I’m back! Well…MAYBE. It’s been about six months since I’ve edited anything on here, and almost a year since I’ve written anything of merit. So what happened?! Well, in all honesty I don’t know…a lot. I’m actually surprised that I’m still able to access this section, and am able to write. So here’s a recap of what’s been going on with me the past year (dear god this is going to be horrible)
I got a testing position with the game Primal Carnage; visited New York and liked it so much I decided to move there; moved to New York with virtually nothing in my name; continued to work with the rest of the QA team on PC as much as I could; went to get my series 63 and 7 licenses; worked in a restaurant for under minimum wage at nights to support myself in NYC; got my licenses; became involved with an industry completely unrelated to this one; found someone who’s way out of my league who actually cares about me (yeah I couldn’t believe it either) flew back home because of family; started a Youtube gaming channel; now leaving again to another exotic location to take care of one of the family businesses, and finally spending my time traveling all over the globe doing god knows what. Phew, was that a run-on sentence? You bet your ass it was, but that’s how my life’s been. One giant, never ending, methodically insane, transparent run-on sentence that never seems to let me breath in the slightest. I think that’s a good thing, given that if life becomes too slow…well then it just seems wasted. So in short, I think I got a life.
Now, that being said, some of you may think this is me finally turning in my hat, or just admitting to being out of the industry so long, I have no real clue what’s going on. Well…no…none of those things. At least not yet anyways. The reality is, is that I really needed to take a break from this whole thing. Like, seriously just step back and look at the gaming community from a distance. See when you’re in this industry for so many years, and you’re still not seeing an ounce of profitability coming from it, then you really need to step back and just take your time with whatever it is you’re doing. I mean, this is a hobby. I don’t write these words and get a check in the mail or anything for doing so. I just…write what’s on my mind. Given that, sometimes you need to take a break, because nothing’s on your mind. You’re just seeing the same old crap from every company and community week after week. With things coming so slowly it’s worse than watching paint dry. This causes what I call a “Drama Effect” Where the people who do this stuff are so bored, they literally create bullshit just to entertain themselves. Even if that entertainment hurts those around them or themselves. We’re gamers, we live to be entertained. Which is fine in film, video games, books, music….blah blah blah. But the reality is that this is an industry. Reality dictates that the operations behind such works, are much more boring and methodical than the actual product. So story short, shit is freaking mundane as hell.
However, given enough time, exciting things do happen…usually. Like say for instance, the rolling out of new consoles (which I will get into a little bit) Or the introduction of new and exciting games that sound fun. Sometimes I like to have fun….And if I’m not having fun, and I’m not getting paid, then why fuck am I doing it? You just become a press slut to this industry, and you’re valued less than a press whore because you’re not even getting paid to do it. Now some will argue that this is all towards an eventual goal of some sorts. Usually this is the hope of earning cash in this field. However, the likely-hood of that happening is extremely remote, and you might as well hold a cup out on the street…you’ll be more likely to make money that way. Does that sound cynical; yes. But I’m not being cynical in the slightest. I just happen to be a realist, as upsetting as that may be.
OK, so lets just get into some of the thoughts I have about things, before I lull your asses to sleep with my mundane diatribe. Lets start with the consoles, because that’s something exciting and new. So now we know it’s the Wii U, PS4, and Xbox One (which is confusing as hell given this is the third installment)
I wanna start with Xbox, but I’m not gonna bullshit, I really don’t know anything about it. I didn’t watch the conference, even though I got an invite to attend it or something. Apparently there were no games shown, or at least a lack of them. Instead, from what I heard, they focused on informing the audience of the new hardware, and what can be accomplished with it. This seems to upset people, and seemed to during the Sony conference as well. For me…it’s like, “What do you expect people?!” they save things for E3 and the million other conferences this year. I mean, things aren’t the way they used to be. Where it took a while for the main consumer to get news about things. These days we have technology that streams what’s happening in the moment, right as it’s happening. This means they have to dole out things at much slower pace, because we all have access to it as soon as the announcers lips open. I’m actually glad they decided to have separate conferences for the hardware. That means they can spend most of E3 talking about shit we care about, mainly the games. This time it can be like, is the hardware in the hands of developers; yes. Does it work; yes. What will the price be; yes. Now lets talk about video games, and get on with it. Though I don’t like how they basically said the next innovation in gaming, is television.
Lets move on to PS4 shall we? Now this conference I did watch, and because of that I’m going to get a hate comment here or there calling me a fanboy or something. No, I’m not, could care less if I had missed that one too. I just happened to have some free moments at the time. While they did show some games, they mainly focused on the hardware and tech demo’s too. Which, again I liked, because it means they won’t ramble on for an hour about the console at E3 either. I walked away from that conference looking forward to the new machine, and what kind of games may be on it in the near future. Honestly though, from what I saw, all I can really remember was the new Killzone game which looked interesting, and some crap about “moving” your own adventure. I did like the social media aspect, and how they’re really putting a lot of eggs into it. I think they learned from the last round that community is important, and it should be taken seriously. Again, not an expert, but we’re gamers, and when shit is not blowing up in our face, we’re compelled to blow shit up on someone’s Facebook. However I really didn’t like how they said, “We want nothing to get in the way of your game” then for like the rest of the conference went on to say, “Here’s all this tacky stuff that’s gonna get between you and your game.”
OK, so here’s my thoughts on the Wii U. It’s out, it’s fun, and good games are probably on the way. So go out and buy it if you want it. It’s unique and doesn’t make me wanna kill myself like the Wii did, so I think that’s something good. There’s also this really cool horror game I was watching Melyssa play, that seemed really fun. So I’d say look for that, whatever the title is. Think it had zombies in it. So naturally I’m gonna buy one eventually. Maybe when my life slows down, and I actually have time to do that stuff.
Anyways I’m going to abruptly end this editorial, because I got a lot on my mind to rant about, but I think I should space it out. Does this article make sense; no. Does it work; yes. Am I just doing it to clamor attention to me and the site again after being gone for over a year? Hell I don’t know. I honestly think I just wanted to rattle on about things I felt towards this whole industry, and add some substance on what I’ve found interesting this past year. So if I’ve left you thoroughly unsatisfied, I’m sorry. I’ll get back to writing more soon, mainly in the department of editorials, but right now I just had some free time on my hands, and felt like writing this. Cheap I know, but like I said, I’m not getting paid. I’m writing about things I like in general, or stuff I think about. So here’s my two cents on whatever the heck this was about. I hoped you enjoyed this sarcastic adventure with me, and look forward to writing part two.