Goodbye Nostalgia Critic

You might know that I like web series. What you might not know is that one of my favourites has been The Nostalgia Critic on www.thatguywiththeglasses.com.

In The Nostalgia Critic, Doug Walker plays the Critic and reviews nostalgic movies and TV shows. This is done in a very Angry Video Game Nerd sort of style, but the writing is spectacular and the acting truly inspired. There are very few series (either online or mainstream) that can genuinely make me laugh out loud, but The Nostalgia Critic manages it with a regularity and precision that brings German engineering to mind.

Doug recently announced that the series is dead. No more nostalgia critic. *sob*

However sad I am that I will not be getting any new NC, I cannot help but applaud the artistic integrity behind the decision. According to the announcement on the site, they decided that everything good that could be done with the NC setup and character had already been done, so it should be killed instead of producing second rate content just for the sake of keeping a popular series going.

This is why I love watching shows from the internet. There is no other channel that would support that decision, and I have watched many very good shows just keep going until the horse is far past beating.

Well done Doug Walker and everyone from ThatGuyWithTheGlasses. You guys rock and I am looking forward to seeing what you have coming up next.

EDIT: I don't really mean much by the AVGN reference here. It's just that I assume that more people might know about AVGN and in any case his name is more descriptive of the shared shtick these two have. There was a brilliant crossover series between these two shows that you can find here.

-Odd
"Doing things the way you see it, going by your own heart and soul, that is pure artistic integrity. Whatever the hair is six or sixty inches long, the eyes have make-up or not, the riffs are in 'E' or 'F' sharp, the amps are Marshall or not, all those things don't matter if you are doing it for the right reason, which to me means doing it for yourself!" -Lars Ulrich

Living in the Product Age

The society we live in strange: skewed towards material possessions, consumerism and one-upmanship. We are surrounded by smartphones, tablets and gadgets. We are bombarded by adverts for cars, clothes and consumables; each one "better" than the one before. We are offered a hundred products a day and we're told that if we don't have the latest one, we will fall behind the curve.

Even industries that previously didn't feel the need to push sales like that have jumped on the bandwagon. Microsoft have recently gotten into the gadget game with their Surface Tablets and Windows Phone 8 platform. Banks no longer look after our money, they sell us "investment products". Travel agents sell the idea of a perfect moment in some far off locale as a product.

Our society appears to package everything as product. Even us. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and G+ don't make their money by charging you and as the quote goes: If you're not paying for it; you're the product. Our ideas have, likewise, been turned into products. There are many companies who's sole purpose is to take advantage of the convoluted international patent system by buying up ideas and then charging people for their use.

Reality TV shows like Big Brother and Fear Factor have taught us that even human dignity has a price tag.

Perhaps it is indicative of a society that has trouble dealing with abstract concepts. Perhaps we need to package, label and price everything so that we can have a frame of reference in a world that is moving more and more into the non-physical realm of the information age.

Whatever the reasons or justification, I cannot help but wonder what damage we are doing to our collective psyche. I don't like the idea of living in a world where every possible concept has been nailed down and given a price tag. But hey... maybe that's just me.

-Odd

"Our economy is based on spending billions to persuade people that happiness is buying things, and then insisting that the only way to have a viable economy is to make things for people to buy so they'll have jobs and get enough money to buy things." -Philip Elliot Slater

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I'm not entirely happy with how this post turned out. It feels a little stuttering and unfocused. Oh well... I guess that's what you get when you stop writing for a month and I'm far too lazy to rewrite it. 

The Geeks Games and Greatness: Episode 15 - Stuff

You may have noticed a scarcity of updates.... Well spotted.

Here be the 15th Episode of the Geeks, Games and Greatness Podcast in which we discuss stuff... and... things... I'm pretty sure we cover things too.

I have fallen a bit out of the habit of updating the blog and a trifle behind in editing the podcast. I do, however, have two episodes already recorded, so we will be back to our regular schedule from this week.

Download

Don't forget to check us out in our various online forms:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/GeekGamesGreatness
Odd's Twitter: @OddModlin
Ian's Twitter: @i4n0fd00m
Email: oddcastblog@gmail.com 

-Odd