Nik Gregory » Opinion

Library of Congress: All Your Tweets Are Belong To Us

nikgregory — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 12:15:07 +0000

The US Library of Congress appears to have declared ‘all your tweets are belong to us’. I’m not sure what they want to do with the tweets, perhaps they’re just big fans of Charlie Sheen and don’t want to see his public implosion lost to the background noise of the interwebs.

I truly don’t get the usefulness of storing every public tweet, beyond making it uber-easy for lazy editors to cobble together books of tweets. Do we really need to save every thought some people have?

Turmoil and Trouble

nikgregory — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:50:36 +0000

With all the turmoil going on in Libya, it’s always fantastic to see that the mass media completely drops the ball failing to mention the revolution in Tunisia (I guess the revolution in Egypt was more interesting or news friendly) or the major protests across much of the Middle East and Northern Africa, or the fact that the demonstrations were sparked by the self-immolation of a street vendor, which has been taken on as a bizarre call to arms receiving dozens (if not into the hundreds by now) copycat self-immolations (for those not in the know, self-immolation is the act of setting oneself on fire).

Instead, we’re getting regular news of Charlie Sheen’s latest mentally defective acts. Such as his targeting Chuck Lorre (the show creator and producer) in a fashion that basically amounts to anti-Semitism (not in his wording, but in the fact he decided to target it at him as Levine his Jewish birth surname) and likely the reason his show just got cancelled (at least for the rest of this season).

It’s stupid to insult your boss. It’s moronic to insult your boss after he’s the sole person seemingly keeping you in your job as the highest paid TV actor, especially considering your mounting legal debts and cocaine and alcohol addictions will likely bankrupt you the second you stop getting paid. Furthermore you’re truly mentally defective when you accuse your boss of stealing from you, after accusing virtually everyone you’ve spent 5-minutes with of the same.

Also in the news, Kelsey Grammer is getting married, which I like because he’s not a drug addled moron that gets more publicity for threatening women than doing a good job.

Just got Kinected

nikgregory — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 05:14:01 +0000

After playing it at a friends house last night we finally conceded to buying a Kinect. We wanted one for Christmas, but they were sold out everywhere, and now everywhere seems to have a bunch in stock. Rather coincidentally people probably just had to pay off their Christmas credit card bills in the last couple of weeks, which sucks to be them.

We stretched our chequeing account, but only because we were still putting away savings too. We’ve got a couple of trips lined up for the next few years, so completely frivolous spending is out of the question. However, moderately frivolous spending is still of the question.

Game review may follow soon, but perhaps I’ll be too busy playing with my Black Panther in Kinectimals to actually review it.

Finger Eleven at Hamilton Place

nikgregory — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 04:49:47 +0000

Me, my wife, my brother-in-law and a family friend just went to see Finger Eleven at Hamilton Place. They were great, they’ve lost some of the energy they had when I saw them back in 2002/3, but they’re making up for it with more showmanship and talent.

The second opener ‘The Envy’ were really good. My wife saw them back when they were opening for The Stereo’s and said they were better than the head liner – I didn’t like The Stereo’s so I didn’t go. Now the fates have justified my decision… you’ve just got to love when that happens.

Why The Quality of News Depressed Me Today

nikgregory — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 01:58:49 +0000

Whilst watching the new episode of The Simpsons there was an advert for Global News on the “hot three hair cuts that are taking Toronto by storm”. I’m sorry, but until a new hairstyle involves scalping it is not news worthy.

But that’s just the opinion of someone who actually likes his news to be of that classical concept of providing relevant information.

Crazy Censorship: CBSC Bans Money for Nothing

nikgregory — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:28:52 +0000

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council just banned “Money for Nothing” by the Dire Straits because it uses the word “Faggot” 3 times in reference to 80′s flamboyant rockstars and not necessarily in reference to gays (Freddie Mercury being one of the few flamboyant rockstars that actually turned out to be gay).

It’s interesting that whilst they can impose a ban on both Radio and Television, they choose not to censor a 2009 South Park episode titled “The F Word” where it’s used countless times.

As a Brit I do find it mildly racist that they’re censoring a British Classic, but not banning it in a show that aims to be purposefully offensive (I do love South Park mind you).

I truly fail to see how this is “helping” the gay community. This was one complaint in 20+ years, and I’d truly love to see how many complaints they got after the South Park episode was aired.

Beard Theory

nikgregory — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 02:57:21 +0000

I just came up with a brilliant hypothesis on beards while eating raw cake batter and talking to the wife.

With the batter all in my beard my wife tells me: “I swear [catching food] is all they evolved for.”

Me: “It was used for all the starving girls, they would be like ‘oh my god, look at all that food’.”

Oh biology you harsh mistress, if all these revelations were as obvious we wouldn’t still be questioning why we have an infection-grenade in our guts called an appendix.

Video Games are already art, Mr Ebert

nikgregory — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 03:23:04 +0000

Video Games are art, but apparently Roger Ebert cannot get with the times on this. He first made his opinion clear in 2005, and recently just cemented the evidence of his ignorance this April [see here]. For those out of the loop, Ebert is a world renowned film critic, he also isn’t a gamer and I question whether he’s ever played enough games to be eligible to comment (IE a single game, ever). He’s as ignorant of the medium as middle-america right-wing psycho-moms. If you’ve never played, you have no clue. If you’ve never seen a movie, you have no clue. If you’ve never read a book, you’re likely illiterate (or should be legally considered it) and have no clue. You cannot justifiably comment on something if you’ve never experienced it, Ebert of all people should know this.

If Ebert had sat down and played a good half-dozen of some of the highest rated games of all time and still say they’re not art, then at least he’s not ignorant and I could at least respect him for his beliefs. Right now, he’s garnered zero respect from me. In fact, due to his position as a respected reviewer he’s lost a significant amount of respect. I’d attest that many things are not art, however I’m not an indignant enough person to proclaim my opinion without something to base an opinion on. I give a movie review after I watch the movie, not before and Ebert is reviewing gaming as a whole based on a preconception.

Granted the majority of big-title games care little about telling an actual story (yes Halo, Half-life, you can stand up and be noted as having meaningful story) and merely use it to string together great action scenes. But then I saw the Matrix 2, and I fail to see a valid difference except that video games are more engaging as an art form. Read my review of Repo Men, it was little more than action scenes stitched together by sex scenes and poor plot. Has Ebert never seen a western? They’re little more than action scenes stitched together by modest story, yet they rank as some of the best films in the world. I would personally list The Dollars Trilogy amongst my favorite movies ever, yet by Eberts standard for ‘art’ they certainly are not.

Ebert seems overtly concerned about the aspect of ‘winning’ in a game as a disqualifying aspect for being art. At the end of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly I can tell you I won. At the end of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi I fucking won, and any Star Wars fan will tell you the same. At 8 years old, I beat the Empire, I won. I experienced the same feeling at the end of Avatar when Stephen Lang finally went down, similarly at the end of Alien when Ripley flushed the alien out of the airlock.

He condemns Braid for telling a story between the games level because it “exhibits prose on the level of a wordy fortune cookie.” To which I would respond Hemingways six-word novel (For sale: baby shoes, never used.), which exhibits prose on the level of a rather terse fortune cookie. If you want to talk about story, look at least at Halo, but please look at something by BioWare like Dragon Age or Mass Effect, or Knights of the Old Republic.

However, if we really want to talk about story let’s talk one of the true classics. Grim Fandango for one is a great story, but most gamers already know this for fact. Monkey Island or Space Quest, Kings Quest, the Legend of Kyrandia perhaps? No, I loved the story to all those games, however there’s one that will have the respect of every sci-fi fan with me on this, and they likely won’t know why until I explain why. The Dig.

What? That’s a game? Yes I can hear you. The Dig was the creation of Steven Spielberg, he came up with the story and realized it would take decades before he’d even be able to consider making it (hopefully he’s considering it now, it would be phenomenal) as a film. However, he was a regular to Lucas’ ranch and one of his favorite stops was Lucas Arts to see what they were developing, yet one time he came with an ulterior motive: The Dig.

There was another person at work on the game who commands great respect in their own right for their artistic works. None other than the creator of the Ender saga, Orson Scott Card who was brought on to flesh out the story and turn a film script into a video game script (the difference here is the typical 2 hour movie vs the typical 10 hour game). Simply put, as many Card fans will know, it was amazing. For those interested it is still available in Lucas Arts classics bundle (with Full Throttle, Sam & Max and Grim Fandango – their great story quadruplets). So let’s leave story out of this shall we Mr Ebert? No derisive comments please or I’ll make more too.

Beyond story, and getting past Ebert’s fascination with ‘winning’ in games, what else is there to quantify as art? I don’t much feel like playing a words game, as neither does Ebert. You can argue what qualifies as art from dawn till dusk, however this is simply what Ebert is doing. He’s manipulating what he believes categorizes something as art to fit his own ideals.

Ebert is arguing the definition of art, or more simply asserting that video games will never, ever be art. As David Novitz said, these arguments are usually more about societal values than whether something is a piece of art or not.

“Why aren’t gamers content to play their games and simply enjoy themselves? . . . Do they require validation? In defending their gaming against parents, spouses, children, partners, co-workers or other critics, do they want to be able to look up from the screen and explain, “I’m studying a great form of art?” Then let them say it, if it makes them happy.”

Why, Mr Ebert, thank you for clearly displaying how abstract you are from the current times. I grew up playing video games with my parents, they never had a single problem with it. In fact I have many fond memories of playing Age of Empires with my dad. As I’m writing this my wife is eloquently displaying my point by rocking out on Guitar Hero to a Weezer song. My co-workers? Video games are a main avenue of conversation, as frequently (if not more frequently) brought up than movies. Also despite not having children, it doesn’t take any skill whatsoever in foresight to know that my children are going to be in a world much more socially accepting of games than this one currently is.

Do I need to justify to these people that I’m studying a great art form? No, I don’t need to justify anything to them, because they already know. Anyone who played through Final Fantasy 7 knows it triggered emotions just as good, if not better than many movies, when Aerith died. Is that not art? It is to me, and I know to all my generation it is.

Olympic Gold

nikgregory — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:51:23 +0000

Sometimes in life, it sucks to be an American hockey fan . . . I’m glad I’m not. The US did an admiral job tying up the game in the final 30 seconds, however their luck didn’t last during the sudden death overtime. Too bad boys, better luck in Russia 2014.

I’ve not liked the medal ranking being used by the NA media, I much prefer the IOC ranking of the most gold medals (the system used by the BBC). Although out of fairness, I believe a weighted system should be used (gold = 3, silver = 2, bronze = 1), which would still have the top teams in the same positions, but gives a lot more credit to the teams in the lower ranks. It also places Korea in its rightful place, many of them did simply amazing and shouldn’t be placed behind Austria and Russia who weren’t fielding nearly as many of the worlds’ best athletes.

However, no matter how you rank it, the UK flat out sucked like an old prostitute. When you never see snow it’s hard to learn how to play in it. I’m hoping for better in the London summer games, but even being a non-religious man I know it’ll take more than every Brit praying for a miracle to get us anywhere near winning the most golds. Maybe Briton will win by the 2186 games . . . just being realistic.

CRTC and Rural Internet

nikgregory — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:59:05 +0000

In a move unexpected by the CRTC’s track record, they’re holding a policy hearing over rural access to wireless and wired broadband for rural regions: read about it here.

After the CRTC’s move last year to physically wedge their thumbs between their butt cheeks over cell phone providers essentially doubling their SMS charges overnight. Their comment on the issue was essentially “We believe its wrong, and believe underhanded deals may be going on, but we have no real power so we’re doing nothing.”

Now apparently they’ve decided to stick their hands down the opposing side of their pants and found a pair. Rural internet is abysmal here in Canada, especially considering that Bell, Telus and Rogers leave entire cities, with tens of thousands of residents, without 3G coverage. Companies are beginning to provide the start of 4G coverage and people have never even seen access to 3G, that’s unacceptable.

Seriously, these companies should stop looking at their massive bottom-lines and start looking at their customers. The 3-party system is corrupt, especially considering cooperation between Bell and Telus in forming their joint 3G network, essentially making the 3G market a 2-party system. Wind Mobile has entered as a 4th party, however they’re new and they only got in by the government overruling the CRTC. Another stunning display of CRTC ineptitude. Another major problem is that most rural access is provided solely by Bell, an ex-nationalized company that’s been given monopoly control over the majority of the country and has zero incentive to improving their system.

In a spirit of fairness, here’s the wireless industries response in a few words: “But it’s hard, we’re lazy due to a complete lack of outside competition enforced by law and it’ll cost us a little money now when it could make us a lot more later!”

Now the real question is, how long is it going to take for open competition in the teleco market to appear in Canada?

The answer, hopefully, isn’t too long.