Archive for October, 2007
Overcoming Zionism
October 30, 2007Fire the head of FEMA
October 30, 2007He should also be imprisoned.
Breast Cancer sells
October 30, 2007Outsourcing Government – the ATM model
October 30, 2007Killing in PC Games in 2005 and commentary on the lack of game criticism
October 29, 20072005 was pretty similar to 2006 in the genre breakdown as well as the frequency of games where the player directs killing. 89 of 105 games (84.8%) had the player directing killing. There was a bit more diversity in the games than in 2006 with a couple not being easily classified but it was still overwhelmingly military and war games in FPS and RTS mode. It’s amazing how often the words “war” and “weapons” are in the descriptions of the games.
Of the 16 games where the player does not direct killing, only 5 are adventure games, so 2006 may indicate a resurgence of the genre with its 13 adventure titles. 2 of the 5 feature the player investigating murders. Of the rest, 5 are sims, 2 are Sims 2 expansion packs, 1 is a mixed genre car racing game, 2 are car racing sims, and 1 is a soccer sim.
I’m not sure why more critics or even game reviewers don’t discuss this issue. Then again, critics and reviewers don’t discuss much of anything related to the industry as far as I can tell, except how many subscribers a MMO has or how many polygons the latest eye candy has. It’s not the number of polygons, it’s what one does with them. “New Games Journalism” was ostensibly supposed to address this issue, but it seems more to address the relative lack of pretentiousness in “Old Games Journalism”. With respect to that it succeeded with flying colors.
The division between film criticism and game criticism could not be more clear or more depressing with respect to game criticism. It’s easy to say “that will change” but it should have already changed.
Tracking sales numbers and subscriber numbers is just another racehorse, similar to tracking polling numbers of presidential candidates. It’s the same vacuous process.
Search and Avoid – US soldiers in Iraq
October 29, 2007On the Plutonomies
October 28, 2007Israeli’s letter to Oxford University about Norman Finkelstein
October 28, 2007Guantanamo whistleblower
October 28, 2007Responding to Islamophobia
October 28, 2007Murder of Iraqis for sport
October 28, 2007Rumsfeld investigated for torture in France
October 28, 2007That would be such a shame if he was convicted and imprisoned for torture. Such a shame.
On the murder of Brad Will
October 28, 2007On illegal immigrants getting drivers licenses and car insurance
October 28, 2007Why do human beings talk to the American government’s press secretary?
October 27, 2007Few Americans are more despicable than the US government’s press secretary. Scott McClellan, Tony Snow, Dana Perino. Watching them give talks to the press corps is itself a form of torture. It needs to end. They give zero useful information and tons of press coverage. This is the opposite relationship of what press coverage should be, which is that the more important and more insightful the information, the more coverage. Expert analysts can give 1,000 times as much information as the press secretary in the same amount of time, yet they receive one one-thousandth of the coverage.
Imprison the Propagandists
October 26, 2007Propaganda should not be covered under free speech law, and the only reason it is is that the government and corporations do it and they write the laws. Although, once a democratic society is installed there will no longer be a need for laws against propaganda because there will be no powerful institutions who benefit from it. So alas, my dream of seeing advertisers imprisoned will not come to pass.
Free speech is a curious thing in America. I have the freedom to talk into the wind, to have my words blown apart and dissipated. Others have the freedom to speak on national TV and reach millions of viewers. These two cases are both treated under the same principle, “free speech”.
God bless America. Where good people have the freedom to be ignored and bad people have the freedom to enslave.
Genocide inflation and western deception and propaganda
October 26, 2007Juan Cole with some Middle East analysis
October 26, 2007Step it Up – Environmental Demonstration and Rally
October 26, 2007This is a nationwide environmental day and gathering. Most of them are taking place on Saturday, November 3. The one in South Bend, IN that I’ll be at is happening on Sunday November 4 in front of the Morris Performing Arts Center. The Rally should start around 3:30 PM and go until 5 PM.
On modern conditions and climate change
October 26, 2007Killing in PC Games: A look at the crop of 2006
October 26, 2007I went to Game Rankings and looked at the 107 PC games from 2006 that had at least 20 Reviews. Of those, 84 feature killing directed by the player (a few feature killing not directed by the player, like murder mysteries and homicide detective games). That’s 79 percent. Of the 23 not featuring killing directed by the player:
13 are adventure games
5 are sims (mostly city-building)
2 are car racing games
2 are Sims 2 expansions
1 is a flight simulator
Given that the car racing games are also simulators, every single game that does not feature killing is either a simulator or an adventure game. That is beyond sad. It was also amazing that there weren’t more sports titles in the mix – the consoles dominate that genre. I was surprised that there were so many adventure games, given the perpetual “death” the genre is supposedly experiencing. According to the critics though, a large majority of them suck.
The games that feature killing are as you would expect. Lots and lots of games about war, lots of FPSes, RTSes, and games that mix simulation with war. Another curious fact stands out – almost all of the Science Fiction and Fantasy games include killing, while many of the games taking place in modern settings (such as many of the adventure games) do not.
At some point I’ll do the same for 2005.
Gotta love the games industry.
On the Congo situation and Western propaganda
October 26, 2007Mother Teresa, John Paul II, and the Fast-Track Saints
October 25, 2007The Empire loves resistance
October 25, 2007One of the most unfortunate myths expressed by the dissident left in America is that the American Empire wants subjugation. The problem with subjugation is that it leads to peace. Setting up a world of freedom is much better, because these “lovers of freedom” will need guns to fight with and will need to have bombs land on them in order for them to “cease their terrorism”.
The subjugation of the world is a terrible outcome for the Empire because then no more bombs and guns will need to be manufactured. It’s much better for the Empire to fight incompetently and to ally itself with the dissidents who want freedom for the world. Permanent War is the goal.
Who better than Noam Chomsky to serve as this ally, who writhes with indignation at the Empire and urges freedom for all. So, indeed, the cry for freedom goes up around the world, guns are taken up against America, many of them manufactured in America, and then the Empire drops it’s bombs. For every bomb dropped, one is manufactured to take it’s place.
The solution of course is to dismantle the American Empire. The Permanent War machine must be stopped.
Worker collectives versus unions
October 25, 2007I don’t understand why workers aren’t pre-organized. My concept of a union is a wage-setter, but this wage-setting should occur prior to employment. Prior to employment a worker should join a union. The union analyzes the profitability of corporations and sets the wages of employees based on that profitability.
The way this system would work is that corporations wouldn’t deal with individuals. If there are multiple collectives the corporations could wage-compete for the “best deal” among the unions, and the union furnishes the worker.
We're in Our World Now 