Is it just me, or are the new Apple commercials actually making the PC look _far_ more appealing than the Mac? And not just to an old PC user...but to a brand-new customer?
Basically, their adds are portraying the Mac as a fun, flashy, shiny toy with lots of cool things for the kids...and the PC as a machine that can actually do all of those things too, but would _rather_ balance your checkbook and be businesslike. This is pretty much how these commercials have always gone...but the latest cycle of them have the 'Mac' coming across as even more toylike and smarmy, and the PC as quite sympathetic, hardworking, and striving to be the best for all possible users.
It's quite strange. I always thought the first round of commercials were insulting, but these are just..pathetic.
Giant Robots virtually never are influenced to buy something from a commercial...but are quite often influenced what NOT to buy. East Side Mario's, I'm looking at you...
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Monday, December 11, 2006
Gaming
PVP vs. PVE. One of the great controversies in gaming right now, thanks to MMORPGs, but it's been there, on the fringes, ever since networkable gaming became something seriously possible a decade ago. Most 'real' gamers seem to lean towards PVP...but there's still a healthy support for PVE, as the popularity of such servers on WoW show. But I've been wondering about the type of person that picks one over the other.
Just a hunch, and I doubt that a statistically realistic survey would ever be made on the subject, but I'm thinking that ones real-life job or occupation has a real impact on it. My reasoning goes something like this: PVPers are likely to be found in jobs that have rather little personal interaction, or, if they do meet with people on a regular basis, it's in a non-competitive basis (they don't need to get ahead of anyone they actually meet with). IT types, for example. These people enjoy the competitive aspect of PVP because they don't have competition with people in real life. They tend to feel more secure in their jobs and positions. Their work may be perfectly intellectually stimulating and enjoyable...but there's that element of hostile personal interaction that's lacking. That's what PVP supplies.
People in more competitive or political jobs (like yours truly, for instance) likely tend towards PVE. This is probably both because of a surefiet of competition in their daily working lives, but also as a means of establishing 100% control over at least a small part of it. Certainly I have no problems admitting that's part of it. When I play a game these days, I don't necessarily WANT challange or competitive stimulation. What I want is either a creative urge (single-player Railroads, or SimCity, or something similar) or an affirming urge (stomping the everlasting shit out of AI). It's less about expanding skills than exercising existing ones in a safe and controlled environment.
Is this just a way to justify being an Internet wuss with a tiny e-peener? Yeah, pretty much. But at least I put some thought into it.
Giant Robots have MASSIVE e-peeners, made of Special Metal Z.
Just a hunch, and I doubt that a statistically realistic survey would ever be made on the subject, but I'm thinking that ones real-life job or occupation has a real impact on it. My reasoning goes something like this: PVPers are likely to be found in jobs that have rather little personal interaction, or, if they do meet with people on a regular basis, it's in a non-competitive basis (they don't need to get ahead of anyone they actually meet with). IT types, for example. These people enjoy the competitive aspect of PVP because they don't have competition with people in real life. They tend to feel more secure in their jobs and positions. Their work may be perfectly intellectually stimulating and enjoyable...but there's that element of hostile personal interaction that's lacking. That's what PVP supplies.
People in more competitive or political jobs (like yours truly, for instance) likely tend towards PVE. This is probably both because of a surefiet of competition in their daily working lives, but also as a means of establishing 100% control over at least a small part of it. Certainly I have no problems admitting that's part of it. When I play a game these days, I don't necessarily WANT challange or competitive stimulation. What I want is either a creative urge (single-player Railroads, or SimCity, or something similar) or an affirming urge (stomping the everlasting shit out of AI). It's less about expanding skills than exercising existing ones in a safe and controlled environment.
Is this just a way to justify being an Internet wuss with a tiny e-peener? Yeah, pretty much. But at least I put some thought into it.
Giant Robots have MASSIVE e-peeners, made of Special Metal Z.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Relying on the Internet
...is not always a really good thing to do.
For instance, if you wish to know the absolute, up-to-the-second, very latest news concerning the battle between the Wii and the PS3, then the Internet is good. If you with to have the precise details of the precise amount of corruption found within the Bush or Blair administrations at any given date, the Internet is useful. If you need obscure sports scores from the Italian Serie C2, the Internet is for you.
But if you want to know who happens to be the premier of the Canadian province that you happen to live in...well then, the Internet might NOT be for you.
I'm not saying it's not out there...cause it certainly is, and is probably easier to find than Serie C2 scores (Sorrento beat Val di Sangro 4-0, if you were interested). But the Internet tends to divide itself into two categories: information you're interested in (in my case, obscure sporting leagues), and information EVERYONE IN THE WORLD is interesed in (Bush's IQ). When you surf, these two categories are going to be what pops up most of the time. Things that might be important to you, but which you're not particularly interested in, aren't likely to force their way into your conciousness.
Sometimes though, it might be better if it did. This might be the area where newspapers will continue to hold their edge. No matter what your interest, when you pick up a physical piece of paper and turn it in your hands, you can't help but read all of the headlines, even if they don't interest you. And in the rare cases where the information isn't directly in the headline, you're still fairly likely to go, 'oh yeah, shit, maybe I should look up who the leader of my province is'. That's a strength. But I still probably won't ever be picking up one unless it happens to be on a MacDonald's table.
Giant Robots have nothing much to say, but say it anyways.
For instance, if you wish to know the absolute, up-to-the-second, very latest news concerning the battle between the Wii and the PS3, then the Internet is good. If you with to have the precise details of the precise amount of corruption found within the Bush or Blair administrations at any given date, the Internet is useful. If you need obscure sports scores from the Italian Serie C2, the Internet is for you.
But if you want to know who happens to be the premier of the Canadian province that you happen to live in...well then, the Internet might NOT be for you.
I'm not saying it's not out there...cause it certainly is, and is probably easier to find than Serie C2 scores (Sorrento beat Val di Sangro 4-0, if you were interested). But the Internet tends to divide itself into two categories: information you're interested in (in my case, obscure sporting leagues), and information EVERYONE IN THE WORLD is interesed in (Bush's IQ). When you surf, these two categories are going to be what pops up most of the time. Things that might be important to you, but which you're not particularly interested in, aren't likely to force their way into your conciousness.
Sometimes though, it might be better if it did. This might be the area where newspapers will continue to hold their edge. No matter what your interest, when you pick up a physical piece of paper and turn it in your hands, you can't help but read all of the headlines, even if they don't interest you. And in the rare cases where the information isn't directly in the headline, you're still fairly likely to go, 'oh yeah, shit, maybe I should look up who the leader of my province is'. That's a strength. But I still probably won't ever be picking up one unless it happens to be on a MacDonald's table.
Giant Robots have nothing much to say, but say it anyways.
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