Friday, June 18

GET OVER HERE!

And just look at these... breasts. That's a Black Books reference. I don't really stay abreast of the news, but some friends brought some unsettling stories to my recent attention:

Australia is set to sensor the internet.

Unemployed Americans need not apply.

Now I'm not sure if the net filter is really going to affect me, I think I can do without these sites. But I protest any 1984-esq government censorship of the last free medium, the true arc of the people. Well, the intelligent people. However the increasingly severe state of unemployment in America? That is indeed distressing. Looks like I chose the worst possible time to try and make it in the states...

And then there's Scott Pilgrim. I read it and I really liked it, but I'm not sure if it falls under the gamer shade cloth. More like equal parts non-jap-manga, poser-scene-trash and indie-gamer-rag. What I am sure of is that it's good, and it's the story's tendency to blend the lines between reality and gamer-fiction that really appeals to me. Any dedicated gamer does tend to apply gaming diction to everyday events and real life can at times blend with memories of games. It's clear that Brian Lee O'Malley is one artist who is sensitive to this phenomenon. Scott Pilgrim may not be the first comic to blend reality with gaming, but the movie adaptation sure is interesting for this very reason. I trust Edgar Wright to do it justice, he wouldn't let us down.

Unfortunately the latest trailer suffers from that terrible new habit the trailer editors have of explaining the whole damn story in 3 minutes. So if you've read Scott Pilgrim, and are wondering how they can pull it off then watch this but if you're curious and oblivious watch this one which is a little less offensive (it's okay to see a movie and not know what it's about). I must point out though, The Ting Tings into Pendulum is some heavy indie cred so they at least did that right.

On that note, here's how to do a trailer so right I just might see this:



Mortal Kombat has had it's ups and downs. Well, one initial up before a dynasty of down. The movies were only watchable as the grand finale on bad movie nights (although Techno Syndrome by The Immortals is one of the best things ever recorded) and each game more disappointing than the last. But this trailer really does make me want to forget that and watch something that someone really tried hard to make cool. I appreciate effort.

I spent part of yesterday looking at my gamer t-shirts. I have a few, some don't fit too well while others are faded. I'm going to email some of the better sites and see if they're interested at throwing a couple of shirts my way in exchange for me wearing them in the doco and their brand in the credits. That'd be very cool as I don't really have the money to buy new clothing.

I'll leave you with some quotes from 'gamers'. None of them are known for playing video games but they certainly have some relevent wisdom to impart. In the end a game is a game, and a player is a player :)

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
-Michael Jordan

You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.
-Albert Einstein

Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.
-Voltaire

It's the game of life. Do I win or do I lose? One day they're gonna shut the game down. I gotta have as much fun and go around the board as many times as I can before it's my turn to leave.
-Tupac Shakur

As things are, and as fundamentally they must always be, poetry is not a career, but a mug's game. No honest poet can ever feel quite sure of the permanent value of what he has written: He may have wasted his time and messed up his life for nothing.
-T. S. Eliot

Through my illness I learned rejection. I was written off. That was the moment I thought, Okay, game on. No prisoners. Everybody's going down.
-Lance Armstrong

Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.
-Donald Trump

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