Most Expensive Cities To Live In Updated

The economist has come out with the new list for most expensive cities to live in and having not seen this list in a few years, I'm a bit shocked at the results. The last time I checked was in 2005 when my geography professor cited a 2002 or so Economist in which Moscow topped off the list. Not that I plan on moving to any of these top ten cities anytime in the near future, except maybe Tokyo, but it's still interesting to see that Chicago and New York are the two most expensive cities in the United States not even making it into the top 35.

Beijing came in at #57 not surprisingly having moved up a single spot from the previous year. Where Beijing will be a decade from now it seems unlikely to speculate, but it would be a shock if it were to break into the top 35 on the list unless it begins to look more like Shanghai. With the World Expo going to Shanghai starting May 1st and ending October 31st it would seem that Shanghai would be higher on the list for tourists and visitors to China than its capital. If we assume a similar bounce to Beijing's Olympic bounce then Shanghai will most certainly be the place to be this summer, and considering the breeze that comes off the water, it would make for the perfect summer destination. And with the exotic image of its skyline, it could make you feel worlds apart from the rest of China.

Those with spoken Chinese skills should be advised, Shanghai has its own dialect of Chinese which isn't necessarily intelligible to Mandarin.

The Economist's List of Most Expensive Cities to Live In

Activision v. Infinity Ward and the Consumer

The only game that keeps me from being a full-time zombie genocidist on XBox Live is Modern Warfare 2. Not only does the single player game have more explosions than a Michael Bay movie, but coincidently it has more story. Maybe Michael should consider switching to video games because despite the spectacular effects in his movie and the little to the imagination he leaves of Megan Fox, his movies are terrible, and only good for one viewing if you have the stomach for that sort of thing. With the recent firing of the two studio heads at infinity ward, maybe Activision would consider hiring him to take the company in a new direction. I hear they might be hiring now and that brings me to the question of the day.

With Jason West and Vince Zampella bringing a law suit against Activision for breach of contract among other things, what should the consumer expect? You could compare the success of Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 to the success of the likes of James Cameron's Avatar, both have made some monumental figures as far as sales are concerned. The difference is James Cameron is getting paid for his creation. The two former heads of IW have charged that they were fired days before they were set to be paid royalties for MW2. Activision has fired back and according to G4tv.com is searching for documents that indicate a "breach of contract" or "insubordination" on the part of Zampella and West. One comment from a user on G4tv.com suggests it would make more sense if they'd had proof of wrongdoing before firing their two workers, a sentiment that is widely shared in the gaming community.

Another user compares Activision to NBC for its recent Tonight Show maneuver replacing Conan O'brien with Jay Leno. Gamers across the country are expressing these thoughts with concerns about the future of some of their favorite companies because they like the games they play, and they don't like the massive power companies like Activision and EA have. Is it good for business? Will the separation be amicable, and will it all work out for the better? Most likely not according to all the parties, but it seems like a bad move on Activision's part to ditch the heads of Infinity Ward when Modern Warfare 2 surpassed $1 billion in sales by January 14th according to the Los Angeles Times. Hopefully the quality of video games won't suffer in the long or the short run considering the current economic recession and that in the United States alone, the industry raked in over $20 billion in 2009.