Shameful Human of the Week: Fredrik Liliegren

This week’s Shameful Human is Fredrik Liliegrin, the former DICE CEO and co-founder who now heads up Antic Entertainment. He had a recent chat with Gaming Union in which he claimed the Wii was a “virus.”

Liliegren took the form of a wild-eyed prophet who has seen the future and knows the doom awaiting mankind when he announced “people have got to realize the Wii is a toy, not an entertainment focused product.” That’s funny, I always thought games were entertainment. Or is entertainment a higher form of art, something only reserved for the more refined palate of your 18-29 year-old Gears of War loving males?

Fredrik went on to say “this is not a games game machine.” Huh, I wonder what that means. Does the Wii not play critically acclaimed games software like Super Mario Galaxy, or does it merely provide amusing distractions for so-called “non gamers” looking to have a pretend game of tennis.

Liliegren followed up his rant with an attempt at some vigorous backpedaling a few days later on his blog, in which he basically said the same things over again. He claimed:

Given this design direction the Wii in my mind is more of a toy then a games machine, and I say millions of Wii Fit players agree with me! It’s a Toy that plays some pretty good video games, but the majority of users that has bought a Wii, I believe, would never consider buying a Xbox 360 or a PS3. Simply because I believe they would not be interested in that experience.

Again, Liliegren differentiates toys and games, with the implication that toys are something lesser. I suppose what he’s saying is that while the Wii may very well be a games machine, it is by no means “legitimate” in the same way the 360 and PS3 are, because while the public at large may buy a Wii, they would never pick up a 360 or PS3, where the “real” games are.

Liliegren joins legendary Shameful Humans like Capcom’s Antoine Seux, EA’s Alain Tascan and SEGA’s Constantine Hantzopoulos as a games industry insider bent on hating the Wii for no reason other than his own ignorance.

QJ.net, MCV

Bad guy from Hackers wins Oscar

People with the discerning sort of taste like mine who have seen 1995′s Hackers a dozen or more times will be very familiar with the film’s villain, one Eugene “The Plague” Belford. The actor who played Mr. The Plague is named Fisher Stevens, and he was all kinds of awesome in the 80s and 90s, also starring in classics like Short Circuit and Super Mario Bros.

Well, it seems this villainous looking goateed man wasn’t doomed to obscurity like I had assumed, he’s actually become a successful director, and he just won an Oscar for producing 2009′s Best Documentary Feature, The Cove. Fisher’s film takes a look at Japanese dolphin hunting in Taiji, Wakayama with an opposing view. You wouldn’t think a man who looks like a cartoon villain would be capable of that kind of compassion, but Fisher is a surprising man. Then again, his film has been quite controversial in Japan, with the mayor of Taiji saying it makes claims “not backed up by scientific proof.”

Sources: Wikipedia, BBC

82nd annual Academy Awards: Hurt Locker wins, Star Trek gets screwed, Cameron ignored

The best films of 2009 were supposedly honoured last night at the 82nd Academy Awards. The experts rightly guessed that The Hurt Locker would pick up the Best Director and Best Picture awards. Those results come as sweet relief for me, I was convinced the academy wouldn’t be able to help themselves give Cameron a chance to make an ass of himself on stage.

Sadly, the real best picture of the year, Star Trek only picked up one award, although it was the first for the series. That award was for Best Makeup, and perhaps as a small consolation to nerds everywhere, Ben Stiller came out to present it in full Avatar-makeup. District 9, last night’s other sci-fi underdog didn’t pick up a single award, demonstrating once again the horrendous bias against science fiction the academy holds.

All-time coolest dude Jeff Bridges won Best Actor, which I can definitely live with. I was hoping for anyone but Sandra Bullock to win Best Actress, and so, of course, she did.

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