Writers Guild strike might help video game industry

masturbating?

masturbating to virtual women?

wow, I guess I set myself up for that one.

"Have you been playing more games due to the the deluge of reruns?"

No.

Is there even any other way this could have been interpreted?

Surfing and posting on 4CHAN, oy?

TMZ? Get away from her while you still can.

Wow, you've been a gamer for a whole year?!

+1 for the word lackadaisical and the Lemmiwinks avatar

Yeah, I guess the strike made me read more joystiq, cause I didnt realize the strike is still going on. If it improves video game writing, I am all for it.

Are there video games based on novels, true life stories etc. Except for James Bond?

Actually, if it was JUST about the downloaded format royalties, I could see the complaint about the strike being unjustified. But it's not. That's the main catalyst. Let's put it this way...

Writers are not paid alot. Period. In fact, they are paid very little and sometimes, even less that unionized workers. Where writers make their money is in a simple idea. What if they write the next big thing. Period.

Now, when a show enters sindication, writers receive a cut just as actors. A very small cut. But a cut nonetheless. However, long ago, a newfangled market cropped up. Called VHS and Beta. Under their current negotiations, writers did not receive a cut of this despite money being made off of their work. The studios response was naturally, "We have no clue how big a market this will be and so we don't know how to cut up this pie." Sound familiar? I hope so, because pay attention, sweetheart.

After a long strike which severely damaged Hollywood and the entertainment industry as a whole, the studios conceeded that writers deserve a fair percentage of the home video sales, which would later translate to DVDs as well. And so they agreed to allow this market to thrive for another two years and seeing what to expect before decided how to divide the profits fairly. In two years, they would renegotiate the terms of writers cuts on home media. Except this happened, two years came and went and despite the money being made on DVD and even hi def formats, those terms were never renegotiated. Why? Writers felt if they went on strike too soon, they ran the risk of crippling the entertainment industry beyond repair. And so they sucked it up and watched their cuts of DVD sales be essentially nothing compared to the cuts of other peoples. Let's juyst put it this way, getting your show on Adult Swim is more profitable for the writers than getting your show on DVD.

Now flash forward to the current era. Suddenly iTunes is making movies off the shows hand over fists. Digital Distribution is rocking the world, and writers have an even smaller cut of that than DVDs. So what are the studios saying? "This media is too new. We don't know what it will make so we don't know how to divide the pie."

So essentially the writers are lashing out not only at the digital distribution negligence, but mainly on the home media market which they were fucked out of before in the past but took it all in stride because they didn't want to damage their market. In other words, this strike is 15+ years late.

These aren't people who are just bitching because they want more money. These are people who are trying to get their fair cut of the millions being made. After all, cost of living in LA is 60K a year, most writers make 45K a year in that area.

Way to pull number out of your ass, sheppy. What does it even mean for the cost of living to be 60K? Because I live in LA, and I can tell you a person definitely doesn't have to make 60K just to survive here.

Thanks, Sheppy. I had not idea. It seems reasonable that writers get a cut of the new media format profits.

TV is going the way of radio very soon, so they need to get internet right.

jovin, you live on your own or with roommates/parents? I wonder these things because, you see, I'm a fairly solitary individual. And when I was looking into LA on whether or not I would accept a job modeling actors in 3D, I did a little research on the cost of living up to my living standards, of course. The job, at the time, would have paid $45K, whereas living in the area I wanted with the lifestyle I desired, would run roughly $60K a year. This is of course not counting the downright astronomical value of owning a home there. So I turned that particular job down and stayed in my area instead. Granted, I currently get paid ~$30K a year but I get to enjoy my lifestyle in a cheap area to live at. That, and I don't get my shit robbed all the time.

My GF FINALLY wised up and got me some giftcards. This is the 1st Christmas she didn't get her butt hurt because I didn't like/already have/never did want what she got me.

It seems the message finally got through: Don't try to buy a geek/tech head ANYTHING that requires electricity to operate...it will ALWAYS end in sorrow.

Ha, that's exactly what my girlfriend complains about: I'm too ahead of the curve, as in I'll have been anticipating things before they come out and then get them soon after, so she can never think of things to get me as gifts. Fortunately, I was interested in AC (there's something so satisfying about walking up behind someone and silently stabbing them, while imagining myself saying "there, there, it'll be alright" - almost as satisfying as the Demon Arm in the Darkness), but some past game gifts have indeed been clunkers. I'm trying to get here into gaming related things, like the fun H3 beta tester t-shirt that she got me, because she much more likely to know that I really enjoyed a game that I already played as opposed to ones that are potentially just over-hyped.

Man, you guys need to get new girlfriends. Mine got me UT3 collector's edition for my birthday and Tabula Rasa for X-mas.

"Fortunately, I was interested in AC"

I thought you were talking about air conditioning until you got to the part about stabbing.

"get her butt hurt"?

That is either a turn of speech I dont know or is very disturbing.

Yeah, 2nd that...I'm a sucker for anime. Currently loving Shippudden and almost done with Genshiken haha....it's like "Friends", but for otakus lol!

How about "board games" as another form of archaic entertainment? To appease the girlfriend who is not longer distracted by new shows, we've been breaking out various board games (an industry which appears to be having a renaissance, with so many cool games out lately), and they are pretty fun. Though I do kind of wish we could play more board games on XBLA, as it is nice to have computer moderation/maintenance of the rules, game pieces, etc. I've been loving it in Carcassone and Catan.

I love TV too, it's just that i can live without new TV

backlogs of 400 Episodes of the Simpsons, 100 each of Seinfeld and Family Guy, 173 episodes of Star Trek Voyager (which consumes weekday afternoons while doing homework)

Now new movies, those i could do without entirely

"TV is awesome these days (much more well-written than video games)"

But, to their credit, videogames don't actually need good writing - or any writing at all, for that matter.

Um, no. "Reality" Tv Shows. I rest my case.

epic lulz

House is a pretty good show (saw it for the first time when my girlfriend was watching Law & Order one night). But uhh unless you like crime type shows I guess you'll have to fill the void with Adult Swim reruns and video games. Unless you torrent sub'ed anime then there is always that.

I already do...
I torrent Naruto weekly, but just this Thursday Dattebayo stopped subbingg until people stop uploading to YouTube. So, right now it's basically Video Games, Adult Swim reruns and Scubs on Thursday nights.


What ever happened to The Riches?

Dude, Dragod. YHBT= You have been trolled. Dattebayo pulls this crap every once in a while for shits and giggles. It's there really immature style of humor and I wish that they would stop lying like that. They aren't really quitting their subbing of Naruto due to youtube uploads. In actuality, there was no new episode for Naruto in Japan this past Thursday, hence Dattebayo didn't have an episode to work on. Dattebayo lies to upset the noobs. If you watch the last episode that aired, it states that the new episode won't be out until after the New Year, January 10th to be specific. I usually check this site for details. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Naruto:_Shipp%C5%ABden_episodes

Hope this helps you out in the future,
Phi ^_^

I checked for YHBT, but I didn't see it.. I normally see it after the post has been exposed as YHBT... I'm only on episode 140, but I add to my collection every week as I watch little by little, so I haven't seen the new one yet.

What's up with the site being down for the past few days?