Affion Crockett, Great Example of Online Branding/Marketing
Comments Off Who is Affion Crockett?
Before this video I thought he was just a funny guy on Wild’n Out. I now know he is also a musician, oskamill, and was recently in the movie Dance Flick. Affion is using the internet to show off his versatility as an entertainer. Best of all, he is slowly eliminating the middle man (studios). He has over 47,000 subscribers on youtube (his latest video has about a million views as of now), over 7000 friends on myspace, about 7000 followers on twitter, and has 5000 friends on facebook ( i couldn’t find a real fan page). He has a, almost instant, connection to about 70,000 fans. Fans who will most likely share, retweet and email anything he puts in his feeds.
What it’s like to work in the game industry
1 Comment The title is loaded. I can not pretend to know what it is like for everyone in the industry, and I won’t even attempt to give an exhaustive depictions of even my own personal experiences. Trust me you wouldn’t be reading this post now if I had titled it “A rough overview of generally what it’s like to work in the game industry”.
The short answer
GOOD
The long answer
The experience of being in the Peace Corps is commonly described as “The Toughest Job You’ll Ever Love”. I hate that they have dibs on the line because, besides being a great quote, it captures a good bit of the heart of working in the game industry. If you work in the game industry you probably love games and most of the people that you work with do too.
The other people often end up being the best part –Warning– The money will probably never end up being the best part. Not to say that everyone in the industry lives with their parents, just don’t expect golden toilets. Most people in the industry make enough to support themselves, and even their families, just trust me, you’ll be richer in friendship than wealth…unless you’re a complete prick (In which case you’ll probably end up in charge of a game studio and swimming in cash and–if there’s a God–cutting yourself every night as you drink yourself into unconsciousness wondering what is wrong with everyone else that makes them not like you).
Yeah the goods of being in the game industry = Going to work everyday with people you like, working on something that you love.
The con of being in the game industry = More money would be nice.
So that’s the lovey-dovey perspective on the industry, don’t get me wrong, it’s not all Kumbaya and s’mores but it passes the “Office Space” Test. If I had a butt-load of money and I didn’t need to work…God help me I’d still get up and drive through L.A. traffic to show up every morning.
This was going to be the part where I say that I wouldn’t actually show up every morning if I was suddenly rich, but I can’t. I’m scared to death to admit it, but I would show up every morning…it beats the hell out of daytime TV.
Game Corner?
4 Comments Moe asked me if I’d like to post here on the BadPopcorn blog, to talk about random game industry stuff. Maybe I should have said no.
Well it’s too late now, I said “I’d love to” or something similar and now I will have to live with the repercussions of my reckless words. I’m starting small though.
There is this odd thing that can happen when participating in team activities, where one person on the team is more burden than benefit, like an obsolete laptop computer, they’re heavy, slow, loud and only rarely useful (and even then only for short periods of time). When we play Halo3 at the BadPopcorn office that laptop is me.
So really, what can the guy with the most deaths and least kills say to the rest of the team? “Uh Sorry I suck guys”? Even if it is sincere, it isn’t going to make the sucking stop, the sucking will continue. I do not have an “A-Game” that I have been not bringing, that can be brought now that I have realized my suck-ocity. To paraphrase Descartes, I suck therefore I am.
So what can the guy that drags the team down do?
Well I could stop playing, but screw that, the game is fun even when I come in last…unerringly, completely, utterly last. As discussed earlier an apology just doesn’t seem right unless I intend to do something to lessen the chances of similar wronging in the future. I’m afraid I cannot promise that.
Leaving only one option, a simple and heartfelt admission of wrongdoing and regret…
So yeah, Moe. That rocket in your back when you were trying to splatter Ben on the Mongoose?
My Bad
Dr Horrible
1 Comment Just because I’ve watched Act I umpteen times and wish there will be more than III Acts.
privacy policy or the lack of it
3 Comments A few months ago I signed up for a SharedReviews beta account. The idea behind the site is to get solid reviews of products and pay the community 50/50 on certain revenue. Sounds pretty cool huh? Well it may be but as I was signing up I came across the privacy policy. Usually I just breeze through it but I decided to read this one.
“We protect your privacy with a passion!”
First, I want to say that I think ShareReviews is a cool site and I hope their business model works out. However, the privacy policy was kind of weird. It was actually amusing. Why do sites even have privacy policies? They should just come out and say “Yea, we’ll use your information for whatever we damn well please.” Below are some lines right of the policy.
“For the purposes of this policy, “Personal Information” means any information about you except your business title, address, e-mail address, telephone number or facsimile number. It also does not include your home address and telephone number if these are published in a telephone or other directory, and does not include any Review, content or other materials that you post or submit to use for possible publication. “
Umm….so what else is there? What exactly is private then?
“We do not sell your Personal Information to third parties. We may share some or all of your Personal Information with our third party business partners”
Hmmm ok. I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s a “review” site and to make money they are probably selling data. For that data to be worth anything they have to include user data with it. So why throw in the line about “we protect your privacy with a passion.” Half the business model is actually based upon doing the exact opposite.
Most users caring less is the worst part. We’ll go crazy if a telemarketer calls our house but we don’t blink while registering for a new site. Personally, I’m not against a website data mining to show relevant ads. Let’s take facebook for example. They will look at your profile and use that to display an advertisement. An advertiser will pay more to know that their ad is getting to their target demographic. I’m fine with that. I’m going to see an ad anyway, might as well see one that I might actually like. That’s how Google makes all their money.
What I don’t like is when companies sell information they collect. To me thats like selling hot pictures your ex girlfriend took for you. The ones she would dress up like a tiger and act like she is…ok getting off topic. The pictures were meant for you not the public or your favorite “rate this chick” website. Just because you don’t care about her anymore doesn’t mean you should go and sell something she wouldn’t want sold. However, let’s say you analyze the pictures. After hours of analyzing, and frequent naps, you say to yourself “hey i bet she would really like this lingerie site.” You contact her the usual way you two communicate and let her know that you are an affiliate for an animal lingerie site. Nothing wrong with that, right?
Friday Night…They Dine In Hell!
1 Comment 
Anyone want to meet up to go see “300” on Firday?
That’s really all I got
I’m indescribably psyched for the movie.
Ben, Corey…I can already see you smiling and nodding…through the internets I see it. (What the Fuck am I? Yoda?! Mmm through the internets I see it yeeesss Rock Ass it will!)
I am thinking of seeing it in the O.C. of course…I would be willing to brave the spectrum for this but as I said I am super-excited.
Who’s in?
Burning Crusade Mocks Me
1 Comment The box has been sitting on my desk for a few days. I want to play this game, and I want to run far far away.
Media Storage Format of the Future???
Comments Off Every few years or so there’s a new format that is supposed to revolutionize the way we store and transfer our data. In my opinion, storage has progressed in a manner that practically defines Evolution, not Revolution. Wether this is because of consumer quirkiness, Govenrment conspiracy, or Big Biddness reluctance to swerve from the status quo is an interesting question…for another time.
 A student at Muslim Educational Society Engineering College in Kuttipuram, has developed a storage format that has the potential to change the way the world stores data. Time will be the judge of whether or not it has the legs to go the distance, but I love the concept.
So, the short and sweet of it is that using “Rainbow Technology” one can essentially “Print” data onto paper, then it can be “Read” from a scanner. This would mean cheap and disposeable data storage. The article describes “Rainbow Cards” which would be SIM card size and store 5 gigs of data, predicting their cost to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 cents US. Sure that’s the manufacturer cost…they’ll probably mark it up at least 50% for consumers.
This concept is the kind of thing that causes the fabled “Nerdrection.” Buying a game or program that is stored on a piece of paper the same size as the reciept, having your resume stored as data on the back of your buisness card, saving a season of your favorite TV show to a couple of sheets of paper…make those Pee-chee folders useful again!
 And anything “Star Wars” related could come printed on Toilet Paper! Hey, George wipes his ass with it. Why can’t we?
I would have linked Star Wars to one of Lucas’ crimes against his fans but I can never decide which he should be shamed by more, the unfinished consistently buggy games, his violation of the original trilogy, or the slightly decreasing sins that he called the prequels.
In honor of the console launch Weekend
Comments Off I know it’s shallow to mention this right after the excessive force post but I fear it was launch day.
So PS3 has 3 robberies at gunpoint, one near riot, a stampede, and a BB-gun drive by resulting in a total of one shooting, one stabbing, one dislocated jaw and no small number of welts.
Now IF the vast majority of those people wanted the systems to use them it would be different, but most admit to buying them to re-sell them. Turns out that videogames do cause violence…just not among gamers.
Plus, if the following video is to be believed, the Wii is a far superior system.
How I Roll
Comments Off I have previously mentioned my love for the D most notably when partnered with that other D.
Well the most wonderful time of the year is back. It’s WorldWide D&D Game Day!
Much like all other religious holidays, Worldwide D&D Game Day has a loveable fictional character that goes around doling out rewards to the faithful.
Every year, on Worldwide D&D day, the Dragon-God-King Bahamut visits Munchkins all over the world, blessing them with good die rolls for the coming year. At the same time, the vile Whiny-Goth Drizzt visits Role-Players, giving them coffee and cigarettes to enjoy as they talk about their backstories and wax their Girl-Parts…
Yeah, I said it. And I won’t un-say it, I play games for fun, not to be an artsy pretentious bitch… And by the way…the drow are the goth versions of evles…you know that right? The race for people that are too artsy and pretentious to play elves! Go write Fan-fiction!
I’m not sure where that came from…I’m sorry dear readers…you didn’t need to see that, it was not in the spirit of WorldWide D&D day.Â
Anyway, Happy D&D day to all and may Bahamut bless your die rolls!