Netflix and... Qwikster?

Boy, am I glad that I made the decision to drop DVDs when Netflix changed their pricing. If you somehow missed the news, Netflix is spinning off their DVD operation into a separate company and website. Netflix's CEO is saying that this was planned all along, but he never got around to telling the customers about it until now... personally, I think it's more like they planned to fully split things out eventually, but the rapid divide/drop of their customer base since their pricing announcement pushed them to take this step sooner than anticipated. I mean, really... Qwikster was the best name they could come up with? Sounds like something that Nestle might have come up with to promote their powdered milk-flavoring stuff... and, better still, they can't exactly do much "social network" marketing with that name either, since that Twitter account is already owned by a guy with a weed-smoking Elmo avatar.

So, Netflix is basically putting DVDs out to pasture, and maybe they think they can sell that side of the business (and its user data) to somebody else to make a quick buck in support of their streaming business. It will be interesting to see how this pans out... but I'm glad I chose one side, and the side that Netflix thinks is worthy to keep the company name, for now.

The new crack: Disgaea 4

Well, it's been almost a year and a half since I made a rule for myself about buying nothing Sony, but every rule has its exceptions... Disgaea 4 just came out, and I snagged a brand new copy on launch day. What can I say... an upgraded game in the same vein as one I managed to spend well over 300 hours playing is just irresistible, when I still own the hardware to run it.

This version has the same quirky humor and detailed, turn-based strategy engine... but now, it has improved graphics and animations (so it no longer looks like a transplanted PlayStation 2 game), plus additional combat options (like fusing some of your monsters into mega-monsters, temporarily of course) and Internet features, like the ability to have some of your crew cause grief in other players' games (not while you're controlling them, sad to say). All in all, I expect I'll get more than my money's worth of entertainment out of this game.