Slashdot | Blockbuster Files for Bankruptcy

Dallas-based Blockbuster Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday, calling into question the futures of over 5,600 stores worldwide. The company will be evaluating each location on a case-by-case basis, and seeks to cut costs after reporting a $558 million net loss last year. Newsweek credits the company’s slow adoption of new media distribution methods as a big reason for the company’s decline. “… while Blockbuster discussed creating its own subscription service to rival Netflix, it wasn’t until August 2004 that its online DVD rental program actually started in the US. And when, in 2004, Coinstar entered the market with its Redbox DVD kiosks, Blockbuster didn’t begin installing similar devices until 2008.” CNET suggests that “Leaders of pay TV services might be wise to start doing the business equivalent of digging foxholes and manning the battlements or the same thing could happen to them.”

I honestly cannot say that I’ll miss them.

Sure, it sucks for all the folks who’ll be losing their jobs…  And I sincerely hope they’re able to find employment elsewhere…  But I’ll be glad to see our local Blockbuster close its doors.

We used to have several smaller video stores with interesting and unique inventories, with competent staff, which I thoroughly enjoyed shopping at.  They had obscure movies that Blockbuster would never carry.  They had employees who could direct you to movies based on what you’ve enjoyed in the past.  They had cool specials.  They were great.  They were cheaper than Blockbuster.

And they all went out of business when Blockbuster showed up.

I haven’t rented anything at Blockbuster in a year or more.  There’s no reason to spend $5 on the same new releases that are available everywhere else.

I get my movies from Netflix or Redbox.  They’re cheaper, and they’ve got a better selection.  Why would I go to Blockbuster?

Looks good…  I like the retro-futuristic thing they’re continuing.  And the new setting looks terrific.  I’m just not sure I’ll be able to enjoy playing it much, with my fear of heights…

We watched part of The Event last night.  Didn’t make it through the whole thing.  We tuned out as the President was being evacuated while a plane plummeted towards him.  So if it got dramatically better after that, we didn’t see it.

Personally, my complaint has little to do with the plot or acting or anything like that.  My major complaint was with the structure of the show itself.

I have no problem with flashbacks…  Or with chopping things up and showing events out of chronological order…  Or surprise endings…

But The Event just felt like it was intentionally yanking me around.  Purposefully being vague in an attempt to surprise and confuse me.

I can forgive the intentionally vague and cliffhanger-y opening scene.  People running and screaming and there’s no clear picture of what’s going on.  I’ve seen plenty of shows open with that kind of hook, so I’m not going to complain too much.

But it seems like everything was not just vague, but downright misleading.  On purpose.

We’re introduced to some scruffy dude who’s getting on a plane…  He’s all kinds of sweaty and acting funny and it’s strongly implied that he might be a terrorist or something.

Then the narrative leaves the plane behind for a bit.  We see him getting ready to go on vacation.  We get a couple commercial breaks.  We’re led to believe that he’s a nice guy.  Maybe he’s just nervous about flying.

Then we see him pull out a gun and hijack the plane.  Looks like he was a terrorist after all.  And then the narrative again wanders off somewhere else, leaving us with the image of the scruffy guy waving a gun around.

Eventually the narrative comes back to the scruffy guy on the plane…  Only it turns out that he was trying to stop somebody else who was already in the cockpit.  So he wasn’t actually a terrorist…  Probably…  Unless there’s another surprise that I didn’t see.

And each of these scenes is delivered like some kind mini-cliffhanger.  Something dramatic happens, and then we immediately cut away to something else.  A commercial maybe, or a flashback to something previous, or events happening elsewhere.

It feels like I am being deliberately misled.  Like they are intentionally obscuring things.  And that’s just annoying.

I’ve never really liked the whole Lord of the Rings thing.

Yes, I know, it’s basically the foundation that everything D&D was built upon.  And I suppose I should be grateful.  And I’m supposed to turn in my geek card if I don’t absolutely love Tolkein…

But I’ve never been a big fan.

So I wasn’t especially eager to see the movies – even though they turned out to be pretty good.  And I wasn’t especially eager to try the MMOG either…  But it is turning out to be pretty good, too.

I’m getting a very strong Dark Age of Camelot vibe from the game.

Mechanically, there are a good number of similarities.  You’ve got style chains in combat, and the ability to follow monsters.  You’ve got horses-on-rails that act as taxis from one location to another.  You’ve got housing, and shared dungeon instances.

But there are also some thematic similarities as well…  The races are less comical, more gritty and realistic.  The setting feels more mundane, and less fantastic.  I’m running around with my dwarf defender, and it feels like I could be in Midgard.  And the elven areas could easily be Hibernia.

So far, I’m thoroughly enjoying myself.  And the fact that I don’t have to pay to play is just icing on the cake.

I’ve been thinking very nostalgically lately of the days when I played Dark Age of Camelot.  I miss the fantasy setting.  I miss huge dungeons filled with nasty monsters.  I miss raids consisting of 200+ people.

And, while I’m not yet ready to re-subscribe…  I do want to play some kind of fantasy MMOG.

I’ve been playing Oblivion again, which has kind of an MMOG-ish feel to it…  But it isn’t quite the same.  I’ve gotten to level 30 very quickly, I’ve got more money than I can spend, and I’m basically an unstoppable killing machine.  There’s none of the you need 200 people to kill this thing feeling.

Then I saw that Lord of the Rings Online has gone “free to play”.

I played LotR:O a while back…  Tried one of the trial accounts…  And it was fun, but it wasn’t good enough to pay $15/month to keep playing.

There are plenty of restrictions on the free account.  Plenty of reasons to upgrade to a paid account.  But I’m thinking this might just get me my fantasy MMOG fix that I’ve been hankering for.

If not…  There’s always the Warhammmer Online “endless trial”…