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So, if you haven’t heard already or don’t care, in which case you’re a complete mongloid because everyone and their mother (who’s a whore) have been reporting or blogging about it, American comedian/writer Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, is leading the voter write-in nominations of possible names for the new ISS module, tentatively referred to as “Node 3″. NASA started the contest one month ago, opening with their own selection of possible names for the module for which users could vote, as well as offering the possibility for voters to suggest their own ideal name. In answer to this challenge, Stephen Colbert, who had already jumped on the space bandwagon late last year by having his DNA digitized and sent into space to be stored on the ISS as part of game developer Richard Garriot’s ridiculous media-whoring stunt, Operation Immortality, encouraged his numerous viewers to nominate his own name as an option, the votes for which then proceeded to skyrocket, demolishing all competition. Watch the drama unfold for yourself:

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A Malediction

Having been exposed to the fallout from the closure of Tabula Rasa, I’ve gotten the general impression that most individuals, even avid gamers, can’t seem to connect with the larger issues at hand. I don’t have any advice for such persons, nor any desire to advise them. If you failed to experience Tabula Rasa because of your own petty narcissism or simply weren’t capable of realizing its agonizing glory because of being fixated on masturbatory swords and sorcery diversions like Word of Warcraft, you are the lesser for it and I can not guide you toward enlightenment, nor offer you absolution. And if you do subscribe to that juvenile mystical fantasy, well, then you’re just another one of the canaille and in all likelihood will continue living the rest of your frivolous existence being a part of the problem and not the solution. Normally, I’d offer a suggestion in-line with Bill Hick’s regarding those involved with marketing and advertising: “Kill yourself…” but, seriously, there may be hope for you in adopting some form of permanent unconsciousness.

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A Postmortem

On February 28, 2009, one of very few active science fiction-oriented MMORPGs came to an abrupt end after only 16 months online. Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa, developed by Destination Games under the direction — or at least the branding — of Lord British himself (since promoted to General), the possible creative brain behind the well-known Ultima series of PC games, was released November 2, 2007 with relatively little fanfare and a very tepid reception from the gaming community, especially where it concerns the numerous review sites now sadly instrumental to the success of many a title. Despite its namesake being almost synonymous with great storytelling and gameplay, Tabula Rasa garnered nothing but excessively heavy-handed criticism and, after apparently repeatedly failing to meet quarterly earnings expectations by publisher NC Soft, the Korean company behind City of Heroes, Lineage, Guild Wars and their associated spin-offs and sequels, it was announced that it would be prematurely cancelled after it had reached only 12 months and 3 weeks of service. While possibly not an uncommon occurrence in the game development market — after all, it seems a great number of games die off while still in development, never having been published at all — I’ve the impression this particular situation warrants some postmortem analysis because of a very unique set of circumstances that may be partially responsible for the pre-emptive demise of what I considered to be a great offering in video gaming entertainment. More importantly, this latest casualty of the entertainment industry as a whole — video games, film, television or print — really just presents another symptom of an ongoing infection; a plague being treated by that industry with mediocre, monotonous, and uninspired content.

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