Yet Another Web Comic (YAWC)

In the category of so obvious it`s profound: HDMI. All your information: Audio and video, in this case, rolled into one cable. I like TOSLink, or whatever it`s called, where you can roll all your audio into one optical cable. Far fewer cables would be great. With component video, it`s three per device. That`s a lot of bulk, and it just handles video. Then there`s audio, power…

And power, that`s another thing. In the same category of so obvious it`s profound: Power centers in entertainment centers. I`m not talking about surge protectors, I`m talking about fully-conditioned AC-DC converters that supply all of your entertainment center`s power. It can be a high-quality filter and converter which will eliminate the need for so many power adapters. Now, there`s all sorts of practical roadblocks: Power requirements, adapter standardization and cost are among the many that spring to mind. I figure something like this would cost several hundred dollars and you wouldn`t necessarily recoup that cost in cheaper A/V equipment. However, some people spend that much on a simple surge protector, so it`s not unprecedented, and it would be real nice to reduce all that clutter and guarantee quality worksmanship — who knows how many wall warts and such that I own were farmed out to the cheapest bidder, waiting to take other electronics out Kamikaze-style.

Furthermore, I`m not much of a TV person, but I have to (very strongly) encourage everyone to check out Heroes. To avoid spoilers, one of my favorite things is Hiro`s comic book: You see, Lost, take notes here. A seemingly extraneous item CAN be used as an effective plot device, and you CAN give away some things and still retain the majority of your mystery. The plot advances, things happen…and they actually mean something, or are explained, or drag you into the story. Remember the Others from Lost? Every word that comes out of their mouth is a lie. No wonder I don`t care about the show anymore: It`s like the Others have this Rube Goldberg device that conducts social experiments. Not only is everything a lie, but it`s some big, convoluted staged thing. Everything`s manipulated, they always come out on top. It`s like the ending of Metal Gear: Solid 2.
“I am the best! I know the secret!” “Nope, I do. This was a test for you.” “Haha, that`s what you think: It`s a computer simulation of your test!” “No, no no! That simulation is actually something else. You don`t understand.” After fifteen minutes it gets old. After two hours?

And it doesn`t end there. I`ll pick on House, but I see this in many shows today. He`s a pompous ass, a brilliant man who messes up a bunch of treatments and almost kills lots of people “practicing” seemingly reckless abandon, he abuses drugs and co-workers, but nobody seems to care. He can`t possibly lose his job, no matter how much people complain. I hear it looks like he`ll be arrested. It`ll never last. The show won`t end with him getting tried, convicted and sentenced to some Federal penitentiary for 25 to life for posession with intent to distribute. As much as I`d like to see that be the season finale, to actually see him receive his comeuppance, I know it just won`t happen.

Hehehe…He`s in trouble later.

Wiis continue to be elusive here, but PS3s are possible to come by. An odd position, for sure. It sounds like there may be some shipments coming in this weekend, which would be nice, but I`ll get one when they come in.

I made the mistake of attempting to go out to the Toys R Us today, since it was Black Friday and I was told they were getting a whole shipment. I waited outside an hour and a half to be about 15th in line, and watched it grow to what must have been well over two hundred. When the doors opened, the latecomers just went crazy. Oddly enough, the people at the front of the line, some who had been there since midnight (that`s five hours, for those keeping score at home), were the most civil. But there was mobbing, cutting, shoving and all sorts of other ridiculousness. It was also quite disappointing to find this “shipment” ended up involving about a half dozen Wiis. Needless to say, my civility caused me to lose two precious places in line. Walking outside, I found a guy who was trying to auction off his freshly-acquired Wii.

The biggest disappointment of the day, however, was not the anemic shipment (which I feel was really played up by Toys R Us personnel) but the lack of civility and decorum show by the shoppers. It was ridiculous! I thought we were humans, quite separate from the rest of the animal world based on, among other things, our understanding of the presence of a world and existence around us, a cognizance if nothing else of other humans. I think the only thing preventing shoppers from flinging feces at each other that morning is the fact that it would take a minute to squat, and the day that someone tries to stock up in a Ziploc bag the night before there will be a significant devolution. The missing link will then be discovered.

It`s not that I think highly of people in general, especially mobs of people, but I must admit, having been through several other gaming launches I can honestly say that gamers are a far more civil crowd, a band of brothers if I may exaggerate the term. Black Friday shoppers? Thank you, with the exception of a few people I had the advantage of meeting and speaking with: You have destroyed what little faith I had in humanity`s mutual respect for others. I`m afraid to know what would happen if people today had to form their own government, as it seems humanity has slid back to picking and eating nits off of each other`s skin. Class act, all the way.

To be fair, the stories of violence and crime are relatively few and anecdotal. While I find it terribly sad, it is still a few isolated incidents, and I`d have to guess that the PS3 just happens to be a desirable product with a bunch of easy targets standing in one place, potentially holding a lot of cash, “valuables” such as PSPs, and eventually, possibly a PS3. What upsets me is how poorly this will reflect on gamers in general. I can see the community portrayed as feces-flinging subhumans, chucking around fetid piles of homemade ammunition.

Likewise, a relative lack of inhumanity surrounding the Wii launch is far more understandable. There`s a much lower price, people weren`t waiting nearly as long, and with Nintendo saying they will deliver 4 million units to North America this year (In fact, promising this if I recall) there`s no real eBay frenzy. At this time, there appears to be between a $50 to $100 premium, and I`m being generous at $100, because it usually ships with at least one game. That`s a 33% premium to have it today, where the PS3 has a much higher premium. We won`t know for sure until some of these auctions are completely successful, but even at $1800 that`s a 200% premium.

And let`s be clear, because I`ve heard this too often: People are not paying so much for a PS3, they are paying that much to have a PS3

now

. That doesn`t mean the PS3 is worth $4,000, or whatever it will sell for. I can almost guarantee that when a person can pick one up in a store for $600, they will not pay $4,000. That may take quite a few months, but when it happens a person with $4,000 to waste will likely buy a $600 console and $3,400 worth of games and accessories instead of spending $4,000 on the same console with no goodies. Whatever someone will pay on eBay is what they are willing to pay to have it NOW, not what they are willing to pay to have it period.

I did not manage to snag a Wii myself, though our protagonist will obviously be luckier than I was. Instead, I chose to drink some beer and watch the UFC fight with a bunch of the guys. Hughes vs. St. Pierre? Worth not getting a Wii on launch day. Well, there was that and a bunch of other socializing, but like I said: Worth it. I have plenty of friends with Wiis, it`s not like I can`t experience it by taking a ten minute drive.

Oh, and Greg Dean at

Real Life Comics

appears real familiar. Let`s just say the phrase, “Come home with a Wii or don`t come home at all” may have been thrown around. I presume jokingly, since I am here updating the site today.

I will be waiting for the next shipment, though. No sense taking risks.

I eagerly await the Wii. I`m still really upset at myself for missing the pre-orders. D`oh! But that`s alright: With all the units that are planned to arrive on retailers` shelves, I`m sure I`ll snag one before too long. Maybe not Sunday, if I am lazy, but soon.

I know at least one other person spent an hour massaging the perfect visage from the extensive control panel only to find the one slider that screws up the whole face in one fell swoop. Furthermore, no matter what you do with that slider, you can never get it back to where it was. They really need to just label a few of them, “Screw up your face irreversibly, moron. That`ll teach you to spend an hour in the character generator instead of playing our game.” Though, I can see why they preferred more nebulous descriptions — They fit into a much smaller space.

Oh, and I really do love Oblivion. I haven`t played in a while because I`ve been involved in getting all this stuff set up for the comic and, admittedly, I`ve been tied up in Splinter Cell (which I haven`t done justice yet). The Splinter Cell series happens to be one of my favorites, so I`ve been…indisposed towards Oblivion. Plus, the Wii hits stores in ten days. I`ll be a bit too busy to finish the main quest any time soon. I guess that`s my fault for getting into the game so late in the year. Oh, well.

Of course, I made a promise that I would not curse unless it was necessary to really drive the joke home. Not only did I blow that, but I used some nice off-color humor as well. But hey, the way I think of it, porn is fair game — It`s even big in popular culture. Remember the episode of Friends with the free porn? If network TV can get away with it, I don`t feel bad.