I am back from an exhausting, but exciting, GDC, where Brent and I covered the shit out of everything MMO-related we could find, all of which you'll hear about over the next few days on VirginWorlds, if you haven't heard it already.
High points: too numerous to mention them all, though meeting Lady Sinaea in person is probably damn near the top. Talking with a lot of small MMO developers was great, since we got to see some really unique things - including ideas I would never have anticipated - and we weren't getting the canned PR bullshit of an EA or a Microsoft. (I'm specifically not including SOE on that list because I've met them and they're cool.) I can't imagine how mind-numbing it would be to be the guy assigned to cover Madden '0whatever. Some of these companies had CEOs and lead designers just milling about on the show floor to talk with, and they were as down-to-earth and passionate about their games as any of their players.
Walking back to the hotel on Thursday night, it occurred to me that Brent and I had switched right into being journalists without even thinking about it, which was a trip. And airport security didn't pull me aside for a "special" search, for the first time in a very, very long time.
Low points: noise. Seriously, San Francisco. Shut the fuck up already. Fix the BART rails, lay off your fucking horn, turn down the fucking music, and quiet those fucking fire trucks! Also, special bonus memo to the folks running BART: when I give you $10 for a $5.15 train ticket, I expect four $1 bills and $0.85 in change, not $4.85 in quarters and dimes, you retards. This is not fucking rocket science. Japan's been doing it for decades. Ask them for help if you can't figure it out.
And then there were more
The Bman - March 12th, 2007 - 7:01 AM
A few more podiobooks that have turned out nicely enough to recommend, for those who are interested. I'm only five or six episodes into all of these, so keep in mind that I don't know how they progress from there.
Shadowmagic is the story of a guy who discovers the hard way that he's the central figure in a prophecy that spells doom for the magical realm of Tir na Nog. I like the first-person perspective from which the story is told, and the author's read is absolutely outstanding. The mix of surprise and skepticism in the main character's reaction to events around him is very entertaining.
Larry Winfield, creator of Banjo Strings, e-mailed not long after my last post to mention his podiobook. I get a strong X-Files vibe from it, which is definitely a good thing. It also seems like the scope of the story widens with each of the first several episodes, so just as soon as I started to think I had a handle on the whole thing, it got even bigger, which was really exciting. Banjo Strings is definitely for mature audiences only, but if you can handle FT, you can probably handle Banjo Strings.
Larry also runs a music/culture podcast called Sundown Lounge, which is worth checking out if you're into music, poetry, politics, and so on.
In Singularity, the Tunguska event was not caused by an impact from a meteoroid/comet/asteroid/refrigerator/whatever, but by a primordial black hole colliding with the Earth...and it's still in there. Dun dunnnn! I'm being sarcastic here, but it's been enjoyable so far. The prologue is utterly compelling, and I think you'd have a hard time not wanting to hear the rest after you listen to it. I also think it takes a bit of a dip after that, but it's got some good hooks early on that have kept me paying attention.
Forever Fifteen is about a really old vampire who got stuck at the age of...can you guess? Yeah. It's not quite as emo as the intro music would lead you to believe, but it can be grim at times. I'm not wild about it, but I'm still listening, so the author must be on to something.
I have returned
The Bman - March 12th, 2007 - 7:02 AM
I am back from an exhausting, but exciting, GDC, where Brent and I covered the shit out of everything MMO-related we could find, all of which you'll hear about over the next few days on VirginWorlds, if you haven't heard it already.
High points: too numerous to mention them all, though meeting Lady Sinaea in person is probably damn near the top. Talking with a lot of small MMO developers was great, since we got to see some really unique things - including ideas I would never have anticipated - and we weren't getting the canned PR bullshit of an EA or a Microsoft. (I'm specifically not including SOE on that list because I've met them and they're cool.) I can't imagine how mind-numbing it would be to be the guy assigned to cover Madden '0whatever. Some of these companies had CEOs and lead designers just milling about on the show floor to talk with, and they were as down-to-earth and passionate about their games as any of their players.
Walking back to the hotel on Thursday night, it occurred to me that Brent and I had switched right into being journalists without even thinking about it, which was a trip. And airport security didn't pull me aside for a "special" search, for the first time in a very, very long time.
Low points: noise. Seriously, San Francisco. Shut the fuck up already. Fix the BART rails, lay off your fucking horn, turn down the fucking music, and quiet those fucking fire trucks! Also, special bonus memo to the folks running BART: when I give you $10 for a $5.15 train ticket, I expect four $1 bills and $0.85 in change, not $4.85 in quarters and dimes, you retards. This is not fucking rocket science. Japan's been doing it for decades. Ask them for help if you can't figure it out.
And then there were more
The Bman - March 12th, 2007 - 7:01 AM
A few more podiobooks that have turned out nicely enough to recommend, for those who are interested. I'm only five or six episodes into all of these, so keep in mind that I don't know how they progress from there.
Shadowmagic is the story of a guy who discovers the hard way that he's the central figure in a prophecy that spells doom for the magical realm of Tir na Nog. I like the first-person perspective from which the story is told, and the author's read is absolutely outstanding. The mix of surprise and skepticism in the main character's reaction to events around him is very entertaining.
Larry Winfield, creator of Banjo Strings, e-mailed not long after my last post to mention his podiobook. I get a strong X-Files vibe from it, which is definitely a good thing. It also seems like the scope of the story widens with each of the first several episodes, so just as soon as I started to think I had a handle on the whole thing, it got even bigger, which was really exciting. Banjo Strings is definitely for mature audiences only, but if you can handle FT, you can probably handle Banjo Strings.
Larry also runs a music/culture podcast called Sundown Lounge, which is worth checking out if you're into music, poetry, politics, and so on.
In Singularity, the Tunguska event was not caused by an impact from a meteoroid/comet/asteroid/refrigerator/whatever, but by a primordial black hole colliding with the Earth...and it's still in there. Dun dunnnn! I'm being sarcastic here, but it's been enjoyable so far. The prologue is utterly compelling, and I think you'd have a hard time not wanting to hear the rest after you listen to it. I also think it takes a bit of a dip after that, but it's got some good hooks early on that have kept me paying attention.
Forever Fifteen is about a really old vampire who got stuck at the age of...can you guess? Yeah. It's not quite as emo as the intro music would lead you to believe, but it can be grim at times. I'm not wild about it, but I'm still listening, so the author must be on to something.