Xbox Live: Greed at it's finest.

    

It’s a few hours before midnight and there are hundreds of people gathered in front of the doors to the local mall. What has caused them to gather this late? Is this the newest #Occupy protest? Nope, at exactly midnight millions of gamers will finally get the chance to hunt for and destroy their friends in the latest iteration of the Call of Duty series, Modern Warfare 3. Not all of them will be able to play together; some are purchasing the game for Sony’s Playstation 3 (PS3), others are purchasing it for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 (360), and a select few are picking it up for their home computers. The major difference between the three versions of the game? The PS3 owners can connect and play each other instantly, for free. The Xbox users must pay $50 a year to connect to those same servers. The PC gamers will have the game hacked and be operating completely free servers within the first 48 hours after the release.
    Microsoft should not charge for access to online/multiplayer functions of games because the consumer has already paid a considerable fee for the game, their competitors are offering comparable, if not better, services for no extra charge to the consumer, and most importantly, extra fees for online access lock out a significant portion of the potential audience.
    To be a gamer in this generation is to partake in one of the most expensive past times available to a mass audience. First, one has to invest in the hardware/system, which are currently anywhere from $200 -$400 depending on size of hard drive and case design. If one bought a 360 before the 2010 Christmas season one also had to purchase a wi-fi adapter for another $100. Add in the cost of a headset to talk to one’s fellow gamers, $50-$100, and at least one extra controller, another $50, and you are quickly approaching a $500 - $1000 investment. This is not even including the cost of a game, new games retail for $60 and older games retail for around $30. So, now that one has a new system, a wi-fi adapter, a headset, an extra controller for the friends/little brother to play, and even spent the extra money for the brand new copy of the game, one can just pop in the disc and be ready to have fun, right? Wrong! At this point one has to input a massive amount of personal information and charge one’s credit card with $50 to gain access to the online components of the game and one mustn’t forget which card they paid with because in a year Microsoft will automatically tag one’s account for $50 without the decency to send a courtesy e-mail afterwards. This doesn’t work in dating; it shouldn’t work in gaming.

    There are three major video game consoles in the world, the previously mentioned PS3 and 360, and the family-friendly Nintendo Wii. Both the PS3 and Wii offer free online gaming and support networks. I’ll be the first to admit that the Wii’s online service leaves much to be wanted, but alas they aren’t aiming to capture the “hardcore gamer” like the 360 and PS3 are. The Sony hub for online gaming is called the Playstation Network (PSN) and has almost the same exact features and connectivity as Microsoft’s Xbox Live (XBL), except that XBL users tend to get access to supplemental gaming content sooner than those on PSN. Both have friends lists, cross game messaging, the ability to invite one’s friends to join a game, both have access to the almighty Netflix and Facebook, and they both try and sell you thousands of pieces of pointless digital property just so you can customize your avatar (XBL) or your “home” (PSN) that no one, but yourself ever sees. Another qualm many have had with XBL is that one must purchase “Microsoft Points” to spend on products from their marketplace. That’s right, to buy that “awesome” new skin that makes one’s character look like he is a hippie from the sixties, one must first purchase a gift card that has a predetermined amount of points on it, the lowest being 800 points (approx. $10) and the highest being 4000 points (approx. $50). This seems to be okay until one stops and realizes that even if you want just one music track that retails for 79 points one must purchase 800 points and then allow one of the richest corporations in the world to hold onto the rest of one’s Hamilton until one finally breaks down and makes another purchase. There are no refunds for already purchased Microsoft Points.
    From a business standpoint it makes no sense to charge for something your competitors are giving away for free, that just seems to automatically alienate a large portion of one’s potential audience. A strange occurrence I have noticed in my hours spent gaming is that those who still live at home with their parents tend to have a 360 and play over XBL, while those gamers that are older and must pay their own bills tend to have a PS3 and play over PSN. I will give the 360 kudos for their superior security, last year hackers representing the group Anonymous were able to knock PSN offline for upwards of a month; XBL has never been successfully hacked.
    Microsoft should not charge for access to online/multiplayer functions of games because the consumer has already paid a considerable fee for the game, their competitors are offering comparable, if not better, services for no extra charge to the consumer, and most importantly, extra fees for online access lock out a significant portion of the potential audience.
    Why is it that one-third of gamers have to pay while the other two-thirds don’t? To put it simply, greed.

“But men are so full of greed today, they'll sell anything for a little piece of money.”
--Little Richard, Singer/Songwriter

 

Taking Christmas to New Highs: In 3D

Introduce:
I chose to review "A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas" because I am a fan of both the movie series and the actors starring in it. I have been known to partake in certain indulgences this movie glorifies and have been a fan since the very first movie hit theaters.

Describe:
 "A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas" (H&K3D) is the third movie about two best friends, Harold Lee (John Cho) and Kumar Patel (Kal Penn), and the drug fueled misadventures they embark on. In the first movie of the series is based around the simple goal of making it to White Castle to satiate the munchies (Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle), while the second movie follows them as they are mistakenly assumed to be terrorists and taken to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay) from which they hilariously escape.
It's funny to note that during the three year break between the filming of Escape and H&K3D Kal Penn was the associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement for the Obama administration. He relinquished his position to film this movie and make some appearances in other media before resuming his job again after filming finished.

This movie finds the titular characters at different places in their lives, Harold is married and living in the 'burbs with a wife that is desperate to conceive a child, while Kumar is living in the apartment they shared in the previous movies still just being a massive pothead with a slight case of depression over breaking up with his dream girl. When a package is delivered for Harold to the apartment, Kumar delivers it to 'burbs and accidentally burns down the massive 12' Christmas tree that his father-in-law (Danny Trejo) spent 8 years growing. The rest of the movie centers upon their quest to retrieve a new tree before Harold's family gets home from midnight mass at 2am. From this point out the movie falls into the traditional Harold& Kumar format: drugs, nudity, obscene humor and a cameo, albeit a short-ish one, by Neil Patrick Harris playing a heterosexual caricature of himself.

Analyze:
H&K3D is very similar to the other two movies in the series, as I mentioned above it continues the storyline of the other two tales and uses many of the same sort of comedic situations that made the first movie so popular. There were also numerous cameos from past characters and references to the events of the previous movie, including a scene where H&K eat at White Castle and references to the term "Cock Meat Sandwich" which the second movie helped popularize in the online and stoner communities.
This movie is very similar to most other stoner and buddy comedies. There are plenty of scenes showing people using various drugs from weed to coke to ecstasy, including the accidental indulgence of a 3-4 year old girl in a few different drugs throughout the series. I also think that it's kind of strange that both the "Friday" series of movies and the H&K series of movies decided to focus on the holiday season for their third movies. It is also similar to the works of director Judd Apatow, such as "Pineapple Express" and "Knocked Up" in it's absurd comedy via dialogue or physical "skits" and in it's ability to embrace the stoner lifestyle without completely mocking it.

Interpretation:
H&K3D is not fine art, it's "high" art. It is not important to society, nor does it hold any place of importance to society. It's mindless entertainment and it embraces this ideal to it's core. This definitely reflects a trend in our society, as Aldous Huxley once wrote, "We are amusing ourselves to death."
H&K3D is one of those movies that one watches to forget about their worries and just have a good laugh to cleanse one's soul. The target audience for this movie is the stoner community and males 18-34. This is evidenced by all the drug references, random scenes of nudity, and the juvenile behavior of all the characters. There are so many stereotypes in this movie that one could write an entire blog post just analyzing every instance of it in the 1 hour and 29 minutes the movie runs for. My personal favorite example happens early in the movie where two black guys are running a tree lot and play "Bill Cosby/Tupac" (an urban version of Good Cop/Bad Cop) to get patrons to pay more for their trees. Likewise, if you dislike offensive messages, foul language, or inappropiate situations then one should see a different movie... H&K3D is about as offensive as they come.

Evaluation:
The strengths of this movie are that it knows it's target audience (stoners and males aged 18-34) and attempts to satiate their wants from the series. I also think that their use of the 3D technology is a strength due to this being one of the first comedy movies to embrace the medium well (I'm sure James Cameron would disagree, but he's old and seems to be cranky unless someone is giving him an Oscar).
By doing this though it alienates most other viewers who are not "on the level" with their brand of humor. I also think it hurts the series by repeating the same jokes and situations from the previous entries.
I would have to say that this movie is just above mediocre; not the brightest bulb on the tree, but definitely not the one that burns out every time you look away. The best Harold and Kumar movie is and always will be the first one, no matter how much they (directors, actors, or writers) try to recreate the situations in other locations. There will be memorable sound bites, but this movie will quickly only be remembered as that one H&K movie they did in 3D.

"The majority of critics maintain the stoney laughs are many, the 3-D effects are ridiculous (in a good way), and that the third "Harold & Kumar" deserves a place on every college kid's DVD shelf, right next to a copy of the original flick." writes Eric Ditzian for MTV.com while summing up the critical response to H&K3D. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Peter Travers had this to say in his review for Rolling Stone, "H&K are past their sell-by date. Way past." It should also be noted the Travers gave the Jennifer Lopez vehicle "Monster-in-Law a 3/4, while it was widely panned by most critics.


Engage:
I was already an established fan of the series and own both other movies on DVD, so I am pretty much obligated to purchase the third movie to round out my collection. My friends and family are "on the level" which makes all of us enjoy the same kinds of comedy.
On a side note: If they made the WaffleBot commercially available I would buy myself a massive army to conquer breakfast once and for all.

Summary: 
"A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas" is exactly what one would expect from the title. It's H&K doing their thing (smoking, drinking, swearing) around Christmas presented to you in glorious 3D. This is either appealing or appalling to you.. this is an R-Rated comedy that takes full advantage of it's rating. The only thing that could have improved the movie would be more Neil Patrick Harris!

I learned that the best time to view a movie aimed at a 18-34 year old demographic is on a Monday night, my friend and I were the only two people in the entire theater. I also learned not to dismiss a sequel just because it's a sequel.  

HAPPY HOLIDAZE!