The Vins Gagliardi website has gone live! If you’re over 21 you can buy some Ken Wong and American McGee labeled wines here: Vins Gagliardi
Category Archives: General
Hong Kong to USA
Heading back to the US for the first time in over a year. I can tell because they confiscated my shaving cream at Narita before my connecting flight to Los Angeles. You know – because I might try to hi-jack the plane by … shaving everyone. WTF. I can’t help but think, if you take away everyone’s shaving cream, you won’t be able to distinguish the terrorists by their trademarked Jihad-a-Beards.
Alright, Pokemon just informed me that my connecting flight is ready to board. Land of Freedom, here I come!
brand new: Packaging = media
Recently Ken Wong and I were invited to work on a series of wine labels for new wine company Vins Gagliardi. Company founder Pete Gagliardi wanted to introduce the dark simplicity of our twisted fairy tale concepts to a new arena. This has been one of the more interesting and fun applications of our work. The result of our collaboration has been reported on media blog “brand new”:
brand new: Packaging = media
Apple gets it. Innocent gets it. But few brands utilize their most abundant and free form of media – their packaging. Here’s some good examples of labels from a new wine company (admittedly run by a friend) that give the brand a very different, interesting feel.
And the labels themselves can be seen here:
Violent Drugs?
It’s always been interesting to me that in places like China and Korea, where on average there are more kids playing “violent video games”, there are fewer acts of violence linked to video games. You don’t have kids “going nuts” and gunning down schoolmates. Granted, guns aren’t easy to come by in these places, but still…
Then I came across this interesting viewpoint:
Prescription drugs and school shootings
Once again we see the link between antidepressants and violent behavior. I was raising the alarm about this in 1999 following the Columbine schools shootings. At that time we knew that those students were on antidepressant drugs, but the rest of the world didn’t take any notice of it. The rest of the world said, “These drugs are completely safe. They keep these kids happy and in a normal state so they don’t feel depressed.” What they actually do, though, is detach these kids from reality to the point they can go on shooting rampages and not even have a clue that they’re affecting the lives of real people. It basically transforms the world into a video game that these kids play out.
Indeed.
Danger – I Made This!
An interview on Gamasutra today posed some interesting questions, including:
American McGee On Creative Outsourcing
GS: What do you think “American McGee Presents:” in front of a game title means in the minds of gamers?AM: That depends on the gamer. I’ve seen positive and negative responses. For the “fans,” I think they have come to expect something a little different from the mainstream. That’s my hope anyway. For the detractors, I get the sense they feel I haven’t earned the name-above-the-title right.
Soon after the article posted I received this comment to my blog:
I used to believe you putting your name on your products was just a reflection of your pompous, narcissistic nature, but now I realize after playing your latest “butt mud” that it was a bit of a warning sign. American McGee on a title now has the same effect to me as the Surgeon General’s warning on a pack of cigarettes. “DANGER: AMERICAN MCGEE MADE THIS” Just wanted to say thank you again.
Blahahaha. Awesome. This guy gets it!
When looked at from this perspective you’d think the haters would have reason to rejoice at my name being in the title. They never have to worry about accidentally playing a demo or buying a game that I’ve been involved with.
I wonder if he’d mind my borrowing his idea. From now on games I’m involved with could be called something like:
“DANGER: AMERICAN MCGEE MADE THIS – Twisted Fairy Tale #6”
or
“DANGER: AMERICAN MCGEE MADE THIS – Other Person’s Idea #4”
or
Well… you get the idea. And the best part is that all these bored, irritated detractors could go off and lead safe, happy lives. Only if they become addicted to, or affected by second-hand usage of my games would they have reason for their anger and grief. Like a cigarette smoker who inhales despite the warnings, then sues someone when he gets cancer.
But then, what would they have to vent their unfocused rage upon? Maybe at that point they’d start using their time and energy to write letters about things that matter, like genocide victims in the Sudan, the false “war on terror”, or hell, something more “selfish” like their rights as American citizens being taken away in the name of “protecting freedom”.
Nah, what’s the point in that when you can slam on a silly, budget video game that you haven’t even bought a copy of!?
It’s All Around You – Animated Short
A great little animation highlighting the ridiculous nature of fear. Thanks to Jacob for the link:
It’s All Around You – Animated Short
An original animated short created specifically for the Final Destination 3: Thrill Ride Edition DVD.
This sort of thinking is what Bad Day LA is based on. The idea that people worry about the big, highly unlikely forms of death more than they should. They allow the fear of terrorist threats, bio-chemical attacks, bird flu, and other media-spread “dangers” to control their lives. People trade their freedoms in exchange for “safety” from what are basically non-threats.
On a recent trip to China one of my expat friends commented to me on the fact that the Chinese government and media work in the exact opposite fashion. If there’s a chemical plant explosion, a plane crash, or a hi-jacked school bus, the media will down-play or even hide the event. The Chinese government forcefully discourages the dissemination of information that would cause panic or “civil unrest” among its population of 1.5 billion.
I guess because the Chinese government already has absolute control they no longer feel the need to rule by fear. Their primary goal now is to maintain stability and peace. For the US, I suppose that’s good news: As soon as the US government is as controlling as the Chinese government, they too will stop using fear as a tool on their own people.