Via Justin, I see that Microsoft has handed Peter Jackson a sack of cash to lend his name to the upcoming Halo movie. Isn't that adorable?

I can't tell you what a kick I get out of videogame creators' complete inability to differentiate between financial and creative success. Bungie is easily one of the worst offenders — just look here. A whole jokey cult, invented and nurtured by Bungie, has sprung up around cheesy cartoon depictions of the Halo series' protagonist, the Master Chief. Who is — guess what — a clear ripoff of the unnamed marine from Doom. The reason for this persistent aesthetic? A) because you don't have to animate faces that go inside helmets and B) keeping the uniform consistently colored has technical and gameplay payoffs.

But what about the game's actual plot? Well, it's about a personality-free cyborg with a sassy computer sidekick, a gruff sargeant, a setting ripped off from Larry Niven, and marauding aliens. It's all highly original.

Some people just can't understand that they were in the right place at the right time. The truth is that nobody gives a shit about Halo's story; or at least, nobody ought to. People like the game because it did a decent job of being a console-based multiplayer FPS after Goldeneye primed the mainstream pump. Some of them play enough and are dumb enough to start thinking that the game's aesthetic is more than a placeholder. A number of those people seem to work at Bungie.

I don't blame anybody for cashing out when Hollywood executives ask to buy a storyline that read "PLOT GOES HERE" until 3 days before the game shipped. All I ask is that they try to be a little more quiet about it. Let the goddamn movie come out, pay for itself, then gracefully fade into the annals of cinematic embarassment. You're not going to fool anybody except the fanboys. And they were fooled by default.

No, not here. But John A (creator of ScaryGoRound) has a pretty funny post up on his blog.

Wow. The daytime blogging has been suffering, hasn't it? Catherine's stuck without an internet connection for most of the day, and I'm on a project that, unbeknownst to the MBAs, was destined to be 12 months late the moment the contract was signed. Also, you know: adjusting to new lifestyle, lack of sleep, existential malaise, etc etc. All of the usual blogger complaints. Sometimes I go through phases where writing code is much easier than writing English. This is one of them.

But since the blog apologia is a truly pathetic genre, allow me partially redeem this post with a personal note: is anybody else going to tonight's Nada Surf show at the Black Cat? If so, lemme know. Also, Architecture in Helsinki on Friday. Let's co-rock.