I first started playing Magic: The Gathering out of necessity. After moving from Ohio to Kansas I found a faculty-sanctioned gaming group at a nearby university. Everyone was pretty friendly and I volunteered to take a turn GMing the D&D game they were starting. There was only one problem…
Browsing: Editorial
On Monday morning’s The Morning Stream with Scott Johnson, someone in the chat room asked Stephen Schleicher whether Captain America is as popular in other countries as he is in America, and whether that would be detrimental to the upcoming movie. Given a) my love for Captain America and b) my love of Australia, where I was born and have lived my whole life, I figured I would take it upon myself to offer up some answers of my own.
Since Modern Warfare’s release back in 2007, the Call of Duty franchise has been dominating the FPS market and destroying previous sale record with each new release. Currently, Black Ops is dominating the online-shooter experience; everyone is playing it, including me. I am honestly getting tired of it though.
When I first started writing this article I was wondering what Nintendo was doing wrong, why hadn’t they given the Wii the upgrades it needs? With sales steadily declining, and Kinect grabbing lots of attention, how could they expect to stay on top with a console that doesn’t even have HD? And so I started looking deeper, and after some research I came to a somewhat startling realization. Nintendo was doing everything right.
Imagine this: Our handsome hero has located the hostages of a terrorist cell. Slumped in their cage, the prisoners await their execution. Our hero, trying to give them hope slips a piece of paper into their cell as he runs past, on his way to the command center. One of the prisoners finds the note and opens it. In it is a simple message: “I am can have you outside”
Or – “That Univac Thing Is Just A Passing Fad, I Tellya!” It has become a running gag on the Major Spoilers podcast that “Stephen has an iPad!” and thus loves the futuristic glow of his digital comics, while Matthew is a neo-luddite stuck haunting the back issue bins of musty-smelling dollar stores in search of a vintage first appearance of Betty Cooper. Some have accused me of being a rigid old man, afraid of change and while there may be some validity to that claim, I firmly believe that while digital versions certainly aren’t going away, they will NEVER…
If you’re a console gamer, or hang out with someone who is, you’ve probably noticed that the little plastic guitar in the corner of the room has been collecting dust, and with the recent death of the Guitar Hero franchise, it’s apparent that publisher Activision has also noticed. Some are calling this the beginning of the end for rhythm games, while others are scolding Activision for slowly killing the genre by oversaturating the market with titles, and I’m sure there are some who are happy to see the franchise go. As a longtime fan of rhythm games, I wonder what’s…
Just over a year ago, Steve Jobs got up on stage and presented to the world the iPad. From the moment it was unveiled, I knew the way we consume comic books would be changed forever. By the time the god-device arrived in April, a slew of digital comic apps were ready, and my digital collection began to bloom. But as we approach the one year anniversary, it’s time to look ahead at ways the industry can attract more readers to the digital format and enhance the reading experience for those already on board.
I’m not particularly good about keeping up with the latest from gaming companies. So my first interaction with the announcement that Wizards of the Coast has discontinued its miniatures collections came primarily from angry tweets. So I went to WotC’s page, I read the announcement, I thought about it for a bit, and here’s my opinion: It’s not surprising.
A few weeks ago I reviewed Fable III for the Rootin’ Tootin’ MSP. Not being insecure at all, I posted my intent to review the game on Twitter the day before to see what others had to say about it. Reaction varied, some people hadn’t played it but were looking forward to it, others had given it a spin and were enjoying it, but one comment in particular really surprised me. “cool, just make sure you don’t call it an ‘RPG’.”
Today is the day that I will stop buying print editions of Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead. It isn’t because of the story; those who think this series is destined for a happy ending need a reality check, and it isn’t because I’m fed up with the same ol’ same ol’ that seems to be the nature of the series. The decision to drop the print edition is one that regular Spoilerites have probably already guessed – I own an iPad.
It may surprise many of you that I believe Microsoft may have been ahead of the game when it introduced the Zune and the Welcome to the Social campaign a few years ago. Granted, back then no one knew what the hell the software giant was talking about, but today, with digital comics about to bust wide open in a big way, applications like Comics by ComiXology, and companies like BOOM! Studios, DC Entertainment, and Marvel might want to revisit the Zune.
One of the great things about running Major Spoilers is the short deadlines most of us have when gathering stories, pitching ideas back and forth across the email system, and generally scrambling when a big story or idea hits and we want to get it up fast. The loose schedule of what hits the site when has run well for the last year, and for the most part all the contributors at Major Spoilers have done a tremendous job. But then there are those Mondays that throw a wrench into the system.
Or – “And Not Always For The Better…” Every medium has watershed moments; stories, characters or events that change the paradigm for all art of that type. Going back to the days when movie careers were ruined by “Talkies” (look up Gloria Swanson sometime) these shifts can be jarring for everyone involved, from the creators to the fictional characters themselves. A sea change is always invigorating, but there’s not way to control or to predict where such reimaginings will actually take us…