by Matt | Oct 6, 2015 | Aggravation
Watching the Astros/Yankees Wildcard game tonight…
“Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Some of these (Astros) rookies don’t realize the Yankees have won 27 championships” – John Kruk
A) Really? People who play so much baseball that they’ve made it their PROFESSION, have no clue about the history of their sport? Players under the age of 30 have never heard of the New York Yankees? Really Kruk?
B) What the heck does it matter? No one on the current Yankees roster was there for 26 out of the 27. Why would championships from the 1960’s have any bearing on this current team?
He makes my head hurt.
by Matt | Jul 29, 2015 | Aggravation, Cards, Tech
I’ve given up on BUNT. I tried to like it but it’s just impossible. It’s impossible for me to enjoy an app that doesn’t know what its trying to be, outside of a basic pay-to-win money grab, and that’s not something I can support.
Originally, I was told it was a “card collecting app” and that you collected digital cards. Ok, that’s fine, but what’s the point?
Then, as I’m trying it out, it completely shifts focus to “it’s like fantasy baseball, but with cards!”. Ok, I like fantasy baseball, but it has major issues with it’s contest formats. The contests really boil down to a “DraftKings” type format, where you’re picking cards each day, but its not about the skill in picking the players, it’s about having the players with the highest “boost” in points value. There are parallel cards to the regular ones, offering ever higher levels of points multipliers. If you don’t have an entire roster of Gold (2x pts) cards, at the bare minimum, you’re not winning squat. Even if you do win, you get coins, which in turn you use to buy packs. The packs have cards. Cards get you points, points get you coins, coins get you packs, packs get you cards.
At that point you’re in a never ending spiral of opening packs to find better cards to play. That pretty much describes the “pay to play” universe of micro-transactions, and that’s fine if that’s your thing. Its the same concept as Candy Crush or Clash of Clans, or anything else people are addicted to on their phones. Its just not my cup of tea.
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by Matt | Jul 9, 2015 | Aggravation, Cards
Or, the Bowman Conundrum. Or, the Organizational Dilemma. Or any of a number of synonyms for “First World Baseball Card Problems”.
I’ve reached that point where I need to reconsider how I’m organizing my cards. Some of it is ok. Team sets and complete sets, by years, in binders. Got it. It’s everything else that’s the issue.
I’m just going to “talk it out”, and maybe I can wrap my head around it as I go.
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by Matt | Jun 3, 2015 | Aggravation, Cards
I complained about this last year, and I’m going to repeat myself and complain about it again this year. Why on earth is there no consistency in Gypsy Queen?
I’ll let you click on that and see it in it’s full-sized glory. See anything a bit off? Yeah, the printing job is terrible. The colors are all over the place. The only possible explanation is that they were printed by different printing houses, in different locations, and then combined when they were sorted and packed out. Even then, I can’t imagine there wasn’t a color reference sheet, or press checks, or just basic quality control. This stuff is kind of basic in the printing industry.
We do 10,000+ runs of corporate brochures and we check color and consistency before we start printing (by doing test runs), again once they start rolling off the press (for comparison) and again towards the middle and end to make sure it’s staying consistent. Pantone colors should match throughout the entire process.
These cards, these are something else. There are at least three (if not four) different colors in there. One really dark (far left), one that I believe to be correct (Nomar, far right), and ones that are considerably lighter mixed in.
Last year it was the colors of the backs, this year the problem has run over onto the fronts. That’s just the first of many issues. Let’s talk about photography and photo processing through Photoshop…
Here’s a perfect example. Two very similar cards (in composition and player body position), but look at the photos. The Kimbrell on the right is sharp as a tack. You can see the Rawlings logo on the ball and even the notch-holes on his belt. The filters they’ve used have been applied in the correct manner, giving it that semi-HDR look which makes the details pop but makes it slightly grainy as if to suggest an old-timey photograph. I LOVE that concept, especially as a photographer and designer. Now look at the Nolan Ryan on the left. Complete garbage. Everything is blurry. Someone either completely messed up the settings on the filters, or they used an incredibly low resolution photo and/or blurry photo as their source material.
This is incredibly hard for me to understand. Topps has photographers. Topps has had photographers since the 1950s. They’ve made Nolan Ryan cards before. They’ve made Nolan Ryan cards with good, sharp photos before. Ryan is wearing a Rangers uniform, which means the photo is from 1989-1993. They made good cameras, and good lenses in the 1990’s. Why is a photo this bad even a possibility at this point. Topps SELLS POSTERS of the man, which a sharp photo, taken in the 70’s!!! Good photos of Nolan Ryan are not the problem. They’re easy to find. Here’s a bunch!
That means the only explanation for that card being that terrible, is user error. Want another, here’s another…
Bad photo, check. Blurry edges on obviously photoshopped player, check. Pixelated sky? Sure. Why not. If you’re going to make a terrible card, you might as well go all out. Alex Gordon was not standing on that field, he’s been cut out, poorly I might add, and placed on it. Not only that, but the effect looks to have been applied to him and the background separately. There’s no excuse for that sky. That’s just processed poorly. Look at these others…
Ignore the other 2, but Gausman, Kazmire and Vargas are all standing in front of a very similar sky. All of these were probably taken in Florida during spring training. They’ve all been processed to an acceptable level. Even Reyes, with more complicated clouds behind him, managed to come out with heavy distortion.
It’s such a shame that a good concept like this is diminished by sub-par design work. I’m sure the folks in Topps graphics department work hard. They’re probably on really crappy deadlines and they probably have to do so many of these that they start to not care. I get that. I’ve been there. I also know that I don’t produce something that will be seen and handled by thousands of collectors, who view cards as mini, collectable, pieces of art. Art that represents both the players and the sport that they enjoy.
That’s something that’s worth taking the time to do a little quality control with.
by Matt | Sep 19, 2014 | Aggravation, Culture, Games
I was talking to several friends who occasionally and casually game and they all asked me my thoughts on Destiny, the latest shooter/mashup from Bungie. They had seen the marketing blitz and were wondering if the game was worth playing. The best analogy I could come up with (and after some deeper reflection, the one that still fits) was that Destiny is a good bowl of vanilla ice cream. Not just any vanilla ice cream, a really good kind. Ben & Jerry’s good. However, it’s the only thing in the bowl. The realization here is that for all the marketing hype about the greatness of Destiny, it’s incomplete. It’s ice cream without any sunday accoutrements. It has no chocolate sauce, no whipped cream, no jimmy’s and no cherry on top. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with good ice cream, it’s just that without it being made into a full dessert experience, you’re left wondering how good it could have been if only they had opted for the waffle cone. (more…)
by Matt | Jun 5, 2014 | Aggravation, Personal, Work
It’s been nearly a month since my last post and things haven’t gotten any better. In most ways, they’ve gotten worse. My job woes continue and there’s likely no resolution until at least July. Three different companies with three different people claiming to be my new boss are pulling me in three different directions and I’ve yet to get a formal offer letter from any of them. So, in all honesty, my motivation for working hard for any of them seems rather low. Why throw 80 hours at a project that I’ll get cut from. I’m more focused on just trying to not make any of them angry until I figure out where I’m going to land. My office, the actual one I’m sitting in, might get moved to another floor and or removed all together and I’ll work from home. It all depends on how much money the company wants to shave off it’s budget. We have huge equipment in here (44″ Epson roll printer, 40″ flatbed scanners, 48″ vinyl cutter, etc. etc). Its not like any of this stuff will fit in a cubical. Keeping an office for this stuff actually makes logistical sense, so, of course, that sense will be ignored by everyone in upper management. I’ll be lucky if I’m working out of the loading dock this time next month.
There’s also a lot going on on a personal level. My parents are still living with us, despite insistence that “June” is a hard deadline for them leaving. That’s creating a lot of stress. It’s not that I want to kick them out, but I just don’t see any movement or motivation from them. They need to be working towards some sort of goal and, most importantly, working a day job. I’ve yet to see evidence of either.
Freelance work has slowed down after a busy spring. I’ve got two projects on my plate and I’m waiting on checks from both of them. My big “going to make my summer” gig fell through for budget reasons on the client’s end and it looks like it won’t be happening all together. That was going to literally fund my hobbies well into Christmas.
Baseball card wise, which is why most of you are here, I’m completely unimpressed with most of the current offerings. I bought a Bowman team set and now I’m just sitting on my hands waiting for Ginter. I loath Archives, I’m not buying the super over-priced Tier 1, and I’ve finished most everything else. I bought a Bowman blaster last weekend because I couldn’t find anything else to even consider. My Targets/WMs aren’t stocking Panini products at all and I’m not sinking any money into that black hole called Heritage. So, basically, I’m waiting for something interesting, and I’m not wasting any more until then. Smart for the wallet, bad for the tradebait.
I did receive a couple PWEs, which I appreciate more than anything. You fellow collectors are awesome awesome and thank you for thinking of me. They’ll be posted on their own, it’s only fair.
Video games are also depressing. E3 is next week and we’ll get to hear about all the great games we won’t be playing until next year, meanwhile the only thing worth even looking at this summer is WatchDogs which is still only getting mediocre reviews. Hell, I’m still playing Black Flag which was a birthday gift 7 months ago. If that’s not depressing, I don’t know what is.
My wallet is empty, my car is making a funny noise, my parents are driving me nuts, my job is downsizing, and life is stressful. The only thing trending upwards these days is my blood pressure.
In case you’re still reading at this point, my primary focus is on finishing my new portfolio site and polishing my resume and linkedin profile, just in case. I’m going to be throwing lots of time towards my portfolio site, so posts here might still be few and far between. Rest assured, I haven’t given up, far from it. I haven’t abandoned this site in 13 years and I’m not about to start now. We all go through seasons in life, and right now, it’s a Winter, despite what the temperature outside may be.
Later.
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