“I don’t know how, but they found me.”
Who’d you think? Massively, who linked to me today* – I guess it was only a matter of time. Adrian Bott, the writer who put up the piece, was at the MiniCon and is apparently tracking me on Stalkbook too, as that’s the image he chose to use on the piece.
I seriously need to get my ‘official’ NCsoft picture** done.
Anyway, hi Adrian! And anyone else who’s randomly arrived here. Leave a comment, don’t be a stranger. Oh and by the way Adrian, why not subscribe to the podcast’s RSS feed so you get the story up when the thing releases. Not three days later. It’s the Internet people! Seconds matter! (Although yes, I do realise you may have done just that – and are at the mercy of editors.)
Also – via Massively – just read this interesting interview at TenTonHammer with Scott Jennings, AKA ‘Lum the Mad’ (whose blog you should read). Scott’s working on a Top Secret Game Project inside NCsoft in Austin right now, and has been since some time in 2006. In fact, that was when I was last over there (believe it or not) and I did have the chance to sit down and get his pitch on the game. At the time it was looking pretty damn cool in design form. Of course I can’t talk about it any more than Scott can, but suffice to say I think Scott’s a damn smart guy and I hope his game turns out as good as he hopes.
As well as being a smart designer Scott’s also a great industry pundit, so when asked, as he is in the interview, about the future of the industry he’s got loads of good stuff to say. I particularly liked his final answer though, which is practically a call to arms for gamers everywhere:
Be more demanding. Don’t accept mediocrity. Don’t accept games that try to deliver less polish. WoW has set the standards that we have to meet, and if games don’t meet it they will fail and deserve to fail. That standard has now been set and we have to meet it.
Amen, brother!
* Well kind of. It’s the usual Massively thing, one link amongst a billion others, some of which may lead to interesting places and many of which just lead back to Massively. It kind of drives me nuts.
** Which, I hereby promise, will look as close as possible like that existing picture. Except better quality.
#1 by Krystalle Voecks at May 24th, 2008
Hello back to you! The linkage (and any tardiness thereof) would be my fault, actually. Nice to meet you, by the way — I’m Krystalle, co-lead at Massively along with Michael Zenke. (I’m the quiet one.) I actually have been following you for a while. I’m just not normally the type to jump out and say hallo without writing something of at least some vague substance. Of course, you said Hi, so I didn’t want to be rude.
Thanks very much for the RSS link to the podcast feed! How that one managed to escape my reader for so long, I cannot imagine. If you’ve got a better picture than the (hee) Stalkbook one that you’d like to send over, feel free to — my email is tied to this comment account. I can easily update the post/we can keep it on file for anything future that features you. (I do think it’s a fun picture, though.)
Very much enjoying the blog, and appreciate the inside look it gives the rest of us! Keep up the wonderful work.
#2 by Rockjaw at May 24th, 2008
Well hi Krystalle; good to ‘see’ you. Been reading eh? Looks like I’ve gotten away with it so far, then….
I’d send you to Flickr to choose a different photo but honestly, there ain’t much on there that’s less embarrassing. Although I will say if you wanted a higher-res version to crop, that’s available. I’ll get back to you on the ‘official’ photo… and I’ll try to make it ‘fun’. (Well, I’ll have a ‘fun’ and an ‘unfun’ photo, I expect….)
Keep up the good work yourself; as you can imagine Massively’s pretty widely-read around the office. Although I will say, you guys need to harvest all of our RSS feeds… from development job postings to podcasts and show announcements, you’re missing out on easy pickings. Not all the big stories break Stateside, ya know.
#3 by Shawn Schuster at May 25th, 2008
Aww, Krystalle beat me to it!
I follow you too, Rock (may I call you Rock? 
) I still talk daily with John at TabulaCast/Tabula Blogger since I handed the podcast over to him, and he always has nothing but good things to say about you 
I love the NCE podcast as well!
#4 by Rockjaw at May 25th, 2008
Rock? Rock?
You can call me Stephen if I can call you Shawn.
Good to have you here pal – thanks for mentioning Karl’s appearance on Massively today.
PS Your first link in the Massively story is wrong – we don’t have http://www.plaync.co.uk. You want to link to eu.plaync.com instead.
#5 by Crimson_Archer at May 25th, 2008
“Rock”?…. Hmmm, I like it! Can we use that from now on, Stephen?
#6 by Rockjaw at May 25th, 2008
It’s been used before and I dare say it’ll be used again. Along with ‘Rocky’, at least once.
People could at at least do the Mel Blanc voice… “Gee Rocky…”