Introduction: Guest Star

By Peter T Parker Posted Wednesday Sep 7, 2022

Filed under: Epilogue, Personal, Random 45 comments

So! It’s my turn to introduce myself. Some of you may have ‘met’ me if you watched the stream of my dad’s funeral. (Which is a hell of a sentence, but we don’t have time to unpack all of that) but for any who missed it, here we go.

My name is Peter T. Parker. The T stands for Telemachus which I’ve pronounced wrong (Tel-ehm-ah-cuss) since I was a child. I don’t plan to stop now and that is, unfortunately, everyone else’s problem. I’ve been mentioned a few times here, but under a different name that doesn’t bear repeating. I’m the middle child, aka the youngest daughter turned oldest son.

 

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Introduction: Guest Star”

 


 

Disability and Video Games: Easy Mode

By Bay Posted Sunday Sep 4, 2022

Filed under: Column, Epilogue, Game Design, Video Games 65 comments

As a disabled person, I spend a lot of time calling things difficult. I complain about how hard it is to get out of bed because my knees hurt. I complain about not being able to reach card scanners in stores because I’m too short in my wheelchair. And I complain about stairs an awful lot because wheels aren’t like, super compatible with them.

I also complain about video games. With diminished mobility on my right side, including my hand, video games can be more difficult for me than the average player. But even before arthritis decided to awaken in me like the world’s worst X-Men geneNo no, don’t bring up Rogue here, yes, I know she kills people she touches and all that jazz, but my knees hurt really bad like, often, so…I have it worse, okay? I was complaining about video game difficulty for other reasons.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Disability and Video Games: Easy Mode”

 


 

Lost in Translation: Console-to-Console Porting

By Bay Posted Sunday Aug 28, 2022

Filed under: Epilogue, Game Design, Video Games 69 comments

A few days ago was my dad’s birthday and I wrote a post about a part of the dilemma I’ve been facing with this site. A lot of it is emotional slog, ‘what if I’m not enough like Dad’ and ‘what if I’m too much like Dad’. There’s also not wanting to face it yet. Because, while my dad and I did talk sometimes, he was a very online guy. It’s hard to feel properly like he’s gone because I’m not used to seeing him.  He spent most of his time in front of a computer screen, making content, playing games to make more content, etc. 

It feels weird to have no messages on G-Chat from him He refused to move from Google Chats. He wouldn’t text, Facebook Messenger, or even message on Steam. It was a running joke that for such a nerd, he could really be an old fart about tech., no YouTube links, no new posts here. So, because of that, posting here sort of solidifies it. It forces that god-awful acceptance. He’s gone forever and he’s not going to write more…Ouch.

On a much lighter note: The other issue I talked about was how we had very few games in common. So I, by extension, have very few games in common with his audience… Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Lost in Translation: Console-to-Console Porting”

 


 

Ding…51

By Bay Posted Wednesday Aug 24, 2022

Filed under: Epilogue, Landmarks, Personal 73 comments

So, dad would be 51 today. Last year today he said this:

“The running joke is that every year I make a birthday post about how I’m getting old and I’m going to be dead any minute now. I try to find some sort of humorous way to joke about death or aging and then maybe follow it up with a sarcastic remark about Half-Life 3. It’s a funny traditionFunny according to the standards set on this site, anyway. YMMV. but I’m just not feeling it this year. So let’s have a serious conversation about my health. “

Well, he said a lot more than that, but copy-pasting the whole post word-for-word feels like a lot.

Here’s something you’re about to hear from me a lot; grieving for a funny person is hard. It might be why, despite leading the charge for wanting usMy mom, my two brothers and myself. to keep up the site…nothing much has happened so far.Well, nothing from me or my brothers, my mom is absolutely getting shit done Don’t get me wrong, we’ve moved across states, dealt with funeral arrangements, and all those other little things you don’t really consider until someone dies…At the time of writing this, when you Google ‘what happens to your Steam account when you die’ you get hilariously, satirically, wrong information. So this is why my collage profs didn’t want me ‘just Googling it’.
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Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Ding…51”

 


 

The future of this site and an update:

By Heather Posted Monday Aug 22, 2022

Filed under: Personal 26 comments

For those who don’t realize, Shamus passed on Jun 15, 2022 due to Cardiac arrest. You can read about it here. You can view the showing here (skip to 1:47 for actual content).

I know this site and community are important to many of you and we, his family, hope to honor that. The site is complicated to deal with due to Shamus’ preference for hardcoding and bespoke design over using the built in WordPress features but I am working my way through the backend of the site using my own years of experience hosting and designing WordPress sites. It’s slow going as I am also working full time, taking care of financials and other real life aspects of the death of a spouse, and helping the kids. We are very grateful for your patience as we work through all he left behind and prepare the site for future content uploads. Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The future of this site and an update:”

 


 

Epilogue

By Heather Posted Tuesday Aug 9, 2022

Filed under: Epilogue, Personal 18 comments

The site has a new category called “Epilogue”. If you look up in the menu (under the 3 bars if on mobile) it’s to the right of “Top Content” (or below on mobile). This category will be where we  upload the content Shamus created but never posted. This way that content is kept separate from that which he carefully edited and curated. The category should show up in the normal RSS feed but the content will only show under the Epilogue tab, not on the front page.

This content will be added gradually as we get to it but will include most of the extra content he never posted.  The kids (all adults, old habit) plan to start a podcast and blog that will also be linked as a subdomain of the site rather than on the primary.

The Epilogue tab will also contain updates of what is happening with the site as well as family updates that seem pertinent to readers.

 

 


 

Deus Ex Pitch Part 4: Morpheus Protocol

By Shamus Posted Friday Jun 24, 2022

Filed under: Projects 65 comments

Note: This is a Shamus-scheduled article that is being published post-mortem.

Back at the white house, Troy meets with Alex face-to-face. This next part is like your visits to Seraph Industries in Deus Ex Human Revolution. The player isn’t allowed to pull out their weaponsOr the game will let them, but discharging a weapon is an instant game over. or do any other shenanigans that would break the story. I know these games pride themselves on player agency and freedom, but I think most players are okay with not being allowed to pointlessly fire their weapons or toss inventory items around for no reason while visiting the White House.

Mission 3: Morpheus Protocol

Alex sums up the plot so far: Life is back to normal for the president. His poll numbers are up even more since the attempt on his life. We ID’d the people that attacked the White HouseLet’s just carefully avoid saying if they’re alive or dead, since the player could have spared or killed any number of them. and they’re a jumbled assortment of misfits and cranks. It isn’t rare that a few loonies would want to try something like this. There are always a few threats, regardless of who’s in office. What is rare is that the group would have the budget, training, and knowledge to get so close. These people were obviously helped by someone a lot richer, smarter, and better-connected. This fits with what Troy learned in Switzerland.

Troy asks how the arrests are going with the State Department. Alex says she hasn’t heard anything yet. The two wonder what “Project Morpheus” might be about. Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Deus Ex Pitch Part 4: Morpheus Protocol”