limited edition and other marketing nonsense

submitted by andrew kim published on August 27, 2010 in rambling Tags: , , .

so i might be a bit hypocritical on this post, but why can’t people fall for my marketing nonsense? i’m watching my co-worker literally drooling over the alienware laptop site and the flash videos on there. don’t get me wrong they got some pretty nifty shit but is it all necessary? it’s the extra flash that we love to throw down a few hundred bucks on, and in today economy, i just don’t care for it anymore.

let’s take my co-worker for instance, talking about the laptop starting at 1900 dollars. you’re looking at taxes, shipping, plus any modifications to the base on top an old model since he doesn’t (and knows) he won’t need any of the power that the laptop provides, but he will upgrade it anyways because it feels too cheap to buy the bare minimum. even at mid range parts, the price has probably already gone past 2400, so much for staying under 2000 dollars. now, with a custom made laptop, of course you will feel the need to buy the flashy case that the laptop could sit in, and a new bag, and whatever else comes it’s way.

it basically just opens it’s mouth and engulfs your next few paychecks on stupid shit you will use once. looking at the specs from a technical standpoint, the numbers are probably no different from a standard laptop you buy at best buy, perhaps a few bytes here and there and minimal things, it’s the flash and the marketing that fucks you. although the specs are almost the same, only better by a hair, the quality is 100 times better because of the awesome alienware flash site and how a terminator style factory is putting this shit together, but in the back of your head you know its bullshit and alienware is a subsidiary of dell anyways. it’s all about how you portray yourself and some people just have the money to paint that shit gold, no pun intended. but seriously, 90% of the time, did you really need to buy what you bought when you could have saved half the cost? all those numbers and statistics they throw at you are skewed and filtered anyways.

now, obviously i am at fault for falling into this evil master plan by corporations, but fuck them, if it makes sense then do it. sometimes you need that extra little feature that others don’t, the comfort or the style, but realistically, not all the time. i believe it’s not always about the name but whatever floats your boat. in terms of limited edition and all that nonsense, rarely have i ever found a game or a movie that was limited edition that i don’t see in stores for 1/3rd the price years later. now, if blizzard states that they will only print 10,000 limited edition warcraft sets, then maybe it might be true, but rarely. you will never know what items will suddenly be discontinued and impossible to find but those take time and don’t happen very often. most of the special edition crap that comes with pre-orders aren’t even worth it anyways.

personally, my thoughts are, just look at what they are trying to offer. bmw offers a 4 years or 40,000 miles warranty even if you buy the car used, plus maintenance for the same time. you’re looking at paying shit for 4 years, and you can extend that plan up to 100,000 miles or 10 years (i could be off by a little bit), but who else does that in the car industry? i’m talking about not paying for oil changes, brakes, malfunctions, warranties, absolutely nothing. and they don’t try and screw you into spending money either, you simply walk in, get treated with respect, and walk out. cutco knives don’t advertise yet they have one of the best knife warranty on the market and patented blades and handles. its that level of service beyond the product that is worth the extra money, not some expensive marketing scheme and flashy lights on the back of a alien logo.

you want to know what is limited edition? a fucking painting. how many times do you think an artist will sit there and paint the same damn shit over and over, thats when you go make giclee’s and mass produce that fucker and slap a limited edition number on it. at that point, unless your a non-famous artist, most people couldn’t afford it anyways.

honestly though, if you had the money…. why wouldn’t you get this?

scott pilgrim vs the world brief thoughts

submitted by andrew kim published on August 19, 2010 in film, review and video games Tags: , , , , .

what’s with all this comic shit lately! time to vary up the content with… another comic book movie. with various video game elements, comic book feel, with everything from pop culture, music, and even vegan diets clashed together, kind of like marvel vs capcom or something. be prepared to watch all the random shit you watch on youtube and compile it into an epic 2 hours poking fun, or perhaps an homage, to everything from bollywood, record deals, emo’s, immature love, and just a glimpse at our world if we could actually do the things we imagined.

scott pilgrim is a 22 year old bassist living a normal life who is dating a chinese school girl, normal so far no? he eventually starts chasing after ramona flowers, who is way too cool for him. ultimately, if they are going to date, scott must defeat her seven evil exes to stay with her. pretty simple video game plot, go through the bosses and defeat them. the characters are all individually rich and colorful while the pace of the movie stays focused.

in a movie where you have people conjuring demons and movie stars and pro skateboarders and whatever the hell else that might happen; it’s hard to introduce characters and quickly kill them off, and still make you feel anything about the character themselves. edgar wright does a great job introducing the characters in the short time they have dueling scott and as they progress, they grow more mature and stronger like the relationship between scott and ramona.

the editing used in shaun of the dead and hot fuzz is back better than ever in the first 20 minutes while scott’s mind is dazed over ramona and fits the comic mood perfectly. the treatment of type along the movie is well done and just like a video game, everything seems to level up. characters, scott’s band, relationships, and even the ex battles. each fight is better than the last and has to be fought differently learning new things or perhaps even wanting to give up. i love the fact that having these skills to suddenly take massive amounts of damage and land 64 hit combos in the air… is normal. it’s like people in canada are born with these powers and they just know how to do all this crazy shit, but you don’t really recognize that power until an evil ex tries to fight you. i’d say it would reach out far beyond the comic book and video game crowd, although it might be appreciated more. if your looking for a fun metaphorical love story, this is how it’s done.


obviously this isn’t your normal action comedy love story thingy…

attack of the clones

submitted by da hulk published on August 11, 2010 in comics Tags: , , , , , .

in the 90s, sales of comics began to fall quite a bit. i even stopped really buying comics around that point as well. for me it was mainly because of the art. it seemed like there was so much going on in every panel, it was almost chaotic. the story arcs began to stray from the characters, giving it a bad taste in my mouth, and the deus ex machina ran rampant among the stories that were coming out.

however, there were 2 storylines that appeared which seemed that it would bring the comic industry back from the dead, and they did it through death. i’ve never really gotten into dc comics, but at the time, i just had to get these 2. the death of superman and knightfall. 2 of dc comics greatest heroes were dead, or at least out of commission, and were replaced. in superman’s case, by 4 new people that claimed to be superman, and for batman, it was just another guy who made a badass suit. it seemed all was lost for marvel, and they struggled to gain a foothold in the falling market, so they ordered their writers to follow superman’s and batman’s lead, and make an epic event for spider-man. and for some reason, clones came out of the think tank.

in the 70s, there ws a small arc where a villain made clones of spider-man to try and kill him, but that was wrapped up nicely. so why not bring that back? in an issue of spider-man, they did, revealing all together there were 3 clones of him, kaine, spidercide, and the scarlet spider. the arc was only supposed to last a few months, and then wrap everything up in a nice little bow and put it on a shelf. it was supposed to have 3 parts to it pretty much, 3 acts that would define the ongoing series. running across all spiderman titles at the time, they wanted the first act to be the introduction, and end with peter parker being a clone and ben riley (the scarlet spider) being the original. act 2, was going to take a cue from the “age of apocalypse” arc and re-name all the titles, like “the amazing scarlet spider” and “web of scarlet spider”. it would feature ben riley as spider-man and follow his adventures. the final act would be the return of peter parker, re-establish him as the original, and bring the saga to a grand finale.

when the clones were introduced, sales began to go up dramatically. marvel kept up with the plan, but with financial issues, and other problems going on, there were quite a few changes of management, and many lay-offs. still, the clone saga was selling like hotcakes, and when it came time to wrap things up, the initial plan got tossed out the wayside and they figured they would ride this cash cow till it finally collapsed… 2 years after it began. the fans finally got sick of it, and sales went down. not to mention they began to add things that would never normally be in a spider-man comic, taking him out of his element instead of keeping him as a street level good guy. they also wrote in so many open ended plot devices, just because at the time, they had no idea where it was going, and wanted to be ready to throw the next plot right in to keep the train moving.

the comic business began to pick up with the different great arcs that came out at that time, and revitalized the industry, and changed the way story arcs were written. the clone saga however, became a running joke, being mentioned humorously in different titles. it was recently however, that marvel used one of their greatest tools at their disposal, the all powerful retcon. for those who don’t know, retcon means retroactive continuity, or as i call it, retracted continuity. they re-told the clone saga, keeping it as a limited series, and wrapped up all loose plot holes. it was the way it was truly meant to be.

the clone saga however, will always remain a dark spot on the soul of spider-man. it proves that just throwing out random crap cannot always fix the problem. i didn’t intend to describe the entire plot of the clone saga, because honestly, it was to ridiculous for me to follow. i was to busy reading about the age of apocalypse at that time, and moving on with other comics. every time i browsed the racks and saw the clones, i groaned and kept moving. i can honestly say that it pretty much ruined spider-man for me, and i completely lost interest in the character. though what they have been doing with him recently has sort of revitalized my interest, it still will never be the same. however, i wouldn’t mind seeing a revival of the scarlet spider.

best video evar

submitted by da hulk published on August 10, 2010 in music Tags: , , , , , , .

i’ve known about this video for a long time, and no matter how hard i try, i can never get this out of my head. if you actually listen to the lyrics, it will blow your mind.

and another for good measure. hope you enjoyed them.