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A L S O__T O D A Y [ 2 1 S T__B O O K S ] This is just between us, right? By Matthew DeBord Two new books get confused about online privacy - - - - - - - - - - T A B L E__T A L K Is the Net doomed to be a white village? Weigh in on race and the Web in the Digital Culture area of Table Talk - - - - - - - - - - R E C E N T L Y Gun mad By Andrew Leonard While the oldest, nastiest debate online remains deadlocked, gun rights activists on the Net get organized (04/20/98) Black and white and Web all over By Janelle Brown African-Americans aren't flocking online -- a new study puts the numbers together (04/17/98) 21st Challenge No. 8 By Charlie Varon and Jim Rosenau Phony Microsoft support letters (04/16/98) Let's Get This Straight By Scott Rosenberg For Microsoft's PR machine, "innovate or die" becomes "innovate or buy" (04/15/98) Let my software go! By Andrew Leonard Netscape was desperate for a new strategy against Microsoft. Eric Raymond had one (04/14/98) - - - - - - - - - - BROWSE THE 21ST FEATURE ARCHIVES - - - - - - - - - - _______

Royal treatment for game reviewers FROM BOOT CAMP TO VERSAILLES, GAMING INDUSTRY JUNKETS SEND CRITICS TO THE STRANGEST PLACES. BY MARK GLASER | As computer games get more realistic, the junkets for journalists who review the games are becoming more surrealistic instead. Last year, a handful of magazine editors were flown to Paris by Cryo Interactive, a French developer trying to crack the U.S. market with its "Versailles 1685" game. They were given a tour of Versailles during off-hours by the curator himself. "To show us a secret room in the game, the curator took us into an area that's not open to the public," recalled Rob Smith, an editor at PC Games. "We then opened a couple doors, and ended up on the roof of Versailles. At that point, I turned to a reviewer from Next Generation [magazine] and said, 'My God, this job is cool.'" It's a job that anyone could love -- as long as you're comfortable with the you-are-there concept. In the past year, game reviewers piloted a helicopter in Florida, rode a tank in California and took a river-rafting trip in Georgia. And they've taken in a World Series game, the Indy 500 and even hit baseballs in 3Com Park. As the number of games increases, publishers are looking for more outrageous ways to catch reviewers' attention. The game business is growing into a mature entertainment sector, not unlike the movie or music biz, where junkets are common. But rather than being flown to meet movie stars in L.A., game critics find themselves thrust into an all-too-real first-person adventure. Last summer, I was shipped out to Fort Hunter Liggett in Northern California for faux boot camp, taking turns with other editors riding an M-1 tank, shooting an M-60 machine gun on a firing range and pulling a lanyard on a 155 mm howitzer, sending a high-explosive charge miles away. Later, we would play an early version of "Armored Fist 2," a tank simulation game, to get the ultimate side-by-side comparison. But do these stunts work, or can they backfire? For me, riding the tank was a show-stopping, jaw-dropping experience. The game was, uh, a bit of a letdown. But the point was to get our attention, and focus it on NovaLogic (the company pulling off the stunt) and its tank sim game. After taking lumps from reviewers who dinged their games for being too arcadelike and not realistic, NovaLogic wanted a change of image. In March 1997, it flew 10 editors to West Palm Beach, Fla., to stay at the plush Breakers Hotel. To promote its upcoming Comanche flight sim, NovaLogic let the editors actually take the controls and fly a real Bell helicopter. Later, reviewers saw a prototype of an actual Comanche attack copter. "They blew the wad in a big way, and let us fly the damn helicopter," said Desmond Crisis, a reporter for CNET's "The Web" TV show, who attended the promotion. "It was not a cheap experience, but it captured our attention for the weekend. Hey, I had the opportunity to put PR people in the back seat and make them puke. Plus, I buzzed Jimmy Buffett's place in a Bell helicopter." Crisis, a diminutive spark plug of a guy, certainly enjoyed the trip, but doesn't think junkets really make or break a game. "If the game blows, we'll say it blows, no matter how good the lobster dinner is," he said. The "Comanche" promo event cost NovaLogic about $50,000, and the game got great reviews, according to one promotions person who worked on it. "Armored Fist 2" -- the game that hatched the boot camp -- fared less well, reportedly selling only 25,000 units. But often, these unusual promos aren't intended as hit-making deals, but rather to garner attention for a company in a market overcrowded with players. Smith, the executive editor at PC Games in San Mateo, Calif., has been on his share of promotional junkets and has pounded beers with the best of them at industry parties. Smith shrugs off charges that magazines lose credibility by taking junkets. "That's bollocks," he said, in his British accent, bristling. "They buy my time, not my opinion. It's basically a way to get people's time, to stick products under our noses and schmooze. When they fly you somewhere, you have no choice but to look at what they've got. If they come to our offices, we can always cut out early from a demo." - - - - - - - - - - - - N E X T__P A G E .|. The ultimate party -- river rafting, water fights and oysters on silver platters