August 2008
1 post
11 tags
“The expectation among rights-holders is that, in order to create a success...”
– Big Champagne CEO Eric Garland, speaking to the Financial Times in a story titled “Music industry ‘should embrace illegal websites’” about a study partially funded by his company. The reseach shows that Radiohead derived strong benefits from its pay-what-you-want digital distribution of...
June 2008
5 posts
9 tags
“This article just seems to be trying to jump on the bandwagon and try to bring...”
– Message board poster el_rezzo, responding on Kotaku to Variety reporter Ben Fritz’s critique of the forthcoming game Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization.
So when discussing a game about colonization, one should not bring up “bigger issues” like, um, colonialism? Wow.
9 tags
“We’re getting rid of the number in Call of Duty for a very specific...”
– Treyarch senior producer Noah Heller, discussing Call of Duty: World at War with VideoGamer.com.
When it comes to naming the Call of Duty games, there’s always something that ends up setting our teeth on edge, and this quote is no different. The idea that numbers or the lack thereof—in...
10 tags
“Disney made a great movie out of a theme park ride, and somebody is sooner or...”
– Epic Games design director Cliff “Cliffyb” Bleszinski, speaking to the Hollywood Reporter about “Live Free or Die Hard” director Len Wiseman’s involvement involvement with the Gears of War movie.
Bleszinski’s use of a theme park ride as an analogy for videogames...
9 tags
“It’s a natural that Sony Pictures is developing “Metal Gear...”
– Journalist and blogger Leigh Alexander, in her Daily Variety review of Kojima Productions and Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 4
This is one of those statements that sounds true on first blush, but falls apart under more serious scrutiny. While Metal Gear Solid 4, like its predecessors, is packed...
7 tags
“There are hundreds of trade associations in Washington and virtually all feature...”
– Entertainment Software Association president Mike Gallagher, speaking about the recent departures of members like Activision and id software, in a Washington Post story titled “Fewer Players in the Gaming Group”
We realize that Gallagher has to maintain a stiff upper lip about this...
May 2008
9 posts
7 tags
“There’s Locke with his backgammon; there’s Hurley’s Connect...”
– New York magazine writer Emily Nussbaum—whose husband is a videogame critic—on the game-like aspects of “Lost” in a post titled “Why ‘Lost’ Is the Best Game Show in TV History” For all of the television show’s game-like attributes, we find ourselves...
6 tags
I Got You, Babe
Him: I thought we should have something to do, while we're stuck at home with no one else around.
Her: Together?
Him: Yeah. You'll like it.
Her: What should I do?
Him: You like to sing. So sing.
(interlude)
Him: Why don't you try the drums?
Her: I don't know. I've never done any drumming before. It looks hard. I don't want to mess it up for you.
Him: Just give it a shot. It'll be fun.
(interlude)
Him: So what do you think?
Her: I love it. My hands are killing me.
Him: Let's take a break.
Her. No! I need more practice on "Enter Sandman"!
Him: Well, I'm going to bed. I guess you can borrow my headphones if you want.
[All dialogue taken from Rachel Shukert's May 27, 2008 essay titled "How Rock Band Saved My Marriage." Copy this link into your browser for her full story tinyurl.com/59zhw7]
9 tags
“While the rest of traditional media is scrambling to adapt print publications to...”
– San Francisco Chronicle reporter Joe Garofali, in a story about 8020 Publishing titled “Everywhere, JPG - magazines for the future,” where the images and short stories are created and submitted by its readership. What does this have to do with videogames? Just ask the developers behind...
10 tags
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The Trouble With Sexytime
The one thing that Savannah College of Art and Design professor Daniel Floyd and the proponents of exploring sexual themes in videogames overlook is the challenge of marrying sexuality to interactivity in a way that’s sensitive, creative and engaging. How do we do so in any way other than the metaphorical when the interfaces we have at our disposal—controllers, mice, keyboards,...
4 tags
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“I will be doing movies that come from videogames.”
– Director Brett Ratner, following up on his statement to Daily Variety that “The games business is much more exciting than the movie business right now.” Based on Ratner’s last few movies—not to mention the generally low-to-middling quality of videogame...
9 tags
“If newspapers wither and die, it will be in part because the next generation...”
– Howard Kurtz, media columnist for the Washington Post (whose parent company also owns Newsweek), in response to an encounter with “a smug graduate student [who] said, ‘I get everything I need from YouTube. What are you going to do about it?’ “ Kurtz’s elegy for his...
8 tags
“By withholding code until a late stage then (be it through design or...”
– GameSetWatch’s “Chewing Pixels” columnist Simon Parkin on how the impact of limited access to AAA games before they ship can lead to unwarranted hype. How different is this from TV critics raving about Season One of “Lost” based on a pilot and a few subsequent episodes,...