So, in the last 6 months, there have been 2 major product releases that have been… less than aptly named. I'm referring of course, to the Macbook, and the Wii. Both of these products caused a stir among fans of the manufacturer upon their announcement. Apple fanatics were suddenly broadsided by possibly the first horribly named Apple products in years. I mean, Macbook? Macbook. I don't understand who thought that was a good idea. I was at Macworld, and the employees there said they didn't like it. That's your first sign. 

Now, the Wii on the other hand is just dumb sounding. I mean, Wii. What the hell is that? It doesn't mean anything. I'm sure that a ton of money was spent on hiring a professional to "imagine" the new Nintendo console. Factually, the name "Revolution" was so perfectly matched for this console, that whoever decided that it was to be changed should be fired. Again, I tend to go off on these subjects of companies not doing things correctly, and to me, the reason i continue to come back to that, is because they are such stupid mistakes. Just ask the customers. It's that simple. Ask them. They know what they want. 

I’ve been sort of orbiting the E3 scene. I find that trying to keep track of what happens at E3 without actually being there is like trying to look into a tornado with a kaleidoscope. Some people want to see pictures of every single booth and interviews with all the game developers and general managers. Sorry, but I’ll pass. As another writer who didn’t attend this E3 so tactfully put it:

“There is nothing identifiably fun about having to elbow a 380-pound man wearing a T-shirt with "Orcs FTW" written on it in order to play Destroy All Humans 2 so you can write your 20th 600-word preview of the day for GameWanX or whatever site you're working for.” -Kevin Gifford

I agree. But the fanboy inside me still longs to go to the Mecca of Gaming. I do have to say, that having attended the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) that I think Gabe and Tycho are on to something. They’ve attended E3 for a few years now, and they’ve sort of taken it and processed it into something for the average joe. I strongly recommend attending PAX if you get the chance. I’ll make a prediction that in a few years, PAX will become as big as E3, but not because of the media aspect, but because of the real-life aspect. Anyone can go. It’s direct-to-consumer. And unfortunately, big companies will probably latch onto that. Let’s hope Gabe and Tycho can resist the shiny lights of the big companies and their money to “keep it real”. I have faith.

The last thing I wanted to mention about this year’s E3 is about the “big 3”. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Ahh, the monoliths. Pillars of entertainment. To be honest, I think that Sony is one of the worst influences on the gaming – nay – technology industry. With their proprietary formats that limit compatibility, to their all-important condescending attitude towards gamers. Like we should be thanking them for their consoles instead of vice-versa. Unless Sony does something drastically different with the PS3, Nintendo and Microsoft are going to wipe the floor with them.

Nintendo is a company that I have always respected, and while they have seemingly diluted their marketshare by producing games that are more focused on the younger and more “casual” crowd, they have managed to slip out of the “pretty colors” attitude that seems to define the console wars. This simple fact is that Gameplay > graphics. Once these companies learn that, they will start succeeding. Nintendo understands that it’s about the games. It’s not graphics, DPI, 1080i, 720p, pixel shaders or transistor count. It’s about fun.

Changes. What is up with companies, big companies, changing their products into oblivion?

Blizzard just announced that they're going to make a warcraft movie. That's GREAT! I truly am interested in what they come up with. They have so much IP that it would be hard to make something boring. I mean, their cinematics have been legendary. It's hard to see how they can screw that up. Right?

But they want to make it "more accessible" to the masses. WHY?! The whole reason they are making a movie, is because the EXISTING games are popular. And now they want to change that to make it more accessible. The reason the games are popular should be the reason the movie is popular. Why change it? I truly don't understand their motives. If they only understood that they should stick to their lore and IP like scripture. Make it "warcrafty" not "movie-like". I can't think of any movie that was based on an existing intellectual property that did BETTER because it was changed. But I can think of several, actually more than ten, that have been horribly ruined by their cinematic counterpart because they were "adapted".

What is also funny is how Hollywood doesn't seem to understand that the reason why movie such as X-men, Batman Begins and (my prediction) Superman Returns are so successful, is that they ARE that story. They weren't changed. They hire people who are specifically good a keeping the story true and then wonder why movies like Doom are absolute shit. I certainly don't. 

I recently had a very cool experience. I was put in contact with a major tech company whose products I've used for many years. I happen to have a specific and intimate knowledge of how their product worked. So they asked me to come in and speak with their engineers. It's kinda like one of those things that you always joke about "wow, wouldn't it be cool if Company A asked me to like, come in and tell them what I think of their products?!"

Needless to say, I really enjoyed the experience and I walked away very happy with being able to help them improve their product – which I'll undoubtedly end up using.

This got me thinking though, about other big tech companies and their products. I can’t say there's a week that goes by where I don't read about some piece of technology – whether it’s hardware or software or even "webware" – that has a flaw or minor problem. It's funny how these things are so apparent to customers, but not to the companies that make them. A disconnect exists there.

When I was speaking to the engineers at this company, it really hit my why these flaws and problems exist – at least in part – with these major products. The people working on them clearly have an intimate knowledge of the item. They know exactly how it works and how to use it to do whatever it needs to do. So they're at an advantage when it comes to knowing the “capabilities” of the product.

The end user doesn't have this advantage. I found myself telling them over and over that "it needs to do this" and the reply was "It DOES do that!" and they'd go off and show me. However, I didn't even know that feature or function existed. I don't care about whether they know it can do it or not. I'll never use that if I don't know it exists!

Offhand, I can think of 4 products that if, right now, there were minor changes made to, would become ENORMOUSLY more valuable and useful. It pains me to see that big companies have this issue, but at least I got a chance to help them make some improvements.

If the product I saw does what they wanted it to, and if they implement the changes that I suggested, it would be absolutely successful. I can only hope they don’t get wrapped up in their own view on it that they forget to “think outside the box”.