So, how was your blackout? Had fun? Did you mind at all that your favorite sites and forums were down? If you've been living under a rock and aren't aware of it, yesterday was the day set by Internet users to black out their sites (that is, block access and add relative information on the front page) in protest of the (temporarily?) shelved SOPA, as well as the PIPA bill.
I stood in solidarity with all of them by not working yesterday. No, it had nothing to do with me being bored out of my tits or the fact that I was kind of mellow for completely... ahem... unrelated reasons. Look, honestly I couldn't have done anything else. This is a Google blog and unless Blogger decided to black out the entire service, it was kind of out of my hands. Besides, blacking out, slacking (out)... it's just a letter guys (and, optionally, a word). You don't have to be such jerks about it!
Speaking of solidarity and black-outs, I wasn't the only one not to black out my thingy yesterday. Big news gaming sites, such as Joystiq, the Escapist and Kotaku didn't bother either. At least two of them came out with statements that this was done for reasons of journalistic integrity (principally to keep reporting on gaming news-- for you!) I call bullshit on this. No big news came out yesterday and, honestly, nobody said you should stop working (unlike certain other individuals I've met in front of the mirror). You still have things like, oh I don't know, Twitter? Even I was on Twitter reporting, or at least relaying news yesterday. Even sites like ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com and spoonyexperiment.com blacked out and they kind of rely on page and video views.
Ah, but that's the thing, isn't it? Like most Internet businesses of this type, you also need the page views and I'd wager you didn't exactly want to lose those for a whole day. You know what? I don't agree with this, but I can at least accept it. It's a business decision. At least have the decency to come out and say that instead of bullshitting us about "journalistic integrity". Gamers may be stupid and easily led, like all audiences are, but they are a touch smarter than the rest.
At least my Twitter and Facebook feeds (both the professional and the personal one) were booming with info about SOPA awareness. Screw you guys.
On the subject of SOPA, I was shown two very interesting pieces about it. I re-twitted/re-posted them both, but I may as well put them here for archival purposes:
The Cynical Brit's SOPA video.
Julian Sanchez's (from cato@liberty) SOPA article.
The first one is a great video about the dangers of the bill (the PIPA bill as well), the second one makes a fantastic point about how ineffective any such bill/law would be to fighting piracy.
Oh whatever. What big news did we miss yesterday?
The Mass Effect 3 demo will be out on Valentine's Day. Bioware twitted about it and I didn't really care. Then a reasonably attractive female journalist twitted about it and it caught my eye, because I'm a guy and I'm a nerd and I do that sometimes. But then I remembered that Mass Effect 3 (and, probably, Dragon Age 3, which is the only EA game I actually want to play in the foreseeable future) will require that Origin shit installed and I stopped caring again. See, US Congress? That's where pirates come in handy! Oh fuck off, I'm not saying I won't buy the game, I just don't want EA looking into my PERSONAL, PRIVATE FILES with their proto-Brother Eye. Pirates help with that. It's either this, or not buying the game altogether. Morons.
Another thing coming on Valentine's is Dear Esther, an artistic indie game that started out as Half-Life 2 mod. I actually played the mod several years ago. I liked it. It was just walking really, but it was the atmosphere you had to draw in more than any actual gameplay. I don't know whether any significant changes have been made now that the title stands on its own, but I'd check it out. Here's the trailer.
Way bigger news than this was the announcement that Hudson Soft is closing down and absorbed into Konami, news that seem to have upset Pat the NES Punk quite a bit (he wouldn't shut up about it on Twitter; oh, I jest, Pat's awesome). Hudson Soft was pretty big during the 8- and 16-bit eras, with their most notable title being good, ole' Bomberman. They haven't made much of note since however, so that's that. A pity, I guess, but it could be worse; they could get shut down and fired, talent going to waste. Take what you can in these times, game developers!
Also, MetalGearRising: Revengeance will be available for play in this year's E3. That's good I guess, I just hope not too many Metal Gear fanboys attend, otherwise that may be what the Mayans warned us about. Oh, I kid; you'll learn to either love this game or ignore it altogether. All's good, guys.
PS: Star Trek Online goes free-to-play today.
PS2: The Snake SOPA was the best black-out page yesterday.
I stood in solidarity with all of them by not working yesterday. No, it had nothing to do with me being bored out of my tits or the fact that I was kind of mellow for completely... ahem... unrelated reasons. Look, honestly I couldn't have done anything else. This is a Google blog and unless Blogger decided to black out the entire service, it was kind of out of my hands. Besides, blacking out, slacking (out)... it's just a letter guys (and, optionally, a word). You don't have to be such jerks about it!
Speaking of solidarity and black-outs, I wasn't the only one not to black out my thingy yesterday. Big news gaming sites, such as Joystiq, the Escapist and Kotaku didn't bother either. At least two of them came out with statements that this was done for reasons of journalistic integrity (principally to keep reporting on gaming news-- for you!) I call bullshit on this. No big news came out yesterday and, honestly, nobody said you should stop working (unlike certain other individuals I've met in front of the mirror). You still have things like, oh I don't know, Twitter? Even I was on Twitter reporting, or at least relaying news yesterday. Even sites like ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com and spoonyexperiment.com blacked out and they kind of rely on page and video views.
Ah, but that's the thing, isn't it? Like most Internet businesses of this type, you also need the page views and I'd wager you didn't exactly want to lose those for a whole day. You know what? I don't agree with this, but I can at least accept it. It's a business decision. At least have the decency to come out and say that instead of bullshitting us about "journalistic integrity". Gamers may be stupid and easily led, like all audiences are, but they are a touch smarter than the rest.
At least my Twitter and Facebook feeds (both the professional and the personal one) were booming with info about SOPA awareness. Screw you guys.
On the subject of SOPA, I was shown two very interesting pieces about it. I re-twitted/re-posted them both, but I may as well put them here for archival purposes:
The Cynical Brit's SOPA video.
Julian Sanchez's (from cato@liberty) SOPA article.
The first one is a great video about the dangers of the bill (the PIPA bill as well), the second one makes a fantastic point about how ineffective any such bill/law would be to fighting piracy.
Oh whatever. What big news did we miss yesterday?
The Mass Effect 3 demo will be out on Valentine's Day. Bioware twitted about it and I didn't really care. Then a reasonably attractive female journalist twitted about it and it caught my eye, because I'm a guy and I'm a nerd and I do that sometimes. But then I remembered that Mass Effect 3 (and, probably, Dragon Age 3, which is the only EA game I actually want to play in the foreseeable future) will require that Origin shit installed and I stopped caring again. See, US Congress? That's where pirates come in handy! Oh fuck off, I'm not saying I won't buy the game, I just don't want EA looking into my PERSONAL, PRIVATE FILES with their proto-Brother Eye. Pirates help with that. It's either this, or not buying the game altogether. Morons.
Another thing coming on Valentine's is Dear Esther, an artistic indie game that started out as Half-Life 2 mod. I actually played the mod several years ago. I liked it. It was just walking really, but it was the atmosphere you had to draw in more than any actual gameplay. I don't know whether any significant changes have been made now that the title stands on its own, but I'd check it out. Here's the trailer.
Way bigger news than this was the announcement that Hudson Soft is closing down and absorbed into Konami, news that seem to have upset Pat the NES Punk quite a bit (he wouldn't shut up about it on Twitter; oh, I jest, Pat's awesome). Hudson Soft was pretty big during the 8- and 16-bit eras, with their most notable title being good, ole' Bomberman. They haven't made much of note since however, so that's that. A pity, I guess, but it could be worse; they could get shut down and fired, talent going to waste. Take what you can in these times, game developers!
Also, MetalGearRising: Revengeance will be available for play in this year's E3. That's good I guess, I just hope not too many Metal Gear fanboys attend, otherwise that may be what the Mayans warned us about. Oh, I kid; you'll learn to either love this game or ignore it altogether. All's good, guys.
PS: Star Trek Online goes free-to-play today.
PS2: The Snake SOPA was the best black-out page yesterday.
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