Five things on Friday #385
This week: dinosaur discoveries, social media migrations, and chicken shop shenanigans. Shall we?
#385
Things of note for the week ending Friday September 6th, 2024
INTRO
Hello hello.
I hope that however this finds you this week, you are happy, well, and enjoying what weather you have in your particular hemisphere. I say that knowing full well I have had a reasonable influx of new subscribers from down under this week (g’day).
After last week's special - and completely unprecedented PERTH EDITION - it seems some of you are quite happy to read about my travelling adventures (the feedback has been LOVELY). So that's nice.
Feels... bloggy.
Nostalgia, eh? What a concept. Might listen to some old school Usher and really take it back. Why not?
Yeah, enjoy that.
As I write this opener to you now, it’s Friday morning - and frankly, I don't even know if this edition will make it out this week (Ed: as per. JW: shh, you. (also, who is this Ed character? AS IF I have an Editor)) as, due to AUSTRALIA SHENANIGANS, the annual summer OREO BBQ has been moved to September.
Notably, tomorrow.
We pray for good weather.
Well, we actually pray for better weather than last year.
SING!
“And I never, never,
Ever do a thing about the weather
For the weather never
Ever does a thing for me!”
Whichever way the sunshine lands, we are hopeful for a good day. And once THAT is out of the way, I've got my first proper trip to Denmark for a [redacted] LEGO thing and THEN, after THAT, I think I might be able to breathe a bit?
I think?
We’ll have to see how we go.
Careful now. If you blink, it'll be Christmas...
How are you anyway? Write back, won't you? Especially if you're a newbie. Tell me your favourite THING this week, or tell me what you did/didn't like about last week's edition.
Whatever. I like getting replies - (true facts: I've never had a bad one (that's not a cue for you to start)).
Shall we crack on with the things then?
Like a camp Pedro Pascal cult leader from Wish, I insist you follow me to my teachings.
TO THE THINGS!
THING 1. LET’S KICK OFF WITH SOME DINOSAUR NEWS
I don’t know if anyone caught this last week but palaeontologists have recently found MATCHING dinosaur tracks in Brazil and Cameroon.
Yeah, that’s about 3700 miles of ocean separating those two countries but obviously, back then, things were different. And early cretaceous dinosaurs travelled freely between South America and Africa long before the continents split.
I think that’s nuts - and amazing that they found and tracked actual footprints and tracks.
Read more over on BBC Wildlife Magazine.
THING 2. THE GREAT SOCIAL MEDIA MIGRATION
I’ve spoken about this before…
In a new, recent conversation - in a Facebook group that I’m in (and have no real understanding how or why I’m in it - but I’m not challenging), smart person and yet rarely-sighted-recently friend of the newsletter, Stephen Waddington asked:
‘Where are you heading after Twitter?’
This question, asked predominantly to an audience of PRs and journalists - and its subsequent responses - is a good summary of why the diaspora of ex-Twitter users is finding it so hard to reconvene.
Personally, I moved over to Threads back in July 2023 (see FToF #350 for the details) and, after a year or so of working at it, my community there is decent, my algorithm relatively well-trained and, as a result, I’m rarely on Mastodon or Bluesky at all these days.
On a tangential point, after a couple of robust conversations in Australia, and a decent deck from Matt Stasoff in the bonus things last week, I've been noodling a lot on the interest graph vs the social graph and the tiktokifcation of social media.
The AND not OR of organic social.
Is it as cut and dry and is it used to be, when Ogilvy first published the Death of Organic Reach?
I don't know.
Are you, as a brand, still at the whim and behest of gambling with an unseen algorithm by playing at the roulette table of organic interest-graph social? Definitely.
Are the odds as stacked against as you as they used to be? I don’t know.
One thing is for sure.
The social-graph is over (and has been for a while - I appreciate this might not be new news - it’s just the first time I’ve been thinking about it).
Begun, the interest-graph wars have.
THING 3. THIS WEEK IN… VIDEO GAMES
The main thing of interest this week - to me at least - is Ann Summers’ sponsorship of the MCV/Develop Awards.
One of those things where you go ‘Hang on a minute. What?’
“First comes courage, then confidence, followed by success” was one of the late Jacqueline Gold CBE’s powerful sayings. Empowering women every day is business as usual at Ann Summers, being brave enough to drive positive change is how we as women move forward and help build the future stage for all those following behind us. We are proud to support the MCV/Develop Women in Games Awards for their 10th Anniversary event, and look forward to celebrating with the talented females of the video games industry on the 26th September.
Right. Well, that explanation/press release feels like it’s coming from the right place, right?
So let’s start by saying: I don’t know how to feel about this. Why should I even have to feel anything about it? I am quite obviously not a woman in games. This is not for me. So what right do I have putting an opinion out about this? Well, maybe I don’t. And that’s fair.
Maybe I like thinking out loud. Maybe sometimes its important for men to share their feelings on women’s issues to help shine a light on them. Maybe. Either way, if you don’t like it, scroll on.
Right.
So look, I don’t doubt for one second that Ann Summers - home of sexual and body positivity for women for decades (Ann Summers’ parties etc) - wanting to back strong, independent women of the future is a good thing for them to do.
It is, however, hard to square this off with a few things prevalent in (and out) of games and to wonder if some nuance would’ve been helpful.
Some questions I’ve been thinking about:
Video games has a history of a loud minority of men and boys gatekeeping women from the industry. Does this move the conversation forward?
Activision Blizzard. Ubisoft. Bungie. There are many others.
Sexism and video games has its own Wikipedia entry. Was this consulted, shared, read, etc?
Female harassment in video games shows no sign of abating. What else does Ann Summers do in this space?
While we’re at it: Gamer Gate. Remember that?
The objectification of women in games has been a long fought battle ground (see Anita Sarkeesian’s excellent 2013 documentary series ‘Tropes vs Women in Video Games’), does this help?
So look. Finding a link between body positivity and objectification isn’t exactly a small leap. However, against the backdrop of just SO MUCH industry awfulness, and.. if i may, no recognisable support from Ann Summers in the games industry (to date?), is this a good and right thing to do? I don’t know. It might be the first step on a long road of support from them. And I hope it is.
Do I think Ann Summers have entered this with the best intentions? Absolutely.
Do I think it’ll help with literally any of the problems that women in video games face today? I don’t know.
Is it the right sponsor (charity-led or otherwise) for a category in an industry that treats its women so badly? I also don’t know.
I’ve canvassed some opinion on this already (publicly and privately - and the responses have been varied) but I’m always interested in more. Are you a woman in games? Send me a note and tell me what you think, please. I’m interested :)
MOVING SWIFTLY ON.
What is James playing?
ARCO. With so many bangers hitting the shelves over the coming days, you might be forgiven for missing this one.
I’ve been meaning to dabble with creepy card-playing game, INSCRYPTION for a while now and so picked it up as my return to London treat last week. And it does not disappoint. I’m really enjoying it - and you can dip in and out of it quite easily. Worth a look.
I finished a whole ton of life admin last night and as a reward, finally downloaded STAR WARS OUTLAWS. Once you’ve dicked about with the right settings, it really is quite something - and I've enjoyed what I’ve played so far.
Upcoming:
I’m excited about ASTROBOT (just casually sneaking in with a GAME OF THE YEAR stealing metacritic score). At this rate I think I’m going to need some time off to catch up with everything.
Deathsprint 66 is looking good…
I’m being basically peer pressured/bullied by my gaming community group to pick up SPACE MARINES 2, and oh..
I’m also very excited about CAIRN.
I’m sure there are others I’ve missed...
What are you playing?
THING 4. A BIT BEHIND THE SCENES OF CHICKEN SHOP DATE
This isn’t new but I have only just seen it and I thoroughly enjoyed it so I’m sharing it with you.
While away in Australia last week - for no real reason whatsoever - I just got really into Chicken Shop Date. I’d seen a few before but I decided just to go back and watch LOADS of them.
After doing that, I had this float up in my feeds and, at something like 3am in the morning when I couldn’t sleep, I watched it.
Here’s Amelia Dimoldenberg on Colin and Samir talking about how she built every celebrity’s favourite interview show…
I really enjoyed this, for a whole bunch of reasons.
Amelia’s commitment to keeping hold of the branding and rights to Chicken Shop Date
The huge Vodafone deal she did (and again, kept creative control)
The amount of hard yards she covered in just like, learning every job along the way.
Like I said, this isn’t a new interview but if you’ve not watched it yet, it’s a great insight into one of the VERY CURRENT (there isn’t a UK creative agency pitch deck without her face in it as we speak) talents of right now.
Time well spent.
THING 5. OH PARAMOUNT
A long time ago, I heard someone on a stage say something like ‘in any mature category or market there are only ever three main places for profitability. The leader, the second one, and then everyone else fighting over scraps/third place - and if you’re not third, you’re toast’ - I think about this a lot.
I’ve always thought Sony was smart to stay out of the streaming wars (instead deciding to make lemons while everyone else setup lemonade stands), with Paramount stepping back and even Apple allegedly slowing down. The remaining parties look like Disney, Netflix and... Amazon?
I think so.
So what will become of the others?
Since drafting this THING, the Skydance deal has gone through. So I wonder what will become of Paramount(+) next.
BONUS SECTION
THIS IS THE BONUS SECTION. BONUS LINKS THAT BUMP US OVER FIVE THINGS BUT DUE TO TIMING AND SELF-IMPOSED WRITING RESTRICTIONS ARE LIMITED TO PITHY COMMENTARY ONLY.
ENJOY.
YouTube TV. I stole this from Matt Muir's excellent newsletter, Web Curios. It is superb. Unlike Matt, I’m offering no explanation. Just dive in and explore.
Two Students File Sexual Assault Complaint Against Ad Industry Consultant in Cannes. Turns out the dude in question didn’t even have a pass to the festival - he just went to harass people at parties. Men are awful.
Post-credits but for soundtracks? Marvel debuted the theme tune for Fantastic Four last week and a) it’s quite good and b) it was delivered in a VERY Marvel way.
I’m very much here for Will & Harper (read about this being made a while back and was interested then, this trailer is everything and I’m in).
In Praise of the Hardest Job in Arlington National Cemetery.
Colossal has had an overhaul 😍
Nothing says ‘we treat and trust our employees to be adults and make their own decisions about how to complete their work’ like tracking their every move.
If you’re having a bad day then please, don’t worry too much. It could’ve been worse. You could’ve been the person who signed off this Alpine F1 Metaverse press release.
The Eurogamer 100 looks like it could be a good read.
Racism, Misogyny, Lies: how did X become so full of hatred? And is it ethical to keep using it? I’m guessing the answer rhymes with weegone tusk?
Finally, Rizzle Kicks are back with Javelin.
And I think I love it.
YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.
As I sign this off to you now, it’s 4pm on Sunday afternoon. We’ve had the party - and I’m sat in the garden, gently nursing a hangover while enjoying the occasional bursts of sunlight through the growing grey clouds above.
It might rain soon. I hope it doesn’t.
We forgot to do s’mores last night so I’ve promised the kids will get the firepit going this evening and smash up some marshmallows, giant chocolate buttons, and rich tea biscuits (it’s my version of how to do it, shh).
We also forgot to do espresso martinis and I’ve got some premade in the cupboard winking at me. Let’s go wild.
Wherever you are in the world, I hope you’ve had a good weekend and that the days ahead are relatively stress free.
Until next time,
Whatley out x
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