38 Studios Collapse

Before I get into the main point of this post, I have to say one thing.  It is now May 2012.  The market crash was at the end of 2008, about three and a half years ago.  The stock market is still kinda funky, with hiccoughs here and there, but it's not really doing flip flops anymore.  Things are on the up, honestly, just take a look at any S&P graph from 2008 to today.  So, this being said, when I hear about a decent sized company going down now, and they blame it on the 'economic downturn', I want to call bullshit.  At least a little bit.

38 Studios, a moderately sized video game manufacturer, has just let over 400 employees go.  38 Studios is known for developing Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Owned by former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, who is renowned for being a three time World Series Champion (so of course this story caught my eye right off), 38 Studios is based out of Rhode Island and Maryland.  Earlier in the month Schilling asked the state of Rhode Island for more money for his new video game company.

What this tells me isn't really that the company has been hurt by the 'economic downturn' but that it was a new company with bad management.  Granted, Schilling, being a very successful Major League Baseball player, had tons of his own money to throw at the project, it could have, no, should have been a good investment if only it had been managed better.  Video games are only going to get bigger from here as they become more accessible, not only being on consoles and computers like they have been for decades, but now mobile phones and other handheld devices.  The video game industry is also constantly breaking new ground when it comes to new technology.  But this is stuff us video game nerds already know.

Pretty much what I see here with the collapse of 38 Studios is bad management and an owner who does not know the industry.  The man was a pitcher for most of his life, and there's a reason most MLB veterans go on to be announcers or managers, is because baseball is a crazy specific sport.  I love baseball, more than any Canadian chick should, but if this guy wanted to buy in to the video game industry he should have invested in one of the sports games companies like EA or 2K.

I'm sad to see so many trained and experienced personnel lose their jobs.  These people worked on their craft for years, only to have this happen to them.  But this isn't a sign that video games are going down.  They're not.  The video game industry is pretty cemented and can only get better from here.  We're almost out of this economic depression the world has found itself in, we all just got to be patient.

Adapted from the original post in The Boston Globe

Possible Xbox 360 Ban

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a fan of the Xbox 360.  Initially it started with me having no personal interest in the console specific franchises like Halo or Gears of War, Mass Effect being an exception (although  Mass Effect 2 and 3 were also happily released on the PS3).  Then the PS3 was released, and although it did have a huge asking price at the time, it went down by the time the really strong console specific titles like Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.  So, my choice was set pretty firmly back then, and to this day I have to be honest, I am bias for the PS3 and its first party titles.  But the main reason I still haven't gotten an Xbox 360, other than continued disinterest in its franchises, are the frequent and varied hardware malfunctions.  I could go on for days about all of the stories I've heard of involving hardware failure of the Xbox 360, but we all know the release of the slim model has at least changed the kind and percentage of failures.  It's not that the PS3 doesn't have hardware failures; even my own old 40 gb blu ray lens died, the most common hardware failure, but that was after 4 years of consistent playtime.  Also, those several months last year when the PlayStation Network was down doesn't really help win people to the PS3's side either.


So, to the point.  It's funny, at least to me, that this new model of the Xbox 360 is under fire for a patent dispute with Motorola.  Judge David Shaw of the International Trade Commission has recommended the ban, and that Microsoft pay 7% the value of any unsold system to Motorola.  Essentially Motorola designed and maintains the patent on several features the Xbox 360 uses, including WiFi, video decoders, and the means by how accessories connect to the system itself.  Germany has already instituted a ban on sales of the Xbox 360 because of these patent violations, though it has not yet come into effect.

I remember back in the day when the 360 was released that all the techie buzz was around how Microsoft couldn't keep the patent for the build of the original Xbox so they had to go with a different company and a different structural design.  At the time techies were worried of hardware failures because the system hadn't been fully redesigned, among other things, and they were right.  And it's a shame, really.  I still have my old Xbox, and the thing is a massive brick, but it still works like a charm.  Now to hear that their redesign, meant to fix several of the hardware issues from the original model, is under scrutiny for unfair use of another company's patent isn't all that shocking really.

Whether the ban goes into effect or not remains to be seen, but I really do hope Microsoft is found accountable for using technology they do not have the rights to.  Don't get me wrong, I don't want the Xbox 360 to be banned; a monopoly isn't good for anyone.  But Microsoft is a big enough company, in tech no less, that it should be able to either develop its own tech or pay what's due for the stuff they're going to use.  This is just sloppy business practice.

Original report by Bloomberg.com

Season Finales

Here we are, at the end of the season for many a show, and we all find ourselves a little bit lost. Fear not, there are still many good shows to keep us satiated, like Game of Thrones and Legend of Korra. But right now I find myself thinking about whether these finales were worth all of the build up and if they've actually made me wanting to see the next season. Since there are quite a few that have just finished up I'll list them all out here:

Once Upon a Time:  What can I say about this show?  It first caught my attention because it's mixing the modern day with magic and another world, which is one of my favorite kind of plots.  But, to be honest, the show is very slow and very boring.  For all the time that we as an audience put into the show there just isn't enough payoff.  Granted, it is the first season, and the show is sold as a mystery, but even as a mystery it feels like nothing of note happens.  In the season finale (spoilers) we find out that August is the grown up version of Pinnochio, and he is turning back into wood because of his life as a hedonist instead of helping our heroine throughout her life, as he promised he would do.  In the episode before it he tried to trick Rumplestiltskin into thinking he was his long lost son, which I kinda wish he was.  There's this stupid line that August says where he asks if he even looks like the lost son, and to be honest, the older actor looks more like the kid who plays Rumplestiltskin's son that the kid who played Pinnochio.  Pretty much all that happens in the finale is that August reveals who he is and the lead runs away with her son.  That's it.  A whole season dedicated to her making that decision, something that could have happened in the first few episodes and only taken 15 minutes of screen time.  I was lost after they killed off the huntsman, him being clearly the coolest actor and character.  But there we are.  Will I watch the second season?  Maybe, in one go, but I won't be waiting for it.

Breakout Kings:  The season two finale was absolutely stunning.  It was chock full of everything that makes a dramatic television series good.  Good acting and characterisation, good writing, good tension, I honestly can't get enough of it.  Because I want you to watch this series I'm not going to give away any spoilers, but I will say that there were so many twists and turns that I had no idea what was going to happen next.  What I love about this series is that everyone seems like a real person, trying to run their lives on logic but having strong emotions and loyalties getting in the way.  If you haven't seen it watch it, it's definitely worth your time.   I can't wait for season 3, especially considering the big question posited at the end of the finale.

Castle:  This is a series that I'm a little bit on the fence for.  It has its good moments and its bad moments.  Because it is a syndicated series that has been around for several seasons it has a formula that it sticks to, which is some random person is murdered, the suspect is something weird or goofy, and then Castle and Becket go and catch the killer with sexual tension thrown in.  A good part of the show is about the sexual tension between Castle and Becket, and (spoiler) they finally get together at the end of the finale.  Yeah, that was nice to see, but you could see it from a mile away.  Honestly, this is really old school writing, and it would have been a much more dynamic show if they were off and on and stuff like that.  A show that does stir up this convention, and does it well, is Dexter.  In a way Castle is like a PG Dexter in a way, a show that's interesting and is a different take on the cop drama, but is safe for prime-time TV.  Now that they're together and Becket has resigned from the force the fifth season is going to be a lot different.  I'm sort of looking forward to it because I like Nathan Fillion, but I sure am not looking forward to the schlocky non main plot episodes I know are going to be there.

The Vampire Diaries:  I know this show is meant to be a high-school dramarama like all of the other stuff on the CW, but I've loved it since the beginning.  Simply because of Ian Somerhalder's portrayal of Damon.  This is going to be very spoiler heavy, you are warned.  I've sort of read the books, so I kind of knew what was going to happen, but the show goes off the book a lot, and in my opinion in a good way.  So, long story short, Klaus's body was killed, but his spirit was moved to Tyler's body.  Weird, but they can do something with that.  Elena trying to make a decision on which Salvator brother to choose was very reminiscent of Catherine's romance with both of them, but Elena was trying to be a good person and choose.  She chose Stephan right before she died, which happened very much the way that it had in the books.  And she turns into a vampire.  The difference is that in the books she was drinking the blood of both of the brothers and just so happened to drink more of Damon's so when she turns she has a sire bond to him.  In the show that one doctor who heals people with vamp blood had taken some of Damon's blood earlier in the series and had given that to Elena when she was taken to the hospital earlier.  You still with me?  So, since the sire bond was introduced with Tyler earlier in the season, and that it's in the book, Elena is for sure going to be sire bonded to Damon.  I'm looking forward to that.  I'm disappointed that Klaus and Alaric are gone, but I'm sure that Elijah, who's still around, is going to have some cool stuff to do.  I am very much looking forward to season 4, and Elena being a vampire, even though I don't much like vampires generally.

So there's still a lot of shows either on or coming out this year, and I'm both looking for stuff and dreading others.  I love how Game of Thrones is bringing the books to life, and I love how Legend of Korra is a big ball of fun, drama, comedy, and some mystery thrown in, and I have no idea what's going to happen in the next episode.  It's going to be an exciting summer.

The Avengers VLog Review

I go and see Marvel's The Avengers and talk about what I like in the movie and what else I would have liked to see. The first bit has no spoilers.