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-- Barnak2Evil

The article itself was an open letter. Realistically I realize that it'll be a long time before we see all of the features listed in a single videogame, but as a fan of the SmackDown series I still want to see them anyway. You hit the nail on the head when it comes to using our influences, though -- that was the whole point. So far, more than 30,000 people have read through the article and the response to it (both good and bad) make it pretty obvious that other fans want to see some change too.

The good news is that I have spoken with the THQ producers about this game countless times -- and they really do care about what their fanbase wants and needs for each version. In fact, not too long after my review of the last game, they called me up so that they could find out even more about what I thought. The discussion ended up going more than an hour and I got the distinct impression that while they may not have agreed with me on several points, they were open to suggestion -- which is more than anyone could ask for. You can be sure that they're listening to other journalists, consumers, and fans as well.

-- Jeremy

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April Fools Jokes?
(Note: This is being sent to the PS2 mailbag because it is my favorite console, and because Ivan will give the most sarcastic answer.)

Where are all of the April Fools' Day articles? The one GBA article on the R.O.B. was great, but is that really it? If you check out the piece of s*** offerings by that other site *cough*gamespot*cough*, you'll see that you guys could probably burp out funnier articles than that (of course, I've seen articles about genocide that were funnier than Gamespot's joke stories). So where's the beef?

-- kicking222

I know you were hoping Ivan would answer this, but he's checking out Sin City with a couple of other editors at the moment so he's in busy mode. Anyhow, as far as April Fools jokes go, I personally don't like to do them. We're so busy on the PS2 site in terms of content in relation to the other channels (we have roughly 3-4 times as many daily articles as our buds on Xbox, Cube, etc) that it's really the last thing that I want to focus on. Last year we didn't do one at all, and I didn't miss it in the least and not surprisingly, we didn't get a single email asking about one either (congrats you broke the streak!).

But just because I don't like to do them doesn't mean that Ivan or Ed do to. In fact, Ivan wrote one earlier today just for the hell of it (I'm sure you'll find it in our headlines somewhere) but I doubt I'll be doing on myself as I'd rather dedicate the necessary time to something else.

-- Jeremy

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You're Kidding Me?
Will God of War ever be available for Xbox?

-- S. Hartigan

There is absolutely no way that God of War will ever come out for the Xbox. It was internally developed by Sony's Santa Monica Studio and Sony owns all of the rights. To be truthful, there was actually a greater chance of Halo coming out for our system at one point -- but that's because at one point the game was in development for the PS2 in the initial planning stages. Rockstar sold its shares of Bungee to Microsoft, however, and it soon became an Xbox exclusive product.

So how do you like that? A history lesson and a reality check all rolled up into one.

-- Jeremy

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The Soul Burns Elsewhere
Hi there (great site!),
Will SCIII be truly exclusive for PS2 or will it be "exclusive" like Resident Evil 4 on the GameCube?

-- Jonathan

It's hard to say. Resident Evil 4, Grand Theft Auto, and a million other "exclusives" have changed their status over the years so it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility. For right now, though, Soulcalibur III is indeed just for the PS2 -- as word on the street is that the production team would much rather focus on making one game terrific for one system, then have to try and figure out how to make all of their features work on multiple platforms.

-- Jeremy

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Umbrage
As an insider I'm outraged at some of the comments that Ivan made in recent mailbags towards Nintendo, Nintendo fans, and IGN readers in general. As a guy who pays his salary, I'd like to know why his bosses, superiors, or whatever can let him publish such harsh words and why he hates Nintendo so much in the first place. I pay for professional news, previews, and reviews and coverage. Not some guy who gets to make fun of whomever he wants.

-- Penleo87

There are a million different ways to look at this, but I'll give you my take on why I think there's nothing wrong with having an opinionated mailbag.

Our jobs as editors aren't as cut and dry as it is for most publications. At newspapers, for instance, you have columnists, news guys, reviewers, copy editors, and a very specific standardized formatting structure. On the Internet, however, our job description is changing all the time -- and we're expected to execute and prepare for doing all the things listed above and more. This means that other than our reviews, we don't have the opportunity to express our opinions very often -- which is something that as critics and writers in general, we like to do.

Anyhow, one of our many duties includes the mailbag, which at the end of the day is one of only two ways that we can interact with our readers (the other being the message boards). These are our biggest opportunities to show you what we're thinking about in a loose environment without being restricted by the professional walls of a proper article. In short, you're asking us questions on a casual level and we're answering them accordingly.

Unfortunately, there are periods where we'll get a lot of harshly-toned emails, and we're going to print these too. You'd be surprised at how much mail we get across all channels that go on and on about how some other videogame system is better than ours, that we're secretly paid off by competing companies, that we're stupid, or that we gave some no-name game an unfair shake because it was made by someone they like. It's my belief that we should have every right to respond to them -- and if the tone of those emails is harsh or unforgiving, then we should be able to respond in kind.

Now I'm sure that those of you who have worked in customer service before don't agree with that, but as editors who are expected to be honest, I'd much rather we offend some people, be truthful, and speak from the heart, than bite our tongues and not address the issue at all. We're not paid to be flowery, after all, we're paid to report on videogames and be ourselves. If that's not what you want, then you may not want us.

Besides, I've never been a strong believer that just because someone gives you five bucks, ten bucks, or two-thousand of them that it gives them the right to be an ass to you. Money doesn't equal respect, and respect is never automatic to begin with, so just because someone clicked on one of our ad banners once, or has been an insider for years, it doesn't give them the right to berate, attack, or foul us anymore than it would if we had met on the street. If you dish it out, expect to get it back. Do I always agree with what Ivan or Ed says? No. But will I allow them to respond to insults if they're insulted too? Absolutely.

I myself generally try to stay away from printing negative emails, but statistics dictate that you're going to get them anyway no matter what you do. Even so, I'm always up for getting real constructive criticisms so that we can make the site an even better one. But if those criticisms are thinly veiled among a hail of insults or threats, then we're not going to treat it very seriously. And if Ivan, or me, or some other guy makes you feel the same way, then you might not want to take it very seriously either.

-- Jeremy

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That's all folks!

After the response to the last email, I'm ready to get out of here for sure. Luckily my brother whom I haven't seen in two years is flying into town for the weekend and we have plenty of new videogames and WrestleMania 21 to keep us occupied while he's here. Oh and buy LEGO Star Wars already, it's good stuff.

Anyhow, don't forget to drop us a line and let us know what you think about any of the subjects discussed today. We're always open to hearing them. Have a good weekend everybody.

--Jeremy Dunham