Innovation in the online media space

I usually like calling out an innovative new business model whenever I see one, but usually I wouldn’t equate World Wrestling Entertainment (or WWE for short) with an innovative new business model that will prove to the the rule rather than the exception.

Anyways, most people think of pro wrestling as a pseudo-sport, and while that is partially true, I feel that the whole idea of entertaining people in an athletic way is something that all the major professional sports leagues are doing anyway, and the WWE (or WWF/World Wrestling Federation as it has been known in the past) has really become known as kind of an innovator in sports being classified more as entertainment than as actual sports.

So, that innovation has become the new WWE Network, where basically you pay just $9.99/month, with a 6 month commitment, to have access to the entire library of WWE pay-per-views, including live WWE pay-per-views, and have something of a nonlinear network structure to boot.

The nonlinear network structure, and the fact that you can actually queue up old programming, or start from the very beginning of a program you want to watch, is a truly innovative idea that, in my opinion, supersedes that of the whole idea of sports-as-entertainment as being the most innovative idea that has sprung from anyone’s mind, ever.  I challenge everyone who isn’t a fan of sports being entertainment to stop for one second and figure out if that is, indeed, what the professional sports leagues are REALLY doing and see that the idea of actually UNDERVALUING their content, and charging a REASONABLE price per month like Vince McMahon is doing is actually really the wave of the future.  

People are going to try to DVR your content anyway, so why do you continue to stick like glue to an antiquated business model that basically the WWE Network has essentially upended?

Happy 2014! Also, A Wild Focus Shift Appears!

Well well well, didya miss me?

Welcome to my first blog of 2014!  And this is a goodbye of sorts to the way I *was* blogging towards the end of 2013.  You see, I took an entire month and a half off to completely retool how I was to be blogging.  I’ve been noticing how much my focus has been wavering from topics that everyone can be enjoying, and this year, 2014, will be my return.  Specifically, it’s time I tried focusing on one subject as my main blog.  Which, as of February 1st, isn’t going to be this one.  Let me explain:

I’ve been trying to build a relationship with a gaming-focused PR firm, Evolve PR, and one thing I am noticing is how unprofessional it seems to have a blog that isn’t entirely laser-focused on video games.  

So, as of next Monday, February 3rd, 2014, I will be blogging primarily at bjsgaming.blogspot.com.  That’s just a temporary domain, but that will be exclusively about video games.  

As a result of this, I will be working on the transition to my new gaming blog over the next couple of days (and even a bit on Super Bowl Sunday), so this is going to (hopefully) be temporary and I will hopefully be posting more and more over the next few months.  Right now I have quite a few posts on here that I am going to be gradually transitioning to the new blog, and as a result of preparing posts, I am going to be exceedingly busy the next couple of days.

Also, posting will now be at least every Monday Wednesday and Friday.  I say at least because there may be breaking news like Nintendo Direct broadcasts which I will want to continue my coverage of.  

Also, one significant change is that I am finally going to be retiring my As The Steam/GOG Turns column.  The plan was at least to have a month-end wrapup, but as I continued to retool what I’m going to be doing moving forward, I realized that even that was going to be overwhelming.  As a result, I am going to be covering a great many more GOG releases as a result moving forward.

Also, I am eventually going to be reviewing games that can be found at GOG.com (many of which are exclusive either permanently or temporarily), because many people don’t actually like Steam as a store, and I totally understand that.  Also GOG was practically winning most weeks that they didn’t have something on a ridiculous sale anyways, so declaring a winner and moving on instead of continuing the soap opera was hugely beneficial for me as a writer and it frees me up a lot more than people will realize.

One final thing: I will be trying to space out posts you’ve already seen, so much so that Flashback Fridays will be a thing.  And after I’ve exhausted all my gaming-related postings, I am going to be using Flashback Fridays as a venue to espouse about retro gaming related topics, something I continue to learn more and more about all the time.  You’re welcome.

The Top Picks from Day One of GOG.com's DRM-Free Holiday Sale

Well, after absurd amounts of requests from folks, I am going to give my top picks from GOG.com’s DRM-Free Holiday Sale (and Steam’s whenever that happens).

Here’s the deal, however: Number one, I am NOT, repeat NOT going to go through every single deal.  I am only giving my picks of best value given the non-sale price, no more and no less.

With that little disclaimer out of the way, here we go:

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream $2.99 (50% off): If you are a Harlan Ellison fan, this is almost too absurd a deal to pass up.

Papers, Please $6.66 (33% off): While the price might not technically be good, the game is apparently superb.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings $9.99 (50% off): This is almost a criminal price tag.  The original game RETAILS for $9.99, so this one is not one to pass up.

Trine 2: The Complete Story $3.99 (80% off): This may very well be my Deal of the Day from a pure value perspective.  This game looked FABULOUS when I saw TotalBiscuit and the Yogscast play it.  Seeing it at $3.99 for the entire story?  Well what are you waiting for?

Nastybad Doomsayer Things and the Idea of Loyalty in a Digital Age

The LivingSocial outage last week brought on some real doomsayers, including those at slate.com, calling Groupon the "undisputed winner" and predicting LivingSocial's demise.

 

Unfortunately, what these doomsayers fail to grasp is the idea of loyalty in the digital age: If you do not earn loyalty, you are truly doomed. Nintendo is slowly but surely winning me back on the loyalty front, while companies like Hyperkin and Apple have my utmost loyalty at this point.

 

Now, loyalty in this case does NOT mean blind devotion against all else. Unlike, say, Fandroids (aka Android fans) who force the Android mobile operating system down your throat at every given opportunity, the loyalty I am talking about is the kind that matters: Someone (especially a digital store) that you trust with your money. I trust Amazon only so far with my money. Same with PayPal. Same with Humble Bundle.

 

But something like GOG? I can trust them implicitly with money and any "major purchases" that I make on my GOG account, I trust GOG to not screw me over, or add stupid hoops I have to jump through, I trust GOG to hold my data, not use it for ill purposes, and in general give me a lot of value for my dollar. That is true digital loyalty, ladies and gentlemen.

 

As far as "loyalty" goes among digital deal websites, I go where the deals are. Now whether those deals are on Groupon, or LivingSocial, or AmazonLocal, or some weird deal site associated with a magazine or other website, I care not. If there is a deal I'm interested in, I get that deal regardless of the site it's on. But now LivingSocial has my loyalty. They noticed a security issue, and they fixed it. That's a big deal, and I'll be checking LivingSocial first from here on out, because I'm not sure yet if I can trust Groupon with my money.  So, all you nastybad doomsayer things can go find something else to crow about.

Wrapping Up Nintendo #5: The Final Frontier

Space… the final frontier...

No, it’s universal accounts and Miiverse for 3DS as far as Nintendo fans are concerned.  And last week, that very announcement happened.  Along with a few other things.

This time on Wrapping Up Nintendo, I’m trying a new format.  This time, it’s a new format that I call The Good, The Bad, and The Meh.

The Good:

• UNIVERSAL eShop ACCOUNTS!  FINALLY!  Well, baby steps towards that goal at the very least, unfortunately Bill Trinen was not at all clear about this and from what he said, it just was about creating a combined balance between the Wii U and 3DS eShop accounts using a single Nintendo Network ID.  Unfortunately, it does NOT appear we will be getting “Cross Buy” functionality or “re-download all digital games regardless of device” functionality with this update (which they very easily could do if they merged the NNIDs with your Club Nintendo account, but oh well, what can you do?).
• 3DS Miverse looks quite interesting.
• The new Link Between Worlds trailer along with the new Zelda 3DS XL bundle… holy moley… That’s all I have to say.  Love it, love it, love it. Can’t wait to play it!
• Bravely Default looks FABULOUS. February 7th cannot come soon enough.
• New Pikmin 3 DLC!  SCORE!  For anyone who doesn’t have a Wii U and Pikmin 3 yet (*cough* me *cough*), this is really good news that Pikmin 3 will have even more value for money.

The Bad:

• No mention of the new Yoshi game nor of the new Kirby game. Guess there’s another Nintendo Direct by the end of the year?  No other explanation I guess.
• Still not backtracking on the Animal Crossing Plaza Miiverse thingie ending in 2014, eh Nintendo?
• The indie games sizzle reel didn’t include The Pinball Arcade.  Unforgivable at this point, as that was one of the launch window games.
• Mario 3D World’s neat little “10 things” video looked great, but hoo boy that spoiler warning was totally needed because of thing #10.  Which I won’t go into at all, but I didn’t need to know that going into maybe playing it this holiday season. Thanks Nintendo.

The Meh:

• Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy.  I am not a fan of them and I know a LOT of you are, but I just never got into them.  Remember this is from my burnout period and frankly I need to go back and discover these games for the first time before I play this one.  Sorry.
• The Nintendo Zone thing was kinda boring and repetitious.
• YouTube on 3DS / Wii U YouTube app upgrade.  Too bad they didn’t have their stuff together a year or two ago on this one when people actually cared about this.

So, how’d you like this new format?  Comment either here or on Google+ on whether you like this format.

Reclaiming The Fun #1: Rediscovering What I Love

Today’s installment of Reclaiming The Fun is all about rediscovery.  After all, rediscovery of my love for the game of pinball prompted this whole crazy mission.

While I was on vacation, I had lots of fun going on various excursions, including a food tour, a walk on the beach on Assateague Island along with viewing a few of the famed Assateague ponies up close, as well as playing a game of real life pinball (which was a tad lower than I’d like… I may take that issue up with the Stern Pinball folks as soon as possible) and rediscovering places that sold the things I love dearly from the beach, such as salt water taffy and fudge.

Another major rediscovery of note is I rediscovered just how much I loved the beach.  It made me realize that I might need a beach fix much more often than once every 2-3 years or thereabouts, and I hope I can get that moving on as soon as I can.

But that isn’t all.  I am rediscovering my love for photography, and my love for reading, and my love for quite a lot of different things.  Which is to say, I think I am going to start rediscovering games I may have burned out on and games I even missed out on for one reason or the other.  So, hopefully I can start that mission as soon as possible.  In the meantime though, have fun, play fair, and I’ll see you next time.

Reclaiming The Fun #0: Intro and Why The Fun Had To Be Reclaimed

As I start packing to go on vacation starting tomorrow I wanted to talk a little bit about gaming, because I haven’t done so in awhile.

I have been playing The Pinball Arcade since its Steam release on Monday, and yesterday (Wednesday) was the first time I’d really sunk my teeth into the game with an actual controller in my hands, and I love playing this game with a controller!  It feels right and I think it works wonderfully.  The optimization process for my particular setup is still going to be an ongoing process but it seems to be running at a decent, smooth framerate right now and I couldn’t be happier about that.

But, as I was going through and trying to hit all the high score achievements (or at least 1 out of 3 achievements for every Season 1 table), I came to an abrupt realization: For the first time in awhile, I was having fun playing a video game!  That sense of fun had long since evaporated and transformed itself into becoming a huge chore.  I think the last game I fully enjoyed without thinking of it as a chore was the original Pokemon Gold & Silver.  Maybe Super Smash Bros. Melee on the console side of the fence, but that was about it.

So, why is it that I was no longer having any fun doing something I thoroughly enjoyed as a child?  Frankly, I don’t know, but it’s high time I start reclaiming that sense of fun that I had as a young child.  I’ve just now started getting back into the pen-&-paper RPG hobby and now I am deciding to go on a mission of fun reclamation that involve the video games from my childhood.

I usually can find an arcade where I am headed on vacation, so I might be able to stop in one of the arcades and play something that I remember from my childhood.  And as a result of my fun reclamation mission, I will eventually start writing a little bit about games I decided to revisit (or visit for the very first time in some instances) on my mission of fun reclamation, and I hope I can continue to write a little bit more as I go along.

One of the key pieces of my fun reclamation mission won’t be out for another month but I’ll start reclaiming my fun right away.  I am so excited.

Now, there is one more huge piece of this: While I am on my mission of fun reclamation, I am finally going to stop playing games that have stopped being fun for me, and that includes any games, including games on my iPhone.  So, I should have an update on what I did to reclaim the fun after my return from vacation.  I cannot guarantee that I will update the blog while I’m on vacation, so after tomorrow’s (much delayed) post, I will see you after my return.

Serious Steam Shenanigans have Delayed As The Steam/GOG Turns #14

Unfortunately I am going to have to delay As The Steam/GOG Turns #14 due to Steam’s idiotic European pricing and The Pinball Arcade (which was prominently featured in that) getting an unforeseen delay because of it.

Apologies for the inconvenience.

My Thoughts On OS X 10.9 Mavericks... So Far

Wow.  Wow wow wowee wow.  Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks is here, and it is FREE to all Mac users.  So, I will give you my thoughts on all that I have played with so far and see where that goes.

iBooks for Mac

FINALLY.  iBooks is on the Mac!  The store interface looks eerily like iTunes's, and it takes what was before just for iPhone and iPad to the Mac platform and I think it does it very well.  Also, reading in iBooks is absolutely cool, so there’s that.

Maps

Well well well.  I love Maps myself (and unlike the rest of the world I’ve had exactly zero trouble with it), but this is rather unique and awesome.  It does have some dicey points-of-interest still (searching for a public library doesn’t do well, just saying), but overall it’s a fabulous application and it is now on the Mac with Mavericks!

Calendar with Travel Times built-in

This is truly an amazing feature. I can get an idea of when I can leave to get somewhere at a time certain and I cannot be happier about that!!  For someone like me who has issues with judging timing, this is an absolute godsend and I cannot wait to use this more and more and more.

Overall Thoughts

I am actually really liking the fact that Apple finally got the inane memory requirements for the integrated graphics cards out of the way and I am no longer pegging the memory of my MacBook Pro with the apps I run on a day-to-day basis because they finally gave the integrated graphics chips dynamic memory (i.e. it won’t be such a blasted memory hog when you aren’t running graphics-intensive apps.  FINALLY!!!).  Now since I may very well be in the market for a new Mac sooner rather than later, I may actually consider buying a Mac laptop with the new Intel graphics chips now that Mavericks doesn’t give the integrated GPU so dang much memory!  Which is awesome.

Also, I haven’t gotten to play that much with the new iLife and iWork apps yet so those will get their own blog post once I get to put them through their paces enough to write eloquently about the updates.

As The Steam/GOG Turns #13: The "Wow it's been much too long" Lucky Number 13 Edition

Welcome back to As The Steam/GOG Turns, the continuing story of two competing digital distribution services that compete for everyone's attention.

I'm baaaaa-aaaack!  Didya miss me?!  Yeah, I just lost all track of time, and I got swamped with well over a month's worth of releases. So, this edition will essentially be me playing a gigantic amount of catchup, and I'll be returning to my normal posting of this column come Friday, November 1st.

Also I won't feature any Early Access, DLC, updates, or Pre-Order / Pre-Purchase releases, only full releases will be featured this time around.  So, let's get this party started, shall we?!

First off, we have some GOG releases.  I wish to feature games that I may or may not have featured prior.  

So, with that in mind, I will start off by discussing the new Shadow Warrior game.  I know, I know, remakes aren't good, remakes never come to the level of the original, blah blah blah, but I think it looks like an interesting game.  Next is Re-Volt, a delightful little late-90s racing game where you race radio controlled cars.  Sort of like RC Pro-Am for the NES, but more interesting and with better graphics.  

Next up is PixelJunk Monsters HD.  Most of you who don't follow console releases don't know what PixelJunk Monsters is, but it's basically a cartoonish tower defense game that has been on Sony's platforms for forever and ever amen, but is FINALLY on the PC.  Next up is the full trilogy of The Legend of Kyrandia.  These are some of the most legendary point-&-click adventure games NOT made by the hands of LucasArts, and the games are now finally, finally available for wider release once again.  Great job on this one, GOG.

Next is a really, really, really wacky one: Long Live the Queen!  It is essentially a political thriller disguised by cute anime visuals and for $10, there isn't much where you can go wrong to at least give it a try.  Along those same lines but in the complete polar opposite direction is Democracy 3, with sliders galore (but no FOV slider, haha) and containing more bubbles than Lawrence Welk's legendary long-running variety show.  However, this gameis ridiculously overpriced at a mere $24.99.  However, for a hardcore political simulation, it is at least adequate.  I personally will wait till that one's on sale before I bite.

The final release I am featuring is Corsairs Gold.  Shiver me timbers, matey, and dominate the Seven Seas by any means necessary in a legendary real time strategy game series featuring (what else?) pirates.  This one looks absurdly fun, so that's going on my wishlist for later. Its $6 price tag means I'll probably snap that one up sooner rather than later.

Now before I get to the Steam releases, I want to very specifically highlight some of GOG's "Customer Love" in the adding of content to pre-existing releases with recent additions to the Bullfrog catalog, with the addition (FINALLY) of the American Revolt, Deeper Dungeons, Hidden Worlds, Promised Lands, and Undiscovered Worlds expansions for Syndicate, Dungeon Keeper, Magic Carpet, Populous, and Populous: The Beginning, respectively.

Now on to the Steam releases.  Of which, there really ain't much to look at here.  There's Pac-Man Championshiop Edition DX+, and the full release of the Steam edition of King of Fighters XIII, and Batman Arkham Origins, and some weird release called Bunny Must Die! Chelsea and the 7 Devils which looks eerily like a shmup that I absolutely freaking HAVE to try, especially since it sort of reminds me of the Touhou series of bullet hell shmups I've only marginally heard of through friends.  But other than a few things (and Steam Controllers that look promising, and Steam Machines, and SteamOS, which if embraced by the major AAA publishers will be a huge deal for PC gaming, but I have exactly zero confidence that's going to happen), that is actually it.  So, my mini not-by-choice backlog is cleared out finally and I will hopefully see you Friday.

So, that does it for this week.  And until next time, the Steam/GOG conflict ever turns...

MMMMMMARRAAAAAAAAHHHH (the update post)

Yeah... it's been a bizarre, weird couple of weeks full of writers block.  This image probably will make some of you laugh:

My problem has become that I want desperately to write in my blog, and my brain is hardly functioning enough to do so.  Maybe it's a function of my Asperger syndrome, maybe it's just frustration, but today I went to the DMV and just about lost it.  Amazingly, I kept my cool with the DMV people, but boy I had that MMMMMARRAAAHHH moment this afternoon.  I guess all my writers block frustration had finally gotten to the point where it bubbled over or something, but I just gave out this almost primal-ish scream in the car where nobody could really hear me and after that I finally felt better than I had in weeks.  Sometimes you gotta do that and boy that really helped me.  Of course, having some time to decompress after all of that mess certainly helped.  Certainly helped with my writers block for sure.

I think I am getting better.  I'll have a few more posts up soon, but I am going to try not to litter everyone's feed readers and Google+ feed with my posts.  I finally have worked through those issues and I am going to start blogging again.  I've been playing with the new OS X, Mavericks, and I'll certainly talk more about this week's Apple event, but that will start up again on Monday.

Wrapping Up Nintendo #4: Sonic, Zelda, and Kirby, oh my!

Yes indeed, today was worth being miserable from recent sickness to watch the Nintendo Direct presentation.  So, let's go ahead and give you a full rundown along with my thoughts, shall we?

First, Satoru Iwata delivered some Wii U information, starting with Super Mario 3D World.  I have to say, the way they presented SM3DW looks INCREDIBLE and I can't wait to see what other people think.  New powerups like turning your character of choice into various blocks (nice one) and multiple versions of your character of choice and what is most likely the first "false exit" in the first Ghost House of the game seem almost inevitable that people will enjoy it.

Next, Wii Party U's House Party Mode was demonstrated.  The minigames looked bizarre to say the least but seem interesting enough for gaming weekends with friends and Thanksgiving w/ family I guess.

Then they confirmed a delay for Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze till February 2014.  That's okay, the release schedule in October and November was getting pretty crowded anyways on both Wii U and the Nintendo handhelds.

Then he talked about Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games.  The game actually has an online mode for the very first time, which is absolutely AMAZING.  Also they announced a Wii Remote Plus bundle for the game (which seems to be the theme of the day) and it's coming November 15th.

Then a BOMBSHELL dropped.  Sonic is returning to the next Super Smash Bros. game!  I was expecting it, but simultaneously not expecting it.

Then Iwata discussed the Mission Mode from Pikmin 3.  There's a software update for the game available now and it is required for paid Mission Mode DLC.  Luckily one of them is free, so...

After that, he tossed it over to Nintendo of America and Damon Baker from the licensing department talked about third parties on Nintendo platforms with release dates in parentheses:

• Etrian Odyssey Untold The Milennium Girl (today)
• Just Dance 2014 (October 8)
• Skylanders Swap Force (October 13)
• Lego Marvel Super Heroes (October 22)
• Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate (October 25 )
• Sonic Lost World (October 29)
• Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag (October 29)
• Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Dual Destinies (October 24) - free demo available NOW on Nintendo eShop
• Nintendo is attending Indiecade!  This is BIG news!

Then after all that, he tossed it over to the Treehouse's Eric Peterson with first-party updates:

• Zelda Wind Waker HD Outset Island shirt QR code for Animal Crossing New Leaf for those of you who haven't burned out on the game yet
• 2DS retail hardware shown, looks good.  I might even get the red one for once, who knows.
• 6 StreetPass hits per Nintendo Zone StreetPass Relay point now
• New Bravely Default trailer (looks interesting, almost like the graphical style of Final Fantasy 3 on the DS)

Afer that we went back to Iwata and got an update on the new 3DS Zelda, A Link Between Worlds.  This game bucks Zelda convention in that you can get the dungeon items early on and tackle the dungeons in any order you choose.  That is quite cool!

The final announcement?  A BRAND SPANKING NEW KIRBY GAME coming out in 2014!!!  YAY!  Can't wait!  Loved the old-school Kirby music too, can't wait to play that one.

Waiting For Nintendo #3: What could possibly go wrong?

Today Nintendo said that tomorrow, Tuesday October 1st at 10:00 am my time, Nintendo will put up a Nintendo Direct to talk about Nintendo 3DS and Wii U games that are coming out later this year.

As of tomorrow, it'll be 11 days between then and the global release of Pokemon X&Y and the release of the Nintendo 2DS.  So, I guess we'll hear about both of them if history is any indicator.

Then we'll probably hear about Mario, and other games.  They have largely not shown very much of the games they're more than likely to show tomorrow morning.

So, do I have predictions?  Yes.

3DS/2DS:

• Pokemon is an obvious one even tho we already had a Pokemon Direct. Hardware bundles, anyone?
• Maybe a focus on the 2DS, however briefly.  Maybe we'll even get hardware bundles with Pokemon X & Y...
• More than likely we'll hear about Mario Party Island Tour, the new Mario Party we have seen exactly NOTHING about since it was announced as just Mario Party for the Nintendo 3DS.

Wii U:

• Maybe we'll see more of Wii Sports Club and when we'll see the other sports.
• Maybe more Wii Fit U...
• Definitely Mario 3D World which hasn't been seen since E3
• Maybe DKC: Tropical Freeze
• Maybe a surprise or two, I have like no idea

The Apple Approach is Sorely Needed For Loyalty Rewards Programs

I went on a walk earlier today, and I got inspired to write this post.  I've been a member of tons of loyalty rewards programs over the years, from local grocery stores to places like Best Buy and I am even a member of several frequent flyer miles programs.  All of them, frankly, have one thing in common: They stink.

But why do they stink?  That's where calm, reasoned analysis comes into play.

So, why do customer loyalty programs leave customers cold, even when customer satisfaction is so high?  There are three types of loyalty: Prior loyalty (that is, your loyalty to the brand before you joined their rewards program), Present loyalty (what you are loyal to now), and future loyalty (what you could be loyal to in the future and what many companies wish to incentivize).

Prior loyalty is really difficult to judge when you are signing up for a membership program.  Brick-&-mortar retail doesn't really have a major way to judge prior loyalty and even then it would be a bit of a privacy invasion.  We live in an age where e-commerce is the vastly preferred way to do much of our business.  The stores that wish to incentivize our loyalty to have a ton of information about us now, up to and including what we have bought from them, the monetary value therein, etc.  So why are we still concerned about preserving our privacy there?

Even worse, incentivizing present loyalty is quite difficult.  Ditto to future loyalty because you have no idea if your incentives will keep people loyal to your brand.

So, where does Apple drop in and shake things up?  As I explain this, I will call this loyalty reward program Apple Dollars for the remainder of this post.

So, Apple Dollars makes signup easy.  All you need is your Apple ID you already use with iTunes.  Essentially, if you have had an Apple ID since very nearly the inception of iTunes, you are already a member of Apple Dollars.  That deals with a large portion of the prior loyalty issue.

Then Apple Dollars makes present and future loyalty a piece of cake, because the more Apple Dollars you rack up in the simple signup process, the more Apple products you buy, the more Apple Dollars you rack up, etc.

So, why do I suggest Apple Dollars?  Because this will absolutely kickstart Apple's sales in crucial markets like higher education (where students have either no or very limited disposable income) and in emerging markets like China.

Apple Stores

Okay folks, problem to be solved time: I have some Apple gear that needs service and I would love to be able to go to an Apple Store without spending 4-12 hours in the car, round-trip.

My solution is this: Apple Stores that are specific to universities and colleges all across the US and maybe even the world that is within easy walking distance of campus for those students who don't want to drive there, and easy driving distance for those of us in the community who wish to go there.

My main target for this solution: Virginia Polytechnic University in Blacksburg, Virginia.  Known as simply Virginia Tech to many, it is an ACC school with thousands upon thousands upon thousands of students, faculty, staff, and community members who are also fans.  VT has one of the most beautiful campuses around.  The only problem?  The only places you can buy ANY Apple products at all are Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, and any Apple Authorized Resellers that are in the area.  No Genius Bar for me.  No Genius Bar for anyone who lives in or around Blacksburg.  That, frankly, is depressing.

This solution can act in two fashions.  The first is an Apple Campus Store that is on the campus of Virginia Tech, or within very easy walking distance.  Blacksburg was one of the very first "Internet cities" in the entire country back in 1989/1990.  It is, therefore, quite shameful that Blacksburg doesn't have a single Apple Store yet.  The second is an Apple Store a little further away from campus in a shopping center of some description, which would be an easy drive for a lot of people, and so parking won't necessarily be a major factor.

The cool thing about this is you can go location scouting to these locations and figure out the best places for both types of Apple Store for these college-friendly locations!  So, along with the aforementioned Virginia Tech, I would like to suggest the following (incredibly scenic) places that I know of for Apple to go location scouting for this Apple Campus Store / Apple Store dual solution, and they can expand this as needed:

Western Carolina University / Cullowhee, NC
Brevard College / Brevard, NC
The University of North Carolina At Asheville / Asheville, NC
The University of South Carolina / Columbia, SC
Radford University / Radford, VA

Update: Two Apple Posts Incoming

Hey guys, I am going to be talking about Apple for the next 2 posts.  So, I suggest you just ignore what I put up for the next two posts.  I know a lot of you may or may not ignore my Nintendo posts, so... if you are not an Apple fan like I, please tune out now.

As The Steam/GOG Turns #12: FOTAQ! Finally!

Welcome back to As The Steam/GOG Turns, the continuing story of two competing digital distribution services that compete for everyone's attention.

This week's a bit of an interesting one folks.  It's sorta quiet on the Steam front if you don't count DLC, and GOG has been roaring to life of recent.

There is one dual release this week that I wish to talk about: Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller.  I mentioned this last week but it's now a full release on both Steam and GOG.  If you liked Gabriel Knight, you'll like this one because it's from Gabriel Knight mastermind Jane Jensen.

The Steam releases are pretty light this week, so I will just talk about a couple.  First I'll talk about a pre-purchase: Agarest: Generations of War.  Stategy RPG fans ought not to miss this one.

Next is Hot Wheels: World's Best Driver.  I wouldn't normally mention a game that is probably licensed tripe like this, but it's a lightweight week, folks.

And finally, because I love you horror game fans, 1953: KGB Unleashed.  This sounds really interesting, and if I wasn't a complete and total weenie I'd play it.

And finally the GOG releases.  First up, releasing JUST today for absolutely no money, is Flight of the Amazon Queen, or FOTAQ for short.  FOTAQ has been available in some format from the ScummVM website for free for some time now and it's finally in a format that you can just click-&-play like every GOG game is.  Two free releases to the GOG catalog in two weeks?! Madness!

Next is Privateer 2: The Darkening, a not-very-well-received game from the Wing Commander Privateer series.  We shall see if people buy it but I will wait till it's on-sale.

And finally this week we have Shadow Man, based on the comic of the same name.  Very dark, very gripping, if you like this sort of thing jump on it immediately.

So, that does it for this week.  And until next time, the Steam/GOG conflict ever turns...

RIP Hiroshi Yamauchi, Visionary President of Nintendo Co. Ltd.

Today is a sad day for all of us Nintendo fans.  We lost the former president of Nintendo Co, Ltd., Hiroshi Yamauchi.  He reigned over Nintendo from 1949 (!!!) to 2003.  In that time, Yamauchi-san oversaw the transition of Nintendo from a playing card manufacturer to a toy manufacturer to an arcade game manufacturer and finally to the video gaming powerhouse that Nintendo is today.

It is Yamauchi-san that we must thank for his incredible gifts to the world: Mario. Luigi. The Legend of Zelda.  Donkey Kong.  Pikmin.  None of these incredible things would be possible without Yamauchi. There WOULD be no video games that people malign as driving people to violence if it wasn't for Hiroshi Yamauchi's incredible vision of a console called the Family Computer, or Famicom for short (it was called the Nintendo Entertainment System outside of Japan) where video game makers had to license their games for each system.

On a historical sidenote, at the time the Famicom was introduced in Japan, the Video Game Crash of 1983 happened.  It was largely due to the console manufacturers at that time (such as Atari) who just put any old video game they wanted to on these consoles and the sales just dropped through the floor because there was no such thing as quality control at that time.

The gaming systems that Yamauchi-san oversaw at least the launches for were: The Famicom (NES outside of Japan), Super Famicom (SNES outside of Japan), Nintendo 64, GameCube, Game & Watch, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance.  I included the handhelds here because nobody that I saw covering the death of Yamauchi-san today covered the fact that he oversaw the booming success of the Game Boy.

Yamauchi-san ought to be appreciated by all of us gamers.  I do not believe that all of us who are gamers today WOULD be gamers without the legendary Hiroshi Yamauchi helming the systems that many of us grew up with.  Thank you Yamauchi-san.  Rest well.

Wrapping Up Nintendo, Special Edition: Wii Fit U & Wii Sports Club

Today Nintendo did a Nintendo Direct completely and totally out of left field.  We had NO warning, NO foreknowledge this was happening, and we had NO idea of what I am about to detail.

Today's Direct starts out with a hilarious segment from the Wii Fit Trainer as she shows you how to do the infamous "directly" arm motion.  (And a "my body is ready" joke too.)

The Direct was (mostly) all about the Wii Fit U game that is coming out soon.  The main selling point of Wii Fit U is the new Fit Meter.  Think the Pokewalker gadget from Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver, except that it has a Wii U logo on it and it actually tracks a whole lot more than just your steps.  It calculates exercise intensity, measures changes in altitude (which helps track calorie burn going up and down stairs), and many many many other things.

Then they discuss the Fit Meter and how it is used in great detail, tracking a typical day of an employee of Nintendo Co. Ltd. in Kyoto with actual Fit Meter data.

And then... a bombshell was dropped.  While you COULD go ahead and buy a couple of the bundles (i.e. a Fit Meter bundle, etc.), if you already have a Wii Balance Board, you can actually get the game download for free from the Nintendo eShop come November 1, get a Fit Meter for $20, sync that Fit Meter up with the Wii U GamePad, and get the Wii Fit U game for absolutely no additional charge.  I would not be whatsoever surprised if this gets Wii U sales to go in a general upward direction because Wii Fit was an absolute sales phenomenon when it launched.  Bringing Wii Fit back to try and spur sales of the Wii U is a big deal.

The next thing they talked about is Wii Street U gaining Wii Balance Board compatibility.  Which is cool... I guess.

The final thing is... Wii Sports Club.  It's Wii Sports, the phenomenon that sold more Wiis than anything else in high definition with online (!!!!!) as well as Wii U-specific features like Miiverse coming out November 7th, AND it looks fabulous.  The game also has a very very interesting pricing model: $1.99 for all the available games for 24 hours called the Day Pass and $9.99 per sport, the Club Pass.  I know I'll at least buy Golf, Baseball, and Tennis outright when I do get my Wii U.

As far as my thoughts?  Thank you Nintendo.  The idea of a Wii U becoming a necessary fitness partner for me is now a major possibility that I am definitely going to seize upon.

Hyperkin: What's Coming and My Thoughts On What's Next

Today, I want to talk a bit about the retro gaming company, Hyperkin.  Yeah Hyperkin has their hands in modern console accessories to a degree, but their main focus is on retro gaming.  Whether that is old console gaming controllers and accessories, or amazingly cool retro systems like the Supaboy and the RetroN5, they have their hands in a lot of different pies.

So, why am I talking about Hyperkin today?  Well, I want to talk about Hyperkin today because they have come out with some incredible new stuff that will be coming out in the coming months.  They are putting out (no joke) a Pixel Art Controller that looks like a pixellated Super Nintendo controller that plugs into your PC or Mac to play emulated titles (and games that require a halfway good D-pad...) for a mere $20 later this month that Hyperkin has been pushing in the Walmart Get On The Shelf campaign, which is basically Walmart's version of Steam Greenlight, except with even more chaff that must be separated from the wheat.

In addition, the RetroN5 that plays NES, Famicom, Super Nintendo, Super Famicom, Sega Genesis, Sega MegaDrive, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance (whew!) cartridges over HDMI with some really cool new additional extras that were only the domain of emulators before this, and it's coming out for $99.99, with a tentative release date (at least according to Amazon.com) of October 31st.  If that's the case... I think I know how I'll be spending MY Halloween week.

So, after all of this craziness, what's next?  Nobody knows, really, but I want to give the guys at Hyperkin 8 suggestions of what they can do in the retro gaming space that will blow everybody's minds.

1) A universal lightgun that works with a ton of different systems (including PC for emulation purposes) and a ton of different games that works REGARDLESS of what kind of TV or other display you have.  Number 1, it's about time.  Number 2, this could be the way we all get to experience great light gun games like Area 51 and Duck Hunt all over again.

2) A retro console that emulates the N64.  Lots of people want this (especially if you look on Hyperkin's Facebook page), and if Hyperkin gets a license to do this from Nintendo, that could make things very interesting going forward for retro games consoles.

3) A retro console that does the impossible: Brings the Sega CD, the Sega Saturn, the Sega Dreamcast, the Playstation 1, the Turbo CD system, the PC Engine CD (the Japanese equivalent of the Turbo CD), and the Amiga CD32 together in one 90s-tastic CD console.  I'd certainly want to get one of these, as my space is really limited anymore.

4) A Dreamcast VGA adapter that doesn't cost the moon.  Please.  Especially for those (like myself) who are way late to the Dreamcast party.

5) A retro gaming-centric monitor.  It could be combined with not only the RetroN 5, but also the universal lightgun peripheral I mentioned above.  Has potential, certainly.

6) Another huge opportunity in the retro gaming space is to have Hyperkin create flash cartridges like the Everdrives of the world that can put the legally grey ROMs into products like the RetroN5 and have people be able to play them on their TV.  This is much, much more questionable, but if anyone can get those retro console games wrested from the vaults and available for purchase individually or in groups, it's Hyperkin.

7) More portable retro consoles.  I hope Hyperkin eventually gets the Sega license to do a portable Sega Genesis.  You can't possibly do worse than At:Games or even the venerable Sega Nomad...

8) Maybe even retro portable consoles get refabs and rereleases like the Game Boy, the Lynx, the Game Gear, etc.