Let's get to it. Stick with me, this gets awful.

The Elusive Target lady on that first gaming segment of Unprofessional Fridays, whose charity work was a front for human experimentation, reminds of working in a hotel.

There were a bunch of Syrian dudes (very young, like 18-26 or so) who had rooms in the extended stay apartments there as "students.” Their government paid for their stays, I believe, at least partially. It became an issue because they'd have to be charged waaaaaay more than normal sometimes because they treated the housekeepers like dirt by literally never cleaning up a goddamn crumb. A fifteen-minute assignment was easily an hour for them almost every time. I mean, they had dishwashers and waited three days (these were apartments, after all, with tons of extra and towels and amenities) for a housekeeper to put the dishes in FOR them. It was hard to tell what was trash in those rooms because there would be stale food next to clothes next to rotting food next to half-empty dishes with rotting food. Okay, there was one guy was incredibly clean – obviously my favorite dude to take care of.

Now for the scary part. They were human guinea pigs for the big pharma within view of the hotel.

It wasn’t even hard to figure out. They would be injured in precise or repeating ways basically 95% of the time. When changing their linens, it wasn’t rare to see bed sheets with blood all over them. One kid was regularly cut up, groupings of small slices about two inches long on his back, like someone was counting days in a prison but without the diagonal “5” slash. He’d heal (or it seemed that was because his sheets weren't a Stephen King reference), then immediately cut up again within days.

The broken bones were some of the scariest ones. One specific guy would be walking with crutches for several weeks, a cast from knee to toe. Then he would be perfectly fine. Then that same leg would be broken again. Fuck… Another guy had an arm that was the same. I can only hope they were given anesthetic before their bones were smashed.

At one point someone refused service for about a week and a half, only asking for a couple extra towels, toilet paper, and soap. He would just open his door a slit and say something like “no service, towels only please" (they didn’t read English almost at all, and didn’t understand to put the “do not disturb” sign up). The tiny fraction of a second I saw his face it was a complete mess, swollen beyond recognition.

Their rooms were an addict’s dream. Tons of bottles for different prescription painkillers littered all over the place. Sometimes I’d find half-filled bottles in the trash because they’d moved on to the next thing. I worked with a few people who were a bit… not fully morally grounded, and heard a few times how they could just steal a couple bottles, these dudes would never notice, and make some easy cash. I very much did not want to work around these people, because I was afraid they were already doing exactly that and I didn’t feel like getting in trouble for that bullshit.

Anyway, another thing I’m reminded of is that these dudes looked good. Because I myself look like a goddamn troll, everyone's physical appearance is pretty good or great to me, but yo these guys had looks. When they weren't fubar’d in some way, they looked like a damn boy band. I’d feel bad that these handsome or cute A.F. young men were being wrecked on the regular in a country where most could have been models, but then the majority of them would treat me, my fellow room attendants, and other hotel staff like garbage and I’d be all eff these a-holes.

Sorry, those last bits were tangents, but I wrote what was in my head. In any case, I’m done now. Had to say that aloud somewhere I guess.

Peace out,

MAV

I'm so used to "scrolling down" on Youtube (because apparently I hate myself or something) and finding the worst mankind has to offer that when I started reading comments from intelligent folk on my last blog post that I literally dropped my tablet on my face. Or maybe it was because I was holding it while watching an entire episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation just before. Either way it stung for a second. Also, thanks Amazon Prime for the free Star Trek, really appreciate it.

That last blog was about my desire to keep my writing (though I should have used the word "prose" to be clearer, but I'm an idiot) from getting over my own head. It was also about not liking it when people take their over-deep analysis of art, especially my own work, as fact rather than opinion.

I guess I'll share a little bit to get my point across better.

XDF

If you haven't seen NASA's Hubble extreme deep field image (s), I suggest a quick Google search as it's pretty cool. Better yet, here:

This image, despite being just something from the Hubble telescope and entirely scientific in nature, has become a way for me to easily express my entire life philosophy. There are thousands of galaxies in the picture, and billions of stars in each one, and it is one tiny drop of the night sky.

Essentially, the XDF picture shows a universe so vast, so wondrous, that we are all worthless tiny little insignificant dots (stay with me here...). We mean nothing in the grand scheme of the universe. We can affect the massive depths of the expanse beyond our planet not at all. Yet here we are, sentient, together, and able to at least effect each other.

That's why I truly, with every fiber of my being, do not believe that we should ever attempt to bring each other down. Being a troll on the internet doesn't count, that just might be what you do for fun. I mean stuff like cheating on a loved one; telling lies and rumors about people close by in order to make others hate them; stealing from someone for no reason other than for the joy of it; taking a life in anything other than self-defense.

I will always choose to lift up (give someone a ride, help them move, make them laugh) rather than tear down (spread hate, lie, manipulate).

That's the meaning I absorbed from a picture taken by a machine in space. I don't want to convince anyone that that's what they should think about the XDF imagery, or that it's what NASA meant - it's my meaning. I'll share it if allowed or asked, but I won't force people to think the same way.

Because You'll Go To Hell If You Don't

I let someone read a draft of my first couple chapters. Soon after they started accusing me of trying to insult Jesus Christ with my work. It was absolute nonsense, coming from someone whose religion made them feel superior to anything and anyone they chose. Their opinion, to them, was undeniable fact and they didn't understand why I was trying to undermine Christianity. The result: I didn't let them read a single word more.

Being told I was doing something terrible and that I should agree that it was terrible seemed crazy to me. I wasn't committing crimes here, just sitting on my butt writing sci-fi. Though I guess that could be a crime depending on your beliefs.

Doctor Who vs The Riddler

The last season of Doctor Who, the first with Peter Capaldi as the Doc, was alright. Nothing superb, lots of weird plot holes in episodes, but I enjoyed it, sometimes a lot. The big underlying story was apparently incredibly easy to tear apart practically from the beginning of the season. And the big surprises in the last couple episodes were so obvious anyone should have seen it coming from a mile away. I did not catch any of those deeper hints, just the broader ones, and I didn't mind at all; I was still entertained.

I went online searching for some "spoilercast" material. When hearing a pair of recounts as to how terrible that whole set of reveals was, each of the groups of people acted like anyone with half a brain should have seen it coming and that the writers need to do a better job. The details I heard and read about honestly amazed me and made me a little jealous that I didn't see them; what didn't impress me was the uppity attitude of "the writers are bad because I'm so smart." None of the people I heard or read seemed to be enjoying themselves in their discoveries, just taking a dump on anything involved.

I'd say all that expresses why I have such a chip on my shoulder about over-analysis. If you do it and you enjoy it, and it's part of what you do with your entertainment, that's great if it makes you happy. Lord knows non-gamers never get why I love video games, think so highly of them, yet watch nearly no TV.

However, if you find something not to your liking (Doctor Who's story or video games for instance), my view is that you shouldn't partake. Life is too short and sometimes too stressful to drown yourself in things that make you miserable when there is so much that can do the opposite.

This is more on what I took away while working on my first sci-fi novel “Atypical (Saints of the Void, Book 1),” which is available free in a bunch of places including iTunes and Smashwords, and for $.099 on Amazon (because Amazon doesn’t let me give it away).

This blog is essentially just one subject, and that’s keeping my work and style at my own intelligence and enjoyment level rather than trying to be smarter than I am.

*****

Sometimes I’ll read a book (or lately listen to one) and be so impressed with how the author used words that I’ll be desperately wishing I could be that complex. Then I would remember something I read or saw that was so up its own a** my eyes were sore from all the rolling.

My writing is incredibly laymen by any standard, and I've gotten to love that, to cultivate it on every page. I'd rather make something that people can understand and put together than a story crammed full of stuff like overly complex metaphors or whatever.

*****

If I hear someone break down a movie and say things like “I caught the ending early on” and explain the ludicrously minute details that got them there, I’m not impressed. Great job, you analyzed something so much that you were pissed about it and took little to no joy from it (edit: though I guess that can be another form of joy, who am I to judge, honestly?).

It annoys me when people break down something I've done like that, splitting it into multiple levels of hippie-dippie hipster garbage when I meant all of one or two things total. They’ll make a loaded stack of pancakes out of two crepes and a handful of blueberries. I think my work (though the first book in the Saints universe is less than half the story) deserves popcorn-crunching and smirks rather than wine-sipping and head nods.

Maybe I succeeded at making that fun-and-interesting thing, maybe I didn’t, but I sure as heck made sure I didn’t go overboard.

*****

One of my favorite things in "Atypical" is a mention of a floating, talking apple pie with pants that serves as a subconscious librarian. His name is “Pie Pants.” I laughed when I came up with that because it is the essence of my style: a somewhat serious train of thought commandeered momentarily for possibly the dumbest two or three sentences in the entire book, and it’s in the third to last chapter.

When I think I’m getting too full of myself while working on the sequel, I think of Pie Pants. It makes me chuckle in just the right way and reminds me to never even attempt to be someone who writes anything more than fun adventures with character, humor, danger, and clever action; I’ll never be less than happy to plant my flag on that particular moon.

This is just stuff about how I've changed as a writer or a person since the start of this endeavor of writing a science-fiction novel. It is long and personal, but here it is.

First, links, because I have to be a filthy, filthy person about telling people about my work if I want to get somewhere. I probably will do one more round of polish to clean up the remaining couple percent of tiny issues, but since I don't have an editor or beta readers, I think I did well for being on my own. It's free, mostly, so it's not like I'm making anything from this yet, anyway:

• Atypical (Saints of the Void, Book 1) Smashords for FREE!
• Atypical (Saints of the Void, Book 1) iTunes for FREE! (Er, guess I can't link this, so it'll have to be a search and find)
• Atypical (Saints of the Void, Book 1) Amazon for CHEAP! (Because Amazon's lowest price is $0.99)

Let The Characters Live On Their Own

This sounds dumb, but I had to learn not to force my characters into saying cool lines or doing cool stuff just because. This and any other universe I've created lives in my brain, and if I don’t allow it to breathe and be real in my noggin’, it just work work. The discomfort I’ll have while writing dialogue or descriptions will show on the page, and that’s no good. The story is in the action-adventure vein and I wanted to model it a little after my favorite genre models, like Firefly; that means only being cheesy when it's self-aware and not having 80's-action-movie style interactions.

A good example is that my main character is black (or whatever, they don’t use that phrasing in the universe). I started this story a long time ago, and at first he was just some white guy, and every time I wrote for him it seemed off. The words would have been the same, obviously, but the picture in my head felt wrong. Then I sat and waited, thought for a bit, and the first time I described his skin as being dark it fit like a glove and boom!, the character was real.

Another one is a female character that I was having so many problems with for a while during my planning phase. Whenever I’d start putting together some banter with her close friend, I tried to make them jibe and stab at each other like real friends would. One thing I liked was that they would mock each other for their past, and often not long-term, relationships. Every time I wrote something out, it seemed awful. Then I realized that she was not straight, and it started to work effortlessly.

That’s where I had to get to: a point where the character is so alive in my head and so natural that writing anything they do or say is effortless. And if it isn't, delete or fix it so that it works. I did that a whole lot while on the [essentially] final edit of my first book.

Don’t Let Things Stop You From Being Passionate

Right after I started writing this novel, I met a couple of at-first very nice people. They turned out to be horrific nightmares that ruined my life for a while. Unfortunately, because of my artistic depressive tendencies (it’s like I’m a comedian, but slightly less insane!), those people would occasionally destroy my ability to write.

Finding out your “best friend” has been telling people you tried to sexually assault her so she can get attention (along with a hundred other stacks of bullsh*t) will, if you’re like me, make you very depressed. That meant sometimes weeks of either no writing at all, or terrible work that got deleted wholesale, costing me thousands of words worth of time.

I also took far too long during breaks, thinking I’d go a couple of days to structure things better and plan for more content, and end up playing some game or another for way too long. Sure, I recently spent like 170 hours on Dragon Age: Inquisition between a couple of characters, but the book was done, so I was on a small vacation.

The lesson here is to sit and think about what helps and what doesn't. Forgiving multiple people for being absolute, constant psychopaths is fine, but letting them go and turning your back is better for you in the end. Taking time off when feeling stressed or worried about your quality of work is all well and good, but actually figuring out what’s wrong and forcing yourself to sit and work no matter what is better.

Passion is my greatest asset as a creator, and I’ve been forced to learn how to manage my entire life so that I can use it like a loaded pistol rather than a half-broken bb gun. It’s worked, and now I can toil faster, better, smarter, and I’m happier while doing so. Friggin’ awesome.

Control Time and Rewards

Similar to the previous lesson, this has more to do with my awful attention span and short-term memory. I've been able to cultivate those weaknesses into strengths as an artist, writer, and human being, but sometimes I fail miserably while trying to create. I have to learn not to say “okay, I've written for three hours today and it’s early, so time to relax!”

That makes no sense if I want to get paid for this. I have to get more done in a day, pay more attention to my errands so I don’t miss anything and end up worried. I have to think of playing a game or watching a movie as a prize for hard work. Then when I’m done, get right back on the horse. The writing horse. The Logitech wireless writing horse.

Accept The Need To Get Grip

More than anything, this lesson comes down to money management. I’m okay with money because I’m frugal, but that’s a smaller issue that not wanting to go to work. If my job, which sucks ultra-hard, asks for volunteers to take days off because the work load is low, I’ll jump up so fast I might pull a hammie.

That’s bad because I’m not financially secure due to wanting to take jobs that I liked rather than ones that paid well. I have to consider this and any other job I have as “paying my dues” in an almost literal sense. If I have enough money to pay for anything I want (which is not much) or need (also not much), I’ll be able to relax and write or work on other related projects without worrying about anything external.

Do Something To Help Your Professionalism Every Week in 2015

For this, writing doesn't count because what I actually do. I sadly ignore making myself a brand or business or whatever. I got the idea from what Chris Hardwick has called making a “pro-you” decision, and for me it involves thinking further than the words on a page, making my projects a little more connected to me as a person. I need to work on art to add to sections of the book, build a website and separate Facebook page, blog about myself or my process to put myself out there, narrate sections of the book on YouTube, and whatever else I can come up with.

I used to think the writing would do everything on its own, even if I will very likely go nowhere with this stuff (I certainly hope otherwise, but so do a lot of others with more talent). That’s flat-out stupid; I need to do more, and on a sickeningly regular basis. Even if it cuts into my writing time a little, it is a long-term effort that cannot be overlooked.

That's All

That's all. Thanks to anyone who downloads or, even better, reads even a single sentence of my book. There are special thanks to Ryan Davis and Dan Ryckert in there, somewhere. The former because, well, you know. The latter because if that lunatic can write books and do well with them, so can this lunatic right here *points thumbs at himself*.

In following the Adam Savage rule of “Show and Tell” (which I’ve been doing a lot of lately), I’ve decided to write this blog.

I wrote a sci-fi novella titled “Saints of the Void: Atypical,” part of a pretty long series of short stories and books I have in the works, but I need a cover for this first thingy and probably for the others as I finish them. I’d do it myself as I’m capable and a have quite a few ideas for it, but time is quite precious for me right now. I can also have a cover designed for a small amount of money, but screw that: let’s get some GB love going.

So, I’m calling on / asking the Giant Bomb community for a little help. You can download the short novella from iTunes, Kindle, Nook, Sony, Smashwords, and so on for free (I'd prefer one of the first two, honestly). Submit some artwork to me via GB as a comment to this thread (PM me too, so I remember to double check) and I’ll pick my favorite before part 2 is out. Once that's done, I'll change the cover on all versions of the first project, adding a credit to the artist right below my own.

After part 3 of the story is out near the end of 2013, I’m going to compile it into Book One (or whatever), and probably throw in all the artwork I received as part of the compilation, and probably my own character sheets or concept work, giving credit to everyone involved.

Also, feel free to review the thing. It’s probably not too good, but I’m getting better and better the more I write, and honest constructive criticism is appreciated. Plus, I love the universe I’m building, so it’s nice to get this stuff out of my head and into public view.

And yes, this counts as marketing, but I work as a housekeeper so I’m not exactly loaded with options on how to promote.

Thank you so much to anyone who contributes, comments, reads, or reviews.

Here's a links:

Saints of the Void: Atypical on Amazon (Link killed because actually whole book is out now)

I was wondering why I felt so much like pure trash after Ryan's passing was announced. I wondered why it felt like such a terrible thing to lose someone you never knew, and you'd likely never have known.

Then I thought about how much I listened to the GB crew over the years, including at GameSpot proper. It was the personalities that helped me realize a few important things about my own personality.

For one, Ryan, Jeff, Vinny, Brad, and several others not only were proud of their love of certain things, they'd let no one stop them from expressing it. I used to be sort of afraid of showing my nerd badge, and hid it fairly well. I'd talk in a hushed tone about video games or anime or whatever other hobby I was into.

But the more I saw how boisterous people like Ryan were about their passions, how intelligent they were while articulating why they liked or loved something, I got louder, too. I let my freak flag fly, and was as silly on the outside as I felt on the inside. If these awesome people could be so nuts on camera or a podcast, with thousands tuning in, I could easily be a complete fool with barely anyone around.

I also became less scared of shutting people the f*** away from me if I didn't like their personality - instead of wasting my time, I just let folks be if they let me be. It was just part of cementing myself as myself.

And in all this, the GB crew overall were great accidental inspirations. Ryan was a huge part of this. His apparent nature of just being a big, laughing, smiling, joking, comforting man-bear helped me a lot. As I got older, I cared less and less and less about others' opinions of me in any way other than my work ethic. I got to love being there for people, being supportive, being good and honest, telling awful jokes, being corny - that's who the eff I am.

So thanks Ryan. Thanks for being there. I'll keep polishing my nerd badge and remembering how awesome you were, and that you were so awesome just because.

Recently I grabbed a few games out of a box, namely Kingdom Hearts 2, Shadow Hearts: From The New World, and Metal Gear Solid 3. The rest of my stuff is at my parents' place in another box, and I'm frankly too lazy to go there, so those were my choices when I decided to once try out a PS2 emulator. I figured to try again with a game that apparently runs really well, so I decided to make an ISO of Kingdom Hearts 2 and go from there.

Holy Lord that game is pretty when run by a great computer. It looks, to be quite honest, like a stylized 360 / PS3 title. Unfortunately, thanks to PS2 limitations, it's obviously an old game. One of the things that always pops out is when a pre-rendered movie that is supposed to look in-engine shows up - it looks like garbage because it is not anti-aliased all to hell by my video card.

Another issue are the incredibly empty areas. At one point Aladdin talks about enjoying the hustle and bustle of Agrabah, especially with Genie gone on vacation. As he says this, the camera pans to a vacant "market." It's kinda funny actually, but it made me think of the market section early in Uncharted 3 - it was totally filled with patrons. That kind of thing makes me really appreciate newer games.

It's too bad this tech can't be outright purchased by Sony, enhanced for PS3, and put out there so anyone can play PS2 games in that level of quality, but without the occasional emulation annoyances of a weird texture or unexpected slowdown (I really only get them during a black loading screen, or pre-rendered movie so I don't mind). Or hell, use this software to remake the games, add Trophies, and boom: "PS2 Classic."

These screenshots should show the difference, and it can actually look a bit better; I'm using a Macbook Pro in bootcamp (the hardware has less issues with this emulator than my PC somehow, so why not), therefore I'm not getting the best combo of resolution / anti-aliasing I want, but who cares when it looks good.

That's running in native resolution mode, with nothing special for visuals on top.

This is 2X native, but looks way grainy as an image on GB. In reality, running live on my TV (otherwise known as "monitor 2"), it's damned gorgeous, and I look forward to seeing what other of my favorite old games work well.

As for the game itself: man, it is so Japanese. I've actually started replacing the word "hearts" with "souls" in my head, because that's what they mean and had to stylize up. Also, this game seems to think I'm mentally handicapped, which is also a very Japanese thing. Look, I know that's Sora, Donald, and Goofy - don't tell me every thirty minutes (or less!) as if I forgot. This game is way too hard for kids, so as an adult I can't help but feel insulted by the way it treats me.

I noticed when I first played it that the first half of the game is terrible, but I didn't quite realize how bad until now. It's kind of a mess, really, with no forward movement to the story and no real point. It's Disney forcing Square-Enix to stop telling a pretty good story and sell DVDs because the first game took off like gangbusters. Or at least I hope it is. It would sadden me to think that it was the developer's idea to make that many bad, empty, pointless segments all strung together, though I guess it wouldn't shock me.

TLDR, bro.

Fumito Ueda

Alright, lets just compare Team Ico to Naughty Dog.

1. PS3 Exclusive developers, so only one hardware platform to get things working on.

2. They make single-player games, though Naughty Dog also added multi-player that was well-received for two titles.

3. Both studios' games have a certain focus on cinematic events and characters.

4. Set pieces that are jaw dropping in their immensity and playability.

5. Generally well-polished gameplay.

Naughty Dog can crank out three games in six years or so of work, all of them critically praised, and even start development of yet another title (though with a second team) for two whole years in secret. Ueda and Team Ico can't even put one game on shelves in the course of a very long gaming generation, then suddenly and suspiciously their leaders start leaving the company before any sort of release date is even announced for that single product.

I'm fine with an artist taking their sweet time to get things right, but after a while you start to wonder what the fuck they are up to when nothing gets announced and only bad news keeps piling up.

Skyrim

It would take far, far too long to explain why I love this game, and it wouldn't matter because my thoughts have been transcribed elsewhere, and with more intelligence. Suffice it to say that it's my favorite game of the generation, and serves as yet another coincidental example as to why Team Ico needs to get their shit together. Three games in a generation (Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Skyrim), all of them not only well-received, but of such massive scales that most other video games can't compare in that regard. Or maybe it's not that particular team screwing up, but Japanese development practices that don't seem to change and improve over time.

Bah, whatever. I'm mostly pissed because I really want to play The Last Guardian, but the longer it doesn't arrive and the more awesome games come out between now and whenever it does show up, the more that game has to live up to. At some point there's no way a lot people's best first impressions will be summed up as "well, at least it's not a complete mess."

Just a list of what I hope will be on sale to stop this feeling of money burning a hole in my pocket. I've made enough purchases in Novembers past to know that buying anything in that month (or October) tech or game related means I'll just be royally pissed the last Friday on the month. Let's get to it.

Intel Core i5 2500K

This is absolutely my most wanted item. I can manipulate my way to cheap/free RAM and a cheap, nice motherboard. Everything else to build a new PC I have been slowly buying while somewhat broke over the last year. The processor is the last piece of the puzzle, and a sale on an i5 (an i7 would be better for my needs, but those things go crazy high in price, so even a discount won't help me out) would be amazing.

Uncharted 3

I didn't have time to finish it as a rental due to finals, but I'll buy it instantly on Black Friday.

PS Move

Actually this isn't very important; I'm just 100% sure it will be on sale, so I already plan on buying it.

Skyrim

I'd have bought it already if it wasn't so close to Thanksgiving. Releasing it a couple months earlier would mean I would have paid full price and been happy to do so, but a November release at this point means I'm just gonna wait.

Battlefield 3

I'm trying not to even think about it right now, as playing multiplayer is not my favorite thing in the world (which also happens to lead to me not having anyone I know or care about to play with). I'll buy it only if it is a steep discount, as having my ass handed to me is not fun for very long.

An HDMI 5.1 Audio Receiver

My receiver is awesome, no doubt, but without HDMI it's a friggin' mess. New speakers would also be nice, but it's not as big a deal as the receiver with my current set up.

Batman: Arkham City

This is not an instant purchase for me, and I'd honestly rather rent it to save dough, but I'll buy it if other sales are gone or not to my liking.

Astro A30

Well, this is more of a category than an item. I just want better audio for my night time gaming. The Sennheiser headphones I have are adequate, but I want a little more than that.

32" HDTV

This is an "if all else fails" item. I game in my room (nephew, niece, brother, and sister-in-law own the living, and the TV there is a piece of shit anyway) on an incredible-looking 24" 1080p TV/monitor. If absolutely nothing else I want has a decent discount, and this item is super cheap, and I find myself utterly without patience or common sense, I'll get one of these.

Battlefield 3 (from a Joystiq post)

They say the game will be vastly different from the beta. Thank God. I know that a beta isn’t the full version by any means, but sometimes it gives just the right amount of an idea of the final product. Unfortunately, that broken thing left an awful taste in my mouth in too many ways. Now that they’ve addressed the issue by stating how much will have been changed in the final product (and its more than bug fixing), I’m back to being excited.

PC Gaming

I have a pretty nice PC. Not amazing by nerd standards, but quite good. I can run pretty much anything at high specs if it isn’t broken. Which is why I can’t run Witcher 2 in high specs. Seriously, that game runs barely better 20-25 fps unless I turn nearly everything of consequence off (the game is still effing gorgeous, so I don’t really mind). However, Rage runs at 60 fps and is absolutely the most technically impressive thing I’ve ever seen in video game form (though that frame rate was a huge focus focus, it seems)

And that’s why I prefer console gaming. When I buy a game, I can put the disc in (if it’s not just a downloadable) title and start playing very soon after. No fuddling through settings; no checking every day for a patch release date (or at least not as often); no changing .ini files to make the game run like it should have in the first place; no toggling options in the settings menu or, God forbid, my video card's control panel, then checking results over and over and over. I just play the game that I bought and hope that I like it enough to justify the expense.

Pariah (not the game)

Conversations like the one with Jeff during the waning moments Tested.com Octoberkast (I think it was for the children...?) about how much better the 360 is than the PS3 at pretty much everything always make me feel like a gaming pariah. It's not my fault if a company doesn't make or support games / features that I like - it's theirs. Yet I have to tolerate podcast conversations on a regular basis about how I've made the wrong choices by not liking the same things as most folks. Suffice it to say I'm becoming used to apparently being a troglodyte when it comes to gaming; but hey, at least I'm enjoying myself.

EDIT

Trophy Hunting

Oh, I guess GB tracks PSN trophies now. I wonder if I get S-rank quest completions for them. That would be nice, though I don't really have enough to be worth nerd-bragging about.