Regarding my brief essay on how videogames are cruel taskmasters when compared to the halcyon days of say, 2005, CrunchGear has an apt description of Fanboyism: When Expression Meets Desperation.
“Lacking anything real in life, the fanboy latches onto that which he has, and imbues it with the significance he craves.”
They paraphrase Marx, saying fanboyism is the opiate of the internet, which should put those 600 or so words of mine into perspective. But putting repetitive tasks in a game that’s supposed to be fun is still no fun at all. If I wanted to set goals for myself, I wouldn’t be playing video games now, would I?
Let me blow your mind really quickly: playing video games are like doing chores these days, man.
I’ll gloss over how WoW and Farmville are designed to keep you playing (I’ll leave that research to Cracked, apparently), but want to talk about how this extends to even casual games you’ve already bought and paid for.
Read more »
I wonder if these things are related…
Why is it that the older you are the more you can’t stand ‘Inception’?
If “Inception” plays especially strongly with a young audience, it’s probably because they instinctively grasp its narrative density best, having grown up playing video games. “When it comes to understanding ‘Inception,’ you’ve got a real advantage if you’re a gamer,” says Henry Jenkins, who’s a professor of communications, journalism and cinematic arts at USC. ” ‘Inception’ is first and foremost a movie about worlds and levels, which is very much the way video games are structured. Games create a sense that we’re a part of the action. Stories aren’t just told to us. We experience them.”
‘Scott Pilgrim’ Versus The Unfortunate Tendency To Review The Audience
Hating Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is perfectly fine. It’s got a style; you sort of embrace it and dig it or you don’t. But when there’s too much effort given to tut-tutting the people you imagine to be enjoying it, or declaring and promising that only narrow categories of losers and non-life-havers and other stupid annoying hipsters could possibly be having a good time when you’re not, it sounds pinched and ungenerous. And, not to put too fine a point on it, a little bit jealous and fearful of obsolescence.
That last article may have been directed at The Kansas City Star:
The geeks are pulling Hollywood’s strings right now, and that’s not a good thing
Their influence on what we see at the megaplex and on television is vast and powerful. The Ain’t It Cool News websites of the world are in effect telling those who are in charge what to do.
This is an awful development.
They’re making movies for a large, appreciative, sometimes-obsessive audience? Tsk. Tsk. How did Hollywood stoop so low? Let’s get back to making more of the right kind of movies, like The Switch and Dinner for Schmucks.
It wasn’t always like this. A quarter century ago, the heavy hitters of movies and television would have sneeringly dismissed these Comic-Con revelers as laughable losers.
I used to be with it. Then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now, what I’m with isn’t it, and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary to me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I see someone who needs to be stuffed into a locker.
Maybe the author can see if he shows any of the 10 Signs You’re A Movie Snob rather than dismissing a culture he has no interest in, nor understanding of.
The art in Promethea tells a story. In From Hell it tells a story. The first page of Watchmen tells a story. Unless this is the story of a reliable Ford Focus with a FM radio/CD player standard, this page doesn’t tell me anything about Alan Moore’s Neonomicon that I need to know.
It’s a scene that takes place outside an asylum (…I assume it’s that afterthought in the distance?) but judging by the level of detail, the car’s center console and armrest are the two most important things in the scene. We don’t even see the faces of our protagonists. Also notice the eyes in the mirror reflect the eyes of someone who should be sitting in the driver’s seat. Sloppy.
Read more »
Let me start by saying that I hate OS X’s Spotlight. It willingly turns a blind eye to system files, which (like so much else for the Mac) is a solution that satisfies 90% of users, but does nothing for the other 10%: people like me, who need to edit httpd.conf, php.ini, and other files the OS prefers you ignore.
So in lieu of Spotlight, I have been trying to use find, albeit with mixed results. That changed when I found the terminal command mdfind — it’s Spotlight that actually searches your whole computer. What a relief! And it’s simple to use:
> mdfind php.ini
was all it took to find /private/etc/php.ini. Find without arbitrary limitations. Amazing!
Looking at the Lego Magician Minifig I opened, I had a great idea for a MOC.
Enoemos teab em ot ti.
After spending an inordinate amount on a complete set of Series 1 Lego Minifigures, I discovered a way to distinguish the individual bags based off the UPC code on the back. I was all set to open and scan in every UPC and post them here, then I realized someone had already done it. So enjoy.
Now what the hell am I supposed to do with these?!
The lesson to take away from this is that the day of one-man websites getting the scoop on anything new and popular are through. My personal website, testament to that ’90s way of thinking, is a delightful little time capsule to that bygone era. That or I just haven’t gotten with the times. It’s bad enough to be unhip, but much worse to fully comprehend your own obsolescence.
Or so said a friend of mine, “We are in the presence of the new.“
Here’s a chilling article from Cracked about 5 Guilty Pleasures The Web Killed.
That rant against corporate greed you made on the Nine Inch Nails forums in 1998? It’s still around, waiting to be Googled by your prospective employer. Your short-lived career as a blogger and passionate advocate of heroin legalization and lowering the age of consent to 16? That’s still floating around as well, ready to be stumbled upon by the Mormon congregation you just converted into. It’s all up there, archived forever, for your children and grandchildren to read.
This isn’t good if I ever apply for a job at, say Apple or Lego.
You may recall earlier my philosophical disagreement with the American imperialism implied in the LEGO Mars Mission sets. Maybe I’m imagining things, maybe it’s because sci-fi is really the domain of social commentary, but the LEGO Space Police sets are setting an unsettling tone as well.
“If you ask me, it’s the $10 withdrawal fees that are the real crime.”
Read more »
See Steve Jobs Offers World ‘Freedom From Porn’. Some other things Apple has given us freedom from:
Then you realize when Jobs talks about freedom, he isn’t talking about freedom for the consumer — he’s talking about the freedom of his software platform.
« Previous Page — Next Page »
