The apparent difference
Over the last four days, I have been taking as much information in as I can find from the goings on at this years GDC. Since yesterday, most information has been coming from blogs--blogs of industry insiders; journalists and real developers all well-past their highschool mindsets.
What I am finding is a niche of the World Wide Web that is written in intelligent detail and posted with non-profit motivations. I am finding opinions that suggest /now/ is finally the time for developers currently working under the faceless corporate mechanisms that have been driving the industry since its birth to take arms and find a solution a'la Hollywood and Indies for independent games to, in the near future, become a profitable (inasmuch a developer could survive a lifestyle as comfortable as what they live with working for EA, or Midway, or Take Two, etc) alternative. At the same time, it is now that the general public needs to be alerted that mass-marketed titles aren't the be-all and end-all of the industry--that there needs to be a way to teach the average fool that independent games exist and, although their production values might not exactly match those of $15 million licensed titles, innovative and personalised gameplay more than makes up for it.
It is entirely possible all of these arguments have been prominent in short bursts in the industry ever since the open source movement began, but from the ravenous tones of the half-dozen blogs I've been tracking, it really sounds like something is about to happen.
Another thing following these blogs has taught me is that my own blog, right here, is yet rather juvenile. And, at the moment, my solution is that the only way I'll eventually overcome this is to age--to gain experience in the real world. To learn more, and to do more. Only then will single-digit traffic begin to rise and a comment or two start popping up maybe every other week (I don't think you need to be registered with blogger to make a comment--this very assertively directed at friends still deeply involved with xanga and livejournal).
Reading blogs instead of doing homework--but I did get about an hour of Philosophy reading finished this afternoon. Looking at my clock and knowing I'm going to have to watch Futurama, and maybe an episode of Aqua Teen, before continuing my strangely tiring attempts to salvage and reforge my sleeping habits into something more healthy. Those attempts, though languishing they are right now, are indeed working--more than 4 consecutive hours of sleep I had last night. I'm still not remembering dreams like I was back in highschool and over the summer, but the near-insomnia run I've had appears finally to be slowly ending. I've been sleeping from about 2am until 6:30 or 7am. I hope, in the end, I change that to sleeping from 12 to 6:30 or 7, with an ability to fall back asleep from 7:30 until about 9 or 10.
Drinking. I've been drinking 3-4 sodas a day. Morally, it still beats wasting myself with alcohol, but I am self-conscious of what this might be translating to in terms of my long-term health. Back at NIU, I was drinking one can and about three small glasses (from cafeterias) of soda a day--that's between a third and one half less than what I'm drinking at home.
I'm thinking. I'm very self-conscious of just about everything I am doing--from sitting in front of my computer and television for about 80-90% of every waking hour at home to suffering the beginnings of fearing what I am going to have to pull if I can't continue to pull my work ethic up a little further tomorrow, and a little further Thursday, and a little further Friday to hopefully finish my Philosophy /and/ English work by Saturday night (or Sunday afternoon if I decide to be social).
And I think I am almost back into a Creative Writing mood for the first time since Winter Break.
What I am finding is a niche of the World Wide Web that is written in intelligent detail and posted with non-profit motivations. I am finding opinions that suggest /now/ is finally the time for developers currently working under the faceless corporate mechanisms that have been driving the industry since its birth to take arms and find a solution a'la Hollywood and Indies for independent games to, in the near future, become a profitable (inasmuch a developer could survive a lifestyle as comfortable as what they live with working for EA, or Midway, or Take Two, etc) alternative. At the same time, it is now that the general public needs to be alerted that mass-marketed titles aren't the be-all and end-all of the industry--that there needs to be a way to teach the average fool that independent games exist and, although their production values might not exactly match those of $15 million licensed titles, innovative and personalised gameplay more than makes up for it.
It is entirely possible all of these arguments have been prominent in short bursts in the industry ever since the open source movement began, but from the ravenous tones of the half-dozen blogs I've been tracking, it really sounds like something is about to happen.
Another thing following these blogs has taught me is that my own blog, right here, is yet rather juvenile. And, at the moment, my solution is that the only way I'll eventually overcome this is to age--to gain experience in the real world. To learn more, and to do more. Only then will single-digit traffic begin to rise and a comment or two start popping up maybe every other week (I don't think you need to be registered with blogger to make a comment--this very assertively directed at friends still deeply involved with xanga and livejournal).
Reading blogs instead of doing homework--but I did get about an hour of Philosophy reading finished this afternoon. Looking at my clock and knowing I'm going to have to watch Futurama, and maybe an episode of Aqua Teen, before continuing my strangely tiring attempts to salvage and reforge my sleeping habits into something more healthy. Those attempts, though languishing they are right now, are indeed working--more than 4 consecutive hours of sleep I had last night. I'm still not remembering dreams like I was back in highschool and over the summer, but the near-insomnia run I've had appears finally to be slowly ending. I've been sleeping from about 2am until 6:30 or 7am. I hope, in the end, I change that to sleeping from 12 to 6:30 or 7, with an ability to fall back asleep from 7:30 until about 9 or 10.
Drinking. I've been drinking 3-4 sodas a day. Morally, it still beats wasting myself with alcohol, but I am self-conscious of what this might be translating to in terms of my long-term health. Back at NIU, I was drinking one can and about three small glasses (from cafeterias) of soda a day--that's between a third and one half less than what I'm drinking at home.
I'm thinking. I'm very self-conscious of just about everything I am doing--from sitting in front of my computer and television for about 80-90% of every waking hour at home to suffering the beginnings of fearing what I am going to have to pull if I can't continue to pull my work ethic up a little further tomorrow, and a little further Thursday, and a little further Friday to hopefully finish my Philosophy /and/ English work by Saturday night (or Sunday afternoon if I decide to be social).
And I think I am almost back into a Creative Writing mood for the first time since Winter Break.
posted by SJ at 3/15/2005 10:03:00 PM
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