Tim Schaffer, professional video game developer and Jack Black standee recently made a proposal, asking for money to help develop his next video game title – “Double Fine Adventure”. He wanted $400,000 but instead he got over $1,000,000 within 24 hours, an amazing accomplishment considering he didn’t offer up controling interest in his company, shares or anything business related – except possibly a lunch.
He used the website Kickstarter.com one of my favorite websites in the whole wide world (wide web). Kickstarter is a website in which people can ask for money to kickstart some of their creative projects. They have a deadline to get their funding, and if it isn’t reached, they don’t get a dime. A very intense website for those pitching, because sometimes the projects funding can be furnished or destroyed because of mere dollars.
Alternatively the website IndieGoGo offers the same ”please donate money” platform similar to Kickstarter. Some people prefer this over Kickstarter, but that’s up for you, the reader, to decide. I’m more partial to Kickstarter because of the layout, but that’s beside the point.
Both of these websites are amazing because it shows the power of a single dollar. Each dollar added is a dollar in support of a new project, a new idea. Those that are brilliant or show mass appeal are going to get funded and greenlighted similar to any pitch you might give to venture capitalists or movie studios. The difference being – no “middle-man” and the donators might get something in return, such as a copy of the movie or some wonderful personalized items.
At first, I’ve been disgusted by the thought of begging for the internet to lend you money. It’s almost like being a panhandler to the noisiest street corner ever designed. But now I’ve learn to appreciate it, for there to be a mutual trust between the donator and the donated into not screwing up their project. I’m sure many projects were funded only to be left with “So Long, Suckers!” or projects were funded with tons of money in the pocket, but when it comes to the final project, it ends up being terrible. Would anybody really want to donate on another documentary about video games?
But this is what the future might be like, musicians are already trying to use the internet to get their voice across, and entrepreneurs are trying it right now with Kickstarter, It’ll only be a matter of time before you see Radio Stations, Television Producers and Movie Directors get their funding via the internet in the near future… that is if they get parents approval of course.
I mean really, what were they thinking? Oh and don’t forget to give me five stars, i’ll really appreciate it…
It’s not that guy, it’s the other toy reviewer… but who loves their job more?
This is an episode dedicated to one of the best YouTube channels that you’ve never heard of. If you’ve paid attention to my twitter or this site in the last month, you’ll know who I am talking about. The one and only Dr Video Gamez.
In an earlier Article I wrote called “Mischief. Mayhem. SOPA.” , I discussed the SOPA Protesting, and offered a realistic stance – Piracy is wrong and we should stop it. But if the bill passes, you should not be alarmed, as companies really wanted to use the bill to go after illegal peer-to-peer websites and not your fucking tumblr blog.
In an after-hours 2AM video, I mumbled something about how pathetic the “blackout thing is” or something. I really can’t even understand what I said, it sounded pretty terrible.
And now I am going to continue my bitching spree, yet again, on the internet.
Let’s suppose, for instance that this poorly drawn person is “The Internet”
He is everyone’s best friend, he lets you borrow his CD Collection, his Movie Collection and recently DVR’d episodes of Dexter.
But, oh no! He is getting sick! There is some sort of problem with him…
All we know about him is that “piracy” is what’s making him ill.
For the sake of making this metaphor even more confusing, we’re going to pretend that “The Doctor” is Media Corporations, Viacom, NBC-Universal, Whatever. And their remedy to fix the solution is with the “Stop Online Piracy Act”
Yes, it would stop the cure for “Piracy”, but at the same time completely obliterate what is “The Internet”
I mean, he’s still the internet, it’s just a bloody mess, with tissue and organs dripping out. If you don’t like the crappy drawings, you have to forgive me, my illustrator FUCKING DITCHED TO GO TO MAGFEST WHEN I WAS WRITING THIS!
Secondarily, there is a “Protect Intellectual Property Act”, which is nearly the same bill that goes to the senate. And the same effect happens if they go through with it – Internet goes boom. It cures the piracy, but also destroys the brain.
Both Congress and the Senate have the button, and if any of them push it, websites can be taken down for “breaking copyright”. Forget about “Freedom of Press” or “Freedom of Expression” or your precious “Fair Use” – it’s over! BUT HE’S CURED!
Doesn’t that sound terrible?
What is needed is a middle ground between both industries that can solve this problem, and make it operational again. It’s bad enough we had to fight Net Neutrality for a long time, but now there’s this. Create a bill that can make both sides happy, can promote creativity by both the mainstream media and the internet, promote businesses on both sides, and most importantly – create jobs.
THAT’S ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY!
Instead, what we got today was a bunch of boo hooing because “Wikipedia” is on lockdown for the day.
You can still view the website through “mobile wikipedia” or by cache. This idea is fantastic, because it gives Jimmy Wales an excuse to get you to donate more money for his website.
Hello, my name is Jimmy Wales. Remember that thing we did in January regarding the Stop Online Piracy Act? Now imagine a world where that happened 24/7, 365 days a year? No more Wikipedia, at all. College Students will be shitting their pants because they didn’t research anything for their research assignments, High Schoolers will be upset because it gives them an excuse to search “vagina” and see free porn. Won’t you donate to give these kids access to public domain photographs of genitalia? I’m not asking for much, just a small donation of $100. The economy might be rough, but it’ll be rougher if I don’t get my fucking gold plated urinal.
That’s just the start of it, not only is that going on, but reddit is closing up shop for the day!
You wanted to see some cat videos today? Well fuck you, go find them yourself! CONGRESS IS GOING TO TAKE DOWN MY SITE.
EVEN “THE CHEEZBURGER NETWORK” closed down shop today, which came more across as “Please keep the internet free and open, so I can continue to become the Ebaums World of this generation and steal other people’s creativity so I can continue making a profit”. Fuck off!
And one of my favorite websites, Destructoid.com has even decided to “Close Down” shop for the day, as a protest against SOPA. That way, you become so annoyed that you talk to your congressman about this!
WELL GUESS WHAT INTERNET, I DID! AND GUESS WHAT THEY SAID!
Yeah, my fucking congressman is on the fucking panel, AND HE’S IN FULL SUPPORT OF IT!
Oh and my senator is Barbara Boxer… yep I’m pretty much screwed…
But here’s an actual question – Do you REALLY think taking down “Destructoid” or “Reddit” for the day really got a message to the congress and senate?
Something tells me Elton Gallegly never watched “Talking to Women about Video Games” and Barbara Boxer strikes me as a person not in grasp with “those internet nerds”.
The Approval Rating for Congress right now is at 13%, this means that you are relying on the lowest rated congress in American History to NOT fuck up and destroy the internet. I mean if they vote “yes”, what are you gonna do, not vote for them?
None of these “Blackout” things work, because all it’s doing is annoying your audience. It’s not really going to “fix” anything, nor is it giving a “sobering look at the future” should the bill gets passed.
But you know what did work today? This -
Today, Google decided to “censor” out it’s logo, it didn’t blackout it’s website, it just covered it’s iconic logo with a black bar, and when clicked will talk about this crooked bill. It’ll still let you access it’s website, and didn’t try to piss you off into writing to your congressman.
Every congressman has a laptop computer, and unless they somehow have “Bing” or “Yahoo!” as their homepage and main search engine, they will actually have to see this graphic every time they turn on their web browser throughout the day. This is all you needed to get the message out.
And no amount of “tweeting” will prove otherwise.
This whole day is a “First World Pains” joke, “Wikipedia is Down”, “I can’t check Reddit”, “I am refreshing a webpage and it’s not getting rid of the Blackout Thing”.
BUT IT GETS WORSE!
ScrewAttack’s “Stuttering Craig” teams up with “The Extra Credits Guy” and a couple other people you vaguely heard of to say “We’re not going to E3 this year, because the ESA supports SOPA”. I get it, you’re fucking pissed off over the “SOPA” thing, but look at yourself – you’re a fucking game journalist. The whole job of a “Game Journalist” is to promote fucking video games, give us updates on upcoming video games, company business news, sales figures, release dates, patch updates, DLC packs and deals. Your job is to give me, the consumer, valuable information in regards to video games. What new video games are coming out? Am I getting the most out of my money with this game? How is my favorite game developer doing businesswise? Was it a smart decision to buy a video game console opening day?
Yes, we get news about “Demo of Video Game Out Now!” and “Exclusive Trailer for Video Game!” from time to time, but lately it’s been “Fuck Capcom, they took out Mega Man Legends 3, BOYCOTT!” and “Fuck Ninja Theory, they are castrating Devil May Cry, BOYCOTT! and Fuck these game companies supporting SOPA, BOYCOTT!” You’re not a political journalist, you fucking write about video games for a living.
Are you going to write to Cliffy B about his thoughts on the Primaries, next? Perhaps we should be treated to an article about “How Homefront best represents the situation regarding our troops in Afghanistan”. Articles about rather a company is for-or-against a lobbying bill, isn’t “game journalism”, it’s strictly political. Your goal when writing those articles is to sway your readers into possibly “boycotting” a certain company because they promote something that you don’t like.
Even though EA, Nintendo and Sony all flip-floped and are now “Anti-SOPA”, I still would have bought their video games and products even if they we’re for it. I’m not going to “stop liking something” and “boycott” just because I disagree with them over something, such as these “Piracy Acts”, I am a natural consumer whore.
If you guys are going to “boycott” E3, can I have your press passes?
Stop treating this bill like it’s “The End of the World”, if it gets passed – it can easily be overturned by President Obama or The Supreme Court. If Barack Obama says it’s unconstitutional, which he alluded to earlier this week. All you really need to worry about is rather or not The Supreme Court is paying attention to this bill.
So yes, SOPA is an atomic bomb that will destroy the internet. It’s a crooked bill, and the reason many politicians are probably going through with this is because they we’re paid off by the MPAA, the same assholes who Invented PG-13. But we’re you surprised? Politicians getting paid to vote certain ways, please don’t tell me you’re that naive!
