In an entirely in-character and unfunny move Electronic Arts announced this week that they will be acquiring Mythic Entertainment. Uh… ok.

While I can’t say I ever, EVER want to play Dark Age of Camelot again I can say that I respect the company quite a bit. Unlike some other manufacturers Mythic was very vocal and active in fighting currency/character sales over the last few years. This, of course, is one of my hot-button issues and I applaud their stance. Mythic did a lot of things right that go largely unnoticed now that the sleeper has awakened and 250k players is barely “hahaha, nub” territory. First and foremost is the unprecedented access to back-end data outside of the game. No MMO prior to DAoC gave players screen after screen after screen of stats and data to nerd over. As far as I know only Eve has even bothered since! That’s a shame, really, as these games are achievement-oriented in nature and if there’s one thing we love it’s to nerd over stats/items. The mechanics of Blizzard trying to pump out 6 million player profiles is rather staggering, but I’d love to see it happen.

There’s a rather decent conversation going on over at Lum’s place on this issue. He, among others, are being rather mum about the whole thing for the moment, but those of us not constrained by business propriety (or any propriety really) are slinging the hurtful invectives like there’s a 2 for 1 sale on oh-snap.

Generally speaking the domestic seasons for the television have all finished their runs, much to the chagrin of my DVR. But hark, what light through yonder big-screen breaks? It is the east…ish. BBC America to my rescue.

First off let me say that I LOVE watching parliamentary proceedings on the CSPAN. If our officials had half the emotional involvement in their daily proceedings it’d be an incalculable improvement for everyone involved. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still politicians and I’m sure they get 3 things wrong for every one thing they get right, but by god they’re animated! I watched a good run where the two warring factions were rallying alternatively behind Blair and the opposition leader and it was crazy! The crowd literally roared at more than one point and was constantly cheering, jeering and heckling. “Awesome” doesn’t seem to be adequate…

The Thick of It is like the UK version of Spin City or somesuch. No… that can’t be right, because this is actually funny. Hilariously funny, actually. I’m still trying to pick up the whole scope of the story, but it seems to follow the adventures of Hugh Abbot, the beleaguered low-ranking Minister for something something. I’m not sure he even knows, really. My vote is for funny. Watch!

Hex is like Buffy meets Dark Shadows meets … crikey, I have no idea. I’ve seen 3 episodes now and I still don’t have the first clue as to what the fuck is happening. After checking the website things are slightly clearer. Slightly. … No. No they’re not. Not at all. I don’t care, it’s interesting enough to watch until SG-1 starts again. Which, I might add, is in 3 weeks.

Spaced starts this week. I think you’ll recognize the male lead. The previews look funny. I expect funny. It better be funny.

The IT Crowd is funny, in a mammy blackface aunt Jemimah stereotypical way. It doesn’t bother me much, it’s not as if geekdom is really THAT far off from what people think, but their HAHAHA TECH SUPPORT IS ANTISOCIAL CLOWN SHOES HAHA crap is a few shades shy of good. If you’ll permit me to be an elitist prick for a moment I will say that in my experience the people who actually believe that’s what “all” IT people are like are the ones that are patently computarded and can’t stand the fact that other people aren’t. I’ve never understood that type of moron, honestly. I’m not an accountant, I don’t take personal offense to someone who knows how to use an actuarial table. I might take offense TO an acturial table, but that’s a completely different psychosis.

All that aside I do laugh occasionally, which is unfortunate as I’ve only been able to catch the torrents from the BBC mothership. They are apparently selective as to what hits the Yankee station. God knows why Are You Being Served is taking up precious airtime… Upside is that at least 2 newer episodes are available online now so I can catch those. Score for countries where the digital inquisition hasn’t taken complete hold.