Scattershots
Thoughts and musings for a Tuesday afternoon:
- MTV’s Stephen Totilo, whose self-described “million-dollar idea” was to have the Xbox Vision Camera snap a picture of your boxer-wearing self on your couch every time you land an Achievement, has turned his genius to fixing the Wii’s Draconian system of “Friend Codes”. The random 16-digit string which serves to identify your Wii from everyone else’s is an idea straight out of the ENIAC days of the 1940’s. So Totilo’s modernized the concept - with an idea straight out the 1980’s. Using the internet to find a site that translates phone numbers into pseudo-text, Totilo decided that his thusly considered Wii Friend Code of ELF-ON-OX-7-YIP-06 was much easier to use. Right… I’m not trying to pick on the guy, and I don’t know what he makes, but MTV - I’ll take half of it for the same job. 867-5309… FIVE-THREE-OH-NINNNNNNE!!!
- Speaking of the music and gaming world colliding, Electronic Arts created it’s own music label. No, you read that right. Sure, they already sell their game’s soundtracks on iTunes, but the new collaboration between Nettwerk Records and EA, cleverly called - wait for it - Artwerk will expand EA’s reach, as stated by Nettwerk’s CEO, Terry McBride. “Artwerk is Music 2.0. It is where music, games and digital entertainment merge.” Well, that explains it. Methinks that EA’s been spending too much time at those Apple events. After watching Steve Jobs roll out the iMac, iPod, iTunes, iTV, iPhone, iToaster, iFridge, iBidet, iDoorbell, iStealthBomber (NOTE - Not all of the aforementioned products actually exist… yet), EA must feel a little… inspired.
- Oh, and can we all agree to cool it on the “2.0″, “3.0” shtick? That got played out faster than Mel Gibson’s connection to reality.
- Take-Two’s impending train-wreck is less than 48 hours away, as the company couldn’t find any buyers and now prepares to face the onrushing hordes of angry stockholders Thursday. Take-Two’s prodigal son, the ever-controversial Rockstar Games, loves to set their games in the 80’s and 90’s, so perhaps the wildly nonsensical, hooker-hiring corporate raider Edward Lewis would be available in a pinch - he’d be a perfect fit for Rockstar, and it’s not like Richard Gere’s doing anything else anyway…
on March 27th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Shawn,
Some things I write, particularly, in my first-person Multiplayer blog on MTV are pretty clearly written tongue-in-cheek. But you were kidding too, right? You don’t really want my job at half the salary, do you?
Thanks for reading my stuff. Plenty more — some of not so nonsensical — is indexed on www.stephentotilo.com if you don’t care to dive right into MTV’s site.
About that Live Camera Achievements thing, by the way… I saw your criticisms some time ago and thought you made some excellent points. The system would need to be refined. But you really don’t like the option of having camera-enabled Achievements serve as a visual scrapbook of our Xbox playing career? Not even if you could select when the shots get taken manually? (An idea I didn’t include in my initial write-up?)
Keep up the good work around here.
-Stephen
on March 27th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Stephen -
As you’ve no doubt noticed, my tongue is often planted firmly enough in cheek that I’m fortunate to get it back out sometimes - no offense was intended, and if I did - you most certainly have my apology.
After all, it’s not at all your fault that Nintendo came up with the worst matchmaking concept ever… besides, if pressed, I’d be forced to admit that “ELF-ON-OX” has a certain je ne sais quoi.
In all seriousness, I appreciate the fact that you think outside the box - something I try to do here, as well. That’s why I read your work and refer to it here - there are but a few mainstream gaming writers who care enough to look deeper at this industry in an effort to improve it and keep it from settling into a cozy rut.
Regarding the “Live Camera Achievements”: It’s certainly worth discussing. I’m certain that a portion of the gaming population would enjoy it - especially when they had some control over it. That would be critical, considering that many games hand out Achievements for simply accessing certain menus; those aren’t likely to inspire notable photographs. I’m sure that Microsoft would need to keep that accessible only to others on a gamer’s Friends List, for obvious reasons.
As far as your salary goes… all I can say is that I’m certain that I’d rather have half of yours than you would want half of mine…
Thank you for reading, and thank you for posting - and please, feel free to call me out again whenever you deem it necessary… because I most likely deserve it.
Sincerely,
- Shawn