney.

We leave you with a couple of youTube videos to ponder before making your final choice:

Make sure you put down the wiimote tomorrow and get out and vote!

Looks like Will is putting the “last touches” on another long term project in the photo above! We recently posted our thoughts about Why Spore will Fail. So it is no surprise to us that EA is pushing the release date for Spore back yet again. EA might just get smart and kill it! Kotaku is still deluded thinking Spore will ever see the light of day in a Playable Entertaining form. In any event the company now says “Before the Holidays”.

Hey Kotaku Lay Off the EA Kool-Aid!

For a game that has been under development since 2000 this is not promising. EA has consistently stated the reasons for the delays are they want to release a “better” game. Why would it have to be better after eight years? Maybe it or certain phases of it are too long, too slow, too tedious just plain NOT Entertaining for today’s gamers. We get a hint of that in the interview when we hear “We are happy to announce that you can jump into any one of these evolutionary phases if you like. You don’t have to play straight through from cell to space” In other words we tried it and it was lame.

All we ever hear about in the video is the Creature Creator, Creature Creator, Creature Creator in fact all we ever see is Creature Creator. Rumor has it Creature Creator will be the early released demo. Could it be this is all they have working well after eight years of work?

Demo movies showing phases beyond Creature Creator are few and far between. As Ars Technica wrote in June 2007:

When you see a live demo, it’s pretty much the same demo everyone sees. It may look like the whole thing is off the cuff, but in reality you’re seeing a carefully scripted show. It’s possible giant chunks of the game are missing, and the illusion of the title being near completion is mostly smoke and mirrors. With a game this open-ended, it’s possible the development team is running into a slew of unforeseen problems.

This still holds true to this day.

The biggest problem with Spore is it is not truly multiplayer or multiplayer interactive. Spore does, as stated, allow for the things that players create to be actually uploaded into other players worlds. But the player does not control their creations at all. There is no interaction, voice communication, or chat with other real players.

This will be Spore greatest failure and it will spell its demise. World of Warcraft is the most popular online game for a reason. Not for gameplay itself or graphics. It is the social aspects of the game. Spore lacks social interaction which is not only demanded today by the Facebook, Twitter crowd but without it Spore will be an arduous tortuous even Boring Ordeal.

We leave you with this little clip. Ask yourself what is EA afraid of: