Looking Back on 2009, Heartless' Predictions Reviewed

Its that magical time of year where I get to review my predictions for the previous year. Read my original predictions post here.  My commentary is after the jump:

A Tale of Two Marks

Well, yesterday was a pretty crappy day to be a Mark in the news.

Mark Jacobs was pretty much fired as head honcho of Mythic. Not for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning's dismal subscription numbers, but for telling the truth about MMORPGs and how they generally can be considered failures when they merge servers.

As Electronic Arts gathers both its Mythic and BioWare studios into a single group, Mythic GM and co-founder Mark Jacobs is leaving the company.

Mark Sanford, should probably be fired as Governor of South Carolina. Not for having an affair, but for skipping town to hide it and lieing about it along the way.

COLUMBIA, South Carolina -- The governor of South Carolina, a rumored 2012 presidential contender, tearfully confessed to having an affair with a woman in Argentina, dealing the latest blow to a struggling Republican Party.

So one Mark getting canned for being right and being unable to do anything about it. Another Mark that should be canned for the opposite. Strange world we live in.

Predictions for 2009

1. The economy will not "collapse", but it isn't going to get better until the governments of the world leave it to the free market to correct itself.

2. The weak economy will encourage smaller, fiscally responsible game development projects. This will lead to a bunch of interesting stuff coming out in the MMO space, whether technically massively multiplayer or not is yet to be seen.

3. Even with number 2, subscription based MMOs will still be king of the revenue stream at the end of 2009. Thank World of Warcraft for giving MMO developers false hope everywhere.

4. World of Warcraft will not get a new expansion, but something will be announced. It will focus more on new hero classes, the Alliance vs Horde conflict, and high end raiding.

5. WAR will still be around by the end of 2009, but who remains around to develop it may be drastically different.

6. More MMOs will close their doors. The true sign of doom will be when SOE starts closing down some of its B-team living painfully on Station Pass.

7. Speaking of SOE. The doom and gloom continues as SOE continues to push RMT practices on its non-RMT games.

8. An MMO project will come out of left field this year and surprise us all. Scott Jennings may or may not be involved, but he’ll blog about it regardless.

9. The world will end if Diablo III and Starcraft II are both launched in 2009.

I should really start a political blog for this...

...but I'm not going to waste my precious time with creating a new blog just to vent a little bit about Digg.com politics and the general political atmosphere of the Internet. It is no secret that the Internet has become overrun with far left democrat loud mouths who feel a few thousand hits to their blog turns their opinions into fact. I shouldn't say the net is smothered by these whacko's, but I must say that they are abusing any tool they can to promote their ill will.

Case in point... Digg.com's addition of a World and Business section which just so happens to include Political News and Political Opinion. There is a problem though... the liberal agenda can't seem to understand the difference between News and Opinion. I would link to some articles, but it is by far not worth the effort.

The problem is even larger than just throwing around partisan politics as news. Digg.com is a website that has grown from Tech News into All News. The liberal political blogosphere is spearheading the abuse of the Digg system to deny fair and balanced coverage. It is a true reflection of mainstream media in America which is dominated by the pundits for the liberal agenda. Whoever said the Internet would deliver political freedom was dead wrong. It has provided a system for those who yell the loudest to oppress the rest of us that don't agree.

Since I am a large fan of Digg.com it pains me to see the Digg community so one sided in political debate. Articles that are equivalent to hate speech are passed off as foregone conclusion on the Digg pages. The Digg community is the editor and chief here, but that only goes so far when the community is driven by hate filled individuals. If you don't agree with the haters you are "dugg -1" and soon any iota of balanced debate is destroyed.

On top of this Digg receives visitors from around the world and it is no more evident than in the World and Business section. Digg.com is an American idea, an American company, and most of all only possible because of America's free will. You would think that such ideals would come accross from the Digg community. They do not.

Most international posters that actively engage in political discussions on Digg are American haters. They hate us. They probably hate you if you are American. Read through any comments on a political news story on Digg.com right now. Count how many times you hear about how Americans "don't get it". How American's are ignorant.

Yet day in and day out Digg.com flourishes. A website built on American free spirit, but slowly being occupied by the hate vendors of the world. Maybe people like myself just don't care enough to counterbalance Digg and provide an equal footing for our ideals. Maybe for people like me Digg is best left as just another news site rather than a revolution in Social Bookmarking. Social Bookmarking only works when everyone's voice can be heard.

I met Vice President Dick Cheney today!

Vice President Dick Cheney made a stop locally today, so I strolled on down to be part of the crowd.

Have a great Saint Patrick's Day everyone!

Tookie Williams execution

I'm not getting into this whole debate, but I found a quote in this CNN article that gave me a quick giggle.

"Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who visited with Williams, said Schwarzenegger decided 'to choose revenge over redemption and to use Tookie Williams as a trophy in the flawed system.'

'To kill him is a way of making politicians look tough,' Jackson said. 'It does not make it right. It does not make any of us safer. It does not make any of us more secure.' "

My question to Jackson... isn't Arnold Schwarzenegger the epitomy of tough? Here is some proof for everyone.

Would you tangle with these guns?


What about these bad boys?


The only person looking tough in this whole situation is Tookie Williams himself as he sat on the table waiting for his trip up or down.