Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. A black cloud has crossed my path, tell me what's good luck about that. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Round Two of this week's Agent Swap is underway, so I'll be your host for tonight and tomorrow. Being the day After July 4th, tonight's column is going up a bit late, apologies. Of course, being Friday night, tomorrow night's column will probably go up a bit late as well. But hey, that just means more time to write letters, right? I love the fine art of Justification.

Sometimes, if you want to do something bad enough, you have to ignore the consequences and just do it. Or something.

Truth be told, the amount of bandwith that will be used by the screenshots probably won't come close to doing the damage that a major movie posting does. Not as many people are going to want to browse through all of the images posted compared to the number of people that immediately jump on a movie posting. Of course, if someone is feeling extremely dedicated and DOES feel like sorting through 600 screenshots, then they're waiting right there for them. I'm going to step out into the realm of personal opinion for a moment -- I think that as long as the GIA is around, you'll see the staffers pushing to do as good of a job as possible on the site. Granted, the benefits of posting that many images are relatively few, but even one visitor gets something out of that extra bit of work, then I personally think it's worth it.

I have no problem with licenses themselves -- one of the games you mention, GoldenEye, is a licensed game itself. The problem comes when the license acts as a substitute for good gameplay. Sometimes, a developer may put so much money down to acquire a license that they leave themselves little room for production costs. Other times, the developer may just not care about game quality, plain and simple.

Much of the appeal behind a license depends on what's being licensed. Yes, some of us may see the older generation of G.I. Joe as the classic U.S. Army cartoon series, but that doesn't mean it'd translate into a good videogame. If a game is done right, it should be able to draw the player into the game world. The more original a game is, the more explaining you have to do to make this happen. However, if you throw a gamer into the mix with a Star Wars game, there's a good chance they'll be able to get absorbed into the game without much in the way of introductions and cutscenes. The familiarity of a famous license also always for a familiarity with the person playing the game, and that makes developers' jobs a bit easier.

It kind of surprises me that that big of a mix-up would go unnoticed all the way until print time, but I guess mistakes happen.

Personally, I'm not overly worried about the release status of Suikoden 3 right now. Konami has proven before that they're not affraid to take a risk in the American market, and any information surrounding Suikoden 3 right now is virtually entirely rumor-based. When a game is still a good ways from its Japanese release date, I tend not to worry about early reports that question the later-coming stateside release.

To be honest, I've been a bad Agent. A bad, bad Agent. I currently do not have a copy of Final Fantasy Chronicles, although I'm hoping to resolve this dire situation tomorrow. However, I can say this -- if they did lengthen the Bridge Theme, I'll at least now know ahead of time of a convenient time to stock up on snacks and drinks mid-game.

I don't really credit any one band for any one musical style. I've taken a lot of music courses in my time, and while I'll admit that there have been a few "Milestone Artists" from time to time, I don't think one group has ever single-handedly created / influenced a musical style. Since guitars started becoming popular way back when, the style in which they're played has constantly branched outward. It's hard to say where a certain genre or era begins, because the previous one never really ended; it just evolved in various forms.

I think when the source of a Chrono-related rumor is a direct quote from Sakabuchi, the rumor becomes more of an on-record statement. Of course, it's far too early to speculate on anything related to the game or how the companies would approach, but seeing as this is a letters column, let's do it anyway!

I'd personally like to see a three-way effort between the companies, capturing the "Dream Team" mystique once again. Xenosaga is somewhat cross-company, as far as trademarks / licensing goes, however Namco seems to be the sole company actually working on the game. All we can do right now is cross our fingers and hope this project makes it past the planning stages.

Closing Comments:

-Jeremy Steimel