Tag Archives: Amazon

June 16, 2023 · 20:49

The news I never saw coming

We all have this, we see events. We see impact and we see the fallout of choices. There are no real surprises. Yet Google surprised me a little. First they dump their Google Stadia and through that shed market share, all whilst there is a stage where they also denied themself to billions in revenue. This happens, there is no blame. There are a whole range of corporations who needed to adjust their mission statement, their party line. I get that (in the 90’s not that much). So I was taken by surprise when Al Arabiya gave us (at https://english.alarabiya.net/News/saudi-arabia/2023/06/15/Google-announces-training-for-Saudi-Arabia-gamers-MENA-Gaming-Summit-in-2023) with ‘Google announces MENA Gaming Summit in 2023, training for Saudi Arabia gamers’. So first they dump their Stadia and now they start training gamers? What will they use a PS5, or the Amazon Luna? So when we see “Last year, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince announced a plan to develop the country’s gaming and esports industry, aiming to create 39,000 jobs and boost GDP by $13.3 billion (50 billion riyals) by 2030.” I merely go ‘meh’, they turned me down when they stood to make billions in advance, optionally I would be representing 40% of that revenue in phase 1. I admit that my solution is not much for the Esports category, as such I am not a solution, but indirectly they could be fuelling all kinds of business and the revenue adds up. Still this is not about me, it is about Google. Their training manuals are pretty sic and as such that choice makes sense, yet under what guise are they restarting a gaming initiative after dumping their console? It is not the weirdest question to ask.

And it is also there that some parts are starting to make sense. With “Gaming experts and partners from Google will run training programs for over 250 university students across Ahsa, Abha, Dammam, Jeddah, and Riyadh from September 2023 with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology’s Centre of Digital Entrepreneurship (CODE). The program is expected to cover entrepreneurship strategies, gaming career opportunities, monetisation through Google Ads solutions such as PerformanceMax and AdMob, distribution best practices on Google’s app store Play, storage solution Cloud and video streaming platform YouTube.” It seems to me that the gaming side is merely a sidetrack. The real deal is seen with “monetisation through Google Ads solutions such as PerformanceMax and AdMob, distribution best practices on Google’s app store Play, storage solution Cloud and video streaming platform YouTube” as I see it, this is about advertisement money at ANY expense. How lovely from Google. At present we see the funny money hype through gaming as an advertisement handle. How to maximise on that, which is not the same as gaming. It is at times actually the opposite of it. 

And with “YouTube will offer a workshop at the Saudi Esports Federation’s Gamers8 conference for 50 Saudi-based creators and Esports players focusing on gaming content and channel optimisation, audience development and engagement with the gaming community on YouTube.” I reckon that before long it will become about advertisements pushing through engaging with gamers. I could be wrong, but that is how I am seeing it at present. There is one part I find deceptive, but I could be wrong. With “Saudi Arabia is home to over 22.3 million gaming enthusiasts, many of whom can be equipped to turn their passion or hobby into a full-time career.” I am wondering what the endgame is. You see, Saudi Arabia has 32.1 million people. This statement gives us that 69% of Saudi Arabia is a gamer. That is an uncanny large population. And then we get to ‘many of whom can be equipped to turn their passion or hobby into a full-time career’, I cannot say that this is false, because I have no data whatsoever giving evidence that the statement is correct or false, yet the statement that the larger setting of 69% can be equiped to be professional players implies that there is a massive need for hardware. Perhaps that is true, but it also opens up other dangers for Saudi Arabia. An average gamer and his PC sets the need for an 850 Watt power supply. Now consider that half of that, roughly 15 million will suddenly require 850 Watt for the PC and then we get the monitor and other devices. That is one hell of a power drain. The KSA would need to consider the larger need of 2 nuclear reactors commencing their building within 60 days and there is every chance that if the Google numbers are right, they will come up short long before these rectors are completed. These puppies take 5 years, they can rely on gas or oil reactors for power, but that puts whatever environmental needs they had going on the draft of failure. All that and the largest setting is not even being met. That level of gamer additions and the rest of the nation will face labour shortages, but that is merely me trying to be realistic.

So is there something? Well yes, this does not come out of someones imagination, but I have some question around the numbers and that is merely before we consider another side. You see Statista released in April “Nine out of ten adults in the UAE play video games, and 90% of respondents in a Global Consumer Survey by Statista considered themselves gamers, with 23% identifying themselves as frequent players, meaning they play at least 11 hours per week. In 2023, the UAE’s gaming market is projected to reach over 306 million USD.” As such is the reaction of the KSA regarding what the UAE is giving us and is Google merely the facilitator? I get the 90% bit, I consider myself a gamer, but that is not my professional setting (it was not possible to be a professional gamer when I was young), so they have other professions as it will be in the KSA, yet to be a professional esports person, making it your full time career requires other elements and when you consider these parts the numbers do not add up, not in the frontal version and not in the aftercare (power needs). 

In the end, we will have to wait to see what the MENA Gaming Summit in 2023 actually ends up being. We will see, it will be soon enough.

Enjoy the weekend now starting near you.

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June 15, 2023 · 22:20

Crude awakening

This happens, we all have that. There is no negativity, there is no blame. This sometimes happens, yet when it happens it tends to be with a negative siding. Yet the opposite can also happen and I just learned it is even worse. You see this all started some time ago when I created one of my IP’s. In the running were Google and Amazon. In the first phase it as around 5 billion annual with a lot more after. Google dumped the option with the solution attached and Amazon remained, they weren’t biting either. Yet then Tencent technologies entered that field and things were looking up again. As such I have time. Yet a few hours ago I learned that the lower setting was fine and I expected that at full release the upper limit was somewhere between 12 and 20 billion. There was no way to be more precise, because this has ever been done before and I cannot say too much, because Microsoft is ALWAYS watching and I do not want them anywhere near my IP.

So the crude awakening happened a few hours ago when I learned that the inclusion factor is close to 0.0144% (annual shift) this improves the value of my IP by a lot and I have no idea just how much, but it implies that is will be a lot higher than 20 billion under cautious estimation. It is a lot more than I ever envisioned and personally I do not care if it ends up with Amazon or Tencent technologies. This was why I tried to sell it to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and to the Kingdom Holding Company. I reckoned that 5% of 12 billion is well worth it and now it seems that I could (could being the operative word) end up with a hell of a lot more. Not that I need that, but the setting is one I never saw coming to THAT degree and that is before some realise the impact on Facebook, because they will lose a slice of their cake, but it will be over time and the size of their loss is not one I can predict, too many factors involved. Another side was that it would positively impact Amazon, which is why I tried to get there first, but they are seemingly not interested. That’s fine, when a company decides to leave billions on the floor, I say ‘Whatever’ and there as a small scent at that time that google might work, but they took another direction and weeks later I see that Tencent Technologies is entering that field. Matter little to none to me, but that is life. 

So as my mind is reeling from the inclusion number (you need to see the 1/x side) when that happens the world starts spinning. It is the most brutal of crude awakenings I ever faced. So for this moment (optionally until tomorrow morning) I will have a hard time focussing because the numbers do no lie and I reran these numbers a few times, even if the numbers presented to me are off by factor 10 (I redid them offsetting by 100) the results are mind boggling and I do not get shaken this easily.

As such I will try to focus on other matters tomorrow, but that is as good as I can promise myself. Thank goodness the weekend is now a day away. I will need this upcoming weekend for all the 48 hours it holds.

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June 14, 2023 · 23:50

The cross over

Yes, we have all seen it. Episodes where one crosses over in the other. It happens in gaming too, but it is seemingly more rare there. Yet what happens when we take advantage of this? An example is Azura’s Star. An item that has the ability to be massively powerful if you use it right. And there is the nag. Due to some constraints that is almost impossible and there is no fault, no blame. The fact that this game still has a hold on people after its release date of 11.11.11, almost 12 years later is nothing to be sneered at. Bethesda has earned the right to its legendary status. The fact that most of us (me included) would love to replay Fallout 3 on a PS5 shows that there is a lot Bethesda has to be proud of. So what is this about?

Consider that we would be able to build a charging station for Azura’s star. It is not instant, it will take hours, perhaps a day for Azura Star or a Grand Soul Gem, or a Black Soul Gem to get charged. Yet that stage offers a lot more than merely a powered gem. A setting where we have a mission to create a charging pedestal. Another mission that is all about functionality. Why no one considered it? I cannot tell, but in an earlier article a few years back, I created a magical duplicator for a castle (the one you could conquer in an expansion of Oblivion). A device, created and over time it would duplicate the item you had. In this one case Bows. As such it would take increasing more time. A hunting bow would take 30 minutes and a glass bow would take several hours. But once the stations are filled. The guards on the walls could upgrade whatever bow they had to a much more powerful bow. And it could be done with almost any item, but a sword would take another duplicating station. It was my idea to offer the setting where the guards as NPC’s would get upgraded to a much more able opponent and the items are locked to that NPC. When they die the weapons vanish. Swords, great swords, maces, Axes, Bows. You could create a real guard that was the fear of anyone trying to invade your castle. But how to create it? Well that was the easy part. It is how you can create a balance, or an imbalance that does not affect or benefit you beyond the normal scope. That is the key question. Even in the game I set up for the developer of Amazon Luna, PS5 and basically all non-Microsoft systems. Balance is still important. Too powerful and you damage the game, too weak and it is not worthy of pursuit. So there are settings we need to consider to make it worthy of chasing. And it falls into the realm of evolving NPC’s in your game. Because that will be a next step in most RPG games that would want to take their game a decade of more past its inception date. Charging stations are merely one step, a natural step, not even a gimmick. It came to mind, because if Fable will become the game whose trailer brought a smile to my face, we all need to up our games. This is how it should be. A powerful Microsoft implies that Sony, Amazon and Tencent will need to up their game too. As such I have set a lot online for all the non-Microsoft companies to take a learning from. More could and should be done. If this means that gaming in 2025 comes at an all time high, I will have done what I needed to do in my lifetime to progress gaming. A worthy endeavour if ever there was one. 

My brain had a much less noble thoughts on cross overs, but that does not matter. I was able to set it right and that is what matters to me. And crossovers could be applied nearly everywhere (as long as you own the IP). I made mention on this in the early development of the Luna and in my case the Luna key. So in this example that I am giving you, what happens when you have game 1 (System shock) and game two (Cyberpunk 2077) allows you to make a much more powerful firearm charger? I added another example in the past where Fallout Shelter could upgrade Fallout 4 (or whatever comes next) and that is interesting because you now have interaction between a mobile or tablet with a console. Gaming to a wider degree without compromising either. We need to consider these steps as we Crete new games. Ubisoft tried this with AC Brotherhood and did not get it quite right. Not wrong, but not quite right. Still it was worthy of trying and it did play out nice. Yet I believe they could have taken it much further. I personally believe that they were not serious enough. They didn’t create two games, merely one to add to the other. That wasn’t a great step, but it was their step to make. 

Often enough these additions are merely cosmetic, but they do not need to be. Crossovers are an option often ignored or denied for decent reasons, but what happens when we overcome that weakness?

Enjoy the day!

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June 11, 2023 · 13:11

Another player to push Microsoft down

Yes, a week ago Sony got more light in the Financial Times (at https://www.ft.com/content/4b410761-78d8-4bec-a48b-79f1373d42e1) gave us ‘Sony chief warns technical problems persist for cloud gaming’ there we are given “Promise of technology remains unfulfilled after more than a decade of development”. This is expected, but in light of certain steps, it is a little disappointing that Sony is not on a better horse. It works out well for me, but that is not the point. You see, these streaming solutions are great if properly aligned. In addition to that we do know that it will depend a lot on a full 5G deployment and in that both Japan and the US are underachievers. Japan is in a much better position than the US and the EU, but those two places is where the actual consumer base is for Sony and they need them, just like Microsoft needs them but they fumbled the ball a few times over. We are also given “Sony’s chief executive has warned that cloud gaming is still technically “very tricky”, playing down the risk to the console maker of the industry quickly converting to a technology on which its rival Microsoft has bet heavily”, as well as “I think cloud itself is an amazing business model, but when it comes to games, the technical difficulties are high,” said Yoshida, citing latency — the fast response times demanded by gamers — as the biggest issue. “So there will be challenges to cloud gaming, but we want to take on those challenges”. In this Kenichiro Yoshida is not wrong, but as I saw in articles I wrote months ago and in at least two cases 1-2 years ago I mentioned that Microsoft and now Sony are both looking in the wrong direction. They are in a stage where they are looking wearing the wrong glasses and that is the rub (for both). You see at present Tencent Technologies is seemingly looking in the right direction and that is the problem. If Sony doesn’t adjust its scope and its approach it will fall short. You see both companies need two parts, the first is a population and the second is the technology. At present all three have the technology, but the approach to getting a population is skewed and optionally right out wrong. This is a problem because Tencent is taking a much wider approach and they have the option to win this game at present. It does not make me happy as I am a Sony person. Some like dogs, some like cats. I like cats and my PlayStation. Yet I am a gamer at heart and that is why I am not turning my back on what Tencent could be bringing. This might not appease the American or Japanese ego, but that is not my concern. As I see it, the stronger the competition, the better the systems. The Xbox led to the Xbox360 and that pushed the PS3 to become a much stronger PS4, of that I have no illusions. Now with the Tencent system, we will see whether Amazon and Sony will become stronger adversaries, or if they will through in the towel as Google did. No matter how we see it there are issues in that Kenichiro Yoshida is completely correct. How they are overcome or swirled around is all up to Sony. One issue is partially seen in “many users have yet to switch from a console or high-end gaming PC to streaming games entirely over the internet, fearing the lags that can be caused by slowing internet connectivity and server speeds”, you see the error here is the ‘switch’ part. That is not likely to happen any day soon. It is why I and many others have a Nintendo next to our PS4 or PS5. The streaming console will be the third system when the offer is interesting enough. And for a gamer the currency is games. For that all three systems need time and they need to focus on what could be gotten now and what can be developed in the near future. The second one is important as is sets a long term goal and I put the design for nextgen streaming solutions as Public Domain for Sony and Amazon free of charge as to give Microsoft greater worries.  There is nothing more nagging when they spend billions on software houses and you hand new ideas free of charge making their investment an anchor around their necks. But that is the price you pay for screwing with gamers and taking away their free choice. They were allowed to do that, they did nothing wrong, but the price is a much larger issue and I was happy to give it to them. 

Yet this news article is not a new setting but one that leaves me with questions. Not merely is the article completely correct and on point? You see this is new technologies and a person like Kenichiro Yoshida will give what he can not optionally all he does have to tell, I get that. 

Yet the quote “The promise of cloud gaming is still unfulfilled after more than a decade of development” gives a rather irritating issue. You see there has been no information on certain developments and that is fine. The press does not need to know everything (at times they are unaware of anything), but it makes me wonder if Sony made the same mistake that Microsoft has made and that would give Tencent Technologies a much larger advantage. This is all on the premise of what I do know and I admit right of the bat that there is a whole lot I do not know. Yet that to is under the stage of certain elements and as I see it so far my assessment has been correct, as such I wonder what is in store for us. How deep will Tencent Technologies penetrate the western gamers world? At present their stage looks good, but as I stated, it does depends on a few items and what I have seen from some of the Unreal Engine 5 demo’s they are on the right path and some other information gives us that they are looking in a few right directions and that might bank them well over 50,000,000 consoles global within 2 years, which would shatter whatever Microsoft thinks it can sell and it will also shatter the expectations of Sony, but that is on what I presently know.

So enjoy the weekend and remember Monday is but a day away. 

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June 10, 2023 · 17:48

How to ping a delusional mind

You would think this is about someone and you would be right. This time it is about me, all about me. You see, if you read my previous article (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/06/10/without-intro-course/) called ‘Without intro course’ you would see that I am giving a lot more attention to the NPC part of RPG gaming. I have no idea how it is currently done. Yet I suddenly had a spark and I will only lift part of that veil. You see Microsoft is always watching and those losers are out of the game of consideration. This will be only for Sony (Playstation), Amazon (Luna) or the Tencent (Logitech G handheld). I personally would love to include Nintendo, but they would not be able to facilitate this. That is not negatively intended. Their system is awesome, but this is nextgen stuff, beyond the PS5. And then only three remain as I see it. This new system is a reengineered solution that could facilitate up to 25,000 NPC’s in a game. No one has ever done that and I got there in the weirdest way. The first thing my brain gave me was “When is a VOR not a VOR?” Which I got from Die Hard 2 (1990) it started a sea of ideas and as my mind was redesigning what it was designing in the first place a thought came to me and as I thought it through it made more and more sense and this is merely the groundwork. You see as I got thinking I remembered my old classes (UTS, 2011) which got me to the IP of Vinton Cerf. Yet his idea was set to other settings and it as not the obvious of choices, but if I am right, this ‘improved’ patent might fly. You see one setting is “If the improvement is also considered non-obvious, then the patent office would grant you a patent on the improvement”. I feel certain that Vinton never considered this application. The idea of game streaming and usage for the NPC characters never existed and until this moment doesn’t seem to exist. Some issues we see in Skyrim (not a bad word about that game) and the Horizon series never seemingly touched on this. Yet if I am right, my brooding has moved me to an entirely new setting of RPG gaming and that I keep under wraps and add this to my first IP as an optional bonus. There would be more less obvious advantages, but that would be giving away too much of what my delusional mind just set in motion. No matter how this turns out. My imagination engines are running full throttle and it isn’t even Sunday yet. 

Have fun.

 

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June 9, 2023 · 10:53

That same stuff

That was the first thing I considered when I was reading some story about recruiters. The same thing we have seen for decades. Interrogations, not an interview. Fake promises (experienced that myself) and forever the need to collect as many resumes as possible. It is the old way and covid changed ways, yet it seems that recruiters are in the dark on what they need to do. Like taximeters, trying to get to the next ‘cling’ on the timeline.

And then the largest failing of any recruiter. No communication at all. It is like sending a ship in a bottle into a bottomless pit, never to be heard from again. This is exactly why recruiters have lost well over 90% of credibility of whomever they had contact with. I have (to the best of my knowledge) never had any feedback from a recruiter and over a decade only one has ever arranged an interview. I didn’t get that job, but when I saw the scope of what they needed, they would take someone more experienced. So no hard feelings. One in 10 years. 

Recruiters need to alter their scope, their vision and their approach. Yet as far as I can tell there is no chance of that happening. To be honest, I saw one interesting approach last week. One recruiter (or firm) set the advertisement with the line ‘Would you like to be a millionaire in 2023?’ OK, this might be largely fake, but it would catch anyones eye. And an eye catcher is good, but the rest still matters. And in the past LinkedIn was the one place to go, but it seems that they are taking a page out of the approach that Seek had been making. Job notifications are merely advertisement space and that is how it feels. I might be wrong, but for that the job posters would have to communicate. In this the problem is that my setting is that I have had less than 2% response to my application with 60% of those being “We have received your application” the rest were right out rejections, but that is fair. At least you know where you are at that point. 

Still in Australia in a place where ageism is key, I would think that the people who have the decades of experience are learning. We see messages like “Australia’s skills shortage shows no signs of improving as the latest job reports point to gaps in industries” are abundant, and this was less than 3 months ago. Yet the cold shoulder approach that recruiters give are no sign that there is any work shortage and as stated the thousands of jobs that places like Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, and Google had shed are decent proof of that.  

As such, I am also looking international. Yet at my age that is a dubious approach to take. On the upside, if a firm is large enough and they require me to also man a desk in an international office, that might not be the worst idea to consider. I am still hoping that places like Google and Amazon pen their eyes to the fact that they left billions on the floor, but hey, we can all wish that someone opens their eyes, can’t we?

What is getting clear is that the 90’s approach to recruiting is no longer working and it hasn’t worked for some time. As I personally see it, recruiters are the Direct Marketers of a world that is guiding their postal box straight to the circular filing system. But that might just be me.

For me I am silently enjoying last night’s dream. I was in the Dubai Mall and a baby Cheetah (yes those fast cats) jumped on my lap as I was sitting on a bench, the little rascal curled up and fell asleep. I reckon the holy grail for any cat lover. I woke up with quite the smile on my face.

Enjoy today day, the next weekend is now within reach.

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June 8, 2023 · 12:48

Timing Matters

This thought came to me last night after I have had a few negative encounters with places like JB HiFi and likeminded places. First off, JB Hifi (et al) did nothing wrong. They were all as kind and as customer service minded as needed. What was the small fact is that I had a few dollars at my disposal and I wanted to catch up with music by Bowie, Kraftwerk, Enigma, Supertramp and a few others. None were available. Moreover there is a whole range of other musicians that would not normally be available in Australia. Then I remembered the larger setting. It was IP, but not mine. It was a Dutch entrepreneur named Hans Breukhoven who created the Dutch chain ‘Free Record Store’. It was as impressive as JB HiFi or the Virgin Megastore. He came up with the idea where people selected an album and it would be created at the spot. In the 90’s this was too new, too forward thinking, but I reckon he had the right idea. Now we rely on Spotify, but why? And when bandwidth becomes an issue, places like Spotify will have a problem. What matters is that this idea by a place like Amazon (most likely) could create a special store in the larger cities first, creating such a place. Allowing people to connect to music and strongly local music. 

You see there is no clear number of expats globally, but some sources state it is well over 250,000,000 people. Consider that there are that many people that cannot connect to their original music. We can give you a list, but that list becomes too large and too overwhelming. New York Alone has an expected 3.4 million expats. As such one store offering them a whole range of music done at that point and offered to these people become a viable solution now. After that places like London, Paris, Amsterdam and like minded locations become a next setting. It is becoming more and more easy to create high quality CD’s, the elements are there, the printing options are there and it is not out of the realm of possibilities that a place like Amazon will partner with a place like QuickCopy and complete the circle. Where do you find local Italian music? Name a nation and the names will come pouring out. The idea that Hans Breukhoven had was spot on, he was merely too early with the idea and he left us without seeing it come to fruition. Yet I reckon that this is registered IP and they might want to consider talking to Amazon about it. Amazon is not the only player, but it is the most viable player to make it work and I reckon that an element that has the ability to become a billion dollar industry should not be ignored, but that might merely be me. 

No matter how it turns out for me, I reckon that there is a market which is now becoming large enough to take another look at the ideas that some rejected over the last few decades, but that might merely be me.

For those with the simple setting that I should rely on Amazon, they are not incorrect. You see, I believe in supporting my own local hooker (a term from the 70’s). I get that Amazon is soon the only option for me, but that implies that the local shops have failed and I believe that it is my duty to offer them a solution, even if Amazon is added to it, unless they partner with QuickCopy, making my believe sound fine. You see, it is not merely about the music we all like. How about musicians like Abadi Al-Johar, Adriano Celentano, Sakis Rouvas, Liesbeth List, Rufus Wainwright or Gustavo Cerati. I know merely two of them. But the world is larger than me and the setting of someone wanting an album now is not out of the realm of possibilities and when we have that running. People will have an evolving mind towards movies. DVD’s is an option, but Blu-Rays not yet (as far as I know). A station where distribution will lose out of, merely because they cannot have all and that tracks will have to evolve and the idea that Hans Breukhoven had a few decades ago is now starting to make more and more sense. And I get nothing out of this, which is not a prerequisite. I believe that in this world, in this economy we will need to put all hands on deck to start making an impact. This today was mine, I have had a few ideas in the past and I merely added another one. I do not reject anything because it is not part of my bottom line, that is the stupid approach of a local thinking manager. It is as someone once said Think Local, Act global and I am merely doing my part.

Enjoy the day, soon you are merely one day away from the day before the weekend.

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June 7, 2023 · 20:40

The boom what?

Yes, a few hours ago, the AL-Monitor gave me the news (and anyone else who reads it) that ‘Canada’s arms exports boom to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Qatar’ (at https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/06/canadas-arms-exports-boom-saudi-arabia-israel-qatar) now you think this is great news (as in size of the news), but you would be wrong. Canada, the other commonwealth nations as well as America are waking up to the coffee (optionally served by Tim Horton himself). When we read “most of the shipments coming from a $15 billion contract reached in 2014 but only approved for export by Canada’s current government” and you consider ‘Is it too little, too late?’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/06/02/is-it-too-little-too-late/), which I wrote on June 2nd and you take the scale of the setting, you will see just how desperate the US is at present. Is it that Saudi Arabia is siding with BRICS? Is it because Saudi Arabia decided to cut production by a million barrels per day? Your guess is as good as mine, yet this is the setting and the Canadian BS line that it only got approved by the current government does not compute with me. This is the result of bad management on too many levels of US administration and now that the end-line is in view and the US is seeing that several nations, and a few not friendly to America are ahead of them. They are trying whatever they can to avert disaster and I am not sure if that is even possible at present. As I personally see it, China played the long game and they are now the expected winning team. Ahead in defence contracts with the KSA, ahead with infrastructure contracts with the KSA and Telecom contracts and now that the others are waking up, we get “The aims of Blinken’s trip, analysts say, include regaining influence with Riyadh over oil prices, fending off Chinese and Russian influence in the region and nurturing hopes for an eventual normalisation of Saudi Arabian-Israeli ties.” What a surprise! I wrote on June 3rd in ‘Would you believe that?’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/06/03/would-you-believe-that/) where I mentioned Russia, China and Iran. I also gave a list where we see these 4 points now directly or indirectly mentioned. 

2. Oil prices.
3. BRICS membership.
4. Defence spendings lost.
5. Iranian diplomatic settings.

And it does not end there. The article (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/7/blinken-starts-saudi-arabia-visit-aimed-at-steadying-relations) also gives us “Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Washington, DC-based think tank, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that discouraging a closer Saudi Arabian-Chinese relationship is probably the most important element of Blinken’s visit.” With the underlining “[Blinken should explain] why Chinese interests do not align with Saudi Arabia and why closer relations in a strategic way inhibit closer relations with Washington”. You see, here is the delusional stage. They are thinking that America still has options. I personally believe it is too late for that, if that was the case then this stage would be handled in 2019 (2015 would have been better), not in 2023. As I see it China merely waited for the US and EU bungle this to the largest degree and that happened in 2020 as China successfully courted The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for a whole range of issues and with the US president labelling the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia a pariah, that moment was reached. It wasn’t merely the straw that broke the camels back, it inhabited the entire convoy of Camels and now the end-game is coming into focus. For me (where I am now) it would in part be nice if Blinky Tony (Anthony Blinken) pulls it off, but he will have to sweeten the deal by a massive amount, not merely 1-2 promises, but a whole range of issues on paper signed by the president of the United States and here Congress, as well as the Senate better get out of the way, the loss will be too great if they bungle this. Still the chances of success are slim as I see it. Too much has passed and even as the United Nations played its anti-Saudi cards it might not be enough. As such a whole range of issues that got started by a United Nations essay by someone no one cares about, just like that columnist, that names eludes me for now.

More of my ‘insane predictions’ as some trolls would say are now a matter of fact and slowly we see the facts placed on papers as what is ‘stated’, but last week there was none of this. As such is the media doing its job? Are they looking into matters? What else are they missing? For me the case does not change much, other than the chance that Amazon wakes up to the billions they are missing out of, for me Tencent Technologies is a viable solution, it might cost me a little, but that is nothing to what Amazon and Facebook will lose out of. Google decided not to go ahead in this direction and as I am seeing certain players evolving ideas I had on a few occasions, the timing is decent (but it could have been better), still in light of where America is heading, I should be thankful for every dollar I will get out of this deal and as I see it time is growing shorter and shorter. Still as we see America trying to avoid sinking on the spot, we are all in decent fear of how it hits us, because there is no way that the western world (as well as most Commonwealth nations) will not get hit to some extent. All because we had faith in ego driven idiots (sorry, I meant politicians).

So, how is all this playing out for you?

Enjoy the midweek, we are now at 50% of the next weekend timeline.

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June 5, 2023 · 07:54

Remastering failure

That is a question I am wondering about. This all started last night when I saw some advertisement of Belvedere Vodka with Daniel Craig (kind of) dancing in it. This reminded me of Christoper Walken in the video of Weapon of choice by Fatboy Slim. This is how it started. You see, in 1980 he starred in a movie called Dogs of war, made after a book by Frederick Forsyth. The cast was good, I personally liked the movie, yet it only made $5.4 million on a $8 million budget. A failure Hollywood would say. Another movie made on an unpublished work was The Wild Geese from 1978, also all star cast making almost 10 million on a nearly 12 million budget. Another failure according to Hollywood. Still they were good movies and both had unorthodox settings in those days. The audience was not ready for these movies.

So what happens when Netflix, Apple or Amazon takes a stab at these making them massively darker, making them larger (like a Mini series) You see, these movies could never be made in 135 minutes. But in 4-6 episodes of 60-90 minutes this takes on a whole new form and this time it is to an audience who is ready for the setting of either movie. And not for nothing, Frederick Forsyth has published a whole range of books that could be redone. Some more readily then others. We think of the fourth protocol as the movie that launched Pierce Brosnan into stardom, and opposing Michael Caine he did the job, but in this day and age that setting is suddenly a lot more real than ever before. The Fourth Protocol made twice the budget, as such it might not be seen as a failure. Yet these stories could rake in the viewers and therefor the cash. I am considering the thought that these movies were ahead of their time and Hollywood trying to blockbuster whatever they could got to these scripts too early. This is merely a personal view and optionally not the right one. Yet I wonder if anyone in these three houses looked at the movies that never made a profit and wondered if they could now. Both Wild Geese and the Dogs of War had the setting of a good story, they had the background to make it interesting (especially Steward Granger as the exploiting merchant banker Sir Edward Matheson in Wild Geese), all sides that were never explored, you could not do that in 134 minutes. Yet now, in the streaming age these jewels could make a new appearance, they are over 40 years old now. I wonder what more these three could find if they altered the vision they have. 

Good movies aren’t grown on trees, they are found in scripts and at the moment the search for scripts is a whole new problem (until the strikes are a thing of the past). They might not have script writers now, but the preamble to prepare for tomorrow is not something you want to leave in the field, not in this day and age.

Enjoy Monday, the weekend is almost yesterday.

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May 25, 2023 · 11:49

The balancing scales

This story comes from two different directions, not too different, but there is no real link between the two (it will make sense, I promise). I (and millions with me) saw the Sony Showcase 2023. To be honest, I was a little disappointed. I do not think that this is on Sony, it is on me and to illustrate that, I will have to make a few sidesteps. In the first, you all know how I loathe Microsoft, they did this themselves (and their customer care with them) but we need to acknowledge and accept that Sony is now better because of Microsoft not in spite off. Sony grew to new heights as they were at each others throats. As they were battling for supremacy the gamers in both camps got a much better console and we all rejoiced. The issue (as I personally see it) is that the same needs to happen to games, driving games and gaming to new heights.  This is one and for me the most important reason to hope that Starfield, a Microsoft exclusive will become a 90%+ game. It will up the ante for Sony (and optionally Amazon Luna too). The show started with Fairgame$ a multi gamer experience which (even if it was not) smelled a lot like Ubisoft, all smooth, all overwhelming, but the real deal? We will have to wait and see. Helldivers 2 was very Starship Troopers, Phantom Blade 0 looked like an upgraded Sekiro and Towers of Aghasba had a Zelda feel to it. The games were nice, they were very turbo. They had their good moments too, or at least moments I lived for and I am not stating that all games need to be set to me, but when you saw that Telescope looking like the telescope from Alien (more futuristic), what did you think? Then we get some foam game that was clearly based upon Nintendo Splatoon, a turbo edition. This happens and I am happy for the PS5 people who get to have a go at this game, but all this is iteration and gaming, real good gaming gets offered innovation, we need that to evolve gaming and that is one of the reasons why I hope that Starfield is the game every gamers waits for. I had my moments, I loved Spiderman 2, I saw the new parts and they looked good, they really do, but is it innovation? I feel uncertain, there were more games. I can’t wait to get my hands on Alan Wake 2, it seems to be a winner, but seems is the operative word, it is gameplay we need and we saw little of that (apart from Spiderman 2). Yet the story behind this is that we need actual innovation in gaming on every console and this time around Microsoft seemingly gets to have first dibs on that, but we will know for sure in September. 

This links to the second part of it. I am replaying AC Origins and now I got to the curse of the pharaoh which is graphically a new height. Yet here my mind wandered, I had played it before and I cherished it. I took a sidestep to Valerian and Laureline (in Dutch: Ravian), I grew up with that comic as well with the Trigan Empire and things started to blend, started to mingle. So what if this game is not an assassins game and you cannot climb, hide or anything. Almost like Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, but now with a much larger stealth part, no killing. The idea floated in my mind when I saw the Star Trek Voyager episode Displaced in season 3. So what happens when we get to the two worlds Aaru and Aten. So when we get there we know nothing, we get to live lives, we get to walk around and we get to missions, but not in the usual ways. We need to be part of, or hear conversations to open this story and both worlds will have a dozen story lines. No Sekmet scorpions or Cobra’s. You think it is boring, but this is not a game for everyone, it is one where the story is everything and Ubisoft has shown that it can create good stories.  

This interacts when we doe in one world, we wake up in the other and vice vera, so you need to die at times (it is a hassle, but so is life). As such we get to learn that this is a prison and we need to learn why we are prisoners (a little The Status Civilization by Robert Sheckley where we get to see versions of stagnation and conformity) and for this the ancient civilisations were great. Life was simple and the mind is much easier observed and classified when it does the simple things. Yet how to set this in gaming? Ubisoft had its device, but what happens when the world is the device? What happens when the wold is not part of the mind, but the mind has to adhere to that world? No matter how complex we are, the mind controls is and as such we are shown new iterations and that could lead to innovations. But in this the story is everything.

We can speculate and ejaculate all over innovation, yet unless we are holding it in our hands (sorry, no pun intended) we have no idea what innovation looks like, the mind will not fill in the blanks, our wills do and that is why Google and Amazon missed out (at least twice already) So how do we get about to find the next innovator in gaming? Well we can dump all the BI people stating they have no clue and rely on the artsy people to dream the new game. Perhaps one with tech savvy skills, because art only gets us so far, tech does the rest, not Business Intelligence. 

This is my view and there will be people telling me I am wrong here. I will let you decide. For now, I want the new iteration of System Shock. Mainly because how the initial game made me feel, just like Mass Effect 1 ten years later. I miss that feeling to some degree, which I personally believe is the reason that some remaster are great reminders.

Enjoy the day.

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