Monthly Archives: May 2005

The Blessing of Fatal Death

  • Reading time:1 mins read

So. Collectively, The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances is by far the most nuanced, well-written, well-directed, well-edited, well-scored, probably well-acted serial of the season. The best use of effects and lighting. The best premise. The best supporting cast. The best resolution. Even the best pre-title synopsis. This is just stupidly good. And it’s kind of melancholy in that the way this ends, the balance that it finds — it’s a kind of perfection. This is the TARDIS at its height. The relationship between the Doctor and Rose, the presence of Jack, the comfortability level. It feels like everything has finally come together, after a long lead-up. This is the classic formation we’ve been waiting for. And it’s about to end. Next is, in effect, the three-part finale.

Did you hear? Next season is going to deal heavily with the Cybermen. That should be curious to witness.

I haven’t been saying much lately. I will soon. The last month has been nuts. I have other things to do first.

Smart Marketing – How an Intelligent Approach to Research Can Boost Your Bottom Line

  • Reading time:1 mins read

by [name redacted]

The idea behind Creative Domain Executive VP of Marketing Craig Relyea’s panel at this year’s E3 was to explore and maybe debunk what he described as misconceptions about “strategic information gathering”; marketing speak for focus groups, surveys, and other consumer data-raking. His thesis was that current videogame marketing “relies too much on gut instinct,” a tendency that, from his perspective, has “slowed the industry’s progress in becoming a dominant medium.” He fears that “we’re becoming smothered by over-dependancy on analysis”, resulting in a trap where, unless it is an extension of an established brand, nothing new gets made.

( Continue reading at GamaSutra )

World of Warcraft (Windows/Blizzard) **1/2

  • Reading time:2 mins read

by [name redacted]

This review was composed under strange conditions. I was flat broke; a reader sent me a copy of the game and said he’d pay to see my take on the game. Then after the review went up, I think four out of five responses were objections over the fishing example. Hmm.

I’ve stopped playing World of Warcraft. Actually, I stopped a few weeks ago; I only turned the game on twice in the last few days, to buy that orange tabby that I couldn’t name and to see if I had reason to pay money I didn’t have for another month of forgetting the game was installed on my hard drive and downloading a hundred megs of patches whenever I chanced to start it up.

Until I got to level twenty, I enjoyed the game. I wandered around, I improved my skinning and my leatherworking. Maybe those weren’t the best choices for a mage, since I couldn’t wear leather. Why be tidy, though.

It started out well enough. I found a nice role-playing server, where I presumed I would have less bullshit to put up with since everyone would be concerned with etiquette. The Internet is backwards that way. Give a real person a fake identity and he’ll use that as an excuse to go wild. Get into strip clubs preternaturally. Rent videos with no intention to return them. Speak in tongues, go to ren fairs, and wear fursuits. It’s a trap door from the monotony and the conformity of the suburban right-wing hate media spewing public school adolescence we all carry into our thirties.

Give an Internet person an identity, it becomes an anchor. It’s fake, and you know it’s fake. Deep down they know it too. It’s one of those lies you live with, comfortable lies, to grease the gears and keep the project moving. You all know you’re there to escape, so why rock the boat. Let’s pretend, they say. Don’t remind me of my real life. And it’s fair enough. We all have our problems. We all need to be someone, even a fake someone. The role-players are harmless and a little sad. They want to play the game right, and that sounds good to me. Let’s do it, I figure.

( Continue reading at Insert Credit )