Muni Video Games

neat. you all just missed your bus.

Billing its new advertising initiative as a “Bus Stop Derby,” tech giant Yahoo has installed digital video screens at 20 bus shelters in San Francisco, mostly in the downtown area. As part of the promotion, transit passengers from 20 specified neighborhoods will get the chance to compete against each other in different video games — and the community that wins the two-month contest will host a block party featuring the rock band OK Go.

this way we can wait in line to play video games while we wait for the bus. so, you know, we won't feel like we're waiting on the bus anymore.

To compete, passengers need only to tap the screen and choose one of four games, which range from visual puzzles to sports trivia competitions. Once a rider has selected which neighborhood they want to represent, they can challenge any other waiting passenger to a live competition. Also, for anyone curious about duping the system, Yahoo has set up barriers to prevent any sort of automated competition.

pretty sure that's not your job, man-with-broom-and-trash-bag. get back to work.

Each time a rider wins a contest, their neighborhood receives 100 points. The neighborhood with the most points by Jan. 28 will be crowned the winner and get to party with OK Go on Feb. 5. Once the victorious community has been decided, the exact details of OK Go’s performance will be finalized.

i'll admit it's an innovative idea-- though, not as great as the pee-pee video games sega put out in japan's restrooms-- but i'm not sure i understand the exact purpose. i wouldn't mind seeing ok go perform (assuming it's free), but i would be really upset if they performed in my neighborhood. i'm almost tempted to represent my hood by failing every muni video game possible, just to keep drunken hipsters away from my apartment.

that last sentence made me feel very old directly after i typed it. i'll do what i can to keep those damn kids and their damn rock n' roll music away from my damn lawn! whatever.

The Yahoo promotion is made possible by Muni’s advertising agreement with Clear Channel. As part of the pact, Clear Channel must provide the Municipal Transportation Agency, which operates Muni, with a minimum of $8.6 million in advertising revenue this year. In exchange, Clear Channel works with advertisers to bring promotional campaigns to bus shelters owned by the MTA.

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look, $8.6 million dollars would be great if the money were actually spent on providing us with buses that were not so notoriously late that companies decide to install video games at the bus stops. or if they put the finances toward running enough buses so there is at least standing space, rather than using the extra bucks to cover up our ridiculous deficit.

but, if it's like every year prior, the money will sort of disappear. a few bus lines will probably even get cut for no reason, and the price of riding will go up another 50 cents for no reason. the muni system is like the postal service: the price goes up as the quality goes down. except there is no email version of taking the bus, so we just deal with it.

shoot, i've only lived here for six years and i've watched the muni go rapidly downhill. i remember when the 1-california was never packed. with all the bus-cuts, the only bus that has not gotten worse is the 38-geary-- and that's because it cannot possibly get worse. when i moved here, the monthly passes were only $45 rather than $70. and there were more buses running than now.

that's a quiet rip-off.

in fact, the only improvement to the muni system thus far has been the hi-tech methods in which we can pay to ride. clipper cards and all that. but the buses haven't changed in any direction but backward.

and now... guitar hero bus stops. cool. it's easier to pay and easier to wait around? now i've just got no complaints, muni.

maybe i'm just mad because i'm sleep-deprived.

oh well. i suppose at least homeless folk can invite their friends over for poor man's xbox now.