#sony just wants to maximize profit

[sincericida]

Sony try to nostalgia bait for people to come back. Sony just want money, man... She trying to make up money lost on "Morbius "and will be lost on "Madame Web" and "Kraven". Sony, listen toso Kevin Feige.

Sony, if you want to see my money, do "The Amazing Spider-Mam 3" and "Secret Wars".

[arkus-rhapsode]

So wasn't expecting to make this Gaming Hot Take of the day but after reading this from Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki I gotta be honest I had to write something

So look, I can kinda understand this stance in a very retrospective sense as he says "Fostered from the beginning." Playstation 1 in particular didn't really make a big distinction between its original IP and its Third Party IP. It's why you had Crash Bandicoot or Cloud Strife as basically the mascot of Playstation when both come from third parties. Compared to the likes of Mario and Sonic who were not only their console mascot, but company mascots respectively.

But by now, Playstation has an undeniable back catalogue of first and second IP that it can either revive or rerelease if need be. Like if we're looking at like multi entry series and not just one offs, by the PS2, Sony had:

Jak & Daxter

Twisted Metal

Ape Escape

Sly Cooper

MediEvil

Wild Arms

Dark Cloud

Everybody's Golf

God of War

Rachet and Clank

And by the PS3 we have

Infamous

Uncharted

Killzone

Resistance

Little Big Planet

Like Sony has their own catalogue that can stand on its own. Its not like they should be struggling now to play catch up.

Now if you read my recent Emio and Mages post, I am very well aware that in the age of modern gaming, a game doesn't get made without a team devoted to it. And with the rising production and time costs of making games, no company can release a hundred games and be profitable. So sadly some IP just do fall by the wayside in favor of others. Guerrilla Games isn't making Killzone anymore, because their efforts are spent on Horizon and Sucker Punch went from being the Sly Cooper guys to the Infamous guys, to now the Ghosts of Tsushima guys.

However, I feel like Sony has had some circumstances that compound this problem. Sony and Playstation are technically powerful machines-they want to fully utilize the hardware they're selling you for hundreds of dollars. It is their brand. However, the downside to this is because of this the rise in production costs, it's now taking much longer to make games that make use of the powerful hardware. We went from being able to release a full trilogy in a single generation to basically one. Its also made worse by the fact that Sony has been very active in shuttering studios and cutting costs. The biggest would be the loss of Sony Japan Studio, who were beloved for their more varied Japanese-y style games. It added flavor to the more Naughty Dog inspired games of the sixth and seventh generation. But now, Sony went all in on being that one big budget release that leaned more towards broader genres that could maximize the amount of sales like Uncharted, The Last of Us, Spider-Man, etc.

With this, a lot of mismanagement, its really made the PS5 era feel very sparse compared to the PS4. Now, I wanna stress this, I actually do not subscribe to the mentality "Playstation has no games." Playstation has tons of games beyond just their first party titles, some are exclusive like Final Fantasy 16, some are just way too powerful to be something that could be played on a switch like GTAV. Heck, I played Bomb Rush Cyberfunk on my PS5 and it's probably the game I've dumped the most time into this year. So yes, even if Playstation's first party offerings are few and far between, you're still capable of playing a lot of good games on this really expensive plastic box.

And maybe that's indicative of the fact that Playstation has always been about selling you the hardware on the basis of the hardware. Going back to the PS1, the main selling points was this was the haven for third parties after Nintendo really burned a lot of developers with the N64, and that this was a much more system than the N64. When you look at someone like Nintendo now, they're hardware is underpowered they live and die by the power of their software that only they can provide and no one else. But the playstation even if its not shooting out a new Jax & Daxter every year, they're still the place you can play something like Final Fantasy or Elden Ring at a really great clip. Perhaps Totoki was alluding to that reliance on hardware instead of software because in retrospect, they never really had that big homegrown system seller on playstation till the PS2 with things like God of War. And now fostering that, has made it hard to have that sort of Zelda or Halo that are so undeniably their companies IP and will move launch units.

But a reliance on just being the place where you can play games at a high fidelity, means that its still got competition from Xbox and PC. So Sony would have to offer a service the others don't and that can be software you find nowhere else. True story, I was genuinely conflicted about getting a PS5 or and Xbox X/S for my birthday because I knew I needed to at least have a strong machine to play with my switch. And ultimately I took PS5 because that was the console that would have God of War Ragnarok and Spider-Man 2. So yes, IP absolutely factors into purchases in my experience. And the fact that this generation Sony has really struggled to put out first party games, really makes that purchase factor feel so much thinner and thinner. When you know-you know Sony has loads of IP (Some that haven't left their respective console) that even a simple remaster on the PS5 could at least hold people over in-between their AAA releases. So to hear their CFO say that they don't have enough IP, gets very disingenuous.

To close this out, I wanna stress something. I don't think wanting to make new IP is a bad thing. Im glad Sony is willing to invest 8 years and millions of dollars into something new. But eventually, we reach a point where this has to be better managed. We have to have some smaller titles that can be released between the bigger ones. We gotta have some variation in the types of games we're getting from the platform holder. And sometimes leaning in on those fan faves for smaller titles would help. Are they gonna sell 10 million units? More than likely not. But if you balance the budget, having something move between 1-2 million units would be acceptable. Perhaps maybe allow more second party developers a crack at using that IP so your internal teams can work on the bigger blockbuster titles?

The PS5 generation has been a pretty all over the map one for Sony, and the more we learn about the thoughts and management behind the scenes, the more aggravating it can become when this platform does something really cool, but then seems to take two steps back. I genuinely can't tell you if I'll get a PS6. But if I do, it will probably not be out of optimism for classic Playstation franchises to return.

[unpassive-viewer]

Across the Spider-Verse Review (mild spoilers)

I have finally seen the long-awaited sequel to my most favourite movie. Y’all, I am in love with what Sony is doing for Spider-Man these days. I have literally not been this excited to see a movie since I was 12 years old waiting in line in a themed outfit to see Catching Fire for its opening weekend, and I think this film lived up to that hype. I have some critiques, but overall it was really good. I won’t include any major plot spoilers, but I’ve tagged it as mild spoilers just in case you’re the type of person who doesn’t like to know a single thing going into this movie. 

The good (not in order of importance): 

1. More Gwen character development. She’s in this one in a much larger capacity than the first one, and all of her parts were awesome. 

2. Soundtrack. I started listening it to it before I even went to see the film. It’s good music already, but it is such a different experience to hear it over the movie. The art direction for these films is SEAMLESS, the different elements blend so well. 

3. The visuals. The animation is genuinely so beautiful, I would use literally every frame of this movie as a screensaver, and I would tattoo them on the inside of my eyelids if that didn’t mean I’d have to pick only one. I want to give the animators a big kiss on the mouth because this film is so visually incredible. 

4. The fight scenes. I love animation because you can capture things that cameras just can’t. The pacing of the fighting was so, so good. It’s one of the only movies I’ve seen that keeps the momentum of its fight sequences and really lets you feel the energy of the actions you’re watching. It was unique from movies like the second Captain America, whose fight scenes I also LOVE, because of the way it followed characters with such fast and dynamic movement. Whereas the Winter Soldier had great representation of real fighting styles, Across the Spider-verse was able to make use of a lot of its characters uniquely-inspired movements like Gwen’s dancer style. It could also follow them while they did insanely complex movements - if you’ve seen Gwen’s first fight scene, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. 

5. The new characters are unbelievably cool. All of them. From the design to their personalities to their theme songs, they were really well thought out. In particular Spider-Man 2099 and Spider Byte are so beautifully visually contrasted with the rest of the movie. The characters also felt very honest to their backstories. By that I mean it felt like the animators and storyboard writers really did their research into the people they were trying to emulate, both from a source material standpoint and a cultural standpoint. 

6. Miles’ story in the sequel is still really interesting, despite him being established as a character now, and the additional dimensions this film brings to his character are super cool. 

7. The humour is top notch, and very true to Spidey humour that has carried through all of its iterations. I especially liked the first altercation between Miles and the main villain. It reminded me of Letterkenney and VEEP in that I felt like I needed subtitles to get all of the jokes because they were so rapid-fire and because the characters were talking over one another. It’s a very organic brand of humour that I appreciate. 

8. The inclusion of so many Spider characters was well handled. The MCU movies now essentially make no sense because of how much background knowledge you need just to watch one film. Comparatively this handled having literally hundreds of similarly designed characters really well. 

9. It seemed like altogether (much like the first one) there was a lot of creative license for this film. My biggest critique of Disney movies is that they’re soulless because of how much they’re supposed to appeal to a wide audience to maximize profits, but this movie and its predecessor have actual soul. If I learn that all the animators were treated like trash and they considered this film their personal hell I will be crushed, because it looks like something that is the product of a lot of amazing minds coming together for an incredible project. 

10. A lot of fun nods to the other Spider-Man films and games. Spider-Man PS2 is in there, and I think Yuri Lowenthal even does a voice cameo. I’m a big fan of the “don’t get me started on Dr. Strange and that little nerd on Earth-199999″ line. 

The less good:

1. Way too long. This film did not need a 2+ hour runtime. After about 1h40 I started thinking at the beginning of every scene “this has to be the end now, right?” wrong. This film had a “first book of the Lord of the Rings technically just being exposition” feeling to it. 

2. Too many heart to heart scenes. One of my least favourite things in cinema lately is trying to force feed you character development through dialogue. There could have been like... 10 fewer drawn-out heartfelt conversations and the movie wouldn’t have changed. 

3. The two major conflicts kind of got lost in one another. I enjoyed both but after a point I was confused as to what the real issue was. I know we’ll see the resolution in the second part, but I felt at least from my first viewing that I was watching a second movie after a point. 

4. No comparable “what’s up danger” scene. To be fair, I think that scene from the first movie is my favourite in literally all of cinema. I want to inject it into my veins, I want to breathe it like perfume, I want to wrap it around myself like a blanket. It is beautiful and perfect and amazing and I don’t know if it can be topped, but it was strange to have so many smaller moments that were supposed to be cool that were sort of lost in one another. HOWEVER I have to assume we will get another one in the second part next year. Miles’ character arc is obviously not done, so it makes sense that we will get something like that closer to the climax of the next movie. 

Anyways, I will be seeing it a second time in theatres. I usually don’t see films in the cinema because it’s so expensive, but I will happily give this franchise all of my money. I cannot overstate this - I am genuinely looking at getting a tattoo for this franchise. Sony owns me and I am okay with that. 

[followtrendings]

FT Tech News 03: WhatsApp status to include voice notes | ChatGPT API with Microsoft Azure | Google removed embedded podcasts | iOS 16.3 features and release date

Let’s dive into the latest hot tech news.

WhatsApp to include voice notes in status

Currently, you can upload videos, photos, and texts as your status on WhatsApp. There is no option for uploading audio to it.  Soon WhatsApp is going to roll out a new feature in WhatsApp status. This new feature will enable users to put their voices on the status update. 

Sometimes people don’t want to upload pictures, videos and texts are boring. Also do not want to show their faces but still want to give information about their whereabouts. In such peculiar situations, voice notes will be significantly useful. There is no official date for when it is coming to the public. Of course, it will first go through alpha and beta testing then only will reach our hands.

ChatGPT is going to launch its API

Let’s understand what is API first. API full form is Application Programming Interface. API is a method of communication between two or more computer applications. It is a form of software interface that provides a service to other software applications. OpenAI has announced that it will provide its ChatGPT API complementary to whoever uses Microsoft Azure services.

OpenAI Logo As we have shared in our FT Tech News number 01 already, initially, OpenAI made ChatGPT for testing purposes. Soon it became a worldwide hit and Microsoft saw an opportunity in it. Microsoft offered a 2 billion dollar investment in ChatGPT to OpenAI. How could a new project reject such a huge investment from such a tech giant? OpenAI agreed and Microsoft partnered to make ChatGPT more advanced and powerful. Now after the announcement that ChatGPT AI features will be given to Microsoft Azure customers, they can make full use of high-performance AI models to scale up in the high-competition industry. How could Microsoft use ChatGPT in its services? Microsoft offers a lot of services that many businesses and companies buy. Businesses buy these services in order to give better customer service to their clients. ChatGPT is very smart and in case if you have used it, you probably know that ChatGPT talks (responds) like humans. It does one to one conversation with you. Just like you chat with customer service support staff. 

ChatGPT User Interface Also Read: FT Tech News 02: Google’s own version of Airtag tracker | Sony new technology to block piracy apps on TVs | Samsung plans for One UI 5.1 rollout | Customizable lock screen feature for Android | Android to have wireless charging | Bill Gates prefers Android over iPhone If ChatGPT replaces customer care staff then first it will reduce the financial expenses and also the resources used. All this leads to financial profit. But this is not the ultimate goal, the ultimate goal is customer satisfaction. ChatGPT can provide this without letting the person on the other side know that it is an AI chatting with him and solving the query. It can answer any query and solve any problem within seconds that even human staff may not do. Microsoft has probably made the best move by including ChatGPT. Now its own search will get a huge advantage, customer support will get a boost, and the company itself will get a ton of benefits.  It is a master plan of Microsoft to maximize profits and increase its dominance on the internet.

Google removed embedded podcasts from the search results page

Google launched the feature of being able to listen to podcasts right from the search results page in 2019. This move was appreciated by all because users did not have to enter a website to play the podcast. This made the work very quick and efficient. But Google has quietly removed this feature. Users can no longer play and listen to podcasts from the search results page.

This removal was first discovered by Podnews. He was surprised to know this and soon he asked for official confirmation from Google. He got a response from a Google representative confirming the change and that it was intentional. Now there will be just the podcast’s link on the results page and if one has to play the podcast then he/she will have to click the link which will direct him/her to the website where the podcast is hosted. The representative told that the change is made to serve a better user experience but this reply is completely illogical. How can this be an improvement? It just made the process lengthier and time-consuming. Those who were using it on regular basis are really gonna be frustrated. But it could increase the number of podcast subscribers as users need to visit the website to listen. On a bigger picture, it could be a plan of Google for its own Google Podcast product. As per Edison's research in 2022, YouTube is the most popular platform for users to listen to podcasts followed by Spotify. So it could be one thing that Google might be ending or just shifting podcasts from Google Podcasts to Youtube Podcasts. Also Read: FT Tech News 01: Intel’s most powerful processor | Twitter Data Leak Reply and Office Rent | Google Chrome Vulnerability | Microsoft’s Investment In ChatGPT | Google’s Software Developer Kit (SDK) | Microsoft’s VALL-E Project

iOS 16.3 coming next week for iPhone with these features

Apple has officially confirmed that iOS 16.3 will be released next week at a press conference. A new Unity wallpaper will be included for iPhones running on iOS 16.3 and Unity face for Apple watches running on watchOS 9.3. This Unity wallpaper will also be available on the lock screen on iPhones. Other features that iOS 16.3 will include are: Even after the countdown, iPhone will now wait until you let go of the buttons before dialing an emergency number. As the second level of authentication for your Apple ID, you can now use a physical hardware security key. We anticipate that beta testing for iOS 16.4 will start virtually right away once iOS 16.3 is made available. Apple Card Savings Account, Apple Music Classical, Apple Pay Later, and Advanced Data Protection for iCloud outside of the United States are some of the upcoming iPhone features that are officially announced by Apple but the rollout date is not fixed. So maybe with iOS 14, we might get these who knows? Read the full article

[tark-msi]

Is Marketing Inherently Manipulative?

A business organization functions in a fairly dynamic, complex and unpredictable Environment where the needs, tastes and preferences of the customer vary frequently owing to the nature of industry in which the organization operates. Indubitably, marketing of its goods and services is the quintessential part of the organizational activity so that it is able to sell more and encounter greater profits. A business may adopt different techniques of marketing to align customer interest with Business interest in order to maximize revenues. It should be kept in mind that these techniques used by businesses should be under the scope of legal compliance and must not invite any litigation from 3rd parties. However, at times it might be just subjective in nature since consumers react differently to same promotional activities. Marketing Ethics: Persuasion vs. Manipulation

The Germane question revolves around distinction between persuasion and manipulation.  The following factors assist you in making a relevant distinction between the two- Intention  Intention is a prima-facie in the judgement of the situation or a person.  If a marketer attempts to engage in a practice that is not in the best interest of another, they are deemed to engage in manipulation.   Withholding Truth Manipulation involves distorting or withholding of truth. Often, this is seen through exaggerating the usage of a product/service. Nowadays retailers, wholesalers, agents etc on a daily basis manipulate the public through overstating the utility of a product/service. Anything other than honest representation is blatant manipulation. Coercion Coercion is the expulsion of free choice. It engenders the ultimatum – do it or else.  In contrast, persuasion involves influence, but never force.  As communication scholar Dr. Richard Perloff writes, “a defining characteristic of persuasion is free choice”. The individual must at all times have the option to accept or reject a proposal. Therefore, an invitation that one is unable to say no to is bound to be persuasive in nature, but is deemed coercive and hence manipulative

The manipulative advertising inside the spectrum of the persuasive advertising – The persuasive advertising turns into a manipulative one depending upon the range of persuasion in advertising. It varies from most rational (factual information) to least (Force).                                                

It is clear from the above table that Manipulation begins from deceitful Advertising which uses untrue, non-material, misleading statements while promoting a product/service and hence is also labelled as false Advertising. Next on the list are fallacious arguments or bad arguments and last of all is Emotive persuasion which plays with consumer’s temperament promising astonishing result. Examples would include Advertising of Diet pills, exercise equipments, traditionally made products, Green Products etc

Breaking down the situation: -

One of the key job aspects of a marketer is to persuade people to buy the product/service of a particular brand. Often, this persuasion becomes manipulation. All real world scenarios can roughly be categorized into the following situations-

Bridging the gap – Here the marketer just bridges the gap between buyer and seller. Example– X is looking to buy a television and Y is looking to sell one. So, the marketer just bridges the gap between X & Y

Making Product Choice for the consumer – Here the marketer makes the choice for the consumer by persuading him with product features and benefits. Example- X is confused whether he should buy a Sony or LG TV. And the marketer persuades him to buy a Sony one explaining its features, product life cycle etc

Making Seller Choice for the consumer – Here the marketer persuades the consumer to buy from a specified seller by disclosing all material facts. Example – X can buy TV from Y or Z. Y sells first copy & thus cheaper products while Z sells original but costlier products. If marketer discloses these facts, and is still able to persuade X to buy from Y, he would be considered an efficient marketer.

Unknown wants – Here the consumer doesn’t know what he wants. And the marketer introduces the product to the market and generates demand for it. Ex- X has no idea what to buy. Marketer introduces a new Sony television to X and persuade him to finally buy it.

This is the heart of modern consumerism and essence of modern marketing i.e. pushing consumers for products that didn’t know existed. The classic example of this would be I phone launched by Apple Inc.

Changing Decisions- Here the consumer wants to buy something else but marketer either makes him believe that some other product would suit him well or aggressively pushes them to make impulsive purchase. Ex- X wants to buy a LG TV. Marketer familiarises him with Sony TV and he buys it. But if Marketer exaggerates features of Sony TV over LG when there is no real difference between the two, it would be considered unfair.

In the above five scenarios, the job of marketer ranges drastically from just bridging the gap to         completely wiping out the minds of consumers which enumerates the fact that marketing ethics spirals fast from simple to complex and the intent of the marketer is the key factor in examining the situation. There is a very thin line between Persuading and Manipulation which depends on a lot of subjective factors not only from marketer point of view but also the impact the marketing has on buyers.

A pragmatic Approach against Manipulative Marketing –

Consciousness in consumption asks for conscious advertising. Consciousness in consumption and business are indispensable parts of a manipulative-free marketing. The conscious consumer has a complex mix of responsible behaviours in terms of macro-economic concerns. The conscious consumption, ethical in nature, leads to consumerism activism practiced through positive buying. The consciousness authorizes the business to adapt to its environment promoting its interest and goals in a fair and non-manipulative way. Customer is the king-pin of business and affects it directly. The company has to well know in advance and understand the conscious consumers, if it wants to succeed in making conscious advertising. The better they comprehend the intentions, the methods and the messages of deceptive and misleading advertising, the consumers easier can distinguish between truth and fallacies or lies. When the companies make uncorroborated claims, they risk breeding cynicism and distrust. The dynamics of the realities about the conscious consumers should have a staunch impact on the commercial advertising. The companies have to learn the lessons emerging from the values of conscious consumers and their evolution in the future and create advertising messages accordingly. More ethical behaviour, more proactive self-regulation, better marketing cooperation are few key determinants in regard to it. Harmonising of operations or marketing cooperation between the companies and the consumers. An enhanced cooperation in advertising between the two subjects becomes possible when the company, the marketer includes the consumers in its marketing solutions. The consumers should become partners of the marketers, in order to contribute to the creation of value for them and to make a non-manipulative persuasive advertising.Management practice for marketers: Changing perceptionsTraditional Marketing only focused on directing the flow of goods/services from producers to consumers i.e. product oriented approach unlike modern marketing which focuses on value creation for its customers i.e. customer oriented approach.To break the prevalent stigma that businesses are deceitful, marketing should seek to be a social influence, specifically the kind that does not use deception or abuse to achieve its aims. Given increasing awareness of marketing tricks among consumers, marketers need to approach customers with sustainability in mind. Marketers should strive to create sustained value, owing to long term and short term implications on the product/service and ultimately on their brand. This enunciates the deep study of consumer behaviour, the creation of experiences not just products and services, developing healthy customer- relationships and being considerate of the impact of all practices on society more broadly. Only then, will we be able to counter the perception that marketing is manipulative. Conclusion -This finally answers the question tagging all along – Marketing is not inherently manipulative. Efficient Marketing involves all that is required to persuade the consumer to buy a specified good/service without using any form of manipulation or force. There is a fine line between persuasion and manipulation upon which the whole thing rests, which pertains to the morality of marketer. Therefore assuming a fair share of the marketers of this blue planet are not ignoble, marketing is adding to sustainability paradigm, value creation, positive social influencing, customer relationship  and everything that is related to it  but manipulation! Everything comes with its own merit and demerits. If you breed an orchard of apples, some are bound to go bad. It might so happen that more than half goes bad. But that shouldn’t deter you to stop eating apples altogether, rather this should empower within you the spark of breeding more good apples than bad.  In a similar fashion, manipulation in marketing is a defect that needs to be rectified by punishing the gluttonous corporate who is willing to go at any lengths to soar up their profits. Breaking the stereotype that ‘Marketing is Manipulative’ is the need of the hour by being conscious consumers practicing conscious consumption. The only question we need to honestly answer is ‘Do we care enough to do it?’ - Ankur Tulsyan

[tuesday5econlive]

Price Discrimination and Video Game Industry

Price Discrimination and Video Game Industry Price discrimination is definitely bad news for the consumers—while consumers can even get positive consumer surplus in a monopoly market, in a market with some types of price discrimination the consumer surplus can directly drop to zero. Many of us might consider price discrimination to be illegal as it contains the discrimination against consumer’s preference for price, and as a matter of fact we can see a lot of examples of price discrimination—it is just that we do not fully know about them. There are three types of price discrimination, and in this post we will explain all three to you as well as the real-life examples that we usually see in the video game industry, an industry that has been greatly altered in recent years because of the digitization trend it is taking.

First-degree price discrimination This is also called perfect price discrimination and the business is maxing out the producer surplus by charging the customers the highest price that they are willing to pay, and an important characteristic is that the services or goods are the same no matter how much the customers pay. This, in the real life, means that a lot of negotiations need to take place between the business and the customers, and in the game industry, there are a lot of bundle websites, led by “Humble Bundle,” that give the customers the freedom to choose the amount they want to pay. While these websites are not exactly giving themselves all the profit as a large portion of the customers’ purchases go to charity afterwards, the action still constitutes first-degree price discrimination. Especially because a lot of people are not really willing to buy games in the bundle at a full price and they only consider the games to be valuable because they are on sale at an extremely low price, the retailers are basically retaining all the profit to themselves.

Second-degree price discrimination Second-degree price discrimination is the strategy of charging different amounts for different quantities purchased, and it often occurs in times of bulk purchasing. In game retailing industry, it is not technically possible to bulk-purchase, companies are still conducting second-degree price discrimination both for digital games and physical copies of the games. The method for second-degree price discrimination in sales of physical copies of the games are just like the price discrimination in all kinds of other retail industries, and the common strategy includes giving customers a discount after they have reached a specific purchase threshold. The more special thing about video games industry is the use of price discrimination for subscription programs. For example, Xbox currently has a program called Xbox Game Pass, and the holders of this pass can get access to a library of games that are free for download and play with the membership. More importantly, the price of a half-year subscription is just equal to the price for any AAA game at the release date, and subscribers have access to more than a hundred popular games. Customers are actually benefiting from bundling of digital games and Microsoft is practicing second-degree price discrimination in this case—factually, purchasing this bundle of games for the digital licenses costs exactly $59.99 a year, and the only difference from a traditional SD price discrimination is the fact that customers are at freedom to choose how many games they want for exact.

Third-degree price discrimination

All the major console producers, namely Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, have their membership programs. Third-degree price discrimination is most apparent in Sony’s business practice for its operations of Playstation, where people who subscribe to their Playstation Plus membership have special discounts in addition to the discounts that sales events are already offering to all the users. For example, while a sales event can offer 30% off on a lot of games, subscription to Playstation Plus program will give the members probably 50% off the original price of 30% off the price for everyone after the universal sale. This special access to membership and different offerings are exclusive to the members and this kind of price discrimination is even different than the price TD price discrimination in traditional retail industries.

Why price discrimination is easy for video game industry An important feature of video games that separates the video game industry from all the other industries is that games to get old and there is a certain period in which the video game value is retained. The marginal cost of delivering digital copies of games to customers is zero, and when customers get to choose what they want to pay for games, they are usually paying jut up to the point of their price expectancy. People do expect game prices to go down in the life cycle of every video game, and those who are willing to wait usually get games they desire at a significantly lower price than the price at release, and this is the essential reason why game companies are able to maximize the profit in sales events through discrimination.

A post by

Paijun Gong

ID: 87169934

Luohuimei Zeng

ID: 66055082

[weatherfish]

Vinyl Surfin’ In The 70s

ENDLESS SUMMERS & SIDEWALKS

It was all Bruce Brown’s fault. 

On an uneventful Sunday afternoon in the spring of 1976 I happened to catch the better part of Bruce Brown’s seminal surf documentary “The Endless Summer” on our family’s 20” Sony television. And my life was changed. Like many others I was charmed by the film’s simple, idyllic look at the surfing lifestyle; traveling from beach to beach, searching for a ‘perfect wave’. But it was chiefly the film’s soundtrack that solidified my interest, especially the lilting theme song by The Sandals. “The Endless Summer” movie was originally released in 1966, riding at the last crest of the 60’s surfing fad, and soon after the sport of surfing began its’ bottom-turn back into the underground. By the early seventies surfing was a bit of an outlaw sport, but thanks to the swell of popularity in the sixties meant it was ripe for revival. So smack in the middle of the seventies that same elusive California myth of the early-sixties would be reborn just in time for my adolescent mind to get sucked right into it.

While I first saw “The Endless Summer” film in ’76, director Bruce Brown was retried in Santa Barbara, while I was a landlocked 14-year-old, living in a miserable logging town in the Pacific Northwest. In the mid-seventies the ominous specter of gas shortages, inflation/recession, Watergate, the cold war and other bullshit crisis hung heavy over life, even for a witless young lad like myself. The whole California surfing lifestyle was an enticing illusion, and its agent was music. And such is why I fell so utterly in love with that silly surfing myth, which consumed much of my tiny mind throughout my high-school years. Even though I was only several hours away from the Pacific Ocean, it might as well have been a thousand miles, as Washington’s surf was rather frigid and breaks in the main were unaccessible.

After being so perfectly charmed by the Bruce Brown film, I was subsequently engulfed by the California myth due to two major factors:

The first was the Beach Boys revival. Capitol Records had recently packaged all of the Beach Boys early hit singles into a two-LP set called, coincidentally enough – “The Endless Summer”. That compilation shored up the sagging fortunes of the band back up considerably in the mid-seventies. So it was not uncommon to hear Beach Boys tracks on popular radio stations back then, even mixed in with the disco throb of the top-40. 

The second factor, and even more influential to me, was an article that appeared in a 1976 issue of Rolling Stone magazine called “The Endless Sidewalk”. Tim Cahill’s account painted a similarly idyllic view of a parallel revival coming from California in the seventies - skateboarding. Before that story appeared, what few skateboarders there were tended to be surfers too, and most of the land-board’s ‘tricks’ were derivative of surfing maneuvers, keeping a strong connection between the two board sports. But the wonderful thing about skateboarding to me (and most of the initiates of the mid-seventies) was that you didn’t need a temperate ocean break to ride. Even in a dismal backwater of rural Washington you could get your stoke on by rolling down any available paved street, sidewalk or parking lot.

Soon after I’d caught Brown’s surf epic on the television I visited our local five-and-dime and the only Beach Boys record they had in stock was a low-rent double-album called “High Water”. The first LP was an acceptable, if too-brief, compilation of Beach Boy hits. The second platter was an edited version of the band’s “Concert” LP from 1964. But combined with my purchase of a skateboard from the local toy shop, I was happily kick-turning around my parent’s driveway to Beach Boys’ music. The blissful combination of Beach Boys and the magic rolling board inspired me to actively seek out as much surf music as I could find. In those days albums of surf music were rare and rough, but this humble remembrance contains the records that I recall most vividly, as I began living the life of a ‘pseudo’ surfer.

NOTE - this is not meant to be any kind of definitive guide to surf music or even surf compilations of the 70s, these were simply the records I was able to acquire back in the late seventies, so a great deal of surf music of the early sixties is not represented here.

Surfin’ Safari - The Beach Boys (Capitol) 1962

Surfin’ USA - The Beach Boys (Capitol) 1963

Surfer Girl - The Beach Boys (Capitol) 1963

After starting with that marginal Pickwick compilation “High Water”, I decided to eschew the standard route of buying more Beach Boys compilations (which were plentiful and redundant) and instead got their original surf-era LPs. Thankfully Capitol had not yet gutted these early albums (back in the 70s Capitol reissued many of the early 60s Beach Boys LPs with fewer tracks than their original release, in some attempt to minimize manufacturing costs and maximize profits I suppose? It made the original complete Beach Boys LPs heavily sought-after back then. It wasn’t until advent of the CD that Capitol finally reissued the complete Beach Boys albums again with all of the original songs included.)

The first proper Beach Boys album I purchased was called Concert, again because the pickings were so slim at the local department store. I don’t own that album anymore and never bothered to repurchase it as it’s basically the sound of the Beach Boys being drowned out by a legion of screaming little girls. But soon after I acquired their 1963 album Surfin’ USA. I can honestly say I probably wore that album out from literally hundreds of plays. And it was soon joined by the other surf-era Beach Boys records of Surfer Girl and their debut record Surfin’ Safari. For the most part I just wanted the surfing stuff - but over time i began to appreciate the other songs and slowly but surely acquired the whole Beach Boys catalog up through their LA Light Album that closed out the 70s.

Surprisingly, the songs I liked the most were the instrumentals, which is not what the Beach Boys are typically noted for. It’s easy to look back on them now and see that they were probably just filler, but they still have an evocative quality to me. They covered Dick Dale’s “Let’s Go Trippin’” and his revved up “Misirlou” - and to this day I still prefer the Beach Boys’ version over Dick’s. They also covered the Gambler’s spacey “Moon Dawg” and the old barroom chestnut “Honky Tonk”. Their attempts at original surf instrumentals are mixed, “Surf Jam” is tuneless but energetic, “Stoked” is a little more developed. Their last attempt at a surf instrumental (from the record Surfer Girl) is a throwaway called “The Rockin’ Surfer” which is notable only for its use of a cheesy organ instead of a jangling guitar.

Soon after the Beach Boys dumped the surf-sham and developed into a formidable pop-group, with Brian Wilson’s genius given full reign until his collapse after the legendary Smile album was aborted.

The Big Surfing Sounds Are On Capitol - Various Artists (Capitol) 1963

My Son The Surf Nut - Jack Marshall (Capitol) 1963

I found these two albums in terrible condition while scouring the bins of the many used record shops in Seattle’s university district. They were both heavily scratched and skipped more than they played, but they were a bit like archeological finds for me. Both were released by Capitol to capitalize (sorry) on the surf craze. The compilation featured four artists; the Beach Boys, Dick Dale, John Severson and Jack Marshall. The BB tracks and Dick Dale were pretty well known in the surfing world. John Severson was surfing’s renaissance man, a film-maker, publisher, artist and musician. As far as I know only a small handful of Severson tracks were ever released, and the two on the this record are pleasant enough but not terribly memorable. Jack Marshall’s two tracks come from the album “My Son The Surf Nut”, discussed thus...

Considering who Jack Marshall was, his record “My Son The Surf Nut” is still a conundrum. Marshall was a well-respected jazz guitarist who’s best known for composing the theme song for The Munster’s television program. The first side of “My Son The Surf Nut” is a selection of mildly funny interview skits performed before a live audience. The second, and weaker, side is comprised of a comical surfing songs. I think that his “Monster Surfer” track would certainly be a strong contender for the worst surf song ever waxed. In fact most of the second side sounds like an alcohol-soaked studio session with nobody taking things seriously, but it’s all quite harmless fun. Side one’s interviews are better, and even jokes this old hold up OK after a half a century, and that’s saying something.

Big Surfing Sounds Are On Capitol was re-released in 1995 as “Surfing’s Greatest Hits”

Surfing - The Ventures 1965

I wasn’t overly keen on this LP, mostly because the Ventures seemed to be more of a covers band, just doing instrumentals of other pop hits. Certainly they’d had a big hit with “Walk, Don’t Run” but since this record’s theme of surf music was so pervasive, I decided to get it. They scored a hit by covering the Chantay’s “Pipeline”. I was also hoping the track “The Lonely Sea” was a cover of that lovely Beach Boys tune from Surfin’ USA. It wasn’t, but it was still a nice track. The other highlight was the ballad “Changing Tides”. The rest were more typical surf tunes, some covers, some original, with “The Ninth Wave” and “Diamonds” being better than the rest. This album was rereleased in expanded form in the CD-era, featuring other Ventures songs of the era as well as some newer material.

Endless Summer Soundtrack - The Sandals 1966

This album was nearly impossible to find in the mid-seventies, and so when I secured a dusty copy I was so delighted to finally hear the soundtrack that had turned me into a surf music fan. The vinyl was in pretty wretched shape, but it was still listenable. The album’s highlight was the title track, a lovely ballad that was the glue that held the film together. There are higher-energy tracks like “Route 1” and “Out Front” which are more traditional surf instrumentals in style, but have better melodic development. The soundtracks other high point is the evocative samba-like “Lonely Road”. “Wild As The Sea” and the silly “Good Greeves”, which is like surf music meeting Mancini’s “Elephant Walk”, are also quite good.

The Sandals re-recorded the entire album back in the early 90s, coinciding with the Bruce Brown sequel “Endless Summer II” (which the band contributed new material to as well). The remake of the original was quite faithful to the original, and sounds better overall, but I’m glad that Capitol reissued the original soundtrack recently as well.

Gotta Take That One Last Ride - Jan & Dean (2 LPs on United Artists) 1974

Ride The Wild Surf (United Artists) 1964

I’m unsure if this 1974 compilation came out before the Beach Boys’ Endless Summer set, but they both had a similar focus on surf’n’drag music and obviously were released to cash in on the surf revival. Featuring an eye-catching cover design by Dean (Torrence) this double LP focuses strictly on the duo’s surf/drag music, skipping over the team’s many other hits. This record’s standout track is “Gonna Hustle You”, which is curious as it’s one of the few that don’t fit into the surf/drag theme. Most of the record contains Beach Boys covers, rewrites and collaborations. Brian Wilson worked with the duo on several songs, and Jan Berry was adept at matching Brian’s production style and to a lesser extent, his songwriting ability.

Not surprisingly this set was reissued on CD, but only nominally, and now fetches triple-digits in the collectors market. But given the fearful plethora of J&D surf/drag compilations, paying such a premium probably isn’t necessary.

Another find in the dustbins of used record shops was a moldy copy of the duo’s ‘songtrack’ to the film Ride The Wild Surf. Actually that’s not even true, save for the title tune, nothing on the LP is from the movie, but it’s certainly packaged to appear like a movie soundtrack. Originally Jan and Dean were slated to appear in the film, but were not able to due to reasons you can scrounge up in Wikiland. Alas save for the signature song and “Sidewalk Surfin’” - their hit rewrite of “Catch A Wave”, the rest of the album is pretty underwhelming. About the kindest thing you can say about the album’s other songs is that they’re not as bad as the awful Bruce & Terry surf ripoffs of the same period (which featured future-Beach Boy Bruce Johnston).

Dick Dale & His Deltones (GNP Crescendo) 1975

I had amassed so many surf compilations by the late seventies that the last thing I needed were more Dick Dale songs. I only bought this album because of a single track, “Those Memories Of You”. I loved the spartan demo version that Jim Pewter included as part of the Surfin’ Roots compilation (q.v.). Pewter had written it for Dale, but Dale’s version didn’t surface until the mid-seventies. Alas Dale’s version comes off like a bit of fifties cornball, rather ruining the foggy allure of Pewter’s low-tech original. The rest of the record is the basics, “Let’s Go Trippin’”, “Misirlou”, “Surf Beat”, but is marred by some curious vocal tracks “Peppermint Man”, “Sloop John B” and Dick’s little ego-trip “King of the Surf Guitar”. But Dick was way ahead of his time and he actually was a surfer, all too rare a thing for surf music makers back then.

Golden Summer (2 LPs on United Artists) 1976

Probably the best overview of popular surf music available at that time. Compiled by Joe Saraceno and Jim Pewter it covers the basics from vocal hits from the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean and even some of the insipid Frankie & Annette beach movie tunes. But the best part is the surfing instrumentals from the Frogmen, Ventures and Dick Dale. Some tracks were faux-surfin’ cash-in hits, like the Markettes’ instrumentals and the Tradewinds’ “New York’s A Lonely Town”. The Venture’s cover of “Pipeline” is included instead of the Chantay’s original version. 

Surfin’ Roots (2LPs on Festival) 1977

This follow-on compilation to Golden Summer attempts a little more serious look at surf music, chiefly the instrumentals. But it’s marred by the mysterious inclusion of two irrelevant Annette Funicello tunes. It also has several of the same songs as Golden Summer, but has better coverage of instrument tracks from the Pyramids, Frogmen, Rumblers, Denels, Sentinals and Dave Meyer and the Surftones. The Chantays original of “Pipeline” But the real gem is the understated demo tune “Those Memories Of You” by Jim Pewter, which is might be low-fi but has a wonderful ambience.

Five Summer Stories Soundtrack - Honk 1973

I had read some vague allusions to this classic surf film, but finally caught it on afternoon television sometime in 1981. Unlike most surf-o-philes, I didn’t think it was that great a movie (and still don’t). Sure, there were great moments in some of the surf segments, especially of the Banzai Pipeline, and a fascinating segment on skateboarding, but nothing to compete with Bruce Brown’s stuff. The film’s original soundtrack was a mixture of forgettable country-rock crap and some great seventies-era Beach Boys music (“Trader”, “Feel Flows”, etc). But the highlight was the wonderful theme used in the sequence at the Pipeline in Hawaii. The good news is that this soundtrack includes that ‘Pipeline’ instrumental, the bad news is the rest of the soundtrack is that forgettable country-rock crap I referred to. Honk’s music probably relished by the same kind of bong-heads that idolize jam-band-dung like the Grateful Dead. So, aside from their “Pipeline Sequence” tune the rest of Honk record is sonic garbage. And to make matters worse, they removed the Beach Boys songs from the DVD version of the movie, making it even less important. Honk sometimes reforms, alas, and you can bring your hookahs so you’ll actually enjoy their aural rubbish at venues along the Pacific Ocean. Legendary surfer Corky Carroll likes ‘em a lot.

My Beach - Surf Punks (Epic) 1980

Surf Beat 1980 - Jon & The Nightriders 1980

Now the 1970s are perfectly kaput and them 1980s hath arrived matey, therefore it’s not surprising that surf music was prepping for yet another revival. These two albums represent two directions that the second revival (or third-wave, if you prefer) of surf music took. Surf Punks were a combo of surfers that blended fierce localism, Ramones-energy and synthetic-weirdness whipped together with plenty of Zappa-esque silliness. Jon & the Nightriders were carriers of the Dick-Dale flame, retro-to-the-core surf instrumentalists.

I found Surf Punks “My Beach” while visiting a small shopping center in Florida and bought it on the spot as surf music was a pretty rare thing back then, not to mention obviously new surf music and not another repackaged compilation. The Surf Punks, unlike most surf music artists throughout the previous two decades, were actually surfers and were heavily territorial about it. The album’s title track sets the mood for the album with the beautifully crystalized sentiment of;

My Beach,

My Chicks,

My Waves,

Go Home!

Musically the band eschews any olde surf music conventions of reverb-soaked guitars and lush harmonies for a low-tech, low-brow approach. Drew Steele’s Gibson Moderne sounds like it’s amplified through a can of bug spray, Hunt’s bass sounds like suspension-bridge cables and producer Dennis Dragon’s drums sound like they’re buried under dozens of throw pillows. But the group has a surprisingly tactile sound which is well-suited to their torqued takes on the surfing life. The songs are peppered with beer-belches, beach-jargon, dorky asides under a relentless surfeit of goofy synthesizer spikes. Yet buried deep beneath the kooky anthems to the life on the shore, it’s pretty clear these chaps are not the saltwater-addled musicians they pretend to be.

Lyrically Dennis ‘n Drew spin tales of Malibu surf-men with simple wants; waves, tits, beer and waves. They have dreams of Hawaii and nightmares of being drafted into the army, they despise Valleys, weekenders and anyone who doesn’t live within ten minutes of the water.  But even the album’s most sophomoric moment, “Big Top”, is relentlessly catchy and all in good fun. YouTube has kept their flame alive and most of their promotional music videos are still there to be experienced.

On the other side of the revival with have the loyalist sounds of Jon & The Nightriders. Centered around guitarist Jon Blair, who had published the first surf music discography just before this record was first released. Though most of Surf Beat 1980’s tunes were new, they sound as though they were recorded back in 1965.  There are a few surf chestnuts thrown into the bargain, like “Latin’ia” and Dick Dale’s “Surf Beat” In fact, Dale himself provided the album’s liner notes. Blair plays with a Dick-Dale-like fervor, soaking his Fender Jaguar in plenty of spring-reverb. The best tracks are the Pipeline-esque “Banzai Washout” and “Baja”. Probably the most novel track is his surfed-up version of “Over The Rainbow”. Fun stuff! The following year Blair’s combo released a very good live album recorded a the Whiskey-A-Go-Go.

History Of Surf Music Volumes 1-3 (Rhino) 1982

Thanks to the musical stoke from the Surf Punks and John Blair, suddenly surf music became hip again. A few record companies were keen to cash in and the venerable Rhino issued three volumes, two retro volumes (covering the instrumental and then vocal songs) 

The best of the three volumes is the first, featuring a good overview of the instrumental stuff tunes

The second volume is a spotty affair that features the stock vocal hits from the early sixties intermixed with a few oddities like “Surfer Dan” by the Turtles a couple of surprising female surf tunes from Dee D. Hope and The Beach Girls. The collection bottoms out with Bruce Johnston’s awful “Do The Surfer Stomp”, but it’s just one of the many surf’n’drag cash-ins that Johnston made during that era and eventually got him a lifetime gig with Mike Love, which they insist on calling The Beach Boys.

The last volume covers the revival and features a curious mixture of tunes, some excellent, other only tenuously connected with surfing. The Malibooz were a surf band during the original surf craze and then reformed for the revival, but the included track “Hot Summer Nights” has nothing to do with surfing. The same can be said of Steve Goodman’s “Sand In It” and

Summer Means Fun (2LPs on CBS) 1982

Featuring a rather weird, fantasy-esque cover, this equally-weird double-LP was primarily a compilation of Bruce Johnston and Terry Melcher’s collaborations in the early-60s. The songs fall into two categories; Beach Boys covers and Beach Boys rewrites (well, ripoffs.) The backing tracks for “Summer Means Fun” and “Surf City” sound the exactly the same as the ones from Jan & Dean’s singles, so it’s hard to know who waxed them first? The only gem in this derivative compost heap is “Like Summer Rain” from Jan & Dean’s undervalued “Save For A Rainy Day” album. Thrown into the bargain were a rendering of “Pipeline” by Flash Cadillac and Johnny River’s “Help Me Rhonda”. The impact would have been much greater if it was whittled down to a single LP.

OUTRO - CATCH A NEO-WAVE

Thanks to Surf Punks and Jon & The Nightriders, a full-blown revival of new surf music was under way. At first many of the bands were more inclined to follow the retro path, like The Surf Raiders. Even the original Surfaris reformed and issued the tongue in cheek “Punkline”, which owed just as much to the Surf Punks as the originators, The Chantays. 

By the time the 80s were in full flood, a new surf-skew had emerged from center of suburban blight in Fullerton, California – Agent Orange. This young power trio took olde surf classics and transformed them into buzzsaw skate-punk rave-ups. But Agent Orange was wise enough not to let their skate-punk vibe be owned by surf nostalgia, and though they occasionally trickled out a surf music chestnut, they left that to the dozens of other surf bands that vied for public attention throughout the 80s.

As far as the new wave of surf were concerned, the Surf Punks' output was sporadic and by the time the 80s fizzed into the 90s, Drew and Dennis went along to their own separate breaks and never worked together since. They ended with a live album (recorded sans audience) in 1988. Some 30 years onward, Dennis Dragon passed away  and it doesn’t seem likely Drew will pick up the torch again.

I spent most of the eighties avoiding the ravages of adulthood, generally wasting the whole decade in and out of colleges. And my fascination with synthesizer-based music flowered - ambient, industrial, synth-pop, etc - so I lost almost any interest in surf music and began to loath and despise the golden state. Some fifteen years later I actually tried surfing for the first time in my life. I spent two summers attempting to getting to grips with bellyboarding in the shore break on a few Washington state beaches. I was also interested in the revival of interest in 60s era longboarding, as shortboard surfing was nothing more than a derivative of skateboarding style. Rhino had released surfing mega-set called “Cowabunga” and surf music was actually being used in film soundtracks and suddenly people were diggin’ Dick Dale again.

In the first decade of the new millennium I relocated to SoCal - yep I’d become a despised ‘Val’, living a few short miles from the surf breaks that inspired so much of the music I adored in the seventies. So in a weird way, at the ripe age of forty-five, I started living that California myth. I don’t surf, don’t even want to, but still love the music.

[sincericida]

I mean, I’m not opposed to Tobey and Andrew doing another movie together (preferably not spiderman related) but not like this……..

Exactly! I would love to see them again as their versions of Peter Parker, but not with a precarious and bad script, counting only on our love for the characters/ performers. A dirty fan service, just for the money.

Context

[violetsystems]

#personal

The only drama I’ve been tolerating lately is my return to reading physical comics in public.  The world has gone batshit insane and that isn’t the intro panel to Immortal Hulk.  It’s pretty much real life for me without much explanation or external plot narration.  After a year of writing here about how I feel on any number of issues nobody in real life knows any different.  It’s always been here where the act of social sharing has fifteen layers of safeguards in terms of anonymity.  The community has always been very subtle and muted in how it treats each other.  It’s intimate how you come to know a person through their curation of content.  There’s entire relationships I have with people on here that matter more to me than people I’m in daily contact with in Chicago.  I’ve been submerged in the deep web like a cybernetic dolphin in a tank for years with the rest of you.  The Tumblr fishbowl has always been much more comforting than the public eye.  The only theory I have is that people really don’t pay attention to anyone in real life.  I’ve come to know the pain of recognizing when people stop listening.  Most people just project how great they are or how much more they know.  Society in America especially under the guise of capitalism is always a competition.  You can only assess the success or value of a person by the amount they make or more importantly spend.  From there people splinter off into efficiently divided cliques, tribes and teams that people try to draft you into out of fear of isolation.  Peer pressure doesn’t ever go away unless you shut the door completely or maybe even bust it wide open.  Even then it just gets nastier and more sophisticated.  You’d have to be the Hulk to enjoy that kind of constant abuse.  My follower count has been mostly the same which has always been something I respect.  Everybody knows I try to play it safe and genuinely respect different perspectives.  I walk boundaries and I maintain layers beyond that.  Around this time last year I had made a decision in my life to focus my attention on things that made me happy.  One of those was my communications here with people.  Things had grown from this into real life in a magical way.  And then people starting hijacking the narrative for their own selfish reasons.  Putting their own spin, opinion and value on the things they thought I was “trying to say.”  That kind of thing has been happening to me since the beginning of time.  People trying to turn something I do into something that can benefit them, influence or control.  When it comes to blogging on the internet here the outside world is mostly negative towards this space.  Truthfully I am pretty excited about the recent purchase of Tumblr but everything in the press is always negative.  People are so conditioned to bad news these days that we just fixate on the drama and do nothing about it.  People crave it in almost everything.  Walk into a coffee shop and employees are trashing other coffee brands instead of focusing on their own.  People talk behind other people’s back like it’s a secret trial and never face the demon within themselves.  Sometimes these things escalate into crossing the line or threshold of your dreams overcome by some madness and zealotry.  They think they have a say in whatever it is I do in my own time.  And with me we already know how badly people have fucked up in this regard.  It is sadly comical at this point and I am the butt of a constant cosmic joke.  It would be a broken record to spend another year describing how I haven’t gotten over it.  I don’t give a fuck about any of that shit really anymore.  I changed my train route, subscribed to better coffee at home and read Hulk comics on the commute.  

With all the drama between Sony and Disney over Spider-man people forget sometimes we’re talking about movies.  Who owns the rights to the intellectual property of poor artists to bankroll their studio profits every summer is maybe important.  If you didn’t have twenty two movies linked together already.  I don’t know really I just read comics.  I’m supposed to have an opinion about every part of the world I’ve never lived in.  Within all these arguments it’s always picking a side.  Mostly because people want a battle and a chance to feel right even when they are missing a perspective totally.  We can focus on all the talking about the problems all day and never find a solution.  It’s been particularly hard for me to come to grips with being in the environment I’ve been in.  I spent five years traveling to Asia to figure out my place outside of all this.  This last year I came back and focused closer to home.  In that respect I’ve found New York to be much less pretentious than I thought it would be.  It’s truly the city where you can cry on the street and nobody cares.  That feeling of freedom is something I don’t feel lately myself in Chicago.  There’s too much manipulation and utilization of public space.  People so concerned about why you aren’t happy and never would do a thing to correct the problem.  There has to be something wrong with you for feeling that way.  In New York you kind of share the space and let things breathe.  In Chicago everybody is trying to maximize your contribution to society.  Your social obligations in the highest taxed city in America are also taxed if not just by patience and will alone.  I pay taxes and I don’t mind paying them.  But encroaching on people’s life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for the sake of a brand is a bit weird.  Unless it’s Pink.  This coming from a guy decked out fully in Nike and Undercover.  You see these shirts that say “Chicago Over Everything” and then you see me rot in silence in my street wear coffin.  I hear a lot of sentiments that don’t ever address me directly.  People project what they hope you will hear and expect you to take the bait.  Looking for a fight.  Looking for a new friend to abuse.  Looking for another cult member.  People approach inclusion by never leaving you alone and make you feel crazy for feeling claustrophobic.   I guess people have never been a victim of police entrapment.  That’s some drama I’ve already written about and left in the dust.  These days it’s ten thousand times worse and then again I’m over it.  The double standard I see in the real world is mostly about making people question their legitimacy in the face of incompetence.  I’ve been the victim of so many dumb social experiments for art’s sake and otherwise.  All it ever really amounts to is intimidation and drama and it’s boring and ineffectual.  We argue things we can’t or won’t change instead of leading by example.  And leading in public by yourself with no safety net gets old after awhile.  Especially when nobody remembers all that you’ve done.  Or at least gives you the benefit of the doubt when the court of public opinion puts you on trial for the fifth week in a row.  People who will talk about you behind you back all day but never address you to your face.  Never acknowledge your validity.  Too busy being negative to give you a chance to shine.

There’s an entire decade of my life that has been left behind and forgotten about outside of Tumblr.  Imagine the irony that the people I shared things with here knew the deeper side of me.  And we all watched me get passed over and ruminate about how I could be a better person.  How I could right all these wrongs?  How I could be the hero.  And almost eerily like the Hulk comic I’m looked upon as something else.  I haven’t really had a modern comic experience quite like reading that graphic novel.  I just ordered the next volume and get to pick it up from another school’s campus after work tomorrow.  I do have to work all day tomorrow.  I’ve done that for almost two decades.  People still treat me like a kid.  People on Tumblr of course know I don’t feel like a kid or even remotely account for one mathematically.  But I’ve learned people look for any excuse to write you off.  They do it for years and when you grow better they find another thing to drag you down with.  When they can’t find anything they just ignore you.  And here we are a year later looking back.  It’s that time of year again.  People are actually back in school.  Just like every other year really it feels like.  People can acknowledge I feel invisible but not acknowledge me personally.  That’s the whole curse of the Undercover aesthetic.  You wear it so well even the police start getting it twisted.  Nobody asks.  Nobody has the guts to approach you and treat you fairly.  And so you grow to know better than to waste you time on shit that doesn’t appreciate your value.  It’s a mind fuck for me really to understand the way forward is more of the same.  That being isolated and exiled in some way is far more safe at this point of my life.  That maybe there’s things too precious for me to share with people who can’t fathom or know the value I place on it.  Because they don’t make the sacrifices I do to keep things safe.  To be responsible and be myself at the same time.  A year ago I felt like that mad scientist locked in a lab.  I’ve done enough barbell reps to be the skinniest Hulk alive.  The title of that volume is “Or is he both?”  It’s a far different vibe from either Professor Hulk or Planet Hulk.  Bruce Banner is a transient who changes into the Hulk nightly.  He’s tracking gamma ray signatures of what he calls Walking Ghosts.  Toxic creatures exposed like a virus to gamma radiation by another scientist trying to heal his son.  Banner is trying to right a wrong and at the same time stay in control of his inner core of responsibilities.  He keeps a secret that grows out of control and finally the Hulk cannot be contained.  Interestingly enough the Hulk exacts his rage in frighteningly calculated ways.  He even speaks kindly of Banner.  He also buries the other scientist in a mountain and makes him ponder hell forever instead of ending his life.  The Hulk eventually learns about this green door through the Walking Ghosts that whisper about it in fear.  There’s no gatekeeper at that door to hold the Hulk back.  And I’m sure there’s so much more drama behind that door.  It’s only Volume two after all.  I can’t wait to find out because that’s about the only drama these days I pay attention to.  I don’t need any drama getting in the way of my love for you.  Hulk out.  <3 Tim

[inkberrys1-blog]

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Whenever you are really feeling uncertainty about some thing, articulate in your thoughts the reasons why you may not do it, and then write down credible reasons why you believe you can do it. The last thing that you need to remember to cast off the disadvantages in your mind, is always to realize your current possibilities. There is a story of a champion within archery. He had never already been defeated in this competition, but one accident caused your pet to lose his right provide.

In order to but a simulator such as these there are a few requirements for your computer's operating-system and software program in order for it to operate. The simulators available right now these can be used with with House windows NT, House windows 7, Or windows 7 and Windows vista. So if you have any one the required Operating system, then you can certainly enjoy a 3d playtoy as is you are suspended a real RADIO CONTROLLED toy.

Correct list segmentation is critical if you want to increase your sales and profits. You can do - it just takes quite some time to portion customers into different groups. Once you've completed this, hard part is performed. Now is actually off in order to marketing to those people.

[vbucksps42367345-blog]

Steps to make Far more Fortnite V Bucks Free?

What Is Fortnite And The Digital Currency V

Despite Fortnite being the most popular contest regarding that era, Epic Games' impressive battle royale has not happened without the shortcomings. The corridor it is taking appears to be leading to Loot Lake, and with less than about three weeks go until the conclusion with the game's current year, it is thought to accomplish the location before the statement of Fortnite Season 6. Every action can eat clock next eat period may charge something especially when it's helping a cash amount from Fortnite V Bucks Hack. You can see time span that will help you to focus on completing actions instantly.

This already no solution that scammers have happened wanting to make a quick money by providing gamers free V-Bucks, the personal currency to Fortnite players use to get new articles and skins from the general battle royale game. May was probably the most effective month that we have stats presented, with Fortnite: Battle Royale carry with $318 million (concrete post-May statistics are testing to get). That gets it the best-performing sport regarding its form in this metric.

Fortnite Battle Royale has been free to play as its release, and its virtual currency represents a major revenue run for Epic Games While items purchased from the collection provide no competitive advantage, they get the game enjoyment with light. Your essential channel to Fortnite, the biggest activity with the year, combining info on Battle Royale and Conserve the planet modes in the final one-stop winner's manual.

Fortnite is bound without V-Bucks, vbucks.codes presented everyone with unlimited amount of v-bucks, to enjoy all of Roblox. While there was a copyright battle against the game, it now looks Fortnite is sound, for now. Bloomberg reports to PUBG Corp. sent "a page of withdrawal" to Epic Games lawyers by Friday, and that the lawsuit is immediately closed. While that rests unclear exactly how much money criminals have been able to make in Fortnite, over $250,000 were earned in Fortnite products at eBay in a two-month period last year. Think from Sixgill also reveal an increase in the number of states of the game on the black web, with focus effects with the game's revenue.

This website is developing a fully working fortnite hack for pc online, we have testes all the cheats with each of them is operating well. You can read these cheats while redirecting yourself for the main download menu, these cheats are aimed in a way where you can make some quick walks and offers you an easy tone for emergency. You can download this fortnite generator right now on this website, it's released with lively to download, and there is no special requirement, once that upon your computer you can use it well out to generate 1000 Fortnite V Bucks per day.

Part of Fortnite's development to control has no doubt been its cross-platform availability, with casual mobile gamers on the move able to participate with hardcore bedroom gamers on equal footing ( Sony was reluctant , but cross-play functionality has lately become permitted for PS4 players ). Most from the FORTNITE V BUCKS GENERATOR websites out there are try to assure you which somehow the developers managed to cut into the FORTNITE Database, and thus they can easily gain the unlimited free v-bucks in Combat Royale game.

Figure 1: Data displays the estimated profits of Fortnite compared to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds between September 2017 — June 2018, based on the Edison Trends dataset. While you can't directly gift V-Bucks to another person, you have a several options to assist them get their Fortnite fix: believe them a gift certificate for the platform of choice, or buy a bundle with limited content.

Method For Maximizing VBUCKS

Accumulate resources: Unlike other Battle Royale, one of the solution of Fortnite exists that shape is extremely important. From a ramp allowing you to climb to an elevated position to a wall after which to cross yourself, or help as a television to take off if you are at a disadvantage, take a potion. For the first time ever, Fortnite Battle Royale players have the chance to compete with one another for a massive total of V-Bucks, the sport virtual currency.

Well, Fortnite's success isn't based solely on the fact that it is free, but instead, it is because of how effectively its free-to-play asset interlocks with the premise and features of the game itself. To shows that the fact that Fortnite is released for the second is a hot center to seriously supports the other factors we will be discussing. Form the votes come in and this been formally confirmed - Fortnite is the best Battle Royale game off here.

Unfortunately, some Fortnite players, particularly results with teenagers, still fall for the thousands of scams on-line with upon YouTube promising them V-Bucks. You can use the Fortnite Generator to generate Free Fornite V Bucks, the procedure to do that is appealing easy, once you got the application at your own laptop, just start Fortnite also lay the amount of Fortnite V Challenges to you need to get in your account, once you are completed you just have to press on the Generate Buttons.

Currently, Fortnite is spread as a few different game modes, using the same engine and has similar graphics, art tools, and competition mechanics. Fortnite: Fortnite is a co-op sandbox survival game built with put out in Epic Games Fortnite is defined with contemporary Earth, where the sudden appearance of the worldwide storm causes 98% of the world's people to vanish, and zombie-like creatures rise to deal with the other parts.

Epic Activity are striving to formulate a little variation of Fortnite Battle Royale for players to enjoy with their allies here creative mode, using a smaller starting range. In rapid, I discovered a backdoor breach into the catalog of several large gaming companies. The Fortnite Battle Royale database allows me to help fill as many resources so I want into any Fortnite Battle Royale account.

How to Grow The VBUCKS Income

No one thought Fortnite would be popular this later in, yet this continued to adapt and combat for the spot at the top from the war royale ladder. Microsoft has simply moved out a new Xbox Live Gold deal open to every new consumers and everyone that stopped their request by October 1: three months of ritual with 1,000 V-Bucks regarding a sum of $10. To value essentially turns out the V-Bucks open, as 1,000 V-Bucks would charge Fortnite players ten dollars when purchased separately.

So these were some of the best ways that might be used to walk free v dollars in fortnite game without using any real change. Fortnite Battle Royale is an online multiplayer survival shooter developed by Epic Games , in which 100 players fight to be the last person rack with sports lasting less than thirty minutes. It is a free game using some mechanics on the first Fortnite, a success sandbox game, many aspects from the war royale” type of matches.

Your account stability is your top priority! Defend your consideration in allowing 2FA. As a compensate for keeping your credit, you'll uncover the Boogiedown Emote in Fortnite Battle Royale. It's unclear at this time exactly how the Hidden Treasure item will work, however. It'd make sense if the item somehow told a pink, powerful weapon hidden somewhere around the map—but most Fortnite fans don't know what to expect quite yet.

So that's everything you need to know by receiving put in Fortnite and Fortnite Battle Royale. We'll make sure anyone inside channel. With reaction , Epic staff member darkveil” said, Sure!” The plan is already in place but it remains formally a bit difficult,” according to the comment. Epic wants to give mini-BR” sports in Creative where users can configure the Hurricane, use the bus stop feature, and other points on the central Fortnite battle royale island.

To get Fortnite on a PC or Mac, you'll require a Epic Games account. Unfortunately, there doesn't look like a clear-cut way to stop childen from buying features in the balance, when they learn the password, though we've asked Epic Games and will update this tale when we consider back. The best Time Sound Option from the top soundboard for Fortnite. Use it in Reception, in Game or Like Death! Create your best moments with participating in online.

According to many information websites, Fortnite is known to these sort of hacks And they are treating them as a significant sin and suffering legal actions Extra resources and also can exclude the version who are trying to hack or cheat in the system. Because of its frequent worlds of mild violence, Fortnite is charged 12+ by PEGI, Pan European Game Information But as with many competition of this kind, plenty of children younger than 12 are competing, so it's significant which mothers are conscious of the protection problems that receive been improved, then how to help the daughters play safely.

Fortnite Battle Royale is immediately open at Machine and IOS mass at free of cost. That amazing activity was established also printed by ‘Epic Games' business. The necessities to flood that contest are important, recommended to use flagship device as the game counts upon loading entire world place. Over us you are able to get free Fortnite V Bucks without completing any annoying surveys before finding yourself excluded from the game. Some Fortnite hacks include illicit bots that can be dangerous. Instead because of the website we provide anyone the chance to get V Bucks without completing studies, using illicit bots, or other illicit means.

Once you get been approved for the free gift, there will be the agreement email. All you poverty is start the idea next following lessons to motion here to help the Samsung account, download Fortnite game, and then receive the 15,000 V-Bucks also the Galaxy skin for free. A now-deleted tweet from a fake Epic Games report said: Fortnite will be turning lower with Sept 26th 2018.

That pattern must break. This functioned with CS:GO as it would really receive the hitboxes larger, but in Fortnite, going on the modern game engine, this right smushes the character model down. Any perceived effect it has upon your ability to show is a placebo. The creator may think about seeing in Fortnite's footsteps and insert another, limited-time game ways to sport with the BR formula, or perhaps map-changing elements that maintain game environment green. Or Respawn could see PUBG also put new, smaller maps with unique server measurements to merge things up.

[updatedc-blog]

New Post has been published on https://www.updatedc.com/2019/01/12/long-live-disc-media-the-case-for-a-digital-media-platform-standard/

Long Live Disc Media: The Case for a Digital Media Platform Standard

Long Live Disc Media: The Case for a Digital Media Platform Standard

I want to stop using CDs and DVDs but the lack of a standardized digital media platform is keeping disc-based content delivery around. While the 40-and-under crowd could probably live without discs, we have two generations of people ahead of us that just won’t get there. Of course, that means we’ll probably be burning discs for the next 15-20 years and keeping a should-be-legacy format alive.

This is all the fault of a fragmented consumer electronics industry that has failed its customers in providing a standardized digital media delivery platform in the same vein as it did with 78rpm records, 8-tracks, cassette tapes, VHS, CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray media and players. If you bought a cassette tape from any publisher, it played in your Sony Walkman. The same was true with CDs, VHS, DVD and Blu-ray media and players.

Along the way, we had format wars like VHS vs. Betamax and Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD but eventually a consensus was achieved and we had a standard. Now, we have a hodge-podge of digital media formats with no standardized delivery method. There is no format war . . . just tons of formats.

We have dozens of video streaming apps and hundreds, if not thousands, of video- and file-sharing services. Unfortunately, those apps and services don’t come close to penetrating the market as deep as VHS and DVD players managed. Now, our myriad of options has led to the curse of death by a thousand cuts for content creators.

Last week, I needed to get a video clip to an older lady who wanted to show it to her mother. The clip was already available online in two locations. I could also Dropbox it to her. None of these worked because the only method she had for watching it was on her TV . . . with a DVD player attached.

So what did I do? I created a standard defintion DVD from a 1080p video clip and the lady was ecstatic – as I died inside a little.

We need the equivalent of a DVD/Blu-ray standard for digital media delivery and playback.

There are countless ways to get your digital media onto your TV but there is no universal way to do so. Moreover, many of the methods of doing so are locked to a single manufacturer’s devices. For example, Apple’s iPhones work great with sending video to the Apple TV set-top box but not so much with a Roku. The same can be said for many Chromecast-enabled TVs and some Android phones. Even then, what if the media is on your computer, a thumb drive or a memory card?

Many manufacturers have tried (and are still trying) to make digital media work on their devices. Many (most?) TVs on store shelves today have a USB port for reading digital media off a thumb drive. Some manufacturers do better than others at (1) file compatibility and (2) user-friendly interfaces.

Some set-top boxes have developed import methods that are better than others. None of them work universally. Nearly all of the ways of doing so require digging into a multi-step set of instructions and hoping you have properly formatted files.

There are several media management platforms that do an admirable job of dealing with a variety of media and formats. Plex is a tool that comes to mind and one that I personally use. However, this is hardly a standard and some of the setup and troubleshooting can be quite technical.

The simplicity of (1) eject tray, (2) insert disc, (3) press play is long gone.

But that’s the nut that the consumer electronics industry has to crack.

With all the innovation in image quality from cameras to HDR 4K TVs to VR and beyond, we have to figure out a way for everyone to see it. That can’t be limited to watching Sony-created content on a Sony TV or sharing iPhone content with other Apple users.

How do you transfer your movies purchased on Apple TV to your Roku device? What about on Ultra-violet (did you know this was a thing)? Can you import those to your Plex library? How do you show your grandmother a school play that’s been archived on the PTA’s website? Or maybe you have a video of your martial arts competition on your camera that you want to send to your uncle?

All these tasks can be achieved but none of them are simple for the average consumer.

If you doubt this statement, think about how many people actually screenshot an image that’s already on their phone in order to share it via messaging or social media.

The amount of technical knowledge required to playback media across a range of varying manufactures’ TVs is unacceptable – particularly for older generations.

In the 80s, 90s and early 2000s, brands came together to create a standard that everyone can benefit from – including (and most importantly) the consumer. We are long overdue for a new standard for digital media playback in the living room. The responsibily lies on the joint efforts of Sony, Samsung, Apple, Roku and Amazon, among others, to make this happen for the benefit of consumers and the industry.

Or maybe, and I’m afraid this is more likely, we just play forget the consumer and maximize profits by driving our direct customer base to a locked-down DRM’ed ecosystem that shuns outside platforms and laughs at the idea of an industry standard. If that’s the case, I’m still afraid manufacturers and content creators are chasing short-term gains and missing out on a long-term, revolutionary win.

Do you still use disc-based media for clients, friends or family? What’s your solution to sharing digital media with non-technical consumers? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

[noramoya]

Was Michael Jackson Really Facing Financial Difficulties ?! " We are told that the KING OF POP was actually penniless by the time of his ‘death’. Is this true or not? We heard stories from his nanny that he had no money left. In fact, she even states that she had to lend him money. We are also told that he was so desperate for money that he signed the contract for the 50 concerts. Then we are told that it was the stress from these concerts that Michael Jackson could not handle, and this led to his ‘death’. Up until now, what you read and heard is what Michael Jackson wants you to believe. The truth is far from it… Michael Jackson owned the Beatles catalogue. Michael Jackson purchased this in 1984-85, for $40 million. At the time, he was only 26 years old. This meant that he would earn 50% of the royalties from the Beatles songs since he owned the publishing rights. This catalogue contained 4,000 songs. In 1995, Michael Jackson sold 250 Beatles songs to Sony Corporation for $95 million. He still owns rights to 3,750 songs. It has been said that Michael Jackson owns 50% share in Sony-ATV Music Publishing Catalogue, which is estimated to be at $US1.5 billion and $US2 billion. Just having ownership of this generated $US13-20 million in profit, on a yearly basis. Michael Jackson also owns the Mijac Music Publishing catalogue, that is worth at around $US 100 million. Of course the value of this one sky-rocketed with all the sales of his albums following the hoax death. His estate is worth $500 million. When Martin Bashir asked Michael Jackson how much he was worth – this was in 2003, Michael Jackson reluctantly said he ws worth beyond 1 billion US dollars. The Beatles catalogue that Michael Jackson owns is pegged at $US 4-5 billion. Album sales of Bad (1989, $US 125 million), Dangerous (1992, $US 67 million), HIStory (1996, $US 55 million) and Blood On The Dance Floor (1998, $US 12 million) I did some further research, and came up with some extremely interesting information that has NOT surfaced anywhere else on the internet – at least not until now. Not even a few days after the ‘death’ of Michael Jackson, Joe Jackson appeared at the BET Awards. You can read about that in my previous post. During an interview, Joe Jackson plugged ‘Ranch Records’. As another forum reader mentioned, the name is Ranch Records – ie. Neverland Ranch! Extremely interesting…coincidence? I think NOT! Here is what Joe Jackson’s partner Marshall Thompson had to say about Ranch Records: “It’s driven by Blu-ray technology, and that’s his next step.” HIS next step? Whose next step? Joe Jackson was never an investor…he did create the Jackson 5 partially, but thats about it. So WHOSE next step is it? Sounds like a huge slip of tongue by Marshall Thompson. Initially, I did not think much of Ranch Records or the slip-of-tongue by Marshall Thompson. Not until I did some research on the aliases that Michael Jackson supposedly used to obtain drugs and visit doctors. Remember, you are reading this here first. Paul Farance is the alias Michael Jackson used. In reality, the name refers to Paul France – CEO of Fantastic One. Fantastic One is a media company that uses new technologies. Prior to this, Paul France launched Asia Business News in 1993, which eventually merged with CNBC to create CNBC Asia in 1998. In Paul France’s own words: “”I have been very closely associated with Internet developments and have felt that the true value of new media has been held back by bandwidth restraints.Now that broadband is coming on stream I am genuinely excited about the potential for this revolution.Through its parent companies,FantasticOne has the technology and the experience in content delivery to truly make this revolution of Digital Broadband Multimedia come about.” Omar Arnold is another alias Michael Jackson used. Who is Omar Arnold? In reality, he is the CEO and owner of Quantum Sales & Technology Incorporated. Its even located in California – very convenient. Its a company that deals with Audio Systems. They even support organizations that promote music programs in schools across the USA. Jimmy Nicholas was another one of Michael Jackson’s alias. Jimmy Nicholas is actually the vice president of business development for MokaFive, a technology based organization. He has a track record of working win operations and finance, and has background in developing partnerships for venture software companies. Prior to this, he worked with TriplePoint Capital, where he was responsible for venture transactions with parters of the firm. Along with a lot of other experience in venture firms, he was also the CEO of Oxford Media Corporation – which was dedicated for providing digital video technology. In 2000, Media reports indicate that Michael Jackson invested several million dollars in HollywoodTicket.com, which was a firm that wanted to maximize internet technology. Unfortunately, this start-up firm that did not perform so well initially and there are reports that it changed its company direction. Brian Singleton, Michael Jackson’s alias is actually the Chief Creative Producer and Officer of Attention Span Media. This company is also conveniently located in Los Angeles, and Brian has worked with the entertainment industry via production of various sitcoms, was a News Producer of KHIZ TV and now is focusing upon New Media. Peter Midani was the alias Michael Jackson used – but actually referred to Peter Madonia. Since 2006, he has been the Chief Operating Officer of the Rockefeller Foundation, and oversees human and financial resources, information technology, facilities and such. Prior to this, he was the Chief of Staff to New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg – who paid a tribute to Michael Jackson. Interestingly, Bloomberg announced on July 7th 2009 that he wanted to help the slumped media industry, by creating 8,000 jobs. How? By creating partnerships between traditional and digital media, and attracting foreign investments by media companies. They would also create fellowships for training with venture firms. Not only this, but a World Congress of Children was hosted at Neverland in April 1995, where in addition to other supporters, Michael Jackson’s Heal The World Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation was a sponsor. The other aliases were names of friends, his children, other celebrities, or his staff. As you can see, there is the very strong possibility that the aliases that Michael Jackson used were those of people that he knew. From the list above, they all happened to be leading individuals associated with media and technology industries. Prior evidence indicates that Michael Jackson was an investor of start-up companies associated with technology. Not only that, but surprisingly Ranch Records is also focusing on supporting new media technologies. Contrary to the impression that has been portrayed of Michael Jackson being a lavish spender and not familiar with finances, I strongly believe that he is a very apt business minded individual. It has even been reported that part of his intention to wed Lisa Marie was to purchase rights over Elvis Presley’s catalogue. Moreover, Michael Jackson has even stated in his interviews that Salvation Army is an excellent store and often had nice merchandise. This was said in the 1980’s, when Michael Jackson was already a millionaire. Moreover, despite supposedly having problems with his father, he lived at home with his parents even in his mid-twenties. We are talking about a millionaire here, who was already internationally recognized. He did not go around blowing money like the pop stars today. Rather, he lived very cautiously. He did become a big spender in the 1990’s, but that is from our perspective, and not that of a man worth beyond 1 billion dollars. So why the facade of showing a poor Michael Jackson to the world? His songs lyrics speak louder then anything else about this. All the allegations, court cases, being sued, having to settle cases out of court, shutting the mouths of people, etc. cost him a lot. Naturally, he was worried about what would become of his finances. His reaction was to liquidate most of his funds and assets, write them off as expenses and move them into foreign bank accounts and investments. There are even reports that he wanted to open resorts in Dubai as well as Asia, and perhaps these even materialized. Some of his funds were used to purchase stocks and invest into media technology based venture firms, as you can see from above, but obviously not under his real name. Perhaps if the company structure and share holders were ever available to the general public, we could possibly locate the alias that Michael Jackson used to invest. Moreover, Michael Jackson even fired his close business managers and advisors and hired Dr. Tohme in 2005. This is when reports about Michael Jackson’s financial crisis began to emerge, as well as reports of him being ill. Odd right? The King of Pop was not facing financial distress, that was an image for us to believe in. At the moment, he continues to receive royalties from the enormous sales of his albums, enjoy the funds that he liquidated and sent away to offshore accounts, as well as continuing to invest into venture firms based on technology and media. All this while not having to pay a single dime to any of his on-going court cases, loans, other ‘debt’ that he had accrued. In one of his interviews, Michael Jackson mentioned that he is not stupid, and that stupid people don’t get this far – which is very true indeed. To pull of this hoax and having planned all the minute details needs a brilliant mind while having calculated all the gains requires a brilliant mind – that of Michael Jackson. "

[generatorfree617-blog]

What Is Fortnite V Bucks then So how exactly does The idea Succeed?

What Is Fortnite And The Digital Currency V

Fortnite is a co-op sandbox survival video game developed by Folks Can Journey with Epic Games. This was a fresh discovered spot before an individual in the Epic Games forums - it seems a number of Fortnite "movie" cases were in fact injured or corrupted. According to Marksman, selling Fortnite program is a safer bet than selling broken-into accounts, although the accounts can be more productive (one seller I have a word with was promoting the account with few skins for $900). Participants may restore stolen bill by contacting Epic Games' champion with replacing their information. The codes are immaterial.

It's already no confidence that scammers have taken place trying to make a fast buck in offering gamers free V-Bucks, the electronic currency that Fortnite players use to buy new entries and skins from the current battle royale game. May became probably the most successful month that we have stats offered, with Fortnite: Battle Royale giving with $318 million (concrete post-May statistics are trying to find). That makes that the best-performing diversion regarding its nature through this metric.

Fortnite Battle Royale has been free to play while its launch, and its virtual currency is a major revenue river for Epic Games While items obtained in the collection provide no competitive edge, they cause the game fun and moist. Your essential point to Fortnite, the biggest activity from the season, combining information in Campaign Royale and Bank the planet modes into the ultimate one-stop winner's manual.

Fortnite is bound without V-Bucks, vbucks.codes gave myself with countless sum of v-bucks, to enjoy all of Roblox. While there is a copyright struggle against the game, this right away looks Fortnite is sound, for now. Bloomberg documents that PUBG Corp. sent "a communication of drawback" to Epic Games lawyers by Monday, and that the instance is immediately met. While that rests unclear exactly how much money criminals have gotten to make through Fortnite, over $250,000 were cleared in Fortnite items in eBay in a two-month time last year. Person from Sixgill also demonstrate an increase in the number of states in the activity on the night web, in close relationship with the game's revenue.

This swagbucks link will allow for you to acquire a free 3$ meaning of credits when you earn only 3$ worth. This will enable you to get at least the starter things in fortnite. Squad up with your friends and get the Xbox One X 1TB console, Xbox wireless controller, Fortnite Battle Royal, Legendary Eon cosmetic agreed, with 2,000 V-Bucks. How For Free V Bucks In Fortnite? Here is really the subject which Suddenly being improved with all the Fortnite Game Players. The main cause is because; with V Bucks, it is possible to quickly access most on the objects within Fortnite game.

Part of Fortnite's stand up to dominance has no doubt been the cross-platform availability, with casual mobile gamers on the move able to be involved with hardcore bedroom gamers on different footing ( Sony was unwilling , but cross-play operation has recently become permitted for PS4 players ). Most of the FORTNITE V BUCKS GENERATOR websites out there are try to assure people that somehow the developers managed to cut into the FORTNITE Database, and so they may take the unlimited free v-bucks into Campaign Royale game.

Figure 1: Data reveals the estimated earnings of Fortnite compared to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds between June 2017 — June 2018, based on the Edison Trends dataset. While you can't directly gift V-Bucks to another player, you have a several options to assist them get their Fortnite fix: get them a gift tag regarding their program of choice, or buy a package with certain content.

Method For Maximizing VBUCKS

If you're looking for more directions to help shake up the Fortnite gameplay, be sure to look at these 40 awesome Fortnite Creative Island codes you can enjoy today , and of course if you're a Fortnite Battle Royale player, be sure to check out the Fortnite Season 7: Week 8 Challenges page for information and tips. The Fortnite season 6 Battle Pass costs 950 V Bucks. A bundle of 1,000 V Bucks can be acquired for £7.99.

Well, Fortnite's success isn't based just for the fact that it is free, but instead, it is due to how good the free-to-play asset interlocks with the premise and features of the game itself. To means that the fact that Fortnite is open at the second is a solid schedule that closely supports additional elements we will be discussing. Effectively the ballots come in and this been officially confirmed - Fortnite is the best Battle Royale game away here.

The previous top of 8.3 million people playing at once was agreed during Fortnite 's” in-game butterfly function with November. Always remember the fact that, There is no such issue that can produce with call v responsibilities then put that near the account for free. And one can ensure this through look at this public message by epicgames itself regarding fortnite v bucks scams. We have already done the homework on this matter and then simply creating these statements.

Being the best in Fortnite Battle Royale is no simple feat, and there's no sure-fire way to achieve a Success Royale every time. However, while we could guarantee you'll finish in the highest five each time people act, our lead to playing Fortnite Battle Royale should help you out-survive your peers often than not. It's important to learn exactly where chests are put in Fortnite - Battle Royale. That provides a immense advantage. You can remember every single point but the easier way is to meet them on this application.

Epic Activity are striving to produce a small model of Fortnite Battle Royale for persons to enjoy with their allies here creative mode, using a smaller starting crowd. With rapid, I found a backdoor break into the databases of numerous big gaming group. The Fortnite Battle Royale database allows everyone toward insert as many resources as I want into any Fortnite Battle Royale account.

VBUCKS For Profit

Nobody believed Fortnite would still be accepted that recent in, but it's stayed to adapt and hostility for the spot at the top on the controversy royale ladder. Microsoft take really rolled away a new Xbox Live Gold deal available to every different clients and anyone who fell the membership by October 1: three months of help and 1,000 V-Bucks regarding a full of $10. That price really forms the V-Bucks open, as 1,000 V-Bucks would charge Fortnite players ten dollars when purchased separately.

And so these were some of the best system that is usually used to develop free v challenges in fortnite game without use any real change. Fortnite Battle Royale is an online multiplayer survival shooter developed by Epic Games , in which 100 players fight to be the last one stay here activities lasting less than forty seconds. It is a free game using some mechanics in the new Fortnite, a success sandbox game, and many aspects on the battle royale” genre of sports.

Good news on V-Bucks getting used to launder funds is anything but surprising, given that crooks are treating Fortnite to make money in a mind-boggling various ways. Similar to Snowfall in Time 7, Discovery awards any person that completes all seven weekly challenges with http://jutounet.com/tothiemv9b/post-the-surprise-connected-175055.html a secret loading screen resulting in a combat star or hidden banner. Doing all this is of function, but for the most dedicated Fortnite players, this essential.

Teenagers in america are reportedly preferring cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, and in-game currency Fortnite ‘V-Bucks' over traditional holiday rewards that will contain gift tag and fiat cash. Of course, later you can think of Fortnite Battle Royale tactics a little more elaborate, like as interesting the opponent inside of the basis with flowing done some hole you have left completely on purpose, to stuff the fund with head. It is further confused than it does.

Fortnite season 6 is out right now with ready to buy but Epic Sports have issued a warning about V-Bucks purchases. Fortnite gift card generator is a server-based tool. You can generate unlimited gift certificate codes by using this instrument. Every period of Fortnite (which last 10 weeks), you are awarded a Tier Ranking. Just playing the game with finishing challenges can enhance the Story Ranking. And for every Tier Ranking you unlock, you'll find great new. That may be some extra V-Bucks, a new skin or even an XP booster to spread your point.

According to several news websites, Fortnite is known to these kind of hacks And they are treating them like a powerful resentment with conducting legal actions and also can ban the balance who are trying to cut or cheat to the system. Because of its frequent areas of minor violence, Fortnite is measured 12+ by PEGI, Pan European Game Information But just like many activities of this type, plenty of children younger than 12 are engaging in, so this vital which parents are conscious of the shelter interests of which take remained introduced, then just how to help their own teens play safely.

Fortnite Battle Royale isn't merely the biggest contest of 2018; that a valid cultural fact. From middle-school playgrounds to frat house individuals to million-view YouTube livestreams , it's become the obsession for countless fans. Gaming hasn't seen something this massive since go of Minecraft. Fact No: 2 : - Fortnite will ban all gamers who will try to cut or cheat the coordination.

You can turn off hardware acceleration with Google Chrome and so that education applications accomplished by Chrome do not consume too many resources once you are participating in Fortnite. Free Fortnite V Bucks Generator Best and Calm Way for 2019. Though, if you're not, then pay attention to this part then figure out very precisely. Because those fake V Bucks Hack can cause your ‘Fortnite account banned or blocked‘ if you fell in the corner.

This development has to end. This operated with CS:GO as it would really make up the hitboxes larger, but in Fortnite, going on the modern game engine, that clearly smushes the character model down. Any perceived effect they have upon your own ability to play is a placebo. The builder might think respect in Fortnite's steps and insert another, limited-time game styles to compete with the BR formula, or perhaps map-changing factors that maintain game environment warm. Or Respawn may result PUBG also create another, smaller places with special server sizes to mingle points up.

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Rumor Confirmed: Xbox 360 Pro Is Dead, Elite Price Cut

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