I Like It

TV Everywhere is on the move. I like it; it makes sense. Let's see if it works. (But isn't everything on the Internet free?) Nice that Bewkes has the guts to take this stand. Of course, it certainly helps when you have the largest content catalog on the globe.

More Image Fun

Whee! So here's a little web app that lets you make Warhol-ish images. Not as robust as Obamicon...probably predates that one, by the looks of it. But still pretty fun, especially if you're Photoshop impaired like I am.

Something About History and Being Doomed to Repeat It

Here we go...Real Networks and the Hollywood studios go to court today over RealDVD. Check out the NPR report here. I totally understand the content holders' desire to protect their stuff, but seriously? Were these guys asleep the last ten years? You can't stop the bum rush. Gee, maybe if the studios figured out how to make a digital storefront for movies, and maximized their distribution deals with partners like Netflix, they won't end up like the record companies. Instead, that's EXACTLY where they are headed.

Sigh...

Facebook, I'm Dead to You

So I was at the Austin Game Developer's Conference this past week. At some point during the conference, my Blackberry started exploding -- and no, it was not due to my amazing networking skills. Apparently, my Facebook account had spammed nearly everyone on my friends list with dumbass link posts on their walls. Meanwhile, I'm at a conference for three days with the means (laptop) but not the time (or, frankly, the desire) to deal with it. In any event, I am thusly laid siege by a barrage of emails like this one: "Dude, I think your account has been hacked..." and this one: "What the hell is this link?!?" and this one: "Change your fucking password!!!" Gee, great. Thanks, Facebook.

I will say this: I can appreciate Facebook as a platform and find it to be a pleasant distraction. On a "meta" level I can also see how it (and sites like it) are changing the landscape of how we communicate with each other. I also find it to be a giant pain in my ass, and therefore, Facebook: I'm dead to you. Our relationship lasted a little over seven months, and I never even got a blowjob.

Gawesome, Part Deux

I was just reading some of the comments on that Emily Gould piece while I was eating lunch. It's surprising how many people take time out of their day to write mean gibberish, just like this Emily girl used to do for Gawker. Nevertheless, her writing is sharp and the article was good, as many readers seemed to realize. (Whether you thought it deserved to be on the cover of the magazine is really beside the point.) And anyway, she's cute ("marginally attractive"), so she has that going for her, too. This comment cracked me up:

Well, Emily, like the old joke goes, in your 20s, you worry about what people think of you; in your 40s, you decide that you don't care what anyone thinks of you and in your 60s, your[sic] realize they weren't thinking about you at all.
— Bob, Virginia

It's funny 'cause it's true!

Gawesome

I don't know Emily Gould from Elliot Gould, but I was totally blown away by her article in this week's NYT magazine. She speaks about her history with Gawker Media, the purveyor of snark, and reveals her struggles -- both public and private -- with her professional decisions and personal relationships. Now I couldn't care less about the insipid Gawker and its preoccupation with non-news and cewebrity (even though I read the growing-ever-more-snarky Gawker-sibling Kotaku). But I am fascinated by blogger culture, the obvious need for some people to share (and some to overshare) incredibly intimate details of their lives, online, for strangers to idolize or vilify. Sure, I'm writing this blog post. But no one is reading it, probably. And if they are, fine. I'm not talking about my genital warts or whatever.

Anyway, kudos to Emily Gould for a very entertaining piece, even though she still suffers from that myopic twentysomething point of view that we all once had. The events she describes in the article occurred way, waaay back in 2006, after all. Reading the article, you'd think she was talking about her misbegotten days of youth, not the summer before last. This too shall pass, Emily. And ultimately, no one really cares what you're doing every blogtastic minute except you and the person or people you're doing it with. The sooner you realize that no one is thinking about you as much as you think they are thinking about you, the better off you are.

I learned that waaay back in 2005, when I was 32.

Sigh...FINE

Okay so I set up a Facebook profile. Happy now? Can't wait until it becomes obsolete so I can set up another stupid profile. Oh yeah, and don't forget to read this.

Great Gift Idea

I just gave some of my colleagues personalized storybooks from My Child Book, and they were a big hit! Aviella received one of these from a friend, and when I was thinking about what to do for work gifts, I decided this would be perfecto! I got a Justice League one, and a Marvel one, a Scooby Doo one, etc. You enter the recipient's name, their age, their hometown, a few friends, and this is the result: "John, age 32, from Atlanta, Georgia, was hanging out with Batman and Superman at the amusement park!" And so on. Great fun!

I was very tempted to get the horribly generic (and terribly illustrated) title called simply "Ninja" (pictured), but went with the licensed stuff instead. Recommended! And it won't break the bank, either.

New Photo Albums

I have gotten with the times and created a Picasa web album -- finally! You can find it here and also with the handy-dandy link on the right.

FusionFall Newsletter

Hey, the first FusionFall newsletter was released today. Check it out, or better yet, sign up at the official site.

Maple Story Ads

Some folks at work yesterday were talking about the new Maple Story TV ads which have been cropping up on cable. They are certainly attention-grabbing, although their effectiveness is debatable. (Hmmm, reminds me of an ad campaign for a certain all-you-can-eat games subscription service.)

Snails:


Fish:


Pig:


Despite the weird-for-the-sake-of-being-weird vibe, I have to admit that there's a certain charm to the line, "Is that pig wearing a gentleman's hat?" But: the fact that we do not see even one image from the game in these ads -- to tie it back to the live-action silliness -- is a shocking creative error in my opinion.

The ads can also be found here, on the Nexon site that launched in conjunction with the ad campaign. Wish them luck!

YTMND <3 DTMB

A few weeks later, and this is still cracking me up. Thanks, YTMND.

Flash MMORPGs

Has anyone played Dragon Fable, a free massively-single player RPG for your web browser? I just signed up for an account to give it a try. It's a little clunky and ugly...but it's free! There's another one (from the same company, it seems) called Adventure Quest, which has to be the most generic game name ever. Why didn't they just call it "Hero Fight" or something like that?

Apparently, both of these games have something to do with Arch Knight -- the "Original Web RPG" that you probably never played.

Fun With Satan

Unholy crap! A totally rare Atari 2600 game has been unearthed from the bowels of Hell. I can't believe I never heard of this one. Check it out!


Ha, ha, ha. Did I fool you? That image was totally falsified using the super awesome Atari 2600 label maker. Oh, the fun we can have with teh internets...

Thanks, Atari Age! And thanks, person who made the label maker!

FusionFall Q&A

Gamasutra has an informative Q&A with FusionFall's exec producer, Chris Waldron.

It's A Small World, After All

Though it was previously reported that Sony was going to buy mini-MMO Club Penguin, turns out that the Mouse House got the goods. Disney may pay up to $700M! Okay, just how many original MMOs could you make with that kind of cash? We'll see if the audience was worth the sticker price.

WTS Wolf Pee

Wolf Quest is a new free game coming later this year, which allows kids to go online with a wolf and form "packs" with other players. This game showed up on a number of the game blogs today. While the video is indeed terrible, and the environments staggeringly barren and ugly, the game is an interesting concept. (I'm not sure what it's going to teach, though, other than wolves like to howl, pee and kill elk.) Hey, at least it's not dwarves and orcs for the gabillionth time. The game trailer is also here on Gametrailers.com.

More FusionFall

YouTube has the trailer up and running:


Fan reaction at Comic-Con was wildly positive! Everyone seems to be excited about the new look for the characters and the general creative direction. Kids had fun with the game, too. It really couldn't have gone better, actually.

FusionFall Trailer

I can't figure out how to embed this, but check out the FusionFall trailer here on the Warcry Network.

FusionFall

It's out of the bag...I will be trolling the web today, but caught a glimpse on Kotaku this morning. Stay tuned for more hits from teh internets.