T w e n t y S i d e d

If you see this post, then you have joined me on the new webhost. Welcome. If you look around, you’ll notice everything is basically the same. That’s actually kind of disappointing, considering the work it took to get us here.

(If you’re curious, I went with 1And1 Hosting. Seems pretty fine so far. Good speed. The control panel makes sense, although it has some annoying upsell features I keep bumping into when looking for controls. I got the low-level access I wanted and I even managed to use the Linux shell without killing anyone. I’m so proud of myself.)

What’s really strange is that there are still people seeing the old site. They can’t see this. The old blog is still running, even though I can no longer get to it. I can’t moderate the comments or post updates back there. The people left behind are like the folks that end up trapped in ghostly Silent Hill: Inhabitants of a purgatorial realm that have no idea they’re trapped.

I’ve still got a bunch of fussy housekeeping to deal with. I’ve taken the Wolfenstein post and pushed it off until next week. I’m sorry this entire week has been nothing but boring maintenance announcements. If it makes you feel any better, you should be able to edit your comments again. I mean, there’s no content to talk about this week, but if there was just imagine the typos you could fix!

The forums should return soon. Let me know if you’re still missing any features / plugins.

UPDATE: I’m doing the domain transfer now. I thought this would be quick and painless, but aparently it can result in days(?!WTF!?) of downtime. Hopefully it goes quickly.

(I don’t know why I’m posting this, if the site goes down you won’t see it.)

UPDATE 2 DAYS LATER: I fully retract any endorsement I gave this host. If you signed up for their service based on my recommendation, I sincerely apologize. I’m monumentally unhappy with how they’re handling things. I’ll have a more complete rant up once I’m done fighting with them. I’m torn between dropping them and moving to a new host, or staying with them and hoping nothing else goes wrong. On one hand, I don’t want to move AGAIN because I can’t tolerate any more downtime. On the other hand, my account is only three days old and I’m already feeling angry and powerless. How much worse will they treat me once the “money back guarantee” period is over? So I dunno.

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’ve been with Hosting Matters for almost 12 years. For all that time, they’ve hosted the site you’re looking at right now. It’s been a good run, but the site is moving. I’ve been feeling like I need to migrate for a while now. With the recent security concerns, now seems like a good time to pack up and move.

What you need to know:

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Site Move”

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.

Last week we wrapped up my Borderlands series, and this coming week will be the start of my series on Wolfenstein: The New Colossus. These things generally take months to write, so it’s time for me to begin work on the next one. I’ve got a few candidates I’ve been batting around, and I thought I’d discuss the pros and cons of writing about each one.

Fallout 4 is obviously a game people never get tired of talking about. I’ve had a few essays on it lingering in Google docs for over a year now. The problem is that it feels a bit like beating a dead horse. There are things wrong with the game, and I think Bethesda knows they’re wrong and I think they don’t care. This series would be less about constructive criticism and more about cathartic bitching and moaning. Also, writing this series means playing through the game without mods, and that’s not a lot of fun for me. So the main thing holding this series back is basic laziness.

It might be interesting to do a deep dive on Grand Theft Auto V. (And do a bit of a retrospective on the series as a whole.) I’m conflicted about this game. It’s probably one of the greatest feats of open-world construction I’ve ever seen and some of it can be really fun, but I can’t stand the game’s snarky Holden Caulfield approach to comedy where the writers just piss all over a strawman caricature of American culture and accuse everyone of being phonies. I enjoy playing this game, but sometimes I want to punch it in the face. So that might make for a worthwhile discussion.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Future Series”

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.