Thought of the Day - 9/29/2008

I wonder how long it will be until Heroes reveals that, in fact, every character of any consequence is actually in some way related to the Petrellis, revealing Tim Kring's intent on creating a sort of super-powered version of Dynasty.

-M

Adventures in Video Game Retail, Part Two (In a Series)

You know, I recently got promoted at GameStop. You'd think that this would get me more of these stories more often, but surprisingly I've mostly been dealing with relatively normal people (or, at least, weird people who don't really do anything of note).

This one isn't quite as amusing (or appalling) as the last one, but I got a good bit of bemusement out of it. This fella, let's just call him Guy, comes in on September 20 and trades in some Xbox accessory. After he takes his cash he wanders around the store a bit, asking questions here and there. At one point he comes to the counter and the following ensued. Keep in mind that Guy is at least 25 and may or may not have been cracked out of his mind (and also, that this is verbatim):

Guy: So, uh, when does Fable II come out?
Matt: October 21 [Insert mild banter about how ridiculously excited Matt is for the game]
Guy: Uh, how long from now is that?
Matt: [Bewildered stare] Uhm...just about a month, at this point.
Guy: Huh. Cool.
[Exit Guy.]

I just don't get people sometimes.

-M

RickRoll'd!

Some of you may have heard of Spore, a new video game from The Sims creator Will Wright. Spore takes the micro-management of The Sims and expands it to an evolutionary level - the game allows one to manage the evolution of a creature from the single-celled organism to the complex animal, giving the player the ability to customize everything along the way (creatures, buildings, spaceships) and share them with other players.

Naturally, a game featuring evolution in such a way was sure to raise issues with the creationist crowd, and soon after AntiSpore.com sprouted up. The blog (which touts the tagline "Resisting EA's attack on Creationism") attacked Spore for its attempt to assault Christian values and brainwash kids into believing in evolution.

Then came today's post. An excerpt:

...People of science claim that the Earth is the way it is because of millions of years of time and science effecting it. But we are taught and believe that our world is this way and has the aged look because of the flood of Noah. It was the waters covering the Earth on such a grand scale that caused the aging that people of science claim as proof.

But in the Bible we are told in Genesis 6:7 “So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth–men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air–for I am grieved that I have made them.””

But the Bible teaches us that God was not done with man. For we were His creation and He then spoke to Noah in Genesis 8:21-27 after the flood.
“21. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never gonna give you up. 22. “Never gonna let you down.” 23.”Never gonna run around and desert you.” 24. “Never gonna make you cry.” 25. “Never gonna say goodbye.” 26. “Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.” 27.”Never truly believe anything you read on the Internet. There will always be cases of Poe’s Law.”

By the by, Poe's Law basically that it's difficult to tell fake fundamentalism from real fundamentalism since they sound equally ridiculous.

The best Rick Roll of all time?

Hell yes.

-M

I would have laughed, if I could have remembered how...

Caught this during the season premiere of The Shield earlier tonight (review for that upcoming, by the way):

Color me skeptical. I was a huge fan of both of the games when they hit on the PC. On the whole the trailer seems to capture the feel of the games (Mila Kunis aside), although I am curious to know if it will stick to the original game's entire story - what with all the secret corporate espionage and what-not - or if it will stay closer to the game's first third, which is more of a hard-boiled cop yarn.

And seriously, what's with those demon things?

-M

Biting social commentary.

This has been circulating the interwebs for a while now, but I'm bored and I just had the internet restored at home, so there you go.

P. Diddy complains about high gas prices:

Diddy's gotten some flack about this video, but for real? It's obviously just some brilliant social satire, commentary meant to shock us out of our complacency. "You know what?" We're supposed to think. "Gas prices ARE too high." Diddy's "private jet" is symbolic of our SUV's, which we've sadly had to forego for smaller, more dangerous sedans.

Whoever the next President is, he's GOT to do something about this.

-M