Why Business Analysts Should Stay Out of the Video Game Realm

Next Gen reported that an analyst from SIG believes the PSP will dominate the marketplace within five years.

Here is the article:
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2118&Itemid=2

My question is, has that analyst ever picked up a PSP or DS? The PSP obviously is a monster hardware wise and it has a large movie library but that is pretty much where it ends. There isn't a single game that I look forward to playing on it. Prior to November of last year I could pretty much say the same thing for the DS. However, once I saw what was planned with Mario Kart I bought a DS. This is easily one of the most entertaining games on any system. It's the single reason I have to recharge my DS batteries often. Not too long after that Animal Crossing came out which I then snagged up. It too is a fantastic game that also has a great multiplayer component to it.

I am definitely not in the minority with this. The fine folks at Penny Arcade had a simliar experience.

Ultimately what these analysts have to realize is that it is the games that drive sales, not the hardware. If the games are fun, people will come. (Sadly enough for some gamers this is literally true.) The only way the PSP is going to take over the market is by coming out with games that are accessible to everyone.

The reality of it is the PSP is the cool thing to have, like an iPod. The iPod however, became the best selling MP3 player on the planet because of its quality and ease of use not because it was manufactured by Apple.(If anything that probably pushed some people away.) The PSP on the other hand only got recognition because it was made by Sony and because it promised to port over Playstation 2 games. There have been countless challengers to the gameboy throne. ALL of which were superior hardware wise. But when it came down to which system people played the gameboy always won for the simple reason that the games were unparalled. I'm not saying that is what is going to happen this generation.(They still need to add a browser to the DS and/or email client and movie playback would be nice as well.)

But if the last 3 months have told us anything, it's that Nintendo still knows how to put out a game that can completely consume us for hours on end. And up until right now, Sony hasn't been able to do that on the PSP.

Brokeback Mountain

I'd sort of purposely avoided writing about Brokeback Mountain for the simple reason that a) everyone else was already writing about it and b) I didn't know exactly what i'd say. Well they still are and I still don't but here goes anyway.

I really enjoyed the movie. I thought it was very tastefully done and was probably one of the best love stories that i've ever seen. Definitely Titantic-esque. It certainly brought back memories of relationships that i'd had that ended because there was no real other way they could end.

I think BM is a big step for gays and lesbians. I have to say that the majority of the gay themed movies I have seen (which admittedly is not a lot) have not been very good. The characters are often campy, effeminate, overly sarcastic and can be more likened to being a 'character' rather than a person. And I have enough gay friends to know that there does in fact exist a whole other group. One like the men portrayed in Brokeback Mountain.

Don't get me wrong though, characters like Will and Jack from Will and Grace and the guys from Queer Eye for the Staight Guy, David from Six Feet Under, have paved the way for this kind of movie. They helped make homosexuality non threatening. They helped some people realize they really had nothing to fear. Brokeback Mountain will hopefully make those people that no longer fear gays to now want to sit down and understand them.

At first when I saw that some were likening the gay marriage thing to the plight of minorities I balked at the idea. In the fifties we were talking about what I deemed to be basic human rights that were being taken away from people simply because their skin was darker. This was just about marriage right? It's really not. It's about having the right to visit your partner when they are lying in a hospital bed. It's about being able to collect their social security checks after spending an entire lifetime with them. It's about making sure they are being taken care of after you are gone. It's about being able to put them as a spouse on your health insurance. It's about the government giving you the tax break that every other married couple gets. That's what gay marriage means. Those are basic human rights that everyone else has. I didn't get that at first...

Hopefully the movie will show more of America that two PEOPLE, regardless of sex, can truly love each other. And that just because that happens, it's not going to ruin 'family values' or make baby Jesus cry.

Pam's call to breasts...err arms

Pamela Anderson is on a mission to remove the bust of KFC founder Harland Sanders from the Kentucky State capital. Pam (and PETA) has long been an staunch opponent of the methods in which KFC utilizes to kill their chickens. I personally have not eaten at a KFC in several years for exactly the same reason. I have seen pictures of chickens walking around without their beaks; videos of men literally kicking or throwing chickens across a room; another of a man stomping one while it was on the floor; another of hundreds if not thousands of chickens crammed into an area so small they are unable to move.

I'm definitely no vegan. I enjoy my chicken salads and thick steaks and I don't plan on giving them up.(However the soy alternatives are becoming better and better so who knows, I someday may be.) I do feel however, that a humane way to kill these animals should be employed.

I don't know much about Mr. Sanders, so whether or not you want to protest the bust being there is entirely up to you. As far as his animal practices go, I won't eat at another KFC until they fix them.


You can read the CNN article here:

http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/13/news/newsmakers/anderson_sanders/index.htm?cnn=yes

Do Desparate Times Call for Racist Measures?

Being an actor/musician means you meet ALL kinds of people. People that the average person doesn't get to meet, or at least not with any frequency. It takes a certain personality to be an actor or musician and truthfully at times I fear I don't have it. If i'm at a party with a room full of actors I am usually the quietest person there because most times i'm not actually interested in attention. (When i'm in front of a camera or on a stage it's a different story) In any case, now when I go to actor parties i'm almost expecting to be annoyed. I'm expecting people to be 'ON' and loud and at times overbearing.

So what the hell is my point? Basically that everyone has some preconceived notions about people or certain groups of people. (I suppose in this case mine arent exactly preconceived.) Whether or not you choose to admit it is up to you. Growing up my best friends were White, Latin and Black. As an adult my best friends are White, Latin, Black, and Indian. I have friends of nearly every nationality you could think of. So as far friends go in terms of race, i'm pretty color blind.

What I find slightly upsetting is that when President Bush announced that several U.S. ports would be controlled by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) I was fearful. I was fearful that weapons (bombs especially) would be easily transferred into the country. Obviously a good amount of people agreed with me, hell it was the one issue that actually brought together Democrats and Republicans. My apprehension had to do with the fact some of the terrorists involved in the attacks on 9/11 were from the UAE. If this hadn't been the case I don't know that I would have been so fearful.

Had it been Saudia Arabia I still would have been fearful for the same reason. (except in SA's case it wasnt 'some' of the terrorists, it was 'most'.

The fact of the matter is terrorists are now being bred and trained to 'HATE' the United States. And the fact that some of our attackers came from there means that there have to be others there with the same thoughts and predilections. Simple sociology teaches us that environment has a part to play in our upbringing. If those terrorists were raised there, obviously other people were exposed to the same environmental factors. No it doesn't mean that everyone in the UAE is a terrorist, it just means that the factors that caused those men to attack us could have affected more than those few.

Many Arabs called us racist as a result of the public upheaval. And to a certain extent they were right. There is a general mistrust of Arabs now in this country. I can see it in people's faces. I heard a latin comedian once say that the only good thing that came out of the attacks is that latinos and blacks are no longer on the bottom rung in this country. (Only he said it in a much more funny way.) It's definitely the truth though.

The dictionary says Racism is "The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability." Also "Discrimination on the basis of race."

My heart believes that my thought process is not racist. My brain can quantify my beliefs with science. Based off of the first definition I am not racist. I do not think race accounts for any differences in character or ability.

Based on the second definition it isn't as clear. I do not trust UAE or Saudi Arabia for that matter. As a result if I heard someone was from there I would be apprehensive. Is that racist if mistrust is applied to countries and not a race? Probably not but it could easily be mistaken for that.

The sad part about this is President Bush is only worsening the situation. He is breeding a contempt for this country the likes that only Israel could relate with. Because of his policies, Iraq, Afghanistan, and possibly Iran are going to be next in line to train people to bomb our country, if they aren't already.

It tooks several generations to teach this country that humans shouldn't be owned and that equality for all Americans is a right, not a privilege. Ultimately I can only hope that people in this country realize that Arab does not equal Terrorist. Otherwise it could be decades before we see peace again...

Write your own Angelina and Brad story

Entertainment weekly decided that rather than write yet another article about Angelina and Brad's baby you should write your own.

http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1148103_7||260502|1_,00.html

This is what I came up with:

With months to go before their baby is due to be born, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are reportedly canoodling more vigorously than ever. A source close to the couple says Brangelina is thisclose to choosing a name, and the current front-runner is Gia. Our spies could see the anticipation in Brad's eyes when they spotted him shopping for a home-birthing tank. Meanwhile, Angelina is basking in the afterglow of the near-criminal cuteness of her children Maddox and Zahara. A spokesperson refused to comment on Jolie's condition, except to say that the couple is hoping their child will inspire a magazine bidding war over the first baby photos.

Wow I think I just outed how US Weekly writes their stories...

Bloodrayne - A Movie Review

Hi All,

Let me start by saying I have never played a Bloodrayne game ever. I've seen clips of it on G4, but that is about the extent of my exposure to it. I only went because my friend (who loves Bloodrayne) wanted company. As a result of watching the movie I will probably never play any of the games for fear that one of the actors might have had a voiceover in one of them. Or worse, Uwe Boll could have directed.

Yes, it was that bad.

In a nutshell, the movie is about a half human half vampire woman named Rayne (Kristanna Loken) who is on a mission to avenge her mothers death. It turns out that her father, who was the one that murdered her mother, is also the most powerful vampire in the world. He is hell bent on acquiring some artifacts that will make him almost a god. Once Sebastian (Matthew Davis), Vladimir (Michael Madsen), and Katarin (Michelle Rodriguez) realize that their mission is the same as hers they team up. There were several other plotpoints but all they really did was convolude the story.

The pacing of Bloodrayne felt particularly rushed, which is ironic because I wanted the movie to end as quickly as possible. You never get a chance to get to know any of the characters and their motivations are never really understood. Such as why was Rayne more angry over her mother being killed when she was a child than by the fact that she was living in a cage for the past several years? Because of the backstory they drew up (she was a circus attraction) one would think her words and actions would be a bit more primal in nature and her anger would primarily lie with her captors. It started a bit in that direction (which was good) but then once she found out who killed her mother her focus completely changed as well as her demeanor. It felt like the writers had a story they wanted to tell, but knew they had to sprinkle in parts of the videogame in order to keep the fans happy. As a result Loken was all over the place and unfortunately none of it was believeable. Couple that with physically not selling the fight sequences (it felt like anyone could do what she was doing with a week or two of training) and you get an all around bad performance. (It actually made me really appreciate what Jennifer Garner was able to do with the sais in Elektra)

It wasn't all her fault however. Madsen's performance was equally bad. Both his acting and fight sequences were not up to par with anyone else in the cast. Davis (who I thought was good in Tigerland) was hollow as Sebastian. He had one emotion throughout the whole movie. (except during the sex scene, which will incidentally go down in history as one of the most awkward and out of place sex scene's in movie history. Seriously, a sex scene in War of the Worlds between Steven Spielberg and Kathy Griffin would shock me less.) Michelle Rodriguez was probably the best actress in the movie. She made the most of what she had to work with. Seriously...

I think the worst part about this whole thing is that Bloodrayne is just another in a long line of videogame to movie disasters. It actually got me to thinking if the issue is in fact with the writers and directors of the movie or if it is with the source material itself. The videogame Street Fighter is about a fighting tournament. You don't really know anything about the characters and you don't really care. You just want to fight people. Was the movie bad because there was no story to really build on or because Jean Claude Van Damme was in it? In the Doom videogame you go around shooting things. I don't even remember what the point of that game was, besides shooting things. Again Doom the movie didnt have much to draw from except for knowing that there had to be alot of shooting. (And Rock, whoever is picking your movies, fire them. If it's you, go back to wrestling.) I think movie producers need to realize that just because a game has a fanbase doesnt mean that a) it will translate to a movie audience and b) they will be able to create a story from it.

From what my friend told me (he hated the movie as well) the Bloodrayne story was in fact a good one and they messed it up. (Same thing happened to Resident Evil I think. Games good, movies bad.)

So if you like vampires, don't watch this movie. If you like Bloodrayne, then definitely don't watch this movie.

Score (1)

4. Buy it!
3. Rent it!
2. Download it!
1. Don't even bother its crap!

I Hate the 80's (Part 2)

Part 2 of my TIC view on the 80's continues...

The Government
Picture it, Sicily 1942. A young jewish girl anxiously awaits- oh wait no.

Picture it, The US 1980s. An eager nation wonders in bewilderment what the hell Reagan was thinking when he cut incomes taxes but raised payroll taxes enough that the average lower to middle income family was worse off.

The nation was further dumbfounded when it was discovered that weapons were being traded to Iran for hostages and that the government was also secretly aiding the Contras in Nicaragua.

Oh and even though my degree is in economics, i'm having trouble figuring out how anyone could think that tax cuts to the richest Americans would boost the economy. If a rich person buys a box of strawberries from a field worker once a week, will he be hungrier if he has more money? Will he shop more often at the mom and pop shops? Will he tip more?

What actually ended up happening was instead of the Lamborghini, he got the Bentley. Instead of the eight room mansion he got the ten room mansion with the guest house.

This assuredly taught americans that actors should not be policitians and vowed never to do it again. But then again vows don't mean much nowadays do they CALIFORNIA?

*glares at Californians*

The Movies

Ahhh the movies. The decade that brought us such Oscar contenders as Conan the Barbarian, Desperately Seeking Susan, Grease 2, Rocky 3 and 4 further rewarded us with such timeless classics as Superman 4, Masters of the Universe, Death Wish 2, 3 and 4, and Cocktail.

It feels so dirty to have lived through the decade where both Arnold Schwarzenegger AND Jean Claude Van Damme (And to a certain extent Molly Ringwald) got famous.

And seriously any decade where they kill off Optimus Prime...well... I just don't think I'd be able to look back on that time fondly.

The Parents

There were three kinds of eighties parents I think. First there were the uptight-conservative-republican voting- parents that actually attended something called P-T-A meetings? There there were the fluffy 70's type parents that didn't like to constrain their kids too much and felt they needed to let their kids explore themselves and the world around them. And then there were the minority parents... Come home late, thats a spanking. Talk back to your elders, thats a spanking. Take the car without permission, thats a grounding and a spanking. Now run and grab me a beer! Fine, but just ONE sip! I said ONE!

The Toys

Metal must have been really cheap back then because everything was die cast metal. All of my transformers, hot wheels, airplanes were metal. Come to think of it I think my Mon chi chi was metal too. That is... if I had ever...actually owned...one.

Nowadays it seems like most kids' toys are plastic. Either everyone is going the cheaper route or maybe there were too many injuries with all the metal toys during the 80's. I swear that the saying 'Be careful it'll poke your eye out' either came from 80's toys or from the first time John Holmes ever had sex. My guess is that it can't be the second because I never saw his wife wearing an eye patch. But then again glass eyes did start making a comeback around then...

send all emails regarding feelings of hate and resentment to your mom and dad where they belong.

you should have been hugged more

I Hate the 80's (Part 1)

Thursday, September 02, 2004,

The hair- It was a time where androgeny was the in thing.

If you were a glam rock fan, the men had their hair long and pretty and the women had their hair long but not as pretty.

If you were a Duran Duran fan, both the man and woman would have the EXACT same haircut.

Styling your hair would take no less than 45 minutes at which a quarter bottle of Aqua Net hairspray would be consumed. Blue bottle for a normal day, Pink bottle for those special occasions.

Why i hated the hair
I hated long hair on guys. It confused me. Was he handsome or pretty? Did he go to a salon or a barber? Did he have to have his hair wrapped up in a towel after showers like my mom? Was he my mom?


The music fan
If you were a Cure fan and a guy you were either gay, latin, or just really enjoyed wearing makeup. If you were a girl then you were probably lonely because the only guys you'd meet at concerts were gay or had more makeup on than you...which never went over well with dad.
You liked the music because it 'spoke' to you. They put your feelings of angst into musical form in a way that the hair bands just could not. Sure you didn't get laid until college but that's okay because that music still 'speaks' to you to this day.

If you were a Madonna fan and a guy you were probably gay or just really enjoyed dancing... alone....To songs titled "Like a Virgin" or "Material Girl". If you were a girl and like madonna then-....well actually you were normal. You liked wearing headbands, legwarmers,lacey skirts, and enjoyed performing the ocassional blowjob.
Madonna's music was more about empowering girls to release the inner whore. "You're just putting in the tip so it doesn't count."

If you were a glam rock fan you were either really beautiful yourself or just had really big hair. If you were a guy the pants you wore were so tight it gave you a camel toe... but that didn't matter because it matched your girlfriend's. (and yes, you did have a girlfriend unlike the other music fans.) Glam chicks were hot. They showed the chest, legs and everything else that was allowed without a subscription.
The music itself didn't have any meaning but there were alot of great power chords and the art of 'sing yelling' or 'yell singing' was perfected.

If you were a death metal fan you had little to no friends and probably have very few to this day. Your hygiene was questionable at best and lets face it, you still carry around a smell now.
Oh and you sold out by cutting off your hair.

Why i hated the music fan
All music fans tended to dress exactly like their favorite bands so pretty much all their individuality was lost. I think it's pretty sad when people in the 70's can laugh at how people in the 80's dressed. Considering they were high all the time, thats saying something.

Unable to Keep up with a Workout Regimen? So was she!

Defamer quoted a New York Post article which quoted a story in Variety (get all that?) that Lindsay Lohan admitted that she had in fact taken drugs and suffered from bullemia.

Isn't this what everyone thought anyway? I honestly am beginning to think celebrities think that the average person is stupid. The way that some women are looking nowadays, coupled with the fact that they are spending many nights a week partying could really lead to no other conclusion. You don't need Veronica Mars to figure that one out. Finding out Lindsay had an eating disorder shocked me as much as finding out Kate Moss did drugs.

Teenagers get unrealistic expectations of their appearance because teenage stars get unrealistic bodies. Stars have the bodies they do because a) they can afford to hire a personal trainer and or nutritionist or b) they have surgery or c) they use drugs or d) any combination of the above. As a result the average Joe expects perfection from his stars. So it's kind of a cycle now.

In a certain way I applaud Lyndsay for telling some of the truth. But a part of me is definitely annoyed over the fact she clearly pointed to quite the opposite last year. I'm sure countless girls tried doing the same thing only to find out today that Lindsay didn't do it the right way.