#oneaday, Day 73: Strategic Mind

I’m shit at strategy games. I mean really shit. That doesn’t stop me playing and enjoying them, but I am just awful at them. I think it’s an inability to think ahead or do those mind-fucking mental calculations required to predict what situation you’ll be in ten turns down the road. If I start getting into thinking about that, I end up suffering from analysis paralysis and have to lie down for a little while afterwards.

This is frustrating when playing board games which you know are supposed to be really good, like Agricola and Power Grid. But I find myself consistently losing at them. Agricola is more of a problem than Power Grid, which I can normally do respectably in.

It could well be difficulty in prioritising things. In Agricola I’m never sure what action is the best thing to take, and seeing my regular opponents playing I’m always pretty sure that they are doing some sort of black magic to convince me I’ve had the same number of turns as them but in fact knocking me out for three rounds, getting into an extremely advantageous position and then waking me up as if nothing had happened. Of course, I know that’s actually not happening, that it’s just a case of me making poor choices. But it’s immensely frustrating, and prevents me from enjoying the game as much as I should – because, I hasten to add, it’s a great game.

Now games like Warhammer Quest and Arkham Horror? Fine. I work well as part of a team, so co-op games are good for me. Even Catan is fine, as the semi-randomised nature of the game means that I’m not totally reliant on my non-existent strategic brain. Ticket to Ride, too, is great. But as soon as the game comes down to nothing but my own skill and chance is kept to a minimum? I suck. Hard.

Perhaps I should find a way to practice strategic thinking. Does anyone have any suggestions?

#oneaday, Day 72: Taking Stock

Okay, so I’m back in the UK. Now what? I kind of haven’t come down off the high from the last few days yet, but I probably should start making some sort of plan to sort out that “future” thing. I hear it helps.

So here’s where I am now. I am going to run down these things in writing in public to see if that helps to take stock of my current situation and give me an idea of where the hell I’m going.

CURRENT EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Writing for Kombo.com. Writing for dailyjoypad.co.uk. Two music pupils, possible third.

EMPLOYMENT ANALYSIS: Not enough to pay rent. Need either a) more pupils b) more writing jobs that pay big bucks (hah!) c) computer pupils as well as music pupils or d) few days of supply teaching per week. I’d rather not have to do d) but it may be a necessity, for a little while at least. Over the next couple of days I am going to set up a new website advertising my computer tuition services and I shall be counting on you (yes, you!) to be part of the pimping process for that. My pupils have found me through the directory on musicteachers.co.uk thus far, but I’m not sure if there’s an equivalent for computer tuition. I guess some research is in order.

CURRENT HEALTH STATUS: Mild sore throat. Unfit. Fat.

HEALTH ANALYSIS: Recommence Operation Gym and Operation Run Without Dying. iPhone is already loaded with an appropriate soundtrack, featuring tunes from Bayonetta, Persona 3, Persona 4, OutRun, Space Channel 5, Trauma Center and various Final Fantasy titles. Get into routine of actually going to gym as opposed to routine of not going to gym.

CURRENT SELF-ESTEEM STATUS: Actually not bad right now. Several days with “my people” has helped with this, specifically with the whole “Hey, you’re not such a freak after all – and even if you are, there are at least 59,999 people just like you in the world, probably more” thing.

SELF-ESTEEM ANALYSIS: Maintain by doing stuff that makes me feel positive. Avoid doing things that make me feel negative. See aforementioned gym routine thing.

CURRENT MISSION OBJECTIVES:

Make enough money to pay rent (OPTIONAL: Make enough money to pay rent AND have Fun Stuff)
Recruit more music pupils
Design computer tuition website
Recruit computer tuition pupils
Do more writing for Kombo, DailyJoypad and BitMob
Hassle other sites for writing gigs
Attempt to make use of contacts made at PAX
Get into a situation where I can keep the necessity of doing supply teaching to a minimum

First one and the last one are the biggies, I guess. Everything else will contribute to those two. If I can get to a stage where I never have to step inside a classroom again, and I am working entirely on my own terms and feeling good about myself, that’s the goal. That’s the dream. And it’s frickin’ well going to happen.

Also, I’ve totally managed 72 days of blogging without a gap. That’s pretty good going, right? I’ll have a party on post 100 or something.

#oneaday, Day 71: Token Entry

Will shortly be boarding my flight back to the UK so am posting something now to… well, have something posted, to be perfectly honest. Missing a day because I’m asleep over the Atlantic? Laaame.

I said pretty much everything I needed to say post-PAX yesterday but I’ll just reiterate that this was a supremely awesome time for everyone – yes, Sam, better than Kaos and a kebab – and I hope we can all do it again sometime very soon indeed. Maybe next time those people who weren’t able to cone this time will be able to join us too.

For now though, boarding will shortly call and my battery is low. So I will bid you all adieu and see you back on the wrong side of the Atlantic.

TRANSMISSION ENDS.

#oneaday, Day 70: Thank You For Playing #PAX!!

These last few days have been the absolute best few days I’ve had for a very long time, representing not only some much-needed rest and relaxation but also an opportunity to meet some beloved friends face-to-face for the first (or, in some cases, second) time, hang out and talk shit about video games for hours on end. That was a very long sentence but it pretty much reflects how my mind is racing right now; I’m stoked to have met all these awesome people and I’m more convinced than ever that these long-distance friendships are not just “an Internet thing”, they are very much real relationships that many of us have built up without, in some cases, having any idea what the others really look like – not that that should matter.

So I’d like to say a very public thank you to the following people for making this weekend a huge success from my perspective: Mike Minotti (because he’ll complain like a bitch if he’s not first), AJ Minotti, Chris Minotti, Chris Whittington, Mark Whiting, Lynette Terrill, Christopher Bowley, Chris Person, Jeff Grubb, Derek Lavigne, Brett Bates, Eric Majkut, Chris IforgotyourlastnameandamverysorryandamnotsureifIknewitinthefirstplace, Lik Chan (sorry we didn’t get more time to chat!), Joey Chiu, N’Gai Croal, Shawn Elliott, the other guys I went to lunch with and can’t remember your names (sorry!) and, of course, my awesome brother John Davison.

I may have missed someone inadvertently. If so, I apologise profusely, and it wasn’t deliberate. Give me a slap in the comments and I will correct the above list forthwith.

I missed Wil Wheaton’s keynote speech on Friday, but he was good enough to post an excerpt from it on his blog, summing up the way I think most of the 60,000 nerds who descended on Boston this weekend feel. “Games are important. Games matter. PAX is where we come together to celebrate that. Gaming is the foundation of the best friendships I’ve ever had, and it’s the mortar that has held my group of friends together for almost 25 years.”

The Squad has only known each other for a fraction of that time, but already it’s clear that we’re a tightly-knit group of people despite being scattered to the seven winds. (Are there seven winds? I just made that up, I think.) Meeting this weekend for the first time (in most cases) cemented that relationship and it makes me feel good to know that I’ve got friends that I trust and respect, friends that I can share what’s important to me with – even if they’re all thousands of miles away. Thanks to the Internet, we’re always close enough to chat or play something together, and I know these friendships will continue for years to come.

I have a ton of awesome photos to share but haven’t unloaded them from my camera yet. That will probably have to wait until I get back home on Tuesday, but rest assured there are some gloriously nerdy things to share.

One more time: PAX has been the most awesome time. If you’re a nerd reading this and you’ve never been to a gathering of this magnitude, take the next opportunity to do so that you get. You won’t regret it.

Sentimentality over. Flying back home tomorrow evening, arriving back in the UK early on Tuesday morning.

#oneaday, Day 69: #PAX Day 2

Wow, what an insanely hectic day. This is going to be a short one as I’m absolutely knackered.

Today we caught a couple of panels – firstly, the “Death of Print” panel that my brother was appearing on along with several others, and then the “Podcasting for PR” panel featuring Shawn Elliott, Jeff Green, Ken Levine, Major Nelson and a guy from Insomniac whose name escapes me right now. Both were excellent, thought-provoking discussions. The podcasting one in particular gave us some great ideas for future podcasts, and the “Death of Print” panel raised some interesting questions and food for thought about the future of the print vs online divide. Particularly after hearing those guys speak, I firmly believe there is a future for both, but each should stop trying to be the other.

I got the chance to spend some time with my brother today, which is an extremely rare pleasure, with the last time I saw him, if I remember correctly, being our wedding well over a year ago. I also got to hang out with Shawn Elliott, N’Gai Croal and some other media types whose (I apologise) names also escape me right now in my super-tired state. Not to sound like that pathetic fanboy, but it was actually quite an honour to get the chance to sit down and talk to a selection of people who have helped shape the games industry into what it is today. So I guess this is a public “thank you” for those guys giving me the time of day – and hopefully not just because of my last name. Thank you to big bro for letting me tag along, too.

Didn’t get the chance to hang with the Squad as much as I wanted to today but, you know, family has to come first sometimes. Tomorrow, though, will be a different matter, as John flies back early in the morning leaving the day free for Squad activities. And I am certain there will be plenty – watch this space for further details!

I have more to talk about but I can barely keep my eyes open right now. More tomorrow!

The only last thing I do want to share is that PAX is awesome. It’s such a good feeling to be in a place with sixty thousand other “harmless” and “nice” people. Normally I hate being in crowds as it makes me feel self-conscious, but the wonderful thing about PAX is that we are surrounded by people who are just like us – people who like the same things (to varying degrees), people who don’t feel the need to be unpleasant just for the sake of it (the fear of which is what causes the greatest amount of anxiety to me) and above all, people who are just friendly, pleasant, intelligent and fun to be around.

Also, there was a totally hot Bayonetta cosplayer wandering around today, which made both Chris and me very happy indeed. You can mock cosplay all you want, but when someone is 1) attractive and 2) making a proper effort the results are just… wow. Anyway, enough of that. Late night delirium talking. *wipes dribble off chin*

To anyone still out on the town tonight: have a great one and I’ll catch you tomorrow. To anyone back at home wishing they were here: you should definitely make the effort to come to a PAX if you ever get the opportunity. To anyone back at home reading this and thinking “what the fuck is he talking about?” – politely respect the nerds in your community and continue about your business.

Good night!

#oneaday, Day 68: #PAX East, Day 1

Wow, what a rush! Day one of PAX East is already over and it’s been awesome so far.

Early part of the day was spent meeting, greeting and showering off our respective journeys. Chris “RocGaude” Whittington and I made it into the show just after Wil Wheaton’s keynote speech, which is a shame because the buzz on Twitter made it sound rather inspirational. Still, immediately after that was Gabe and Tycho’s Q&A session, which was seven degrees of pure-grade awesomeness. I’d never actually seen them in person before but their banter was hilarious and they have huge amounts of stage presence, wit and talent. I can see why they’ve become the huge successes they have.

Later, we tried to get in to a panel about the current state of storytelling in interactive fiction, hosted by, among others, Andrew “Zarf” Plotkin and Emily Short. Sadly we were just too late for that one, but we did manage to attend the first screening of GET LAMP, an extremely well put together documentary about the rise, fall and rise again of interactive fiction. The filmmaker had managed to interview a huge number of luminaries of the genre, including Don “Adventure” Woods and Steve “Infocom” Meretzky, both of whom were in attendance along with Plotkin and several others from IF’s past for a post-movie Q&A session.

We also spent a bit of time with the BitMob crowd at the puntastic “Pour House” where the beer was flowing freely and, by the sound of his tweets, Jeff Grubb is absolutely wasted. Holla. I won a T-shirt too. Awesomesauce!

Tomorrow should be a busy day. Hitting the show floor to scoop some stories for my new gigs at Kombo and Daily Joypad, then later am getting the chance to catch up with my brother. Hopefully, then, later in the evening, the Squadron of Shame will be recording something awesome from PAX to share with you all.

Anyway, it’s 1:15am EST right now and I should probably go to bed. Suffice to say that so far PAX is proving to be everything I hoped it would be. I wish there were more in the way of nerd superconventions like this in the UK. I had to cheer when Gabe and Tycho said their next aim for PAX is to do EuroPAX. That would be awesome.

Anyway. Good night!

#oneaday, Day 67: Pre-Flight Checklist

[I appeared not to have published this at the time. Here it is, for what it’s worth.]

Well, I’m shortly off. I have the travel jitters. I’m not nervous about the journey itself – I’m quite happy travelling – but I have those last-minute jitters where you’re convinced you’ve forgotten something. And, being me, as my wife will take great delight in pointing out to you, I probably have forgotten something. But I have underpants, socks, T-shirts, shirts, jumpers, gloves, a scarf, a toothbrush, some deodorant, some shampoo, enough wires to make a terrorist blush, a Nintendo DS Fat (old-school fat, not XL), a Sony PSP, games for both, an iPhone, a Nikon DSLR camera (with its memory card in it), an Asus netbook, my travel documents – plane e-ticket, boarding pass, coach ticket to get to the airport in the first place (leaving in one hour), odd US security form, passport, details of where I’m actually staying, cash… Anything else?

If so, I’m going to have to live without it. Or pick one up there. Because I’m not packing anything else!

Currently syncing my iPhone (well, clearing some space on it, anyway) and then I do believe I’ll be ready to go. Even with time to pick up some breakfast on the way! How cool is that? It’s super-cool, that’s what it is.

Anyway, the next post on here will either come from Heathrow Airport (if I get bored) or Boston, MA. See you soon!

#oneaday, Day 66: The Time Has Come

I’m going to write this in something of a rush because I need to go to bed. But I’m not going to default on my blogging just for pesky tiredness’ sake! No, it might be a short, crap entry, but dammit if I’m not going to write on right now.

Anyway.

Tomorrow, I fly to Boston for PAX East. It’s strange to think that this time has finally come. When I think back to early in this whole “one a day” experiment and the things I said, wondering whether or not I’d be able to go, wondering whether I’d be able to get out of my job, wondering if I’d ever make it to the States to see my friends whom I only know by their Twitter avatars and occasional glimpses of embarrassing photos on Facebook.

Now, that fantasy is a reality. Well, it will be very soon, anyway.

There are two emotions in my head right now. Immense excitement… and nerves. Almost like stage fright.

Anyone who’s ever met anyone they’ve talked to online for a long period of time will know that the first face-to-face meeting is always the hardest. People are different online to how they are in reality, and however much you can protest that the way you write or chat online is your “true self”, the fact is that people will judge you when they meet you for the first time – subconsciously in most cases, but they’re doing it all the same. It’s that that always unnerves me – whenever I’m meeting new people for the first time, not just trusted and beloved online friends, but anyone. It’s a side-effect of the social anxiety that I’ve suffered for as long as I can remember, but I’m determined not to let it get in the way of an awesome time. And it doesn’t have to. I met my wife face-to-face long after we met online, after all. And yes, I probably was an awkward twat – still am – but that one worked out just fine.

The fact I’ve met some members of the Squadron of Shame before will help – especially given the fact that we got on well the last time we met and didn’t (to my knowledge, anyway) want to tear each others’ throats out with hammers by the end of our time together. I feel like I know a lot of the others very well already thanks to blogs, Twitter, Facebook, podcasts and all manner of other media that makes “Internet gurus” and “online entrepreneurs” drool with glee. So I think it’s going to be just fine.

Doesn’t stop me feeling nervous, but it’s not a sense of crippling anxiety. It’s more a state of wanting the “introductions” phase to be over so we can kick back with some beers and then hit the show floor of PAX East running. Because there’s an asston of stuff to see, and there’s a bundle of people I want to meet. Quite how everything will fit into those few short days I’m in Boston is anyone’s guess – but I’m going to make a damn good try of it.

So tomorrow morning at 8:40, I board a coach bound for DESTINY. That’s right: DESTINY. (Then I catch a plane which will take me the rest of the way to DESTINY. But the coach trip comes first.)

I’m clearly getting delirious. Time for bed, I think. Good night!

#oneaday, Day 65: Step into my Game Room

This post makes me sad, because I can’t help thinking a lot of people on that thread are missing the point somewhat. I’m hugely excited for Game Room. I wasn’t at first, but since hearing that there are not only arcade treasures in there but also Atari 2600 and Intellivision games too, my interest has been steadily growing until now I’m at the stage where it’s just after midnight and moments ago, I switched on my Xbox just to see if they released things at midnight, or in the morning. (It’s in the morning, for those who were curious.)

The arguments made in the first post are ones that we’re hearing a lot – not just in the context of Game Room, but also in the context of digital distribution in general. The biggest concern people have with digital distribution is that one day, your content will be switched off and, despite having paid for it, you’ll no longer be able to use it. This is a fair concern, as no-one likes splashing the cash on things that they won’t be able to use at some point in the future – but when you think about it, in the world of tech, this is nothing unusual. Products come and go, specifications increase, chipsets change – and at some point it’s necessary to leave the old behind. Did people complain that the Amiga wasn’t backwards-compatible with the Commodore 64? Do music enthusiasts complain that it’s getting harder and harder to find a cassette deck to play those old albums that you only bought on cassette because they were cheaper?

Well, yes, they probably do, but that’s beside the point. What I guess I’m trying to say is this: isn’t the “built-in obsolescence” of digital distribution the same thing? I have a stack of PC games in a box here, some of which it isn’t possible to run any more. Okay, maybe with some tweaking and playing with software like DOSBox it’s possible to get it going – but to a (for want of a better word) “casual” user, they’re defunct and obsolete. The only difference with potentially-expiring digitally distributed products is that there’s no workaround like DOSBox. Once the content’s gone, it’s gone. And yes, that’s not a great thing, but it’s not something to be surprised about.

The other objection people have is that Game Room will charge you again to play titles you already own Xbox Live Arcade versions of – titles like Gauntlet, Smash TV and the like. The simple solution to this is, of course, to not buy them again – but there’s also the fact that the Arcade and Game Room versions are actually rather different beasts. The Arcade editions of the games are generally enhanced with leaderboards, online play and in some cases, new graphics. The Game Room versions are exactly as they were all those years ago. It may be that some people will be more than happy to buy a game again for the sake of having a completely authentic experience – others should simply avoid those games that they have already purchased.

I think the most exciting thing that a lot of people are missing, though, is that Game Room represents possibly the first fully-legal console-based multiplatform emulator out there. The constantly-rehashed argument from Game Room objectors is that “you can get all those games for free online”. Yes, sure you can, but via means of questionable legality. Downloading a ROM for an arcade title is, legally speaking, only allowed if you actually own another copy of the game in question. Of course, people ignore this rule all the time – especially for the sake of hard-to-find games – but I for one think that it will be pretty neat to have these games available legally and without having to do any command-line or front-end faffing like you have to do with emulators like MAME. Again, it’s a point in favour of the casual users, many of whom probably haven’t even heard of an “emulator”. Let’s not kid around, either – it’s also going to be nice to play some of these from the comfort of the sofa rather than the computer desk.

So I for one am firmly in favour of Game Room, particularly if the rumours of there being over a thousand games set for release in it over the next few years have any truth. Yes, it is a means for Microsoft to make money – but this is just the same as a whole lot of things on Xbox Live already are, much as a lot of things on PSN make money for Sony, and the Wii Shop Channel makes money for Nintendo.

What do you think? Are you going to be downloading Game Room and any games? Or are you going to be leaving the past in the past?

#oneaday, Day 64: Act Your Age, Fanboys

Why does the phenomenon of fanboyism still exist? And more to the point, why does it exist amongst men (and it pretty much is always men) who are old enough to know better?

The simple and easy answer is, of course, that it’s always been around. I remember growing up as an Atari-based family and all of the Atari magazines at the time belittling the competition with stupid names like Spectrash (Spectrum) and Crappydore (Commodore 64). Then came the schoolyard arguments – SEGA vs Nintendo. Sonic vs Mario. “We’ve got Street Fighter II! Hah! …Oh wait, now you have, too.” It got pretty silly.

Once the Dreamcast came out, it was hard to justify fanboyism because, certainly once SEGA’s wondermachine came out, it was so far ahead of its competition – the 64-bit Nintendo 64 and the 32-bit PlayStation – that half-hearted attempts to call it things like “Dreampants” always came across as more than a little desperate.

Things then kicked off again with Sony vs Microsoft, with Nintendo kind of relegated to “background observer” by this point. The PS2 and the original Xbox both had fiercely loyal supporters when, in fact, you’d have a far better experience if you bought both systems, played the relevant exclusives on their respective platforms and played multiplatform titles on the Xbox. That’s what I did, and I never felt the need to slag off any of the systems.

And it still goes on today, despite each of the consoles arguably offering a more distinct and unique experience from each other than ever before. The Xbox 360 offers its legendary ease of online play, the PS3 is home to a variety of unusual and interesting games (like Flower, flOw, Linger in Shadows, the Pixeljunk games) and the Wii is the family-friendly bundle of fun.

Still the hating goes on, though.

But nowhere is it more apparent than in the world of smartphones, particularly between the owners of iPhones, BlackBerries (let’s pluralise it properly, please) and Android-based phones. iPhone owners are either Apple fanboys who bang on about how great Apple is all the time or jailbreakers who bang on about which ludicrously-named hack they’re installing this week – and, of course, which apps they could get for free rather than paying for them on the App Store. BlackBerry owners seem to be updating their OS every night. And Android owners seem to be particularly sore about the iPhone for some inexplicable reason.

The question is: why? When it came to the early console wars, slagging off the systems your friends had was just schoolyard banter. You didn’t really think that the systems were inferior, otherwise you wouldn’t have gone around to their houses and played those games with them. The fact that this juvenile banter has grown up with people who have been using gaming and other consumer electronics for years is utterly baffling. Even people who started gaming at the same time as me – or before – are still bitching and moaning about how much better their handset is that [x]’s handset, and blahblahblah open source, blahblahblah build quality, blahblahblah BlackBerry Messenger, blahblahblah… You get the picture.

Am I alone in thinking that all of this stuff, without exception, is seven degrees of awesome and we should appreciate the brilliant things we have? Yes, some of them have more features. Yes, some of them are objectively “better” in terms of capabilities, power and technical specifications. But is that really any reason to act like 5-year olds telling each other that their respective Mums smell of wee?

No, it’s not. So why does it still go on?