text:
EXP Podcast
Debriefs
I'm Looking Through You
In addition to a game, The Beatles: Rock Band aspires to be a shrine to the fab four and a role-playing exercise for people wishing to participate in the retelling of cultural myths. The game's story is a stylized presentation of the band's career. From the Cavern Club in 1963 to the psychedelic strawberry fields of the late 60s to the final rooftop concert at 3 Savile Row in 1969, the game enables to player to participate in the retelling of a cultural legend.
But what kind of legend is this? As I play the game, I grow continually more interested in the narrative and its relationship to historical events. More than once, I found myself thinking of one of my favorite films, which also deals with the line between truth and myth: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a Western that explores the utility of cultural myths and the morality of a noble lie. Ransom Stoddard, played by Jimmy Stewart, is an idealistic Eastern tenderfoot who comes to a town terrorized by a bandit named Liberty Valance. Tom Doniphon , played by John Wayne, is the only one who can stand up to Valance and repeatedly tries to prove to Stoddard that justice is better upheld by guns than by laws.
Stoddard eventually gives in to this logic and confronts Valance. Miraculously, he out-shoots Valance, becoming an instant hero.
Stoddard's feat propels him into a career as a politician and he uses this support to transform his life and improve the lives of others through public policy. He transforms the bleak Western wilderness into a garden.
However, this reputation was built on a lie:
The Beatles: Rock Band possesses a similar ethos to that of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. While the game is less about lies than it is about omitting certain facts, the final product is devoted to the legend of The Beatles, rather than The Beatles themselves.
The Rock Band version of The Beatles exist in a strange universe that is divorced from both historical and personal context. The four Beatles journey across a temporal dream-scape, creating music as they go, existing as a unit of pure imaginative energy. There are no digital versions of people like Yoko Ono, Brian Epstein, and Phil Spector. Their contributions, both positive and negative, are edited out of the game and the legend it helps us create.
The band's personal and musical transformation reflects the turbulence of the 1960s, but The Rock Band Beatles exist outside of history and its events. Playing the game is to venture into a world without Vietnam, a world in which "Helter Skelter" is scrubbed of its murderous associations, and where psychedelic art and creative experimentation are never aided by drugs. We can find "Day Tripper," in the game, but we cannot find the faintest whiff of pot or the tiniest tab of acid. Perhaps real-world Paul is bogarting it all?
In many ways, The Beatles: Rock Band evokes the squeaky-clean "kid-friendly" incarnation of the band that shows up in so many kids' albums. The digital Beatles we play are always a happy, smiling family, unencumbered by legal and creative differences. As the digital Beatles play "Come Together" we can recreate a scene of band unity that never happened: by the time the real Beatles sang "Come Together," they were already miles apart.
The game's story offers no hints at either the bloodshed or the bad blood that would plague the former band-mates after their breakup. Even after John Lennon's murder in 1980, the surviving members had not resolved their differences. In 1988, The Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame. Paul declined to make an appearance, stating:
"After 20 years, the Beatles still have some business differences which I had hoped would have been settled by now. Unfortunately, they haven't been, so I would feel like a complete hypocrite waving and smiling with them at a fake reunion."
At the end of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Stoddard tells the truth about the duel with Liberty to a newspaper editor, knowing full well that his confession undermines his all of his life's achievements. The editor recognizes this as well, and burns the notes that his young reporter was taking. Stoddard expresses his surprise, confusion, and amusement that they are not going to run with the story. The editor replies that "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
In making The Beatles: Rock Band, I imagine Harmonix felt a bit like that newspaper editor. Of course, the task of obtaining permission from the various owners and estates of The Beatles is Herculean by itself. It is understandable that both the surviving members, their families, and the record companies are invested in recreating the Beatles in the most flattering (and profitable) way possible. But on top of that, there is the legend's sanctity to consider: How does one go about tearing down myths that define a culture?
Harmonix, like the newspaper editor, simply chooses not to. The ending cinematic is a perfect metaphor for the game: it is a testament to the reverent isolationism we impose on legends:
The very world around them is transformed into a wonderful fantasy, disconnected from the flow of time, and beyond human blemishes. It is a world where their creativity overpowers the dreariness of our world, a world that exists to inspire us with its ideals, rather than its veracity. It is a world in which Ransom Stoddard shot Liberty Valance, a world whose artificially constructed existence helps improve our own.
Written by Scott Juster at 1/29/2010 10:27:00 PM 2 comments:
Labels: culture, features, game design
EXP Podcast #62: Distributing the Future
We routinely talk about the impressive content within games, but, in today's market, the way in which we procure that content is equally striking. Digital distribution is changing long-standing traditions regarding how games are sold and played: an increasing number of both games and players are leaving discs and cartridges behind in favor of ones and zeroes. Inspired by Evan Stubbs' article on the future of digital distribution, we discuss some the potential benefits and drawbacks of what seems to be the inevitable move towards completely digital gaming. Whether you feel that this change will usher in a new era of economical convenience or a technological apocalyspe, feel free sound off in the comments.
Some discussion starters:
- What are your habits regarding digitally distributed games? Is there a certain reason you do or do not download games you could get on discs?
- How do you feel about pricing structures based on "segments" rather than as a function of time? What kinds of privacy issues arise?
- How soon, if ever, do you think games will go 100% digital?
To listen to the podcast:
- Subscribe to the EXP Podcast via iTunes here. Additionally, here is the stand-alone feed.
- Listen to the podcast in your browser by left-clicking the title. Or, right-click and select "save as link" to download the show in MP3 format.
- Subscribe to this podcast and EXP's written content with the RSS link on the right.
- Run time: 26 min 49 sec
- "The Future of Digital Distribution," by Evan Stubbs, via RedKingsDream
- Music provided by Brad Sucks
Labels: industry, podcast
The Tragedy of Videogame Heroism
My friends are manipulable. They are easily duped, predictable, largely unquestioning and mostly acquiescent. When they dissent, they sell their favor for cheap gifts and memorabilia. Despite these tendencies, my allies in Dragon Age: Origins are the most realistic companions I have ever had. But this post is not about them. This post is about the hero who will never be like them, the protagonist of this world and many others.
Two weeks ago I criticized a few pet peeves I hoped the industry would abandon. One of these, the "Blank Slate" problem, I defined as the tendency for developers to create emotionally vapid non-characters with little or no personality. These beings attempt to encapsulate normative players by aiming for averages. The short-haired white male with no internal monologue tries so hard to satisfy everyone that he relates to no one. This might be an extreme example. All videogame heroes, however, Arkania included (my heroine of Dragon Age), show symptoms of the blank slate. They are all victims of player agency.
There came a moment in Dragon Age, after a touching scene with Alistair and Leliana, that I realized I genuinely cared for these characters - all but Sten to be exact. I have yet to finish the game and I am actually nervous about where the story will lead. The cast is so well realized, each with a rich personal history, that I am concerned one of them will die. My protagonist, however, stands out from the group. Her death would be upsetting, but also natural.
There are many little touches that add depth and realism to the cast of Dragon Age. While exploring the world, party members will share idle banter, discussing their experiences, opinions, and generally joking around. Mementos found scattered about Ferelden can be given as gifts. Alistair shares remorseful memories when given an old locket. Leliana shows similar gratitude upon receiving a particular flower. I can also probe my cohorts for more information. I can learn about their personal lives, past tribulations, and aspirations by asking questions. Arkania, however, cannot play a similar role for them. She is detached from reality.
All the party conversations are between fellow supporting characters. My protagonist never has a quick background chat with others. She is never given gifts, and therefor never shares personal details to her friends. Occasionally, someone will ask my protagonist a question, but it is very rare. When the opportunity is given, answers are often short and limited in scope. I chose to play as a Dalish Elf, and many of my available responses revolve around this particular aspect of my character. Wynn, the party member who is most proactive towards Arkania, seems satisfied with curt answers to genuinely intriguing questions. The opportunity to tell a compelling personal history, one I did not experience in-game, is squandered.
Countless videogame heroes and heroines suffer the fate of the playable character. Story elements that players do not actually interact with are largely abandoned. The role of the videogame hero is to enact their agency upon the environment, not immerse themselves within it. Games with silent protagonists succeed not because the lead characters are so compelling, but because support characters and the worlds they inhabit are emphasized instead.
Our protagonists are different because we play them. Although I can control my entire party in Dragon Age, there is no doubt Arkania is my medium into this world. Accordingly, she is altered to suit my needs. Her dialogue decisions, for example, are not affected by past choices. They always offer uncharacteristically radical options, in case my gaming whims change suddenly and I want to become an evil character. She cannot inhabit the world the way all her friends can.
In this way, videogame heroes are very much like the tragic heroes of Western cinema, unable to live in the world they fight to protect. Admittedly, this is a drastic reading of the avatar within narrative games, but I think it works. As players, enacting our agency within a system of rules, we will never see the protagonist the way we see the supporting cast. Thus, our heroes and heroines are forever outsiders. They are different because they are player-controlled, and we design them intentionally to enact player will. Even a game like Dragon Age, with commendable writing and voice work, inherently shows the symptoms of blank slate character design.
All games that seek to tell a story must deal with this narrative chasm in some way. Interestingly, the protagonist of Braid is a hero who becomes villainous, forever separated from his goal by his blind pursuit. The game unwittingly exploits this narrative conundrum. Other games may cleverly circumvent the tragedy of videogame heroism, but they are rare. For most of our champion protagonists, past and present, their fate is sealed. Even the most realized world they will never call home.
Written by Jorge Albor at 1/25/2010 08:06:00 PM 11 comments:
Labels: features, game design, narrative
A couple months ago, I made my first foray into the land of note-highways and plastic instruments. Like everyone else, I played Rock Band and Guitar Hero at numerous parties and enjoyed the experience. However, I decided to put off actually owning the game and its gear until I could play songs off of either Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Led Zeppelin IV, or the The Chronic.
Like many others, I was thrilled when The Beatles: Rock Band was announced and I am in no way surprised that I like it. What did surprise me was the game's capacity to provoke strong feelings of escapism. By combining a very narrow dynamic gameplay zone with The Beatles' iconic artistic legacy, the Beatles: Rock Band is more about letting yourself inhabit another person in another time.
While games can serve as methods to indulge in escapist fantasies, I rarely find it easy to lose myself in a game world. Part of this is the interface: As cheesy as the plastic instruments are, they simulate the onscreen action more directly than most traditional controller or mouse and keyboard setups. The Xbox 360 control is a far cry from MarcusFenix's chainsaw gun, but the generic Rock Band guitar actually resembles the object that could create the on-screen action.
This action centers around an extremely strict interpretation of The Beatles' music. Rhythm games as a genre are already some of the least forgiving in terms of accommodating player exploration. The only way to play Rock Band is do exactly what the game says: The gameplay path exists on a narrow line between a song's beginning and end. By removing the optional drum fills and guitar solos found in standard Rock Band games, The Beatles: Rock Band further constricts the player's freedom. This game is not about the player discovering their own unique talents, it is about trying to emulate and role play The Beatles' talent. The game is essentially aBeatle simulator.
The game's real accomplishment is tricking you into believing the simulation. Aping the motions of playing an instrument and following the directions on the screen is linked to music whose beauty overwhelms the absurdity of the concept. Although the game is basically a glitzy version of "Simon says," the carefully crafted note paths move my hands in a way that somehow feels authentic. For a moment, I feel like I could actually be Paul McCartney. Maybe if I just practiced a bit more, I could even write a song...
Of course, from a musical perspective, catching up to Paul is effectively impossible. By the time he was my age, Sgt. Pepper had been released, and while I am proud of Experience Points, I'm not ready to put it in quite the same category.
Even if I were complete the Malcolm Gladwell-approved 10,000 hours of training required to master a skill, I would fall victim to the cruel realities of space and time. I am neither in Liverpool nor the 1960s, and no amount of practice or talent could replicate the magic The Beatles had. Listening to The Beatles, one hears things that would both upend popular music and lead to its ultimate fragmentation. Playing The Beatles: Rock Band is about escaping to a time in which a band's "Sgt. Pepper's" album was actually Sgt. Pepper's. The Beatles could only exist because there had been no Beatles before them.
Today, Paul and Ringo exist separately from the legends birthed in the 1960s. In terms of continued influence and relevance, they cannot compete with the echoes of themselves, and so join the rest of the mortal world. No one, not even Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, can be "Paul" and "Ringo" as the world knew them; those people don't exist anymore. To hearken back to those days is to assume an imposture: the world has changed and that reality exists only as a legend that can be emulated, not recreated. We must rely on simulations to do so.
The Beatles: Rock Band allows us to escape our reality and take part in the re-telling of these legends. The game lets us taste the grand, idealized, beautiful splendor of a cultural myth. When playing the game, I am flooded by the memories of "discovering" the band as teenager and getting goosebumps as I realized that human beings could create such things.
The Beatles: Rock Band is not a game about the individual player's creativity; the strict adherence to the official versions of songs and the strongly defined artwork leave little room for spontaneity. Instead, the game offers a wondrous form of escapism. While playing, I experience my own history with the music while simultaneously assuming the mythic roles associated with the surrounding legends. For a fleeting moment, it is "my" guitar that gently weeps.
EXP Podcast #61: The Dubious Health of the JRPG
Few genres have seen a rise and fall like the once illustrious Japanese RPG. There still exists a strong core group of players dedicated to the JRPG, but could the poor showing of Japanese titles in 2009 be the death knell for a dying art form? Jeff Fleming think so. This week on the EXP Podcast, inspired by his recent opinion piece, Scott and I visit to the local genre hospital and discuss the health of JRPGs, DS confinement, teen angst, and the 'unicorn magic' of operatic storytelling. As always, you can find the original article in the show notes and we highly encourage you to leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
- How do you define a JRPG? Do you consider is a distinct sub-genre with a value all its own?
- Have Westerb RPGs superseded JRPGs? Do they satisfy all the sensations the Japanese RPG once provided in the days of yore? Will we miss the fantastical?
- Have we matured past JRPGs or are they just becoming what they always should have been, a niche market sub-genre?
- "The Last Days of the Japanese RPG?" by Jeff Fleming via GameSetWatch
Written by Jorge Albor at 1/20/2010 04:17:00 PM 7 comments:
Labels: podcast
The Sensationalist: Worry in 'Silent Hill Shattered Memories'
This post is part of "The Sensationalist," a continuing series here at Experience Points in which we examine games' abilities to evoke emotions and sensations in video game players. Please have a look at the series' introduction as well its previous entries. As always, we welcome your thoughts on all the matters we discuss, and look forward to analyzing one of gaming's most powerful, yet intangible, abilities.
Spoiler Pirate says "Yarrr! There be spoilers ahead!
Published by Konami and developed by Climax Studios, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a marked departure from the franchise built on fear. Although Shattered Memories has its fair share of jump cuts and sudden shrieks, its purpose is slightly more benign. While the elements that do seek to terrify are every bit as interesting as the complete package, the sensation I am most interested in is worry. The driving force, the root of the game's tension, and the feeling most necessary to evoke, is concern.
Few games so explicitly attempt to instill anxiety within its players. The primary method for fomenting worry in players is to attach a certain level of doubt to in-game elements. Nothing builds tension quite like in-game uncertainty. Resident Evil 5 is one of many titles that distress players by limiting ammunition. A lack of bullets during a battle is frustrating, but a shorter supply of bullets after said battle is even more disconcerting. Making players feel weak, incapable, and unsure of themselves builds tension and makes them worry about the next inevitable confrontation.
Konami ran with this idea and made a bold decision to remove combat from Shattered Memories entirely. The protagonist Harry Mason, controlled in a pseudo-third-person manner, searches for the whereabouts of his daughter Cheryl by poking around the town of Silent Hill. The game consists of exploration and very basic puzzle solving, interspersed with "nightmare" scenarios in which Harry flees a cadre of faceless and ever-persistent monsters eager to tackle Harry into oblivion.
Without means to combat these flayed creatures, the moments preceding a nightmare evoke strong sensations of uneasiness. Nightmares often accompany narrative twists and are introduced by the world, and its occupants, turning into ice. The environment becomes a dark and confusing maze. Paths are marked in bright blue, but can easily lead the player in circles. The controller emits static notifying the player of nearby monsters and potentially providing a way to orient one's self. This is only occasionally helpful however, merely postponing the inevitable. Harry can only hide from the hideous creatures for so long. Eventually, he must pass by them and find safety. While these segments can grow tedious, they do successfully evoke worry and distress by exploiting weakness and uncertainty.
The game hinges on a different focus of concern entirely. Harry's distress over his missing daughter should be our distress. In order to buy Harry's pursuit of his daughter despite insane circumstances, we must believe his worry is genuine. The game seeks to evoke worry and convey Harry's convictions primarily through repetition.
The psychiatric profiling that takes place during Shattered Memories alters the story slightly, potentially changing Harry's behavior and attitude. His concern for Cheryl, however, is unerring. Harry tells every character about his daughter without hesitation. Of the people he can call on the phone, several of them are told about his plight whether or not they can be of any help. Harry is ever only slightly distracted. Despite his bizarre circumstances and the pleas of others, he always continues on, often irrationally.
There are also reminders of Cheryl's presence. The shadowy specter of a young girl, presumably Cheryl, is spotted on several occasions. Mementos and phone messages with a child's voice remind Mason, and the player, of Cheryl's predicament. On a few occasions, Harry talks to Cheryl on the phone. These moments are accompanied by static, a voice laden with panic or sadness, and serve only to drive Harry and the player forward. Bolstered by decent voice work, and cryptic and unsettling allusions to Cheryl scattered throughout Silent Hill, Harry Mason's concern for his daughter becomes our own.
There are several moments during Shattered Memories that took my by surprise and made me reassess my interpretation of the game. In one of these scenes, Harry calls his daughter only to have a grown woman answer the phone. Openly hostile towards him, she tells Harry that Cheryl does not want to speak to him. As the game progresses, these bizarre moments become more frequent. With expert fluidity, the focus of concern shifts from Cheryl to Harry Mason himself. What if the psychiatrist is treating Harry for schizophrenia? What if Harry actually killed his daughter? What if she does not exist at all? Clearly the world is not right. What if, in his heroic pursuit, Harry hurts himself or succumbs to madness completely?
There is something to say for good characterization. While Shattered Memories is far from perfect, the characters feel genuine and so do their concerns. Despite Cheryl's absence, she feels ever present and that much more realistic. While I will not reveal the climactic narrative twist, the focus of concern moving from Cheryl to Harry is repeated and the conclusion is rewarding. Shattered Memories builds tension by asking the player to worry about nightmarish creatures and missing family members. Despite its unique take on the franchise, Shattered Memories is just as emotionally evocative as its predecessors.
Labels: features, The Sensationalist
Mise-En-Scene and The "Feel" of Ambiance
I often joke that once I get into a game, all graphical detail is scrubbed away by my subconscious mind, leaving only a bunch of wire-frame models, gridded lines, and hit boxes. However, this is an overstatement, as I cannot honestly argue that Bioshock would have been as engrossing without the world of Rapture.
Jorge makes a compelling argument that a game's ambiance is an integral part of its immersive potential. In an attempt to explore how ambiance and gameplay interact, I latched on to the "mise-en-scene" idea Simon Ferrari introduced in the comments of Jorge's post. Having read little film and theater theory, I hastily tried to get a handle on what mise-en-scene actually is: I consulted the modern arbiter of knowledge/bar-bet settler, I perused material from esteemed academic institutions, and I even asked someone who makes real, American money working in live theater. It seems that (depending on who you ask) mise-en-scene is pretty much everything: lighting, set dressing, camera angles, and even actors themselves have been called mise-en-scene. While such a broad definition is daunting, these different meanings share a specific trait useful in exploring how the concept functions in video games.
In theater and film, the audience interacts with mise-en-scene visually. As long as something is visually convincing, the audience has little recourse but to accept it as true. It is likely that we have all seen a play in which a set of dinner plates on stage were glued to the table on which they sat, but as audience members, we have no way to test this theory. Video games are unique in that the audience member becomes a player who has the ability to investigate the elements of a scene. In a video game, we could attempt to move those dinner plates, which makes the games a difficult medium in which to create a believable world.
In order to successfully foster ambiance, a game's mise-en-scene must successfully complement its ludic elements. Because games require interaction, objects and art must serve both narrative and gameplay themes. This does not necessarily mean that every iota of on-screen material needs to be interactive, but I would argue that everything that appears before the player should agree with both narrative and ludic themes. In order to illustrate this, I will suggest one poor, one mediocre, and one outstanding example of how how mise-en-scene can foster an immersive ambiance.
The Poor: Geist
As I have previously written, Geist is a game that tragically fails to execute its clever ideas. The player controls a character with the ability to possess animals, objects, and people in order to carry out his mission. Unfortunately, the game's ambiance suffers because, despite the fact that game is littered with objects and people, the player can only possess a very limited number of them.
The game's mise-en-scene resembles that of a Star Trek episode: while that priceless Romulan vase might look like a sweet piece of space antiquity, interactive inspection reveals that it is from the planet Ikea. Similarly, Geist's objects are an illusion: only arbitrarily chosen interactive ones further the ludic theme of posession; the remainder are hollow set pieces.
The Mediocre: Uncharted 2
Uncharted 2's set pieces do a better job of complementing both the game's ludic and narrative themes. As Drake, the player controlls a jet-setting treasure hunter who, while skilled, is imperfect. Drake journeys to exciting locales and fights off waves of enemies while at the same expressing awe and acquiring injuries that make him relatable as human being. Whether it the clutter of a bombed out village, the dreariness of an underground temple, or the excellent acting performances, the game's mise-en-scene is a boon to the story.
However, Uncharted 2's gameplay does not mirror the its exotic presentation. Whether Drake is clinging to the side of train, the lip of a canyon, or the wall of an icy cave, his in game movements and control stay constant. While the graphics suggest that some ledges are slippery and icy while others are sturdy concrete, the consistent character movement reveals the graphics to be what they truly are: set dressing.
In practice, the player and the game's dressing interact in very limited ways. Despite being the type of guy who would use anything and everything around him to his advantage in battle, all Drake ever touches are guns and gas canisters. There is little difference between taking cover behind a wooden door and a concrete wall. Despite the game's lush appearance, only very specific ledges and platforms are available for traversal. Most climbing sections are highly directed sequences with only one possible solution. Uncharted's mise-en-scene is perhaps the best looking thing to ever be seen in a video game, but its interactivity does little to complement Drake's humanity in either a narrative and ludic sense.
The Great: Portal
Portal's presentation is decidedly more minimalist than either of the aforementioned examples. Despite this, its mise-en-scene successfully complements and unifies its story and gameplay to create a unified ambiance.
To play Portal is to re-think nature's laws, as success is looking at a wall and seeing a path rather than an obstruction. The game's stark surfaces encourage the player to see past the clutter they inhabit in their daily lives; the walls are beautiful not because they are adorned by ornaments, but because they represent creative potential. Although there are not many things to pick up in the Aperture lab, nearly everything the player sees can be affected by their action. Portal's entire environment is subject to investigation, and while the action of picking up a box or computer monitor is often pointless, this dynamic reinforces the ludic theme of experimentation.
In terms of the story, the game's sterile, minimalistic art style augments Chell's slow, maddening waltz with GlaDOS. Like GlaDOS herself, the environment begins as an ultra-sterile testament to rationality. As the plot progresses, clues to what is going on are conveyed through the mise-en-scene: Be it the increasingly absurd challenge rooms, the sense of dread communicated through small blemishes and graffiti, or the degeneration of GlaDOS herself, the game's setting suggests that everything the player knows is being subverted, just as the gameplay does.
The interactive nature of the video games demands that another conceptual layer be added to the idea of ambiance. For a game to exude a certain "feel," its mise-en-scene must both look the part and also work in harmony with the gameplay. Successful ambiance is the melding of both both a metaphorical and literal "feel."
Labels: features, game design
EXP Podcast #60: Playing With Characters
Put on your robes and wizard hats folks: it's time to do some role-playing. Whether you are playing as a knight, a space marine, or a rogue treasure hunter, video games give the player an opportunity to assume an identity different from their own. However, the increasing complexity of RPGs as well as the inclusion of sophisticated characters in non-RPG games can lead to a conflict between the player and the game: What happens when the player wants to do something that their character would never dream of? Grayson Davis from Beeps and Boops raised this question, inspiring us to explore some possible answers. This is a complicated issue and one that is likely highly influenced by personal taste, so feel free to jump into the comments with your thoughts.
- When playing a game, do you role-play your character? How does this affect your play experience?
- What is the balance between providing individual experiences based on specific characters versus ensuring players see all the game has to offer?
- Are there certain games that you feel walk this line particularly well? Are there games in which role-playing actually decreases your enjoyment?
- "The Player's Role," by Grayson Davis, via Beeps and Boops
Labels: game design, podcast
Past Peeves
We are two weeks into 2010, but this past year still intrigues me. There are some excellent games back there, some of which I still eagerly await to play. In just a few weeks Mass Effect 2 will be released, followed by a glut of titles that will turn my attention away from the gems of yesteryear. I will usher in these new moments with some antagonistic reflections. Let me take one last look into 2009 and answer the question Scott posed at the end of his New Year's post: What are you glad we are leaving behind? Here are a few things that popped up, time and again, in even the best games of 2009, that I hope do not make an appearance this year.
Mechanical Inequality
When I play a video game, I am agreeing to explore a set of rules put forth by the developer. There is a reasonable expectation that this set of rules follows its own internal logic, and is fair and balanced. When game mechanics deviate from these expectations arbitrarily, they fuel frustration and deliver a steaming pile of dissonance. The most recent example I have encountered has left numerous players flabbergasted. In Assassin's Creed 2, why can no one in Italy swim but Ezio?
This is not a game ruining flaw, the ambiance of the game more than makes up for it, but still, the high rate of drowning in Renaissance Italy is absurd. Sure, there is very likely an explanation that involves technical limitations and budget restraints, but would that be a reasonable excuse? Are frequent drownings - on one occasion causing the death of allies - worth the assassin's new-found ability to swim? If constraints were so severe that NPCs would drown the moment they touched water, I would expect the developer to seriously reconsider setting a large portion of the game in Venice, a city literally sinking into the Mediterranean Sea.
Other offenders include Resident Evil 5 and Call of Juarez. The jerky control scheme in RE5 consistently infuriates me, yet those undead hordes move with a deadly grace far beyond what their rotting musculature should allow. While CoJ handles fine, the frequent duels with shockingly prescient opponents turn a classic Western climax into an insufferable pain. Mechanical inequality is sloppy at best, and particularly offensive considering how apparent these flaws become over time.
The Blank Slate
Like the judges of Britain's Got Talent, I am a big fan of diversity. I would love to see more non-normative characters in games. Though I am a person of color myself, if a character is compelling enough, I usually relate to a normative protagonist easily. These profile tropes are more egregious when these protagonists lack character. Unfortunately, the number of emotionless stereotypes populating the medium in 2009 has been overwhelming. The ranks of short-haired white-males with stern appearances and vapid behaviors have grown too plentiful. In their ranks I include Ezio of Assassin's Creed 2, Cole of inFamous, Alex of Prototype, and Alec from Red Faction: Guerrilla, just to name a few.
There worst trait is not their race, but there blank slate nature. These characters are emotionally empty. They reveal little about themselves and show little evidence of having their own motivations beyond "accomplish this next goal." They commit their actions with no self-reflection, at best showing inconsistent remorse over how many people they have killed. The same can be said for numerous NPCs with little to no personality. As Scott has mentioned on numerous occasions, games like Uncharted 2, Dragon Age: Origins, and Left 4 Dead 2, put these games to shame with their complex and more diverse set of characters. Unless developers are self-aware and tactfully making a statement about the medium, there is no excuse for worlds populated by vacuous automatons.
Artificial Unintelligence
I understand developers - and mad scientists - have been struggling with artificial intelligence for decades. Creating realistic behaviors for non-player characters is a daunting and arduous task. That being said, we all recognize when NPCs act with glaring stupidity. Most of the time, this idiocy manifests in the background. The civilians of Prototype, for example, run around in disaster sites with chaotic abandon. They exhibit no sense of purpose, no realistic desire to flee to safety. The same can be said of civilians in Assassin's Creed 2, who quickly forget about witnessing a murder and continue their perpetual roaming of the city
The worst offenders, however, are those we rely on. Whichever brother one might play in Call of Juarez, for example, will inevitably be dragged down by the lunacy of the other. Even Dragon Age, a game I am enjoying immensely right now, is guilty of poor party behavior. While I like the complexity of the tactics slot mechanics, the fact early game allies lack basic combat logic is absurd. Forcing players to invest in more tactics slots, and therefor better AI, is a backwards design decision players should not have to worry about.
2010 will not be the year of miracles. There will be more head-shaven dolts rampaging about inconsistent and unfair worlds. Yet, a short ineffective rant about a year of flaws can be healthy. It allows me to temper my optimism for this year's titles, while also appreciating the efforts of those who seek to enliven the medium and learn from past mistakes. With my aggravations cleared out, I am open for all the successes and failures the future holds.
Labels: features, game design, rant
Uncharted 2, Avatar, and Mistaken Mediums
This post contains spoilers for both Avatar and Uncharted 2.
Sometimes, the Fates conspire to bring us exactly what we need, even if it is not what we want. This was the case last weekend, when I played Uncharted 2 and saw Avatar.
Both works are profoundly flawed for a variety of reasons. I already got into a huff on Twitter about the colonial wet dream that is Avatar, and those who listened to this week's podcast heard me call Uncharted 2 the most dangerous game in recent memory. I'll offer a more detailed critique of Uncharted 2 in a subsequent post. For now, I want to expand on a problem that Avatar and Uncharted 2 share.
While technically and artistically impressive, both works are hampered by the same basic mistake: both works picked the wrong medium for what they are trying to accomplish.
Avatar strives to convey being in both a foreign environment and a foreign body. The world of Pandora is full of mysterious, wonderful, and terrifying flora and fauna, all of it rendered with a level of realism that facilitates the viewer's suspension of disbelief. The viewer enters this world vicariously through the experiences of a man who in turn experiences Pandora by inhabiting the body of another species.
Putting aside the morally-questionable action of cloning biological beings in order to use them as tools, in both name and function, these Avatars are used exactly the way most video game characters are used. Since the earliest days of gaming, players have been inhabiting virtual avatars in order to explore foreign lands. Our avatars give us the ability to survive in dangerous environments, to gain inhuman powers that we could only dream of possessing, and let us live out fantasies of interacting with people and worlds that would be unavailable to us otherwise. Like us, Jake Sully uses his avatar to escape both the figurative and literal confines of his world to experience an otherwise impossible existence.
The audience is forced to utilize Sully as a passive, limited Avatar through which to vicariously experience the film's world. Why not cut out the middle man? One of the film's main themes is that understanding a foreign world is only attained through direct interaction. By transforming a passive viewer into an active player, Avatar: The Game (the hypothetical one I just created, not the licensed movie tie-in currently for sale) would allow the viewer to experience Pandora's geographic and social landscape on a much deeper, personal level than the movie conveys.
In one scene, Sully, in his Avatar body, encounters human-size flowers that instantly retract into their bulbs at the slightest touch. While startling at first, he becomes amused and begins playing with him, only to inadvertently reveal a large angry, beast hiding behind their cover. This sequence, based on curiosity and the unexpected consequences of personal action would have worked exquisitely in a game: Not only would the player be experiencing the surprise, they would be the one who set it in motion.
While by no means perfect, games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect exemplify the ways in which virtual avatars and dynamic stories create nuanced, layered stories. By giving the player options in crafting their own avatar and choices as to how to conduct themselves in a foreign world, an Avatar video game could easily surpass the film's plot. Affording the player agency through character-creation and branching plot options could easily transcend the insipid Pocahontas myth that the film offers.
Superficially, Uncharted 2 appears to synthesize the agency found in video games with the grand set pieces and charismatic characters found in Hollywood films. To its credit, Uncharted 2's visual magnificence and character performances outshine quite a few games and movies. Initially, Uncharted 2 appears to be the perfect melding of film and games, however, its filmic veneer holds not the core of a game, but rather a film that is a captive of the video game medium.
While Uncharted 2 affords its players (or viewers) more agency than a film, the game obstinately forces the player through what is best called a "screenplay." The opening gameplay sequence in which Drake breaks into a museum is designated as a "stealth level," in which being detected means automatic failure and a mandatory restart. Clearly, Drake has enough wits and combat training to disable a group of thugs non-lethally, but this is not what the game wants you to experience. Instead of implementing a functional alert and cool-down system (something that has been possible at least since 1998's Metal Gear Solid), the game forces the player to experience the scene exactly as it was written.
This focus on linear, single-outcome scenarios crops up repeatedly throughout the game. At key points, Drake is given unlimited ammo with which to fend off specific enemies. This choice clashes harshly with the gameplay, which is focused on keeping a watchful eye on both enemies and the ammo supplies. The necessity of unlimited ammo during a Yeti attack betrays the scene's purpose: The encounter is not connected to exploring gameplay dynamics, it is episode meant to showcase a Yeti. Running out of ammo was not in the "script" for Drake, and thus must not be allowed to happen.
At times, the player is sharply punished for trying to make their mark on the screenplay. After the train crash, Drake must make his way to the far point of a circular arena patrolled by guards. Personally, since Drake was injured and outnumbered, I thought it smart to sneak past the guards and quietly scramble up the cliff face, leaving them none the wiser. My audacity was punished by a contrived auto-death in which enemies were magically teleported behind Drake to gun him down instantly. Thinking that I had made some tactical mistake, I proceeded to replay the same scenario two more times with identical results. Ultimately, I realized what the true problem was: I was attempting to subvert the game's script, and being punished for doing so. The one and only way to deal with that situation was to mow down a dozen enemies, and I was ultimately fed down the one true path as surely as a roll of film is fed into a projector.
When Uncharted 2 gives the player control, it runs the risk of straying from its strengths. Uncharted 2 is a post-Quentin Tarantino response to Indiana Jones: Drake is a hero who indulges in both witty repartee and self-aware meta-comments; he is a struggling everyman and a sociopathic killer; he walks the line between affable bumbler and ruthless professional. The game features lush-looking environments and textured characters, but does so by enforcing the rigidity of film onto a medium based on malleability.
It is nearly impossible to craft a personal Drake who occasionally makes a false jump: the game will not let the player make an imperfect leap from one climbing point to another. Attempting to make a false jump while hanging over a precipice results in harmless hop rather than a deadly drop because said drop would not fit the story the game is trying to tell. Drake is only a bumbler when the screenplay dictates him to be, and the player is constantly reminded of this. If the player does happen to fail, they are re-spawned at a point where they must listen to the character's dialogue describing the scene, as if that misstep never happened. By the game's logic, it cannot happen: there is only one way this story can turn out, and in order to preserve the sanctity of the scene, the player must act as if it never happened, as if it is just a take, something to be left on the cutting room floor.
Ironically, Uncharted 2 is refuses to make the boldest leap: the jump from one medium to another. Instead of giving itself over totally to film it attempts to accommodate old gaming conventions into a package that soon gets bloated. On at least a half-dozen occasions, someone is saved from a deadly fall by another person catching their arm at the last minute. While this would be a source of dramatic tension in a film, the novelty quickly wears off: the player knows the game will not end that way and this same trick has already been repeated over the past ten hours. By creating fully-realized characters to stage a script with singular message, Uncharted 2 creates a work whose integrity is dependent on being guarded against outside interference. This is a challenge better met by film than by video games.
Similarly, Avatar is a work unwilling to endorse its own themes. By building a story about inhabiting a proxy body to explore fantasy realms, Avatar invites comparison to experiences that actually allow people to do such a thing, and suffers for it. Without a means to truly inhabit it, Pandora, a supposedly intricate world an abundance of both natural and social complexities to explore becomes little more than a glorified window. An investment that cost hundreds of millions of dollars and spanned decades created a virtual world, complete with virtual characters, and all we get out of it is three hours of rehashed Euro-centric tropes.
Both Avatar and Uncharted 2 are monumental works that showcase stunning imagery and unparalleled technological prowess. It is a shame that, despite all their grandeur, these monuments were erected in the wrong mediums.
Written by Scott Juster at 1/08/2010 09:40:00 PM 15 comments:
EXP Podcast #59: Uncharted Territory
The best games of 2009 have been selected and I have joined an unsurprising chorus of individuals who laud Uncharted 2: Among Thieves as their experience of the year. Such a title, however, with its unapologetic approach to cinematic game design, may hold untold dangers for the medium. So begins this week's conversation about the successes and failures of Uncharted 2. Once again, Scott and I focus on one single game we have recently played, reflecting on Naughty Dog and the future of game design. For those who have played the game, and those who have not, we encourage you to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Warning: This podcast contains spoilers for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
- First off, what are your thoughts on Uncharted 2? What did you find distracting or engaging?
- What are the extremities of linear-narrative game design? What are the consequences of exploring the boundaries of the medium?
- What other games have existed in these "dangerous game design" borderlands for you?
Ambiance Saves the Day
Despite the many wasted narrative opportunities of Assassin's Creed 2, the world of Renaissance Italy draws me in, charming me even during the most tedious missions. Writing last week's piece about death and family in AC2 makes it seem as if I did not enjoy my experience with the game. On the contrary, I had a great time playing as Ezio and put in far more hours into the game than I would have had it not enraptured me so. Yet, once again, I am justifying my appreciation to myself. Why would a game, with so many mechanical flaws and narrative inconsistencies keep my attention for so long? Why are some games so pleasing despite all their well deserved criticisms? The answer is in the atmosphere.
Simon Ferrari of Chungking Espresso recently lambasted Assassin's Creed 2 with a 0 out of 5 stars review. The article is hyperbolic, hilarious and shockingly accurate. Leonardo Da Vinci's character is utterly wasted, the flying machine scene is absurd and misused, all the quicktime events are useless, and the camera can be a pain. Even the tomb scenes I relished are painfully flawed. Lastly, the game fundamentals, combat and platforming, are irksome enough to warrant heavy use of courtesans and speed walking on ground level, ignoring the game's famed verticality.
There are no points in Simon's article that I disagree with in particular, yet none of the many maligned design choices ruined my own experience. Some of his final questions illuminate the reason: "What do you like about this game? Building up your estate? Why don't you play a Sim game instead? Why should I have to return to my estate constantly to collect my 20-minute tithe?" I do, in fact, enjoy building up my Auditore estate. The monetary limit requiring my return serves as a reminder to check on my ever-expanding villa. I do not play a Sim game instead because it is not the same. It is the ambiance of Italy that I love.
I not only enjoy collecting material to furnish a large estate, I also enjoy collecting famous Italian paintings in particular. I purchased every available painting in the game, and eagerly show them off to anyone watching me play. The Auditore gallery provides an artistic walk-through of Renaissance art. Each piece has a small bit of information about the painting, often more than the real Uffizi Gallery in Florence provides. My excitement at purchasing a new painting in AC2 is similar to the excitement of eying a recognizable piece of art across a gallery show floor.
The atmosphere of the bustling city of Venice is just as pleasing. Bumping into the Piazza San Marco is instantly remarkable, particularly for those privileged enough to have visited Italy. The clothing of the Italian denizens add to the tone of the game. Even the guards with their uninspired fighting tactics but extravagant attire, and the largely useless, but visually striking and historically significant weapons add to the game's aura. Each city's architecture is a pleasure to explore and buildings of note satisfy a traveler's curiosity with historical information. One building's blurb, "If you weren't reading this you would be up there by now," is more offensive than the occasional screen tearing because it disregards the joy I receive from probing optional information.
The melding of science fiction with historical fiction is also satisfying. I find the glyphs that appear on famous landmarks are interesting despite the weak narrative because they add a level of mystery I had not presumed to exist. Each puzzle encourages me to imagine stories behind various historical events in the context of the game and how they might fit into Ezio's tale. The pay-out is ineffective, but the sci-fi elements are fun and subtly change the game's ambiance. Assassin's Creed 2 succeeds for me because it is a biased and sci-fi tinged atmospheric spectacle.
To give a small sneak peek at this week's podcast, Scott and I had similar conversation about Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. While I will gladly defend many of Naughty Dog's design choices, I cannot deny the role ambiance plays in my enjoyment of Uncharted 2. I find the "Indiana Jones feel" of the game fantastic, which means what I find to be minor flaws could be glaring flaws for those not enveloped in the game's atmosphere. Similarly, one of the reasons I find Krystian Majewski's Mass Effect Interface Fail series so interesting is because, despite the fact these design errors are egregious, I still enjoy the game. Even the visual elements of the shoddy interface support the science-fiction-space-opera atmosphere very well.
How to include "ambiance" in the critical discussion of a game is difficult. Ambiance is hard to measure. Basic mechanics can contribute to atmosphere, along with cinematics, character models, voice acting, level design and more. It may also be more subjective than these other game elements alone, particularly for a title like Assassin's Creed 2 that relies on a believable simulacra of a real time and place. Valuing ambiance above all else is dangerous, certainly. Ignoring it completely as a critical design element, however, is an unfortunate mistake.
New Year's Gaming Resolutions
Although it may be trite, I enjoy the spirit behind New Year's resolutions. While they may not always be successful, the intent to pick up new habits and improve on the old year is a noble one. Seeing as how I am both a sucker for New Year's resolutions and a giant video game geek, is it really a surprise that I have a special sub-set of gaming-related New Year's resolution? We'll see how long these last:
The Must-Plays of 2010
I try to avoid pre-release hype, as it usually just reinforces the fact that I'll never get around to all the games I want to play. However, try as I might, I can't help but be excited about some of 2010's huge releases. Although I'm not convinced that it will make it out in 2010, Team Ico's The Last Guardian, promises to elicit awe (and possibly tears). I think that Super Mario Galaxy was one of the best games of the decade, so I am ecstatic about the prospect of Super Mario Galaxy 2. Finally: A playable 3D Yoshi! On the opposite end of the cuteness spectrum stands God of War III. The series brings me back to the golden days of brawling games and its fluid, brutally efficient combo system does a great job of modernizing the genre. Additionally, I enjoy the story and its characters far more than I probably should. Ever since God of War II's (literal) cliffhanger ending, I've been looking forward to part III.
Until I figure out a way to become independently wealthy or to get paid for keeping up with new releases, I will continue to amass a backlog of games that deserve to be played. As 2009 slips away, there are a handful of games that I skipped over. Batman: Arkham Asylum is probably the top priority; I am a big fan of the Dark Knight and, from what I've heard, the game succeeds as both as an excellent video game and a worthy entry into Batman lore. Following closely behind the caped crusader is Demon's Souls, whose promise of cruelty appeals to my sadistic tendencies.
Delving deeper into the still-recent past reveals still more games I was forced to leave on the shelf. Next year, I hope to squeeze in time for Deadspace, Braid, and Muramasa : The Demon Blade. I am also interested in Assassin's Creed 2, although my personal quirk (or affliction, as Jorge would argue) of feeling compelled to play the first game in a series before playing the sequel might hamper this goal.
Lastly, there is still a long list of games residing on my "list of shame." These are the games I haven't played even though they are considered some of the medium's seminal works. Like my perpetual intention to read Moby Dick, I still fully intend to complete Half Life or a Baldur's Gate game at some point. Maybe this will be the year?
Last year, Sean Sands from Gamers With Jobs embarked on a noble attempt to explore game genres he usually avoided. Unfortunately, the project proved too taxing on his patience and sanity, and was ended prematurely. While I won't aspire to the "one game each month" formula that Sean tried, I am going to try to dabble in genres I have either forgotten or neglected.
For example, I haven't played an RPG since Final Fantasy X scarred my psyche with its insipid dialogue and horrendous voice acting. Perhaps thirteen will be my lucky number? I cannot remember the last Western RPG I played, but the prospect of Mass Effect's rich sci-fi universe is tempting.
My absence from RPGs is comparatively short in relation to other, even more neglected genres. I haven't seriously played a sports game since the N64-era, so I might try to fire up the latest edition of Madden. Although the world of military simulations is strange and scary to me, my affinity for Civil War-era history might convince me to seek out some strategy game action. Are there any games out there where you can customize your soldiers' facial hair? I'm looking for authenticity folks!
So there it is: Three broad resolutions to work towards during 2010. If April rolls and I still haven't finished Super Mario Galaxy 2, Batman is still gathering dust, and I continue to live in my platformer-centric rut, try not to be too harsh on me.
In order to deflect some of the attention away from me, I'll turn it over to you folks: Have you made any gaming resolutions for 2010? What are you looking forward to in the new year, and what are you glad we are leaving behind? Any tips on overlooked games or under-appreciated genres?
Labels: features
Search Experience Points
Email: experiencepoints@gmail.com
Follow @sjuster
Follow @JAlbor
PSN: sjuster PSN: shen4891
XBL: -- XBL: Shen4891
Nintendo ID: sjuster Nintendo ID: Shenmoot
Steam: sjuster Steam: expjorge
Origin: sjuster Origin: Shen4891
The Sensationalist: Worry in 'Silent Hill Shattere...
Header and logo design by Phillip Andrew Wong. Picture Window theme. Powered by Blogger.


The transferrin binding protein genes (and also have been cloned and sequenced. their Tedizolid bactericidal activities. The anti-rTbpA antiserum was not bactericidal, but anti-rTbpB antisera were found to kill heterologous strains within the same family. Thus, if bactericidal ability is clinically relevant, a vaccine comprising multiple rTbpB antigens may protect against disease. In recent years, has gained recognition as a significant human being pathogen (for evaluations, see referrals 5, 9, and 24). It's been defined as a reason behind bacteremia, epiglottitis, meningitis, otitis press, and pneumonia in kids, adults, and older people. may be the third leading reason behind otitis press in children, in charge of on the subject of 20% of disease, pursuing and nontypeable can be connected with chronic respiratory health conditions such as for example bronchitis or pneumonia primarily, where it exacerbates the condition. Intrusive illnesses such as for example meningitis and bacteremia are much less common but could be fatal (7, 18, 23). Around 70% of kids will encounter at least one episode of otitis press by enough time they are three years old, numerous kids having multiple shows (36). The peak occurrence of otitis press occurs in kids between 1 and 24 months of age, at a time when their language skills Tedizolid are developing. Recurrent or chronic otitis media can lead to deafness, speech impairment, or learning disabilities. Treatments Tedizolid include antibiotics or surgery to remove tonsils and adenoids or the insertion of tympanostomy tubes. The estimated cost of these primary treatments is about $2 billion dollars per year in the United States Tedizolid alone (3), with secondary costs such as speech therapy and special education classes costing billions more per year. In addition, most strains of are resistant to -lactam antibiotics such as the penicillins, although treatment with cephalosporin, macrolide, and tetracycline antibiotics has been successful (8, 25). The need for an effective otitis media vaccine is obvious. Bacteria have evolved several mechanisms to overcome host iron restriction, including the use of siderophores and iron binding proteins such as transferrin, lactoferrin, hemin, and hemoglobin binding proteins. To obtain iron from host iron binding proteins, utilizes both PRMT8 transferrin and lactoferrin binding proteins (31). Other characterized bacterial transferrin receptors are composed of two proteins, transferrin binding protein A (TbpA) and transferrin binding protein B (TbpB). In vivo, both TbpA and TbpB bind human transferrin, but only TbpB will still bind transferrin after sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and electroblotting (31). The and genes, encoding the TbpA and TbpB proteins, from strains of have been cloned and sequenced (2, 6, 10, 11, 20, 22, 27). The TbpA proteins are generally highly conserved within a species, while the TbpB proteins tend to be more variable. For (17, 33). Furthermore, TbpBs from have been demonstrated to be protective antigens in various animal challenge models (1, 21, 22, 29). In this report, we describe the cloning and sequence analysis of the genes encoding the Tbps from fragments, additional restriction enzyme Tedizolid sites for 3 and 4223 were clinical isolates provided by T. Murphy (State University of New York, Buffalo); strains Q8 and R1 were gifts from M. Bergeron (University of Laval, Montreal, Quebec, Canada); strain LES-1 was obtained from L. Stenfors (University of Tromso, Tromso, Finland); stress VH-9 was from V. Howie (College or university of Tx, Galveston); strains H-04 and M35 had been from G. D. Campbell (Louisiana Condition College or university, Shreveport); and stress ATCC 25240 was bought through the American Type Tradition Collection (Rockville, Md.). strains had been taken care of on Mueller-Hinton agar (Becton Dickinson, Cockeysville, Md.) or cultivated in brain center infusion moderate (BHI; Difco, Detroit, Mich.), with or with no addition of ethylenediamine-di(strains had been expanded in YT (Difco) or NZCYM (Becton Dickinson) moderate supplemented with 100 g of ampicillin per ml as needed. Purification of local TbpB and TbpA and era of antisera. Local TbpA and TbpB individually were.


Comprehensive list of Canton, Michigan based accounting companies, bookkeepers, payroll and tax consultants and specialists.
Services include personal, corporate, partnership, estate, trust, and pension and profit sharing tax preparation, in addition to comprehensive accounting for all business kinds. Other services include eldercare assurance, management consulting, tiny business start-up, insurance review, payroll preparation, non-profit management, condominium association management and computer system consultation.
At Schultz & Associates, our CPAs supply traditional services including tax return and financial statement preparation for individuals and tiny business. We excel in delivering professional support that complements and helps customers in achieving their business and personal goals.
Is to supply our clients with the highest value in accounting, bookkeeping, auditing and business planning possible. We have been in business in Plymouth, Michigan since 1961. We specialize in tiny business consulting and accounting, tax planning and compliance filings and municipal and local government services. Our Professionals We specialize in auditing, book keeping and accounting.
Linville & Company, PLLC of Plymouth is much more than the sum of its parts. Founded in 2002 by Kay Linville, CPA, the firm has seen its team of CPAs, accountants and bookeepers - as well as its customer base - grow exponentially. Training : Each member of the staff has gained a degree in either accounting or finance, or is a licensed CPA.


Timothy Donahue received an average compensation of $5,638,022 at Crown Holdings from 2008 to 2018.
In 2018, Timothy Donahue earned a total compensation of $9,816,741 as President and Chief Executive Officer at Crown Holdings.
Donahue received $5,720,055 in stock awards, which accounts for 58.27% of total compensation.
Donahue also received $1,183,618 of change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings, $1,735,800 in non-equity incentive plan, $1,100,000 in salary and $77,268 in other compensation.
For fiscal year 2018, the annual total compensation for Timothy Donahue was $9,816,741 and for the median employee at Crown Holdings was $42,023. The resulting ratio of Timothy Donahue's pay to the pay of median employee was 234 to one.
In 2017, Timothy Donahue earned a total compensation of $11,939,960 as President and Chief Executive Officer at Crown Holdings.
Donahue received $5,200,004 in stock awards, which accounts for 43.55% of total compensation.
Donahue also received $2,810,148 of change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings, $2,295,600 in non-equity incentive plan, $1,000,000 in salary and $634,208 in other compensation.
In 2016, Timothy Donahue earned a total compensation of $10,974,626 as President and Chief Executive Officer at Crown Holdings.
Donahue received $5,051,113 in stock awards, which accounts for 46.03% of total compensation.
Donahue also received $1,994,476 of change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings, $2,594,849 in non-equity incentive plan, $915,000 in salary and $419,188 in other compensation.
In 2015, Timothy Donahue earned a total compensation of $3,955,871 as President and Chief Executive Officer at Crown Holdings.
Donahue received $1,612,495 in stock awards, which accounts for 40.76% of total compensation.
Donahue also received $187,019 of change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings, $1,473,235 in non-equity incentive plan, $645,000 in salary and $38,122 in other compensation.
In 2014, Timothy Donahue earned a total compensation of $4,424,362 as President and Chief Executive Officer at Crown Holdings.
Donahue received $1,537,500 in stock awards, which accounts for 34.75% of total compensation.
Donahue also received $1,062,484 of change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings, $1,195,960 in non-equity incentive plan, $615,000 in salary and $13,418 in other compensation.
In 2013, Timothy Donahue earned a total compensation of $2,971,022 as President and Chief Executive Officer at Crown Holdings.
Donahue received $1,537,500 in stock awards, which accounts for 51.75% of total compensation.
Donahue also received $671,888 in non-equity incentive plan, $615,000 in salary and $146,634 in other compensation.
In 2012, Timothy Donahue earned a total compensation of $3,885,314 as President and Chief Operating Officer at Crown Holdings.
Donahue received $1,164,138 in stock awards, which accounts for 29.96% of total compensation.
Donahue also received $938,654 of change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings, $958,720 in non-equity incentive plan, $535,000 in salary and $288,802 in other compensation.
In 2011, Timothy Donahue earned a total compensation of $4,429,221 as President and Chief Operating Officer at Crown Holdings.
Donahue received $1,392,648 of change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings, which accounts for 31.44% of total compensation.
Donahue also received $1,112,800 in non-equity incentive plan, $535,000 in salary, $1,164,138 in stock awards and $224,635 in other compensation.
In 2010, Timothy Donahue earned a total compensation of $3,930,711 as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Crown Holdings.
Donahue received $1,284,000 in non-equity incentive plan, which accounts for 32.67% of total compensation.
Donahue also received $777,281 of change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings, $535,000 in salary, $1,166,018 in stock awards and $168,412 in other compensation.
In 2009, Timothy Donahue earned a total compensation of $3,480,491 as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Crown Holdings.
Donahue received $1,212,000 in non-equity incentive plan, which accounts for 34.82% of total compensation.
Donahue also received $598,565 of change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings, $505,000 in salary, $1,019,902 in stock awards and $145,024 in other compensation.
In 2008, Timothy Donahue earned a total compensation of $2,209,926 as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Crown Holdings.
Donahue received $768,960 in non-equity incentive plan, which accounts for 34.80% of total compensation.
Donahue also received $316,454 of change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings, $445,000 in salary, $612,375 in stock awards and $67,137 in other compensation.


text:
Compassion for Animals: A Vital Part of Your Character Education Program
By Mary Uenking, TeachKind Assistant, Education and Outreach for PETA
Many curricula already include units about animals with lessons on their natural habitats, foods they eat, and other basic characteristics. But teachers shouldn't miss the opportunity to engage students in building some empathy while you're at it! Kids care about animals and want to take action to help them, so by extending these lessons to include compassion for them and concrete ways students can improve the lives of animals, you're able to teach engaging academic content while fostering the development of good character in students at the same time. Here at TeachKind, PETA's humane education division, we call that "feeding two birds with one scone."
Character education can easily be extended to incorporate the values of respect and responsibility toward animals. For example, many of the goals outlined in Character.org's 11 Principles Framework can be achieved by broadening our scope of compassion to include all sentient beings, not just those who look and behave like us. Teachers and school leaders could do the following:
Integrate lessons on compassion for animals into the curriculum of every grade level and core subject area, making your approach to developing character "comprehensive, intentional, and proactive" (Principle 3).
Create a "caring community" (Principle 4) by promoting kindness to all living, feeling beings in your anti-bullying efforts and empowering students to report abuse, regardless of the victim's species.
Provide students with "opportunities for moral action" (Principle 5) by working on projects to help animals in the community (i.e., collecting blankets and toys for the local animal shelter), having students write letters to local legislators urging them to enact animal-friendly laws (i.e., a tethering ban), and otherwise promoting student activism on real world issues.
THE BENEFITS OF HUMANE EDUCATION
Promote Prosocial Behavior
Children who are taught empathy for animals tend to be more empathetic toward their peers.1,2 By incorporating humane education, teachers have an opportunity to reach kids before they start to engage in antisocial or violent behavior. Humane education is best designed as a multitiered approach in which empathy training is delivered to the whole student population in the first tier. Mental health professionals support students who have witnessed animal abuse in the second tier. Leaders conduct interventions and monitor students who have documented histories of violent or otherwise abusive behavior toward animals or their peers in the third tier.
Motivate Students Academically
Kids are naturally interested in animals, and they're academically motivated when lessons include information on ways to help them. Many reluctant learners with disruptive behavior issues become some of the fiercest champions for animals after learning that they need their help. Then they channel that passion into reading books about animals, researching, and writing reports on ways people can help them, and otherwise applying their academic skills in authentic ways—sometimes even during their free time! Because of children's innate compassion for animals, English language learners and special needs students can be engaged and inspired to work hard at communicating a clear message to help them verbally or in writing.
Reduce Violence in the School Community
While many educators are aware that serial killers3 and school shooters4,5 tend to have a history of cruelty to animals, they must also recognize that it's common for young people to have witnessed animal abuse,6,7,8,9 that seeing such abuse is a form of trauma,10 and that children who've observed acts of cruelty to animals are more likely to abuse animals themselves.11,12,13,14 The most egregious cases of cruelty to animals make headlines, but many children encounter animal abuse that goes unreported. This is why it's urgent that schools implement preventive measures such as incorporating humane education for all students, rather than merely reacting to reported incidents of cruelty committed by students.
Addressing youth violence against animals is imperative—not only for the safety and well-being of the animals in your community but also for the mental health and academic success of your students. Research indicates that a large proportion of young people have witnessed animal abuse,15,16,17,18 meaning that this lesser-known, but still very real form of childhood trauma, is much more pervasive than most educators realize and needs to be addressed. Dr. Barbara Boat, director of the Program on Childhood Trauma and Maltreatment at the University of Cincinnati, warns, "Exposure to animal cruelty can have a significant impact on the developing child, including promoting desensitization and decreasing empathy … and leading to the imitation of abusive behaviors." It's not only kids who've committed egregious crimes who need lessons in compassion for animals—to prevent tragedies from taking place in your school community, educators must teach all students to be kind to animals, using a multitiered approach.
TEACHING COMPASSION DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Especially now as we navigate these unprecedented times, children should be encouraged to develop their problem-solving skills, be actively aware of their own well-being, and flex their empathy muscles. With so much uncertainty in the world, it's important for kids to know that some things are still within their control—like how they treat others, including animals. These foundational skills can be cultivated by using TeachKind resources in the classroom, virtually, or at home.
According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, the five core competencies of social and emotional learning are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Lessons that focus on compassion for animals can not only strengthen these competencies and help shape students into responsible, critical-thinking, empathetic young people but also make teachers' jobs easier in a time when engaging them is especially difficult. Work smarter, not harder, and tap into your students' natural interest in animals to aid them in developing good character.
EMPATHY NOW
Statistics show that kids who hurt animals might be on a dangerous path leading to worse behavior if not corrected. But the opposite of this profound fact is also true—when young children learn kindness for animals, they take a key step toward rejecting all violence, bullying, and hatred in their teen years and beyond.
Since TeachKind regularly receives reports of cruelty to animals perpetrated by young people across the U.S., we have created "Empathy Now," a step-by-step guide that assists schools in addressing these incidents within their communities and in implementing humane education to help prevent future tragedies. This tool can guide your school district's response to an incident of cruelty to animals, as well as helping you proactively implement humane education across the board.
Let's resolve to make it a year-round priority to have conversations on reducing violence and to explore new ways of empowering our students to exhibit excellent character and stand up to bullies, no matter the victim's species.
Visit TeachKind.org for free lessons and activities to supplement your character education efforts, and contact us at [email protected] for more guidance.
1Samuels, W.E., Meers, L.L., & Normando, S. (2016). Improving upper elementary students' humane attitudes and prosocial behaviors through an in-class humane education program. Anthrozoös, 29(4), 597–610.
2Samuels, W.E. (2018). Nurturing kindness naturally: A humane education program's effect on the prosocial behavior of first and second graders across China. International Journal of Educational Research, 91(1), 49–64.
3Wright, J., & Hensley, C. (2003). From animal cruelty to serial murder: Applying the graduation hypothesis. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 47(1), 72–88.
4Verlinden, S., Hersen, M., & Thomas, J. (2000). Risk factors in school shootings. Clinical Psychology Review, 20(1), 3–56.
5Arluke, A., & Madfis, E. (2014). Animal abuse as a warning sign of school massacres: A critique and refinement. Homicide Studies, 18(1), 7–22.
6Thompson, K.L., & Gullone, E. (2006). An investigation into the association between the witnessing of animal abuse and adolescents' behavior toward animals. Society & Animals, 14(3), 221–243.
7Baldry, A.C. (2003). Animal abuse and exposure to interparental violence in Italian youth. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 18(3), 258–281.
8Gullone, E., & Robertson, N. (2008). The relationship between bullying and animal abuse behaviors in adolescents: The importance of witnessing animal abuse. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29(5), 371–379.
9Henry, B.C. (2004). The relationship between animal cruelty, delinquency, and attitudes toward the treatment of animals. Society & Animals, 12(3), 185–207.
10Randour, M.L., Smith-Blackmore, M., Blaney, N., DeSousa, D., & Guyony, A.A. (2019). Animal abuse as a type of trauma: Lessons for human and animal service professionals. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 1–12.
11Thompson & Gullone.
12Hensley, C., & Tallichet, S.E. (2005). Learning to be cruel? Exploring the onset and frequency of animal cruelty. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 49(1), 37–47.
13Baldry, A.C. (2003). Animal abuse and exposure to interparental violence in Italian youth. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 18(3), 258–281.
145DeGue, S., & DiLillo, D. (2009). Is animal cruelty a "red flag" for family violence? Investigating co-occurring violence toward children, partners, and pets. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 24(6), 1036–1056.
16Baldry.
17Gullone & Robertson.
18Henry.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Causeway Launch in Ireland on 26th October 2017 at the British Embassy
"Causeway, Ireland Scotland Business Exchange", the new brand of The Irish Business Network Scotland, is to launch in Ireland on 26th October 2017 at the British Embassy.
Launched in Scotland in June 2016, the network supports businesses operating in Ireland and Scotland.
Such has been its success in fostering relationships and aiding business expansion, that the not-for-profit network has received financial backing from both the Irish and Scottish Governments.
With several events planned over the next six months across sectors including renewables, finance & marketing, Causeway is also planning its first event in Belfast in early 2018.
The rebrand from IBNS to Causeway will officially be unveiled at the Dublin launch next week (26th October) and Colm Moloney, Chairperson of Causeway explains the new approach: "Causeway is essentially an exchange of ideas, connections and opportunities between Irish and Scottish businesses with ambitions to either break into or grow in either country. Causeway operates across all of Ireland and Scotland so we felt the new name better reflects the ambitions of the network."
Speaking on behalf of the Irish Government, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Coveney TD said: "I am pleased to support the Dublin launch of Causeway: Ireland Scotland Business Exchange on 26 October. Since its launch at Edinburgh Castle by Minister Donohoe in June 2016, this organisation has become an invaluable resource to Irish companies and business people seeking to expand their network, reputation and presence in Scotland. Under its new brand, Causeway, I am confident that the network will continue to support the development of trade and investment links between Ireland and Scotland, and to facilitate valuable collaboration and partnerships between businesses operating on both sides of the Irish Sea. I am delighted to announce that the Government is in a position to financially support the work of Causeway: Ireland Scotland Business Exchange through the Emigrant Support Programme."
Adding his support, John Webster, Scottish Government Representative in Ireland, said: "The Scottish Government is committed to strengthening the links we have with some of our closest neighbours and biggest trading partners. Ireland is already Scotland's 7th biggest export market and more than 100 Irish companies across 200 sites employ some 6000 people generating £2billion' for our economy. We believe the potential exists to do much more together, and that is why we have opened a dedicated Hub in Dublin and will continue to invest in the relationship. Business networks like Causeway can play a vital role in realising that potential, by supporting companies on their export journey, providing a friendly environment to network and offering advice on the opportunities. The Scottish Government was proud to provide a small amount of funding earlier this year to help Causeway establish itself, and will continue to support its work through our Dublin Hub and in its work with companies in Scotland."
Paul Doherty, Managing Director of Gavin & Doherty Geosolutions endorsed Causeway by saying: "GDG has seen significant growth in our Scottish business since setting up an office in Edinburgh over a year ago and Causeway has played a crucial role in our expansion. The network has been essential for promoting our brand across Scotland and continues to be a cornerstone of our business development activities as we navigate across the Irish sea"
Individual or group membership is available online at www.irishbusinessnetwork.scot
Author: David Greenlees
Date Published: 24/10/2017
< Article List
David Greenlees
David is Chairperson & Director of Causeway and alongside his fellow board members and committee, helped create a strong business platform for companies and professionals seeking to collaborate and connect between Ireland and Scotland. David's background is in sales leadership, and has been growing technology businesses in Scotland and across UK & Ireland for over 20 years, mainly within the software and consultancy space, helping clients become more efficient & agile in operation, and profitable in routes to market. David is Sales Director for Priority Software, a $50million global ERP Software business with over 75,000 customers. David has a strong sales and marketing focus, and contributes specifically towards the growth of Causeway commercially, as well as its communications and marketing strategies.


text:
Halloween on the Ancient Internet: Part 3!
In this edition of Halloween on the Ancient Internet, you'll see everything from the original Scream's original site to a bunch of discontinued ice cream flavors. I'm pushing all of your best buttons.
We're gonna have a time! Unplug your landlines and settle in with that sweet 2400-baud connection. If you missed the previous editions, they're here and here.
Elvira's Halloween Soup!
(October 2000)
Elvira was one of the first celebs who understood the powaaa of the internet, using it not just to maintain her fame, but to become truly self-sufficient.
Early versions of her website were simple by today's standards, but they held the key to Elvira's still-going success: She built a direct line to her fans. It's Celebrity 101 in 2020, but she did it when most people were still trying to figure out what those weird AOL discs that kept coming in the mail were for.
In the early 2000s, Elvira had a recipe section on her site. It must've been a point of passion for her, because the recipes were for mostly-normal foods that did not scream "Elvira" in any way.
Shown above is the recipe for Elvira's Halloween Soup, a basic black bean soup that isn't the slightest bit vampy or goth. I love that I can prepare such a pleasantly everyday meal and still call it a tribute to Elvira!
The Original SCREAM Site!
(March 1997)
Scream hit theaters in December of '96, but its website continued updating throughout 1997, since they still had VHS releases and whatever else to promote.
This was actually a high-end movie site in its time, not just for its design, but for its tone. Tongue-in-cheek snark was pervasive online, but rarely on big "official" websites. Looking over it now, I'm struck by how much of the verbiage wouldn't fly in 2020, even as a joke.
The neatest part was the Woodsboro High Yearbook, which cheekily pleaded the case of each character. Could Sidney be the next victim, or was she the killer?
(At least three of the characters shown in that yearbook are returning for Scream 5, by the way. Not sure when that one's coming out. With the way things are going, I'll assume 2057.)
Tales from the Crypt!
(November 1996)
The original Tales from the Crypt site highlighted what's thankfully become a lost art: Putting text right over textured backgrounds.
It was easier to put up with back then, since we were all on dial-up with s-l-o-w connections. If it took us an extra minute to digest white text over a slimy brick background, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. These days, it's hard to persuade people to stay on any single page for more than 10 seconds, but back then, ya kinda wanted to stay put after a new click.
My favorite part of the site was the Cryptique, an online shop. Get a load of that life-sized Crypt Keeper! Made by Gemmy, you might remember seeing it at Spencer Gifts. Not very many were made. The talking dolls rarely pop up on eBay and sell for small fortunes when they do, whether they're in working order or not.
(I don't know who the nude model standing beside the Crypt Keeper is, but if somebody hired me to get naked for an audio-animatronic Crypt Keeper product shot, I would never stop talking about it.)
Michael Myers Webring!
(September 2000)
Oh, this is just precious. If you're too young to remember webrings, they were essentially "clubs" for various sites of a similar nature to share traffic with one another. Every member would throw a banner like that somewhere on their site, which in theory would increase the number of visitors to all of the sites.
Naturally, The Michael Myers Halloween Webring was for websites that had something to do with the Halloween franchise. (Or just horror movies, apparently. The webring's creator was flexible, though they did request that your site not be "total trash.")
There were a billion webrings for every subject imaginable, but I'd estimate that 95% of them quickly fell into disrepair. Still, in a world without social media when even search engines were just beginning to master their craft, a webring was one of the best ways to "find your people."
Ben & Jerry's Flavor Graveyard!
Ben & Jerry's Flavor Graveyard is still a part of their brand. The company even maintains a real world version that you can actually visit!
These days, the Flavor Graveyard is a mostly-classy parody of a real cemetery. Back in the late '90s, it was an all-out spooky thing, with the goofy Halloween clipart to prove it.
It was (and continues to be) a way for Ben & Jerry's to pay respect to their fallen flavors. I'm truncating the page in the above screenshot; even in 1997, the list was a lot longer. I imagine that the Graveyard's existence spurred serious fans to never miss a flavor, lest it end up irretrievably buried under a pile of tombstone gifs.
Thanks for reading. I'm hoping to publish at least one more edition of Halloween on the Ancient Internet before the Countdown concludes. Gross bony skeleton fingers crossed!
PS: The next Purple Stuff Podcast drops next week. We just posted this month's bonus show on Patreon, too, if you want to hear us imitate the guy from the Nightmare VCR game.
Old Halloween Newspaper Ads, #7!
1989 Imagineers Halloween Catalog!


text:
Curated by: Robertson ReportQ Anon
by Samuel Allegri January 8, 2021
Vice President Mike Pence has no plan to invoke the 25th Amendment against President Donald Trump, a source close to Pence said. The source, a Trump administration official who chose to remain anonymous, told The Epoch Times that the possibility of Pence doing that is zero. At least three Democrats and one Republican member of Congress have called for the usage of the 25th Amendment, which was approved in 1967. The amendment states that if a sitting vice president and a cabinet majority concur that the president is not fit to perform his duties, the latter can be removed and the vice president can take over the presidency. "The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous," Pelosi wrote in a statement, reported Reuters. "If the President does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action." Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also …Vice President Mike Pence has no plan to invoke the 25th Amendment against President Donald Trump, a source close to Pence said. The source, a Trump administration official who chose to remain anonymous, told The Epoch Times that the possibility of Pence doing that is zero. At least three Democrats and one Republican member of
Read MoreEpoch Times, United States politics | The Epoch Times
No Wonder They're FREAKED! New Video and Photos Show Half a Million at "Stop the Steal" Rally and Then TENS OF THOUSANDS of Patriots Surrounding US Capitol
Breaking: Lindsey Graham Mobbed at Airport by Angry Crowd Shouting "You traitor!"…Misses His Flight


She's one of my all-time favorite character actors. I remember her from How the West Was Won, Rear Window, as well as a couple of Doris Day movies, and one of them, Pillow Talk, resulted in an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress. She seemed so natural and down-to-earth, as if she was the lady next door.
Loved her in 1951's "The Mating Season" with Gene Tierney, John Lund, and Miriam Hopkins.


text:
sowny.net | The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum
You are not logged in. Would you like to login or register?
» SOWNY
» @CityNewsTO Twitter Site Already Up In Advance Of New Branding Monday
October 15, 2021 9:37 am #1
@CityNewsTO Twitter Site Already Up In Advance Of New Branding Monday
Monday marks the day when 680 News fades into history and becomes CityNews680. The station has been promoting the change for some time and says listeners will notice the difference.
"Our radio station name will also sound slightly different. Both teams will merge and create a nationally recognized local news powerhouse across multiple platforms, with the radio station formally becoming CityNews 680."
I'm guessing it will sound a lot more like what 'RB is doing, where CFTO news people anchor some of the newscasts. Perhaps the same will happen for them on 680 between TV duties. But we'll see if this results in any staff reductions. (Always a possibility at Rogers, which has done it too many times to count.)
The new Twitter feed, @CityNewsTO, is already up and running. The replacement website, citynews680.com, brings up a blank page as of this posting, but it's clearly there as well, since you don't get an error saying address cannot be found.
It's coming: 680 NEWS and CityNews to join forces Oct. 18
October 15, 2021 1:12 pm #2
Re: @CityNewsTO Twitter Site Already Up In Advance Of New Branding Monday
Tim Brown 2016 wrote:
Is the "EVERYWHERE" being brought back, or does CityNews (TV) still use it?
I guess we'll find out Monday, but I did hear Richard Southern at the Doug Ford news conference on Friday identifying himself as being from "CityNews 680." So they're working on getting used to it. (I wonder how long it will be before someone slips and says "680 News" on air once the change is official?)
• Thread Starter
RadioAaron
Citytv brought it back a little while ago. I'll guess they'll use it on radio too.
Radiowiz
RadioAaron wrote:
In today's times "Everywhere" is an excellent choice of wording, since CityNews will be on TV, radio, tablets, laptops, mobile phones, computers etc...EVERYWHERE!
Then also, everywhere news is, so it has two meanings now.
Accessible everywhere, and covering news...everywhere.
RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person.
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.
Radiowiz wrote:
I didn't think of it that way, but good point.
The new website is up - and yes, Everywhere is part of the logo.
https://toronto.citynews.ca/
October 18, 2021 12:06 am #7
They actually made a big deal of the final "680 News" I.D. at midnight, with the anchor throwing to the control room, where the midnight crew applauded the end of the old branding. After one last time check ("680 News time at the tone is midnight"), the new I.D. aired and their top story was - you guessed it - the beginning of "two newsrooms coming together" with the start of CityNews680.
Its own news director admitted in their first story that it was slightly overhyped. "Nothing's changing," Amber LeBlanc said in the first report. So if that's the case, what is the big deal? In any event, at least they didn't throw to a national newscast out of B.C. as they've often done on the weekend overnights, so that's something.
The launch was not without at least one glitch online - their new website proudly displayed the weather below as being 9 degrees - which was certainly possible. But if it truly was "Party Sunny" just after midnight, I'd say they would have had a whole new lead story!
ckg927
To back up the OP: http://toronto.citynews.ca seems to be working just fine.
Also, I should add that I follow not only CityNews 680 on Twitter, but virtually every one of the CityNews stations. (Hey, I'm a news junkie! Sue me!
) All of them that I've seen so far have made their old accounts inactive and promoted the new accounts.
October 18, 2021 10:56 am #10
680news.com redirects to the new site. So does citynews.ca, the old TV station URL. I suspect that's so people unaware of the change can still get there. How long that lasts is unknown.
I listened to them this morning. I was surprised to hear that in most cases, they refer to it solely as "CityNews" as opposed to "CityNews680." They only use the frequency very occasionally and it doesn't appear to be as important a part of the branding as I thought it would be.
RadioActive wrote:
I'm actually very upset that they don't say 680 enough, and for good reason. "CityNews 680" shows that I've got the local feed on 680 AM in Toronto, and not the national "All news radio" feed.
I like to hear "680" said as much as possible.
Dale Patterson
>> But we'll see if this results in any staff reductions.
I'd be surprised if it didn't, sadly.
"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
October 19, 2021 8:12 pm #14
torontostan
Not being much of a technical fella... could someone enlighten me as to why it is that 680 always comes in terrible? No matter what car I'm driving or which GTA city I'm driving through, I find their station has a terrible amount of interference compared to other major AM stations in the City. I can hear the news, but there's always this brutal noise behind the program audio. Anyone experience the same? Why is that?
They're just preparing for when the CRTC inevitably loosens ownership restrictions and it becomes Citynews 96.3
October 19, 2021 10:38 pm #16
turkeytop
Wait a minute. Isn't 96.3 the Classical Music station?
You don't have to be a good sport to be a mad one.
October 20, 2021 1:40 am #17
If that day ever comes, I think Citynews would end up on 96.7, not 96.3 and Classical music will be left alone.
I don't doubt that Rogers would declare that 680 needs more protection than AM 740 because it's a more costly format to run (and blah blah blah...)