pubs
I think everyone who designs a multiplayer game should employ professional griefers, to seek out new and creative ways for players to annoy each other.
It would be like the reformed bank robbers hired by security firms.
So a week ago I got my hard copy of The Slip. Almost pointless, except for posterity, yet it is nice to have on the shelf. And it’s a limited edition. (I’m #48,960/250,000.)
With that in hand, I ordered the rest of the recent NIN stuff I hadn’t bought — Year Zero, Y34RZ3R0REM1X3D, Ghosts I-IV. I did pay for the download of Ghosts, back when; again, though, hard copy. That all arrived today, and I notice he’s using the same packaging for everything now. Which is interesting. He must have gotten the digipaks in bulk.
Furthermore… well, his latest three halos, in order:
- Halo 25: Two discs. Left disc, music; right disc, Garageband files. (This was just before remix.nin.com.)
- Halo 26: Two discs, both music.
- Halo 27: Two discs. Left disc, music; right disc, DVD of rehearsals.
I see a pattern forming. Will his next album come with an Xbox game?
Something else hilarious. Up until With Teeth — maybe and probably starting with the leading single, The Hand That Feeds; I don’t have a copy, because none of the singles after The Perfect Drug have been worth it — you have Trent’s standard, hugely elaborate packaging, plus the standard parental warnings and publisher copyright info and vague threats about unauthorized reproduction and whatever.
With Teeth era: really simple packaging, and huge, fugly, obnoxious FBI warnings all over the back cover, that imply anyone who buys the album is a potential criminal.
That’s not from a NIN album; the With Teeth ones are far uglier. They’re just a painfully incompetent piece of graphic design. On Year Zero, that’s still there, if a bit more polished (so it looks like a negative image of the above) — and so is an even bigger parody warning, right next to it, in the same style.
And the disc uses heat-sensitive paint, so your fingerprints are clearly left behind.
After R3M1X3D, Trent is free from his contract, and the album backs… well, here’s what they say:
©2008 NIN
Manufactured and Distributed
in The United States by
RED Distribution, LLC.
79 Fifth Ave, 15th Fl
NYC10003
And there’s a bar code. Then in the back of the booklet, there’s a note that everything is Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial Share Alike. There’s a link to explain what that means. And again, “©2008 NIN”. And that’s it.
(July 30th, 2008 @ 8:20pm)
Legal Step: yeah…google is ahead of the game i would have never thought of the remote sign out thing as a feature i would ever have needed
eric-jon: No kidding, but it’s brilliant.
Legal: i wish google wrote apple’s software
eric-jon: Nintendo could take some lessons as well.
Legal: waggle + me = :’(
eric-jon: They’re all kind of sitting in the same hot tub, but two of the three parties have blocked the jets and are resorting to other means to create bubbles.
Legal: apparently microsoft learned too much from apple and nintendo because that’s where they are getting all their “new” ideas from
eric-jon: Also, Valve. They’re more on the Google side of the tub. Hell, they make their own steam!
(July 29th, 2008 @ 6:14pm)
(July 29th, 2008 @ 3:52pm)
The X-Files‘ time really is past. When I was in high school and college I adored it as I had never adored a piece of pop culture — except maybe the Sega Genesis. Between “Shapes” (the werewolf episode, and the first I saw) and the middle of season eight, I only missed two episodes on first broadcast. Then I just stopped, and have never made up the final season and a half. I really liked the first movie, and I’ve got the full set of action figures. Three Scullies, even, in two outfits! Yet I can’t even watch the original show now.
In tone and pacing and theme, the show is such a 1990s phenomenon. A product of the Clinton era (which the new movie seems to wink at), and an age just before people figured out how to write for television. Yes, it helped to bring this age on; that doesn’t make it part of it. And the new movie is an epilogue to the TV show. It’s shot the same way; it uses the same subtitles; it’s got the same ambling Chris Carter pace and tone and cluttered sense of theme to it.
It works as a movie; it works as an afterthought to the TV show. It is distinctly not a relaunch of the franchise. It’s tired, and it makes no attempt to be current or vital, or even to reach outside its core audience. It’s basically just saying goodbye, and wrapping up some character threads. After an hour and a half of genial if not particularly interesting story, the best part is hidden after the credits. In context especially, it alone is near worth the admission — provided you care for the characters.
I went to the 9:45 showing at the Grand Lake. They had free popcorn, and a balcony! And flirtatious concession stand women. I think there were three other people besides me, and none who stayed through the credits for the Cracker Jack prize. One of the ushers came in toward the end and sat in the rear corner; when it was over and I stood up, he bade me good night. And… it was 11:40 exactly. It’s a twenty-minute walk from the theater. I walked in silence. Though I had my mp3 player, midnight in Oakland is no time for clouded senses.
Quiet is never so loud as when there is no noise.
I think work is progressing…
(July 29th, 2008 @ 2:38am)
