{"id":2077,"date":"2009-01-14T07:00:06","date_gmt":"2009-01-14T12:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=2077"},"modified":"2009-01-14T08:14:51","modified_gmt":"2009-01-14T13:14:51","slug":"instead-of-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=2077","title":{"rendered":"Instead of Writing…"},"content":{"rendered":"

…you’re getting a link dump. [EDIT: No, actually you’re getting writing. Unintentionally. Brevity is a cross-class skill for me.] Time pressures this week are preventing me from writing about all the things that are demanding my attention. This stuff will lose some of its relevancy if I wait until I have time to write about them with any sort of depth, so instead I’ll give you the links and leave you to your own devices. <\/p>\n

1. Darths and Droids has finished with Phantom Menace<\/a>. Congrats to the comic irregulars. One movie down, five to go. Then there’s the animated TV series, the CGI TV series, and the Christmas Special. Don’t tell me you’re not doing the Christmas Special!<\/p>\n

2. Yahtzee has teamed up with Yug & Matt of Australian Gamer<\/a> to launch a new show called Game Damage<\/a>. The leap from “I made this with Windows Movie Maker” to “This is good enough for broadcast television” is a massive<\/em> one. Maybe they didn’t make it, but I’m amazed at what these guys accomplished with a limited budget and no prior experience. <\/p>\n

I really like Yug & Matt, and I tune into the podcast from time to time. I’m often frustrated at the asinine delayed releases, missing titles, censorship, and price-gouging that Australian gamers have to tolerate. What have publishers got against a country with nice beaches and lots of purportedly friendly middle-class people who speak English? Americans often have a saying, “If X happens, I’m moving to Canada.” Screw that. If X ever happens, I’m moving to Australia, and I’d really like to be able to buy videogames when I get there to take my mind off the horrors of X. I have a lot more I’d like to say about this if I had the time, but for now I’ll just point you to Game Damage and say that it’s at least worth a look. (And it’s amazing to see Yahtzee go a full half hour without swearing.) <\/p>\n

3. The Escapist has published a letter from the staff<\/a>. It’s a sort of “position paper” for them, and it makes for an interesting read. As I said in the comments, at first I thought that it could use more depth, but I’m pretty sure that would have the opposite of the intended effect. A number of broad, reasonable statements that everyone can embrace is good as far as vision statements go. As you add resolution and details, it becomes harder and harder to make statements that everyone can agree with. In an effort to please everyone, you end up with a document that everyone can tolerate but nobody will embrace. (It’s like political platforms, really. “Education is good” is something everyone can agree with. But as soon as you propose a particular action, that “everyone” shatters into a hundred bickering clans.)<\/p>\n

I also like that while unifying, it gives lots of room for individuals on the staff to embrace different positions. It might be a matter of personal taste, but I don’t become a fan of periodicals, I become a fan of an individual writers working for the periodical. Too many big-title publications go for that one-voice approach, and their voice ends up being a bland monotone. It’s one of the reasons I think blogs are so successful: Even when our page design sucks, our proof raeding is non-exitsent, and it doesn’t load right in your browser of choice, it offers a distinctive voice.<\/p>\n

4. And finally, a question about gamertags: If I link to a gamertag thus:<\/p>\n