Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth" is a non-political documentary attempting to educate the general public on the dangers of Global Warming. The movie and it's subject matter, regardless of who made it or what party they represent, should be absorbed and thought about.
Recently, a video called Al Gore's Penguin Army popped up on the internet's comedy video hot-spot "You Tube" portaying Gore as The Penguin from Batman and boring his penguin army to death about Global Warming. The movie wasn't very funny, but it did make it's rounds garnering 59,000 views. The movie was posted by someone calling themselves "Toutsmith", a 29 year old from Beverly Hills.
The Wall Street Journal contacted Toutsmith via e-mail and asked him about his video. He did not give his real identity, however routing information in one of his e-mails revealed it was sent from The DCI Group in Washington DC. DCI is a "public relations and lobbyist group", one of whome's clients is Exxon Mobile.
This is a powerful form of propaganda, and it does not surprise that lobbyists have discovered it's uses. A link to that video was no doubt attached to thousands of e-mails, which were then forwarded to thousands more. It's a very efficient way of spreading propaganda without a big investment.
In true internet fashion, these things have a way of policing themselves. Internet users, especially the audience You Tube is servicing, are very savvy, and pulling a sheet over their eyes is difficult.
The video has some ideas for ending the Global Warming problem that Al Gore no doubt missed in his movie:
1. Stop Exhaling.
2. Become a Vegetarian.
3. Walk Everywhere (no matter the distance)
4. Take Cold Showers.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Thursday, August 03, 2006
MMO Snooze
The foreseeable future for the MMO industry is pretty lonely right now. With World of Warcraft controlling about 52% of the extire market, and no other MMO that can challenge it will be out til sometime in 2007.
One MMO I have been following somewhat is Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. For those who don't know, Vanguard is being made by Brad McQuaid - the main man behind Verant's Everquest (well, THEN Verant's).
There has been some wrangling and drama related to the development of this game, mostly relating to Vanguard switching publishers from Microsoft back to McQuaid's old company S.O.E., a seemingly dry Beta with weird Beta invites, and the game being pushed back to Q4 2007. However, after cutting through the BS you realise these folks have to deliver a game at the end of the day, and the competition will be fierce.
WoW has had 2 Christmas holidays to amass almost 7,000,000 subscribers. Sounds like they will get another. By the time Vanguard ships, it's feasible that WoW will have 7,500,000 to 8,000,000 folks subscribing. That's quite a bit of catch-up work to do, especially when working with an I.P. that no one has heard of.
I relate WoW to the I-Pod - if you're going to enter that space and confront either of those products, you had better have something to offer that's going to better it. From reading the Vanguard website, hearing descriptions of it on Massively Online Gamer and VirginWorlds Podcasts (respectively), and plain old looking at the screenshots, all I can think of is they're making the same mistakes that EQ2 and other games that are coming out are making. The game systems sound needlessly convoluted, the graphics are nice but not exciting, and it's a tired, clogged genre.
The challenge presented to Vanguard is to gain some sort of market share in a game genre that has a dominating force possibly greater that Microsoft has in the PC industry. If tey released Christmas 2006, maybe - however a full year for then is just too long a time to wait.
One MMO I have been following somewhat is Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. For those who don't know, Vanguard is being made by Brad McQuaid - the main man behind Verant's Everquest (well, THEN Verant's).
There has been some wrangling and drama related to the development of this game, mostly relating to Vanguard switching publishers from Microsoft back to McQuaid's old company S.O.E., a seemingly dry Beta with weird Beta invites, and the game being pushed back to Q4 2007. However, after cutting through the BS you realise these folks have to deliver a game at the end of the day, and the competition will be fierce.
WoW has had 2 Christmas holidays to amass almost 7,000,000 subscribers. Sounds like they will get another. By the time Vanguard ships, it's feasible that WoW will have 7,500,000 to 8,000,000 folks subscribing. That's quite a bit of catch-up work to do, especially when working with an I.P. that no one has heard of.
I relate WoW to the I-Pod - if you're going to enter that space and confront either of those products, you had better have something to offer that's going to better it. From reading the Vanguard website, hearing descriptions of it on Massively Online Gamer and VirginWorlds Podcasts (respectively), and plain old looking at the screenshots, all I can think of is they're making the same mistakes that EQ2 and other games that are coming out are making. The game systems sound needlessly convoluted, the graphics are nice but not exciting, and it's a tired, clogged genre.
The challenge presented to Vanguard is to gain some sort of market share in a game genre that has a dominating force possibly greater that Microsoft has in the PC industry. If tey released Christmas 2006, maybe - however a full year for then is just too long a time to wait.
No News is Good News?
I wanted to bring your attention to my new News sidebar! Thanks to VirginWorlds for the links and code. Enjoy!
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