Sunday, April 29, 2007

The future of video games

I got to play some Nintendo Wii this weekend for only the second time ever. My friend brought it over to another friend's house, and we played for hours. I can't get enough of it.

We played Wii Sports, which includes tennis, boxing, golf, bowling, and baseball. All from one controller a little bigger than the size of my hand, I can play all of these different games, going through the real motions necessary to play the games "in person", or "the old way."

The Wii is going to change what video gamers will expect from video games in the future. We can now actually play a sport on a video game and use the same muscles that we would if we were playing in real life. In a few years, gamers will not be satisfied with playing a game where you only press buttons and watch a representation of yourself act out your command. Soon they will demand that they be able to act out every motion themselves.

This leads me to ask how the Wii will be used in the future. Will trainers and youth coaches start telling the parents of the 8-year-old kids on the team to "go home and practice your swing on your Wii for an hour before you go to bed tonight?"

The other major observation I had from playing the Wii and watching my friends compete against each other: We created ourselves in the game. We weren't picking current stars of professional sports and "controlling" them in our game. We all made "Mii's", which are characters that you get to customize that look as much like yourself as you want. Then we competed by controlling an onscreen likeness of ourselves.

This leads me to ask: Will the idolization of sports stars start to be less important, and instead an emphasis on our own sports accomplishments be more sought after? If I can control a likeness of myself and play a game of baseball, will I start to care less about Ken Griffey Jr. or Frank Thomas? Will I only see them as inspiration to practice my swing until I'm as good as them, instead of just wanting to "control" them in my game?

Obviously, only time will tell. But after playing the Wii, I'm optimistic for my future children when it comes to their video game consumption.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Reema Samaha


Yesterday I attended the memorial service for Reema Samaha, one of the 32 innocent Virginia Tech students who were killed on Monday. I never knew Reema, but I knew her older brother Omar. Omar went to school with me in elementary school at St. Timothy's, in high school at Paul VI, and then followed me to Virginia Tech.

The service was back home at my childhood church, St. Timothy's. There were so many people there that I did not get a seat, but I didn't mind. It was great to see so many people supporting the Samaha family and the Hokie Nation.

Reema's father made a great comment in his closing remarks. He said that the name Samaha in Lebanese means "forgiveness." The media cameras from all over the globe were watching as he explained the Samaha name, and then went on to pray for the soul of Seung-Hui Cho, the 23-year old student who killed the 32 others. He also prayed for the Cho family as they grieve for the loss of their loved one.

It struck me as one of the most moving things I've heard this week out of all the speeches that I've listened to. No one before Mr. Samaha had expressed any concern over the killer's soul at all. After he said it, I thought "Of course, Seung is a human being as well." In that time of great family grief, he gave the world a valuable lesson in forgiveness.

I have never been more impressed with someone's character in my life.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Hokies, stand united.


It is impossible to put into words the impact of the events of Monday, April 16th, 2007. The entire Virginia Tech community has been hurt by the actions of one. All students, faculty members, employees, alumni, family members, and friends of Virginia Tech watched the news in shock as we learned of the deaths of 32 of our fellow Hokies. We are all still going through the grieving process, feeling the emotions of shock, denial, confusion, sadness and anger while we search in vain for answers to this senseless tragedy.

No one feels these emotions more than the family members of the 32 innocent students and professors who lost their lives that day. While no Hokie will ever forget about 4/16/07, the families of the victims now carry with them a permanent scar that can never fully be healed. These families need to know that all of Hokie Nation and the entire country has their support.

Virginia Tech has set up the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund, which will be used to cover the expenses associated with assistance to the victims and their families, grief counseling, memorials, communication expenses, and comfort expenses. I started a fundraiser at the VCU Adcenter. You can start one too. It's not hard and doesn't take that much of your time. Please give to this charity.

http://www.vt.edu/tragedy/memorial_fund.php

I cannot express in words what the Hokie Nation is all about. So I will instead leave you with the closing speech of the Memorial Convocation at Cassell Coliseum on the Virginia Tech campus, given the day after the tragedy by Nikki Giovanni, renowned poet and English Professor at Virginia Tech. Her remarks and the reaction of the Hokie community in attendance show what it truly means to be a Hokie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%20KEv1aEX0WNE%20

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Nimrod Nation

I recently saw a documentary made by Kevin Proudfoot of Weiden & Kennedy and Director Brett Morgan called Nimrod Nation, which was based off Weiden & Kennedy's ESPN advertising based on the idea of "Without Sports....". Some of the ads featured the Fighting Nimrods of Watersmeet High School in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The ads showed people cheering on the Nimrod basketball team and an 85-year old alum of the school cheering the Nimrod fight song. The tag read, "Without Sports, Who Would Cheer For The Nimrods?"

The popularity of the spots created a buzz which got the Nimrods featured on Jay Leno and other national shows. Kevin and Brett saw how popular it was and decided to actually make a show called Nimrod Nation, which they pitched to ESPN. ESPN ended up denying for financial reasons, but Nimrod Nation won awards at the Sundance Film Festival.

The thing that struck me was that Brett, when discussing how they made the film, talked about the fine line between respectfully laughing with a character and making fun of a character in film. If they had wanted to, they could have made fun of the tiny town of Watersmeet and the people in it. They are very down-to-earth, nature-loving, and somewhat backwards people. And they love their Nimrods. By following the coaches, players, alumni, and fans around with a camera for 4 full weeks, they had a lot of footage that they could have used that would have been hysterical for an audience of "city people." Instead, they only showed scenes where a character made a joke that the people of Watersmeet would understand and respect.

It is inevitable that some people will laugh at this film and will be making fun of the people of Watersmeet in their heads. But Brett and Kevin did a great job of keeping the town in the loop of every joke, and the town loved it.

I strongly urge you to watch this film. Search "Nimrod Nation" and you'll find it.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Being in a suit for over 24 hours

I don't recommend ever wearing a suit for more than 12 hours at a time. I don't normally mind wearing suits, and I know that I'm about to embark on a career journey that will have me in suits on a pretty regular basis. But last Friday I was in a suit for literally 24 hours straight. Let's just say it got a little uncomfortable.

I woke up in Hoboken, New Jersey at my friend's place at around 6am. I showered and put on my suit, and he dropped me off near Rockefeller Center, where I had my interview later on that day. The interview went well, and I took the subway back to New Jersey, where I immediately hopped in my car to drive all the way back to Richmond, Virginia.

The reason I had to get back that day, and the reason I didn't change out of the suit: Adcenter Prom was that night.

Adcenter Prom is a great idea. Take all the drama and logistics involved from high school prom out, and leave the part about getting dressed up, crowning a King and Queen, and consuming alcohol. That's Adcenter Prom. It's so much fun that I was willing to leave NYC at 3pm on a Friday and forego a pretty fun weekend in the city to be back by around 10:30 to catch the last 2 hours of prom.

So I drove the whole way, and surprisingly didn't hit too much traffic, except for the DC Beltway. I got back by around 10:15 and literally didn't even go home. I went straight to prom in my suit. Prom was a really good time, but surprisingly, there was an extra keg of beer at 1am when it was over. Translation: after party. So instead of going to bed, I went to the after party, still in my suit. We had so much fun, that all of a sudden I looked at my watch, and it was 5:45 in the morning! What?? I've been up for 24 hours!! I haven't done this since my undergrad days!

And guess what: I'm still in my suit. I finally went to bed around 6:30am, and slept like a baby. It was a great day followed by a great night. But seriously: I don't recommend being in a suit for 24 hours straight.

Also, how weird is it that a guy can wear the same clothes to a job interview and a graduate school prom and be dressed perfectly for both occasions?? Hmm...

Monday, April 9, 2007

Finding out about "your Fast"

Last night I was hanging out with some of my non-Adcenter (read: normal) friends, and we went to a small party. When we got back from the party, my friend Adam reaches for a DVD to put in, just like most kids our age do when they get home at 2am on a Saturday night. Yet, this was different. This was an amazing piece of entertaining marketing that had my friends rolling on the ground laughing and at the same time lusting over the product.

I'm talking about the DVD that Crispin Porter & Bogusky made for the Volkswagon GTI. In it, an American actor with a pretty bad German accent goes through many scenes explaining the different features of the GTI and also going through some "focus group research" with a few consumers. The whole point is to find "your inner Fast."

It's hysterical. My friends told me that they had only watched it once before, yet they were quoting specific lines right before they came up! It was THAT memorable! Keep in mind that the choices in Adam's DVD collection included Wedding Crashers, Old School, Anchorman, Office Space, etc. This list of funny movies he has can go on forever. Yet he picked the VW GTI DVD, and his roommates were psyched about his decision!

Adam got it by taking a test drive of a GTI. Of course, he's a college kid and doesn't have the money to buy a GTI. But this DVD has entertained him enough that he associates the GTI with fun times, and I guarantee that in a few years when he is ready to be a car, he's going to be thinking about a GTI.

Good work Crispin.