Check it out… there’s a Brutal Legend gameplay demo at Gamepro. This is the first time that I’ve really seen the game in action. Cutscenes and trailers don’t give you a handle on how a game will actually play. This however, confirms that the game will be as awesome as it looked before.
I don’t think I’m going to give away anything particularly spoiler-ish, but just in case, the rest of this post continues after the jump.
Jon’s video of Midnight in Chelsea was featured as the Wake-Up Video on the MTV Newsroom.
Interestingly enough, the second paragraph of the article is quite complimentary, praising Jon’s ability to fit his music to what’s currently popular. I don’t think I’d call It’s My Life ‘computer rock’ though. It’s more of a pop/rock influenced song. (Now, One Wild Night 2001, on the other hand, is definitely dance or technica influenced–but that’s not the song that they referenced.)
Unfortunately, they blow it in the third paragraph. I’m not sure how they can claim that the video for Midnight in Chelsea is remotely relevant to the beginning of Jon’s career. Destination Anywhere isn’t anywhere close to the beginning of Jon’s career. It isn’t even his first solo album!
All that being said, it doesn’t detract from enjoying the video. If anyone still goes to MTV for music, this should introduce a few new people to what Jon can really do when given the chance.
Perhaps I wasn’t clear either in the original meaning of the last post. I don’t doubt that there are a lot of strong fans of the Soul. I don’t doubt that Jon has successfully created a strong team and quality family entertainment. I also think that more major-league team owners and managers should emulate Jon’s stance on morals in their players. The my real question is: is all this enough for long term viability of the franchise and the league in general?
There are a number of issues that I’ve observed–intertwined with Jon’s celebrity, but mostly not attributable directly to it. For any sports franchise to have major, long-term viability, it has to make money. For celebrities looking for toys, a money-loser might be tolerable, at least until they get bored. Being dependent on a celebrity’s whims isn’t a secure place to be for any business venture.
I see one big problem for arena football in the long term. Unless their marketing gets much, much better, NFL fans (at least male ones like I work with) aren’t going to become fans of arena football. Ever. Their culture is geared toward mocking fans of arena football. The only reason that I didn’t get made fun of more for watching a Soul game was because my co-workers wrote it off to my being a fan of Jon. That’s a big segment of potential audience with completely closed minds, which is not a good thing to have, never mind the chilling effect on fans. (It’s not dissimilar from the problem faced by professional soccer in the US. Football fans, by and large, find the sport to be laughable.)
I used to live close enough to Philadelphia that I was generally considered to be within the geographic fan zone for its sports teams. (I am now far enough out and north that I have edged into border territory with the NY teams.) The only Soul jerseys that I have seen ‘in the wild’ are all Bon Jovi ones. This is what initially led me to wonder how much of the Soul’s success is derived directly from Jon’s success. The problem with basing success in the AFL on bringing in fans through other associations is that those fans are fickle. Especially in an economy like this, it’s not a good time to rely on fans that aren’t fans of the team first and foremost. Any team needs fans that are fans of the team–like FirebirdDW, who commented earlier.
More than anything else, it will come down to marketing. In the town where I live now, we have a minor league baseball team. Now, in some ways you’d expect them to be having at least some of the same problems as the Soul with the economy so deep in the tank. But they’re selling out. I see that they have three major advantages over the Soul–all of which can be fixed with the right marketing.
Marketing and reputation building is where fans can come in. You want to save the Soul? Start acting as an arm of their marketing department–a ‘street team’ if you will. You don’t have to do much, and everything I’m going to suggest is free, except for #8. If you can make enough noise, the news media notices, and then you get big publicity.
The last thing to remember: don’t spam.
If you’re posting to a message board or commenting on a blog, keep your post on-topic and relevant. Don’t post just to spread the link. Don’t violate any forum rules, either. If links in signatures aren’t allowed, don’t try to sneak one in. Lastly, don’t repeat yourself by sending the same post multiple times, even to different forums.
You’ve proven me wrong about there being devoted fans. I wish you well in saving the AFL. And remember, by posting here and refuting me, you’ve already started your campaign.
I was reading Joe Brescia’s blog post about the Philadelphia Soul today, and it occurred to me–I haven’t even thought about the Soul in months. I used to be fairly up-to-date on the Soul. (Once upon a time I had to suffer the embarrassment of confessing that the last football game I watched was a Soul game during the office Super Bowl pool.)
But here’s the thing: I only ever thought about the team because the Soul was Jon’s pet project. If he hadn’t been involved, I probably wouldn’t even have known that Philadelphia had an arena football team. If I had known, I would have just wondered why they bothered when Philadelphia has the Eagles. (Granted, the Soul was the only sports team in Philadelphia that didn’t completely suck back when they were still playing.)
Other confessions: I have never been able to sit through an entire Soul game. I usually get bored and start playing Xbox instead. Also, the most entertainment I have ever gotten out of a Soul game was watching the news media fuss over the ‘Finger Incident’.
I can’t be the only one in this situation. Actually, I’d guess that Bon Jovi fans probably outnumber actual fans of the team. I’ve never seen a Soul t-shirt on anyone other than Bon Jovi fans. And you’re definitely far more likely to see a Soul jersey with ‘Bon Jovi’ on it than a player’s name. I don’t even know if they even sell them with players’ names on them.
But here’s the question: other than Jon’s fans, will anyone miss the Soul if the Arena Football League folds?
I just got to watch the video of Stand By Me that Jon and Richie recorded with Andy Madadian to help draw attention to the Iranian people.
It’s wonderful to see Jon using his celebrity to try to help people this way. His presence alone ensures that this song and video–and their message–gets viewed all over the world. It also brings this message directly to a lot of people that might not otherwise have thought about what the people of Iran are going through.
Jon also did a wonderful job on the vocals in this piece. Some of the songs that he has done lately can sound a bit strained in places; this song didn’t show a single sign of it. Just Jon’s wonderful, clear voice. I don’t think I’ve heard him sing that well since Crush, honestly.
Richie’s guitar solo was perfect; it demonstrates the wonderful sensitivity that Richie brings to his guitar playing. So many guitarists of Richie’s caliber add excessive noodling around to every song that they perform, simply because they can. One of the wonderful things about Richie’s talent is his ability to play beautifully without his ego getting in the way–he gives the song exactly what it needs and not a bit more.
Also, Jon is looking hot. The longer, blonder hair does wonders for him; he looks at least ten years younger than he did a few months ago, and it really softens his face. The short dark hair just made him look underfed and brought out the lines in his face. This is a great improvement.