Archive for June, 2008
Coagulation
Posted by Rockjaw in MMO-related on June 25th, 2008
I know I’ve been quite absent lately, but hey – this is what happens when work gets a mite busy and out-of-work gets busy too. Between work, socialising, theatre trips, writing and the (very) occasional game of something-or-other, it’s left very little time to think. Let alone write.
To guilt-trip myself into doing them here are a few posts in the brain hopper, ready to go down the chute:
- UK Games Expo (in one post) – half, maybe two-thirds written
- Something on being ‘almost famous’ which is not as dumb as it sounds (I think)
- Reflection on comments made by Richard Bartle recently… go Google it
- Something on the games industry, students, breaking in, etc…
- The reality of, well, working in the biz
As you can see, pretty half-formed stuff. My mind’s been on the whole industry/students/breaking in/reality vs fantasy/dreams vs reality thing a lot recently.
Hope you can make sense of this, I’m not sure I can.
Podcast, episode 3 – Tabula Rasa talk
Posted by Rockjaw in MMO-related, Pimpin' on June 22nd, 2008
I almost forgot! This went live on Friday after a few delays. If you’re fed up of listening to the sound of my voice, then this is the episode to download; I’m hardly in it!
Yep, this time out I hand over the MIC to Avatea, who talks for quite a while with Starr Long, Tom Potter and Victor Meinert – all of Destination Games, who in case you didn’t guess from the title are responsible for Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa. If you’re a TR fan you should give it a listen – and even if you aren’t, quite frankly… I mean otherwise why am I making all this effort??
As always you can listen to the podcast via a live stream, subscribe to it, or download the MP3 and do whatever you like with it in the comfort of your own home. There’s even a transcript! So enjoy.
Oh, and I’d love to hear (as always) what you’d like to see in upcoming episodes.
Days of summer
Posted by Rockjaw in MMO-related on June 21st, 2008
Ah, those lazy days of summer. Although of course they’re not lazy, as you can probably tell due to the lack of activity around here.
In fact pretty much the opposite; the To-Do list at work has been growing rapidly in the last week, and that leaves me with very little time to even think about blogging, let alone doing it. So sorry about that.
It’s all for your good though, dear reader, with the possible exception of some of our ‘internal facing’ projects which are of course directed inside the company. Naturally, plenty going on but not much I can really talk about. All will be revealed in time.
Speaking of, I don’t seem to be able to get a handle on time during the summer, which is odd. I keep telling myself I have loads of time before Event X or Event Y, and then realise that X is in fact pretty much around the corner, and that Y isn’t too far long after that. About then I count back in my head and realise I’m already behind schedule.
It’s also a myth that summer’s any kind of quiet time; instead we’re working to prepare for the end of the year, when the next round of ‘stuff’ starts to happen.
So for instance even though Memorabilia is five months away, I’ll have to start thinking about it seriously pretty damn soon. Although the proposed ‘MiniCon 2′ (needs a better name) won’t happen until next Easter, there’s stuff to do regarding that, as well. Before all that though, there’s other things on the near-horizon that need much more urgent attention. So the to-do list blooms and we get busy.
Not a whole lot to say then I guess, but just wanted to check in and let you know I was alive. The next couple of weeks will have some interesting stuff in ‘em, so stay tuned, and hopefully more will be revealed.
Twilight Heroes
Posted by Rockjaw in Gamey, Links of Others, Personal on June 19th, 2008
Right now as my work and home ‘computing’ (God, that sounds pre-pre-millenial; actually millenial sounds ancient) is divided between iMac and MacBook Pro, my PC-based gaming has fallen off a bit. So I’m looking for web-based stuff when I’m not playing with the 360.
Something that I found recently which you might find interesting too – yes you, there – is Twilight Heroes, which seems to be… well, a text-based, turn-based, web-based superhero RPG. Mmm. Thought you might pay some attention.
What’s interesting (apart from the text, turn and web-based bits) is that it’s sort of like Unbreakable with a sense of humour. You play a very ordinary person who suddenly decides to put on a weird costume and go ‘fight crime’, although in the city of Twilight, crime often means old lady bowlers, or muggers with weird fashion sense, or angry bike couriers.
It’s kinda odd. But kinda fun. And still has that easy ‘must level up, just gotta get more XP’ hook that any good RPG manages. Oh and of course it’s free; so check it out.
Want to write about games?
Posted by Rockjaw in Breaking In, MMO-related on June 18th, 2008
This would be a damn good start.
Videogaming 247 – which exploded out of nowhere earlier this year and has almost effortlessly become my favourite gaming news site, bar none – is looking for writers.
You won’t get paid. You will get edited, but you will be edited by one of the All-Time Great Editors – Pat “I made C&VG cool” Garratt. (And quite frankly? We need more really good editors on gaming news sites, please.)
Most important of all, you’ll get published credits on a Very Good Site that’ll look fantastic on your CV.
If anyone out there reading this wants to get into the games industry or just wants to write about games like an obsessive nutjob (a la Garratt, who’s the kind of obsessive nutjob the industry needs much, much more of) then get your ass over to the site and apply pronto.
If nothing else, head over there to see if you would pass Pat’s 14-question ‘applicant test’ with flying colours or not.
You said what?