Finally, there’s a video of people mentioning Michael Vick’s relativey harsh treatment.
Jamie Dukes, Deion Sanders, Marshall Faulk and Warren Sapp talk about how the backlash on Vick was a little too much. All of them noted that what he did was wrong.
And I completely agree on both points.
In my mind, why is Michael Vick being blacklisted when so many wife beating, drug using, hit and run driving, fight starting, gun carrying athletes are actively given second chances??? He fought dogs…but how’s that worse than beating the heck out of your girlfriend??? And I love dogs…
It’s a shame that people are so ready to call an end to GameStop because of a start-up company, OnLive, that hasn’t launched yet.
Some of the headlines were puns off of the GameStop name, but pretty much read the pretty much the same…streaming video games online to PCs and TVs would crush GameStop’s brick and mortar business model.
There are several observations/questions…
1) It’s not the idea, but the execution that counts. It won’t launch until Winter 09, and many things can change, like product delays, lack of funding (remember, the business is a start-up)
2) Will pricing and demand be enough to pay for the costs of running the business while enticing games to use the service?
3) Will latency and other major technical potential problems be worked out by the time of launch or soon enough after
Nonetheless, this COULD be another Blockbuster v Netflix (remember, people said that no one wanted to wait for DVDs in the mail).
No question that management at GameStop should watch OnLive and see how they are doing and formulate Plan B (I really do hope they don’t think they’re Superman) just in case. I mean, EA, Take-Two and other major publishers have apparently signed on, so there HAS to be something to it.
Actually, if customers want another distribution channel, GameStop should work on anyway to meet that demand, as a practical business exercise. CEO, Daniel Matteo, said on the 4th quarter earnings call that they’ve seen these types of things come and go. I have no doubt about it. Again, it’s not about the idea, but execution.
August 26, 2008By: Sekou Murphy Category: Animation, Art
For the Family Guy fans, including me, I’m ready for the internet-only cartoon series from Seth to debut on September 10 (I wrote about the cool distribution here as a different business model). Check out the site at sethcomedy.com, where you can see the teaser.
The style of the teaser suggests that if you like the style of Family Guy, and to an extent, American Dad, then you’ll like Calvalcade.
I’m pshyched. Calvacade is supposed to free Seth up to do uncensored stuff. Some of the DVDs he’s released in the past have been less censored (ie, he showed some cartoons that weren’t allowed to be aired).
May 30, 2008By: Sekou Murphy Category: Animation, Art
I’m not much of a comics buff.But what I like, I really like.
Spawn is one of my FAVORITES (I also like Blokhedz, a cool hip hop cartoon, the movie version I hope will be out sometime in 2009).I popped in HBO’s season 1 in the DVD player so I’m ampped, even though it came out in 1997 (the comic edition came out in 1992 after creator, Todd McFarlane, left Marvel with some others to form Image Comics).
Basically, Spawn was a former CIA covert ops guy named Al Simmons.He was one of the agency’s best hit men until Jason Wynn, Director of the United States Security Group (which oversaw the CIA), agreed to have him killed for asking one-too-many questions of missions having increasingly questionable purpose.Wynn made the deal with Malebolgia, ruling demon of the 8th Sphere of Hell, in exchange for psychoplasm, thereby giving Wynn super powers.
Malebogia officially made Simmons a Hellspawn (a general Hell’s army against heaven), in exchange for allowing Simmons to see his wife again.
Spawn has these really cool powers too (teleportation, quick-time healing, super-human strength).Spawn has a symbiotic relationship with his costume, which protects him (his cape can attack and help him fly, and even creates a shroud to transform Spawn into anyone he wants; his chains can also attack).
Wikipedia does a really good job of giving you a more detailed background.
Last May 2007, Todd MacFarlane, creator of Spawn, came out with Spawn: Godslayer.Here’s a free peak at the first edition.He’s on his 8th edition, now, which came out in April 2008.
Before we get into piracy, a word from McLovin (of SuperBad) on the topic.
Matt Mason, in his book “Pirate’s Dilemma: How Youth Culture is Reinventing Capitalism” discusses a fascinating look into what is very possible a mega trend…piracy in other forms – not just music but everything, how technology is making piracy easier and how, on some level, it should be embraced.
As far as the first two points, sure, there have been bootleg BMWs, watches, software, but Matt’s talking about a world where it’s becoming much easier.
An example, is the 3D printer, which has been talked about for a while (heard about this at about the same time I heard that someone built a PC accessory that could replicate smells over the internet).
As far as it being embraced, I remember an old professor of mine, Pete Fader, a marketing professor at Wharton who’s known for his patented rants, arguing that file sharing was actually good for copyright holders (primarily record labels and their artists). It created buzz. Matt also talks about this in that the demographic who would get pirated material is not the demographic who would actually buy the material. Fader argued that the labels were wrong when saying that they lost $X amount in revenues due to pirated materials. “That’s ridiculous!” Fader said. Just because you can’t get something for free, doesn’t mean you’ll buy it otherwise.
While thinking that copyright laws should be updated, Matt likes the idea of piracy (mentioning that he can’t wait for his book to be pirated).
I actually agree, in concept. I like the idea that new business models need to emerge. That’s why I like open markets. It forces companies, and thus, products, to evolve.
But if I spend a lot of money to make intellectual property, I deserve the right to protect it, regardless of borders.
That notwithstanding, I also think some forms of IP can be seen as marketing materials for a greater thing. Classic example is music. Because of the amount of music put out yearly and the lack of distinguishing characteristics of some tracks to others, music seems more like a commodity. As such, it could be effectively used to market the artist. Artists can let viral marketing take over, bootlegged or not. In fact, in this scenario, you want people to pirate it because it costs you nothing…free marketing to create demand.
The model that I favor is a controlled “open” IP.
Software companies have been doing things like this for a LONG time. Adobe let people get Reader (reads pdf documents) for free to help create demand for Acrobat (to make pdf), for which it charges.
This model might be able to be used consistently for all IP and is a direct link to revenue– that’s why I like it.
Finally, there’s a video of people mentioning Michael Vick’s relativey harsh treatment.
agreed to have him killed for asking one-too-many questions of missions having increasingly questionable purpose.
