T w e n t y S i d e d

Here is a joke I made a while ago:

In truth, this almost never applies to me. I’m old-school when it comes to computing. I sit at a computer desk, with a computer chair, looking at a large monitor with one hand on a full-sized keyboard and the other on a full-sized mouse. The computer itself is tied into a couple of consoles, a router, a hierarchy of power strips, a printer, some speakers, a headset, and a PC version of the XBox controller. The only thing “mobile” about this computer is that I might be able to move it to the other side of the room in an afternoon.

In related news (it doesn’t seem related yet, but I’m getting there) MovieBob had a bit on the death of PC Gaming this week:

No, I don’t want to open that can of worms and argue about whether or not the PC is dying. I think we’ve danced that jig a few times already. If you want to respond to MovieBob, then by all means, join that conversation.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Personal Computing Devices”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

I spent the better part of an hour going through our PAX East pictures. I rounded up the cosplay pictures, grouped them, gave them titles, tagged them, and put a funny caption on each. Then I created a slideshow and discovered that Flickr doesn’t display any of that. It just shows pictures. At a fixed rate, moving from one image to the next whether the viewer is done or not.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “PAX East 2011: Cosplay”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

The final day of PAX East. The strange day where you can’t wait to get home but you don’t want it to end. Also the day right after the clocks jumped forward as part of the grand conspiracy to annoy the everloving crap out of everyone on the planet.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “PAX East 2011: Sunday”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

We began the day late. Not wanting to spend three hours waiting in line like we did on Friday, we showed up around 1pm for a panel on-

Hang on.

I just realized I forgot to mention one of the panels we saw on Friday. “Game Design Is Mind Control”. Hosted by Jared Sorensen [Game designer, Memento Mori Theatricks], Luke Crane [Game designer, Burning Wheel] it proved that the best and the brightest in this industry are people half my age. So, thanks for that, guys.

It was a presentation on how the rules and limits on behaviors (the rules of a game) lead you to pursue your goal (winning) in less-than-optimal ways. (For example, you might try to buy up Boardwalk and Park Place and drive them broke, instead of just punching them in the face and taking all their money.) These limits are what turn the activity into a game. Continue reading ⟩⟩ “PAX East 2011: Saturday”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

The first day of of PAX East began when we left the hotel in the wee hours of the morning and I spoke the following words to my wife:

“No, I won’t need the heavy coat. I don’t want to lug it around all day.”

About an hour later we were standing in front of the convention center when I said:

“I really think I might be in some kind of danger. I don’t remember ever being this cold. How do you know if you’re freezing to death?”

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Pax East 2011: Friday”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.