The answer of course, is Yes. And by Yes, I mean No.
So instead, I go nearly a month without posting anything. Both for the reason explained above, and also, because I am very lazy.
A few things happened that I feel need to be magnetically seared into a google-owned hard drive. Firstly, and let me preface this by saying that watching movie trailers off the internet doesn't excite me and in fact normally evokes my derision, people mindlessly wasting bandwidth on less than a minute of footage that they could see for free before any movie, desperate for Hollywood's table scraps, ravaging it before it even bounces on the floor, their Quicktime's buffering and their YouTubes clamouring for more of the stream, the moving patterns of colour needed to satisfy the rapacious hordes who can't wait a few weeks or months to just go see the damned movie
I have owned the comic for a good while now, but only read it recently. Having been an impulse 'Oh I will need that' purchase, I was saving it for a time when I desrved it. Months later, after much encouragement from Joseph and a great deal of 'being good', I finally decided I was worthy. Good thing I did, because it turns out to be fantastic. Seriously fantastic. I cannot rave about how good this is, and how much I admire Alan Moore. And I though From Hell was good - Watchmen blows it out of the water. So having been thouroughly impressed by the graphic novel, I was trembling with excitement to see the trailer for the movie. Is this what 'normal' people experience when hammering Apple's site for the latest dose of 35mm crack? Whether or not within me, some new empathy has been birthed for these lost, hopless addicts is beside the point - the Watchmen trailer is amazing, and looks to be a faithful adaptation of the comic. I was grinning like a loon with my face pressed right up to my monitor - I don't know if I have ever had such a high pixels to smile ratio. We will see how the movie fares in 2009, but for now, they have my interest.
Joseph, of Firefly-generosity fame, also gave me his old Nintendo DS, which I like to call DS Phat. Magnaminous. I fired up my GBA version of Super Mario World, and continued my painful struggle to discover the secret ending to Larry's Castle. The one that I am convinced is there, over the lava pit, but that nobody else on the entire of the interweb has found. I will be the first!. In other news, I should soon receive in the mail a small device which will enable me to run homebrew applications, DSLinux, and er.. backed up games on DS Phat. I cannot wait, and am checking the mail daily, rather than letting it build up and spew out of my mailbox like normal, leaving a soggy piles of pulpy-mush-regret on my lawn.
Speaking of spew, this made the rounds at the office the other day: ABC's Q&A programme talks about video game classification in Australia. Well, that is to say that the panelists fail to understand the question ('Why doesn't Australia have an 18+ rating for games like every other first world country') and then proceed to make random statements of opinion having no basis in any sort of fact, seemingly in order to fill the air with the sounds of their voices, and eat up precious seconds until the next question or ad break. It frustrated me because not only were these people misinformed or just plain ignorant, they are the types of people who are high enough in government to make a difference - you know..legislation and all that. It may as well have been 'The Internet is a Series of Tubes'. Once the initial animal noises had died down, and the speakers had each had a turn at condemning the specific game in question, other games of the same ilk, and also made up 'rape video games', and commenting on the moral health of any society that would consider such a thing entertainment, one panelist decided to ask the audience member who had posed the question, a question in return. She asked why this young man might want to play such a game, and how long he and his friends might spend playing it. As if to disarm the question, she added:
"I'm not trying to crucify you, I am just curious."
Had I been the audience member, I am not sure I would have been able to keep a straight face at such a question. You can bet if someone says 'I am not homophobic, but..', you are about to hear something about how queers should just be driven out of the country, or 'I am all for equal rights and everything, but...', normally bodes poorly for the female sex in the context of the forthcoming statement. So too does the prefix 'I am not trying to crucify you' mean that the speaker is a barefaced, unashamed, liar. The 'I'm just curious' part would have made me laugh - the show is meant to be serious discussion of issues, not idle chit chat and small talk.
My anger comes more from the implication that people need to justify wanting to play video games that are refused classification. If justification is needed, that is simple - "Because I like it". Why do people smoke cigarettes? Why do dickheads in the city drive huge 4WD's? Why do men buy porno mags and why do women need to read gossip about movie stars? "Because I like it". Of course, justification isn't needed, otherwise cigarettes would be illegal because they are harmful and 4WD's would require stricter licensing since they aren't actually needed by most people in the city.
I do respect the government's right to protect its citizens. We don't allow people to buy things that will hurt them - dodgy toasters or machinery that hasn't passed safety checks for example. This is not the case of a badly wired kitchen applicance though. In the case of media such as this, we have classification systems such as those for Music, Film, and Literature. Our classification system for video games is just a bit..behind the times and inconsistent - it lacks an 18+ rating for one. Nevertheless, updating our classifications system and including the aforementioned 18+ rating can only bring us in line with other countries, allow retailers the opportunity to sell games otherwise unavailable on our shelves, and help parents make educated decisions on games which their children may want to buy. Or, allow them to purchase it for themselves, which without this rating, no voting, drinking, sex-having adult can do lawfully.
People (and by people, I mean people that are not me) are ranting about this on this forum page.
Backstage, after the show:
“My kids played GTAIV, but thankfully didn’t go out and steal cars”
“Yep, my little Billy just completed that, and so far he has resisted the urge to steal cars too”
“You know what, my kids played it too and all of them are fine – I guess it is just good upbringing”
“Thanks to us.”
“Yep, we sure are good parents”
“Damn evil games. The evidence just mounts and mounts, and still they keep making them…”
“It’s those crazy programmers man. Remember the Y2K hoax back in 2000? ‘The computers are going to freak out everyone! We have to patch the mainframe!’. NOTHING HAPPENED you stupid nerds!”
“Stop, stop…seriously...you make me cry with laughter whenever you do the nerd voice and the squint thing..”
“Alright everyone, calm down. The meeting will come to order!”
“So..next on the agenda: Net Neutrality”
“Booooo-ooooring”….
“Ooooh oohhh…say it in the voice!. I want to see Kev cry again…”
2 comments:
Brad, if you keep linking to me in every post you make AND mention all the stuff I've given you people are gonna start to talk... and I TOLD you we HAVE to keep this secret!
It's too late. They know about us. All of them. All of the multitudes that read this blog, who have read my obvious outpourings of affection for you, bleeding through my awkward prose like the rare steak from a clumsy cow on expensive dinner napkins.
Oh, I thought I could hide it, but you crept in. Every sentence. every capital letter and full stop, was like the tolling of some terrible bell, demanding your presence, urging me to type the name which echoed in my head. The name that my flickering fingers seemed to make my keyboard whisper:
Joseph
You know when I think about it, I guess..I guess I always wanted them to know. We can find a new life..like we always planned, down in Tijuana. I wont be at work tomorrow - you know where I'll be - my bags packed, waiting at the terminal with a festive scarf and a winning smile, forgetting the past - being liberated from it. Open to the possiblity of a new life. A new life with you.
If you don't show up, I'll understand.
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