Two Very Special Anniversaries

Hello denizens of the internet! I normally refrain from blogging about my plans and daily happenings, but a good deal has transpired since I last legitimately blogged on this site, and that's disregarding The Community Spotlight. Speaking of which, a very special anniversary was crossed last week regarding my management of the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight! I will utilize this screencap to summarize what that anniversary may be:

That's right, I have been managing the Giant Bomb Community Spotlight for OVER SEVEN YEARS! To say that we have been through a lot over the span of seven years would be a massive understatement. Since I first took the reigns of the Community Spotlight from the likes of @tokyochicken and @systech, we have seen a myriad of site revamps, features, and ground breaking news that has changed the course of this very site.

As I mentioned on the 04/09/2016 edition of the Community Spotlight I have many people to thank for keeping this community feature alive for so long. The legacy acknowledgements are many and difficult to peg. If I forgot to thank you then please take solace that your efforts to improve this community feature are greatly appreciated. Firstly there is @tmthomsen whom I must thank for recommending that the Spotlight become a weekly newsletter, as this is the format that I utilize to this very day. Then there is @patrickklepek whom I must thank for taking the time to reach out to me in order to surface the best offerings that the community had to share in his "Worth Reading" features.

Then we come to the "modern era" of the Community Spotlight where it now appears on the front page! For that I am eternally grateful to @rorie and @marino for allowing and making this monumental opportunity possible. Marino, for those that do not know, is the person that makes the final edits necessary to publish my drafts as staff content worthy of the front page. Then there is @mento, who currently is my proof reader and peer editor. I owe all of you so very much, so please take my thanks.

Then of course there is you, the viewers at home. To say that you have all made this possible is an understatement. You are WHY I do this every week. Time and time again I am amazed and flabbergasted by what you are all capable of. I only would like to remind you all to use such creative abilities for good rather than what the darker corners of the internet would rather see you accomplish. Once again, thank you.

Oh and two weeks ago @marino, @mracoon, and myself celebrated our sixth year of being moderators on Giant Bomb.

A Stupid Bet Continues - My Glorious Return to Final Fantasy

Oh boy...where do I even begin? For those that are not aware, last year I played and completed Final Fantasy VIII, which at the time was my first ever Final Fantasy game that I had played. In order to share my bafflement with the game to the Giant Bomb Community, and world in general, I published a series of blogs where I shared my confusion with the game. These blogs proved to be the single most successful pieces of content that I have ever produced on this site, besides that one time when I ate a pizza. Now for those that are not aware, and/or curious to know why I didn't immediately jump into a different Final Fantasy game once I had finished VIII there are a few things worth clarifying. Firstly, those blogs were exhausting to write. The average blog was fifteen to twenty pages long and every entry was over 10,000 words long. Creating and editing those blogs took a week and to put it plainly, by the time the feature reached its conclusion I was completely burned out.

Now that was last year and here we are in the wonderful year of 2016. So many of you are wondering with bated breath to know which Final Fantasy game will be my next "feature" for my "hyper-criticism."

Well, I am essentially going to let YOU pick the next game. As many of you already know I will be an active participant in the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run, which will happen next weekend. That event is OF COURSE hosted by none other than @thatpinguino, my "arch-nemesis," of sorts. After discussing what my participation in the event would entail we agreed to two possible outcomes:

• OPTION #1: "Ranking of Fantasies" wherein I play every Final Fantasy game that I own for approximately one hour and rank them a la Ranking of Fighters.
• OPTION #2: Let the community vote for a specific Final Fantasy game, via their donations. (Users can still vote for a "Ranking of Fantasies" live-stream)

So here we are! You can donate to the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run's charity drive for Pencils of Promise. The game or option that you vote for will have its total calculated on Friday, and the option that has raised the MOST MONEY will be the victor, and thus what I subject myself to during the event. During the Giant Bomb Community Endurance Run I will live-stream across the span of three day whatever has won. As a result you get to enjoy the spoils no matter what! As it stands here are the totals as of the publishing of this blog:

• Final Fantasy VII (solo stream): $90
• Final Fantasy XIII (solo stream): $88
• Ranking of Fantasies: $40
• Final Fantasy XIV (solo stream): $20

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKING SHIT!

All of these options are bad! I have made a terrible mistake in trusting all of you with my fate! I REGRET ALL OF MY LIFE CHOICES AT THIS POINT!

I think I would rather play Final Fantasy VII? That said I am almost certain that VII would result in a greater amount of frustration than XIII. However, I really don't want to have to deal with XIII's anime horseshit story. To be honest I had kind of wanted to just live-stream me playing Final Fantasy VIII, because that way you could all know my pain. But...the best laid schemes of mice and men....

Podcasts

Speaking of @thatpinguino! I was a guest on his podcast a number of times! Firstly, we discussed how to best let the Final Fantasy series kill me slowly. Prior to that I recorded a podcast with him about Pokémon Snap! On that podcast I admitted to being an amateur Pokémon Trading Card Game player, and spending ten dollars on Pokemon pictures at a Blockbuster.

What can I say? I regret my life choices.