Describe Fun & Refreshing =/= Commercialism?

It has been a major great debate around decades for designers from our country, the beloved Malaysia. Money or Passion? How much is the blame to be put? On the designers or client? Or pointing finger is useful anymore? Or the responsibility comes back to designer to always hold on to the passion and convince the client that new ideas/execution will work on branding and sells their product better? I'd think it's worth for us to think how to make us to grow better? faster? or how? and what?


Shiroganeya
This sites, will show you, ZEN. The fusion of good transition, cleverly used sound effects and awesome compositions. Now, it's not about how well you throw you graphics to move vertically or horizontally anymore, look and see for yourself to believe. The elements are so well blend that you'll really feel that you are sucked inside into the environment itself, it has been a while since I seen any site with that kind of ambience. Developed by 7779, it's really worth for you to look into this designer's transformation from his old work to the recent work, it's just utterly amazing, and you can explain it with words. And yes, his photography work, see to believe. One word, speechless.


McDonald's Videogame
Have you ever wonder you can stand on Ronald McDonald's big red shoe and manage the ever big corporation on your hand? This site, is not related to the company as well, more like a tribute to it, and I'd salute to the effort placed in making this site/game workable and, of course, addictive. Seeing it as a game is not enough, because of the depth and thought placed inside, you'll really see the value beyond entertainment, and it really benefits young kids to learn how they see McDonald from the other way round, how the meat are produced, the bread and so on. Come, introduce it to your friend and start selling burgers! Credits : Linkshard


AbsolutKravitz
Seeing how the brand, Absolut, evolved from just a beverage to an icon, is really revolutionary, featuring Lenny Kravitz, this collaboration creates a track composed by Kravitz himself, with a few remixes, you'll be able to see how Flash Videos (FLV) can be cleverly manipulated inside Flash to create a higher level of experience to convince and make the entire surfing experience more richer. Transitions that are connecting different artists, and as well, to keep things in place, instead of asking the user to wait for the loading on the next section, this site cleverly place the loading on the lower priority on the lower right side so that the user still can navigate and continue to explore on the other section.


The Fan
Imagine having a satellite tv channel on your mouse click, it's a allrounded website providing you all tv stations with a few mousewheel-ing on your finger. The idea's cool, but how far it can go, as far user experience is concerned. A cool idea to reorganize the data together in a circular roulette format. Very XML-driven site.


Sesam Katapult
Let's talk about some wicked game, and this foreign site, though with language as the barrier and I have no idea on what the games means, but it does somehow reminds me of the old 'Rocket Knight Adventure' from Genesis/Megadrive back in the console day. And of course, this game is addictive as usual, you get a good angle, and *poof* off you go up the sky, and you get higher by jumping on those purplish-pinkish clouds. Created by the dudes from Agens. Credits : Linkshard


The Streaking Game
A great way to create revenue, but to have a great balance in both fun and commercialism. You are a character, running and flashing at different venue, creating 'Eyes' for people to look at you. Avoid getting caught and reach the destination to get your score recorded. Might sound retarded at first, but soon you'll get hooked on the entire site, sound effect and music is great. Thumbs up.