Brickblog » Current Affairs

Is this why less women play video games?

kayakermanmike — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:03:46 +0000

I play video games, therefore I must be a pubescent boy who only cares about curves. At least that’s the first blush upon opening up Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 for xbox 360…

I’ve enjoyed Command and Conquer since the very first demo of the original game I played, back when all the game was a few nicely rendered squares moving around the screen. So when I saw RA3 was only 9.99 at newegg with free shipping, I had to scoop it up. I had played the demo, and thought it would be a good fluff RTS game to play some day.

When I opened the packaging, tucked in with game manual, disk, and advertising for another game was this little poster. At first it was folded up enough, I didn’t know what it was. I took it out and unfolded it, and couldn’t help but chuckle. That chuckle turned into disbelief at the pure assumption that he game would only be sold to heterosexual males, who only thought with their heads bellow. Sure, I admit it, I like the occasional potty humor, heck, I can be quoted as saying, if you live with one foot in the gutter, life is much funnier. It struck me though, how this blind marketing might effect purchasing.

I have a niece who at a very young age understood the mechanics of a game controller thanks to the time her and her dad would spend together in the mornings. He’d play games with her in his lap and eventually, to save his character’s life, she got her own disconnected controller. I think ahead several years and wonder, what if she wants to play a real time strategy game some day? Will she need to wade through a sea of pubescent boob jokes just to play? I’m just throwing it out there. Any folks out there thought about this in the past? Has anyone been detered from playing an otherwise good game because of its marketing tactics?

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero

kayakermanmike — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:23:45 +0000

For several years now, I’ve been attempting to acquire G.I. Joe (legally) to watch. I missed when they were first re released on DVD. Well, really was living on a shoestring budget when they came and went. It looks like in preparation of the new G.I. Joe Movie coming this summer, the original animated series is being re released.

I’ve already preordered my copy and hope that the rest follow at a similar price point of ~$25. It might mean that you could acquire the entire series for the same amount as a quarter of the series when the original distribution ended. I’m sure folks trying to sell their used copy of the original go around will be bummed. I for one am pretty excited.

The Hero of Canton

kayakermanmike — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:08:47 +0000

Ben found this and pointed it out to me. I thought it might require a little re-post…

Sony/BMG Under Investigation for Software Piracy

kayakermanmike — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:45:47 +0000

From article titled as above at:
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/03/sonybmg-under-i.html

This makes me about as happy as could be for a Monday. I hope they take it big on this.

”

Sony/BMG Under Investigation for Software Piracy
By Eliot Van Buskirk EmailMarch 31, 2008 | 10:38:57 AMCategories: Digital Music News

Sonybmg A small software company has accused major label Sony/BMG of software piracy, in a reversal of the normal orientation of piracy cases between major labels and the rest of the world.

PointDev, which makes Windows administration software, claims that a raid on Sony/BMG servers revealed that as much as 47 percent of the software used by the company can be considered to have been pirated under French law, according to Zeropaid’s Google translation of the initial report:

We are not interested in an amicable settlement. It is not just a question of money but more importantly in principle. The rate of software piracy in the company is very high. According to the Business Software Alliance, a association of the major publishers in the market, 47 percent of programs used in the company would be [unlawful] in France…

The Business Software Alliance raid that uncovered the programs on Sony/BMG’s servers was apparently triggered by Sony IT worker’s request for assistance with a program called Ideal Migration. When the PointDev tech support person tried to help, he or she seems to have discovered that the key provided by Sony/BMG was pirated.

Sony/BMG apparently asked La Provence not to pick up on the story, which, of course, it did. The case will surely provide no small amount of glee to file sharing activists and RIAA boycotters as it unfolds.

01net (in French); via Zeropaid and Techdirt”

Heath Ledger. . .

kayakermanmike — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:04:20 +0000

I’m not a cold bastard here, honest, but people, GET A FUCKING CLUE. We have soldiers around the world dying every day for us. No I don’t agree with all the reasons they are there, but I do give my support and hope they get to come home very very soon.

So why on Earth is every single news story about some actor that died? Was he a good actor, sure. Is it tragic that he died at 28? Yes. But I think the news media really needs to get a clue about what is important here. We have a liar sending our people off to war, who couldn’t handle foreign relations if it were a paper bag and he were holding a lighter, and the message we’re broadcasting around the world in HD is that an actor died.

Good job folks.

Belated. . .

kayakermanmike — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:49:51 +0000

I’d make a horrible Dad. I know it. Know why? Got any clues? Well, in 2006 on 10-25 at 9:57 P.M. I posted my first article here on Brickblog. Why, I remember when this blog was still in diapers, I was excited to get 1 visit after posting oh so many articles. To date, I’m up to 4,694 visits since I installed Google Analytics (November 9, 2006) to track such things. Truly amazing. What’s even scarrier is when I analyze what kinds of articles bring people to my site, I see when you search for d40 vs d70 my site comes up #1 in google.

So lets think back to what brought this blog to life. . .

Oh thats right, those damn raccoons. They’re still around, in fact I had great fun, ehr, I mean I was left no other option, then to shoot one a couple weeks ago with my paintball gun while I had the electric fence repurposed on the garden for the summer.

But of course, I wouldn’t be here with such an audience if it wasn’t for my peeps. Those folks that both read my insane ramblings, and those that link to my blog. So since I can’t thank every single one of you by name, I’ll be certain to report out what Wordpress tells me are the good folks linking to my site.

Thanks!

TV, when I finally tune in, I’m disapointed again

kayakermanmike — Tue, 01 May 2007 00:41:49 +0000

There’s not a lot of television I watch. I’m more apt to be reading about photography online, or poking around at Lego sites. I might get addicted to the occasional game, PC or console, or I’ll putter on a project of some sort. So when I found the show Drive I was psyched for two reasons. First, it had Nathan Fillion who I loved in the series Firefly which led to the movie Serenity and the show’s addicting nature. When I was seeing it advertised, I was skeptical, but I tuned in for the premiere to see what it was all about, because of ole’ Nate. I was instantly hooked. I watched the second show that followed it up. I tuned in the next night for the usual schedule airing and set it as a favorite in SageTV.

So when I tuned in tonight for the 5th episode, I was confused to see House airing. I got worried when it also triggered the memory I was not able to schedule Drive as a favorite this weekend when I set up my server again after migrating which system would handle my file server and pvr duties. I started looking around and found on a site that the show had been CANCELED!

What? Canceled? Why? Whoa, hang on, I found the Fox site and sure enough, they have decided to show reruns of House instead. RERUNS! WTF?!

Is poor old Nathan jinxed? After all Firefly was canceled after 14 episodes, the cast found out at the Christmas party. But that show was awesome too! No, really, give it a watch. It was a believable Sci-Fi.

So what gives? Do I fit in the minority of TV likes? Or is America really so in to it’s vote the next person off, far-fetched reality bull that they no longer recognize a good TV show when they see it?

Well I guess it’s back to video games, hope they don’t turn me into a crazed lunatic like the government tells me they will!

Candle Light Vigil

kayakermanmike — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 01:25:27 +0000

I just returned from the candle light vigil held at UNH to honor those that fell at VA Tech. I was impressed and proud of the number of people in attendance. All of our hearts go out to those who have been affected.

Huh. . .

kayakermanmike — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 21:47:14 +0000

Anyone could/should be able to tell, I try to stray from political commentary on my blog. My feeling about what is currently going on in our world can be summed up in a few sentences. Support the troops. Impeach Bush, or try him for war crimes, your pick. We’re losing our rights, and freedoms quicker then most people realize, I hope you have your papers in order and like armbands. 60 degrees in November, what’s this about global warming? Clearly it’s b.s. . .

However, when I read this article I felt I needed to comment.

Makers of improvised explosive devices — the dreaded IEDs that kill and maim in Iraq — aren’t the only ones getting inventive during the war. U.S. troops in the country turn to Silly String to help detect booby traps’ trip wires, according to a report in Time magazine. “We force Marine trainees to improvise,” said a Marine Corps spokesman. Since the Pentagon doesn’t issue Silly String to troops, a grass-roots effort to export the canned amusement is erupting. A California woman is shipping holiday care packages containing the gooey stuff to her son’s Marine unit in Iraq, and New Jersey churches are mounting a similar campaign at the urging of an Army specialists’ parents.

Why, will our government spend $569,000 to build a tomahawk missile, to KILL people, but they won’t pony up $19.95/doz for crazy string to save lives?!

The only thing I can think of is the following warning. . .

1) Right, don’t want pink camo. Makes sense. 2) Understandable, we don’t want people that we trust with guns to kill and be killed with a toy. Especially those ones not yet old enough to drink or rent a car cheaply. 3) Lord knows we don’t have a Navy to ship cargo.

Case closed.

Honestly, I think I’ll be sending a donation of some sort to

Marcelle Shriver
c/o St. Luke Church
55 N. Warwick Rd.
Stratford, NJ 08084

http://cbs13.com/topstories/local_story_334011318.html