Reason Prevails!
-
Our IT group has finally seen the light (at least for now). After incessant grumbling and some serious nerd rage, they came to the understanding that ESPN.com and Dan Birlew.com weren't so different and secretly unblocked all sites dealing with videogame information. Still can't download games to play at work or stream, which, IMO, is as it should be, but we can at least READ about stuff again. Yay for reason.
Seems like nobody's really playing anything anymore, tho, based on the lack of discussion here. So sad. Truth be told, tho, I haven't been motivated to play anything much lately myself. Bought Child of Eden, but I'm seriously too tired at the end of the day to stand up and play.
And what's this about Dan appearing to have landed an office job? How'd that happen? -
Yes, one of my recently formed goals is to take all this free webmastering, site design and administration that I do and turn it into a side or main career. Hit a bit of a stumble in my first pro attempt in the local market, but I'm not deterred. Will soon turn my attention back to WordPress and theme development, and hopefully have a decent first product ready this year. One thing I'm definitely aware of: this site needs a redesign. And AJAX, baby! Lots of AJAX... I'm going to hone my skills by creating a custom WordPress design for here. Also starting a new strategy guide today for an upcoming fall game, and will immediately thereafter turn my attention back to my novel. I realize that even if the book didn't sell professionally, there's certainly nothing to be lost by self-publishing it. The book was supposed to be the first of a five-part series @-) and so I will definitely truncate it to just one short volume. I also aim to release that this year. Plus I've had another idea for a membership site that is really exciting, and will be working long-term on that over the next year or so.
The lack of playing you're noticing isn't just here, it's affecting the entire industry. I could link to articles for your reading pleasure, but I already did that in my Twitter stream and in some cases, on this site's front page (see "Side Notes" on front page). As you can see above, I have A LOT TO DO. #:-s There's much analysis and debate going on in the games media as to whether it's the over-extended hardware cycle or the lack of interesting games or, mainly, the price point against increasingly popular iPhone apps. Personally, I think the content of new games could be less rushed and more compelling, and draw back players that way. Seriously, I've spent more time playing Vagrant Story recently than I have my copy of MGS4, which I've still only barely started at 2 hrs play time. :|
As for your co-workers, please offer them a big heartfelt thanks from me and the rest of DanBirlew.com ;)
(Aside: Did Jim want to delete his blog here? Because WordPress has it marked for deletion, or something, I don't fully understand and maybe it's just a glitch, but if he does please let me know, it's no problem.) -
Yeah, he doesn't have time to maintain it, and he keeps getting hit with bots requiring moderation, which is the equivalent of a mosquito in the ear.
I'm glad it's not just me. There's nothing moderate out there now to play. It's either some epic like L.A. Noir, or another skin on the same FPS RPG. The last game I played that I loved was Portal 2. I might just go replay it, once the baby's in bed.
Good luck on the novel! -
Welcome back Jayne, good to see you're still among us. Glad that your IT guys are actually behaving like normal people now. Long may it last!
Hope you're all well :)
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
