I heard from many of you after this lip-curling, anti-Atlantean tract last week, in which I explained my soft bigotry of no expectations of Aquaman. Your complaints were printed out, read and thrown into my fireplace to warm my home. Then I took a phone call. From the voice of Aquaman.

"This is Jens Andersen," said Jens Andersen, whom I better know as the creative director for DC Universe Online. But he also portrayed Aquaman in that character's appearances in the game—yeah, I guess because he's such a big-time hero they couldn't let a real voice actor handle the job.

"Oh, is this about that Aquaman thing?" I said. "Do you have a problem with me having a problem with him?"

"I got two problems," Jens said, pushing up his rhetorical sleeves. "My biggest problem is that the Sub-Mariner, the guy you stack up as cooler than Aquaman, is the most ironic choice to support any of your arguments. You want to pick on Aquaman's costume? Well, Namor has no pants..."

A salient point.

"He's worse than shorty-pants Robin," Jens continued, evidently willing to sacrifice Burt Ward to make a point. "He's wearing scaly underpants. How can you possibly say Namor is any cooler than Aquaman when he's walking around in steely underwear?"

Look, Namor's costume choice may be less than ideal—and this godawful Deney Terrio revision is objectively worse than anything Aquaman's ever worn, granted. But that ignores the main thrust of my argument. At least Namor has the power of flight, acknowledging the narrative limitation presented by being supreme over the underwater world where, last I checked, there were very few banks for a superbaddie to rob.

"I look upon that as a cop out," Jens sneered. "They [Marvel] didn't want to deal with the limitations of Namor as a sea character, so they put these dainty little wings on his feet and, oh, now he can fly, and that's what really makes him interesting?

"The cooler character, the one who has to deal with the constraints of not being a flier—of actually dealing with the responsibilities of an undersea king, is Aquaman," said Jens, who's giving a talk at GDC on storytelling in a superhero universe, as it is.

"And here's another litmus test for who's cooler. Do a search of Namor cosplay and Aquaman cosplay. You see guys going to Comic-Con like this all the time, I guarantee, they turn away from Namor, and not from Aquaman."

Another point for Jens—he's been to plenty of cons. But I must interject. I'm a Legendary subscriber to his game, and perusing its skills, and power sets, I find nothing that could remotely create an homage to Aquaman. This is a game that bent over backward, six months after release, to bring hard light powers to thousands of would-be Lanterns and Sinestros. But when I look through the iconic powers available to any character, I see a pheromone bloom, but I don't see breathing water or talking to fish.

"It's control sea life," Jens said, teeth gritting. "He doesn't talk to fish! They're not people! They don't have enough of a brain to talk! They're an extension of his will!"

Talk, control, squid, calamari, whatever you call it, it ain't there. If Aquaman is so damned important, how come he isn't templatized in character creation? You can quik-create an homage to Green Arrow if you want. Where's your champion of Atlantis?

"I had to fight tooth and nail just to get him into the game," Jens says, of Aquaman,"to give him his just desserts. And when I got him in, I put him in at the end of the game, as high level content."

I've played the instance as a hero—it's level 27. (The level cap is 30). Circe is impersonating Queen Mera, and has Aquaman under her spell. It is a tough ride. I could not solo it.

"I wanted players to feel like they've almost come to the Justice League level of power and then, pow, you have to take on Aquaman, which canonizes him as a Justice League-level powerful character," Jens exulted. "I made it so that he just wipes the floor with you [Editor's note: he does] and all you're able to do is break the spell over him. Then he switches sides and you defeat Circe.

"Players in DC Universe never get to defeat Aquaman at launch," Jens continued. "It was definitely an F U to Aquaman haters out there. No one was able to take a picture of themselves teabagging Aquaman, or whatever."

What's more, in the Tides of War seasonal event (it comes out in summers), which presents Aquaman in a boss fight, it takes four players, minimum, to take him down. Superman and Batman are repeatedly beatable in solo instances. "I definitely had an agenda with Aquaman in a boss fight," Jens laughed. "He's just that bad ass."

Jens is my generation (I'm 39) and likewise grew up in the era of Super Friends, which some would call a hideous libel of Aquaman (and, by extension, his people). I considered it an evenhanded depiction of his powers relative to other superheroic archetypes, and think all of his ensemble appearances since then—such as in the forthcoming Injustice: Gods Among Us—are revisionist apologies for such emasculating treatment. DC Universe Online would seem to support that.

But it's not PR to Jens. It's personal. Growing up, he wasn't much of a swimmer. ("I wasn't much of an athlete," he said. "I was too busy reading comic books.") He has blond hair. Name the first super hero with blond hair—not covered by a mask, hat or a helmet—who comes to mind.

It's Aquaman.

"All the fans' derision of him is reflected in the comics under Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis," Jens said. "He's an outcast, and he's an outcast because he has blond hair. It's a superficial reason why they hate his guts. It's a superficial reason why you hate his guts.

"He's a compelling and interesting character," Jens said. "He's just trying to find a place for himself in the world."

Chastened, even a little touched, I realized I was wrong. "Oh, all the crap you said you bought instead of buying Aquaman, everything you mentioned was Marvel," Jens said. "You do realize they're separate universes, right?"

Yes, well, when I was bicycle-riding age, the only comic seller within range was a Fast Fare that carried, for some reason, Marvel titles only. When I started going to high school, there was a drugstore nearby that carried DC, so I got into Batman and Jackson Guice's Flash then.

"Then you've got a problem of nature versus nurture!" Jens said. "You don't hate Aquaman! You just never knew him."

"Alright, Jens," I said. "I'll create an Aqua-character in your game tonight. Now, how do you suggest I do that?"

Hashing it out, we figured on a hero, with magic (Wonder Woman) as his mentor. "Brawling or a staff as his combat style," Jens said, with finding a trident appearance weapon later as a priority. "I'd go with mental, as that represents most of Aquaman's power, and his role as a controller."

"Not nature?" I said.

"Well, yeah, I guess you could imagine that's seaweed coming out of the ground," he said. "A kelp blast."

What about movement? There's no swimming in DCUO.

"I'd give him acrobatics. But you could cop out like your Namor buddy," Jens said, "and give him flight."

In July I moved back to my hometown to buy a house. After nearly 20 years of renting, I was grateful to never again worry about noisy upstairs neighbors, proximity to a laundromat, rent increases, security deposits or apartment hunting.

And then DC Universe Online released Home Turf this week.

The latest extension to the PC and PlayStation 3's superhero MMO gives you a hideout (or a lair, if you're a bad guy) once you reach level 12. At first I thought this feature would steer you to one location only, perhaps even simply teleport you there, as the interiors are basically templatized. No, there are more than 200 locations in Gotham City and Metropolis from which you may choose. Those are just the two standard interior types (Deco and Gothic) you get for Home Turf's $9.99, or for free if you have Legendary subscription access. The Ancient, Bunker, Cave and Industrial themes presumably open up more locations for you to peruse. That package is another $9.99, and I haven't bought it. [Correction: Each lair theme is $9.99. I still haven't bought any of them.] You get one hideout theme, the Dive, if you're a Freebie.

As DC Universe Online is a role-playing game, I take my lifestyle choices in it very seriously, from costume style and color to character name. Now I had to decide where my goddamn supervillain would live?

Apartment hunting has always been a bad experience for me. I've made some terrible choices, one of which, in San Jose eight years ago, literally sent me to a therapist. The thought of deciding where to put my character made my palms sweat. Fortunately, when you access the Deed that lets you buy a hideout, it shows you a map, which looks like this.

On this map, you can set waypoints that correspond to your real map, so you can go tour the neighborhood, see what's nearby, and whether or not it suits your tastes. I'm not kidding, I spent at least an hour looking at homes before setting up my first villain. So here, I'll recreate that tour with another, The Bogeyman (my homage to Marvel's Hobgoblin).

Listings are current as of Feb. 3, 2013.

7767 Crate Cove

Cost: 2,050 cash, utilities not included. W/D on site.
This open, upstairs plan in a remodeled mixed-use building under new ownership offers convenient separate access (a fire escape entrance that no one will see) and full-service downtown living at a reasonable price. Large gothic bay windows in all four corners deliver lots of Gotham's natural gloom, plus a stunning panoramic view of the Pillars of Hades and the decimated Robinson Park. Hungry? Grab a bite at the Big Belly Burger downstairs.

46388 Bow Blvd

Cost: 1,525 cash plus final month's rent. Cats and small dogs welcome with deposit.
Town versus gown? Why not have both? This spacious mezzanine apartment over Gotham State University's library features plenty of privacy with nightlife and shopping right outside your door. Rooftop patio is perfect for entertaining fellow evildoers and offers a charming view of Gotham U.'s Old Main hall. Walking distance to Gotham Rail's Burnley Station.

455 Grand Blvd

Cost: 1,075 cash plus cleaning deposit. Rent discounted with 18-month lease. Bicycle lockers available.
You're Level 12! Kegger! It's time to break away from the residence hall and grab one of Gotham Commons' classic sophomore-year shitholes near GSU. WGTU radio is right next door, offering "Turn It On" block parties in summer that attract crowds of mid-30s divorceés desperate to relive their college days. It's the perfect scene for you, Bogeyman! Gotham Commons Apartments is a no-smoking and drug-free community.

Arkham Asylym Loft

Cost: 3,250 cash plus 1,250 Mark of Triumph.
Two-Face. Clayface. Joker. Scarecrow. This is Gotham's most star-studded address but it may be a little beyond your means, Mr. Bogeyman. Plus I hear the neighbors can be a bit unruly.

2224 Storehouse Road

Cost: 2,050 cash. Parking on street. No pets.
Affordably priced top-floor living in Gotham's striving Otisburg neighborhood. While one of the city's underserved neighborhoods, the lack of serve also comes with a lack of police presence, which you may find convenient. Amenities nearby include a dry cleaner, nightlife, and Giordano Botanical Gardens.

Oh, God ... fuck all these dumps ... what's in Metropolis?

5949 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd

Cost: 2,050 cash. Doorman and on-site fitness center.
So, yes, there's a little bit of bottling taking place nearby, which is why we're listing this so affordably right now. Pre-Brainiac, rent in this district was roughly 30 percent higher and should you ultimately defeat him and drive him from the Earth you may expect an increase. For now, it is very quiet for the heart of Downtown Metropolis. Moshe's Hot Dog Stand is downstairs.

8478 Lovelace Lane

Cost: 1,075 cash. Water and garbage pickup included.
Hip, young, successful, the Tomorrow District is fast becoming a preferred residence in Metropolis. You'll rub elbows with the city's most influential tech titans and rising stars waiting in line for coffee here the Starrware Building. Your apartment has lots of natural light and offers inspiring views of the Science Spire. We don't expect this location to be listed long at this price.

590 Stadium Ave

Cost: 2,050 cash, discounted parking available. No pets.
A sports fan's dream mancave in the Southbank Commercial District. Located in the historic Soder Cola office building, you're walking distance to the nightlife of Little Bohemia and the Metropolis Metrodome. Walking distance to the Rail Whale's Southbank station.

1513 West Street

Cost: 525 cash. No credit check. Ask about our move-in specials.
Affordable and eclectic, Metropolis' Chinatown offers fascinating cuisine outside your door and extradimensional incursions on your rooftop. Next door to Mannheim's Chinese Theater. Local neighborhood includes dry cleaning, massage parlor.

You know what, screw this, I'm going back to the Hall of Doom ...

It's been a good long while since I last logged into DC Universe Online. I forget where I left my villain—he's probably standing in the rafters at Club L'Excellence. Home Turf, however, a DLC expansion SOE announced yesterday with this video, might get me to return. And the good news is that, despite what that trailer says at the end, it has a release date: next Tuesday.

This isn't simply Hearthfire meets DCUO, even if it does give you the means of building a hideout. It comes with something called The Mainframe, which is your super-person's R&D lab, pumping out devices for you to use in combat, and sending supply drops your way when you need a buff. You also get a sidekick (accomplice if you're a villain) and henchmen (backup if you're a hero.)

The pack is $9.99 if you're not a Legendary subscriber, and the Jan. 29 release is good for both PC and PS3. European PS3 players get it on Jan. 30.

As fans gather in a desperate attempt to save the doomed City of Heroes from its announced closure, DC Universe Online unleashes mystical forces with its latest expansion and Dr. Destroyer's army of Destroid robots rises in Champions Online in celebration of the game's third anniversary.

It's sad to see City of Heroes go. I was right there when the game first launched, madly scrabbling for original character names like Miss Stake, Hightower and The Stonemason. I leapt across the skies of Paragon City, fighting crime and making allies. When City of Villains came along I made one evil character, but soon found myself back on the side of angels, unable to embrace the evil lifestyle.

Champions Online, created by the developers that originally crafted City of Heroes, takes an interesting episodic approach to hero building, one that's done fine by the game for three years. Over the past three years it has thrived, switching to the free-to-play model relatively quickly and drawing in new players in droves.

Champions Online is now celebrating its third anniversary, rewarding loyal players with fresh new adventures and infographics showing just how well the game has performed.

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Meanwhile, in the DC Universe, Dr. Fate and Felix Faust take center stage in the latest downloadable content for the free-to-play game, "Hand of Fate", featuring new legendary characters, challenging quest lines and the introduction of utility belt slots so characters can carry nifty gadgets.

It's a fun game, not quite on par with NCsoft's superhero game, but then with the power and recognition factor of DC's characters it doesn't have to be.

That two other superhero MMOs are doing fine is cold comfort to the disappointed fans of City of Heroes. It's not just the fact that it was their first superhero MMO love. It's that it was the best of them.

I'm not proud of it, of course, but I've profiled others according to skin color. You see, glowing, primary color skin on a character in D.C. Universe Online is a sure sign of a free-to-play player, especially if they're low level. It indicates they really didn't give a shit what they looked like when they rolled, they just wanted to jump in and start stuffing their piehole in the free buffet. Freebies, freeloaders, whatever you want to call them, I refused to talk to or help one when DCUO went F2P back in November, adding one million new players in its first week alone.

They all had incomprehensible names and Naruto hair and didn't lock their styles so every piece of crap they acquired was slapped on top of their thrown-together costumes. Egyptian headdress with a biker jacket and a short cape? That's a freebie player for sure. They asked stupid questions in chat and griefed in the hideouts, standing in doorways (in PvE phase) to block everyone from moving between the main rooms and the teleporter.

"God damn freebies!" I growled, electrocuting one (or what I believed to be one) in PvP. I probably sounded like Eric Cartman.

That's just in D.C. Universe Online, a rather mellow community otherwise. I imagine the same thing will be taking place soon in Star Wars: The Old Republic, which this week announced it would go free-to-play, to a chorus of moaning and groaning. The same kind of rank snobbery, suspicion and cynicism could be found even when Team Fortress 2 went free-to-play a little over a year ago—and that's one of the most widely admired games by one of gaming's most widely admired publishers.

Why does everyone hate free-to-play?

"Hate" may be rather strong, but the cynicism and japery in comments underneath a free-to-play announcement means the game's publisher might as well have added, "Oh, and we give up." Especially in the game's own official forums, a free-to-play switch is taken as a sign of desperation or of a failing product, even though there are many good, successful games out there on a free-to-play model. Plus, a high installation base, whatever the reason for it, should mean that if the developer isn't churning out new content, then the publisher is at least unlikely to turn off the servers anytime soon.

It does suck to see a game you bought—and a lot of people bought The Old Republic's collector's edition, too—given away for free to any schmoe with a mouse and a modem. I'm not sure there's ever been an item or a perk given to paying customers at the conversion to free-to-play that properly rewarded their investment in getting the game off the ground. Maybe you get subscriber perks, but that depends on continuing to pay. Badges or banners or emblems or whatever, if I got one, I think I stuck it in the bank and forgot about it. Fuck that, I worked hard on my goddamn costume, I'm not going to put a stupid sticker on it.

There's also some merit in the idea that a person who's participating in something for free isn't as invested in the experience as those who have paid for it. In massively multiplayer online games, this is a valid concern and expectation. Other players are teammates in raids, adversaries in PvP, and drivers of the in-world economy. And it's a role-playing game. While there are dozens of quest-givers and NPCs there to move the game's basic story along, a human community that's committed to playing along enriches the larger context of your superhero/science-fiction/dungeon-crawling fantasy. Someone showing up to a free buffet may socialize with others at the club; he might also be there just to stuff cocktail shrimp in his pants pockets.

But I don't think, deep down, that these two things are what really bother hardcore gamers about free-to-play conversions.

The following is not an original thought; it was said to me by the head of EA Sports, who said he heard it at a talk given by Russell Simmons, the founder of the Def Jam hip-hop label. And Simmons probably heard it from somewhere else. But in answering how to keep customers happy, he said human beings have an inherent need to steal. Deep down, customer satisfaction is rooted in the sense you are either getting something for nothing, something extra, or at least you're getting the better end of a bargain. It depends on a zero-sum system: I'm gaining or taking something, someone else is losing or giving it up.

When a game goes free-to-play, even if there's a premium tier with extra features, the owner is declaring there is now nothing that can be stolen. And even if something is being offered for free, everyone can have it, making it less desirable. This truth of human nature is why people joke about leaving junked furniture on the curb with a sign on it saying "$20" to con someone into taking it away.

What free-to-play systems do, I think—and this is why they're scorned or mistrusted—is invert the original value proposition. In a paid MMO, everyone puts down their money and their subscription for the entire experience, which developers are reasonably obligated to refresh with extras that are "free" or at least feel that way. New raids, new classes, new powers and abilities, raised level caps, whatever. Free-to-play, in which there's a tightly defined basic, free experience, and everything after that costs money, communicates more where the gravy train stops than the idea it's even rolling.

There are other reasons a free-to-play shift invites skepticism, even outright scorn, especially when a monolithic force like Electronic Arts chooses to do it. It suggests that the game will make money by selling parts of its experience instead of the entire thing, and if a publisher is willing to gimp its product in that way, what might it hold back from the paying installation base? It also implies paying customers, and their investments of money and time (both of which materially improve an online game) matter less to the game's makers than someone dragged in off the street to create a growth figure the beancounters prize so much.

Video gamers, for all of their futurecasting and forward thinking, still show some previous-generation attitudes when judging a title's legitimacy and success, starting with the idea that anything worth playing has a price tag attached to it. (Otherwise, come on, who the hell is going to pirate a free game?)

If you play any game principally built on a multiplayer population, you should just accept the idea that at some point, the initial experience you're paying money for on launch day is going to be given away later—and factor that into your purchase decision. If Team Fortress 2 or Super Monday Night Combat can go free-to-play, it means anything with a very large multiplayer component could end up that way some day, from Call of Duty to Madden.

A clubhouse culture of exclusion in hardcore video gaming isn't going to stop it. Free-to-play will soon be a dominant format in PC video gaming, like it or not.

Hey folks, Something Negative is a rant. Love it or hate it, we all need to blow off steam on Fridays. Let yours out in the comments.

Brainiac is going down, but he's not going down without a fight. Players looking to help serve the metal menace his final comeuppance should hit up DC Universe Online on the PlayStation 3 or PC March 13, when The Battle for Earth expansion goes live.

With new earth-based powers and epic battles to fight, The Battle for Earth represents the beginning of a bold new chapter in DC Universe Online, marked by the fall of Brainiac and the rise of an even greater threat. I'm guessing Snapper Carr.

One of the coolest aspects of the expansion should be the battle for Wonder Woman's island home of Themyscira, where Brainiac's Avatar of Magic is causing all sorts of trouble. Players get to fight alongside mythical beasts as they fight to save a place that a good portion of the world population can't vacation on.

Heroes and villains alike have been dealing with the vile machinations of that vile machine Brainiac since the launch of DC Universe Online. With the game's third major downloadable content pack his chapter finally ends and a new evil rises.

It's all coming to a giant mechanical head in DC Universe Online on the PlayStation 3 and PC with The Battle for Earth. Players will be able to join forces in a massive raid aimed at ending Brainiac's reign of terror once and for all, taking on all three of his recently-completed Prime Avatars before the main event: Pile-on Brainy. The stage is set in South Gotham, where a Courthouse Alert and new Duos will see players cleaning up the streets as the Brainiac War escalates.

The battle even spills over onto Wonder Woman's home island of Themyscira, where Chimeric Brainiacs herald a massive battle against his powerful Avatar of Magic. Players will do battle aside mythical beasts as the push Brainiac's forces back into the sea.

And then everything becomes calm and the game ends.

No! As in comic books, when one major villain is defeated another will rise to take his right place amongst the pantheon of DC evils. Who will it be?

Don't look at me, I have no idea.

The Battle for Earth also introduces a ninth power set to the game, Earth Powers, giving tanks and damage dealers alike brand new ways to rock the house.

Will Brainiac finally triumph? Not likely! Will thousands of players create new earth-based super characters? You bet your rocky little ass. When will this all go down?

Soon, my minions. Very soon.

Look folks, just because you've been granted superhuman powers that allow you to go toe-to-toe with the biggest names in the DC Universe doesn't mean you can ignore your chores. In its latest free update DC Universe Online grants players the power to craft.

Sony Online Entertainment is calling it research and development, but we know what's really going on here. DC Universe Online players on PC and PlayStation 3 can now use their powers to scour Metropolis and Gotham City for exobytes and other crafting items, discover new recipes, transform their old equipment into scrap, and team up against powerful bosses for a chance at rare ingredients.

Using the new crafting system players are able to create equipment mods, a new class of item that slots into their normal gear, adding additional stat bonuses.

And here you thought developing super strength and electrical powers was a get-out-of-work card. No such luck, SuperDude.

This may sound off-key coming from the guy who nominated the 12th edition of annual sports franchise for overall GOTY last year. But I'm inclined to say "None of the above," this year. I prefer for these honors to truly mean the game, at minimum, was the best at what it did. This year's big games, nearly all of them sequels, seem to arrive at that point more out of incumbency and the expectation that they would be a game of the year nominee.

I agree with Luke that the best games are the ones where you lose yourself in another world, or lose tremendous hunks of time doing something you truly enjoy. I just lost myself in these worlds long before Skyrim came along. As much as I enjoyed these games, I realize their shortcomings (or, to be honest, lack of heft) don't make them GOTY timber.

That doesn't mean I'm going to give a GOTY vote to another title simply because everyone else is.

WHAT I LOVED

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters—This was our Sports Game of the Year. Nothing in 2011 hooked me from the start like this did, and I'm not much of a golf fan. While Augusta National—as picturesque as anything in Skyrim—was the big selling point, this was the rare sports game that transformed how it was played. The inclusion of a caddy made a very technical game accessible to neophytes like me, without babying the difficulty level. It was made on a nine months production schedule, too, which exposes some flaws, and threadbare areas, but also underlines its real strengths.

DC Universe Online—This should be MMO of the year, largely because we haven't had enough time to judge The Old Republic's impact. Sony Online Entertainment's post-release support has been fantastic, giving two new power sets, including a thoughtfully composed Light Powers grouping. The key is building a character you really do enjoy. When I created a perfect analogue of the Hobgoblin (different continuity; sue me) I was back into up-all-night mode, terrorizing Gotham. Although the necessity of teaming up was something a little off-putting to me at first, it's a laudable design goal that forces you to use an MMO's greatest resource: the other players. Bringing it all to a console was an enormous undertaking that should be lauded.

Fruit Ninja Kinect and Pinball FX2—The first two games made the PS3 my dominant console this year. If it wasn't for these two Xbox 360 downloadables, it could have been a shutout. Fruit Ninja Kinect is probably the best Kinect game available, which is due more to that catalog but shouldn't diminish the game's simple appeal. Pinball FX2 inhaled my time and money like a real pinball table and its superb Marvel table series reconnected me to the comics and characters I loved as a kid.

WHAT I HATED

Nearly Everything on a Phone—This has been the year of mobile phone gaming. We've reviewed more than 225 games in our App of the Day feature, and they are now all bleeding into one. I'm sick and tired of three-star scored physics puzzles and endless runners and I'm mindblown by how much PR representation 99 cent games have. The field is unbearably oversaturated with developers all trying to do the same thing, which ends up making an entire platform feel like derivative piffle.

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Kirk Hamilton responds:

I know how you feel, Owen. In fact, my own GOTY nomination stood out to me out in part because so many of the (great) AAA sequels we saw this year felt like iterative improvements on past GOTYs. But all the same, I don't think we should give our Game of The Year award to the villain from The Neverending Story just yet.

WHAT I LOVED

Mobile Games—Since my GOTY nomination is an iOS game, obviously I don't think that the smartphone category was a complete wash. That said, I feel your exhaustion with the avalanche of middling mobile phone games. But in addition to S&S EP, we also had Jetpack Joyride, Infinity Blade II, SpellTower, and SpaceChem. Not too shabby, I'd say.

So Many Super-Strong Sequels—While I don't think that most of the AAA sequels this year are worthy of GOTY consideration, I'll counter your wide-ranging "Nothing" with an equal wide-ranging rebuttal. 2011 saw several GOTY-worthy sequels like Portal 2, Skyrim, Arkham City, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Super Mario 3D Land, Skyward Sword, and Rayman: Origins. But the year also featured a ton of games like Dead Space 2, Saints Row: The Third, FIFA '12, Crysis 2, inFamous 2, Gears of War 3, LittleBigPlanet 2, Mortal Kombat 9 and Forza 4 which, while perhaps not GOTY material, were all highly polished and fun.

In Other Words, "Everything"—It was hard for me to choose my own GOTY nomination not because everything was so bad, but because most games were so good. 2011 gave us an overwhelming number of well-made, enjoyable video games. In the words of The Wire's Marlo Stanfield: "Sounds like one of them 'Good Problems.'"

WHAT I HATED

Dragon Age II—Seriously. God.

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Luke Plunkett responds

What is this, Time magazine? I thought the criteria for Game of the Year was to pick the best game of the year. If the best game was a derivative piece of shit, then you pick it, by virtue of it being better than any other piece of derivative shit. That said...

WHAT I LOVED

Man Has a Point - Most of the big games of 2011 were, in some ways, disappointing. Mostly in that they all, Skyrim included, were simply honing formulas set down years or sometimes even decades earlier. If barely-improved iterations like Modern Warfare 3, Assassin's Creed Revelations and Uncharted 3 are the very best the video game industry can produce at the biggest time of year, it's a sad state of affairs.

WHAT I HATED

GOTY Means GOTY - That doesn't mean none of them don't deserve the accolade. It's not like they're terrible games. Indeed, many of them - and my two favourites of the year, Skyrim and Total War: Shogun 2, are among this group - should be applauded for finally mastering a genre of design that's been years in the honing. Like I said above, the Game of the Year winner should be awarded to what you think is the best game of the calendar year, not whether a season's crop of games meets some spectral criteria.

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Brian Ashcraft responds:

Nothing? NOTHING?!

WHAT I LOVED:

Numb - We are supposed to come up with our favorite game of the year. But who says we have to? What if by not coming up with a favorite, we are then able to unleash a bitting commentary on 2011?

WHAT I HATED:

Oh Come On - OWEN! There's got to be at least one game you liked. Pick that! This is Game of the Year, not Best Game Ever Made. Just select something you liked. Nothing feels like a cop out!

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Stephen Totilo responds:

Owen, I don't think you're well. I prescribe a dose of PixelJunk Sidescroller. This year was awash in wonderful games. Every year is. The only thing years aren't awash in is time, and I wonder if that's what your 2011 was short on...the time to play the greats. Hell, I wish I had time to play more Dark Souls so I could sleep at night when the commenting howls stir.

WHAT I LOVED

So many games: Portal 2, the aforementioned Sidescroller, Super Mario 3D Land, Bulletstorm, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Pushmo, Lego Star Wars III, Sword & Sworcery, PixelJunk Shooter 2 and, for a time, Find Mii.

So many parts of games: The bomb system in Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Horde 2.0 and Beast Mode in Gears of War 3, the sandstorm level in Modern Warfare 3, the moments I wondered if I could trust my own character in L.A. Noire, the ending evil levels of Infamous 2, the mid-game twist in Lost in Shadow, and more.

WHAT I HATED

Complaint: The Sequel: The insinuation that games that aren't the first in a series are inherently creatively limited. Video games are an iterative medium. Sequels are a valid vehicle for improvement.

On any one platform this was a thinner year than year's past, but, game-for-game, I think it's as good as it ever was.

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Evan Narcisse responds:

This nothing talk reminds me of Nietsche's quote about staring into the abyss. But 2011 wasn't totally abysmal, or even totally meh.

WHAT I LOVED:

See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me: Owen, you're rankled by the torrent of middling mobile games and that's fair. But I loved the little discoveries I was able to make this year, like soaring with Tiny Wings, weaponizing boogers with Gesundheit or leisure driving with Bumpy Road. None of them may have been GOTY material but they and games like them were clever little underdogs that made the year great.

WHAT I HATED:

That Bloated Feeling: Too many AAA games—even some of the best ones—felt padded in the name of some algorithmic value proposition, as if X number of hours justifies charging Y number of dollars. Whenever a game overstays its welcome, it feels to me like the developers were too insecure to make cuts or find a punchier pacing. I think it's that kind of fumbling that makes it easy to feel like nothing deserves to be 2011's Game of the Year.

Bottom line: for all the shovelware and overweight offerings, there's no way I can't say that 2011 didn't give me games that I'll remember for years to come.

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Mike Fahey responds:

I disagree with the whole concept here. As far as I am concerned, Game of the Year does not equate BEST. GAME. EVAR. It simply means that among the games released during any given calendar year, this one is the best. If three shitty games and one mediocre game is released in 2012, then welcome to game of the year, Mr. Mediocre.

In other words, what Luke said.

WHAT I LOVED:

What Luke said: Remember back when Luke said "I thought the criteria for Game of the Year was to pick the best game of the year. If the best game was a derivative piece of shit, then you pick it, by virtue of it being better than any other piece of derivative shit"? That was awesome.

WHAT I HATED:

Nothing: I can't think of a single game I truly hated this year. Call me a ridiculous optimist in a feathered cap (Also buy me a feathered cap. What? You said it!), but even the most useless piece of Wii shovelware had some redeeming qualities. Maybe it was the graphics, or a clever bit of writing. Hell, just the fact that the developer has a product up for sale is some sort of triumph, in much the same way I praise my babies for dropping a particularly large load. There's always room for accolades.

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There you have 'em, our arguments for and against nothing as Kotaku's 2011 Game of the Year. We'll have two more arguments this week, and then we'll vote and announce the winner on Monday, January 2.

Read the rest of our 2011 GOTY debates.

First DC Universe Online introduced the Green, Yellow, and Red Lanterns. Now, just in time for Christmas, they're getting all greedy. The one and only Orange Lantern Larfleeze has appeared in game update seven, spreading Season's Greedings to Gotham and Metropolis.

Oh hee. I just got that.

Larfleeze, the Lantern so greedy he's the only one of his kind, has been stealing Christmas presents from the good people of Metropolis and the borderline insane folk of Gotham City, and it's up to the heroes and villains of DC Universe Online to return them to their rightful owners. Players will have 12 days to spot Larfleeze lurking about the two main cities to earn a special holiday feat.

While they aren't busy hunting the Orange Lantern and his construct minions, players will be able to purchase all sorts of festive holiday items, beat people with candy canes, and even participate in the new, non-holiday themed five-on-five death-match arena located in the Watchtower.

Update seven should be live as we speak. Just remember: It doesn't matter who gives or receives; it's all yours anyway.