The Games Industry in 2012: quick thoughts

Chris Kohler’s thoughts on What 2012 Holds for Nintendo, Sony and More has me daydreaming about the industry. My response:

Top 10 Trailers of 2011 (a mix of movies, video games, and not-actually-video promotional materials)

I think it’s interesting to keep track of great marketing maneuvers. The kind of things that are easily lost in time (especially if the product promoted is eventually revealed to be garbage. That doesn’t mean the trailer was bad! ). This list is mostly designed to catalog why certain strange things impressed me. I listed 15 things, because I didn’t have the heart to cut 5 of them. They’re listed in order of personal importance, not necessarily in order of quality or import to society (because it’s my blog – neener neener).

personal rant: Passion Fruits

At lunch today, I fell into a delicious Dungeon (… a Dungeon Burger lunch that is, at McMenamin’s). And then I went crazy with neurotic worry.

Midichlorians: Mysticism as Technobabble (or: Part One of Why Everyone is Wrong About the Prequels?)

I think I’ve now gathered enough nerdy notes to write an epic treatise on why the Prequels are in fact dramatically misunderstood and under-appreciated. Since it is so popular to hate George Lucas instead of thinking for yourself, I think it’d be worth writing something.

Below is one piece of the puzzle: explaining Midichlorians

The big picture of Star Wars (currently playing out on the small screen)

Wired asks the world to comment on how the Clone Wars CGI TV series “does justice to the sprawling universe birthed by George Lucas a long time ago in an entertainment galaxy far, far away.”
Here is my thought (part of a larger rant on why people who hate the prequels should shut up):

eReaders and digital books – doomed?

Has anyone seen any good examples of digital comic books? (on eReaders or otherwise) If so, please comment.

I’ve come to think of comic books as my pulpy guilty pleasure. but I can’t stand them in any digital form I’ve seen. Whenever the-inevitable-transition-to-eBooks comes up, i think about comics. I’m sure I’ll enjoy fine literature in an eReader (potentially much easier to look up words, or references, influences, other people’s insights, etc.). But I think this is because some part of me treats reading “great literature” as a form of work. I can’t deny that eReaders offer many advantages as a tool for exploring great literature.

Why Citizen Kane is the shit.

This Wired Post asks readers to ruminate on why Citizen Kane might still be (wisely) considered the best movie of all time. I thought it fun to think about. here’s my quick rant:

Sony brings back Strap-On Displays

This gamasutra story caught my eye: Sony 3D Headset Coming To Japan This November.
so I posted this comment:

classically, VR goggles (“strap ons”) never caught on because:
- there was too much light/heat too close to your eyeballs (slight cookage). But maybe OLEDs won’t have this problem?

Kris Straub – Jacked by One-Note Plagiarists?

I’ve been following Doctor Straub for some time now, because he’s just damned funny. And internet famous (like small indie bands of yore? It still feels exciting to be fan of his, because he deserves more fame than he has?). So I was disturbed to read that he suffers from little plagiarism indiscretions (if not monetarily, then intellectually). (edit: er. or maybe he just sees friends suffering from it, and it makes him think about it)

Luigi’s Haunted Mansion thoughts

wrote up some thoughts on this game, in response to an analysis on Gamasutra by Josh Bycer (which I felt could have gone further).
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