Archive for Rants

DLC What I’m Saying?

April 29, 2011 Games, Rants 5 comments

psn-currently-undergoing-maintenance-01

Whenever I rant on about the terrible trend of digital distribution, I risk being stamped a kook. Then events like the recent PlayStation Network outage emerges and I feel vindicated. My rhetoric isn’t of issues that could arise; they’re consequences that are happening.

Ultimately, the outage was Sony’s reaction to hackers breaking into the network and pillaging private user information. I’ll likely expand on this, the true catastrophe of this event, in a later blog post or the podcast since it’s relevant to my religion (of sorts). But for the meantime, I’d like to begin by fortifying my previous points.

My basic position is that consumers are being duped into accepting it’s more favorable to pay admission for access than to trade for property. If digital distribution becomes the standard for media, consumers lose all their power in the market.

One of the bullet points in my case is that consumers will be completely dependent on the distributor to access the products they buy. Third party services like Hulu Plus and Netflix are reportedly included in the outage, which means that their subscribers have paid for services that they now cannot use. Video games that include multiplayer are now reduced to less than half of a full product. And thanks to DRM, some games are now effectively dead.

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Anime Doesn’t Suck (Okay, It Kinda Sucks)

January 20, 2011 Anime, Rants 15 comments

“Anime sucks.” At least, that’s what I hear. “Anime is dead.” I’m not yet convinced.

In my world, every experience is comparable to food; anime included. Shows centered on fan service are easily associated with fast food. That stuff is cheap, abundant, and can be appear to taste even good, but making it a staple in your diet will destroy your body and soul over time.

Substantial anime, on the other hand, is your home-cooked meal. Often times, yes, the recipe may not work or the finished dish may turn out a bit “off” or maybe the cook didn’t cater to your particular tastes… But at least someone cared enough to get in the god damned kitchen.

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Rant: Digital Distribution and Censorship

November 25, 2010 Anime, Games, Rants 3 comments




Run Time: 13min 37sec
[ DOWNLOAD MP3 ]
[podcast]http://thegreyghost.net/podcast-episodes/dlc-censorship-rant-podcast-01.mp3[/podcast]

Here’s an extra holiday bonus… This is a rant that I put together on some topics that have been a popcorn kernel, long wedged in the gum of my molar.

For months, I’d outline rough articles on the harbingers of digital distribution and the abuse of Godwin’s Law against chimerical censorship. Mid-draft, some new report would spring up from the media, putting the SEAN SMASH! on yet another helpless keyboard and leaving the written article in wait.

The pen is mightier than the sword, yet impotent to the power of the microphone.


From #PAgamesdialog

September 10, 2010 Games, Rants 8 comments

Last week, I took part in the Twitter discussion ignited by a recent Penny Arcade strip. The strip stems from a recent article perpetuating the ongoing, exhausting controversy of used video games. Publishers feel robbed. Consumers are bearing the blame. GameStop is the devil. By now, you know this song by heart.

Below, I revisit points brought up in this conversation…

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You Don’t Own Scribblenauts

August 29, 2010 Games, Rants 8 comments

For years, I’ve adamantly opposed the idea of completely replacing tangible media with digital distribution for video games and other forms of entertainment. It’s a fantastic alternative, but could spell disaster for consumers if it becomes the standard.

This resistance on my part stems from an age where products that you purchase (like video games) became your property. Media publishers have begun adopting digital distribution as a lucrative business model, now that they’ve realized that they can use it to destroy the secondhand market and overthrow consumer ownership.

I don’t know about you, but this idea scares me.

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Fan Service: The Lost Art

July 22, 2010 Anime, Rants 16 comments

A topic that’s a frequent fly in our podcast ointment is fan service. It is a poison to Japan’s entertainment industry; transforming those otaku who ingest large, regular doses into ghoulish misshapes of humanity. Exposure to the One Ring is less toxic and more likely get you laid.

But it didn’t used to be that way.

Fan service, literally, was a way that creators used to give appreciation to fans of their shows. These often took the forms of Easter Eggs within other shows. A brief cameo or in-joke would spark delicious glee with those watching “in the know”.

On occasion, full productions were put together as an entire entrée of fan service. A perfect example is Scramble Wars. This early 1990s OVA is regarded as the anime counterpart to Wacky Races (though a more accurate comparison would be to Laff-A-Lympics). Only instead of Yogi Bear, Jabber Jaw, Speed Buggy, and (of course) Dick Dastardly & Muttley, the celebrity contestants hail from Bubblegum Crisis, Gall Force, and Genesis Survivor Giarth.

Then something strange happened. Someone, somewhere had the bright idea, “Hey, I know a real treat to give the fans! Let’s take their favorite female characters and put them in bikinis! Maybe even…naked? Tanaka, you know what naked boobs look like, right? No? Well…can you draw them? Yeah, I knew you had that shit down, dawg.”

At first, this was a treat, but little did we know just how far it would escalate. It’s like when your mom starts out encouraging you to eat healthy snacks like fruit or granola. But as you get older, her resolve weakens as she more often offers you cheaper, pre-packaged cookies and candy for goodies. By the time you’re in college, you’re stuffing football helmets filled with Oreo brownies covered in Snickers ice cream and chocolate chip cookie dough…for lunch.

Over the past decade or so, fan service shifted into a sexually potent feature. “Fan service” became the Trojan Horse for [s]exploitation. Exploitative shows had already existed for decades (mostly thanks to Go Nagai), but what was once niche was quickly becoming the standard. Every series got its token beach episode or bathhouse scene. Costume designs for anime and video games became more provocative. And for a fandom that’s dominantly male, this proved to be a commercially successful move.

Once production companies hopped on this gravy train, they knew that if they were each going to compete in the industry, they needed to continue pushing the envelope. Enter the invasion of lolicon, moé, incest and any imaginable fetish into our cartoons. Titillation used to be the icing to the fandom; now we’re served solid slabs of fan service fondant. Seemingly sweet, but sure to turn your stomach.

Now here we are: In a dark age for anime, where what’s essentially soft-core porn is now the lifeblood of the industry. Where fan service once rewarded faithful fans, it’s now a device for drawing attention from new viewers.

As I’ve said, I’m prepared to ride this through because I have faith that it is temporary. As long as I draw breath, I will continue to endorse anime and video games that are fun without resorting to spank material. I want to be there when we as otaku ring in the new era where “fan service” returns to its roots.

Fan service… We’re taking it back.


FLCL and Piracy

December 3, 2009 Anime, Games, Rants 2 comments
flcl-01

I was doing some online window shopping with a craving for FLCL. I enjoyed watching the show when it was on Cartoon Network, but never got around to buying the series on DVD. This is mostly due to the series being split into three $30 volumes, with two episodes per volume. Surely by now the box set will be available at a discounted price, as with most other anime.

Alas, no. FLCL‘s been out of print for a few years now; its box set (new or used) selling for upward to $150. Maybe I should have bought it when I had the chance… And a few extra copies to profit from later!

flcl-02After some research, I’ve learned that the company that holds the FLCL distribution license in the USA has pulled out of American distribution. This leaves the possibility of future releases of FLCL in limbo.

So here’s my plea: Could someone please get on that? It’s perfectly obvious that the previous print runs of FLCL were insufficient in meeting demand since there is a large enough market willing to throw down a C-note or more to get a hold of one of the remaining copies. FLCL is a valuable property and would be well worth some other distributor’s effort to acquire its license.

The key, of course, is that once an American distributor possesses its license, they mustn’t sell the complete series set for more than $20. $60-75 for a 6-episode series ain’t gonna fly. But selling a highly acclaimed product for $15-20 a piece and it will sell through the roof.

Square-Enix figured this out with Final Fantasy Tactics and Chrono Trigger. Capcom figured this out with Marvel Vs. Capcom 2.

If this can’t be sorted out, it only encourages anime piracy. Publishers can’t honestly cry foul on piracy for costing them DVD sales when they refuse to produce DVDs to sell.

I make similar arguments for downloading old video games. I’ll illustrate using Red Earth (aka Warzard) as an example:

red-earth-poster-01
Me: Hey, Capcom… I want to legitimately play Red Earth. Let me buy an arcade cabinet from you. I could buy a used one, but you might still moan about not making money from that.

Capcom: We can’t. We don’t make them anymore.

Me: Fair enough… Well, how about you produce a port of the game that I can play on a modern console? I would gladly pay the standard retail price for it. Or a cheaper, download-only version will do. I know a large community that would join me.

Capcom: Nah, we’d rather not bother with the expense of producing it. Sorry.

Me: Okay, now who is really keeping you from selling this game? Me or you?


I always discourage piracy of existing products. I like for people to profit from a good product with the hopes they invest that toward more good products in the future. But if a company refuses to sell a product then I call abusing previous releases to be fair game.

Otherwise it would be like your neighbor charging you with theft for pulling an old bicycle out of their dumpster. He wasn’t doing anything with it (in fact he pretty much abandoned it!), so you’d might as well use it. But if he wants to sell the bike and you ride off with it, then it’s stealing and preventing a sale.


Secondhand Rant

August 26, 2009 Games, Rants 2 comments
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There’s an item of controversy that’s infected the video game industry: The idea that buying used games somehow steals bread from the mouths of starving developers. This, of course, is lunacy.

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Basquash!

July 1, 2009 Anime, NSFW, Rants 2 comments

Recently, my local anime club began watching a new anime series called Basquash! The premise of this show radiates beauty through its simplicity; that being giant robots playing basketball. Oh, hells yeah!


Even by the opening credits, the show rings of awesome and win. But not so fast! As we watched the first 10 minutes, I was totally drinking the kool-aid for some giant robot basketball action…but then boobs happened.


No, that’s not trick editing; that shot really does last a full 12 seconds. At first, it was cute. A little eye roll here and there in between action scenes. But then boobs kept on happening!


Leave it to Japan to be the ones to come up with such a sweet idea, but also be the ones to thoroughly ruin it. Look, I’m a man who appreciates boobs and boob humor, but I signed on to this show for some giant robot basketball. I can get boobs from 1,000 other shows, but this is the only one that offers the robot/basketball combination. I’d like to have more than 10% of the show actually involve that. I guess the studio wasn’t confident that giant robot basketball wasn’t a strong enough sell for the show, so they padded it up with fanservice.

The guys at Fast Karate for the Gentleman said it best about fanservice: Fanservice is poop. You put poop on cake, you have ruined the cake. No matter how good the cake is, the cake doesn’t improve upon the poop. Poop just makes it into poop cake, which is all bad. Worse than if it were only poop, since we now have to mourn the loss of perfectly good cake.

I hate you, Japan… I hate you so much!


Scumbag Uses PS3 To Send Dirty Pictures, Soon To Be Prison Bitch

March 13, 2009 Games, Rants No comments

ps3-sexual-predator-01.jpgToday, a headline was posted at Kotaku, “Man Solicits 11-Year-Old For Naked Pictures Via PS3.” This headline filled me with a crimson rage. Not because of the reported sexual predator–I celebrate his capture–but of how the story has been covered.

Whenever video game-related tragedies appear in the mainstream media, the journalists in our corner are quick to parrot the story, carrying along the same context in which it was reported. By doing so, they give credence to the mainstream’s sensationalized spin on the story; that video games are an active player in these events. In this case, Kotaku didn’t even bother to quantify the “man” as a “criminal” as ABC News had done.

Obviously, the solution isn’t in sweeping these stories under the rug. We can’t pretend they didn’t happen and since they are relevant to our niche culture, they should be addressed in our own media. It’s the tone that needs to be reevaluated. The mainstream likes to transmit the notion of “Look what video games caused this person to do!” If our journalists are to act as our voice, they shouldn’t confirm this message…they should respond.

If there’s a means for a sexual predator to remotely victimize their prey, they will use it. They do not exclusively subscribe to a single channel; they use whatever is available. This case was just the PS3′s turn.

Instead of the headline above, a more honest way the story could be reported might be “Pedophile Captured By Tracing His PS3 Account”. The same story is told, but with the game console championed by its role, rather than being regarded as an evil-inspiring devil box.

When the mainstream media demonizes video game just for being present for a crime, the community rolls its eyes. We mourn the people who are hurt while laughing at the media’s misinterpretations. But when our own media recites the story in the same light, it only confirms the fears of ignorant parents and makes gamers ashamed of themselves by association.

Way to snub your own reader base, Kotaku.


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