Welp, yesterday was Canada day and I wasn't out celibrating. I've had some friends over to my place lately and late nights of Spelunky had caught up.

It's been a hard week, however - and far harder for those facing the crazyness that has ensued.

To be completely honest: congrats Giant Bomb, I'm really excited for what the new hires are going to bring to the site! I betcha everything's going to be as fantastic and I completely trust (as I did when Patrick was hired) in these decisions.

And as happened when Patrick was hired, this tide came crashing down. Everyone's faced it well.

The larger conversation is the thing though: I watched the news break with the Sore Thumbs stuff, something that I started watching after Maddy Myers had talked about her songs with Patrick on that podcast. I've been reading her writing since hearing about the Metroid songs she produced and found that I really like her writing style. I haven't had a chance to read her newest critique on the state of games journalism - I got the run down from the fantastic Isometric podcast she's apart of, however.

The work she's doing is fantastic, and what ensued on Canada Day was just so missing the point while bringing up a whole set of broader issues that my fellow audience just can't address properly without shouting down those they are in open discussion with.

My Xbox 360. I've had it (or at least the replacement leading to the slim model) for eight years.

I recently tried that thing Jeff's been using, Delicious library.

It recognized at least 100 games, with like 50 more to go.

Eight years of collecting.

Ten controllers.

Memory after memory. I'm going to write more about this. I need to get out of always needing to write more eventually, heh.

I even have a bank statement saying I got today - eight years ago. I was probably playing Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter right now. Eight years ago.

I even have an xbox one - first game I got was Dead Rising 3 - and recall waiting for the first one. I've been playing demons souls on it.

GG

I've decided to write pieces on my experience over the last eight years with something, something that has been rather stable, even looking back. More stable than my time with actual people and while there's many things that couple with my actual use of the device - the fact that I have constantly had the availability to play it might be a miracle, but totally the norm for most people.

I'd bet I'm even coming up with an anniversary of some sort - but as that gets closer, I'll be gathering what's needed to look at that properly.

 

I've owned an xbox 360 for almost <del>seven</del> <em>eight</em> years. It was released on November 22, 2005, I purchased one sometime in March 2006.

I wasn't going to get one - it wasn't my style. I liked Nintendo and didn't really need to play anything online on a console - I had a PC for that. I had a mouse to aim, and a mouse button to shoot someone in the head with. I had a gamecube - and Resident Evil had the best graphics I've ever seen, the original Xbox had not even cut it in either category.

Besides, at some point there was going to be a revolution.

The revolution.

e3 2005 which took place in June seemed pretty insane and everyone had their stakes made. Mine was to wait.

I had no need to jump in.

It really, really wasn't the graphics. It was not the controller. It wasn't a need for the kinds of games that were released. It wasn't paying to play online.

Really, my experience started because of the money I had at the time. Either holiday pay, over time or birthday money came together nicely in early 2006.

I happened to have money I could go spend at FutureShop to get another nice graphics card - or maybe, wait, I guess xbox 360's were coming back in stock, weren't they? Halo was alright on PC. There's something about fighting zombies in a mall? That's in the summer though, and not looking like something that's going to be on PC..

I had the money. I had one friend who was way into the Xbox, having played way too many hours of Halo 2 online, whole heartedly recommended one - and I could play most of the games I missed out on on the Xbox, on my 360. Okay, that's it.

This fateful day in March April rolls around. April 11th, 2006. My decision is made, while hanging with a couple friends I head over to EB Games, greeted as always by Chuck, I see what they have in stock. Great, they have them. and yeah, there's enough on my debit. Boom-boom-boom. Done!

Drat. That didn't work! Agh! why?

Ah, it's not that I don't have enough - it's that my debit has a cap. "It's that GST that really gets you." said Chuck. "Gah, I hope the guys don't mind." I though, as I found out they were cool with running to the bank.. We run to the bank - Chuck assures me he'll have some around. Hitting the bank to find that it's closed, I decide that taking out $60 would be the proper action. With money in hand, we head back to EB. I noted Perfect Dark was something I'd have to pick up - it has a collectors edition. New Ghost Recon game? Cool. Well, I don't have enough - Wired Mad Catz controller, it is.

360 secured, we headed down to Block Buster to rent a game. I was out of money at this point, but had enough to rent Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter.

My friends and I headed back home, to lean back on the couch and play my new 360.

Once getting in, the box was quickly opened, admiring it's silver disk tray, noticing it's large power supply and long power cord. Proceeding to plug in the weirdly shaped video port, and three AV cables into my large CRT.

KIDDING. I'd post that on the TIGforums if I was really going to express that.

I've spent a fair ammount of time learning about Phil Fish lately and he's talked a lot about his love for REZ. Happening to have a Sega Dreamcast around, well, I decided to get aorund to playing it. It truely is an experiance that I can't wait to get more of - yet I'm not going to stay up all night for it.

Thanks, and always be testing.

REZ rhymes with FEZ They both have rhythm, too. Coincidence?

I think so.

Mark

Hey there,

I'm Mark. I dig this site. I've also been cooking up a blog post regarding the site and Ryan Davis, however, that is not finished yet.

However, my friend told me "Yeah, we were talking and we didn't think you meant someone from a Podcast. We thought you were upset about someone you knew personally."

This is why I don't tell people I spend the majority of my hours a week on this site.

When everything went down on the 8th, I told my friends. I made an allusion to for me it was like when a member from a band died. Someone I respect.

Two friends, talking as females do, don't get it. Talked to each other, still don't get it. One of them let me know they don't.

I'm here though. I get it.

http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/general-discussion-30/lethbridge-alberta-meet-up-1445294/ tried to get people together, get it.

Figured out I might be the only person in my city, get it.

More on this later, but this is what I was trying to avoid.

Edit: I hate software keyboards.