The Anthem

I saw a Game Informer review that highly praised it. It's one of the few games for the PS3 that really makes me wish I owned the system.

Cool! Anyone know why The Romantic Manifesto isn't on there? That's the one I wanted the most.

Take my opinion with a grain of salt because I wasn't around during the whole Michael Jackson craze. From what I've heard, his fame seemed to be due to quite a few factors. He was a great dancer and combined that very well with his singing, I don't think there were many people at the time that could do both as well as he. Plus, he invented the moonwalk, which is still awesome to this day. His songs were simple and catchy and appealed to a wide array of people. He produced music videos people had never seen before, i.e. high production costs, special effects, storylines, etc. His stage act was also supposed to be amazing as well, I believe in one concert he actually rocketed up from the bottom of the stage and landed in one of his poses. I think he's one of those figures that, looking back, we'll never be able to really understand if we weren't in the middle of that craze.

"The name "Rearden Steel" may sound familiar to readers of Ayn Rand's objectivist novel "Atlas Shrugged," in which it is the name of the protagonist's company. Perlman declined to comment on the literary connection, but said the name was chosen for its Industrial Age associations." Read that in this article. I searched on the forums and in another thread, someone commented that the logo from johngaltgifts actually seems to be taken from Rearden Companies.

Right now, the GDC (Game Developers Conference) is going on. I haven't been paying too much attention this year but it looks like I should be. The thing that's getting a lot of video game media attention right now is a service called Onlive. As far as I understand it, Onlive is a video game streaming service. Onlive's servers will (theoretically) be able to process even the most high end games and send them straight to your PC. If this works, you could be playing Crysis on a low end PC. This could revolutionize the way PC games are played, maybe even giving them the shot in the arm they need to keep PC gaming alive. Already, many of the major developers have signed on to do this. It will also have a "mini console" so this streaming could also go to your TV. The price point will be aimed at being less than the Wii's. I, for one, am very excited. I do not have the funds to go out and try and get some super high end PC so I can play the good games, but with this service, I could have a small monthly subscription and I be able to play anything. As a side note, the company developing this is named Rearden Companies, sound familiar? Their symbol is also very reminiscent of symbols I have seen on places like johngaltgifts.com for Objectivism. Could these developers possibly be Objectivists? Rearden Companies Website Onlive.com

This guy can nullify Sylar's super powers and maybe defeat him. To those that don't know him, he has no other powers besides stopping others' powers, so just about anything can beat him, I guess.

In the movie, Laurie imagines John saying that, which deflates a lot of its poignancy but its still there in the movie, I should have mentioned that. The references to the comic were only meant to show that it is a lot clearer in the comic. I do mean "means", me and my silly typos, it's one of the reasons I don't post too often. I think this is just a difference in friends really. I still don't see this "happily ever after" though, Nite Owl beats Ozzy to a pulp and says something along the lines of "You haven't saved humanity, you've deformed it", that's not very happy. Sure, it does show Laurie patching things up with her mother, but that's fairly unrelated to Ozzy's plot. And at the very end, we have the newspaper assistant receiving Rorschach's journal, and, assuming he chooses it, would be released to the world which has a lot of evidence implicating Ozzy in the attack. In the end, Rorschach might win. It's left up to the reader.

Anti virus software beats viruses. Who couldn't see this one coming a mile away?

It wasn't happily ever after. In the comic it was a lot clearer, Dr M. tells Ozzy "Nothing ever changes" implying that his trick will not last for any significant length of time. Alan Moore has stated before that the end is not supposed to be a message that the ends justify the means, he wanted the ending to be a question of the reader. I've talked to many people about this, all my friends love it, and they all agree Ozzy was in the wrong and Rorschach in the right. If anything, this movie has helped progress the idea that the ends do not justify the needs. And to those complaining Ozymandias is considered the smartest man in the world, if I remember right, he is considered that purely because of the marketing he has done with his toy line. There wasn't some huge IQ contest with Ozzy taking it all, he just has some over aggressive marketing people (as he says).

Cool, thanks, I'll check those out.

I saw the movie and loved it. Every change they made was necessary and worked well. Rorschach was great, as well as Nite Owl.

Great blog post. I love Bioshock, it is easily my favorite game of all time. Just yesterday, I beat it for the third time. I've never been as involved in a world or a story as when I played that game.

I've heard some very good compliments for the Green Lantern comics in the forums. I don't remember who said it, but someone said that the Green Lantern Corps was also somewhat Objectivist leaning. Does anyone have some recommendations for Green Lantern reading materiel?

Recently, I've been listening to a lot of Rush. The lyrics are superb in every sense of the word. Initially, Geddy Lee's voice annoyed me but I've gotten over it and learned to love it.

I haven't been reading as much as I should have. The book I'm reading isn't very exciting, interesting, but kind of boring, The Forgotten Man by Amity Schlaes. I think a good deal of it might be going over my head a bit too, I'm not very knowledgable with economics. It'll warrant a reread though, when I feel better prepared.

I'd like to join. My writing isn't always explicitly Objectivist but the messages and questiosn posed are certainly Objectivist themed, with Objectivist leaning answers implied.

I changed mine to VaultTecWarrior (Xbox Live), gosh I love Fallout 3! As for online games, I've been playing Gears of War 2.

Hm, maybe a subplot could involve a new group of environmentalists dedicated to defending Mars from "evil greedy humans".

This can't be real.

Okay, just spitballing here but I came up with a few ideas. As the collectivised economy on Earth begins to fail, the government finallys releases its ban on Mars colonization in a desperate effort to jumpstart the economy and provide a monument. One particular industrialist has had working ships in the works for years, waiting for the ban to be lifted. He is one, maybe the first, to move to Mars. He begins his dream business of transporting people and supplies to and from Mars. The largely free colony blooms around him and begins to thrive. The economy on Earth continues to worsen and the demand for tickets to Mars skyrocket. Complaints begin to come from people who are unable to pay for the trip. The government takes this oppurtunity and nationalizes the business, stating that everyone has a right to a piece of Mars. The business takes a sharp decline. I don't know what my character could do about this. Try and convince the government to give it back? Blow up his own busines in a true Howard Roark fashion?

It sounds pretty cool. I'd like to participate.

My major disappointment was the morality factor in the game. That was a big hyping point and it ended up being a really obvious and simple choice. And there was only that one choice you had to make throughout the game. Despite that and the other criticisms, most of which I agree with, Bioshock is still one of my favorite games. The story was just completely amazing, I was constantly immersed in its incredible world. I am really excited for the sequel. Hopefully with all of this money behind them, they won't have to compromise on anything and it will be way better.

I like the movie. The graphic novel was far better in my opinion though.

I can relate, my school has the same rule. They wouldn't allow me to sell candy bars to raise money for a trip to Iowa for my acting group. I have seen what caffeine can do to the people stupid enough to ingest too much of it. One of my friends is addicted to Monster, he's had heart palpitations and has had to take numerous trips to the hospital. He knows all the risks but continues to drink at least five cans a day. Obviously, this isn't a good thing. But no one is forcing him to drink that much, that is why Monster is within their rights to sell their potentially dangerous energy drink. So, you too are within your rights to sell caffeinated drinks. However, cosnidering how much money you made selling this stuff, I would take into account what kind of learning environment you'd be helping to create. If your learning experience is harmed somehow because everyone is hyped up on the drinks you've been selling them, it would be within your best interest to stop selling those products.

Funny, I was just about to post a topic on this. Has anyone read the book?