Now this is an unexpected surprise. Nightshadow has been completely swamped of late, which leads to my appearance here today. It's been but a scant two months since I was last around this neck of the woods, and yet the world has changed considerably in that short span of time. And by world I do mean both our little microcosm here at RPGamer and the world at large.

By now you've all read about the innocent-yet-not-insignificant lack of disclosure of certain information by RPGamer. As ugly as the whole situation seems to be right now, I would like to hope that this ordeal can serve as a learning experience for everyone at this site and those in the audience who might be in a similar situation. Even though we are not a professional site in the strictest sense of the word, we have a significant impact on the videogame community.

This is a position not to be assumed lightly, and it brings with it an enormous amount of baggage that, even though sometimes we would rather not accept it, is part of the package. But, that said, we have done all we can and it is now up to you, the reader, to decide what happens next. For us, it's work as usual, though this experience will linger in the back of the site's collective mind.

Speaking of work as usual, we have a number of editorials this week that might just be up your alley. RPGs are nearing a cross-road where something's gotta give. There is no way that the genre will survive by regurgitating the same-old same-old all the time, yet at the same time there is only so much that can be changed before existing fans will feel that the genre is no longer what they fell in love with.

I refuse to believe that we have to be satisfied with mediocre titles that attempt to dazzle us with visual fireworks, yet have several areas of the experience that are sorely lacking--which seems to be the route that a lot of companies are taking to get around the problem. Mike Lemmer has contributed the next installment in his collection of ideas on where games could possibly head in order to get us out of this funk. He also chimed in with a related opinion, this time focused on traditional role-playing games (not the electronic kind, but the pen and paper kind).

To ensure that this doesn't become a personal forum for Mike to air his views, we have a couple more eds on offer. Andrew Long dissects a recent editorial making the ostensibly preposterous conclusion that videogames--and videogames alone--can serve as a valuable educational tool. And finally we have Alex Weitzman who takes an interesting look at the importance of casting and its relevance to the story and underlying thematic concepts of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

Well, I've said my say. Thanks for coming along for the ride. If there is something that you would like to contribute to the Editorials section, feel free to write your thoughts down and send them in. Any comments or suggestions can be sent to me at the address below.

Notes from the Editor: I'd like to thank Alex about covering for me when my state of health (I'm somewhat stranded in bed and having a diet which involves a lot of pills) isn't the best as well as during the hardest time of my university year, and I apologise for not being able to update on time this week. I promise things will pick up, if for no other reason than the fact that I finish university for the year in two weeks for three straight months of mayhem.