Except, if you check out the link, this place closed over a year ago.

Dude! That's my phone! It looks a little better branded as a DoCoMo P902i, but yeah... I need a new one.

Given that the new year's issue of Top Gear mag was full of stories about the guys driving in Japan, wouldn't that mean taping is already over and done with? Too bad, it would be pretty awesome if I drove down to Daikoku and JC was there with the Stig

As someone who actually lives and drives in Japan, kei cars are a blight which need to be eradicated from the earth. Nothing is more annoying than a line of cars moving 10kph under the speed limit because a kei car is having trouble getting up a hill.

Dunno how much of a true U.S. vs Japan matchup this was. That same weekend I was watching the MSC challenge in Tokyo, which was definitely a lower-level competition, but it featured a D1GP champion as one of the judges, and last year's Formula D champions from America and the UK. So both sides might not have been playing with their best lineup.

there are already grand cherokees here in Japan, but I think they're older ones. Basically, Japanese people will not buy foreign products if there is a viable Japanese equivalent. They might like some American stuff like McDonald's, but thats about it. I don't think any of these Dodge cars have a chance, except for maybe the Charger, since there is nothing remotely close to a muscle car right now from a Japanese manufacturer. For the Nitro and Caliber, Japanese people will just turn to hotter hatches from toyota or honda.

it's not a 1JZ-GTE, because the 1JZ is 2.5 litres, not 3, and a twin turbo. Why he didn't put in a 2JZ-GTE I dunno...

how come there's like all of 4 stories from the tokyo auto salon? i know you guys were busy with detroit, but its been over for 2 weeks. i want to see what VeilSide Top Secret and HKS are up to!

-to Brad

I feel bad because I never actually read Dr. Thompson's first study, but after reading her response it seems to me like a better term for the "62% violence" would be more like "62% aggression," since "violence" automatically conjures up images of headshots and severed limbs. I would say the percentage is the amount of time spent actively pursuing your own interests at the expense of another entity, thus "aggression." I don't think this should include inanimate objects like a tetris block. A ghost in pac man has a face and a name, which on some abstract level should produce some empathy. Not very much, but enough to differentiate them from an inanimate object.

Now, the other point to consider is that this percentage score is only one of two very important variables in determining the level of violence in a game. As I was trying to say before, what I think is much more important to how violent a game is is the level of realism with which the violence is portrayed. I believe there are games like Metal Gear Solid 2, which would score low on the percentage statistic, but high on the realism statistic. You don't spend nearly as much time shooting people (if you play it right) as you do just sneaking around. However when you do actually shoot someone it is with a much more realistic depiction. Not only are the genome soldiers named, but when you shoot them they bleed, die, and become a corpse for you to deal with.

So, there are two different variables, and the "62%" is far less important than the realism. I think pac man scores pretty minimal in the realism section, but not a zero.

Most of the people here, including Stanton, missed her biggest point. Almost immediately in her response, after reminding everyone to actually read her findings, she tells everyone how the 62% "violent" was only one of many measurements. She says herself that what most people would be concerned with was not a percentage point, but the level of realism that violence was portrayed with. Unfortunately (especially to gamers used to reacting with outrage to percentage scores - like your favorite game getting a bad review) that number score provokes an immediate negative reaction, and then people fail to continue on to the more important aspects of her research. She is actually on our side, it seems to me.