Metallica frontman James Hetfield sat down in Guitar Center to give a fairly intimate interview on his musical beginnings and experience with Metallica. What makes it even better is the brief riffing in between. Check it out below.
Arts
Playing The Blame Game
There’s been some outrage in the video game community lately about a recent mobile game, Dungeon Keeper, released by EA, a game which, according to said community, embodies the worst and most cynical of what the mobile game industry has to offer. Why the outrage at this particular game? Well…
- It’s an EA game. EA was once the pride of the video game industry. Back in the late ’80s to late ’90s, EA released classics year after year like they couldn’t get rid of them fast enough. In true “you either die a hero…” fashion, however, their phenomenal successes led to interest by the world at large and EA became a corporate behemoth more interested in vacuuming up talent wherever it could find it and putting it to work 80 hours a week pumping out half-finished yearly installments of the most lucrative properties than creating the labors of love that characterized their earlier days. Today, EA, together with Activision, represent to many gamers everything that is unsustainable and wrong with the modern video game industry[ref]This is manifested in EA’s predictable yearly appearances at the top of many “worst company” lists across the web.[/ref].
- It’s a “remake” of a classic title. The original Dungeon Keeper (1997) holds a special place in the hearts of many gamers and was a product of the EA golden age.
- It’s a “broken-by-design” free-to-play (F2P) game[ref]Game developer/designer Jonathan Blow has an interesting discussion of effects of F2P game design here.[/ref]. These types of games are only “free” in the loosest sense of the word. While there is no charge to download and begin playing the game, your progress in the game is punctuated by hours-long wait times to perform even simple actions, forcing players to wait upwards of 24 hours before an action completes and being allowed to queue up another. The only way to actually play the game continuously is to pay real money for resources which eliminate or reduce the timer mechanic. The exchange rate of this resource is such that to have an experience roughly “comparable” (see #4) to the original Dungeon Keeper game, a player would have to pay tens or even hundreds of dollars.
- It is not anything like the original game. Even putting aside the F2P mechanics, very little of the game experience actually resembles the original. If the art assets and the title were changed, it is debatable that anybody would conclude that this new game were even so much as an homage to the first Dungeon Keeper.
Predictably, gamers are upset about the game and its business model. It cheaply cashes in on a classic title while engaging in psychological warfare with players in an attempt to separate them from their money. And what to make of the overwhelmingly positive customer reviews for the game on the App Store? Many are convinced that this means the future generation of players will accept this type of “gameplay” as standard and, as such, it will become increasingly widespread. Gamers are calling EA out, vicious in their criticism of the title and its predatory business model, but is that where the problem is?
I wonder what legitimate justification we have in blaming EA for creating and releasing such a game if people are willing to play it and pay money for it. Obviously, if people weren’t paying for these types of games then there wouldn’t be much reason to continue releasing them. Does EA have any responsibility to adhere to some standard of integrity with regards to the games it releases? In two words: absolutely not. Why should they? The responsibility for the enforcement of “integrity” lays with the customer. That’s the way the it works. It’s a voluntary market.
In my mind, it’s every bit as insidious as EA’s repulsive business practices to imagine companies should cleave to some arbitrary standard of conduct with regard to the type and quality of their products. So long as they are not doing anything illegal, the notion that they’re doing anything objectively wrong or evil is misguided. EA is not your friend, nor should you expect them to be. They’re not on your “side.” They want your money and they’ll happily take it if you’ll give it. The idea of the benevolent business, of companies and individuals laboring for the love and passion of their work with money as simply a byproduct is often symptomatic of a very dangerous and pervasive mindset that seeks to dictate remuneration rather than allow it to emerge a result of free exchange. We can hope for (what we consider) better, yes, but we should not expect it and we should never enforce it.
Companies like EA by and large reflect the tastes of the market they serve, therefore the market shoulders the blame. Dungeon Keeper may be cynical, it may be exploitative, it may even barely qualify as a game at all, but it also represents jobs, and it represents what we, as a game-playing public, have told them we’re prepared to pay for. This is not a defense of the new Dungeon Keeper, of EA or of such so-called “games,” it’s simply an opportunity to take responsibility.
After all, if a seal bathes himself in blood and swims lazily across the nose of a shark, whose fault is it if he gets bitten?
Male Cover: “Let It Go” From ‘Frozen’
Disney’s Frozen was, as summarized at Rotten Tomatoes, “beautifully animated, smartly written, and stocked with singalong songs…[A]nother worthy entry to the Disney canon.”[ref]It was good, not great.[/ref] While Olaf’s “In Summer” stole the show, you can’t get “Let It Go” out of your head. The film version features Idina Menzel (of Wicked and Glee fame) on vocals, while the single (and inferior) version features Demi Lovato. Like every other song known to man, a bagillion covers showed up on YouTube. However, Caleb Hyles‘ cover below caught my attention. Listen all the way through. I was only mildly impressed with the first verse and chorus. And then he changed octaves…[ref]If you need more evidence as to how awesome this is, check out YouTube mash-up between the film and Hyles (or the duet version). For more of his vocal chops, see his beautiful rendition of “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables.[/ref]
Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.
2014 Grammy Performances: Metallica & Daft Punk
I don’t particularly care for the Grammys. Half the time, I’m not up-to-date enough with new artists to know who is winning (typically, I don’t care for them when I do know who they are). On the other hand, Grammy performances can sometimes be pretty rad. For example, Metallica joined with Chinese pianist Lang Lang to perform the Grammy-nominated (lost to Jethro Tull) “One” from their 1988 album …And Justice For All. While it is no S&M, it is still rockin’.
The next standout was Daft Punk (who went home with Album of the Year for Random Access Memories) with Pharrell Williams, Nile Rodgers, and Stevie Wonder performing “Get Lucky” (which won Record of the Year). The performance works in Daft Punk’s “Harder Better Faster Stronger,” “Lose Yourself to Dance,” Stevie Wonder’s “Another Star,” and Chic’s (Nile Rodgers’ band) “Le Freak.”
The Simpsons’ Tribute to Miyazaki
I love the works of Hayao Miyazaki[ref]My two favorites are Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and My Neighbor Totoro[/ref]. Sadly, as we covered back in September 2013, Miyazaki has retired. Perhaps that was the impetus behind the lovely tribute from the Simpsons in the video above. If you don’t catch all the references, and I didn’t get all of them myself, have no fear. Slate has an annotated version that tells you where they all come from.
New Movie Challenges Pro-Choice Narrative on Pregnancy Centers
There’s a new movie coming out called Gimme Shelter staring Vanessa Hudgens that includes some pretty strong pro-life themes and questions the pro-choice attacks on crisis pregnancy centers while it’s at it. The trailer is pretty intense.
Most of what I know about the movie comes from this Secular Pro-Life piece, but I’m definitely intrigued. I hope I have a chance to check it out and, if I do, I’ll review it here.
Did Oedipus Write “House of Gold”?
Surely I can’t be the only one that has heard the new song “House of Gold” by twenty one pilots and thought about Oedipus Rex, right?
For those of you who don’t recall, Oedipus the King is the Greek tragedy about the guy who murders his dad, takes his place, and marries his mom. Not on purpose, mind you, and when he finds out he’s more than a little upset.
Later on, Sigmund Freud coined the term “Oedipus complex” based on the play, which “denotes the emotions and ideas that the mind keeps in the unconscious, via dynamic repression, that concentrates upon a child’s desire to sexually possess the parent of the opposite sex.” I guess–I’m not an expert on Freud by any means, that this is supposed to be a normal developmental stage for children ages 3-6 and then they resolve it. But I’m not sure the public awareness of the term has retained all of the details.
In any case, the song is squicky. Consider:
She asked me, “Son, when I grow old,
Will you buy me a house of gold?
And when your father turns to stone,
Will you take care of me?”
I will make you queen of everything you see,
I’ll put you on the map,
I’ll cure you of disease.
Let’s say we up and left this town,
And turned our future upside down.
We’ll make pretend that you and me,
Lived ever after happily.
That’s not all the lyrics, but it’s most of them. And, just to recap, we’ve got (1) a son singing to his mom (2) about her desire to have take care of her after his dad croaks (e.g. take his dad’s place) and the son is on board to (3) “make [her] the queen of everything you see” so that they can say they “lived ever after happily.”
Weird, right? I just want to know if they wrote the song on purpose to be edgy or if that’s just how it came out.
Kids these days…
Understanding the Missing Empathy of Ender’s Author
Ender’s Game is, more than any thing else, a book about empathy. From the very first line of the book (“I’ve watched through his eyes, I’ve listened through his ears…”) and on to the end the theme of empathy dominates everything the characters do and think about. It is the key to all of young Ender’s victories and the source of his greatest strength. It is the source of his deepest pain.
Why, then, is the author of Ender’s Game an unrepentant homophobe and conspiracy theorist best described alternatively as either “intolerant” or “kooky”? That is the question Rany Jazayerli asks in his moving and thoughtful piece for Grantland. Jazayerli is clearly a sympathetic reader (sympathetic of Card, I mean). As a devout Muslim he shares Card’s Mormon view that homosexual sex is a sin. He is not only a fan of science fiction in general and Card’s works in particular, he writes movingly of how Card’s sympathetic depiction of a Muslim character in Ender’s Game (written in the 1980s) profoundly touched Jazayerli. He says:
Others may hate him, but I’m still struggling to understand him. That’s the least I owe him for gifting me with an ethical compass when I needed one.
I’d like to help Jazayerli understand Card.
Monday Mormon Mormonism: Where Are the Great Mormon Writers?
This morning’s post for Times And Seasons tackles the question Mark Oppenheimer recently raised in a piece for the New York Times: why has there been no Mormon literary renaissance? My post is divided roughly half-and-half between critiquing Oppenheimer’s unthinking dismissal of the artistic merit of so-called “genre fiction” that much of his analysis depends upon and a further exploration of the role of tragedy in art as it conflicts with Mormonism’s ruthless optimism.
Cool House, Terrible Reporting
The Internet is pretty awesome as a kind of external hard drive for your brain because the information is so conveniently accessible. But if the information that you conveniently access is crap, then so much for the promise of the brave new future.
Consider this interesting house, which I found out about from a ViralNova story on Oct 26. The ViralNova story mentioned zombies (a lot) and depicted the home as some kind of prepper-bunker: “The fortress is virtually indestructible. Thieves, rioters and even an army couldn’t get in once you lock up.” Why is it indestructible? Because it’s obviously built of solid steel right? Err… no.
I was interested enough that I did some light research and found an older Techeblog article (from 2012) that featured the same house with basically the same motif: zombies. The article claimed the house was “impenetrable to just about anything short of missiles / bombs.” Based on what? I have no idea. They posted a YouTube video of the designer explaining his creation, and he didn’t mention a single thing about zombies. He did mention the construction of the house, however. The longest moving wall is built on a steel truss, but that’s just the internal skeleton. The outer layer is light-weight wood, and it’s filled with “mineral wool” for insulation. None of that is remotely “indestructible”, but then again the Techeblog article mentions “a guesthouse, complete with floor-to-ceiling windows.” when it’s actually an indoor pool. Clearly they didn’t watch the video that they posted on their own site.
The thing that’s both sad and annoying is that the actual explanation of the home’s intent is far more interesting than ridiculous claims about rocket-proof walls or zombies. The designer has a fascinating take on the idea of organic construction. Instead of stereotypical rounded edges, it’s the function rather than the form of this building that makes it organic. It is designed to open like a flower every morning to let in the sun’s energy, and then close at night to conserve that energy. Security is a feature, yet, but it’s not the most interesting or important aspect of the building.
Armed with the name of the firm that designed the building, I found their own description of their work. I’m glad I did, because they have several other interesting concepts. Call me weird, but learning about modern architectural theories was much more interesting than the silliness in the original articles.
I know, I know. I’m a grumpy old man yelling at the kids to get off my lawn. I get it. But there’s a simple point I still think is worth getting grumpy about. The world is interesting enough as it is without lazily applying your preconceived notions to it. Yes, the home’s slate-gray coloring make it look intimidating and fortress-like, but digging deeper reveals a more interesting story. I know that ViralNova and Techeblog aren’t overly concerned with credibility or veracity, but hey: I am.
So I took the time to look up the real info, write it here, and I hope y’all enjoy learning about the home and the designer’s philosophy and seeing their other buildings as much as I did.