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The Nintendo Wii Part 3: The Games

2006-05-12T19:55:00.000+08:00

So part three of my Nintendo Wii preview is the games. Not all the game though, just the ones that have really caught my interest. Part 4 will be a list of all the games known so far.

Super Smash Brothers: Brawl

You can use either the Gamecube controller or play a different style of game using the Wii Remote controller
New characters confirmed so far are, Pit, Samus (without her power suite), Wario, Pit, Meta-night and Solid snake (from metal gear solid)
SSBB will have different mode of onlin play
The below screenshot shows a comparison of SSBM and SSBB so there is some noticeable graphical imporvement.
Heres a trailer you can stream from you tube http://tinyurl.com/hn3kr

Nintendo Wii Part 2: The System

2006-05-12T18:42:00.000+08:00

Sure I should have done the system before the controller but hey can you blame me with how cool the controllers were. Anyway onto the actual system its self.

Hardware
Not too much is known regarding the exact hardware specifications of the Nintendo Wii. Lets just put it this way for now. Its roughly 3 times as powerful as the Gamecube and is easily the less powerful machine in terms of how many Polygons can be on screen at one time. What we need to keep in mind however is that polygon pushing power is not all it takes to make good graphics. The Gamecube had a variety of art techniques that made possible such astounding feats as fur shaders in Starfox adventure. Its not that the Nintendo Wii will have shit graphics however out of the next gen platforms it is the weakest on paper.

Is it sexy?
As you can tell from the picture above the Nintendo Wii does actually look kind of sexy. The units size is usually described as three DVD cases stacked on top of each other, so it's fairly small in size. The Nintendo Wii will be available in more than one colour, however white seems to be the standard. It is unknown what the other colours are, however expect to see Jet Black.

The Price
Nintendo has not announced the official price as of yet but they have stated that they can not see it being over $300 (Australian)

What it Plays
The Nintendo Wii will be able to play DVD's, CD and Gamecube discs and media from memory cards. It is unknown for now exactly what media will be compatible with the Nintendo Wii

Internet
Nintendo has admitted that they underestimated the potential of online play last year, though they weren't the only ones (I'm looking at you Sony) so they made sure that Nintendo Wii will be able connect to the internet straight out of the box. At the moment it appears that Nintendo are not going to charge for their internet service. An interesting feature is that even when your Nintendo Wii is powered off it can still communicate with the internet so content can be download to your Wii or content updated overnight.

The Nintendo Wii can connect to the internet Via a wireless connection or standard Ethernet. Nintendo's online service has been named WiiConnect24. You will be able to play games online, browse the internet using Opera or download games from the virtual console.

The Virtual Console

So what is this virtual console. Its a system where you can download games that were on the Original Nintendo entertainment system, Super Nintendo Entertainment system, Nintendo 64, Sega genesis and Turbo grafx 16 as well as brand new games. So in a way its kind of similar to X-Box arcade. Some of these games may be updated with better graphics and capability for the Wii remote controller. The following is only a prototype of what the virtual console interface may look likeAn early prototype of the virtual console

Nintendo Wii Part 1 : The Controllers

2006-05-12T17:52:00.000+08:00

I'm breaking this up into different parts because there is no way I can talk about the Wii in one post. Next part should be up in a couple of hours or so

The Controller(s)

The Gamecube controller: Yep that's right. Your standard Gamecube controller is compatible with the Nintendo Wii. This is going to act as the standard normal controller for the Wii. For example in Super Smash Brothers Brawl, the game can either be played with the Gamecube controller or use a more interesting controller method with the Wii remote controller

The Wii remote controller: Okay so by now most of you know about this controller. The Nintendo Wii can detect motion of the controller in all vertices and where it is pointing to on the screen. At the base of the controller is a port where you can plug in different attachments such as the nunchuck attachment. The remote has a rumble pack and a speaker designed into it. For example in The Legend of Zelda when you use your bow you pull back on the remote. When this happens you can hear the string of the bow being pulled taunt from the speaker in the controller, then when you let go you can here the fwip of arrow. A cool feature.

The nunchaku attachment:

The nunchaku attachment is, for the moment anyway, the primary attachment that is used for the Nintendo Wii remote controller. The nunchaku has an analogue stick and two trigger buttons. It also has some motion sensor capability but not as advanced as the Wii remote its self. For example in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, to throw a crate after picking it up you just quickly move the nunchacku attachment as if you were going to throw it.

The Classic Nintendo controller:

The classic Nintendo controller can be used as opposed to a standard Gamecube controller however its main purpose is to serve as an effective controller for the Nintendo virtual console. So if you want to play your downloaded Nes, Snes, N64, Turbo Grafx, ect then you can use this controller deigned to try and best emulate an effective controller for all virtual consoles

The light Gun

The Nintendo light gun is the official gun type shell for the Nintendo Wii. No doubt it will work for Duck Hunt. The light gun looks cool and kind of reminds me of the Falcon pistol from Perfect Dark but what is interesting is that there appears to be an analogue stick on the gun

O RLY?

2006-05-11T20:48:00.000+08:00

Just to let you know, I still intend for this Blog to keep going but I've been pretty busy lately. My car fucked it's self and there have been some personal issues that have prevented me from updating. Not to worry though. From this Friday this Blog should be updated at least twice on a weekly basis, I've just had a tough time at the moment is all. We all have them.

So to make it up to you tomorrow you can expect a massive update on the Nintendo Wii and what they did at E3 this year. Trust me they did a lot. Saturday I'll cover the X-Box 360 and then Sunday the PS3.

My thoughts on everything at the moment. Nintendo Wii has sparked my interest a lot, so has the 360 for that matter. PS3, I'm not so exited about and you'll see why. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the PS3 will be a crappy system it just hasn't got me exited, especially after they announced the price but more on that later.

The Sculpture

2006-05-05T22:25:00.000+08:00

"He stared up at it again. It truly was beautiful
A completely perfect replica of his daughter in every way

So yet another horror entry by me, what can you expect. I tried something different on this one by making this short story well short. Its just a quick little something you can read though its a little on the weird side. Usual applies, if you want to read it then just click the picture above.

Flood of Insanity

2006-05-04T20:05:00.000+08:00

The flood came so quick that Ray couldn't prepare for it.
Now a prisoner on his own rooftop he lives in fear. The flood brought something else, something that lies in wait, under the waters surface, but Ray will have to face his inner demons, and they are much worse than what lies beneath the water

So don't judge me too harshly on this one. It was more of an experiment of sorts to see what I would adopt as my writing style. I think it's pretty obvious that it improves as I move through the story, but yeah this was pretty much a practice long, short story. I've tried to briefly go through it and fix it up a bit but you just might find some enjoyment out of it. The Story is a sort of Horror/drama type thing and before anyone says anything it has nothing to do with the Bali Tsunami.

So if you want to read it click on the picture above.

Cover picture by John Edward "Ed" Schrock

Rayman Raving Rabbids on the Wii

2006-05-04T17:59:00.000+08:00

"Rayman Raving Rabbids" is the name of the fourth Rayman game in the franchise which is to be one of the launch titles for the Nintendo Wii. Looking at the title you would guess that it was about Rayman and crazy rabid rabbits. Well that probably sums it up. Sure it sounds weird but its a Rayman game and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Rayman 2: The great Escape was an absolute masterpiece of a game and with the knowledge that this one is still being developed by Ubisoft means Rayman Raving Rabbids has more than sparked my interest.

Once again not much info at the moment other than it is coming out on all next gen platforms but will use the Wii's (Revolution's) controller functionality somehow. Expect more at E3, in the mean time check out the screenshot below

The Music Apocalypse?

2006-05-04T16:01:00.000+08:00

On the third of May 2006 at approximately 1:26 pm I walked into Big W and bought two music CD's with money that I had earned myself. Sure, doesn't sound that amazing but this was the first CD that I had bought in roughly 2 years. Yep, I'm a self confessed music pirate. I would look forward to the start of next month when my download cap would be reset and my downloading of music could resume.

Why did I decide to stop downloading music illegally? Well firstly I had no intention at all to buy some music when I walked into the shopping centre. I listen to a lot of music that wouldn't entirely be classified as mainstream music. These are bands that are just sort of hoping that their name will get out there so that people will listen to them. While I sat there staring at "The Best of Spiderbait" I thought, damit it's time that I actually showed my support for a band that I liked. Before I knew it I had picked up a another CD on my way to the counter to pay for it. Sure you might call me a sucker but at the time there was a harsh truth in my head.

Music piracy could lead to mainstream music being the only viable music solution. Say goodbye to your garage bands, they can't afford to put out an album anymore because the relatively small group of people who would have initially bought it are just going to download it. No purchase, no profit, no more music. From here on in the only thing you will be able to listen to is 50 cent, Kayne West and Eminem. If you like those bands then great but say goodbye to the next Coldplay. That band that was going to completely overshadow *insert favorite music band here*, they put out an album but no one bought it and so they didn't think it was affordable to put out another one.

Please, I don't want to grow up in a society where the only music available is that which is deemed popular by society. Music Prices have come down by a lot and you normally get a few extras chucked in here and there. Save your bandwidth for something other than music.

The Information Age Mindset

2006-05-02T20:35:00.000+08:00

First things first. I don’t actually know who reads this blog (but my site statistcs tell me that some people read it) but what I do know is that I don’t wanted to be sued for breaching copyright so before I begin I am talking about someone else’s work here and then writing about my take on the issue. For the entire article by Jason L. Frand. Please see below for a full reference.

Frand, Jason L (2000), ‘The information age mindset: Changes in students and implications for higher education’, Educause Review, September/October, pp 15-24

With that said and the lawyers off my back you may be wondering what in the hell I am talking about. The Information Age mindset is what we are now. It’s the new generation of Australians. We are tapped into the technology and have integrated it into our daily lives. How many of you have had to show your parents how to use a piece of technology? Even if you are fifty years of age you have probably had to do this for your parents at some stage. Showing them how to use a DVD or VCR player. This has always been evident in society but nearly as much as it is now.

The difference between people my age and the baby boomers (with exceptions of course) is that I am able to get a new piece of technology up and working even if I don’t know anything about it. Sure I won’t know how to turn a quantum particle accelerator on or how to operated it but I can instantly get your HD television working in full resolution (actually most people don’t have their HD TV’s plugged in correctly so they aren’t getting the high definition they should be) without a hitch and without having to refer to the instruction manual. Ever got some thing working and someone says “How did you know how to do that?” You don’t have an answer for it because you actually don’t know how you did it. As Frand puts it “…technology appears to be wired into the human psyche…” We just naturally know how to use the latest mobile phone or i pod. We just know how to set up a 5.1 surround sound system without ever seeing one set up before. Sure some of you are sitting there going “of course we know how to do that it’s bloody easy”, well I’m telling you that a hell of a lot people don’t know how to do this.

People often talk about technology making things obsolete including people. You hear horror stories from people whose job focuses around computers where they have to go back to university every two years because the technology changes so quickly and their knowledge is no longer relevant anymore. Charles Darwin and his “Survival of the fittest” theory. I’m sure we would all argue that medical advancements have sort of cancelled out the whole survival of the fittest scenario but are we sure. Is this integration of technology merely an adaptation to a changed society where your amount of technical knowledge and know how is the deciding factor on how easily you can survive within the community?

Maybe for this generation no matter how new the technology is we will be able to use it with ease. No longer will new technology be a mystery to us, we will instantly be able to use it and understand it without any trouble at all. Who knows though? I’ll let you know if I can still find my way around new technology in 20 years time and we will see. Just something to think about though.

Paris Hilton : The Video Game

2006-05-01T19:49:00.000+08:00

The title of this Blog entry isn't a joke. Now before you get upset it's okay. These games are only on mobile phones. So no Paris Hilton on next gen ...up to you to decide if that's a good thing or not. So basically these games are being described as "...a category of simpler titles that includes puzzlers and card games" so from what I can gather it's going to be your ordinary solitaire or tetris with Paris Hilton's face (or another part of her) slapped on it.

I also just have to get this quote out.

My phone has become an all-in-one entertainment device and mobile games are an integral part of that

Now you can't tell me Paris Hilton came up with that herself. So the games are being made by Gameloft studios and are geared at a teenage audience, dare I say it a male teenage audience.

See I managed to get through this post without making reference to the Paris Hilton sex files. I'm proud of myself

Why are people such jerks?

2006-05-01T12:24:00.000+08:00

Does anyone have a good answer for that question? Seriously I would pay money for the answer to that. There are both good and bad points about having the internet so anonymous. Take your average chat room for example. After talking to some friends of mine that belong to the female gender, I can understand why a lot of females don't communicate with strangers online (sounds so sinister) as much as men do, or maybe they are there but not admitting that they are in fact female. Why would they do this? That's an easy question to answer. It's because there are just too many jerks on the internet. Apparently if your female most of the conversation directed to you online will be in the "OMG R LLLY A GIRL$ OMGWANT TOCYBOURLOLOL OL0OLO!!!!!!o#!#!!!!" variety or if your really lucky and find a gentleman you'll be in the "Hey I'm 34/Male/7 inches want to screw?" conversation.

So my other question is....What the fuck is going on here!? Have these people ever seen a woman in real life before, nevermind hold a conversation with one. Apparently nothing gets a girl going more than caps lock, bad spelling and over use of exclamation marks. I would try using this sort of behavior in real life but I'm not sure I would live to tell the tale if I were to go up to someone and yell "OMG WANT TO SCREW!"

Anyway what I'm trying to say is would you please curb the enthusiasm in your pants? I might be in the minority here but I didn't start playing Word of Warcraft to watch a human female give a male gnome a lap dance.

hmmm...what Jerk subset should I vent about next? The average counterstrike player has been covered pretty well by my friend Mundy (go here to read his article) so its time to move onto the next group...possibly the worst one out of them all. You can probably already tell where I'm going with this if you looked at the image above. That's right...X-Box Live.

I pitty the un-knowing soul who happily logs into X-Box live to have a friendly game of Halo with someone. Anyway I thought I had better count off 10 facts about most X-Box Live players as an educational list.

FACT 1: 82.4% of the people on X-Box live are stoned

FACT 2: Anyone below the age of 15 (and there are a lot of them) is going to be a whiney and pretentious brat

FACT 3: You thought the Chuck Norris references on World of Warcraft were bad....

FACT 4: A large portion of the time you will be listening to someone say "Hello....hello...is anybody.....hello....is my microphone working...hello?"

FACT 5: Players on X-Box live seem to have an unhealthy obsession with chocolate milk

FACT 6: Your average person on X-Box live is a racist sexist sadist

FACT 7: If you start winning at a one on one game then the other person will quit instantly

FACT 8: The reasoning that X-Box live is not as bad on the 360 because it costs so much is in fact bullshit. All it means is that there are more spoilt brats who screamed and threw tantrums till there parents gave in and brought it for them

FACT 9: If you are insecure about your sexuality then you better mute everyone or stay away from X-Box live completely as you will be called gay....many, many times

FACT 10: most people on X-Box live are in fact Jerks

As long as the internet is anonymous there will be jerks...it's just something that we will have to learn to accept

Sadness

2006-04-30T19:51:00.000+08:00

Well another title has been announced for the Nintendo Wii (Revolution) and you'll be surprised about what it is. A gothic horror game set in a Victorian time period. That's pretty much all that's known. There is however a few little tid bits I was able to find. According to the developers the game is...

The study of fear and the borders of human imagination...a trip to the darkest corners of consciousness, in all of us...A trip to the hell of the sub-consciousness and not necessarily to return.

So yeah, I don't think it's going to be your happy little Mario game. That being said it's not going to be a game that focuses on "...litres of blood and piles of dead bodies...". The game will focus on atmosphere instead. So think along the lines of "The Ring". Not overly violent but will freak the absolute living shit out of you anyway. Speaking of that here is another quote from the games Dev's that might freak you out a bit

"Imagine driving away rats with a torch, throwing a rope (as a lasso) when you want to climb over the wall, or slitting the throat of a persecutor with a piece of glass...All of this with the help of the Wii controller"

Freaky and morbid...I think this game is going to have it spades and lastly here is a snippet from the sadness website. I'm not exactly sure what it is. It appears to be the stream of consciousness of one of the characters from the game but it is chilling none the less.

"...In my head there is a voice, different from the others. Whenever it answers it overwhelms the remaining voices, it mixes up thoughts and destroys peace. It tells me that I'm only mixed up in a thought which yearns to prove its own existence. It is the original voice, which wants to free itself from my head, to free itself from the logic and reason it is being stifled by. It is the voice of chaos which is now screaming frightfully in my head for me to take an axe resting against the wall and cut off my father's head..."

Toddlers and Robots

2006-04-30T15:13:00.000+08:00

This is a pretty interesting experiment that I stumbled across when I was going through my RSS feeds. As some of you may know Sony commits a fair chunk of thier profits into the research field of Artificial intelligence in robots. The latest robot seen in the picture to the left is QIRO.

They took QIRO the robot and added him to the daily lives of children under the age of two years to see what would happen. The robot was actually controlled by someone via remote for most of the time. I could imagine that the children would have been pretty exited about this new classmate (hell I would be), however the researchers believe that there was some extremely significant findings in this experiment.

It is their belief that the children did not see QIRO as a non-living object or a human but as something in-between these two classifications. Now I know that I'm not a psychologist yet, I'm very far from it in fact but I do know this. At two years old a child does not have an entirely accurate way of classifying what is living and what is non-living. Studies have shown that children are likely to classify a plant or even a fish as a non living object but would classify a doll as a living object. So unless Sony comes up with a decent Lab report I think they are probably talking out of arse. That's not to say that they aren't right in what they are saying they just don't seem to have the research to back it up.

Anyway props to Sony for the bravery of putting an expensive as hell bit of hardware in the care of two year olds.

heres an article on it

Mark Ecko: Contents Under Scrutiny

2006-04-30T13:20:00.000+08:00

If anyone here is a Mark Ecko fan then you can get the hell off my blog right now. If you are one of the people who hate him or more likely don't have the foggiest clue as to who is then your not alone. Now I know I'm not street and in wid da crew but until he released his video game "Contents Under Pressure" I had no idea who he was...in fact I still don't really know who he is. Does he have his own brand of clothes? His own perfume?

What I do know is that he likes graffiti and he tries to claim that tagging something is a form of art. Now graffiti can be tasteful but not tagging. For those of you who don't know tagging is just writing your signature (kind of) on someone else's property. Yep, pretty tasteful eh?

Anyway in an attempt to gain same fame he snuck into the airport where air force 1 was kept and then tagged the plane "still free". He even had a video tape of it and up loaded it to the internet. Okay, it was a dumbfuck thing to do but sort of cool in a way....Until you watch the video and realize that it's all just a very bad set up. It's not airforce 1 it's just some plane that was painted to look like air force 1. There is all of 1 guard in video, now if that's how air force 1 is protected then it would be easier to hi jack that thing than it would be your average commercial plane. In fact Ecko has come forward and admitted that it was just a hoax. He tried to defend what he did by boasting that it required lots of money and contacts to pull off.....whatever mate. Good luck with what ever it is you do. You've now gone down as one of the bigger idiots in today's culture. Enjoy

If he makes clothes than don't buy them, don't buy his crappy game, don't believe anything he says, tagging is not an art of work but real graffiti can be.

Apparently that scribble on the plane's left turbine says
"still free"....how artistic and bold....dickhead.

Television to be moved to computers

2006-04-30T12:32:00.000+08:00

Television. I remember just 4 years ago television was how I would relax. I would come home from school, quickly do what ever jobs that had to be done. Maybe even do some homework depending on how lazy I was feeling and then I would sit in front of the television. What about today though? I watch television roughly 2 hours per week. 1 hour for Prison Break and 1 hour for Lost. I can't afford foxtail digital and even if I could there is no guarantee that I would sign up for it. I thought my lack of interest in television was rare but it turns out this is far from the case.

People just plain aren't watching television anymore especially in those who were born after the year 1980. So what are all these people doing instead of watching television?
One word: Internet

People would rather surf the net, play MMO's such as World of Warcraft, chat to friends using MSN or even using microphones with a program such as teamspeak or Ventrilo. I think this was the major turning point in what I did with my free time. The day I installed ventrilo was the day I stopped watching television and who can blame me. The constant repeats of sitcoms that were crappy when they first shown and the flood of absolute trip that is poured into my ears by my friend reality television has driven me and others away. Certain television network think that they might have a way to reach this lost audience again, after all the bulk of their watches are now the baby boomers.

ABC in America (unlike Australian ABC shows popular shows like Lost, Alias and desperate housewives) have offered some of their television shows to be downloaded through i tunes, however this has been reserved until now by crappy shows that no one actually wants to watch anyway. In an effort to tackle piracy and dwindling Television audiences ABC will be offering their popular shows such as Lost through i tunes but this is only the beginning. They plan to have their shows downloadable not just through i tunes but through windows media player in Vista. These shows are free to download because like normal television they will have the standard adverts.

I think this is a pretty dam good move if you ask me. I'll be able to watch the shows that I actually want to watch and not have to stay up until 1:oo am to watch the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica. Not all of the big wigs in television are very happy about this however. Disney are kicking up quite a big fuss about it so it's not entirely set in stone but I think this plan will most likely be put into action.

Wii....its whats for breakfast

2006-04-30T11:42:00.000+08:00

So Nintendo finally announce what their next gen console is going to be called. I think a lot of people didn't realize that the Nintendo Revolution was only a code name for their console, much like project Dolphin was the code name for the Gamecube. There is, however some differences between the two consoles that made it come as a surprise that Nintendo would re-name their console.

While project Dophin and Revolution were both code names there is a difference between the two. Dolphin was not a very widely known term. The majority of people did not know what the dolphin was and to the masses Nintendo's console had no name until it was named the "Gamecube". The revolution on the other hand is a name that is really out there even amongst the most casual of gamers. People thought it was a cool name even those who were not fans of Nintendo. So it came as a surprise when Nintendo announced that the "Revolution" was not going to be the name of their next gen title. What is the name of it you ask?

It's the Nintendo Wii......no I'm not joking........the Nintendo Wii....Pronounced Wee!

Now I'm amongst those who are in the "I don't give a flying fuck what they call it group" but I know that this name could potentially turn a lot of people off. Then again, Nintendo had made some quite bold moves lately and look how it's paid off for them. The Nintendo DS was thought to be a joke and people thought that it had no chance against the might of the PSP. Oh how the mighty have fallen. The Nintendo DS has become an absolute cash cow for Nintendo while Sony are in complete amazement as to why no one is buying their portable gaming (you can play games on the PSP!?) and multimedia system.

There are those that are a little doubtful about Nintendo's new name. Not just because they think it's a strange name but because some things aren't matching up. There is no existing patent. Wii is not trademarked anywhere. I searched google images for Wii, Wii logo, Wii Nintendo, Wii revolution. Nothing came up. It is also somewhat strange that Nintendo decided to announce the name before E3. Maybe this is just some fanboy who doesn't want their next console to be called Wii or maybe this is just a viral marketing ploy by Nintendo and their next gen console is in fact going to be called something else.

Regardless of all this there is one un-deniable truth. People everywhere are talking about the Wii. In this case even bad publicity is good publicity. As for my thoughts on the name. I don't really care that much. I did like the name "Nintendo Revolution" but Nintendo Wii has so much comedic value that its worth it.....Want to play with Wii...gimmie a sec while I whip out my remote

I was able to find a picture of the Wii logo and it does actually look pretty cool. It seems to be the same glowing blue as the slot on the revolution where you insert the discs. Also there is this promo shot for EA sports on the Nintendo Wii. This is actually more important then you think. EA is the largest third party video game developer in the world and they said they weren't going be making their sports games for the Nintendo Wii (Revolution), this picture says otherwise.

Is anyone else getting the sexual inuendo here?
Touching is good? Use your good and arm?

Pictures found by DarkNessBear on the dreamstation.cc forums

On viral Marketing

2006-04-30T10:09:00.000+08:00

Advertising, I think we can all agree it is a pain in the arse. Sure it's something we have to put up with. Television shows would be extremely low budget if there weren't adverts. Magazines would be more expensive if the occasional page weren't reserved for an advert. It's just something you can't live with but you can't live without. That being said there is a new form of marketing that I think we can all live without. Till today we have put up with advertising, on billboards, TV, radio, DVD's, videos, books, pamphlets, telephone, Internet and a crap load of other forms, but now there is a new form of advertising. It's name: Viral marketing

So what is viral marketing? Well basically companies exploit existing social networks within a society to get their product out there. This is the textbook answer to that question and some of you are probably sitting there with your with a classic what the fuck look on your face. Well let me explain.

You see viral marketing can take many different forms. One of the most well known is a website called www.ilovebees.com ( I love bees). During the time i, Robot was being shown at cinemas. In the opening advertisements a small teaser trailer was shown for Halo 2, however at the end a strange website URL flashed up www.ilovebees.com

The website while at first appeared to be a website on honey manufacturing and bee keeping was in fact something else. People noticed that there were strange looking characters around the website. Nerds everywhere soon realized that there was a code. Those that solved it found a hidden message inviting them to an early demo screening of Halo2

So that is a form of viral marketing called ARG, where a website with clues is used as a means of word of mouth. Other forms of viral marketing include people registering on forums and trying to subtly advertise a game. Sometimes this is obvious but some viral spamers can actually hide the fact that they are actually advertising a game (or anything). Sony lately got into trouble when they un-officially asked graffiti artists to spray pictures of the PSP (playstation portable) around the city.

Regardless of this I think the last thing the world needs is another form of advertising. Sure the ARGs are probably the least annoying out of all them but most viral marketing techniques are illegal if not morally questionable.

Well here we are

2006-04-29T22:40:00.000+08:00

Well here we are...my blog. The place where I crap on about absolutely anything and random people come and read it and if I'm really lucky they'll post spam about cheap mobile phone prices and gold farming. Anyway feel free to leave a comment or if you want to randomly abuse me thats fine just make sure you go all the way and add tonnes of exclamation points and use caps lock. Anyway I better go edit my profile.

See you later (though not bloody likely)