If you have never been here before, please realize:

- This is a three and a half year old blog, and the seven regulars and I go back even further, before I even worked in the industry.

- I am basically a giant dork with a black sense of humor.

- Read the posts tagged “meta community” before you make too many assumptions. I also recommend “What I Did For Love.”

- If you are here via someone linking you to the rant I emitted in March 2000 when I was young, slightly intoxicated, and coming off eight hours of volunteer customer service, bear in mind that my present attitude is somewhat more nuanced.

- Feel free to check out my LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sanyathomasweathers

Thanks!

It’s hard to write a blog about community when you are working community, and my hat is off to those who do it. Me, I find myself writing posts that cross all kinds of lines. I had two paragraphs of a rant about people who pick inappropriate names just to try and be all shocking, and that the only thing worse than that kind of asshole is the guy who isn’t doing it to be shocking, but actually believes the stuff he’s spewing. Then I realized I shouldn’t post.

The trouble is, examples are what make rants worthwhile, and I simply won’t use examples from a job I’m actively performing. I lack filters, and the only way for me to stay out of trouble is to not get in a position where filters are necessary.

But here’s a PSA: “Jokes” about raping, lynching, or genocidal maniacs are never actually funny, even when they involve people you don’t like! Okay, I take back the bit about genocidal maniacs. “Springtime for Hitler” was hilarious. But unless you are Mel Brooks, you are not allowed to make those jokes with your avatar name. And if you ARE Mel Brooks, and playing a casual online football name… call me!

Anyway, just wanted to dust the blog off to post a fascinating link from the NYT, one that I, ahem, think might apply to lots of game companies suffering growing pains: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/business/10corner.html?em

We interrupt this bout of packing my household goods (consisting mainly of old mice/keyboards/mystery cables, science fiction novels, and RPG stuff – god, the only way you can tell I’m an adult is from the way I didn’t go dumpster diving for the packing boxes this time) to bring you my pet cause:  http://www.gamersforacure.org/.

MS sucks. Kwip and Becky are great. I’m going to be auctioning stuff and with any luck joining their walking team. Please join the cause if you can, and spread the link if you’re so inclined.

I got the game that shall not be named up and running, and by gum, it’s actually really fun. They nailed the feeling of the world, the environments, the look, everything about making the world feel like (awesome intellectual property). And the crafting, holy smokes, y’all, I’ve tried crafting in every game since 1997, and this is the only one seamlessly integrated into the actual GAME. And I can make level appropriate, cool stuff, right off the bat. Without a craft bot. Or poking out my eyes with superheated coat hangers. Or carpal tunnel. Too bad their entire account creation process is designed to make any normal person not even bother! Instead of thirty free days, I got… eleven. I’m afraid to call CS again, though.

But anyway. The answer to the Three Endings Riddle:

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Another article for the good people at The Escapist. This one’s on casual gaming.

Now, as I said last time, I’m vastly improved by being edited. But the guy who edits me (who, in a vastly amusing coincidence, got his start by writing for the same website I did at the same time I did – it’s a small, small world, be NICE to people on your way through it) and I disagreed on the ending sentence.

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Another Second Life story.

I have no words. Unless BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA is a word?

How many professional errors can you find in this sad but true story?

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Why does anything to do with computer products have to be masterminded by morons? (Because the concept of a community specialist translating Engineerese into sensible patch notes hasn’t reached the hardware industry, and the text is usually written by someone with no more understanding of their subject than… your average English major.) Continue Reading »

New York Times

“The decision, by Judge Ronald Whyte of the District Court for the Northern District of California, said, “At this point, there has been no showing that violent video games as defined in the Act, in the absence of other violent media, cause injury to children.” He continued, “In addition, the evidence does not establish that video games, because of their interactive nature or otherwise, are any more harmful than violent television, movies, Internet sites or other speech-related exposures.”

Of course, the Terminator himself is planning to appeal. Because thousands of people roleplaying elves are so much more dangerous than the millions who watched him rack up the highest, most realistic body counts of the 1980s. Asshole.

Goin’ Nerdcore.

These guys don’t strike me as being up there with the masterful Jonathan Coulton, but they sure are entertaining. And in the article itself, I cracked up at the “cool” guy making fun of the whole thing. That’s the trouble with the trendy, they tend not to see the counterculture for the accessories.