GalacticPunt

It's kind of tragic that this blog sat un-commented on for a week, and didn't get highlighted for Mother's Day.

I think it was a good read and offer some unsolicited constructive criticism. You may have trouble communicating with your audience, because your writing assumes they have the same encyclopedic knowledge of JRPG's that you do. Sadly that is not the case in 2013, so referencing specific moments from Dragon Quest IV and V to explain this game won't mean anything to most people. Hell, I've played through both of them and can't recall what "memorable" moment of DQV you're referring to.

I assume your intent is to impress on readers that they should play Mother 3. Your enthusiasm for the series and Itoi may actually get in the way of this. To repeatedly call Itoi a genius and lavish often vague praise upon him can breed mistrust from the reader. In the future you can benefit from more specific descriptions (while still avoiding spoilers). Even when you love something and want to convince people of its worth, you may reach them better if you also mention its flaws. Your paragraph on an overly long chapter reads as "There is a chapter that has pacing issues and too much exposition, but Itoi is a genius, so it must be intentional that I am bored, it must be!" In praising or defending an aspect of the work, you should be as descriptive as possible to reach the people who haven't yet experienced it.

No intention to tear down your blog here. Just some feedback that could enhance future writing. It's a skill that improves with practice, and hope you get more readers and comments each time, duder.

Actually, when it comes to killing himself and video games, Brad does it quickly and frequently.

I do think Patrick could have had a preamble for this article, explaining what kind of policy EA had in recent years, giving context for this change. He seems to assume everyone's read this Eurogamer article.

Money has been changing hands both ways. Some publishers have paid for the rights to display real models. In other cases, a gun manufacturer has paid the publisher to feature their specific gun. Product placement supposedly influences people to buy the guns they see in their modern shooters. It's something EA doesn't want to be associated with anymore, with the way public opinion is shifting. I sure don't blame them, with the NRA crazy train trying to scapegoat the gaming industry, and pretending they hadn't been in bed together for years!

Interesting problem. You're looking for songs that are both chill and impressive to play? I think of Leo Kottke, who plays acoustic guitar with an acumen that is totally face-melting... in a down-home country way.

Not Top-40 recognizable, but he's gotten some soundtrack gigs, so some of his stuff like "Part 2" is floating in that collective unconsciousness. He does some standards in a wonderfully twisted way. Here is his take on the bitter-sweet "Sleepwalk" with Chet Atkins.

If you want stuff that is instantly recognizable, as a metal guy can't you gravitate towards some acoustic Led Zeppelin?

• Going to California
• Over the Hills and Far Away
• Friends (from Zeppelin III, not the TV theme song)
• That's the Way
• Tangerine (how more iconic and majestic can you get than the song that closed out "Almost Famous?" ...OK, I'm old.)

Saga is so much fun twelve issues in. Unless it takes a very bad turn in the future, it will probably unseat James Robinson's Starman as my favorite ongoing comic ever. This year I checked the free first issue of Y: The Last Man through Comixology. I dug it, but I filed the series into the "will buy and read this series at some indeterminate date in the future" pile. This BKV guy is pretty darn good!

Because of the TV series "Homicide," I read that book in Junior High. Fantastic piece of non-fiction. Rob Base's "It Takes Two" was the summer jam of 1988, so practically every murder scene the Baltimore detectives rolled up to, someone was blasting it. I love the real-life absurdity of the soundtrack to murder being this:

It might be a low-brow cheat, but I picked up and read the first trade paperback of Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris's comic "Ex-Machina" this weekend. Very promising start. Basically, it's the story of a guy who tries to be a superhero, saves the second tower on 9/11, retires, then wins the election for mayor of New York. So it's like The West Wing/Veep with a side dish of superpowers. I just got into Brian K. Vaughan this year through the Saga series, and I'm catching up.

So you're basically saying "She was asking for it." *sigh*

The weird thing about Kickstarter is it is neither a charity or an investment. There are no protections in place. There is nothing legally binding that says that someone MUST deliver on the backer awards they promised, or even finish the project that they pitched. Any Kickstarter has the potential to be a scam, amazingly nothing has turned out that way yet. (Some projects did burn through the money and fail in an honest way) I actually think the episodic "spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness" will be the first actual scam...

Sarkeesian is not a YouTube Let's Play-er. There was not an expectation for daily content. Sure, it's silly for talking head videos to take this long, but the obscene influx of cash at the start of this project offers her that luxury. She can now afford to spend a LOT of time on each video, and be the Stanley Kubrick of internet punditry.

Her boring series will probably get finished. It might not. If not her reputation will be wrecked, but we're far from that day. She doesn't owe her backers, much less the Men's Rights Advocates goon squad, regular updates on her progress.

I love the shit out of Eternal Darkness. Heck, I even enjoyed Too Human and would want to see more of it. But NO WAY would I trust Dyack with my money.

1. This guy managed to make me feel bad for Activision, he diverted almost half of their funding for X-men Destiny to a speculative demo of this thing! He tried to string them along as long as possible, treating the license as a piggy bank for whatever he felt like. The consensus of ex-staffers was that the vertical slice of Darkness 2 simply wasn't fun, it was terrible.

2. He claimed Unreal Engine was unfinished and unsupported, forcing Silicon Knights to make a "new" engine for Too Human and X-men. Tried to sue Epic for millions. Yet now they are court-ordered to destroy those games, because it was painfully obvious when people looked at the code that they were built off the Unreal foundation all along! He was trying to sue Epic while secretly pirating their engine!

3. Took millions from the Canadian government for all these projects he claimed SK were getting. It was all bullshit, and the company shrunk to about four employees as it was bankrupted by his big, dumb lawsuit.

This was how he dealt with companies and governments who supposedly had oversight over him, with ironclad contracts. With Kickstarter there is NO consequence if the project never materializes. Based on past behavior and current debts, I basically see Dyack and his wife disappearing to the Cayman Islands with this free money.

Alright, Chat Dragons! (or whatever it ends up being)

I'm Ambaron@galacticpunt80