Hearing about the news that there is a Michael Jackson MMO in development was a bit of a shock to me. The news is rather recent and I have to wonder – what kind of game could it possibly be and who would be its target audience? Since his death was about a year ago, the news comes rather quickly which also begs the question, how long after his death was this thrilling proposal being made? The MMO isn’t the only thing that has been revealed – Michael Jackson: The Experience is coming for the Wii. It is a music coordination / dance party game that apparently was in development since before his death. I have to say that the game doesn’t look appealing to me, but I am sure there are some that would lap it up.

Lately I have been playing quite a bit of WoW…well, I have been playing it pretty regularly for the last number of months really. I recently hit 80, the games level cap, and am now eligible for its supposedly vast amount of end-game content. In a way, I am happy because I get to see some amazing new dungeons. Blizzard did a phenomenal job with the immersion and storytelling – this is true throughout most of the game but becomes most visible in Wrath of the Lich King content. The music, voice acting and environment I experienced when I first entered the Forge of Souls just blew me away. They really didn’t spare anything in weaving their tale.

One of the things that has bugged me about the game, and is now showing to be a more acute issue, is the community. It still seems rather difficult for me to find a good group of people just to hang out with and get to know. Everyone takes the game so seriously that it gets kind of annoying. The Internet anonymity certainly does NOT help because a lot of people I’ve run into are completely douchey. “Tank joins PUG. Tank checks everyone’s gear score. Tank leaves group.” That has happened to me AT LEAST 6 times since turning 80 THIS WEEK. Honestly, despite playing an MMO, I feel incredibly separated from people in WoW which I never really experienced in my old MMO. I think it’s about time I looked for a good guild to join…

Anyways, enjoy the comic all!

I can't say that I "love" Michael Jackson, but I can say that I really liked his music when growing up in the 80's and that he's made a tremendous impact in its evolution over the past few decades. Unfortunately, I don't think I've heard anything he's sung after "Smooth Criminal," that probably being my favorite of his works. I loved seeing him in that suede suit while dancing with gangsters in the Moonwalker music video, it was so cool!~ Looking at the reference materials for this comic reminded me of a time when I attended elementary school and went with a few friends one day to the local arcade where we blew all of our change playing the Moonwalker arcade game. ahhh~ good times. =)

Looking at Michael Jackson's Thriller music video again was kinda fun, but hurts too. >.< When I lived with my mom, we used to own a very interesting video on the "making of" on that music video. I'll probably never get a chance to see that video ever again though because Bear and I had to get rid of a lot of things when we helped my mom move out of her old house a couple years ago. >.< It hurts so much because one of the videos was a "behind the scenes-movie magic" of "Return of the Jedi" hosted by Billy Dee Williams. It was a recording my dad made off TV of an HBO special sometime between 1981 and 1985. I regret it soooooo much! I'm trying to forget about it, but it's so hard! >_< It was such an amazing video!! >_<

After thinking about it over the past week, I discovered that I really love "behind the scenes-movie magic" videos. '_' It's really fun learning about the unique ideas people have had on how to film certain effects, seeing the props, the animatronics, and the fun the actors and staff seem to have. Thinking of all that reminded me of when my dad bought a video camera. I used to play around with it for hours trying to pull off special effects and doing failed stop motion animation. XD

Thinking about movie special effects got me thinking of the special effects of recent movies and how I'm getting the feeling that it won't ever be as exciting or fun seeing the "making of" videos of those as it's been in the past. A lot of the recent movies rely very heavily on CG. Choosing studio-made puppets, models, and animatronic props over using CG probably isn't as time or cost efficient. I can understand that it's for convenience of the film makers and their studios and that using CG opens doors to many more possibilities, but it's just such a shame that when watching a "making-of" video that a lot of the cool stuff will probably just be non-tangible CG models in a computer monitor. ._.

I really wish I could get my hands on that "making of the Return of the Jedi" video. -_- I think what makes Star Wars really special to me is seeing all the props and filming techniques they used and seeing it all come together in the end as a seamless epic movie. (since I'm on the topic, though not really a Star Wars fan, episodes 1, 2, and 3 don't exist. >_>)