A Few Words About Honor
You've heard me talk about it before in this sense (See "One Thing That Destroys All Else" from Aug. 22, 2005). I'm tired about the madness of advertising in places where it wasn't asked for.
I was watching the end of The Chronicles of Riddick on TV earlier. During the last two shots of the movie, one of those annoying animated ads for another show popped up in the corner. This is the climax of the movie and you stick in a dammned ad??? Can't you wait 20 f$&#**^g seconds?
I've got another partial example that's even more fun. And by fun, well, I'm sure you can guess what I really mean... Actually, I can't make myself say it. I can't honestly come clean with the personal idiocy I may have allowed myself to jump into. But I should try, so I'll have fun with metaphors while I do.
"Don't judge a book by its cover," has been a frequent catchphrase for a long time. With my twisted sense of honor, I feel like I should add a little more to that and make it complete: Don't judge a book by it's cover, or by the first hundred pages. Many of you have seen me rant about Infinite Crisis. Some of you have heard me rant just as much, if not more about 52. There are also countless other examples, most of them being books I've started and not finished.
Why is this (I ask, swallowing my pride like the hard lump it is)? Because most everything you will see is just an excuse to sucker you into doing something else. The first issue of Infinite Crisis is an excuse to sucker you into reading at least three issues of mediocrity and shit. That Otherland book is just an excuse to philosophize about the intrinisic nature of online game players while avoiding the plot almost entirely. That really detailed online profile that initially seems unreal, but after researching seems completely genuine, down to the smallest detail... well, it could just be some advertisement when it's all said and done, even though you don't want it to be.
I've said this before and I'll say it again--Don't just say it'll get better, make these creators work for your money and continued attention.
I was watching the end of The Chronicles of Riddick on TV earlier. During the last two shots of the movie, one of those annoying animated ads for another show popped up in the corner. This is the climax of the movie and you stick in a dammned ad??? Can't you wait 20 f$&#**^g seconds?
I've got another partial example that's even more fun. And by fun, well, I'm sure you can guess what I really mean... Actually, I can't make myself say it. I can't honestly come clean with the personal idiocy I may have allowed myself to jump into. But I should try, so I'll have fun with metaphors while I do.
"Don't judge a book by its cover," has been a frequent catchphrase for a long time. With my twisted sense of honor, I feel like I should add a little more to that and make it complete: Don't judge a book by it's cover, or by the first hundred pages. Many of you have seen me rant about Infinite Crisis. Some of you have heard me rant just as much, if not more about 52. There are also countless other examples, most of them being books I've started and not finished.
Why is this (I ask, swallowing my pride like the hard lump it is)? Because most everything you will see is just an excuse to sucker you into doing something else. The first issue of Infinite Crisis is an excuse to sucker you into reading at least three issues of mediocrity and shit. That Otherland book is just an excuse to philosophize about the intrinisic nature of online game players while avoiding the plot almost entirely. That really detailed online profile that initially seems unreal, but after researching seems completely genuine, down to the smallest detail... well, it could just be some advertisement when it's all said and done, even though you don't want it to be.
I've said this before and I'll say it again--Don't just say it'll get better, make these creators work for your money and continued attention.
posted by LEN! at 1:57 AM
1 Comments:
The nice thing about having an analytical streak to my personality is that, given enough time and a stressful enough situation, I'll start alanyzing it to death. So here's my analysis about the inspiration for this post and what I'm doing about it.
I've got a myspace page that gets hit with friend requests on a regular basis. Sometimes, I don't know who these people are. Their messages are filled with odd bits of alphanumeric values, saying they're advertising bots.
Only the message I got a week ago didn't have this trait. Instead, it had a decent amount of detail on a really nice girl (based on both personality and looks) who was genuinely interested in talking to me. I follow through with the expected motions and eventually get a comment that looks suspiciously like an advertisement or other online promotion.
If you're reading this, you have an idea how upset I was. Yet I couldn't shake the thought that this wasn't done by some advertising machine. So I thought up a simple, straightforward plan to find out the truth.
I sent her a message asking how she was doing. (That and I think her job might be to analyze online promotions; possible oops on my part.) So, if this is real person, I get to start up a conversation. If it isn't, I get an advertisement and some deletion work.
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