School is back. My sleep schedule, however, is fairly well screwed from a long night of trying not to vomit on my bed. So my brain is pretty well fried, going on about one and a half hours of sleep before I'm expected to be awake and functioning. So, yeah. Fuck. Classes this time around are mostly degree-related courses, so I'm looking forward to it and all, I just need to keep my brain in a semi-functioning state. This may go badly.
The holidays came and went, and thankfully I was able to procure enough in the way of cash and gift cards to fully pre-order a PS Vita, some games, accessories, and a copy of Star Wars The Old Republic. TOR is taking a good chunk of time, and for good reason: it's one of the most solo-friendly MMOs I've ever played. I'm all for gaming becoming more of a social gathering; it's a great step forward for the medium, and it can be a fun experience to partake in. However, I've never been a great participant in this phenomenon, either in a competitive or cooperative setting. I've always been a fairly solitary person, so interacting with other humans in general puts me on edge, either in person or using a virtual analogue. It's not just because I don't want someone on the other side of the country/planet to know my approximate skill level. (Though there is that.) Enjoying gaming is, for me, akin to enjoying porn. It's not something I'm ashamed of, just something I prefer to do by my lonesome. Also, headphones are a necessity.
SOPA is something else that came and went. Personally, I'm glad. It's a piece of legislation that would've affected most of the sites I visit on a daily basis, i.e. Facebook, Twitter, news sites, etc. It's amazing. After reading the bill, it's pretty obvious that it was some jackass in power wanting to make friends in higher places, particularly in Hollywood and record labels. Providing greedy people more ways to control the people who use their products is not the way to move an industry forward; providing great services and benefits to those customers is. Piracy is not an issue that's going to go away because you restrict access to a few sites; honestly, it's not going to go away completely, period. The way to fight piracy is to make buying these products easy and hassle-free, while providing great incentives for paying customers to continue paying. The main example of this strategy in action is iTunes. Love it or hate it, iTunes dealt a huge blow to music piracy, while giving customers an easy and cheap way to buy music they love, without having to go through a bunch of bullshit that record labels had been forcing people to do for quite a while. Bigwigs like movie studios and record labels had so much control up until a decade or so ago, they thought that they'd be able to sit back and let money flow into their coffers. They did this for so long, they didn't really notice (or didn't care) that the way their customers wanted to access and use the things they had legally purchased had changed. People want access to their stuff in more ways, some of which don't work in the bigwigs' financial interests. Their reaction? Evolve with their customers, as well as the medium that they represent? Not so much. Legislation and restriction methods (read: DRM) that basically punishes people who legally obtained their products? Now you're on to something, Kim Jong.
It may not be dead, but SOPA is definitely on life support. I was skeptical about the blackouts that Google and Reddit had announced, but when Wikipedia blacked out as well, my hopes raised significantly. Never underestimate the rage of millions of idiot college students trying to access Wikipedia to answer questions for their papers. When the bill gained about 18 opposing senators over the course of 3 days, I actually was hopeful. And when it was announced that the bill was put on an "indefinite hold," I actually stood up and cheered. Freedom for consumers won out, which is kind of a rarity in these days, sadly. This needs to happen more often.
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