vox

Farewell to The Matrix Online

The game was released buggy, like many MMOS, but at the same time, the devs tended to be receptive to feedback. That said, the game underperformed by a lot. Sales numbers were not as predicted or hoped for, and the number of subscribers retained dipped very low.

The game had a ton of faults, and a lot of missed potential, but when it comes to who dropped the ball I would have to place more blame on Monolith/WBIE for selling the property off to SOE. Now that said, SOE put effort into the game but it was never treated as a star property. One might say, with good reason, noting the underperforming history as above. They had to keep profitable.

But MxO was Monolith's baby and the devs and designers there worked hard on it. They had a good strategy and a plan for afterward, and the first four or five months after release were truly great stuff. Live Events were plentiful, characters would drop in, there were very effective storytelling elements in place and fairly frequent updates. The events that they held and the LET appearances really helped tie the community together.One really felt like a part of something. But of course, back to those numbers again -- it very likely wasn't financially sustainable.

The sale to SOE gave the game a longer life, but also a slow death. Fully rendered cinematics with original cast voices gave way to comic book format animation and finally to some drawn, barely animated storyboards that were hard to make out. Major characters were killed off or otherwise removed (likely as a way to save money), and only little things were added to the game. This was mostly in the form of gear or spawns of some sort.

 I doubt there will be another like it for some time -- urban, smart, featuring an abundance of modern clothing options and styles, and filled with a mix of philosophy, supernatural elements, lots of places to enter and secrets to uncover, and a very unique playerbase full of extremely dedicated individuals. And in the beginning, the Live Events team played it well, and created the most memorable MMORPG experience I have had so far. It was fun, but sadly, the game did not realize its potential at all.

Keeping the Box Shut - Legalization of Drugs is a Terrible Idea

I was just reading Jack Cafferty's commentary on the legalization of drugs. It's an issue I feel rather strongly about, having seen some of the effects of drugs on people's lives (including a friend), and studied and done research on communities affected by drugs.

I agree that the tax revenue seems really lucrative, but it's a tradeoff. There's a whole set of different issues to contend with and it's not as black and white as saying 'Hey, we spend 77 billion on enforcement and legalization and tax revenue would net us 33 billion'.

That's not counting money we'd have to spend on enforcement, regulation, administration, and fighting the black market that creeps up--and it will--creating more of this drug dealer/cartel violence that Jack is saying would miraculously disappear. How do you regulate distribution? Do we put limits on how much somebody can buy? If we don't, how do we stop people from becoming small-time dealers? If we do, what if people get seriously addicted and have reached their quota already? There might still be a black market. There already is for people sneaking cigarettes across state lines to avoid purchasing them in their high-tax states of residence.

Those too poor, too desperate or strung out to get their fix will rob and rape and murder people. But there may be more of them. Increased consumption due to lifting the taboo might make those issues much worse. Lives will still be ruined. Personally, I would feel unsafe out there if more people became drug users.

Some store owners still sell cigarettes to kids, or adults who have legally purchased them give them out to those underage. Would you like that to happen with crack? Imagine that for a moment. Tobacco is bad enough, but cocaine?

 And we'll have to spend money to fight these increased problems, denting that supposed $33 billion revenue. Money in the short run, but lots of violence and social problems in the long. Terrible idea.

The "War on Drugs" doesn't escape criticism either, however. It is inefficient and ruins many lives. We need to reform the plan, or throw it out and come up with a new way to fight drug use and abuse in our society. Perhaps send more offenders into comprehensive rehab programs instead of jail. Hiring more public defenders, who tend to be so overloaded with clients that they often lack facetime with those they are representing. This leads to those clients sometimes being encouraged to plea to something instead of having their case heard with a real defense behind them.

Whatever we do, we need to take both the short and long-term effects into consideration. I don't think legalization is the answer. It's a Pandora's Box that should remain sealed, no matter how tempting it seems to lift the lid.

We Now Resume Our Regular Programming

So I was finally fed up with the technical difficulties that have been plaguing me regarding Vox for the past none or ten months. I was fed up enough to start customizing a new blog over at Wordpress today because the ideas have been knocking at the door of my head waiting to escape the darkness and be born of my fingers. I've been feeling the need to write and express myself in this format again.

Twitter has been fun, but unsatisfying. I'm not a soundbite writer. I longed for these shores once more and came here to Vox to see if there was a way to export my old blog data over to Wordpress painlessly.

When it worked.

The edit option on my posts had returned. Wait, when did this happen?! I am also able to, once again, customize my theme and blog in addition to editing posts I make.

So I will not be leaving Vox, but instead will be relaunching this blog next week. I suppose it really begins today, but I'd like to put forth something better, as well as possibly introduce a new custom design.

I'm glad to be back. I like it here better, anyway.

"I wonder if he's nervous."

My boyfriend caught me off guard the other night when we were talking about the upcoming inauguration.

"I wonder if he's nervous," he said.

There is so much confidence, so much trust, and an incredible amount of political capital on this one man's shoulders. and right now, watching the television coverage and seeing the crowds, and President-Elect Obama (to be President in 20 minutes or so), looking pensive, without his big, bright smile that he so often shows, I wonder if he might be too.

Hodgepodge

My latest piece for The Escapist is up. I was happy to see that it got the lead spot on the homepage for the week. I don’t know how that decision is made, but it was certainly nice to see. This piece was a bit personal, sprung out of a little reflection last summer about Silent Hill 4. I decided to do some further reading on Hispanic female video game characters only to discover that no one had written it yet.

 

I read an editorial over the summer by author Steven Saylor, whose Roma Sub Rosa series I read in its entirety last year, where he said something along the lines of: writers are always advised to write what they know, but a writer should write the story he or she would like to read. This was in reference to fiction, but it’s definitely equally applicable to nonfiction. So I saw an opportunity and ran with it.

 

In other news, I joined Twitter a while back and I’m finally starting to use it a little bit. At first, all I had was Greg Grunberg on my follow list, but now I’ve added some other interesting people. What an amazingly trivial concept, yet such an addictive site. I must say that LeVar Burton has one of the coolest tattoos I’ve ever seen. It’s an ambigram of his first name and “Kunta”, a tribute, of course, to his Roots role. Dan Brown may have brought ambigrams into the popular conscious, but LeVar’s tattoo made them cool.

 

Finally, the Times Square Virgin Megastore is set to close in April. I haven’t bought a CD there in a while, but that store holds so many memories for me. I went there very frequently as a teen, attended signings, in-store concerts, and sometimes just considered it a throbbing, lively, oasis where I could drop in to listen to some of my favorite new songs and wander around what seemed to me quite the cool location.

 

The prices were sometimes a tad high, but sale time was the best. Lots of gems to be had. Apparently, a six-million dollar annual profit isn’t enough for the chain’s new owners. The location is set to house a Century 21 discount designer clothing shop. I recall Century 21 liked to advertise itself as “NY’s best kept secret”. Hard to live up to that when you’re taking a prime Times Square area location. No matter. If it hadn’t been C21, it would’ve been another client willing to fork over the cash.

 

Even for this native kid, this store was a destination. Say what you will about big box type places, but this one going is a loss. I loved how the jazz and vocal section was so quiet, even though the rest of the store had loud, pumping music throughout. The last time I was there was for Christmas shopping last year, and it was still the same chaotic, bright place. And I’m sure it will remain so until April.

Keeps Gettin' Better: A Decade of Hits - a Review

It was at the movies in 1998 that I first discovered Christina Aguilera. The film was, of course, Mulan, and the song was Reflection, a ballad about struggling to remain true to yourself. Now, ten years later, Christina Aguilera has released Keeps Getting’ Better: A Decade of Hits, her first greatest-hits package.

 The debut single, title track Keeps Gettin’ Better is an energetic electropop tale of a Catwomanesque temptress superheroine who just can’t stop straddling the line between good and naughty:

Some days I’m a super bitch
Up to my old tricks
But it won’t last forever.
Next day, I’m your supergirl
out to save the world
And it keeps getting’ better

The track leaked in early September, followed a few days later by a sexy performance (along with a preview of another track on the album, “Genie 2.0”) on the MTV Video Music Awards. The other new song, “Dynamite”, is a light, splashy dance track you’d expect more from the likes of Gwen Stefani. There’s no social commentary in here, no long-stored pain, it’s about feeling free. One can imagine two bodies together in a club enjoying each other and the moment.

“Genie 2.0” is one of two remakes on this hits set. “Genie in a Bottle” is redone with a slow purr as electronic dance beats swirl in the background. The other remake, “You Are What You Are (Beautiful)” takes a song already full of emotional power and makes it damp and moody. It’s faintly reminiscent of some John Lennon with a touch of Radiohead’s occasional weird sonic distortion. While the original version is still best, this is a highlight from an artist who prides herself on reinvention and usually includes new arrangements of older tracks during her concerts. Both “Keeps Gettin’ Better” and “Dynamite”, along with the two remakes are, according to Aguilera, a taste of what’s to come on her new album, scheduled for next summer.

You Are What You Are (Beautiful)

Christina Aguilera

 As for the rest of the album, there are some glaring omissions. The first is “Reflection”, the song that actually started Aguilera’s career and the track that would have officially made this set a complete decade’s worth of hits. As it stands now, all the songs are from 1999-2008. I wonder if it was her choice to leave it off or issues with using the song from Disney. Two other songs that should’ve made the cut are “Lady Marmalade”, which was a worldwide #1 hit, and “Nobody Wants to Be Lonely”, her duet with Ricky Martin that charted in the top 10 in many countries. These tracks are both on the international versions of the album, but “Reflection” is nowhere to be found. Another hit, “The Voice Within”, has been left off all but the British and Japanese editions.

 

The included tracks on Keeps Gettin’ Better showcase an artist who challenges herself to try different things. The earlier material is often poppier and less personal (“Genie in a Bottle”, “What a Girl Wants”), but songs taken from her albums Stripped (“Fighter”, “Beautiful”) and Back to Basics (“Ain’t No Other Man”, “Hurt”) hint at the growth personally, professionally, and in her ability to successfully tackle many musical genres that is even more blatant in the rest of those albums (on such songs as “Walk Away” and “Save Me From Myself”). Aguilera’s take on reinvention and of challenging herself will be familiar to any fan, but this is a collection that won’t disappoint the casual listener or someone who wants most of her hits in one slick Pop Art-inspired package. Even for a longtime fan with all her albums like myself, songs like Keeps Gettin’ Better and the remakes make this a must-own.

Thanks

The internet. So full of voices, strangers, and millions of points of view. So many connections made every single day. More often than not, we tend to just exist in our own little nooks and corners of this vast virtual space. Millions out there may be saying interesting things that I'll never read. Visitors to this very blog may come and go without ever commenting or leaving a trace of their presence.

I can't go into much detail, but I logged on recently and received a very sincere and beautiful mail from someone that wowed me. It was in reference to something I had said. It was not a really remarkable comment, but definitely one said with great passion on my part. And it turns out that comment touched someone.

It caught me completely off guard and was thoroughly appreciated. So to the one who sent me the message that my words, and my passion, had a deep impact, thank you in return.

"Travels With Barack"

Found this on Metafilter today:
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0810/callie-intro.html

There's an article about the photojournalist, Callie Shell, linked there, but the highlight is her series of photos of Obama (dating back from 2006) here.

I really liked some of these shots. To me, they just reinforce Obama's down to earth quality that really resonates with me.

A couple of my favorites:

Will Movies Remain "Recession Proof"?

That's the subject of this article I read today. Since movies are considered a relatively cheap form of entertainment, and big releases are always attracting audiences, they're considered to be rather "recession proof".

Tickets in Manhattan, however, are around twelve dollars now. Twelve. And matinees are either so restricted as to be inaccessible for most people, or nonexistent. when I was a teen in the 90s, I'd often go to matinees. They cost about $5, and the theaters offered them every weekday and Saturday before 6pm. That was generous, and although my weekly allowance was only $5, add in a little babysitting money and a walk to the theater instead of paying for the bus, and I was able to see perhaps two movies some months. Rentals and borrowed copies not included.

Many of the local theaters closed starting around 1994, and the multiplex that had those generous matinees? The current policy is limited to showtimes before 3PM Monday-Thursday, and first show on Friday and Saturday. Their regular prices, instead of being a couple of dollars cheaper than in Manhattan, are $11.50. Local theaters used to be a respite from the high Manhattan prices, but no longer. The ultimate result is that I don't really discriminate between theater location anymore, because it doesn't really save me money like it used to.
 

At twelve dollars a ticket, I'm simply much choosier about which films I see on the big screen. I tend to take a few factors into consideration.

• Is this a simple comedy or drama that doesn't have any sort of music or effects that call for a big screen experience?
• Is it a musical? Musicals deserve the big screen and high-tech sound system for a first viewing.
• How long is the movie? Because if it's only 85 minutes long, I'm likelier to wait for DVD.
  
• How much would I mind spoilers? Or how long have I been anticipating this film? Both affect how long I will wait.

There is a bit of a break available. Theater chains sell discounted admission coupons that you can exchange for tickets at the box office. You often have to buy them in bulk (though I have seen them a la carte much more often lately), and they come with a host of different restrictions varying by chain. A lot of these tickets tack on a fee in New York City though, so for me the discount isn't usually that much, but it is worth looking into.

All in all, we like our movies and we need our entertainment to help us get through tough times. The business itself will survive recessions, but I suspect like me, audiences are going to be more selective.

Relaunch

Though the technical difficulties remain, I will be relaunching this blog here instead of moving it. I thought about moving it over to Wordpress or Blogspot, but I really enjoy the features and community over here, so I'm going to try and work around the access problems.

I seem to have those issues mainly in Firefox. Internet Explorer allows me to edit, but comes with its own set of issues. Until I can get myself on a better machine, I'll have to make do with the current situation.

Expect an update soon, with consistent updates to follow.