Tidbits

-- Linking to this rundown on the best games of all time mostly because it refers to The Legend of Zelda as "the Citizen Kane of videogames." I still need to play this game. Zelda for the Wii is high on my list of games to get, but I wonder if I should pick up some of the older titles as well.

-- Also interesting to note from that list: Final Fantasy III (for Super NES; does that mean something different than FFIII means to us now?) is the title from that series they chose. Another game I haven't played; assuming it's the same game, I might try the DS version, if I ever get around to buying a DS.

-- In the more recent gaming arena, as I was walking to the train this morning, it occurred to me that, of all the major male characters in FFX and FFX-2, the only ones without ear piercings are Auron and Baralai. Does it have something to do with their connection to Yevon? Auron was a warrior monk, Baralai was a priest. None of the other men were tied that closely to the temples. I would need to run through and look at more of the minor characters to say for sure, though. Anyone else noticed this?

-- Moving away from games and into fandom at large, even some non-fandom people have probably heard about the lawsuit that JK Rowling and Warner Brothers have filed against the publication of an unauthorized Potterverse encyclopedia, based on the popular HP Lexicon site. I'm a little surprised about the media's rush to embrace the fan and dismiss JKR and the WB as greedy -- usually, fandom is treated dismissively by the mainstream media. To compound my surprise, this time I happen to think the fan, and especially his publisher, are likely in the wrong. HP fan and lawyer praetorianguard has published several great posts explaining the case from a legal point of view, and in her most recent, she gets into how this case could severely damage fandom if the defense wins. Yes, that's right: the defense. Because the defense's main claim seems to be that JKR allowed the site's creator to post the content on the website, praising the site in interviews and such, which should give him the right to do whatever he likes with it. Imagine the implications for fansites and fanfic if this argument stands up in a court of law. Many, many copyright holders have been "live and let live" about fan activity up until now, but if tolerating it leads to the risk of them losing their copyright, what do you think would happen? Yeah.

-- I haven't posted about the oil spill in the SF bay because it's just too darn depressing. At least I can't smell the oil slick from my house; apparently people only a few blocks north of here have been able to. Maybe I'll deal with that topic another day.