The domain name for The Grumbly Gamer expires tomorrow.
In theory, the whole banana should revert back to its Blogspot address (www.thegrumblygamer.blogspot.com), but I have opted not to actually renew the direct Grumbly Gamer URL. In fact, despite it probably continuing on in it's Blogspot form, I doubt I will be doing much with this going forward. It's a sad thing (but you'll manage to live on, I promise), but it's also just time.
I never intended this thing to go on as long as it did, really. The idea of a blog had been suggested to me by a friend in the video game industry. I was trying to get a job within the industry, and he said that this would be a good way to get my thoughts and writing style out there in a more effective fashion. Thus, The Grumbly Gamer was born. After that it sort of took on a life of its own, and I've really enjoyed the work that I've done. I've done some cool interviews with people like Hal Halpin (president of the ECA) and Spencer Halpin (director of the film Moral Kombat)-- hit up the search to check those out-- and I've ranted on some really bizarre gaming news stories. Overall I think that this whole experience has really helped me grow as... well, whatever it is I'm trying to grow into.
So now we come to the end of the road, at least at the moment.
See, I finally had a big interview for a big position at a big game studio. I'm currently waiting to see if I get said position, but if I do then I'd assume that I'd have to end the blog anyway. There's that whole "conflict of interest" clause that most companies (gaming or otherwise) have that will most likely prevent me from blogging about games while actually working on games.
Plus, let's be honest, my heart just hasn't been in this lately. I've gone from posts almost every day to one every couple of months. Part of it was due to dedicating myself towards getting a job (in particular the one I interviewed for), but there was another factor at play.
When I started this, I had no direction to speak of outside of "make fun of gaming news stories that are entertaining or ridiculous to me", or ranting on some issue I felt needed to be bitched about. I would peruse all sorts of news sites, find something that jumped out at me, and proceed to poke fun at it. It was fun, but it was scattershot and it was hit or miss. Over the course of my time with this blog, though, something happened: I gained a focus.
So, if I don't get this big industry job, or if they somehow let me keep a blog while working there, I'm going to start a new project, one specifically focused on stories and news about the assaults on gaming and gamers. There are so many people out there trying to take away our rights to play what we want, from people claiming that games are horribly violent "murder simulators" to people that feel that gamers are somehow less socially acceptable than "normal people". I'm sure it'll still be done with some degree of sarcasm (this is, after all, me we're talking about), but instead of just picking any random story I want to specifically talk about the issues that still plague the industry as a whole.
So that's where we stand right now. Either I'm going to be actually working and therefore not blogging, or I'm going to be still blogging but doing so with an actual purpose. Whichever one comes to pass, it means the end, even temporarily, to The Grumbly Gamer.
I want to thank everyone for their support, all of the people who have been reading and commenting and making me feel like this wasn't a complete waste of my time. I want you all to know that at some point this became not about just using a blog to get an industry job but about bringing my work to the masses (if "masses" can be described as three regular readers) and sharing my thoughts with other gamers.
Huh. This whole thing bothers me way more than I ever thought it would.
That being said: This is The Grumbly Gamer, signing off...
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Really? REALLY?
OK, let me see if I can explain this one rationally, and not make it sound even more crazy/ stupid/ bizarre than it already is. No promises...
A new service recently launched, called GameCrush (as reported by IGN), and it's... well, it's some sort of dating or social thing for gamers that not only feeds into the "all gamers are pathetic, dateless guys" stereotype but basically turns willing female gamers into at best a novelty and at worst virtual prostitutes.
That last part may be a little harsh, so let me continue my attempt at an explanation here. Gamecrush essentially allows males to become "players", peruse a database of female "playdates", and then pay real money to play with them on Xbox Live (other consoles, as well as WoW, are supposedly being added in the future).
With me so far? All right, so here's how this madness works: a guy signs up for the service free of charge, and can then peruse profiles, pics, and chat with the girls with no money changing hands. If the guy likes what he sees, and the girl accepts, he can then purchase "credits" and play a game with said female for about six to ten minutes. One game will run 400 credits, and 500 credits can be bought for a little over eight bucks. It's also apparently expected that the guy will be tipping the girl those last hundred points. So, for $8.25, you can play with a girl online for ten minutes.
The service is through the PC, it's not affiliated in any way with Microsoft or Live. All the setup work is done through the Gamecrush site, then game invites on Live happen as they normally would. Obviously, these girls have most likely created special gamertags just for this. The girls keep a portion of the money they bring in, can set their profiles to "dirty" or "flirty", and the guys can rate them after the session. From the IGN report (when I went on the Gamecrush site was down due to too many hits), some girls seem pretty shady while others simply appear to be gamer girls who figured on getting paid for their hobby. Only a few Live games are "supported" by the service, and they also plan to have some casual games up on their own site to play.
Still, this is a little... well, honestly I'm not even sure what to call it. It's definitely enterprising, and I have no doubt that there are plenty of guys who are going to buy into this concept. I'm sure that Gamecrush and the girls involved are going to make some decent money with this.
I read the article, read it again, blinked to make sure that it wasn't some weird illusion, then I think my first reaction was somewhere along the lines of "Are you fucking kidding me?"
OK, a small part of that reaction was because I didn't think of this first (see the aforementioned "decent money" statement), but at the same time I'm still just trying to wrap my mind around the entire thing. You've got pathetic guys sitting at home, girls who are either plying them with phony pics and talking about their website (come see naked pics!) or who are just humoring them to get a cut of the cash.
I suppose it's possible that there's some nice but lonely guy out there, just having a hard time meeting someone, who signs onto this service just looking for a girl with similar interests (like blowing away Covenant forces). Once there he meets a lovely young woman who is also looking for someone special, and they meet and be friends and eventually there's a lovely wedding ceremony with Master Chief-themed centerpieces. I mean, it could happen. The odds are slightly worse than successfully navigating an asteroid field, but whatever. There's stranger shit out there.
More than likely, though, it's going to be guys who are out of the social scene for a very valid reason trying to hit on girls who are completely fake or just playing to make some money (or C, all of the above). One girl that the IGN guys played with actually had her boyfriend in the room, and made frequent mentions to and about him, pretty much destroying the illusion of playing with a flirty single girl.
It's admirable to want to find someone who shares your interests. I have no issue with that. Hell, I have profiles on a couple dating sites, and pretty much come right out and say that I'm a gamer in the hopes of finding someone with a similar hobby. This, though, is something different: preying on guys with too much disposable income and not enough self esteem, using the female of the species as a lure. Again, there may be some pretty cool girls on here just looking to play their games and make a few bucks along the way (when the site comes back up I may even try it in the interest of journalistic integrity to see what I can find), but all in all I just see this whole thing as a recipe for disaster.
No doubt a very profitable recipe for disaster.
A new service recently launched, called GameCrush (as reported by IGN), and it's... well, it's some sort of dating or social thing for gamers that not only feeds into the "all gamers are pathetic, dateless guys" stereotype but basically turns willing female gamers into at best a novelty and at worst virtual prostitutes.
That last part may be a little harsh, so let me continue my attempt at an explanation here. Gamecrush essentially allows males to become "players", peruse a database of female "playdates", and then pay real money to play with them on Xbox Live (other consoles, as well as WoW, are supposedly being added in the future).
With me so far? All right, so here's how this madness works: a guy signs up for the service free of charge, and can then peruse profiles, pics, and chat with the girls with no money changing hands. If the guy likes what he sees, and the girl accepts, he can then purchase "credits" and play a game with said female for about six to ten minutes. One game will run 400 credits, and 500 credits can be bought for a little over eight bucks. It's also apparently expected that the guy will be tipping the girl those last hundred points. So, for $8.25, you can play with a girl online for ten minutes.
The service is through the PC, it's not affiliated in any way with Microsoft or Live. All the setup work is done through the Gamecrush site, then game invites on Live happen as they normally would. Obviously, these girls have most likely created special gamertags just for this. The girls keep a portion of the money they bring in, can set their profiles to "dirty" or "flirty", and the guys can rate them after the session. From the IGN report (when I went on the Gamecrush site was down due to too many hits), some girls seem pretty shady while others simply appear to be gamer girls who figured on getting paid for their hobby. Only a few Live games are "supported" by the service, and they also plan to have some casual games up on their own site to play.
Still, this is a little... well, honestly I'm not even sure what to call it. It's definitely enterprising, and I have no doubt that there are plenty of guys who are going to buy into this concept. I'm sure that Gamecrush and the girls involved are going to make some decent money with this.
I read the article, read it again, blinked to make sure that it wasn't some weird illusion, then I think my first reaction was somewhere along the lines of "Are you fucking kidding me?"
OK, a small part of that reaction was because I didn't think of this first (see the aforementioned "decent money" statement), but at the same time I'm still just trying to wrap my mind around the entire thing. You've got pathetic guys sitting at home, girls who are either plying them with phony pics and talking about their website (come see naked pics!) or who are just humoring them to get a cut of the cash.
I suppose it's possible that there's some nice but lonely guy out there, just having a hard time meeting someone, who signs onto this service just looking for a girl with similar interests (like blowing away Covenant forces). Once there he meets a lovely young woman who is also looking for someone special, and they meet and be friends and eventually there's a lovely wedding ceremony with Master Chief-themed centerpieces. I mean, it could happen. The odds are slightly worse than successfully navigating an asteroid field, but whatever. There's stranger shit out there.
More than likely, though, it's going to be guys who are out of the social scene for a very valid reason trying to hit on girls who are completely fake or just playing to make some money (or C, all of the above). One girl that the IGN guys played with actually had her boyfriend in the room, and made frequent mentions to and about him, pretty much destroying the illusion of playing with a flirty single girl.
It's admirable to want to find someone who shares your interests. I have no issue with that. Hell, I have profiles on a couple dating sites, and pretty much come right out and say that I'm a gamer in the hopes of finding someone with a similar hobby. This, though, is something different: preying on guys with too much disposable income and not enough self esteem, using the female of the species as a lure. Again, there may be some pretty cool girls on here just looking to play their games and make a few bucks along the way (when the site comes back up I may even try it in the interest of journalistic integrity to see what I can find), but all in all I just see this whole thing as a recipe for disaster.
No doubt a very profitable recipe for disaster.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Lucky XIII
I actually got to play a bit of Final Fantasy XIII today, which is unusual for a couple of reasons. First of all, I rarely get to play brand spanking new titles much these days. Whether for financial reasons, or the fact that I'm trying to use my free time to pore through the mountain of games I've somehow managed to build up, I just don't generally grab a game day one unless I know damn well I intend to play it right away.
Secondly, I'm simply not a big fan of the Final Fantasy franchise. That may be a statement bordering on heresy, especially given that I do enjoy RPGs, but aside from playing the original and the SNES ones I haven't really gotten into an FF game in a long time. I actually tried to play Final Fantasy VII, a title that makes most gamers hot and bothered by just mentioning it, and I found it... meh. Admittedly, I didn't get too far, but I frankly got bored and never felt the need to delve any further into it. That was the last time I ever played a Final Fantasy game.
However, I've been intrigued by lucky #13 for some time now, and frankly I want to support the fact that Squeenix has decided to bring the franchise to my console of choice, the Xbox 360 (I mean, since a Dreamcast version is probably out, they're bringing it to my second console of choice). Whether I genuinely wanted the game, or just wanted the 360 version to sell like crazy so we'll see more come our way, I couldn't say.
Yes, I know it's hypocritical to say that I want to support bringing a franchise that I don't play to the Xbox. I may not play FF, but I do enjoy seeing fanboys get all tweaked, so that's motivation enough for me.
Anyway, a friend got the game and invited me over to check it out. After reading the manual to get a vague intro on the story, and watching the beautiful opening cinematic, I played through the first battle and... I really liked what I played. I also got to see some of the stuff a bit further in by jumping to my friend's save file, and again I was impressed. The game is amazing to look at, the battle system is actually damn cool, and now I think I really need to own this game at some point. Maybe not this week, as I'm trying to finish Dragon Age and haven't actually started Mass Effect 2 yet, not to mention the fact that I'm hooked on Halo 3: ODST's Firefight mode and I keep going back to Halo Wars lately, but FF XIII is now definitely on my purchase list.
I really think Square-Enix did a good thing here, changing up the formula like they did. I know there are whiners out there complaining that it's not "classic FF" (though, if it was, there'd be an equal amount of bitching about it being TOO classic, so it really is a no win situation), but frankly I'm already hooked and I really didn't think that was going to happen. As much as I was intrigued by the previews, I ultimately didn't think I was going to like it. So I went in assuming it wouldn't hook me, and even through the admittedly gorgeous opening I was still cynical. I mean, lots of games have pretty cinematics, so while I oohed and aahed appropriately I wasn't about to be swayed by that. I did, however, get swayed by the gameplay.
Hell, maybe at some point in the future I'll even call myself a Final Fantasy fan again. That would be just weird.
Secondly, I'm simply not a big fan of the Final Fantasy franchise. That may be a statement bordering on heresy, especially given that I do enjoy RPGs, but aside from playing the original and the SNES ones I haven't really gotten into an FF game in a long time. I actually tried to play Final Fantasy VII, a title that makes most gamers hot and bothered by just mentioning it, and I found it... meh. Admittedly, I didn't get too far, but I frankly got bored and never felt the need to delve any further into it. That was the last time I ever played a Final Fantasy game.
However, I've been intrigued by lucky #13 for some time now, and frankly I want to support the fact that Squeenix has decided to bring the franchise to my console of choice, the Xbox 360 (I mean, since a Dreamcast version is probably out, they're bringing it to my second console of choice). Whether I genuinely wanted the game, or just wanted the 360 version to sell like crazy so we'll see more come our way, I couldn't say.
Yes, I know it's hypocritical to say that I want to support bringing a franchise that I don't play to the Xbox. I may not play FF, but I do enjoy seeing fanboys get all tweaked, so that's motivation enough for me.
Anyway, a friend got the game and invited me over to check it out. After reading the manual to get a vague intro on the story, and watching the beautiful opening cinematic, I played through the first battle and... I really liked what I played. I also got to see some of the stuff a bit further in by jumping to my friend's save file, and again I was impressed. The game is amazing to look at, the battle system is actually damn cool, and now I think I really need to own this game at some point. Maybe not this week, as I'm trying to finish Dragon Age and haven't actually started Mass Effect 2 yet, not to mention the fact that I'm hooked on Halo 3: ODST's Firefight mode and I keep going back to Halo Wars lately, but FF XIII is now definitely on my purchase list.
I really think Square-Enix did a good thing here, changing up the formula like they did. I know there are whiners out there complaining that it's not "classic FF" (though, if it was, there'd be an equal amount of bitching about it being TOO classic, so it really is a no win situation), but frankly I'm already hooked and I really didn't think that was going to happen. As much as I was intrigued by the previews, I ultimately didn't think I was going to like it. So I went in assuming it wouldn't hook me, and even through the admittedly gorgeous opening I was still cynical. I mean, lots of games have pretty cinematics, so while I oohed and aahed appropriately I wasn't about to be swayed by that. I did, however, get swayed by the gameplay.
Hell, maybe at some point in the future I'll even call myself a Final Fantasy fan again. That would be just weird.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
