Fox strands Terra Nova residents in the distant past...

 Just when Terra Nova was starting to get interesting, Fox today announced that they were canceling the ambitious, but flawed, show. I watched every episode, feeling obligated to support the kind of show I wanted to see more of, even if it took them awhile to get rolling.The Shannon's react to news that Terra Nova has been canceled.

I should have known better than to get interested in a big-budget science-fiction television series, especially one on one of the big-four networks. The list of shows that I enjoyed for a brief run before they met their early demise is vast and goes back to the 1970's. Some of the shows were actually great and deserved more attention (Firefly, Jericho, The Event); others were not as good as I would have wanted them to be, but were still fun and ambitious (The Dollhouse, Surface). Terra Nova is in that latter group. There was a lot to love about the back-to-the-land-of-dinosaurs eco-fable, but they writers and producers wasted too many early episodes on side stories and one-off events. Had they jumped right into the larger conspiracy they may have been able to hold on to the above-average audience numbers that watched the premier. As it is, I wonder if the cancellation marks the end of ambitious, big-budget science-fiction on the networks at least for a while.  

The Dark Age of Video Games

The landscape of video games is changing. It has been happening for quite a while now: slowly at first, but growing in momentum as time goes on. The shift from physical media to digital-only distribution allows for an unsurpassed level of convenience, but what are we giving up in the transition?

When I was younger a "Video Game" was a large wooden monolith that sat prominently in the lobby of the pizza parlors and arcades in my neighborhood. The colorfully painted cabinets waited there, beckoning potential players with their glowing phosphors and gulping down quarters with hungry blips and beeps. Like the movies of the same era, playing video games was a destination activity; you just couldn't get the arcade experience at home. In order to play video games you had to grab a handful of quarters, strap on your Reebok high-top sneakers, and ride your BMX bike to the corner arcade. With VCRs still mostly a luxury item and home consoles featuring painfully basic graphics, the idea of owning a movie or an arcade game wasn't really plausible at the time.

However, in a few short years both video games and movies saw a dramatic shift that changed the way people thought about media in general. The VCR's wide acceptance changed watching movies from a destination activity to an experience that people could actually buy and take home. In the same vein, video game consoles that could approximate the arcade experience found their way into the homes of a new generation - and arcades began to atrophy in direct proportion. People could now own and collect the games they loved, display them proudly on the shelves, and revisit them whenever they wanted to.

This new business model offered freedom for individuals, but became a thorn in the side for game developers and publishers. Because games could now be owned, they could also be copied - and with the advent of the internet, widely distributed. The handful of bootlegs that afflicted the industry during the arcade years were fairly small compared to the number of digital copies that could be disseminated using the power of the internet. The Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems that had attempted to thwart copying software on computers ("Don't Copy That Floppy!"), evolved and continued to be integral in the cat and mouse game between game developers, and software crackers. The original methods, which protected the software by tying it to the physical media it was printed on, evolved into protecting the data itself through advanced cryptographic systems.

As the internet becomes more ubiquitous, with information freely moving through the very air around us and harnessed by devices in our pocket that would have been science fiction 15 short years ago, people are embracing convenience over ownership. The games that are purchased through the iPhone are not tied to a physical media; they exist entirely as information - and DRMed information at that. Steam, PlayStation Network, and Xbox Live all serve DRM content at the push of a button, with immediate results. Like rats in Skinner's Box, as consumers we push the download button and receive an immediate reward. As a consumer I appreciate this age of convenience, but are we trading away our children's heritage?

The period of time between the fall of the roman empire and the Renaissance is known as the "Dark Ages". The amount of literature and written history about this time is vary scarce, leaving historians in the dark about much of what occurred during these centuries. By embracing digital only content protected with DRM, are we creating our own Dark Age of Video Games?  The majority of DRMed content we buy today is tied to a particular account or device. When those devices break and the companies distributing the game shut down their servers or go out of business, what will happen to our games?

This concern is more than just personal. When my kids grow up to be my age, I want to share with them the games that have meant the most to me over the years. Will these digital-only games become no more than ghost stories passed down to younger generations; Phantoms that cannot be truly experienced because they have vanished through the unstoppable progression of technology? I will certainly be able to share the games of my own childhood. While the arcades from 30 years ago may be gone, the games live on. If I want to play Ms. Pac-Man, I can turn on the physical arcade cabinet that lives in my game room, or visit one of the arcade museums that preserve our gaming past. If I want to revisit Atari 2600 games, or my Nintendo Entertainment System games, I just place the games into my console; and if my console breaks, I can use those same games in another one. This is not the case for the new digital media. Once the devices and services that offer them are defunct, the games themselves will fade into oblivion - or in best case, be sold to us again and again by the publishers on each new electronic device that makes its debut.

I am expecting a new baby daughter in June. I want to share with her my love for games, but more importantly, I want her to be able to share her own childhood gaming experiences with her children decades from now. But, with the way game distribution is heading, I'm not sure that she will have that opportunity, which saddens me. As a game developer myself, I want my games to live on, to be experienced by future generations and proudly kept as mementos on shelves. Somehow this new crop of digital only games seems to marginalize the value of games a bit. There is nothing there to physically hold, treasure and keep on the shelves for a rainy day. Most digital-only games are bought for less than the cost of a cup of coffee - and discarded just as quickly. It pains me to think of a future where video games are as disposable as the cheap toy in a Happy Meal.

My video game collection has great value to me. It's exists, not just as a vehicle to visit the past, but as a window into our own cultural history. Regardless of your stance about whether video games are an art form, it can't be denied that they have a very real, very prominent, lasting influence on our society. As a culture, we are shocked at the thought of burning books and permanently censoring the art and information that lies within, yet by embracing digital only DRMed content, we are effectively throwing it into the fire pit to feed the flames.

To have faith that the games will persist through developers and publishers is also dangerously optimistic. I have worked for several developers where the source code to older games has been lost through the many closures, restructures, and sales that have become all to common in the industry. And even when the code is readily accessible, publishers often find a way to "add value" to games by changing or remastering them. This can be compared to the current state of the movie Star Wars. In the memorable cantina scene, Han Solo talks to the bounty hunter Greedo, and shots are fired. Even though all recent copies of the movie have Greedo shooting first, that isn't the way the movie was originally filmed. Luckily, with physical media, there is still a tangible record in the VHS tapes of old that Han Solo was a much more nuanced character than his remastered alter-ego would suggest. With games living entirely in the digital, details like this can be changed in our favorite games as well, except with no physical media, the original version will be lost to the ages and exist only in our faltering collective memories.

Now it may seem like I should be standing on the side of the road with a cardboard sign proclaiming the end of the world, but in reality I embrace the strides that a global network has made in enhancing video games. I have made a career out of utilizing the internet to allow people to interact, create communities, and explore new forms of interactivity in games; experiences that would have been impossible without an Internet. With this new medium, games are reaching people of all demographics, by bringing the video game stigma out of the basement and onto the streets. I love games, and when you love something you also worry about it. It is with these feelings that I cautiously step forward into the new digital gamescape that we are creating. It's incredibly exciting to experience such a quickly changing frontieer, but at the same time, I don't want to trade a lifetime of enjoyment for a fleeting moment of convenience.

I don't think we have to settle for one or the other, though. Developers and publishers are still working out the logistics of this shift in distribution and experimenting with different models. For example, Sony's new PlayStation Vita handheld is offering content on both physical media and through digital-only distribution, which is a great compromise for convenience and conservation. While the physical media may have copy protection built into it, the games will still be playable in the future, even when the Vita hardware is no longer supported.

Still another model is being embraced by game developer Double Fine in their recently launched Kickstarter project for "Double Fine Adventure", which will be available through DRM based digital channels, but also as a DRM free digital copy. Even with a digital-only model, the lack of DRM will allow the game to persist. As a direct result, I will not only be able to show my daughter the wonderful adventure games of my youth such as Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island, but I will be able to show her the digital game released on the year of her birth, because Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert were cognizant of the importance of games without DRM and offered a distribution model that will allow their new game to sit along side their current classics for years into the future..

The industry is still in largely uncharted waters, and I expect much change in the next few years, but I hope that more developers will follow Schafer's lead and take steps to ensure that we don't blindly embrace content with a DRM time-bomb. By keeping conservation in mind and demanding content that will persist, we can avoid a Dark Age of Video Games.

Am I preaching to the choir, or completely insane? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section.

Can John Carter Survive Today's Audiences?

Okay, this is scary.  Folks are predicting an epic fail for John Carter.  Why?  Well, you can read about that in this article that first appeared in The Hollywood Reporter: Disney Scrambles to Save its $250 Million Gamble. 

I think the promo people at Disney could've started by coming up with a better poster.My first thought is to blame the promoters.  Why haven't they emphasized the fact that this is John Carter OF MARS by EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS.  And why did they change the title form its original A Princess of Mars?  Well, I guess its Disney's tradition of princesses, and they didn't want the unkowning public to think this was one of their "princess" films, which could alienate (snicker) the male audience.  Then why not call it something pulpy like John Carter and the Princess of Mars?  You emphasize the hero (say, like Indiana Jones) and you pay homage to the source material.  Why not promote the creator and all he's done for science fiction and fantasy?  Who knows?

And then I have to wonder if the source material is too old.  Yes, it has inspired more material than I can possible list, let's just throw Star Wars out as an example, but is John Carter too heroic for today's audiences.  Burroughs's characters were, without a doubt, heroic and good.  The women were beautiful, needed to be rescued, and madly in love with the hero (even though she played hard to get).  I've already noticed they're turning Dejah into a warrior woman.  I can live with that, but I beg them not to turn JC into the brooding, insecure whiner which fills books and films today, let's throw Anikin from Star Wars out there as an example.  What's wrong with a hero being , well, heroic.  For some reason, that concept is dated and laughable to a lot of young folk today.

So, I guess I really blame those pour souls raised on recent films (say, like anything by Michael Bay) which is nothing more than a series of action sequences and lots of computer animation.  John Carter is definitely going to have its share of CGI (which always makes me nervous), but a lot of the discussion I've seen online has JC being called a rip off of AVATAR!  What!?  This, just to let you know, ticks me off greatly.  It's bad enough that these folks only acknowledge movies made within the last year or two as the only ones being worthy of watching, but it's worse that they have no conception of anything existing before the soulless tripe they love to watch so much.  I would love to look those folks in the eyes and ask how a film based on a book written about a hundred years ago could rip off something made a few years ago.  But then I stop, take a deep breath, and remember who I imagine I'm talking to.  Yes, the viewing public who would make the movie has already judged John Carter and found it wanting.  So is there any hope despite what the promoters will do?  I don't know.  I hope so.

I'd love to see the first three Barsoom books on film anyway - and Disney had planned on more than one film - but now, it looks grim.   John Carter may have saved Barsoom, but sadly, I don't know if he'll be able to save this film.

Prêt-à-Porter - A Review

And so there I was, front row center in New York's fashion district, watching as the next season of clothing strutted across the catwalk. I wiped the cheese dust from my fingers, and casually stroked my fashionable neckbeard. (From what I could tell, neckbeards appeared to be trending last season in Milan.) The auditorium dimmed and I waited, nervously.  Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy" began thumping from the sound system as the lights rotated into place, illuminating the thin walkway that my models were about to grace.

My first model set foot on the stage... and there was a collective gasp of horror from the audience. My worst fears were realized! I had spent all of my money following trends, and paid no attention to the quality focused market here. I made a gamble by trying to save money on inferior materials, but the audience definitely wasn't buying the "Burlap Chic" angle. This would be the end. I had borrowed money on empty promises and the hope that "Meeple Tees" would take the world by storm. Instead, my kneecaps had an inevitable meeting with Guido in the alleyway. It was this painful regret that would spell the end of my career as a fashionista... until the next game of Prêt-à-Porter, at least.

Ignacy Trzewiczek has always impressed me with his game design. I gave solid marks to his fantasy siege title "Stronghold" and I was very excited to see what he had been cooking up at Portal Publishing in the past year. Luckily, his recent release, Prêt-à-Porter is now being distributed through Eagle Games in North America.

Surprisingly, this new game doesn't feature the castles, mutants, or postnuclear settings that Portal has become known for, instead opting for the ruthless world of off-the-shelf fashion. While I might have originally been a bit nonplussed by the fashion theme, once the confusion passed, I was happy to recognize Prêt-à-Porter for the deep, meaty, worker placement oriented business simulation that it is. 

In Prêt-à-Porter, players are growing a fashion business from the ground up, and trying to find success in an ultra-competitive market. Gameplay revolves around managing money; purchasing designs and materials; as well as managing a staff of workers, real-estate, and contracts with the ultimate goal of selling Prêt-à-Porter (ready to wear clothing) through a series of fashion shows. The player who can best juggle all of these aspects of business will make the most money and emerge as the next Vera Wang of board game simulated fashion.

Click to read more ...

Review: Chronicle (2012) Dir. Josh Trank

Chronicle Review

One of my favorite comics of the last few years is Robert Kirkman’s Invincible. It tells the story of a regular teenager coming in to his superpowers. The comic eschews normal comic book conflict in favor of real, human problems. Chronicle takes a similar approach but goes one step further, stripping away all but the most necessary components of a super-hero story (the super powers themselves). This is the story of three young men who discover they have super powers and have no one to turn to for help other than each other.

The characters in Chronicle are cut from a pretty broad cloth. The three teens fit nicely in to familiar categories: the troubled outcast, the jock, the preppy. The jock (Matt) provides the connection between the others; he is the cousin of our troubled teen (Andrew) and friends with the preppy (Steve). When these three get super powers after discovering a mysterious object, we would have to be pretty vapid not to know where things are going. Give a troubled, abused teen super powers and things are bound to get bad before long. Chronicle doesn’t have much in the way of surprises for us. The teens behave like we expect movie teens in their situation to behave. There is inevitability to Andrew’s decline that permeates the film even during the festive scenes when the teens are discovering all of their new abilities. I’ve heard it suggested that the film could have been improved simply by changing which character goes “bad,” but that doesn’t work for me as it isn’t too uncommon to see a jock or a preppy go bad in genre films, which tend to celebrate the outcasts and vilify the popular. I think the characters, as archetypal as they may be, work well enough, thanks, mainly, to solid performances by the three principal actors.

The film is the first for director Josh Trank and writer Max Landis, who both come to the project after beginning in television. It is an auspicious debut for both. Though I would certainly have rather seen Trank abandon or, at least, supplement the “found footage” format, he keeps things moving briskly and provides the viewer with dozens of memorable images. The action scenes and big set pieces are especially well-handled, but the small, intimate scenes also play well.  Perhaps that is helped along by Landis’s screenplay, which puts words in the characters’ mouths that you could actually imagine them saying, a rarity for genre films, and gets the core emotions of all three protagonists just right.  Here’s hoping we can keep both of these gentlemen working in genre film for a while at least.  Does the Invincible project still need a director? a sceenplay?

Chronicle isn’t a perfect picture by any means.  I really disliked the poetic license the film took in order to get a camera in every scene (though the blending of hand-held and security cam footage was handled well).  Every character not among the main three was completely flat and uninteresting.  Still, despite those problems, the film was very enjoyable.   I especially enjoyed the section in which the teens were learning what all they were capable of, and, especially, the amazing talent show.  With any luck, getting such a solid genre picture in the wasteland that is February releases means we have a very good year to look forward to.   

Score:  8.5/10