A sellection from my Collection

If you are anything like me, then you have a larger video collection than normal people. But let’s face it; if you are like me then you don’t care if you have hundreds of movies that rarely get watched, sit on a shelf and look good. Some people collect antiques, some collect toys, coins, stamps, comics, or shoes, but we collect movies.

For the movie collector there is a periodic ritual where we decide to reorganize our collection. Then we come to the age old question, how should we organize our movies? I will admit that I have tried many ways.

The Basics:

-        Alphabetical – Let’s face it, this approach is simple and easy, especially if you know exactly what movie you are looking for.

-        Genre – This seems like a good idea, but how many times have you gone to the wrong section of the video store (remember those?) looking for a thriller, only to find out that there is also an action section where your movie is located. Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy are notorious cross pollinators. I fear that this approach in the home will leave you frustrated because; dang it, Alien is a Horror movie, but Aliens is an Action movie and damned if they both aren’t Science Fiction

Aficionado:

-        Director – We all have favorite directors. You may not even know that you have a favorite director, but if you sort your collection this way you may find that you have a ton of Ridley Scott films like I do. I used to use this method but I found that I had only one film for many directors and my collection ended up being in alphabetical order by director and no way of easily finding a movie if I couldn’t remember the directors name.

-         Actor – Let’s just say that this doesn’t work for me at all. Too many films star multiple big name actors for this to be viable.

-        Studio – I used this method for a while as well because I kind of liked the same studio logos together and it usually made it easy to keep franchises together. But, in the end, you still have to remember what studio produced the film, or worse , what distribution company put out the discs.

Get Creative:

-        Box Art Color – Sounds crazy, but you can make some pretty cool looking shelf displays using your video box art. Not really a valid way to organize, but it could get you some comments when friends come over and notice.

Practical:

-        Chronological – I tell the time by movie release dates, so why not organize my collection that way? If you can tell within a year or two when almost every movie you own was released, then this may be the strategy you need. If not, organizing your collection by original release date will likely jog your memory and have you thinking back to when you saw each movie for the first time. For me, this approach makes the most sense.

For some reason, when someone references a year, I immediately think of the movies that came out during that year. Certain years hold a special place in my heart, and I bet if you sit down and sort your movies in stacks by decade, you will find that certain years are special to you too.

You may be thinking, “Wait! All of my Star Wars movies will be on different shelves” or “I have an Alien Anthology box set that I am not about to chop up”. I understand that there are exceptions, especially for box sets.  It also may be difficult to fit your Laserdiscs, VHS, 16mm films and Betamax in with your DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs. You may end up having a shelf or three that contain your Boxed sets in chronological order and another area for alternate or legacy formats. I still have a few VHS and Laserdiscs that I won’t part with and many of you probably do too.

If you have a large collection I bet that you will find out some interesting things when you reorganize your movies and think about what was going on in your life in the years with big stacks. It may also be interesting to find out why there are years where you have few movies in your collection. Anyway, have fun organizing and make sure to pop in something to watch in the background while you are organizing. My go to flick is Total Recall.

Why should we be excited about yet another new MMO?

Well… One good reason is that it is an Elder Scrolls MMO!

Elder Scrolls Arena

ZeniMax Online Studio will bring The Elder Scrolls Online to a PC near you sometime in 2013. Let the speculation begin! The June issue of Game Informer promises to provide new details for what is sure to be one of the most anticipated MMOs since World of Warcraft. Set 1000 years before the events of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) will finally let us explore the entire continent of Tamriel.

Continent of Tamriel

That’s not enough? Are you still asking “why should we be excited about another new MMO?” It does seem that a new batch hits the streets weekly, most being the free-to-play variety.

Well, I think that there are several good reasons to be enthusiastic about this particular game. Not only will we be able to explore provinces of Tamriel that we have come to know and love like Morrowind and Skyrim, but we will also have to opportunity to discover lands that we have only a passing knowledge of.  Places only mentioned or alluded to in stories and legends of from previous games like Black Marsh, Valenwood, and Elsweyr will become more than unexplored territory on the map. (Surely some areas will be reserved for expansions) Better still, we will finally be able to travel through this land with real friends and not just NPCs. Even towns and settings that we know by heart will be new again since we will be adventuring in a time period we have never been exposed to. Legends only hinted at will come to life and we may discover connections that we never anticipated.

Elder Scrolls III Morrowind

If you are already an Elder Scrolls fan, then you are likely already excited about the game, but what about hard core MMO gamers? Should they be excited?

If you are a fan of Player Versus Player (PvP) combat then I think you should be elated.

The reason?  Well, one reason is that Matt Firor is involved in the games production. For those that are not familiar with Matt, he was the producer of Mythic Entertainments ‘Dark Age of Camelot’.

Dark Age of Camelot

Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC) is where PvP combat came into its own. DAoC had its own brand of open-world large-scale combat that it called Realm verses Realm or RvR.

The miniscule amount of information that we have received from ZeniMax Online Studio about ESO already gives me hope that what made DAoC great will be incorporated into the Elder Scrolls MMO. First off, you choose to play as one of three factions, each comprised of three of The Elder Scrolls’ species (Nords, Dark Elves and Argonians form the Ebonheart Pact; High Elves, Wood Elves and Khajiit are the Aldmeri Dominion; and Bretons, Redguard and Orcs make up the Daggerfall Covenant). This is reminiscent the choice you made in DAoC during character creation where you chose one of three faction.

Midgard, Albion, and Hibernia Battle it out

The separate factions is a key element that I think has been missed in most if not all MMO PvP strategies. For some reason we have been locked into “Good vs Bad” scenarios ( or gray vs gray). Why not make everyone goodish? Nothing makes open world PvP as exciting as the possibility of a third faction jumping in and turning the tide of a battle just as it is heating up.

Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion

Like most MMOs, each faction will have unique questing content, but all factions will fight for control of the Emperor’s throne in Cyrodill during open-world combat PvP. Nothing concrete on rewards for control of the throne, but if DAoC gives any clues, it will be stat and/or xp bonuses (control of enemy relics at specific keeps gave bonuses in DAoC). The possibility of a special dungeon that factions will gain access to only when they gain control of the throne comes to mind (changing hands at a moment’s notice causing mayhem). Expect Castles, Forts, Siege Weapons, cities, keeps and more as the setting for large-scale open combat. Also expect plenty of instance-type combat and dungeons for player versus environment play (PvE).

As far as classes goes, we anticipate traditional class types (rogue, healer, DPS caster, fighter, etc) but nothing is confirmed.

The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim

ZeniMax Online does confirm that the guilds that you know from The Elder Scrolls will be in the MMO, (Dark Brotherhood, Fighters Guild, Thieves Guild and Mages Guild), but details are limited. Also, there is no word on how Player Guilds/Groups will work. Mounts and crafting are definitely going to be part of the game, but not much is known about these yet either. Our questions will get answered as more details are released.

I am especially pumped for ESO because of my history with Dark Age (my first MMO) If you never played DAoC… well, you missed out. I may be a little nostalgic, but I have played many MMOs and have never seen its take on PvP replicated. Many old DAoC players thought that Warhammer Online was going to be our DAoC 2, but it turned out not to be what I was expecting.

I am hopeful that ESO will fill that role.

The Elder Scrolls II Daggerfall

$99 Xbox Kinect Bundle

It seems that last week’s rumors where true and you can now own an Xbox 360 Kinect bundle for $99 if you commit to a two year Xbox Live contract at $14.99 per month. If this sounds familiar to you, it is probably because you have a $400 smart phone in your pocket that you paid $49 for with a two year contract. You may have even had to wait for a rebate in the mail. So, do you think that this strategy will entice new customers to pick up an Xbox?

Personally, I think that this is a brilliant move by Microsoft is timed perfectly. With a slow economy and more people staying home instead of going out for entertainment (with the exception of the entire world seeing Marvel’s The Avengers this weekend) Microsoft is gambling that $99 + $15 a month is the right price for a summer of entertainment.

Xbox Live is evolving

The past few months have seen changes to Xbox dashboard and a rash of additional apps available. Lets face it, Xbox live has changed in a good way. There is now Vudu, Netflix, Crackle, IGN, MLB, ESPN3, Hulu Plus, EPIX, TODAY, Youtube, TMZ, UFC, MSN, HBOGo, and likely more that I forgot and even more on the way. We are also seeing many more downloadable games available on Xbox Live and I would be surprised if we didn’t see some price drops on best-selling games over the summer (a possible Halo bundle comes to mind).

I am confident that the analysts in Seattle have carefully engineered this deal to set the stage for the eventual release of Microsoft’s next console. Not only will Xbox owners be used to paying the $15 a month, but will also be used to the idea of the Xbox being their primary entertainment box.

Next Generation Microsoft Console

I predict that the next console from Microsoft will have a similar deal and likely come in somewhere between $199 and $299 with a bump in Xbox Live price to $19.99 (probably called Xbox Live Platinum).