I don’t want to embed this video as it’s too freaky.

MMO thinker Wolfshead has posted his two part shredding of MMOs - How Convenience Replaced Risk and Fun is for Children, Adventure is for Adults. He rips into Blizzard in particular:

Making a game is far less lofty process than making a virtual world. When you create a game it absolves the creators of the higher responsibility inherent in creating a world. Tolkien created a world, Blizzard created a game.

Other than being a grizzled “in my day” veteran, the main problem with his argument is his premise:

I daresay the majority of people who enter MMOs today would prefer to be immersed in a virtual world of adventure than deposited into a theme park of amusement and fun if offered the choice. 

I’m not convinced that’s accurate. If it were, niche games like Eve would dominate and Warcraft would fall by the wayside. Trouble is, people do want escapism in short bursts, and to feel ‘epic'. I agree it would be nice to have deeper adventure (as opposed to bursts of fun), but the market doesn’t seem to be able to sustain the more challenging MMOs.

Players today want to log on and experience a concentrated blast of shock and awe in their limited play session time. They want it all and they want it now. Everyone expects to be treated like hero without having done anything heroic and companies like Blizzard are only too happy to placate them.

Surely an MMO needs to deliver fun and adventure, not either/or. He fails to convince me (someone who has only known WoW and hence has no basis for comparison) that there is no adventure to be had. The player can create the adventure, even if the game is mainly about fun.

NYT profile of the amazing Mariano Rivera - including a great animated infographic explaining his pitching.

You’re a Yankees rookie, and the season is on the line, and the bases are loaded. Just don’t think about it? Alex Rodriguez, a truly great hitter who has been known to think himself into knots at such moments, may be on to something when he says, “I don’t think he knows what pressure means.”

Bill Simmons: “Spanish announcers annihilating the “No Cheering In The Press Box” rule.”

Julian Burnside, QC, on the accursed growth of ‘security' cameras:

In Britain, there are more than 6 million CCTV cameras. Not many people seem to care, but it is worth reflecting that most of the cameras we see around town are monitored all the time. If the cameras were replaced by spies, we might react differently. Imagine a society in which the citizens were regularly watched by 6 million human observers.

During the Sydney 2000 Olympics, the cycleway across the Harbour Bridge went from zero cameras to about one every 10 meters (so, 40+). Absurd.

To combat the hilarious rumour/accusation that Fabian Cancellara used a mini-motor to literally power his wins in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, the Tour is performing random scans of bikes to check for engines.

Of course, this being cycling, they have implemented the testing completely wrong:

The duty of taking bikes to the UCI scanners fell to the team mechanics, who had half an hour to comply.

Wait: the team mechanic has half an hour after the race finished to deliver the bike? Would that be the same team mechanic who would fit the motor in the first place?

/facepalm

ACMA has ruled that (commercial) Digital Radio stations don’t need to have an Australian quota, which is a shame as it means even less exposure for local artists. Commercial Radio Australia CEO Joan Warner has deployed a huge spin by saying this decision will “encourage diversity”, then using the examples of Pink Radio and Radio GaGa. Real diverse, those two hardly get any exposure anywhere.

I’ve always rated the Stones above the Beatles, ‘cos they’ve got more soul. But somehow I’ve never owned Exile, which didn’t stop me scoffing at the “Greatest Rock ‘n' Roll Record Ever” tag. What about Let It Bleed? That’s the pinnacle.

But having bought the reissue, now I get it: Exile is not the greatest Stones record, it’s the greatest rock ‘n' roll record. It oozes guitar, drums, bass, horns, sex, drugs, glamour, danger, humour and chaos. Mick’s mesmerising drawl, Keef’s brilliantly just-held-together guitar, and a rhythm section for the ages. It almost doesn’t work, it’s constantly in the balance, and yet somehow they bring it home. It’s the essence or what it means to be a down and dirty rock star. Rock and roll baby.

The Festival of Sport continues, with le Tour gracefully taking the baton from the World Cup. The Sports Broadcasting Station Tour site has all the info you need, though the Guardian’s Stage Guide pips SBS’s.

Can’t possibly work - it would be unplayable with a touch screen (it’s hard enough using a keyboard). One of the few games that mandates an arcade stick.