Video games – destined for the trash bin

It is with great difficulty that I admit that I am losing faith in video games as a powerful, artistic storytelling medium. The potential is clearly there, but all of the executive decisions point to the very sad fact that video games are nothing more than disposable entertainment. Game releases are less about shaking the industry to cause a permanent impact and more about creating a flavor of the month.

Community is being dropped from NBC’s midseason lineup

The dark timeline is actually the true timeline

Today in news from the darkest timeline: NBC pulls Community from its midseason lineup | TV | Newswire | The A.V. Club.

I don’t have to tell you my opinion about this news. You know how I feel about Community. This just goes to show that clever television cannot last because that becomes a barrier to building and maintaining a viewership. Yes, I’m already eulogizing the series. A midseason pull is an indication of lost hope in the series. If we’re lucky, and that’s a big if, maybe NBC can be convinced to give the show a final season so that the characters can at least graduate. Closure would be nice. Anyway, start pressuring your friends to watch this show and buy the DVDs!

Mario Kills Tanooki | PETA.org

Mario Kills Tanooki | PETA.org.

Can I be perfectly honest here? I loathe PETA. I do not loathe their ultimate goal, which would be the ethical treatment of animals, but I hate how they go about everything. To discourage the mistreatment of tanukis, they are taking jabs at Mario. Because Mario encourages kids to skin animals and wear their fur. If there’s anything kids pick up from Mario, it’s animal abuse.

PETA, haven’t you learned that extremism does more to hurt your cause than help it? I want to support your cause, but I simply can’t when you’re being like this. Stop. Just stop.

ANARCHY | Frank Miller Ink

ANARCHY | Frank Miller Ink.

For the past couple of years, people have been asking what has happened to Frank Miller. The Sin City and The Dark Knight Returns scribe met disappointment with his take on a young Batman and Robin in All-Star Batman and Robin. He followed that with the recently released critical failure (and utter piece of trash in this blogger’s opinion) Holy Terror. The man is completely entitled to his opinion, but he may have definitely put a final nail into the coffin containing a sizable amount of his fandom with talk of the immaturity and aimlessness of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Well, that and he peppered his commentary with more of the bigoted xenophobia found in Holy Terror.

The truth is Frank Miller has had some good story ideas (like the concept behind Batman: Year One and the whole approach to dealing with Silver Age Green Lantern in ASBAR), but he has never been a great writer and has always been insane. My primary issue with Miller’s writing is that it always falls back on “might makes right”. I’m not familiar with his CV, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t include a run writing for any Spider-Man book or Fantastic Four. But how about a book with Batman laying the smackdown on Superman? How about kicking a dude down a pit? How about shooting off a man’s mutated testicles? He’s good at that sort of thing. That’s solid, immediately gratifying entertainment. That’s the kind of mind we’re dealing with here.

And as much as I don’t care for much of what Frank Miller has done, I’ll pay to see Sin City 2 as soon as it comes out in the theater because I like the style. I’m not buying his books, and I’m not even remotely agreeing with his stand on anything. The guy’s kind of crazy, so you should expect his work to be uneven and his opinions to be unpleasant.

New Ultimate Spider-Man 4 – Great Power and Responsibility

To be honest, I really am into this All New Ultimate Spider-Man series. Right now there is a lack of action in order to establish this very much not Peter Parker character. This is extremely necessary because we do not need a complete retread of what we’re used to, lest we get what can be described as simply “the black Spider-Man.” No, this is Miles Morales. He has his own baggage.

Video games then vs now

The best video games are coming out today.

That seems to be the attitude of the voices on the internet. No matter how much individuals attempt to wax nostalgic about the games of yesterday, they rag on history and say that the medium has reached an all-time high for some reason or another. I base this off of comments heard on The Indoor Kids podcast (even the most recent one, which I am indeed picking out because it mentions Mega Man) and 1Up’s Retronauts podcast, where Bob Mackey has literally said that old games have looked like garbage because they were 8-bits. (I’m also picking on these podcasts because they are, quite honestly, my favorite video game podcasts.)

3.5 Million People Are Still Using AOL Dialup (!!!)

3.5 Million People Are Still Using AOL Dialup (!!!).

News like this should be pretty sobering. People complain about their internet not being fast enough thanks to speed caps placed by the big companies, or they might even complain about their overall bandwidth caps. Just remember that there are people still using dialup because there are no other options for them.

Additionally, this is the reason why we should not move completely to streaming content and games shouldn’t be built around multiplayer content or any internet connectivity. We’re just not there yet.