misc

Whoa, it's been a while.

My Korea trip turned out a lot more hectic than it should have been (mainly because, uh, I forgot to apply to graduate school early), and the Alley's been swatting flies. In a highly abstract sort of way. But I'll finally be home next week, and this place should start rolling again. I'll probably clean up that previous post, too - what a ramble.

Some things have happened in the last month that I might have talked out, such as the increasing dominance of the new Securom (badder, stronger, etc) or the aftermath of Fallout 3 actually coming out. Maybe I might get on that, or talk about some wackier things. Like AMVs. Or Mods.

Until then, my little furry friends.

And you guys.

Ten days in Korea, and well, it turns out I don't have internet. Not yet, anyway. So I got very little in my head right now, besides several personal concerns.

Anyway. Korea. Interesting place. As I expected, and as a lot of you probably know, a lot of internet cafes. A lot of kids and some adults playing... Starcraft, World of Warcraft, Warcraft 3, Lineage, and maybe some football games and whatnot. It's not too surprising, actually. If you're going to play in internet cafes ("PC Bang"), then you're always going to gravitate towards multiplayer games where you can hold mini-LAN parties. I've been heckled by more than one gang of high-school buddies who rent out a section and scream and yell for hours over counter-strike or such. Sitting here, it would feel kind of weird to play a traditional single-player RPG or longer-paced games like Civilisation.

Man, time flies when you're not updating your blog.

I'm actually busier now I've graduated, and I've hardly read up on what's going on. No read = no material. I've had to shelve my dreams of a fantasy happy fairyland that awaits university graduates, where I would caress my degree while rivers of honey flow from above. Instead it's a whole lot of forms and applications everywhere.

I'll be visiting my home country (Korea) for the first time in 8 years this coming friday, and stay there until the end of November. Doesn't mean the Alley will die though. I probably won't be able to keep as up to date, but I'm hoping to take the opportunity to take a first-hand look at gaming culture/opinion in Korea. It's not a business trip and I don't have that kind of network over there, so I probably can't get any juicy inside goodies or anything, but hopefully I'll pick up a thing or two. At least, I'll watch one of those Starcraft channels, huh?

So yeah, I'll try and post as much as I can. I mean, I can't miss that massive volcanic eruption of the intarwebs that is the FO3 release, right?

Sick, again. Probably will be for a couple of days. Would insert hilarious internet meme here, but about to faint and fall off seat

Sorry!

It's been a week! A full week! Where the hell were you? Nobody could get anything done, the place is a mess! ITS ALL FALLING APART. WE NEED YOU!

That's what you guys were saying, right? Right?

I would have a long string of excuses here about my lazy, lazy neglect, but I used to hate that when my favourite webcomic artists would do that. You think oh my God, an update, then you click, then you see a black screen (or even worse, a photo of their face bloated with a flu or something) and some long-winded literature about how they fell over the veranda while fighting terrorists on a plane filled with snakes and gosh, just couldn't update. Which is what I'm doing now, really, but shh.

Sorry, Mr. Old Lady

Some stuff about Spore after the click.

You know, I'm thinking it might be wise of me to set down some sort of schedule for updating. Save people all that agony of waiting. But then, I'm sort of commenting on recent affairs, and nothing's worse than writing when you've got nothing. Also, I was busy playing Icewind Dale II. Sue me.

It tickled a very familiar place in my brain when I (and probably half of you) heard that EA screwed up, again, with customer service. Guy preorders EA game, guy changes address, guy requests game sent to new address, EA does not comprehend, ends up refunding the preorder which, naturally, is limited and now he can't ever get the bloody thing. It's a familiar mixture of hilarity, idiocy and quiet despair at the human condition for anybody who's gamed longer than a few months. So much so, in fact, that it is generally received with weary resignation: yes, we know [insert big corporation name] are a bunch of morons, no, they don't seem to ever realise it (or get hit by karma-lightning and go out of business), yes, I sympathise with you, but no, I doubt anything will happen. Hell, it's just expected of EA now, for a lot of people.

Why do you keep doing this to me?

This corner of the Alley is under construction. You see wagons full of wood and stone and various holes and cracks on the street floor. A fat, corpulent labourer sits slouched nearby, coated in dust. As you approach, he cocks his head and blurts out, "You won't find much here." He raises a particularly hairy hand, and carelessly waves at the general area. "Might be ready soon, but who knows? Best to come back later, I should think."

First posts, like first pages (and first takes), are always horrible. They are what happen when great fantabulous ideas first pop out. You think they’re going to be great and wonderful when they’re in there and you can’t see them, and you feed them good food and go to yoga classes and everything, but then they pop out and they’re just blobby fats covered in blood, and you just want to quit right then and there.

But I persevered through all that, and bring to you, the world (two people and googlebot), The Alley.

This place is, in short, a blog/site about the world of video games. But not in the sense of talking about why this game is cool/not cool/should die in a fire. This site will be a soapbox for commentary and analysis on video game culture, industry and society. That means subjects like video game PR/marketing: the (for some) notorious area of video game journalism: the kind of trends we see in game development: indie/fan productions: game communities. As both personal and academic an interest, hopefully it’ll give you something to think about – without going down the ‘wannabe intellectual with a thesaurus’ route.

For these early, toddler days, there should be something new every day or couple of days. We may see a small interview with a certain industry man (roll out the carpet) soon. And ultimately, I’d love to hear from, and ask questions to, all kinds of people – not just the devs and whatnot we normally hear about. What about those guys that work in production, or localisation? What about game journos themselves? What about the guys that camp out all night for a PS3/360/Wii/Phantom(heh)? We will see if, eventually, the Alley grows past the bleeding baby stage. Until then, it’s just me, my blanket and googlebot, folks.