How internet affects media
This article:
Piracy is Good? by Mark Pesce, contains some interesting thoughts about piracy, mainly concerning TV-shows. I don't agree to everything he says, but he has a very active brain (I suspect it having time-traveling properties.)
Some of the ways movies, TV-shows, music and computer games are distributed today won't work
"The day after tomorrow". Because then the world will be covered in ice, while the dangers of global warming is forced upon us by guys resembling Dennis Quaid. No, wait, I got sidetracked.
A lot of people have realized that you cannot really stop piracy, and some haven't. Trying to shut down people for downloading movies won't work. And shutting down torrent-sites and DirectConnect hubs is only a temporary solution.
I understand how the artists and the companies feel, and I wouldn't want to be in their shoes, partially because being artistic and a business man at the same time seems terribly confusing.
The way they're trying to legislate away the problem won't work either, because then you are not listening to both sides. People want to download their movies and their music and their games, and since there is currently no technical way to stop people from doing it, they will continue doing what they consider to be their right.
Force persuading people to stop downloading might work, but it would have to be handled delicately, preferebly through a secret cult. I will investigate the possibilities for this as soon as I find my magickal meeting stick.
Pesce's idea about inserting intrusive commercials in TV-shows and then letting people download them for free on the internet is viable. The ads mustn't be too big or too annoying or it won't work, just a small logo or a scrolling line of text, popping up now and then. Or, come to think of it, subliminal messages. If you used subliminal ads, the viewers won't complain that it destroys the viewing experience. Hmm. They might be confused as to why they get the urge to eat a happy-meal after watching a fitness show though. Anyway.
Computer games could also more funding from selling ads then they do today, but it's just a matter of time before we get "*sigh* After killing all those ugly, evil looking, Lord of the Rings-wannabe trolls, I drink some of this magic CocaCola-potion to regain my health."
Pesce also predicts this will seriously reduce broadcast TV and DVD sales. I don't think that's the case. The internet will probably work more as an alternative to the regular distribution channels. No, it already is an alternative. As I'm sure you know, you can find
anything on the internet. The companies just need to embrace it.
Not entirely related:
World of Ends popped to mind when I was writing this article. It's an interesting read, and I find it somehow... poetical.
"Malcom Reynolds could SO kick Han Solo's ass!"
I think the very first "fantasy in space"-movie I saw was Star Wars. I don't remember exactly how old I was but I remember thinking they were absolutly fantastic, and for a few years they were the best movies I'd ever seen - little did I know there are different kinds of "best."
A few years after Star Wars I got more interested in movies which led to more movie-watching (and now it's reached the "Hello, my name is Richard, and I'm an addict"-stage.) The more movies I saw, the more I realized you can't really put all movies into the same ranking system. You could rank movies within their genre but that would leave too much information out. Because then you would get Star Wars, Star Trek and Alien in the same category and they are very different kinds of movies and, I think, have partially different audiences.
Star Wars is aiming for adventure, classic heroes and classic bad guys (Darth Vader being one of the coolest ever) and I think it hits its target.
Alien is horror, also hitting its target. Aliens is panic and Alien 3 is about shaved heads, dirty prisoners and dogs in space.
Star Trek is pseudo-science, technobabble-orgies and sometimes a sociological analysis.
So, if people realized that all movies don't fit into the same ladder, I think they could have more civilized conversation about movies without it turning into "Kirk would snatch Leia from Han Solo in a heart beat!"
Maybe people have already realized this and they just go about flaming anyway - a "the curse of the internet" kind of deal? Or maybe this isn't the problem, maybe it's something else. Feel free to comment.
This blog entry began as a discussion about Star Wars and ended up in an attempt by me, to describe why people argue about movies. Now, the link I had prepared really doesn't fit with the what I wrote, but here it is anyway
http://www.pvponline.com/archive.php3?archive=20050510
"Real Life" postponed
When you have spent a number of years with little money, lots of micro-food and a bunch of late nights studying for exams; there will actually come a day when you graduate.
Now it's time to go out into reality. You have hopefully learnt what you need to get by on your own. Time to shape your life into what it was meant to be. Now, that's a hard thing to do - shaping your life, your future, because failing in this matter can be really disappointing and potentially scarring.
The guy in this article:
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=35174&ntpid=1 has decided to put "real life" on hold for a while, by not graduating.
Weird choice? Maybe, but I understand him. Not that I would want to go on studying for that many years. If I had to, I would probably go not a little nuts and leave massacred thoughts and creepy blog entries, professing Malcom McDowell the evil ruler of my imaginary island, in my wake.
Anyway, it's an interesting article.
Doom comic
http://www.doomworld.com/10years/doomcomic/comic.phpI found this comic based on id Software's game Doom, a bit amuzing. It's written bad intentionally to capture that b-movie feel. Odds are a movie based on Doom would end up similar to this. Well, maybe not this bad, but certainly closer to this than Terminator 2 or some other good action movie.
