Wednesday, September 19, 2018

It's getting harder to like you

With the increasing demand to always be improving comes additional expense. And, naturally, with more expense comes additional risk. In what, may you ask? Well, this could correlate with pretty much everything - but, in this case, I'm talking about the video games industry.  Paradoxically, it is the game industry's fear of risk which may well end up causing a complete collapse in their franchise and customer base. It seems like every time I look at an established franchise they are adding new features which were not devised to benefit the player but pork barrel the company's earnings. For example:

It is not enough that we purchase the game; they want us to be continually striving toward social (and anti-social) interactions with your fellow gamer. Needless to say, this service also includes plenty of micro-transactions to bolster and tailor your player with virtual possessions and show up your ability to purchase more than your next compatriot. Naturally, they will state that this is to cover the costs of running the servers - but we all know their true agenda. GTA Online is a major cash cow for what was originally built as a stand-alone single player game. One would presume that the next Red Dead Redemption will probably require an online connection just to play the single-player game.

With the influx of gambling-based loot boxes, purchase-only avatars and vanity weaponry skins, I believe we are already at end-of-days. It is so endemic that I think there may be a revolt back to the simpler days of buy game, play game - or the retro game console as I call it. Maybe the nostalgia is a little rife but there's something to be said about not being verbally abused for using default skins while playing a compulsory team-based game of the latest COD when all you want to do is just play a game. And the best part about these retro consoles is that they don't require an internet connection just to play the game.

I have been considering building a new gaming PC so I can play multiplayer games without requiring a multiplayer tax but I'm unsure if I'll have more frustration. I originally purchased a game console so I wouldn't have to worry about poorly-optimised, buggy or incomplete games - little did I know that the game industry would find a way to break this misconception, although, I dunno ... maybe consoles still have an edge ...


Thursday, September 13, 2018

Lyrical Analysis - Gone Gone Gone

Ah, Phillip Phillips. Your name sounds like it was created as the byproduct of peyote and inbreeding. It doesn't help that you also create probably the least inspired and irritating music. Case in point: Gone Gone Gone - a poor man's rip-off of a poor man's rip-off of a hoe-down band. It clearly shows that your mental faculties were stressed beyond their limits with lyrics which give way to preschool-level rhyming couplets, incessantly repeated lines and a simple theme about love, dedication and loss. 


Actually, upon reviewing your lyrics, I cannot find even one line which rings true with my initial assessment. Delving deeper, the theme of the song just comes across as a disturbing, obsessive, stalkerish, maniacal and quite clearly homicidal tone toward an unrequited love interest. The song's progression also doesn't seem to follow a natural flow with opening lines (within the initial stanza) of:

'I'll be at your door tonight' ... or ... 'I'll shut down the city lights'

This is apparently to prove his dedication to her, or his willingness to perform jihadist and SWAT tactics; so far, so unhinged.

'I'll lie, cheat, I'll beg and bribe to make you well'

Maybe this implies that she is on her death bed or very sick. But, still, it doesn't bode well for his moral compass. 

'When you fall like a statue. I'm gon' be there to catch you. Put you on your feet, you on your feet'

The psychiatrist in me clearly sees his objectification of her; something to be maintained and kept under lock-and-key rather than seen as an individual in her own right. I can see similar correlations with how Buffalo Bill conversed with his victims with his usage of 'it' rather than 'you/her/she'.

'You would never sleep alone'

Which would be perfectly fine - as long as you are in a relationship with her. But lines like 'I'll share in your suffering to make you well, to make you well. Give me reasons to believe, that you would do the same for me.' clearly show that this is a one-way street and falls into the same category as Every breath you take and that he also gets pleasure from sado-masochistic stimulation.

'I love you long after you're gone'

Now that just sounds wrong. It's not if you're gone but after you're gone ... as if it's a foregone conclusion that either she escapes his clutches or dies at a time of his choosing. And then we have this doozy:

'Like a drum baby don't stop beating'

Apparently I need to explain to Mr Phillip Phillips that a drum does in fact stop beating as soon as you stop hitting it - or maybe that was his intention. Dictating when to stop drumming also implies that he controls when she dies. And then we have the natural Romeo and Juliet conclusion where he joins her in his pact to end his life upon her death with:

'Like a drum my heart never stops beating for you'

So, yes. We have naturally come to the conclusion that Mr Phillip Phillips has created an upbeat and motivational track about terrorism, stalking, obsession, murder and suicide. Your parents, Phillip Phillips Sr and Phillipa Phillips, must be so proud.