Ever since the announcement that Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe was being made into a reality, I’ve had to remain calm in order to properly collect myself before unleashing my fury of nitpicking criticism. As expected, no one in the gaming community can help rolling their eyes at the concept; one that’s not only 10 years past its window of opportunity for success, but also completely absurd in principle.
No doubt as more press releases surface, I’ll contribute more to my own personal musings, picking it apart in the fashion that my fanboy blood dictates I do. But I do need to start somewhere. For the time being, I’ll prime this observational trek counting down to and a bit beyond its release with words that have already been said, yet bear repeating.
Gametrailers posted this video covering the “Top Ten Years Of Gaming”. I suppose that people love “top ten” lists of anything, but ones like this make me wonder if we’ve exhausted that gimmick yet to where we’ll have to resort to genuine journalism soon.
Anyway, I agreed with most of the choices they made; those were certainly the most memorable years that I remember in my gaming experience. The one that I have to disagree with popped up right off the bat at #10, which was the year 1983. This year was highlighted for being the stage for the infamous crash in the gaming industry. It was in that year that video game developers were pumping out hundreds of titles, all of them being garbage. With the market flooded and gamers jaded, video games faced extinction. This is something that up until the past couple years, I feared would happen again.
While I can’t deny that this year belongs on a list of the top ten most influential years of gaming, it doesn’t quite fit the context of this particular list, which seems to focus on the gaming industry’s peak moments. If I were handling this list, I would have replaced that year with 1985, which was when Nintendo revived the industry with the NES. But you be the judge…
Over at chicksdiggames.com, they’ve recently posted an article discussing video game genres that have been shifted toward catering to female gamers. My first thoughts are that given the context of the article (and the very site that it’s hosted on), I find it strange that it was written by a man. I often go to chicksdiggames.com in order to read up on women’s perspectives of the gaming industry, since they are–while growing in numbers–still the minority in the market.
That aside, I had difficulty figuring out what the focus on the article was supposed to be. At one point, I thought it was about games with male protagonists trying their hands at female characters in the lead. But then it feels like it shifts gears into being about franchises being re-skinned to appeal to women rather than men. The rest of the article just kinda falls apart near the end.
It’s poorly written, but it’s a topic that I always find worth reading about. Though I do like his “X-2=XX” joke. That was clever enough to forgive some typos.
The New York Times recently posted an article about the stressful nature of professional blogging. Right away, I understood the feeling. It looks like the easiest thing in the world to most people, but the truth is that there’s a lot of pressure involved.
First of all, you have to write. And by that, I mean you have to write…all the time. When I started up this site, I wanted to use it to get myself in the habit of writing content on a regular basis. I looked at how many news sites and blogs operate and set my standards a bit lower; that being a minimum of two paragraphs a day, five days a week. Even with that seemingly easy goal, I’ve found it challenging. Sometimes there’s no real news to discuss, or at least news I feel worth discussing. I’d like to write more full-sized articles, but I usually put so much energy toward posting regularly, my energies are too exhausted to put my heart into something big. And unfortunately, at least for now, quantity wins over quality if you want to make it in this business.
One convenience of this kind of job–and they mention this in the article–is that you can do the job from anywhere. So there’s no need to deal with as many office politics, you can set your own schedule, and you can work in your pajamas (or even naked!). The trade off is that no matter what time you get yourself up for work, you’re in for long hours. Professional blogging isn’t just about writing quick blips with a link, though that’s what a lot of sites get away with. To do the job well, there’s a lot of research required. Before you begin tapping away at your keyboard, you’re spending time scouring the web for things to write about. Once you find a target, you’re in for a lot of reading on a news item or subject material in order to be properly equipped to write a credible article. Depending on what you get paid per article, you may not actually be getting a decent wage for your time spent.
Not only that, but professional bloggers rarely get to choose the subject matter of their material. Usually they’re being paid to promote a product through their blog. This can be a challenge in the creative process as well if the product in question is especially uninspiring.
One thing that the article touches on is that bloggers often suffer from poor health, particularly weight gain and heart disease. I honestly don’t think that’s necessarily a symptom of the profession as much as it is the poor habits of the professionals. There’s no excuse for not setting aside at least an hour a day for healthy exercise and balanced diet. You can just as easily eat a salad at your desk as you can a Double Whopper. Proper fitness will also keep your mind healthy so the quality of your work will improve, requiring less hours to struggle with composition.
Another point mentioned is the pressure of scooping news stories as quickly as possible. The internet culture moves at the speed of light, and if you’re late catching a news story, you’re left hungry by those who got their first. No one sticks around to watch the last horse finish the race. The few who post on it first and best get their links as the reference to everyone else, thus more exposure. I can post about the same article that’s posted by Kotaku, but Kotaku has the resources to get their first. (Well, except for one time…but I ain’t going there.)
Competition comes into play because blogging is a job that just about anyone can do. If you have a decent grasp of the English language and a passion for a particular topic, then that’s all you need to blog. And since the advent of sites like LiveJournal, people across the world have been typing away with their own commentary on what they see on and off the web. Add the popular illusion that popular web icons are modern day rock stars, and you have a flood of geeks looking to make it big. Nevermind that the reality is that even the hottest professional writers live either in a small apartment with a few room mates or are homeless. Even a friend of mine who’s a professional reviewer (for some top publications) jokes that he’s a “bum“.
Overall, I can understand the meaning of this article. I am not, nor have I ever been, a professional blogger or writer, so I can’t claim to relate to it as much as my peers. However, I do recognize that it’s important to lift the curtain to reveal that online journalism is not at all as glamorous as the mass-populous has been lead to believe. It’s work–hard work, like any job. There are a few skilled professionals that can make a comfortable living from this gig, but everyone else has to run at a constant full speed just to keep in one place. Getting ahead can risk burn out…and one trip can leave you in the dust.
So yet another reason why I’ve been slacking with updates is because the hard drive on my desktop PC blew earlier this week. Luckily I had an extra drive that I wasn’t using, so it saved me from having to shop around for a replacement. I might still buy some kind of external drive to use for routine back-ups, but it’ll be a while before I really have to worry about that.
Starting up a brand new computer or just reinstalling your current one has a similar feeling to hooking up with a new girlfriend… You begin to tell yourself, “I’m going to treat this one better!” This time, I’m going to take a more professional approach to my PC than I have in the past. I’m not going to fill it with stupid junk that I won’t need. I’ve reinstalled the essentials, but I doubt I’ll install any other software until I know that I’ll need it. And playing with settings and tweaks are plenty to keep me busy in the meantime.
Well, I almost had an “OH SHIT!” moment. I was editing some of the supplemental material for the Alpha Counter archive when I noticed that the copy I’ve had on hand of the “Best Of” episodes only has the first 15 seconds of it. Not only that, but also the copy I had on my back-up disc. Luckily, I’m a back-up freak and remembered that I have copies of all the master recordings backed up on another disc. Just in case of situations like this…or if I wanted to re-edit every episode with ABBA for the background music.
My only concern is that the people whom I’ve distributed that episode to got gypped. But worry not! For soon you’ll be able to download the full episode again!
As I get closer to the end of my podcast commentaries, I’ve also come closer to when I’ll begin writing them for the episodes of Alpha Counter. But in order to do that, I first have to go through each one and edit out the commercials. I’ve been kinda dreading that since those episodes are so much longer than the average podcast episode length. You can imagine my delight earlier today when I tested the process out and found it’s not nearly the chore I thought it would be.
So in the next few weeks, I should be finished writing/posting all the commentary for the last few episodes of my podcast. After that, I get to finally dive into the best moments I’ve ever had in radio and all that came with it.
