About a month I listed an article about that mentioned the need for the video game industry to have new system for selling games. It was mentioned an online system where some could down load games maybe a good ideal.
so enters Gametap. For a monthly fee ($14.95) GAMETAP allows you to play any game in it library.
They already have a few big name companies putting their old games out on this system. Plus they are have gotten some media coverage (it was shown on G4's Attack of the show) and they already have media campaign (I saw a commercial for it a few days ago). So this may be an ideal that is poised to work.
I say may because looking at the games they have up right now there is much I want to play or at least seeing paying 15 bucks a month for when I could get them cheaper. This something I will I will keep an eye on because they are just starting out and so I am sure they will have many more games coming out for them.
Thought I am wondering about this system business model. How are the game developers making money from this site? Is gametap paying the companies a licensing fee, IE they pay the company x amount a month/year to have the games on the gametap site. Or maybe each game gets a percentage on the profits based on how many times it get played.
I mainly wonder about that because I wonder if this company's model would work for developers to make new games for GAME TAP.
At the moment it looks like a dumping ground companies to put up their old games. Which is cool since there is a market for those who would like to play those games. I know I would (it just like I stated above they don't have enough I want to play yet) but having new game would be a good draw for many people.
If the money is right I could see this system as a great way to smaller/medium developers to put out games in a market that is getting harsher and harsher on games that don't make it big in the stores.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Monday, October 17, 2005
Cool article on the importance game innovation
So this blog article on the importance of innovation in the video game industry is in making sure the market keeps growing by keeping non hardcore gamers (and turing some of them into the next crop of hardcore gamers).
Race riot or poor city planning
So it seems that over the weekend Toledo, OH had a small race riot.
It all started when the National Socialist Movement (aka neo-NAZI)planned to march in a Toledo neighborhood.
Now the mayor of Toledo stated that this hate group has a right to march. Which is true but usually with groups like this the city has them march in an area that wouldn't cause to much problems, ie somewhere out of the way.
Now when any group of this type does a march/protest you our going to end up with a bunch of people that will counter protest. In this case by the articles I've read this group of counter protesters happened to contain gang members.
It seems that there was some scuffle, some there something at the nazi and may have hit some of the police officers.
Now unknown to the people that came to protest against the hate group, the nazi march was cancelled, the nazi that where there left. Now you would think the police would have used this fact to disburse the crowd. All they would have to do is get someone a bullhorn and say something like "The nazi our gone, everyone please disburse" instead they released tear gas into the crowd.
Then the riots broke out.
It all started when the National Socialist Movement (aka neo-NAZI)planned to march in a Toledo neighborhood.
Now the mayor of Toledo stated that this hate group has a right to march. Which is true but usually with groups like this the city has them march in an area that wouldn't cause to much problems, ie somewhere out of the way.
Now when any group of this type does a march/protest you our going to end up with a bunch of people that will counter protest. In this case by the articles I've read this group of counter protesters happened to contain gang members.
It seems that there was some scuffle, some there something at the nazi and may have hit some of the police officers.
Now unknown to the people that came to protest against the hate group, the nazi march was cancelled, the nazi that where there left. Now you would think the police would have used this fact to disburse the crowd. All they would have to do is get someone a bullhorn and say something like "The nazi our gone, everyone please disburse" instead they released tear gas into the crowd.
Then the riots broke out.
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Black people don't care about George W Bush...Ah...Is that really news?
It's been recently announced that only 2 percent of African Americans approve of President Bush. Sounds a bit high to me but I guess there must be a margin of error in there somewhere.
Of course to me the real shock isn't that Bush's approval rating is so low among Blacks. It way is it still so high among everyone else (45 percent of whites and 36 percent of Hispanics)
Of course to me the real shock isn't that Bush's approval rating is so low among Blacks. It way is it still so high among everyone else (45 percent of whites and 36 percent of Hispanics)
Friday, October 14, 2005
Jack Thompson creates video games
Jack Thompson, a guy who has been a long time critic of the video game industry has said he will give $10,000 to the head of Take-Two Interactive (the distributors of GTA) Paul Eibeler's charity of choice if any game company makes a game in 2006 that follows his (Thompson) story line.
A teenager kills another teen because he played to many violent video games.
The father goes on a killing spree after trail of his son's murder.
The father goes to Take Two's offices and kills a lot of people as he is looking for Eibeler.
He then goes to Philly to kill the people that worked at the law firm Take Two uses.
With the FBI on his tail he attacks the Gamewerks chain of arcades.
Then the characters goes to chain stores where he kills the employee staff and bitches how they need to check ID's.
and then tops it off at E3 where the character goes and kills as many video game execs as he can.
--
All I have to say is PLEASE SOME VIDEO GAME COMPANY MUST MAKE THIS GAME. IF done right you'll get a tri-fector of raising money for a charity, making a game that is sure to get alot of publistity and it will piss Thompson of even more if someone actually made this game.
Also the E3 level will be a great level to jam as many spoof of the game industry as possible.
A teenager kills another teen because he played to many violent video games.
The father goes on a killing spree after trail of his son's murder.
The father goes to Take Two's offices and kills a lot of people as he is looking for Eibeler.
He then goes to Philly to kill the people that worked at the law firm Take Two uses.
With the FBI on his tail he attacks the Gamewerks chain of arcades.
Then the characters goes to chain stores where he kills the employee staff and bitches how they need to check ID's.
and then tops it off at E3 where the character goes and kills as many video game execs as he can.
--
All I have to say is PLEASE SOME VIDEO GAME COMPANY MUST MAKE THIS GAME. IF done right you'll get a tri-fector of raising money for a charity, making a game that is sure to get alot of publistity and it will piss Thompson of even more if someone actually made this game.
Also the E3 level will be a great level to jam as many spoof of the game industry as possible.
Nuclear terrorist road trip: The attack of Al Cutie
ABC’s new program Primetime ran a report last night showing how easy it would be for terrorist to enter many of the nuclear research facilities housed at many universities. The only weapons they would need is charm, looks and youth.
The experiment took groups (of two) made of college student or recent graduates and had them check out a nuclear reactors that can be found on many college campuses and see if they could get in.
As the test showed not only could these students get into the building with the nuclear reactor in a number of cases they where able to get near the core of the reactor.
The schools mostly tired to play it off and say that those nuclear reactors are well guarded. The NRC tried to do the same thing but after the spokes person looked at some of the film footage he slowly began to change his tune and admit that at least he was at least worried about some of them.
What was really sad was that one of the schools tried to blame the ABC primetime investigators instead of admitting their own lack of security. They said that it was unfair that they sent a bunch of flirtatious women around to use their evil feminine whiles or some crap to that ilk.
I know it this piece was supposed to a scare to the viewers but when this started out I could help but to find it little funny. In a oh my god we are all goina die short of way. Of course by the time it hits you that the only one school (university of new Mexico) actually had decent security (they locked the doors and didn’t allow the investigators to have an unscheduled tour) it began to get a little scary.
To be fare I admit I may have made a few mistakes that the guys working in the nuclear labs made (expcially with the first pair of women). It doesn’t always take much to get a nerd to let his guard down a cute face and smile and/or showing a little interest in something and there you go. But I don’t work in a nuclear lab and I would expect a bit more security in one.
The experiment took groups (of two) made of college student or recent graduates and had them check out a nuclear reactors that can be found on many college campuses and see if they could get in.
As the test showed not only could these students get into the building with the nuclear reactor in a number of cases they where able to get near the core of the reactor.
The schools mostly tired to play it off and say that those nuclear reactors are well guarded. The NRC tried to do the same thing but after the spokes person looked at some of the film footage he slowly began to change his tune and admit that at least he was at least worried about some of them.
What was really sad was that one of the schools tried to blame the ABC primetime investigators instead of admitting their own lack of security. They said that it was unfair that they sent a bunch of flirtatious women around to use their evil feminine whiles or some crap to that ilk.
I know it this piece was supposed to a scare to the viewers but when this started out I could help but to find it little funny. In a oh my god we are all goina die short of way. Of course by the time it hits you that the only one school (university of new Mexico) actually had decent security (they locked the doors and didn’t allow the investigators to have an unscheduled tour) it began to get a little scary.
To be fare I admit I may have made a few mistakes that the guys working in the nuclear labs made (expcially with the first pair of women). It doesn’t always take much to get a nerd to let his guard down a cute face and smile and/or showing a little interest in something and there you go. But I don’t work in a nuclear lab and I would expect a bit more security in one.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
When cops go wild
Robert Davis, the 64 year old retired elementary schoolteacher that was attacked by a vicious gang of cops, has released a statement yesterday that he was not drunk as the police said. In fact he claims that he hadn't had a drink in 25 years.
The reason this raises interest is that the thugs that call themselves "lawmen" stated that the reason they beat him was that he was drunk and believed to be violent. Even if the man was drunk from what one can tell from the video there where no signs of him being violent and what those officers did was uncalled for.
Both Davis and the police department say that race wasn't a reason for what happened. But I'm going to have say that most likely it played a role in what happened.
In the video I link to it was reported that one of the officers said that they had been trapped there for months and have been doing what they can to stay a live.
Maybe these officers where too stressed out and handled this situation really badly.
It could be a combination of the two. If race played a factor in this. The fact that the N.O officers have recently been is such a stressful situation would only amplify reactions that these officer may have if they had any racial bias.
I hope it's not coming of as I have something against the police but is seems to me that most people forget that the police are human. Being human the men and women on the police force our prone to the same short comings as everyone else.
I'm surprised that many people don't realize this. Besides "oh, that was terrible" most of the reactions I seen this story have either been "F the police" or "the police are always right and this guy must of done something" I just don't understand how people could have such a simple view of the world.
Being people you are going to have good and bad police officers. Just as you are going to have good or bad people working as lawyers, IT, waiters, priest, doctors, teachers or anything else. And with or with out a badge from the actions of these "cops" are scum.
The reason this raises interest is that the thugs that call themselves "lawmen" stated that the reason they beat him was that he was drunk and believed to be violent. Even if the man was drunk from what one can tell from the video there where no signs of him being violent and what those officers did was uncalled for.
Both Davis and the police department say that race wasn't a reason for what happened. But I'm going to have say that most likely it played a role in what happened.
In the video I link to it was reported that one of the officers said that they had been trapped there for months and have been doing what they can to stay a live.
Maybe these officers where too stressed out and handled this situation really badly.
It could be a combination of the two. If race played a factor in this. The fact that the N.O officers have recently been is such a stressful situation would only amplify reactions that these officer may have if they had any racial bias.
I hope it's not coming of as I have something against the police but is seems to me that most people forget that the police are human. Being human the men and women on the police force our prone to the same short comings as everyone else.
I'm surprised that many people don't realize this. Besides "oh, that was terrible" most of the reactions I seen this story have either been "F the police" or "the police are always right and this guy must of done something" I just don't understand how people could have such a simple view of the world.
Being people you are going to have good and bad police officers. Just as you are going to have good or bad people working as lawyers, IT, waiters, priest, doctors, teachers or anything else. And with or with out a badge from the actions of these "cops" are scum.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
War is never any smurfing good
The UNICEF of Belgium has teamed up with the owners of the smurf to make a PR commerical showing the horrors of war.
In the commerical we witness the bombing of a smurf village.
although I've looked I haven't found any video of this on the net. I know it may be a bit twisted of me but I want to see it.
In the commerical we witness the bombing of a smurf village.
although I've looked I haven't found any video of this on the net. I know it may be a bit twisted of me but I want to see it.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Bush dipping back into fear
With Bush's approval rating down to 39% is the reason why we are again getting news of terror attacks.
I'm not saying Bush is causing them, just the way they are getting handled and spinned in the media. Example: saying that the military will be used encase that the avian-flu somehow passes to people and have an outbreak (who that a lot of if, I just hope the military is order to shoot sick people on sight).
Bush's approval ratings where at their highest when we where still in a daze of terror due the events of 9/11. Which was prolonged by creating and terror warning system and every so often raising it.
I'm not saying Bush is causing them, just the way they are getting handled and spinned in the media. Example: saying that the military will be used encase that the avian-flu somehow passes to people and have an outbreak (who that a lot of if, I just hope the military is order to shoot sick people on sight).
Bush's approval ratings where at their highest when we where still in a daze of terror due the events of 9/11. Which was prolonged by creating and terror warning system and every so often raising it.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Shoot Frist? Black people stay the hell away from Flordia!
new law in Florida allows people to shoot people if they believe they may be attacked.
The people of Shootfristlaw.org are warning people to be careful when they go to Florida. Mainly due to the fear of people over reacting to things like a car crash or something.
But what has me worried about this law is that I can see a lot of innocent people being killed due to race. A lot of white people get very nervous when they see a Black person walking around a night (hell even in the day) because they automatically assume that the Black person is going to mug or rape them. Usually this just leads to people quickly running to the other side of the street or women clutching their purses/moving it the opposite side of the Black person.
But with this law I am fearful that we are going to see a lot of Black men getting shot down because a lot of these fearful white people may be quick to pull out a gun and shot someone because they "think" they maybe harmed.
The people of Shootfristlaw.org are warning people to be careful when they go to Florida. Mainly due to the fear of people over reacting to things like a car crash or something.
But what has me worried about this law is that I can see a lot of innocent people being killed due to race. A lot of white people get very nervous when they see a Black person walking around a night (hell even in the day) because they automatically assume that the Black person is going to mug or rape them. Usually this just leads to people quickly running to the other side of the street or women clutching their purses/moving it the opposite side of the Black person.
But with this law I am fearful that we are going to see a lot of Black men getting shot down because a lot of these fearful white people may be quick to pull out a gun and shot someone because they "think" they maybe harmed.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
I'm falling for bush
Fun little web game (and I'm using the term loosely) where the Prez is falling
if you get stuck you can move push with your mouse
if you get stuck you can move push with your mouse
Monday, October 03, 2005
OJ ten years
I was listening to the radio and they where talking about the the OJ Simpson trial, due to this being the 10 year anniversary.
all I have to say is let it go people. It's been 10 years.
oh and it should be finally known to the public that not every Black person though he was innocent but the combo of seeing the mishandling of the DNA and the racist cop lead many to have doubts of his guilt, while it seemed many white (or at least the media) where all gung-ho on his guilt.
also Black people where tired of hearing the news making this a race issue.
all I have to say is let it go people. It's been 10 years.
oh and it should be finally known to the public that not every Black person though he was innocent but the combo of seeing the mishandling of the DNA and the racist cop lead many to have doubts of his guilt, while it seemed many white (or at least the media) where all gung-ho on his guilt.
also Black people where tired of hearing the news making this a race issue.
No books allowed
After my mother birthday party yesterday my mother told me (that at least it's rumored)that the Mayor of Pontiac, MI (my home town) is planning on closing the city libraries and also getting rid of the librarians in the public schools.
The horror
it was bad enough that they where poorly funded but shut them down. What does the Mayor have a problem with people reading?
The horror
it was bad enough that they where poorly funded but shut them down. What does the Mayor have a problem with people reading?
Saturday, October 01, 2005
DS9 Saddam connection
I was watching a documentary on the history channel (Saddam’s doctor an inside story) where a doctor talks about Saddam and released something his name is Dr. Basir.
That's right the name of the doctor on star trek deep space nine.
That's right the name of the doctor on star trek deep space nine.
Friday, September 30, 2005
Sequential gamers it’s always greener on the other side
I was reading an article on the escapist magazine (which I found via Penny-Arcade) that was talking about the current business model of the video game industry is destroying smaller developers and creativity, when something struck me. In the article Costikyan states that one of the problems of the video game industry is that video game industry is lacking a fan base that buys more independent artistic products like the movie and comic book industries and games need a market to sell those types of games like the other two industries have.
The reason why this statement stuck out is being a fan of comic books and reading comic book message boards and many in the comic industry are envious of the success of the video game market. You see while everyone is talking about how the video game industry has boomed (the video game industry is now making more money then the movie industry) the comic industry is very far past it’s apex. So both industries need what the other has at the moment.
It also should be noted that the smaller comic book publishers in a similar position as the video game industry in the terms of retail. Both the majority of retailers focus most of there effort of the bigger selling titles (that more then like come from the bigger companies).
The biggest advantage (maybe more so then the comic shop since the game industry does have a few stores that only or mostly sales games) that comics have over the video game industry maybe the fact that they are much cheaper to produce then video games. So they don’t need to sell as much to a profit as the video game company does. If it cost some where around 10 to 20 million to make a graphic novel I would bet that the smaller publishers would be in the same spot as the smaller game developers. Because most of the comic fans stuck to the big two publishers and many retailers keep most if not all of their focus on those companies.
*Hmmm I wonder if a number of retailers popped up that focused on the indy games and comics would they do well and would they have any effect on helping both markets. I could see cross over in both markets.
The reason why this statement stuck out is being a fan of comic books and reading comic book message boards and many in the comic industry are envious of the success of the video game market. You see while everyone is talking about how the video game industry has boomed (the video game industry is now making more money then the movie industry) the comic industry is very far past it’s apex. So both industries need what the other has at the moment.
It also should be noted that the smaller comic book publishers in a similar position as the video game industry in the terms of retail. Both the majority of retailers focus most of there effort of the bigger selling titles (that more then like come from the bigger companies).
The biggest advantage (maybe more so then the comic shop since the game industry does have a few stores that only or mostly sales games) that comics have over the video game industry maybe the fact that they are much cheaper to produce then video games. So they don’t need to sell as much to a profit as the video game company does. If it cost some where around 10 to 20 million to make a graphic novel I would bet that the smaller publishers would be in the same spot as the smaller game developers. Because most of the comic fans stuck to the big two publishers and many retailers keep most if not all of their focus on those companies.
*Hmmm I wonder if a number of retailers popped up that focused on the indy games and comics would they do well and would they have any effect on helping both markets. I could see cross over in both markets.
Killing Black Babies will Lower Crime?
Bill Bennett has state that"aborting black babies will lower crime" on his radio show.
ok, it is even scary that some on would think about something like this.
ok, it is even scary that some on would think about something like this.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Two cute drawings
I thought I would post some drawings I did the other day.
ok they are the same drawings but the last I added a mouth do to the fact that when I looked at the first picture my mind kept going back and froth as seeing the characters noise as a mouth then as a nose again.
I guess the mind just expects to see a mouth when it looks at drawing of a face.
but maybe it was just me.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
I'll judge myself
Michael Brown has been rehired by FEMA to help figure out what went wrong when HE was in charge.
Why is fema wasting tax payer's money? This guy part of the problem why have him be part of the council that is looking into the wrong doings, It seems way to easy for him to hide his mistakes and blame it all on the Louisiana.
The next thing you know I'm going hear on the radio that Brown says he is doing a wonderful job...oh wait to late.
I can't believe this ish.
Why is fema wasting tax payer's money? This guy part of the problem why have him be part of the council that is looking into the wrong doings, It seems way to easy for him to hide his mistakes and blame it all on the Louisiana.
The next thing you know I'm going hear on the radio that Brown says he is doing a wonderful job...oh wait to late.
I can't believe this ish.
Friday, September 23, 2005
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