User-Generated Content and THE MOST AWESOME THING EVER.

 Hi Fangirls (and also Fanboys),

I feel the need to share with you the most awesome thing I've ever heard. I've crossposted from my normal blog The Mystery of Girls' Media, and well, just read this.

Remember Shaylyn Hamm? Author of The Aesthetics of Unique Video Game Characters?

Refresh your memory here:

"...My research suggests that it is possible to create distinctive and unique characters that have a generally broad appeal among different ages, genders, and gamer types. The characters I created have body types, features, and ages that do not follow the ideal of what is typically marketed in the video game industry, yet they were well received by the majority of people who have reviewed them. My feedback also suggests that there is a desire among many gamers to see more varied female characters in games, and perhaps when more of such characters are introduced into mainstream games, the perception and role of females may become less limited. This is an area of study that is very relevant to modern gaming, as female characters are found in nearly every game, and they are found by many people, both male and female to be lacking of interest and personality. For further research, I would like to see similar tests by myself and other artists, with characters designed to fit and explore a variety of video games in a variety of genres and styles..."

Well, Ms. Hamm just became one of my personal heroines because not only did she write an AMAZING thesis but she was a winner of the first ever Team Fortress 2 Polycount Pack,

Members of the Polycount Community were given 5 weeks to come up with a SET of items for one of the 9 different TF2 classes. These sets had to be within the same theme, and fit well within the TF2 universe. In total, some 70 sets were completed and entered (read: thats at least 210 items!) It’s no wonder they had their work cut out for them when choosing the first ever pack.

Now, why is winning a user-mod contest important to me? Especially when the winning design isn't even a girl, you ask?

Because, ladies and gentleman, two weeks ago these mod-packs were released for purchase in a user-generated virtual marketplace by Valve.

And.... (From Gamasutra) :

Her Winning Submission

"When Valve Software announced the results of Polycount's Team Fortress 2 item-modding contest, the winners were just excited that their creations would be in the popular mulitplayer shooter.

But with the recent introduction of the game's user-created virtual item marketplace, the Mann Co. Store, the winners' items went on sale to the Team Fortress 2 community -- and a 25 percent revenue share to the modders led to a surprising payoff.

Today, Valve said that community content creators Rob Laro, Shawn Spetch, Steven Skidmore, Spencer Kern and Shaylyn Hamm took home initial royalty payments ranging from $39,000 to $47,000 each from the first round of Team Fortress 2 content creation. And these are just the checks from the first two weeks of operation.

Kern told Gamasutra, "By having [user-generated content] implemented in the way that Steam has it, where people are getting monetary gains for the items they put in, it rewards people who put in the good items, who listen to the community and put in the stuff that everyone wants to see in the game. ... It'll bring out the quality artists to do the work."

He added, "It was completely mind-blowing, the size of the return that we're getting on these things."

Skidmore said, ,I feel like this is going to open up a whole new level for everyone in general that plays these games who has an interest [in game design]. .. It'll ultimately be better for the industry, attaching the community to the game developer.'"

This is fantastic evidence of the potential for revenue generation from user-generated content that can be applied much further afield as entertainment franchises seek out new ways to interact with fans, as well as examples for developing properties to establish strong conversations with fans early-on in their development. Suffice it to say I will be citing this campaign in pretty much everything I create from here on out when talking about User-Generated Content, and I will not be alone.

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Evolution of the Geek

File me under Internet Geek, Film Geek, Video Game Geek, Comic Book Geek, Semi-Politics Geek, Semi-Book Geek, ex-Academic Geek, ex-Star Wars Geek (like, it was serious, you guys), Food Geek, ex-Theater Geek (I'm not a theater major living in New York anymore) and the non existant Television Geek.

If you think I'm not gonna post this on Facebook and tag all my friends as a different geek, you would be wrong.

Update: I've decided that the chart is missing the following geeks. This will get specific:
Television Geek
Health Geek
Cosplay Geek
RenFair Geek
Comedy Geek
Space Geek
Direct To DVD Animated Marvel/DC Movie Geek....shhhh

[Slashfilm]

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If You're As Obsessed with Harley Quinn & The Joker As I Am...

Watch this, then imagine it Nolanified and with Heath Ledger

Wow, that was fast! Apparently there is a version of me out there that's actually weird & bored enough to kind of make such a thing happen. Watch! Here's the summary,

Story:

The promising psychiatrist Dr. Harleen Quinzel, of Arkham Asylum, is commanded by Jeremiah Arkham, the new director, for treating the Joker. She and her new patient have long and deep talks about his vision of life and world, and his persuasion starts to convince her gradually. After several sessions with him, she cant stop of thinking about him, but not in a professional way. She also dreams and fantasizes with him (images in sepia are her thoughts remembering her moments with him).

Then he takes one of the Arkham guards as hostage, forcing her to release all the inmates in Arkham. Mr. Zsasz, a serial killer, is going to attack her but then a bomb (set by the Joker) explodes opportunely. Joker approaches Harley (who is unconscious but unharmed), with what seems intention of killing her but in the end he doesnt. He escapes, leaving her horrified and shocked.

When Jeremiah Arkham blames her for negligence (it looks like she helped him on purpose, when thats not true or is it?) and fires her, she realizes two things:

One, the Joker was right - the world is chaos and a twisted joke.

And two, she is hopelessly in love with him.

So she decides to change. She leaves her home and her life, puts on a costume and names herself Harley Quinn (I would have liked to make her wear make up like him, but you have to work with the video stuff you have u_u). Then she goes to find him and prove him they are soulmates. Will he accept her by his side? We see hes kind of smiling at the final scene, when he sees her...

Cast:

The Joker: Heath Ledger

Harleen Quinzel / Harley Quinn: Rosamund Pike

Jeremiah Arkham: James Cromwell (hes perfect for the role check it out in Arkham Asylum Living Hell comics)

Victor Zsasz: Tim Booth (from Batman Begins)

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Movie Contest?!?! Okay!

I love things like this.

A friend sent this to me a while ago, and I finally got around to watching it the whole way through. I named 14 of them, first time through, no stopping. Some of you more savvy readers would get way more than that your first time through, I suspect. I definitely (and sadly) haven't seen every one of these.

If you think you can name all 26, please list them in the comments! Then head here to enter the contest & possibly win all 26 films on DVD! Contest open til October 25th.

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Glee-Cap! Top Bitches: Season 2, Episode 4

Remember last week when I asked Where is Puck? he's in Juvenille Detention for driving a volvo into a convenience store. At least he's still in those diegetic American Express commercials. Sigh. I miss him.

"A Duet is when two voices become one, where the two voices push one another to be better."

I want to say that that happened in all the duets this week, I want to... but it's hard to tell if that really is what's going on here.

The Glee club was torn apart over competition for a dinner for two at Breadsticks this week, and Sam's deep dark secret was revealed... with the help of Kurt.

Brittney and Santana broke up this week, and Santana was proven to be a cold, unfeeling reptile about it.

This whole thing made me very sad... It makes me very confused to see how sympathetically Kurt's homosexuality is treated, and how very, very sad everything about Brittney and Santana's experimentation-or-maybe-more relationship is handled. In fact, everything abotu Brittney makes me very sad. While Santana and Brittney go off and do a duet, Brittney seduces Artie into a duet, and while they don't end up singing together, they make "beautiful music together". "Beautiful Music" that Artie ends up regretting and telling Brittney off about it.

While sex doesn't mean THAT much to Brittney, it's clear that it's a major part of her personality. That for Brittney at least, it's a way to get attention, to get people to like her... at least as long as they want that from her. And now that she doesn't have a partner in crime... she's totally alone. What is going to happen to her? SERIOUSLY??? Please Glee. Treat her a little bit seriously, or you will make me cry and that WILL make me hate you.

Everyone else in this episode is pretty much trying to be Alpha Glee Club Member. Rachel is trying to do what is best for the team by manipulating Quinn and Sam into doing the winning Duet. Kurt feels alone... and Finn is a bit of a psychopath. Is Rachel rubbing off on him? is this psychopathy what lies beneath his somewhat vacant victim status? Regardless, Finn tries to keep Kurt from partnering with Sam to keep him from being picked on so he'll stay in Glee and then gets upset when he and Quinn are actually connecting. Kurt knows about Sam's dark, or rather, light, secret... which I won't tell you, but I will say it's not that he speaks Na'vi.

 

Which Glee you get bonus points for +5

Lady Chart:

Santana: Evil Reptile +2 for actually having lines and for being jealous of Brittney and Artie for a moment.

Brittney: Is so sad. +4 for setting me up but there's +10 in it if they follow up on her.

Tina: Wants to do non-"Asian" things with her Asian Boyfriend. Like eating a salad         without chicken feet in it. +3 for actually having lines.

Rachel: Psychopath, but reaches out to Kurt legitimately at the end. +5 for growth.

Quinn: Beginning to recover from her broken heart while being her own, manipulative self. +5

Mercedes: Sang a song. no points

There weren't any other women in it this week, also, no Puck and no Stamos. At any rate. This week was not terrible, though I'm not going to call it good because it made me very worried for Brittney and not in the "they're making me worried through careful crafting" but in the "I really don't know if they care about what they're doing with her here or not" way and that is bad.

Tune in next week, I have yet to become whole-hog Gleek nor have I fallen into a slushee-filled despair. We shall see.

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New Sufjan Album

The new Sufjan Stevens' album The Age of Adz came out Tuesday and is currently on sale at Amazon for $6.99. No, the album is not about a state (if any of you are still clinging to that fantasy you should give up on it now) but it's still pretty good. I streamed it on NPR a couple of weeks ago and although I'm not sold on the album as a whole, I do think it has some great parts. If you're a big Sufjan fan, I think you'll appreciate it--you'll certainly find it worth $6.99. So go here to buy it. And let me know what you think!

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My Pick For The Third Batman Film?

With today's news of Tom Hardy being cast in Christopher Nolan's third Batman film came the discussion of a. who he would be playing and b. should a cannon female be added to this already intriguing mix, who would she play?

Patches (@misterpatches) from UGO opened up the Twitter floor with the question,

The responses mostly centered around 4 character suggestions - Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn & Talia al-Ghul, but also saw Huntress, Black Canary and Batgirl thrown out into the Twittersphere.

At this point in time, despite Harley being one of my all time favorite characters, I'm gonna throw my support towards Catwoman.

A lot of people complain that we've seen Catwoman many times before or she's never been done well the way we'd like to see it, and to this I say, I AGREE, but if anyone can pull it off, it's Chris Nolan in his grounded universe. In the Nolan series, Batman has never encountered a woman who is anything resembling interesting or challenging and Bruce Wayne has been completely devoid of any & all sexual energy. Yes, Bruce has gone through some shit, but that doesn't mean he should be asexual. I like the idea of a female villain coming on board that stirs something different in Bruce, something he isn't suspecting, something that sometimes gets the better of him. And a Selina Kyle done correctly (and played by the right actress) would accomplish this. Check out this description,

She is a "friendly foe who committed crimes but was also a romantic interest in Batman's rather sterile life." She was meant to be a love interest and to engage Batman in a chess game with him trying to reform her. At the same time, this character was meant to be different from other Batman villains like the Joker in that she was never a killer or completely evil.

Yes, Talia has a similar love/hate relationship to Bruce, but I don't see how her storyline would work without her father. Revenge has been done. What, pretending to fall for him to get revenge for the death of her father? Really? No thanks. As someone TORN between loyalties to her father and her attraction to Batman - now THAT's interesting. And also not possible anymore.

Now Harley, I love. When I think about what could have been if Heath Ledger had still been around - the Mad Love origin story of the smart, attractive shrink assigned to the crazy, manipulative Arkham inmate, who drives her mad as he simultaneously makes her fall in obsession love with him, BUT with someone who actually IS sexy in the role of the Joker...it would have been brilliant. And mark my words - there totally would have been a super fucked up sex scene. And one of my favorite characters (and namesake of Kevin Smith's daughter) would be on the big screen. Amazing.

But - there isn't a Joker. Therefore, there shouldn't be a Harley. To use Harley in any sort of main storyline would only mean a copycat plot, and I think the franchise can do better than that. A throwaway line about the Joker seeing a shrink and thinking it's going well? THAT is just fine with me. But to actually incorporate Harley would feel forced. And while, as @selmaleh pointed out, Harley & Batman do have an interesting relationship (he doesn't WANT to hate her, she's cute & crazy), it's not the sexualized relationship I want to see Nolan's Batman experience.

That same reasoning applies to Poison Ivy - obviously sex is a HUGE part of her character, but it doesn't go beyond that with Bats. Bruce doesn't toss and turn at night thinking about Pamela Isley, he just wants her to stop murdering people with plants and kisses.

As for anyone who would be fighting alongside Batman? I'm not sure that interests me. I'm much more intrigued by an antagonist angle with the female role (though why we all seem to think only one female can be in this Batman movie says something not so great...).

It's weird to me that when I think of any of our recent big screen superheroes & their love interests, there seems to be a huge lack of sexual chemistry, save Wolverine & Jean Grey. Spidey and MJ? Meh. Clark & Lois? Super meh. Bruce & Rachel? Ultimate meh. Tony Stark & Pepper Potts? Sorry, Gwenyth, you only did it for me in Shakespeare in Love, for which I lovingly blame Joseph Finnes. The list goes on and on. I know that overall, superhero movies tend to aim towards being kid friendly, but since we are collectively moving in the direction of darker, more adult hero fare, maybe let's up the chemistry factor a bit? I'm already loving the potential of Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone as Spidey and Gwen Stacey, as well as a Snyder directed Superman. So, don't get left out in the cold, Batman.

So here's what I think. Selina Kyle. Not crazy, no "cat powers", no comical costume. Straight up classic Catwoman, burgler, who is so smart, so stealthy, so unstoppable, that she is actually considered in the ranks of someone like The Joker, while not actually being a murderer.

So which female, or multiple women, do you want opposite Batman in the third film? If Catwoman, which origin - or a new one altogether? And how would you prefer they deal with her introduction and relationship with Batman? Very interested in your thoughts, readers.

Team Selina Kyle!

Update: The natural question after this discussion? Who could actually pull off Catwoman? We need an actress who fits the following - Great actress, can pull of the action/athleticism, not tiny - needs to be on the taller side & actually be fit, lean, believable as functioning in high society, needs chemistry with Christian, plays 27 at the least, 37 at most, and can easily walk the line between good & bad.

Here are the suggestions Twitter gave me: Marion Cotillard, Rachel Weisz, Zoe Saldana, Eva Green, Emily Blunt, Angelina Jolie, Ellen Page, Maggie Q, Brandy Burre, Diane Kruger, Olivia Williams, Gemma Arterton, Amanda Seyfried, Sienna Miller and oddly, my favorite of the options - Olivia Wilde.

Who do you think could pull Catwoman off?

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