FIFA 13 to follow set formula to continue brand popularity

Salamu

FIFA 13, the latest version of the popular football based gaming brand developed by Electronic Arts, looks set to continue the popularity of the brand by following a marketing strategy which has made the FIFA brand one of the best selling gaming franchises of all time.

The concept that EA follows is simple. Release the game across all game playing platforms, listen to input from users when developing the next installment of the franchise and incorporate strategic thinking when deciding on the best release date for the next installment of the franchise.

One of the most important aspects that makes the game popular is that EA spends as much money as possible to make its titles as realistic as possible.  In FIFA 11 and FIFA12, a huge number of players are meticulously digitized using expensive motion capture technology so the exact movement of the player can be replicated in the game. Fans who regularly watch live broadcasts of soccer matches could recognize the similar gait and movement of their favorite players, especially if they plaid for a popular club.

One of the major complaints in the past was that players were able to run through the opposing team as if they weren’t standing there. In FIFA 11, the collision mechanics have been revised to provide a good level of body jostling and physical bumps.

Another reason that makes the brand so popular is EA’s strategic thinking on setting the release dates of the titles.

When EA developed its first game in the franchise, FIFA International Soccer (known as FIFA94 in some markets), it decided to launch the game in 1993 in the weeks leading up to the busy Christmas period. At the time the game was available across all platforms that were developed at the time so EA was hoping to cash in on this. EA  played around with the release dates of some of the other titles in the franchise but returned to the end of year release date with FIFA 2000 and has not changed it since.

To date, the franchise has sold over 100 million copies since the inception of the brand.  This places it into an elite club where it is one of two sports based games to reach this milestone.

These sales were helped in part by the extreme popularity of FIFA 11, which was released soon after the 2010 Fifa World Cup and sold 2.6 million units, and FIFA12, which sold 3.2 million units.

This makes it the most popular football based game in the market. Its closest competitor Pro Evolution Soccer, which is developed by Konami, has sold 76.13 million units. In fact, Konami was so impressed by the sales of FIFA12 that it said in a statement that its game has lost ground to FIFA in certain markets.

FIFA13 is set to be even more realistic as FIFA12
as gamer's have to out muscle opponents when
balling for possession in the  same way real
footballers do. 

With FIFA13, EA might be taking the realism and specialized game play of the title to new levels. In a statement released by the company, the new additions to the game play will include attacking intelligence: where players have the ability to analyze space, work harder and smarter to break down the defense, complete dribbling, where players face opponents and use precise dribble touches combined with true 360-degree mobility with the ball and first touch control, a new system which transforms the way players control the ball.

This makes the game as close to real life as possible without physically being on the pitch with the players, a feature which has contributed to the brands success over the 18 years since the first title.

Mei jua daima kuwa kabla yenu, na vivuli nyuma yako!

Truths about life.

Salamu

Before I forget. Big props to my South African audience for going over the 3 000 visitors mark. And possibly by the time this post is a day old I will have 6 000 visitors from the US. 

Shot Boys. 

I am a bit obsessive about certain things. One of those is my mad love for Bob Marley. Besides the fact that he sang Reggae and there were RUMORS that he smoked a pond o' weed a day, the life lessons that the man gave us is at times unfathomable. 

Some lyrics from his song war: 

Until the philosophy which hold one race superior 

And another 

Inferior 

Is finally 

And permanently 

Discredited 

And abandoned - 

Everywhere is war - 

Me say war. 

This is very true for South Africa during the Apartheid years or even Rwanda during the genocide between the Hutus and the Tutsis.

That until there no longer 

First class and second class citizens of any nation 

Until the colour of a man's skin 

Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes - 

Me say war. 

That until the basic human rights 

Are equally guaranteed to all, 

Without regard to race - 

Dis a war. 

Is there no more significant time to reflect on these words then right now while there is big shit kicking of in Syria?

Granted, Marley's song WAR (where the above lyrics come from) is an adaptation of a speech made by Emperor  Haile Selassie I who the Rastafarian's saw as the Messiah. But Selassie said it, Marley sang about it. And there is a big difference between the two!

I knew quite a bit about Marley going into watching the Biography titled Marley. As I have said on my blog before, reading the book: No Woman, No Cry: My Life with Bob Marley Rita Marley, Hettie Jones provides thoughtful insight into the life of the man. But I have a new appreciation for the man after watching Marley (which I highly recommend by the way). 

In the Biography. The interviewer was sitting down with Bob and talking to him about the attempted shooting on him. The interviewer asked if Bob was afraid. He said that he doesn't live in fear because his life is not his own. He lives life to make other peoples life meaningful.

Now for a Rastafarian, he lives out the Christian principle of helping and serving the poor far better than a number of Christians I know. 

I know this post is very long and quite possibly laborious. And it might not even appeal to a person who is not a Bob Marley fan.  But the point I am trying to make is that people....we must open our eyes to the world....because you never know who touches a cord inside you to make life more clear. More meaningful. 

Mei jua daima kuwa kabla yenu, na vivuli nyuma yako!

London Olympics social media faux pas

Salamu

The countdown has begun to what will be one of the best Olympic Games of all time. In 17 days athletes and swimmers from all over the world will walk into London's Olympic Stadium to kick off what will be two weeks of fierce competition. 

Athletes and swimmers at this years games will be able to take advantage of alot of things. They will be able to have proper fish and chips, they will be able to ride on a proper public transport system which actually works, and they will be able to take advantage of loose well fit Essex and Geordie birds which will virtually be fed to they on tap. 

Athletes and Swimmers will have a plethora
of  fit Essex and Geordie birds on tap.
Lucky Bastards!

I must admit that I am a bit envious about that last advantage but I have had my days of enjoying the wonders of loose Essex and Geordie birds.


We digress, so there are actually advantages of having the Olympic Games in London (believe it or not), but one thing that a number of athletes and swimmers will not be able to do is tweet about their experiences.


Let me just put a disclaimer in here: I am in no way accusing the IOC of censorship nor am I saying that they are forcefully banning athletes and swimmers from Twitter. It is the individual countries participating in the games that impose this ban. Not the IOC or the London Organizing Committee. 


And we all have to thank Samoan international rugby player Eliota Fuimaono Sapolu for this. He really had alot to say during last years Rugby World Cup accusing the IRB of being a slave organisation and then he had a go at the referee who blew the game between South Africa and Samoa. 


Whether this was right or wrong, it damaged the IRB for two reasons. It drew attention to the fact that they are possibly a little uncaring about the smaller unions and the fact that the IRB lashed out at Sapolu so severely it was like they were desperately trying to either hide something or shift the attention away from an aspect that could embarrass the organisation. 


True every player has a right to voice his opinion, but there are systems and processes in place to do this. And experience has taught me not to try and fight the system head on. 


I think that the public in general do not fully understand the powerful role that social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook can play. We all know about the role that Facebook played in organizing the London Riots in 2011 and the Egyptian Revolution in 2011/12.  


There have been many theories discussing the concept of Marshall McLuhan's theory of the Global Village. Some say that it was achieved with the invention of radio, others TV. But to me these are merely the first steps in the journey towards it, not even the internet has achieved the level of global conductibility in one space that  social media has.  


Mei jua daima kuwa kabla yenu, na vivuli nyuma yako!

Word of the Day

Salamu

First of all, congratulations to Spain on winning their third Euro and their second back-to-back. Muchas Gracias por mostrar a los Italianos que no es dueño del mundo del fútbol. Y gracias por el cierre de la soberbia poco de mierda a Mario Balotelli.

Right down to the business of the day. This is going to actually turn into a word of the day post. As always I turn to urbandictionary.com as a reference for these pieces. All words and descriptions can be cross referenced there.

Brock Lesner is going to F5 a Great White? CHINGALO!

Word: Chingalo
Meaning: in mexico people use it to say "fuck it!"
Stephanie Milan is sitting at home...chilling...watching the food channel when all of a sudden the door to her house gets kicked in, smoke grenades get thrown into the house, and a SWAT team bursts through the door. Apparently they were acting on information that a computer from that address had been used to post threats (including references to explosives) against the police and members of police officer's families, via Topix.com

Look I know that you shouldn't joke about shit like that and the police have every right to take these threats seriously. But Chingalo...did SWAT have to come and get the computer? Why not the local law enforcement? I thought SWAT were only called in during extreme situations such as hostage situations and high profile narc cases, hence the meaning of SWAT: Special Weapons And Tactics. Stephanie...girl...all of a sudden you became an extreme situation. And why did SWAT need to kick the door down and throw smoke grenades in the house to seize a computer?

ONLY IN AMERICA!

Is that what you call sleeping it off? Que Poca Madre

Word: Poca Madre
Meaning:literal:"motherless". mex.slag. 1/ used for descrbe something is realy fucking cool, 2/ used to describe a bad situation or something that a person ("asshole"in that moment) did to you, by adding "que" before "poca madre".
So gizmodo.com (which is primarily a geeky technology based site) had an article up on it today about how to drink the whole day and not pass out.

I find this really funny because: a) do geeks know what alcohol is and b)they are actually giving tips about how to infringe at least two law violations in the US: DUI and Public Intoxication.

So now because someone else beat me to it. I will repost two of the most important tips the site offered for marathon drinking. That by the end of the day people will be able to look at you and say: "que Poca Madre vato!"


Pace Yourself
Drinking all day is an endurance event. You are literally slowly poisoning yourself all day and seeing how long you can take it. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Listening to your body is the number one most important thing. If it tells you, "I've had enough," well, you had a good run, but you need to stop, because you could do some serious damage. However, your body may send the message, "Just gimme another 15 minutes. I'm still working on that last one," in which case, game on. Respect those messages, though, and do your best to listen for them.


Maximum Volume, Minimum Impact
ABV (alcohol by volume) is critical here. The lower the better. Continuing the metaphor from the last section, this is a marathon. Sipping beer (typically 6 percent ABV) is a slow, steady jog that will get you to the finish line. Taking a shot of whiskey (typically 40 percent ABV) is like doing a 100-yard dash as fast as you can in the middle of it. You're going to blow yourself out too quickly, and very well might not finish unless you slow way down immediately afterward.

And here is a tip from the Lion of Lebanon


Dont Buckle to Peer Pressure
Some Panocha's will find it highly amusing to vociferously encourage you to down drinks or consume high volumes of liquor in a short amount of time in order to get you Poca Madre. I have lost count on how often this has happened to me.

The one occasion I can remember well was Spring Day celebrations at my old university. Basically Spring Day is a day which was a varsity holiday where there would be no classes and there would be a huge campus party celebrating the onset of spring. Alcohol was a huge part of these celebrations. So in my first year I got myself a bottle of peach schnupps and mixed it in a bottle with Sprite (it was a whole bottle of schnupps to about 750 ml of Sprite). I was sipping it merrily when an arrogant Portuguese Puta said: PA...I bet you cant down that. (there was 3/4 of the mix left.) Normally i would have said: Your mother and just carried on sipping. But because I already had hooch in my system the Lion came out and I downed it in front of him and then hit him over the head with the bottle. That was at 10 am in the morning with the prospect of the whole day ahead of me Poca Madre! Apparently I spent the rest of the day thinking I was Eddie Guerrero screaming: "Orale Vato Loco's!"

CHINGALO!

Mei jua daima kuwa kabla yenu, na vivuli nyuma yako!

Europe dissapointment and Aussies playing Greeks

Salamu

There are a few accomplishments that The Lions Den accomplished prior to my last blog post which I failed to mention. I apologise profusely for this and hope to remedy this by mentioning them now. 

Firstly I must say thank you to the boys in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Bengaluru for reaching 1 000 page views! 

The Lions Den is also fast approaching 1 000 page views from Canada. Hopefully they will one day come to terms with the fact that although they are cooler then America and have an abundance of my second favorite animal (the Grizzly and Kodak Bear) in their country... they will never measure up to their Southern Neighbor. There....that should push it up. Shot boys!

BTW... a significant portion of both of your nations are equally dumb in my view.  

Barbie's new merchandise will be big in Portugal.

A trending topic with me is the European Championships which is currently on the go in Poland and the Ukraine. It must be known that my least favorite football team in the world (bar none) is Portugal. They play negative football and their players worry too much about their image to win any trophy's. How Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the highest payed footballers in the world is beyond my comprehension. Against Spain him and Nani looked like they were trying to qualify for the diving event in the Olympic Games. What they did was a disgrace to the game...not football. The only man worth his salt in that team is Raul Mereles and he looks more and more like a heroine addict everyday. 

But if that is the way they want to play the game and it ends there I would not hate them. I wouldnt even give them a second thought. But the way their supporters carry on drives me insane. Ronaldo PA! what a player! Did you see him  play PA? When I still lived in JHB there was a group of Portuguese guys who went to the same gym as me and they would carry on and on about how great he is. FORDEZ!

This is why I love to see Portugal fail at anything! 

But I am not rubbing the salt in the Portugese wombs to much. This is mainly down to the fact that Lebanon will never achieve football greatness in my lifetime (but then again neither will Portugal) and my team Germany got knocked out by that arrogant shit Mario Balotelli!

I got so aggravated last night that I had to watch an action movie to cheer me up. Not that the Wrath of the Titans did that either. The movie is about Perseus who is a GREEK demigod...Son of Zeus...and Sam Worthington could not disgard his Australian accent for one movie! It is very off putting watching a movie about Greek mythology when you expect the main actor to scream "LETS PUT A SHRIMP ON THE BAAAAAAARBIE YOU RIPPER"  at any given time. 

How the dialogue of the movie would have been if Sam Worthington was director:

Zeus (Liam Neeson [who is a top class actor]): Perseus. It is I Zeus your father.
Perseus (Sam Worthington): Is that right mate?
Zeus (Liam Neeson [who is a top class actor]): You must seek out Agenor to get into Tartarus to kill Kronos or he'll destroy the world.
Persus (Sam Worthington): Can it wait old man? ESPN Classic is on and Shane Warne is about to start an over. Besides I have just lit a barbie and cleaned some tiger prawns.

CHRISTIAN BALE! CHRISTIAN BALE! MY KINGDOM FOR CHRISTIAN BALE! Why was he never asked to be Perseus?

Come and I'll show you I'm as good as any Essex Girl

The only good thing about the movie was Rosamund Pike who was very delicious. I saw her first in Die Another Day and given my weakness for blonde's I was hooked from the start. Hopefully she acts in more movies soon. 


So unsatisfied I packed a hubbly and put on Person of Interest. Finally I was becoming better with the world. Because any movie/series which has James Caviezel in it is a winner ( with the exception of: The Stoning of Soraya M which freaked me the hell out!)

Mei jua daima kuwa kabla yenu, na vivuli nyuma yako!

My next being 30 experiance: Battling Unemployment

Salamu

I did not want to bring this up when it happened, but I am now in a position to talk about a significant life changing event which is another contributor to my Being 30 year.

I have recently found a job after spending the last three months on the unemployment line. Let’s just say things did not work out well at my last place of employment because of irreconcilable differences between myself and management.

There is a lot I want to say about my previous mangers and how they screwed me over. But as part of being 30 I have learned to treat it as water under the bridge. Plus…I am not keen on getting my ass hauled into court.

You really find out who your true friends are during this time. I have received a lot of text messages and phone calls of support from people which I really appreciate.

So what does this mean? Well I have left the absolute shit hole that is Martizburg for Durban where I am now a copy writer for a venture capital company.

My main focus is the technology world and my eyes have been opened to a WORLD of possibilities I never knew existed. I really am enjoying my time now.

So I scour the net for interesting stories. One of my recurring topics is social media and the effects that it has on society. A major drive is for companies to trend on these social sites, so what Boss Iced Tea has done is build a vending machine in Cape Town where people get free iced tea if they send a tweet about Boss Iced Tea with a specific hashtag. 

HOW AMAZING IS THIS? The company gets publicity because of all the tweets and its social presence is growing because of word of mouth advertising. Eventually Boss will establish itself as the iced tea of choice in SA.

Next up is the internet paying for a woman to go on vacation. Basically there is this bus monitor in the US who earns a small wage and just gets the shit abused out of her by some punk ass kids. 



Because the US is the US she can’t smack these kids or even refuse to transport their sorry asses. That would be the quickest way to the court room in front of a jury of your peers. So her family put news about the abuse on the net and an individual in Canada read this story and felt sorry for this woman. So he initiated a fund raising scheme where money would be raised for a holiday.

Their initial target was $5 000 (she earns $15 000/m) but the campaign has raised over $80 000 thus far. So there is a good possibility that they could raise over twice her yearly income. All money not spent on the vacation will still go to the lady.

Again… HOW AMAZING IS THIS? There are still people in this world who care. This woman gets abused by these punk ass kids and can’t do shit about it. The kids know this and will continue to abuse her. Unless something gets done by parents or school boards.

Look…I am not saying that I am a proponent of abuse and in some cases corporal punishment being banned is a good thing. But in this case I think we can all agree that the kids need the shit kicked out of them. Hell if I was on that bus there would be some blood on the floor. At the very least this woman should be allowed to refuse to transport these kids. Let them walk their ass to school. In South Africa (and I have seen this happen) if a passenger in a mini bus taxi says one thing to the driver about the sound in the taxi, the music in the taxi or the way he drives the taxi stops and the passenger gets their ass thrown out!

Two local stories now.

Apparently there are hearings in Durban because of the fact that there are Christian based public holidays and no public holidays for Muslims and Hindu’s and Jews and Buddhists.  So anyone who is non Christian has to take a day off to observe special holidays such as Eid, Diwali, Rosh Hashana and the like. This is a problem and I agree it is unrepresentative. But when I lived in Dubai (part of the UAE a Muslim country) I had to take a day’s leave for Good Friday and Christmas. This is a Christian Country…live with it.

But again we have to be respective so if they give those Holidays, Eid, Diwali, Rosh Hashana and the like, then good on them. I don’t have a problem with it. The government just mustn’t think of cancelling Good Friday and Christmas! F##k that shit. You want to give the Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and Jews holidays (which they are entitled to I’m not begrudging them) then cancel Youth Day or Woman’s Day, because when Mandela dies you know we going to get a public holiday on Mandela Day. Leave the holy days ALONE. We only have TWO religious based holidays (Good Friday and Christmas) the majority of South Africa’s public holidays are STRUGGLE AGAINST APARTHEID based holidays and the majority of today’s youth don’t give an ass rats about what happened on Youth Day.

Second story.  The family of the winner of this year’s Comrades Marathon Ludwick Mamabolo have said that the current scandal surrounding him is race based.

You know what….seriously…f##k these people! Mamabolo was caught with drugs in his system after winning the race. How the f##k has he fallen victim to a racest? This is just an attempt by uneducated people who need to now shift the blame from the man. So they use the oldest South African card in the book. RACE.

I actually take offense to this as a white man. Its unacceptable. Because you will get a lot of uneducated mama’s and baba’s jumping up and down screaming RACIST RACIST in unison.

Really? The family must just f##k off and get over themselves. You son is a drug cheat. There is no racism involved! By you implying it you show yourselves up for the racists you are.

F##KING PATHETIC. JUST SHOWS THAT SOME BALCK PEOPLE ARE MORE RACIST THEN WHITE PEOPLE!

Mei jua daima kuwa kabla yenu, na vivuli nyuma yako!

Karen Klein the bus monitor who is getting a kick ass vacation after being abused by punk ass kids

Walking Spoiler.

Salamu

It occurred to me today that I haven't blogged in a while and there were events today which I deem worthy of blogging about. 

I am actually in essence quite an insensitive S.O.B to the extent that I am a walking spoiler alert. 

A family member of mine has arranged a baby shower for his wife and me with my great intellectuality had the good grace of saying to her: So are you looking forward to your baby shower. Little was I to know that the baby shower was supposed to be a surprise and I got the look of death from the family member. 

But in my defence. Do you mean to tell me that every expecting mother does not know that there is going to be a baby shower thrown for her? I fail to believe it. there are certain things which are certainties in life. If you are pregnant you WILL get fat and you WILL have a baby shower. And women know this. Besides, the family member in question has never had a good word to say about me and I have never been anything but the brunt of his jokes so does my face look like a caring face? NO SIR IT DON'T!

No apologies. DO NOT READ IF YOU DISLIKE SPOILERS. 

Then again today unintentionally I put my foot in it. A friend of mine who lives in the Land of the Long White Cloud (New Zealand) had a nice Facebook status update that she is stoked about the new season of True Blood starting and the fact that Tara is dead and she ain't going to be a part of it. I when't on to say hang on...and told her what actually happens to Tara (Because I have already got my hands on the first episode of season 5 and have watched it). Again I got daggers and people calling me names like tit and dickhead. 

Again in my defence.....FB is a spoiler alert waiting to happen. I actually felt bad about my spoiler and duly apologised therefore. But there are a lot of other people out there who wont give a shit about how you feel regarding spoilers and will just say shit anyway. 

I feel it comes down to the fact that you shouldn't broadcast that you are looking forward to something without saying: No Spoilers Please. You cant say....yes well you were supposed to know these things, bull shit! I cant read peoples minds......I cant predict that they don't want a spoiler. Its like not asking a question that you don't want to know the answer to. 

Its like Bafana Bafana being all excited before going into a World Cup Qualifier....you should say to them: Why you getting excited? You not going to win!

On to happier thoughts. I am personally glad that True Blood is back. It fills the void left by the other show which is trending in the lions den: Game of Thrones. I cant wait to see Anna Paquin and Debbie Ann Woll. YUM! 

Mei jua daima kuwa kabla yenu, na vivuli nyuma yako!

NOW WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD NOT WANT TO HIT THAT?