Historic Entertainment Blockbuster '09: MPAA v. Sony v. Modern Warfare 2

We seem to finally be on the brink of a reality where action packed movies have fallen in entertainment value when compared to interactive euphorias and social utopias. Maybe this is the end of the era of couch-potatoes, or maybe there is something deeper that dwells among us. It could be that people have started to leave the private family room and move into a more social websphere.

Let's point out the historic event, first:

Activision's Modern Warfare 2 sells 4.7 million units on its first day

$310 million revenue despite the $US 60 price tag per box.

Comparably, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," the top movie of the year at the box office and on DVD, opened with $220 million in its first weekend, and sold 7.5 million DVD and Blu-rays, in its first week. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" still has the top opening weekend of any pic to date with a $394 million worldwide haul.

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How much did it cost for each person to see these movies when they first came out? Or, how much did it cost the entire family, and how often does that cost per family go over $US 60? I think the answers are obvious to us, already.

You can imagine how the MPAA feels about this. The MPAA has been consistent to sue every man, woman, grandma, and child over any suspected piracy issue. While they haven't gone much after those that pirate games, they sure have made a stand on those that pirate movies. The Pirate Bay is still alive today despite the effort of the MPAA's actions and many others. TPB is just a search engine, yet that is not what the MPAA claims for damages. The MPAA might not have been able make a dent in TPB despite the legal action, but they recently sure have their own euphoria after a successful blow on a whole town's wifi system:

MPAA shuts down entire town's muni WiFi over a single download

The MPAA has successfully shut down an entire town's municipal WiFi because a single user was found to be downloading a copyrighted movie. Rather than being embarrassed by this gross example of collective punishment (a practice outlawed in the Geneva conventions) against Coshocton, OH, the MPAA's spokeslizard took the opportunity to cry poor (even though the studios are bringing in record box-office and aftermarket receipts).

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I'll let this thread develop for any further commentary based on the two events above. I'm sure I could write up an essay worth, yet I rather make this simple point of the historic event than to sway the conversation just one way or the other about these headlines above.

For one, I could say it is a conspiracy theory by the MPAA to keep the glamorous private family room alive (prison without walls) in order to prevent these new interactive worlds. Wasn't the the whole idea behind the talk of 'Dumbing Down America' (google it) in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s until the DOT COM Boom broke through all that mess! I remember when security forces where being called into a federal building in early 1990s just because an Internet connection was installed and FreeBSD (like Linux) was downloaded from that Internet and installed on a computer that once had MS-Windows 3.1. It came across as a serious threat despite it was just normal software tools in order for a developer to do his work. The security forces didn't yet recognize it as normal until a few years later. I don't know if we'll ever know if this event relate to the strategy behind the MPAA or if it is just one big mess that tried to make people conform to the ideals of the 'Dumbing Down' movement. We could say that the MPAA derived such strategy, yet I tend not to believe in such conspiracy theories despite the argument.

Instead...

Let's point out what the next obvious movement. The immense storage of Blu-Ray disks not only allows one to fit an entire high-quality movie on the disk, yet there is enough room to also put games on the same disk. Sony has already started:

Game Demos Included on Future Blu-ray Releases

The first such offering will be released on December 29th with the release of the sci-fi thriller District 9. District 9 already has a slew of extras including a Digital Copy of the film for PC, the PSP system (PlayStationPortable), Mac or iPod; the Interactive Map feature "Joburg from Above: Satellite and Schematics of the World of District 9," which provides a highly detailed environmental exploration of the world through a series of interactive satellite maps, technology schematics and photo-real files that take the viewer deeper into the world of the film; and movieIQ, which allows viewers to immediately access continuously updated information on the cast & crew and explore relevant trivia such as production facts, music and soundtrack information all tied to scenes within the movie. In addition it will contain a playable demo of one of the most anticipated PlayStation exclusive game of 2010 - God of War III.

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You see where this is headed? You like the movie? Now, enjoy the interactive world based on the movie. All on the same disk. Sony is no beginner to virtual worlds.

If you curious about virtual worlds, they are not just games like Modern Warfare. Virtual Worlds allows for many games to be within the the online experience. They become seemless to each other. We haven't yet had mainstream technology to make virtual worlds as high-quality as a movie or as scripted like Modern Warefare, yet that is because virtual worlds are dynamic in the same sense in the real world that they constantly change. Try Second Life if you continue to be curious to experience it live.

Finally we have the means and the technology to bring interactive worlds to once was the private family room. Not everybody has been able to afford this. Third-world development hasn't yet been upgraded to meet such mainstream demands. Despite those and many more listed, I do think we can say based on these headlines that "We are there." (and pat Homer Simpson on the head after all his "Are we there yet?" questions.)

What's next?

What are we going to do with all this interactivity?

The historic event probably seems to slip by us like nothing; at least, until the next one is pointed out.

I wonder though, about the MPAA and their shutdown event. What happens if they shutdown an entire network of interactive users at once? I suspect it would be something like the ending of the movie Surrogates.

Surrogates

Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop (Willis) is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others’ surrogates.

Edit: This is Real Life Modern Warfare.

[edit on 13-11-2009 by dzonatas]

If anything, interactivity will be adopted but for no other reason than control. The large conglomerates have been buying up the small developers, in order to kill off any future competition in the marketplace (Infinity Ward>Activision>VivendiSA>MPAA). The media industry will not adopt any technology unless there are assurances from manufacturers that there will be content protection. This is the main reason spdif optical was crippled, while we were told that it was becuase the technology was not capable. This is an outright lie, and an example of how the media industry subverts technology where the technology cannot be controlled.

BluRay is no different in this respect. A crappy medium based on a mediocre set of standards strongarmed upon the consumer by multinationals, in the process squeezing out the only competitor that kept the market competitive. Classic media industry tactic.

The Games industry is not shy about suing people, you might want to look up Davenport-Lyons, or similar private legal firms who represent games developers and distributors. Might not get as much lip service as the MPAA suits, but they are by no means a rare occurrence.

The media industry needs to evolve. It will not evolve into openness though, it will continue to be subversive. And as they find the suitable, controllable technologies to make that a reality, you can bet your ass that they will give you no other option but to accept it. I doubt we'll be seeing much of the benefits this sort of technology could accomplish.

[edit on 13-11-2009 by quackers]

Originally posted by quackers
The media industry needs to evolve. It will not evolve into openness though, it will continue to be subversive. And as they find the suitable, controllable technologies to make that a reality, you can bet your ass that they will give you no other option but to accept it. I doubt we'll be seeing much of the benefits this sort of technology could accomplish.

Consider Second Life here. It is obvious it exists and it's obvious that there needs to be a group that control all the virtual land. The groups that control such land have permissions to change the virtual landscape and avatar's possessions. Such permissions could be said god-like when compared to real life actions.

It seem evident that the media industry tries to control such future worlds not because of the revenue itself but because they want to guarantee themselves to be those gods or at least have god-like powers. When the MPAA can shutdown an entire town's wifi network, isn't that god-like?

[edit on 13-11-2009 by dzonatas]

I just found a news piece on slashdot, and it just convinced me further about how much deeper and faster we headed higher interactivity, and the impact this event lately has had on entertainment:

Time To Ditch Cable For Internet TV?

A flurry of announcements from YouTube, Boxee, Dell and Clicker on Thursday brought good news for anyone considering canceling their cable service in favor of internet TV. First, YouTube announced that within the next few days it will start offering full 1080P HD streams; better than your cable company can offer. Next, Boxee announced a 'Boxee Box' that promises to make it easier to get the content off your computer and onto your TV. Or you could hook up Dell's Inspiron Zino HD instead. [...] And, last but not least in this roundup of announcements is the launch of Clicker, a programming guide for internet TV that aims to help you find what you want, when you want it.

Some call this the ubiquitous reality dream, yet that is still just a dream until we have interactive computers in every single device, appliance, wall, sidewalk, pole, mailbox, brick, and so on. What's not a dream anymore... to kill off cable TV due to obvious demands for interactive media... at least... when you want it and where you want it. It would be to hard to move these interactive media into some format like the old coin-op laser disk games. A few presses of the buttons on the remote control, and your Law & Order show might have an interactive verdict. Just think with this interactivity, your neighbors might-see/have-seen a totally different ending to L&O!



[edit on 13-11-2009 by dzonatas]

My prediction stated in this thread happened sooner than thought!

Nvidia has announced that 3D Blu-ray movies will begin appearing in the Summer of 2010.

He also said that 3D Blu-ray movies will need screens with refresh rates of 120Hz, double the current standard of 60Hz, and 2x speed Blu-ray drives. As with all of Nvidia's 3D products, shutter glasses will be required to view films.

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(emphasis mine)

One more step into total immersion.