Newsletter 2/3/2023: Vroom Vroom
From the Desk of Dennis:
The Cold War is back, baby! China’s brazen disregard for American sovereignty feels somewhat karmic after a 2010’s in which we embraced panopticon-via-UAV over our enemies, and the innocent civilians they lived among, in the Middle East. That said, there’s no way I’m accepting that the PRC accidentally let their balloon float off-course all the way to fly-over Montana. This is the closest-to-home example I’ve seen yet of an emboldened Xi Jinping trying to exert his power on a global scale without consideration for the local population; see also the cancerous degredation of democracy they’ve instigated in the Solomon Islands. It’s more than a little concerning that another nuclear power has designs on putting “a thousand eyes” in our skies, and our generation’s “99 Balloons” are more likely to be part of a foreign SkyNet than bombs.
TGIF,
Dennis A. Wilson
This Week in Marketing and Technology:
Jalopnik, “Game Developer Describes Why New Games Suck at Car Damage”
“They’re very, very specific that the roof can never be damaged. That’s the main thing, the driver cell always has to be completely safe.”
I had the pleasure of attending the Philadelphia Autoshow down at the Pennsylvania Convention Center this past weekend, which is enough to make anybody feel like they’re in the market for a new vehicle. Big props to the sales reps who effortlessly drove my friends and I around the middle of the concrete show floor in slick, near-silent EVs and across the insane terrain features that Jeep constructed in their “Camp” -themed test ride area. That they managed to breathlessly rattle off the stock features and upgrade options as they cruised through the obstacles was as impressive as the cars themselves. This ethos lined up neatly with the marketers’ mindset described in this article about toning down racing video game collision graphics - make the car as exciting as possible without being unsafe.
CNBC, “ChatGPT has made AI the hot new thing in Silicon Valley, and investors are suddenly very interested”
“Microsoft also has invested in the company and has reportedly considered adding ChatGPT to its Bing search engine.”
I am not a financial advisor and this newsletter should not be taken as financial advice. But $MSFT calls this week were a no-brainer.
ArsTechnica, “Donkey Kong cheating case rocked by photos of illicit joystick modification”
“Original upright Donkey Kong arcade cabinets were shipped with a distinctive short joystick with a prominent black ball atop a silver metal stick. But the machine behind Mitchell in the recently released FAMB photos clearly shows a taller joystick with a red ball and stick.”
The King of Kong should be mandatory viewing for anybody interested in eSports marketing, serving as a fantastic cautionary tale about the pitfalls of fame and its manufacture. I was lucky enough to spend my summers as a youth just a quick drive away from New Hampshire’s Funspot, where most of the drama in the gaming documentary goes down, and always wanted to get a chance to see one of these legendary vintage gaming tournaments in person. I’m still waiting, but luckily Billy Mitchell - controversial Donkey Kong former record-holder - can’t stop making headlines with his attempts to reclaim his 1980’s glory (if it was ever really his to begin with).
