South Park: The Stick of Truth triumphed over adversity to become a critical and commercial success. It was a gamble on a franchise that had never had a great game, went through a protracted development cycle, and survived the closing of its original publisher. Three years later South Park: The Fractured but Whole may not have had as many roadblocks, but it is a sequel to a surprise hit being developed by a different team and attempting to be just as successful as its predecessor. While it may not reach the heights that The Stick of Truth hit, this is a worthy sequel.
So, this blog a day thing is proving to be interesting. I have things I am planning to write, of course. Some writing exercises, some stabs at narrative, and of course some thoughts about video games and the industry/hobby as a whole. But on a day like this, right before bed? I don't have the foggiest about what to write. So I think I'm going to resurrect something I used to do on my live journal back in the day: random thoughts. Yep, I literally just thought about that as I was typing this intro.
So some of you may remember a week or so ago I had fired up the N64 and found that Donkey Kong 64 and 1080 Snowboarding would glitch after a few minutes of playing. I mentioned that I had been fiddling with the A/V cables (now that I remember red goes in the middle, there should be a lot less of that in the future) and turning the console on/off several times trying to get it to work, as well as the fact for some reason I always seem to have to turn the DVD player on then off to get full image and sound... I actually don't think that's entirely true, and next time without any A/V cable troubleshooting, I don't think that'll be the case. I need to work on getting my color-coded wires down before I fail to diffuse a bomb and kill myself. After that stunt I pulled on my neighbors with the HAL 3000 two blogs ago, It's only a matter of time, really.
Many senators and pundits for legislature have heard negative criticism for their stance on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), however few have earned as much criticism as former senator Chris Dodd. The current president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) vocally supported SOPA until its demise. Now Chris Dodd has added some comments that may earn himself a prosecution for bribery:
Earlier this week it was announced that SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) had lost tremendous amounts of support in the Senate and Congress. The loss of support was in large part due to the number of blackouts that occurred all over the internet protesting these bills. In line with these developments house judiciary committee chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) both announced plans to delay any further movement on either piece of legislation.
At this point I'm pretty sure everybody is completely sick of hearing about SOPA and PIPA. I know I am. But still, I wanted to talk a little bit about the blackout protest many sites participated in a couple days ago. For starters, I'd like to applaud the efforts of all of the individual sites out there that were a part of the protest. If PixlBit were any bigger, I'd have gladly participated, but we're not in a position where we could afford to be offline for a day. While I'm fully aware of the absolutely horrific side effects these bills could have on the Internet, I'm not sure any of it was truly tangible until Wednesday's blackout.
Yesterday, a number of sites, including Wikipedia and That Guy With The Glasses, went "black" in protest of the SOPA and PIPA bills. Both bills have seen mounting opposition from the internet community, Hollywood, and other creative industries. Members of Congress seem to be paying attention, as representatives and senators are dropping their support of the bills left and right.
Have you ever been on YouTube to see a message that a video has been removed to protect someone's intellectual property or prevent copyright prevention? Yes? Well, have you ever seen that message when trying to view a promotional trailer released specifically to be placed on YouTube by various members of the media? Doesn't that sound a little mind-numbing? Click through to find a link to hear more about this particular issue, and how I reflect it to the SOPA & PIPA bills currently being talked about in the US Congress. Oh, but there's a lot more to PB & Jason than just those bills; click through to see the rest!
Today Mike discusses a topic that affects everyone here. The SOPA bill, if passed, could drastically change the landscape of the internet forever. Click through to hear Mike's explanation of and thoughts on the controversial bill and add to the discussion by sounding off in the comments section.
Listen to this week's (best ever issue) of PB & Jason and find all you could ever want to hear about my thoughts of a sequel to Disney Epic Mickey. Spoiler alert: This is one 2012 release I'm not at all excited about.
The SOPA saga continues! We’ve been reporting on the ongoing struggle between the video game industry and the Stop Online Piracy Act lately. Even though heavy hitters like Sony, Nintendo, and EA have pulled their support for the controversial bill, the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) still supports it. Many renowned companies are members of the ESA, and thereby support SOPA by proxy. One developer, Mommy’s Best Games, is stepping up and trying to get the ESA to pull their SOPA support.
Electronic Arts, Nintendo and Sony Electronics have taken their names off the list of supporters for the US Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA. GamesRadar is reporting that although they initially included themselves back in September 2011 when the bill was introduced, the three gaming giants' names have been removed from the list.
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has been a hot button issue among gamers, writers, and anyone that uses the internet for more than email and shopping. Ostensibly a bill designed to put an end to piracy, the wording is so broad that it would be possible for the U.S. government to shut down any website that features any copyrighted material. That affects everything, from Facebook to YouTube to your very own PixlBit. Many large companies, such as EA and Nintendo, support SOPA. The hacker group Anonymous is stepping in now and they have threatened to attack Sony over their support of the controversial bill.