That's what happens when you go on vacation and turn your back on MobyGames. When you come home, people are going over 20,000 points all over the place! This time is our German contributor Sicarius. He's that kind of silent contributor, not very present in the forums but always submitting new items on a regular basis. As himself affirms in his rap sheet, his main turf is cover art (being the 4th top contributor in that category, right behind legendary people like Corn Popper and Servo) and so far he is the top credits contributor for 2008.

Well done, Sicarius!

And thus the article comes to end. Drunken Irishman's history of Western RPGs concludes with an overview from the Modern Age, from 2002 to the present day. The run-down starts with Morrowind (2002) and ends with The Witcher (2007).

In the last pages, the independent (indie) RPGs are briefly discussed, leading up to the final conclusion. It seems the previous sections already stirred up some emotions, and you know he just loves that. Well done!

Continue reading the article, starting from the new section, here.

After having dealt with the eighties and the early nineties, today Drunken Irishman ventures into the late nineties, from the key title Fallout (1997) that introduced realistic choice and consequence in the genre, to Wizardry 8 (2001), a relic of a generation of RPGs that refused to adapt.

Aside from many elementary titles discussed thoroughly, this section, The birth of new era - late 90's to modern age, also shows how three of the most important franchises (Might and Magic, Ultima and Wizardry) come to a grinding halt with the rise of a new force in town, BioWare.

Coming up tomorrow, the final part:

• Modern Age - 2002-2007, the indies and a conclusion

Continue reading the article, starting from the new section, here.

We continue this week of Western RPGs with the second part of Drunken Irishman's personal history of the genre. This era, entitled The craftsmen - early 90's to mid-90's, runs from Ultima 6 (1990) to Diablo (1996) and most importantly explains why it is called the Dark Ages.

In his typical style, you will also get to know about important landmarks such as the first RPG with a homosexual semi-graphic sex scene, the first RPG to introduce a journal and what God's favourite game is.

Coming up the next days:

• The birth of new era - late 90's to modern age
• Modern Age - 2002-2007, the indies and a conclusion

Continue reading the article, starting from the new section, here.

Our resident contributor Drunken Irishman has taken up the humongous task of writing the history of Western RPGs, in the same way Oleg Roschin covered the World of Asian RPGs.

Because of the scope, this article is going to be published on the site in small doses this week. That way it will be easier to discuss parts of it in the comments. Readers need to keep in mind it has not been written in an objective way. As a personal history of the genre, some games have been deliberately left out and there are many subjective opinions all written using his rather unique way with words.

Do not let that detract from his authority on the matter. Most noteworthy is the how the evolution of the genre is described. You will get to know the founding games that defined the elements we now take for granted, who borrowed a lot and how different titles can be compared in terms of design.

The first part contains an introduction to the article, a lexicon of terms being used, an overview of the forefathers of the RPG and the first of four generations (From nerd to an artist – the 80's). This is just a small step however as more hefty sections will follow the next days:

• The craftsmen - early 90's to mid-90's
• The birth of new era - late 90's to modern age
• Modern Age - 2002-2007, the indies and a conclusion

Read the first part of the article here.

We all were expecting this as the signs were clear. Our fastest Brazilian contributor Macs Black just ranked among the 17 people with more than 20,000 points. Macs Black is well known among the regulars not due to his forum posts but due to his prolific work for MobyGames. He's always proving us that quality and quantity can walk side by side.

Keep us Brazilians proud, Macs Black!

In a guest editorial for the online publication The Escapist, Hal Halpin, long-time computer game entrepreneur and manager of the Entertainment Consumers Association, makes some motivated predictions about where gaming is headed.

He comments on the following statements:

• Digital distribution will soon kill packaged goods.
• Games will be respected soon because gamers will grow up and become politicians.
• The anonymity of the web and online gaming in general empowers hate-mongers, bigots and delinquents.
• Gamers in the future will be even more hardcore and willing to wear the label.
• The future of console gaming will be on one platform.
• The publishing landscape won't change. Developers will be stuck as second-class citizens in forced deference to publishers.
• Magazines are dead, long live magazines!
• Content is king!
• Game prices will eventually begin to fall.

Read the full editorial here.

Fallout 3, the third game in the Fallout series by Bethesda Game Studios has been rejected by the OFLC, making the game illegal to be sold, advertised, or demonstrated in Australia. The reasons for the rejection is due to the "realistic visual representations of drugs and their delivery method (bringing) the 'science-fiction' drugs in line with 'real-world' drugs."

This means that Fallout fans are unable to play this game, and the only way Bethesda can sell the game in the country is to release a crippled version or not to have the game released at all.

Gui Chirinéa, our leading Brazilian contributor/approver, reached the epic 20 000 contribution points this week. It is usually Chirinea himself who posts this kind of milestone news items, but he is too humble to promote himself.

I will primarily remember Chirinea for contributing many missing Master System and Philips G7000 games, primarily those released exclusively in Brazil.

The recent Browser platform addition was certainly what pushed us over the edge, as we are experiencing an intense load of incoming submissions. As we state in our FAQ:

MobyGames is the world's largest and most flexible electronic game documentation project in existence. And best of all, it's added to, rated, and reviewed by you--the gaming public. MobyGames is, literally, built by gamers.

For that we thank you, dear contributors. Keep up the good work!

The buzz in the forums makes clear that many contributors are looking forward to seeing more platforms added. Just yesterday we added the browser platform and there are many more we would like to open up in the near future.

However, the amount of submissions steadily keeps increasing over the years while our approval team has more or less remained the same in size. To keep the waiting time for contributions reasonable without putting too much strain on the approvers (this is all done on a voluntary basis), we are looking for new contributors to join our ranks. We have opened up some new spots but even if there isn't a position available for your platform of choice, there is no harm in inquiring.

New approvers of a certain platform should preferably have 1,000 points to show they're familiar with the site and its standards. You can also start slow and then work your way up with additional responsibilities. Make sure you can put in some time on a regular basis and you take the task seriously. There are always approvers at hand to introduce you to the inner workings.

Existing approvers with some spare time are also encouraged to expand their territory, you only need to ask. You will not only be helping the site grow, you also get the opportunity to discuss the internal workings of the site and the priceless chatter among the approval team. We hope to welcome some new approver applications, it's the only way to bring the queue back to proportion and make new platforms available. Admins also often need to let the corrections linger because much attention is needed in the regular queues and we would like to change that.

At the same time, we say goodbye to some approvers who have been inactive for quite some time now. Syed GJ, phlux, Yobu, JPaterson, Luis Silva and Bazajt - thanks for the many hours you spent reviewing submissions and the best of luck with your future endeavours.

After a long wait the site now fully supports browser games. These are games meant to be played through a browser such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera. Originally considered a gimmick, the attention for these games has soared as technology caught up. Many of these titles are ingenious, highly polished and offer fascinating gameplay. MobyGames is one of the few sites that will now document these as a part of electronic gaming history, as they are far more than trivial entertainment, broadening our reach to an incredible amount of new titles that can now be added to the site.

Although currently listed under the category "personal computers", these games are in fact platform independent. Many of these can be played on a Windows PC, but also on a PSP or Wii. Some of the technologies currently supported are ActiveX, ASP, DHTML, Flash, HTML, Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Shockwave, Silverlight, Unity, VBScript. Games that require to be installed on the hard drive and are then played through a browser window are not considered browser games and should go in the regular Windows/Mac/Linux sections.

Gentlemen, fire up your contribution engines and let us now if certain tech specs need to be fleshed out further. A few other platforms (mostly older ones) are coming up as well.