A Green Mushroom

As soon as I realize I'm going to purchase a game that's not out yet I stop consuming media about it.  The lead up to Fallout 4 made me realize that I've started doing this over the past few years. I love finding out about games while playing them, so as soon as that purchase decision has been made the only thing I can do is spoil it for myself.  I don't actively hide my eyes from all things about the game I'm interested in but I do stop seeking it out and reading every in depth article. These days I'm much more likely to consume media around a game I'm on the fence about. It's actually really fun this way.  I get to go into huge games with giant media blitzes basically blind and truly experience it all for the first time. That's how it's been this year since Fallout 4 was announced.  Immediately after the E3 press conference I knew I would buy it.  I pre-ordered it on Steam as soon as it was an option and then promptly forgot about the g...

I got a recommendation from someone I trust to check out the book Flat Earth News.  I've worked in media for my entire career and specifically did a lot of news production in college, so they knew I would be interested. I always love to discuss the modern media. Flat Earth News is about how the traditional press is set up in a way that institutionally make it hard to do a good job at the news.  I only read the first third of the book before I had to put it down.  It already feels dated in our modern internet era.  It had an interesting snapshot of the newpaper business from ten years ago, but it's not as relevant today. A different source recommended Trust Me I'm Lying .  I'm not even done with it yet, but this book is amazing.  It covers the way our modern media works in an internet age.  It's such a good book.  The author shows ways that he has purposefully and easily manipulated the media in the ways he wanted to do.  It's basically ...

The rumor of the last couple days, backed up by tweets from employees of the company, is that Joystiq is being shut down by it's parent company AOL. That sucks. Joystiq is one of the best places for gaming news online.  I've had them in my RSS feed for as long as I can remember. From time to time, as I've played various MMOs, I've also followed the work of their subsites like WoW Insider and Massively . Joystiq does such great work and they're one of only three gaming news sites that I actually look at every article they post.  If they're gone their is going to be a hole in my gaming news and I don't know where I'm going to turn to fill it. The other two sites that I look at every article from are Polygon and Rock, Paper, Shotgun .  But I need to get news from multiple sources.  If Joystiq really goes under I'll be in search of a new general gaming news site.  I would rather not turn toward the Kotakus of the world.  They don't ...

Child's Play Charity has reached over 1 million dollars donated this year.  If you haven't contributed yet, now is the time!  Child's Play is a great way for the gaming community to do something positive for others. The media and general public tend to think of gamers in a negative way.  I love that Child's Play breaks those stereotypes and shows that we're just people like everyone else.  It's a charity that donates games and gaming systems to children's wings of hospitals.  It makes a huge difference in a child's happiness when they get to play and have fun with other children. There are some amazing stories from patients and parents of patients who have seen the difference games can make.  Just read some of these letters and you'll see how much happiness you can bring a child. The entire gaming community has been pitching in.  The Penny-Arcade guys not only run the charity, but also throw a huge charity auction on it's behalf.  The ...

The media is not what it used to be.  There are so many channels of information that we have access to today that there's no possible way to intake and process it all.  With cable, books, movies, video games, magazines, the internet, our phones, newspapers, cable, satellite TV, and more where do we turn for entertainment and information?  Well, if you're in your twenties or younger the answer is the internet. But even if we narrow down our media channels to only the internet there is still an overload of content at our fingertips.  Even if we say that we only want to talk about the news of the day the question remains, "Where should we turn?"  Almost every cable news network has a site, as well as every paper, local station, special interest, and political leaning. I've given up on keeping track of current events, and I'm sad to say that many of my generation have.  With untold amounts of data generated every day there needs to be a way to sort the wo...

The summer slump is still in full swing if you aren't a StarCraft 2 fan.  Most big releases don't start coming out until late September.  All the game companies want their game to become the "must have" game of the holiday season.  This sucks for us gamers because it means we barely have any new releases at the moment and a bunch of decent games will fall through the cracks during the holidays. If game companies would pick slow times of the year to release their games they would get a lot more attention from the community.  Just look at how much press StarCraft 2 is getting right now because it's the only big game release in months.  There's usually another quiet period right after New Year's that would be a great time to generate tons of press attention. Anyway, if you're looking to fight the summer slump you can look at a bunch of the flash games I've featured lately.  I'd also like to point you towards another tower defense (I can...

Writing every day is hard work.  Seriously.  Today is the last day of the Wordcount 2010 Blogathon .  Participants were asked to write at least one post every day for the entire month of May.  I made the rash decision to sign up and somehow I've survived.  This is my last post in that series. I have learned that writing every day is difficult to accomplish on top of working 40 hour weeks and having a life.  Getting married during May certainly made it more interesting. Despite the difficulty - or maybe because of it - I feel a huge sense of accomplishment today.  It was a lot of work and some days I really didn't feel like writing but I did it anyway.  Don't get me wrong though, I'm still enjoying writing a lot.  If I could make a living as a full time writer I'd be extremely happy.  I wouldn't have a problem writing each day if it was my only job. My writing is flowing easier than it was when I started posting a few months ago....

Wooohoooo! I never thought I would make it this far.  I started this blog as a writing exercise for myself.  I hoped the habit of writing would stick, but I didn't have a lot of faith.  I honestly can't believe that I made it 100 posts. So, what now? Well, I think I'll keep writing.  I'm having a great time and I feel like my writing is improving with practice.  I would really like to try writing fiction some day and I think this is a good way to refine my skills. I may also branch out into some other topics.  I love writing about games, but there are some days that I just want to write about something else.  This post is a good example.  I have a passion for all things media and I want to explore that further with my writing.  I'd also like to discuss things happening in the real world if I feel that I can make a quality post about them. I expect most of my content to still be game-centric but it's my blog and I'm leaving my optio...

Blogathon 2010 is going on.  I learned this from Professor Beej 's post on the subject .  I love reading his blog because he covers the intersection of all things media.  It isn't always gaming, but if you have an interest in TV, movies, books, games, and emerging media you couldn't find a better site to read. Wordcount Blogathon 2010 is about writing a post for your blog every day of the month.  So far I tend to write about 5 times each week, but I'll try to make it 7 times per week this month.  Let's see if I can make it.  I think pre-scheduling posts is about to become my new best friend. Last week I forgot to direct your attention to a great post by Spinks on the slow but inevitable death of 25 man raiding .  She has some really good points about the way World of Warcraft raiding is heading in Cataclysm.  Her point about it being less friendly for casual players really hit home with me because I am never a hardcore raider. W...