Fisher

I used to work for GameStop. We were in a very large building in the city of Boston. It was very common to have employees open the store by themselves, often being alone until noon, sometimes until two or three o'clock. I frequently would talk to corporate about the security issues; if something EXACTLY LIKE THIS HAPPENED, and I was unable to fetch help, I might sit in the back room for hours until someone noticed.

It just isn't a wise idea to have people working by themselves.

And, yes, we got tons of customers in the mornings. Mostly tourists. But I would never trust any of them to notice I was missing and call for help. How would they know?

From Hell's heart I stab at thee, Google...

I'm not sure what's worse; long-winded fanboys or long-winded music elitists.

"OMG, I can't believe you like ROCK BAND, they're so crappy, how do you figure out the Internet? Are you retarded?"

"Oh God, not METAL BAND, I cannot believe anyone would ever listen to that with all the better music now."

"Oh jeez, the 80's were terrible, nothing good came out of that ten years, all music only became good recently."

"Crap, today's music all sucks! Nothing good came after 1989."

Seriously, it's not like it'll KILL YOU to accept that there are different strokes for different folks. The great thing about music is that it sounds completely different to each person; one man's corporate-vomited ballad is another man's metaphor for his own situation. One man's "greatest rock song ever" is another man's incomprehensible garble of noise.

That is such a terrible, terrible, terrible idea.

It's a worst-case-scenario idea.

It's when you have to keep paying to actually play the game. As many folks have put it, that's why the arcade went out of fashion. It's a terrible idea that would not only limit the appeal of the Xbox Arcade (buying a game that you sunk quarters to years earlier and playing it at your own pace), but its a terrible idea that would set a slippery slope for other games. How long before other companies beging making games with the "Authentic Arcade Experience"?

Maybe, just maybe, Gauntlet isn't quite broken? Perhaps it's fun? If people really do want to see how far they get on one quarter... perhaps.... they should just not press the "more health" button? I'd rather that those handful of complaining folks (if they're out there) show some self control rather then damn the entire "retro-arcade" section of my Xbox 360.

Penny Arcade honestly made me laugh. A lot. It's unfortuante that I shared that comic with my coworkers... I had really planned on pulling something like this off.

Dear Optimus Prime,

"Souped up, point-and-click, Flash game"?

How? I'm just curious.

It's a first person physics-based "shooter." It's got a level editor. It has multiplayer.

What sort of Flash games do you play?

And, most importantly, what does that make games like F.E.A.R. or God of War? I would think if you coul dismiss Elebits so easily you could probably toss those asides too.

Kudos,
Fisher

Dear Jim,

Serenity didn't quite make its money back world wide. In fact, it came in about two million short of the mark during its theatre run. Sure, it made some back with DVD sales (which makes senes because it didn't beat is theatre cap with DVD sales), but I think its fair to say the only people who saw Serenity were people who were going to like Serenity. I don't think anyway randomly saw it.

And, to be fair, there couldn't be too many of those folks or Firefly wouldn't have gone off the air after, what? One season? If that?

It does have an 8.0, yes, but me thinks its a bit scewered. Serenity drew on the Firefly crowd. Those people voted. If you didn't like Firefly odds are good you didn't see Serenity. Hence you have only fans of the source material seeing and voting on the film.

Which is the case with a lot of Whendon projects. Lotta hardcore fans, very vocal, but not exactly taking over any cities anytime soon.

Sincerely,

Fisher

P.S. By no means am I trying to insult you or your show! I'm simply saying that there are definitely other factors involved then simply saying that the show/movie must be good for X reason.

Dear ^FourthDimensionGod^,

Your brilliant satire has illuminated my dreary Sunday. God bless brilliant men such as yourself.

Sincerely,
Fisher

Dear Mr. Scott,

There is a vast difference between buying a blatant advertgame for three bucks and spending fifty bucks on an actual game that has advertising subtly placed in by watching what I do on the Internet.

With the Burger King game you know what you're paying for; a Burger King game. It's like buying an action figure of the Burger King. It's a far cry from buying a Marvel Legends Wolverine figure and having it come with a happy meal and a tiny copy of Madden NFL 2007. Catch my drift?

Sincerely,
Fisher

It's worth noting that it was this particular stores responsibility to coordinate with mall security... which they failed to do. There's another videogame store one floor above them which had no problems with the PS3 launch.

Additionally.... Mr. Norm.

Bravo. You've nailed a sentiment, and frustration, that many adult gamers feel.

-Fisher-