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<title>Haaze.com / Iloerika / Published News</title>
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<pubDate>Thu, 09 Jun 2011 07:10:43 +0000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[E3 2011: Three is a magic number]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=e3-2011-three-is-a-magic-number</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=e3-2011-three-is-a-magic-number</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 09 Jun 2011 07:10:43 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Iloerika</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=e3-2011-three-is-a-magic-number</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Microsoft&amp;39's press event opened with a demo of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which launches November 8. (Credit:Sarah Tew/CNET)LOS ANGELES--Look around the halls of E3 2011, and you might notice something strangely similar about many of the most-hyped games on display. There's Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3, and Mass Effect 3. BioShock Infinite is the third game in that series, and Skyrim is the third modern/console version of an Elder Scrolls game (technically, it's the fifth game in the series, as there were a couple of prior PC games back in the '90s). We've also spotted Saints Row: the Third, Serious Sam 3, and Ninja Gaiden 3, Deus Ex: Human Revolution (the third game in that series), and there are probably a few others I've missed. This collection of third-timers is partially a coincidence, and partly indicative of the industry's addiction to sequels. With production and advertising budgets at or near what Hollywood movie studios have been spending for years, there's a natural, and very understandable, attraction to finding a successful formula and sticking with it. A trilogy is also a familiar construct from the larger media world that consumers are comfortable with, and the format is useful for putting together a compelling story arc over the course of three films or novels. But while most movies quit after three outings, there's no doubt you'll be seeing a fourth chapter in many of the game franchises above within a year or two. Ice T helps introduce the trailer for Gears of War 3 at the E3 Xbox press conference.(Credit:Sarah Tew/CNET)If all this sounds familiar, that's because this article itself is a sequel of sorts. During E3 2010, I wrote a piece titled &quot;E3 exposes video game industry's sequel problem,&quot; and offered another partial explanation for the lack of originality in many games. Its overly simplistic to blame a conceptual lack of originality for the deficit of new ideas, stories, and characters. Video games generally don't function under the auteur theory that many of the best films do, crafted by a singular creative vision (with a few high-profile exceptions)' instead they more often are the ultimate example of art by committee. Game developers essentially create &quot;work for hire&quot; on behalf of publishers, which in turn resemble nothing so much as the classic 1940's Hollywood studio system, where studio bosses pulled the strings and set the agenda.Whether the reasons for this overreliance on sequels are primarily economic, creative, or some combination, there's a very good chance you'll see the third version of a story much like this next year at E3 2012. However, Microsoft deserves special credit for breaking the trilogy streak this year. In the closing moments of its E3 press conference, the company teased an upcoming game we're sure to hear more about next year: Halo 4. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Canadians who tweet election results face jail]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=canadians-who-tweet-election-results-face-jail</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=canadians-who-tweet-election-results-face-jail</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 23 Apr 2011 07:10:17 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Iloerika</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=canadians-who-tweet-election-results-face-jail</guid>
<description><![CDATA[It's lovely when old laws try to prevent new ways. It's like your grandma trying to take yourPlayStation away.Canada, for example, has section 329 of its Elections Act. It tells anyone who happens to be insensitive or insensate enough to transmit election results that they will be fined 25,000 quite valuable Canadian dollars--and, perhaps, be offered a mere five years in jail.So along come those bespectacled nerdy types who go and invent things like Twitter--mechanisms that allow you to be a town crier to an especially large and populous town. Now a Canadian in Montreal can broadcast an election result there before the polls have closed in Vancouver. Such a heinous act could clearly influence some hemp-adoring resident of the Canadian west coast to change his or her vote--or perhaps not even bother to wander to the polling station.John Enright, a spokesman for Election Canada, told The Huffington Post: &quot;We're not blind to the fact that social media has taken on its own dimension, especially among youth. As it stands now, 329 is still on the books. People should act in consequence to 329 and the possible repercussions.&quot;(Credit:Screenshot: Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)Oh, but surely it could not be that tweetly enthusiastic electors will be confronted by mounties and led off to solitary confinement, deprived of their locally produced BlackBerrys.Well, it could. The law, you see, doesn't stop you from phoning a friend to tell them that some candidate favoring breaking ties with the U.S. and moving Canada to the rainforest has beaten out the local conservative.That would be mere communication. What 329 stands against is transmission. Yes, the mass loud-hailering of election results is a threat to democracy.Canadian broadcasters CBC and CTV have tried to get courts to erase this law before Election Night on May 2. But the courts won't hear of it before that date.And a blogger called Paul Bryan deliberately broke the law in 2000. It took seven years for the Canadian court system to decide that he was a bad boy and should be fined $1,000 (he also incurred rather large legal costs).You will be frozen like a margarita on discovering that there are now more tweeting dissenters in Canadian ranks. For there is a new Twitter hashtag--tweettheresults--which will create a community of resistance around the results-transmitting renegades.As one rebel, Susie Erjavec Parker--who describes herself as &quot;wife, Momma, baker consultant and leader--tweeted: &quot;How ignorant are CDN voters if tweettheresults would influence someone's vote Are we that uninformed, easily swayed, and immature really&quot;Ah, ignorance. Now, that would be a topic for another day. In the meantime, I am sure that additional Canadian jail cells have been readied for the mass arrests that will, no doubt ensue May 2.Perhaps they'll open a special jail camp and call it Guantweetamo.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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