Commercial Break: Bill Gates Got Ups

Prior to spewing that yang and dumping that slang for the internet. I need to get energized. I need a guiding light that will channel my ideas into words of various fonts and font sizes. Oh, wait. You're telling me there is a clip of a young Bill Gates jumping the s**t over a chair? Well, see now this? This right here? This is just what I needed.

Peep his recovery? Didn't even flinch. Like nothing ever happened. "What? Oh that? Yeah, I just jumped the f**k over that and will probably make a billion dollars in the next twenty years. Become one of the biggest philanthropist and out live ya boy Steve Jobs. What? Huh? I cross a line? Do I need to jump over another chair to prove my swag?"

I'm paraphrasing, of course.

#OccupyFritoLay -- Bring Back The Sour Cream & Onion Ruffles

We The 99% Won't Stand For Our Sour Cream & Onion Chip Options To Be Taken From Us. Let Us Decide What Ruffles Brands We Eat.

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Games Of 2010 Owe Thanks To Modern Warfare 2

Because Modern Warfare 2's highly advertised release in 2009, game publishers pushed several titles to be released in 2010. Could this single act be responsible for changing how & when we consume games?

If ex-Infinity Ward employees troubled relationship with Activision bore any positive fruits, it would be the late 2009 gaming industry shake-up of Modern Warfare 2’s release. Regardless of how one feels about the quality of the product, Modern Warfare 2 may have had the largest impact on 2010’s gaming release schedule than was initially anticipated. Whether this actually helped or hurt the industry financially is a task I’ll leave to the number crunchers who produce the monthly NPDs. What I have noticed [and I’m sure you’ll correct me if I’m wrong] is that as a result of Modern Warfare 2’s release, this essentially front-loaded this year with game releases. In a way, because of one major game release, the industry was forced to realize how important the rest of the year is in regards to the gaming culture. Though this rising tide doesn’t lift all boats, could this be the start of larger game titles being spread evenly throughout a given year?

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Is This Good For The Company?

The Bob's Think That You Aren't Challenging Your Self Enough, Games Industry.

In an age where having an individual product isn’t enough, where building a brand through viral marketing via ‘synergized releases’ -- its easy to lose sight of what’s important. Did we need the insulting and insensitive advertising campaign circulating the release of Dante’s Inferno? When you ate Dominio’s pizza in the 90’s where you thinking, “You know, if I could avoid the Noid and eat pizza, life would be so close to completion.” Maybe the Doom movie should have been released straight to DVD, seeing as theater goers typically do not support video game movies starring men [Angelina Jolie & Milla Jovovich]. The point is, we have come far from the days of Ducktales and Aladdin. We exist in a time where seeing a broken cd on the sidewalk is common. Furthermore, seeing brands stretched and skewed to make a buck -- makes what you liked about said brand much more disposable.

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My Life As A North Campus Video Employee

I Worked In The Front Room Area. The Shelves Were Well Stocked This Day. That Doorway You See Would Eventually Become The Owner's Office. Because They Had To Close and Sell Stores To Make Rent.

 

For the past three years I've worked at Columbus, Ohio's North Campus Video -- I've been documenting on a semi-weekly basis my experiences at the 31-year old mom and pop business. What you should know is this is a completely biased account of how one particular ex-employee saw in the underbelly of a Columbus landmark. Unfortunately, the manner in which I was laid off has actually stayed my blade [for the time being]. My original account of my tenure was going to be poisoned-tipped and rage-filled, but in the interest in the off chance of me getting the little details wrong -- I'll leave names out.

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Can Quality Titles Survive On The Wii? Quality Mature Titles?

It's really easy to say M-Rated games [as a whole] do not fair well on this gaming generation's top selling console, the Nintendo Wii. The Wii has been the proverbial kryptonite for a lot of developers and publishers who refused to put an Italian plumber in their game. How long can devs put up with the 'low risk, high reward' design before the already fully stocked game shelves boot them to the bargain bin? In the history of sales for the Wii, Sega has produced seven titles in the top 100. Five of said titles feature a very tired Sonic the Hedgehog. The odd two who managed to rock the Wii charts -- Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz and the House of the Dead 2 and 3 Return [which were repackaged remakes with new Wii controls].

Before you skewer me with your e-pitchforks, I do acknowledge that games are more than just sales numbers. This is not a sales rap. I am not here to develop marketing strategies for Sega on why titles like Madworld and The Conduit should perform better. I want to talk about why these games don't perform sales-wise as well as garner critical acclaim. I want to talk about what can make mature rated games on Nintendo consoles [yes I am including you DS] welcomed for mature adults as well as the children they may be the parents of.

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Bad News: The ACTA Treaty Hates You

We can't take our government anywhere 'nowadays'. About a week ago, in Seoul Korea, the U.S. Government decided to sign an ACTA [Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement]treaty with several powerful nations [South Korea and Canada notably]. This treaty encapsulated a fair amount of free-trade of intellectual agreements and most importantly, an Internet Chapter. Fellow nerds, we've done it. We have the government making chapters and policy outlines specifically to protect our best interest, via the internet. Unfortunately, there appears to be a reason why this treaty was signed in a great deal of secrecy. Below are the issues at hand.

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Watchmen: Fox Getting A Slice Of Pie

I'm Blue. Dah-doo-dee-dah-doo-dah

So FOX and Warner settled out of court a couple days ago. Making a movie I was 'semi-anticipating', slightly more..."anticipatorial" [that's a word...see I just made it]. Here's the deal:

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but the deal is said to involve a sizable cash payment to Fox and a percentage of the film's boxoffice grosses; Fox will not be a co-distributor on the film, nor will it co-own the "Watchmen" property, but it will share in revenue derived from it. The studios released a joint statement last night.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Something's telling me the homie Lloyd Levin [producer of Watchmen] isn't to happy. Especially since his last freak out.

Major Layoffs & Cancellations @ Revision3.com

Revision3 Beta is still a go, but some mainstays got axed

One of my favorite networks [web and otherwise] suffered great losses this weekend.

For our long-running Photoshop show Pixel Perfect, it’s the end of a show that’s done over a hundred episodes, and delivered essentially a graduate level course in graphic design and technique. For PopSiren and Internet Superstar, it’s the end of 2 shows that had great promise, but never really found their audience.

For two of the shows, we’re simply stopping our distribution agreement, but the shows will live on. You’ll still be able to watch Epic Fu, and Wine Library, both at their own sites, and through new and existing distribution partnerships. Epic Fu will be available on Revision3 through mid December, Wine Library ends its Revision3 run today. We remain huge fans of these two shows, even though they don’t fit our long-term plans at Revision3.

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One of my favorite shows Pixel Perfect along with: Pop Siren and Internet Superstar are gone. Pop Siren was growing on me and I kind of agree with the Internet Superstar choice.  IS never really found its audience and I was definitly not in their demo. Epic Fu and Wine Library TV were two shows that for some reason, reminded me of MTV when they first started in the late 80's and taking chances with really good talent interspliced with quality production. They will be missed by this viewer.

If you've never heard of these shows...or stumbled upon this site to catch up on some really cool and informative shows click this link for the show archives.

Hopefully this isn't foreshadowing for some sort of Podcast version of the 'dot com bust'