Everyone was doing it

[Duncan]

I just wanted to be popular.

So I finally ended up following in the footsteps of every ex-Idle Thumbs staffer and am now working at Telltale Games writing a blog that will run out of steam in six months three months.

It's about writing in games. That's exciting, right? So, you know, if you ever missed those critical thrills (?) I used to provide at this site, there is now an even less popular place for them. Also, even though it's about game writing I promise to never use the words narratology or ludology. I just got out of college and am so exhausted with academia. This is one of those iconoclastic, doomed-to-failure blogs.

I'm totally committed to this blog, by the way, in so far as I am totally committed to shutting it down the second I lose interest in it. No protracted lingering death this time!

http://hitselfdestruct.blogspot.com/

Check it.

EDIT: The first post, unfortunately, is not about writing in games it all. You'll have to take my word for it for a couple days.

I feel like such a whore.

[n0wak]

SUBSCRIBE*D

I don't understand why people -- some people here -- have such a hard time keeping things updated. I mean, I know there are jobs and LIFE and other things to get in the way, yet people still find time to post on message boards all the time. Unless you established some kind of essay level of quality with your weblog from the start (MISTAKE), I don't see what the problem is? Note: this is coming from someone who's weblog will be having its 8th year birthday in December.

[elmuerte]

I don't understand why people -- some people here -- have such a hard time keeping things updated. [/size]

I think its earth radiation.

[Roderick]

Yes. Unless you were writing Blessays of the Stephen Fry variant, there's no reason you can't write about your cat now and then without having to explain too much. Unless your last name is Schrödinger. THAT WAS A PHYSICS JOKE.

I think the trick to updating regularly lies in the website becoming your ball and chain from which you can't escape, and now you have to put stuff online lest you get devoured whole by flesh-eating monkeys.

[JoannaDark]

there's no reason you can't write about your cat now and then without having to explain too much. Unless your last name is Schrödinger. THAT WAS A PHYSICS JOKE.

fnar! i heart physics jokes. i am going to write a blog....about my 3dsmax software DISAPPEARING. and no, it wasn't a trial. wtf?!

ahem.

my 3dsmax software disappeared today. i am sad to the core of my black rotting heart that is filled with the bile that used to be your sweet buckfast love. i am unable to render bowls, those bowls that used to overflow with joy and um, buckfast.

will it ever come back? perhaps was there a driver clash, like the clash between you and me in those last hollow words? i ache. i yearn.

perhaps the virtual drive just evaporated. other emorific simile.

i really miss 3dsmax.

[Roderick]

I venture to think your brain has recently melted, dear.

[miffy495]

melted into buckfast?

[Spaff]

Cool :tup: , I'll add it to the gang, and do a post on the front page etc. Now don't wuss out like these other pussies

[Coldkill]

I fully endorse the spread of Thumb

[Marek]

Nice, Duncan! Will definitely read!

I don't understand why people -- some people here -- have such a hard time keeping things updated.

For me it's a matter of not wanting to post utter crap on my game blog. I do have a secret personal blog somewhere (it's not actually secret, it just lives inside a Dutch social network) and in that case, it's a lot easier. On my personal blog I can just blab about how I saw a pigeon on the street with a slice of ham draped over its back, or that I think Superbad is funny, or that I spoke with a girl who claims to work in a buttplug factory. That shit is easy. Writing at least semi-intelligent pieces on gaming or the game industry is not.

[miffy495]

I for one wouldn't mind occasionally hearing about ham-pigeons or buttplug factories. Just saying.

[Thrik]

Man, I was wondering who that random nutter's blog appearing in my WordPress links belonged to.

It turns out that nutter is in fact you. Thanks! I'll subscribe and link to your blog.

[Mel]

...claims to work in a buttplug factory.

I wonder how they handle Quality Assurance?

On topic: I like what you've written so far (but I didn't read much of the Thief post because, while I have the game, it freezes on me in XP ).

[elmuerte]

I wonder how they handle Quality Assurance?

Obviously they hire assholes for that.

[Duncan]

Thanks everyone! For a moment I was really worried this thread was going to be all about physics references.

I don't understand why people -- some people here -- have such a hard time keeping things updated.

Marek is dead-on about personal blogs being less constricting, but personally I think the biggest danger is the realisation that you are under absolutely no obligation (or pressure) to provide content, and consequently it gets really easy to let things slip. And as far as my blog goes, I'm going to run out of games to talk about eventually, so it's going to come to an abrupt stop one way or another. Maybe I should have thought this through earlier.

[Marek]

Well, there's nothing wrong with doing a blog for a while and then wrapping it up when it runs out of steam. It's what 'JC Barnett' with Japanmanship and it was probably a good move. But his blog is still archived and all of the great posts he made are still there.

[Oath]

Well, there's nothing wrong with doing a blog for a while and then wrapping it up when it runs out of steam. It's what 'JC Barnett' with Japanmanship and it was probably a good move. But his blog is still archived and all of the great posts he made are still there.

He's started blogging again.

[Thrik]

I think a lot of bloggers burn themselves out because they do feel obligated to promise constant posts and then inevitably fail to deliver satisfactorily; likewise, feeling obligated to provide magazine-quality posts has killed a few blogs I've observed. The self-imposed stress of keeping up with a schedule or quality control can take the fun out of it.

I find it's better to just post when I spot something interesting to mention, and my reader counts haven't really changed significantly despite my regularity having slowed right down.

Of course my blog isn't one of the more intellectual ones out there, so I find it pretty easy to be inspired to write about something. Simply being amongst the first to document stuff like new Battlefield 3 and Brutal Legend info gets a lot of people linking to it and stuff, which works wonders for the old motivation.

[Roderick]

Oh wow, Japanmanship's up again. I'll read through the new posts first. I'me xcited, but I don't know if it's a good move or not. Suffice to say I was pretty upset when it stopped, because I really liked reading it. As long as the quality remains the same... it might all work out.

As for my twice-weekly rant on Captain August that I've been doing for over 3 years now, it goes through ups and downs. Sometimes it's shitty and just some personal ramblings; at other times I really put effort into making little theses about religion, cyborgs, art or media.