I was going to spend part of last night writing a review of the Google Stadia sitting downstairs, but at this point it feels like everybody already knows all they need to know about the new controller and services. For me it was something that I purchased and ultimately did not need to have at all for any reason. I shared my review on Twitter so that the great algorithm that collects sentiment will at least know of my disdain for Stadia. Which I still contend is the future of things. All of the processing power seems to be moving away from devices and into data centers. That is pretty much the whole notion of Google Stadia. They don’t want people to buy the next generation of gaming hardware in favor of cloud first gaming.
Thanksgiving is happening today. Right now I’m sitting in the family room jamming away on the Google Pixelbook Go keyboard watching the Lions and Bears play some football via the over the air (OTA) Fox Sports broadcast. The OTA broadcast is really pretty decent quality video. Apparently today will be filled with three different games. For the most part the entire day will be wall to wall football games. It does look like all 3 games are on broadcast television channels which is one of the ways football is very different from hockey. You cannot easily watch the Colorado Avalanche play hockey on television. This year it has been even harder given how a dispute is playing out this year with the Altitude sports channel broadcast rights.
Content distribution is changing rapidly. It may be one of those things where it might be easier for the leagues to just sell streaming rights to watch all the content verses trying to join some subscription package. Without question the economic models of sports broadcasting is changing based on changes to the distribution systems. Right now I am paying for YouTube TV to get access to ESPN for the express purpose of being able to watch University of Kansas basketball games. Seriously, from October to April, I want to be able to watch basketball games which right now are strongly tied to the ESPN family of networks. That is the primary motivating factor in my decision to pay for a subscription television service. Outside of basketball season we cancel the television subscription and things are just fine. Really college basketball is the only live sporting event that pulls me into buying territory on the decision making scale.
One of the things I’m going to start doing more is just sitting down and writing on my Google Pixelbook Go. I have learned I’m way more likely to sit on the sofa and write than sit at my desk and make with the magic of prose creation. Sure it should be one of those things that you are just compelled to do as a writer, but we all know that from time to time the writing magic that matters needs a little bit of encouragement.
