Archive for category Personal
Comic-Con 2010 talks to Comic-Con 2003
Posted by Rockjaw in Nerd Alert, Personal on July 25th, 2010
I’m in San Diego airport, a little too early for my (mercifully brief) flight back to San Francisco, and I should be writing. I have things to write. But my brain feels half-functional. And this blog needs a post, occasionally.
Comic-Con 2010. Woah.
I last hit Comic-Con in 2003, and every time this week that I said “I was last here seven years ago” I felt like it was a huge gulf. Not much has actually changed about Comic-Con in that time, to be honest; it’s still huge, and the same sort of stuff is still being shown. On the other hand, an awful lot has changed about me in seven years. I started to wonder what 2003 me would think of 2010 me. Y’know, if they could have a conversation. Considering the amount of sci-fi entertainment media on display at Comic-Con, and the amount of geeks willing crazy stuff into existence during the show, it doesn’t seem impossible.
What’s up, 2010? Read the rest of this entry »
Scoring 2009
Posted by Rockjaw in MMO-related, Personal on December 31st, 2009
I guess one of the advantages of not going out on New Year’s Eve is that you get a chance to write that year-specific blog post… and no, it’s not 2010 yet, at least not by my watch!
Back in January I threw out a few predictions for the year. I’m sure if I could open a hole in time, stick my head through and say to my almost-a-year-younger self “By the time you look back at this post, you’ll be living in the US, in a job you don’t even know exists yet – oh and most of your predictions will be wrong…” Well I’d probably be half-surprised.
Let’s score me then – feel free to refresh your memory with the original post, although the important stuff is here anyway.
A million, billion, Gazillion (ahem) possibilities
Posted by Rockjaw in Jobsworth, MMO-related, Personal on October 16th, 2009
Today was my last official day working for Trion World Network. On Monday, I start a new job as Community Director for Gazillion Entertainment.
Yes, that Gazillion Entertainment; the company I called ‘the new 800lb gorilla‘ when they de-cloaked back in March, and who are working on a variety of MMOGs, including two based on Marvel Comics.
Not so surprised now, are ya?
Yes, I’ll admit that when Gazillion’s acquisition of the Marvel licence was announced, my interest was very definitely piqued, if that wasn’t obvious. What really got me intrigued was that they had acquired NetDevil, a development team who I’ve been a fan of since we worked together on Auto Assault. I made some enquiries, heard some pleasing noises, and six months later… here we are.
You might think that I’ve spent the last six months scheming to extract myself from Trion, but that’s absolutely not true. In fact, I’ve had a blast over there, and I’m genuinely sad that I’m leaving. The development teams behind Heroes of Telara and the Syfy-MMO(Action)RPG are packed full of great people who I’m going to miss and in the case of the Syfy crew, now don’t get to work with – boo! Both games are looking great, and unfortunately I now won’t be able to help them across the finish line. Don’t think I’m forgetting the MMORTS in production with Petroglyph Games, either; a trip to Las Vegas earlier this year convinced me that they are going to unleash something that’ll shake up the genre. I still believe everything I said about Trion back when I announced I was working there, however… when opportunity knocks, you don’t just sit back in your easy chair.
Gazillion has got a stellar line-up of games coming, including some I know are going to surprise a lot of people, and my new role allows me to work on all of them, as well as tasking me to direct community strategies for the entire company. Once offered, I couldn’t turn that down, even if it meant leaving behind new friends and some great looking games at Trion.
Weirdly – at least for me – this means that I’m back to full-on secrecy mode. I thought Trion had a lot of secrets, but even after signing on with Gazillion, I still don’t know about everything they’re developing! Roll on Monday….
It’s been a crazy couple of weeks and I’m sure it’ll be a crazy couple of months ahead, but I’m very excited about it; perhaps even ‘stoked’ or ‘psyched’ if we’re being American. Here was me thinking I was done with big, tumultuous changes in my life. I guess all I can do is strap in and enjoy the ride!
On me hols
Posted by Rockjaw in Personal, Weird self portraits on October 3rd, 2009
We’re in Raleigh, North Carolina at the moment, enjoying the sun (here, more welcome gift than daily delivery), relaxing in the great outdoors, and catching up on our reading. Whenever I read a lot I get the urge to write, so here I am.
Life progresses apace in the Land of the Free, and the ‘dark days’ of early 2009 seem a long, long way behind me now. Not necessarily for the better. While I certainly prefer the daily stability of going to a job and being steadily employed, I miss a lot of people back in the UK, and the support network I had around me then which I’ll admit, I took for granted. That’s probably because it didn’t feel like a support network at the time, but the best ones don’t. More like an invisible hand holding you steady.
Now, life is a daily high-wire act, and although I feel confident in my abilities as… umm… a high-wire act, that doesn’t mean it’s any less scary to perform. To complete the metaphor, you have to pay attention to what you’re doing, otherwise it’s a long, long way to fall.
To all of you back in Blighty, then, I miss you more than I probably expected, although I won’t be running back any time soon. I’m not one to give up that easily, and although it’s tough, we’re going to soldier on. What I will say is that even if I haven’t been in touch recently, that doesn’t mean I haven’t thought of you, and doesn’t mean that I don’t want to stay in touch. I’ve just been busy.
With what? Well, mostly the banalities of moving your life halfway across the world, setting up a new place to live and assimilating yourself into society. It’s pretty much all done now, from the Social Security Number to the California Driver’s Licence (License, sorry). I’ve even availed myself of the American Healthcare system and found it to be very helpful, but then again it should be considering what I’m paying for it.
The day job has been good to me, with a few trips (Germany, Las Vegas, Austin) to keep me busy, and other stuff besides. We’re still at a relatively early stage with things, so I can’t spill too many beans here, but one day we will.
With that, I seem to run out of things to says, so I’ll leave you for now. Just know I’m probably thinking about ya. Talk soon.
Tagline is back, baby.
Posted by Rockjaw in Links of Others, Personal on September 7th, 2009
On the off-chance that people who check in here don’t stalk me on Twitter or similar, I wanted to mention that Tagline, the on-again, off-again movie podcast that I do with my brother Alistair, is back ‘on the air’.
We’ve recorded two episodes recently (#28 and #29) which are both online now, and actually just did show #30 this evening, which will be online later this week.
In case you’ve never heard it, it’s 30-minutes or so (when we run to time) about movies, which we both know far too much about. That is, when we don’t forget names of movies, actors, actresses, directors, plots… ahem. We try to be funny. Perhaps that was an example of humour?
Anyway, take a listen if you like. I’m also still guesting on John’s Limited Edition podcast, which has a new format now, so feel free to check that out too. Oh and feel free to let me know your thoughts on either.
You said what?