Hey folks,
I doubt too many people actually check this site anymore, but if I can still catch a couple people that have me in a feed reader (doubtful since google reader died) I wanted to let you know that I am starting a new blog. I am joining forces with Maric from over at Pagan Rites to start a multigaming blog called Random Encounters. Feel free to stop on by and see what we are blogging about.
-Pid
Silly enough today is my blog’s birthday. Happy 3rd birthday to the slowest content release on the web! TMS!
-Pid
Just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a very Merry Meaty Christmas and a very happy New Year!
I had an encounter yesterday that I couldn’t let pass without commenting on. This is a bit of a rant, so if you are not in the mood, you have been warned.
I was standing outside the school where my son and daughter attend. Yesterday was my daughter’s first day of preschool and I had picked her up first because the preschool class gets out twenty minutes before my son’s class. I was standing there with my daughter waiting for my son and she was bored as a four year old would tend to get. She asked me if I would play rock-paper-scissors with her and she and I were having a good time.
A little boy came up to us who, as I found out later, is in my daughter’s class. He was a little odd, but then again, he is four. He wanted to play with us, but he really didn’t seem like he knew what was what so he just kinda stood there blankly staring at us. His mother then looked over at me and said, “Oh that’s just my son, I guess he plays too much Gears of War.” Did I mention that the kid is FOUR!
Really?!?!
Gears of War…the FPS where you go around eviscerating people with a chain saw and dropping F-bombs. What’s next, booting up Duke Nukem for the kid? Maybe after watching a SAW marathon or something.
Parents, please listen. You don’t need a license to have a child, but raising one is the single most important responsibility you have once you do. Things are quite simple. If there is a giant “M” on the box, please don’t let your 4 year old play it. There are plenty of age appropriate games out there for them…pick one. I’m not going to say that I am the perfect father or anything, but at least have some common sense folks.
-Pid
Woah! Apparently the last post I had was my 200th! I wasn’t really paying attention to it but noticed it today. I know I am not a prolific writer, but I am amazed that I have had 200 things to say over the last year and a half or so. Here’s to 200 more!
-Pid
It is safety month at work and they have been hanging signs and whatnot around the office. I really laughed at this one. I want a gun in the next ID or Valve game to use Weapons Grade Death Syrup for ammo!
-Pid
I have performed a little tidying up in my blogroll, so if you feel you have been omitted in error or have my site on your own blogroll and I haven’t returned the favor, please let me know.
-Pid
A month or two ago I asked my wife if she wanted to play a card game. She said sure and I surprised her by hauling out the free Magic: The Gathering demo decks I received at PAX East. You have to understand that my wife has about as little knowledge of geekdom as your grandma does. (You know the one who thinks that cell phones will give you a brain tumor and that ATM cards are the devil’s handywork.) This is not to say that my wife is an idiot, she just finds little interest in the geekier things in life. Anyway, I have been teaching her how to play M:TG and she is learning at a steady pace for as little as we play.
Why am I telling you all this? Well I saw the PvP cartoon today and I thought it was mildly amusing so I emailed it to my wife. She emailed me back and was cracking jokes about it. I had to laugh because only a few months ago she would have no idea what was funny about the cartoon. I don’t know if this is amusing to anyone but me, but I felt it was worth sharing.
-Pid
I am writing to inform everyone that Pid no longer exists as he has been assimilated by his new Android phone. As a matter of fact this post comes from said phone with the newly installed WordPress app. Sadly posts in the future will be devoid of human content.
Sincerely,
0111001110110101
I was thinking about this today and a post by Wilhelm over at TAGN is in a similar vein.
What if Sony decides that it is so far up the creek without a paddle that it needs to close SOE altogether? Honestly I doubt this will happen, but stranger things occur these days. I mean if it can’t open the doors for as much as a month, maybe it will be the straw that breaks the camels back. Seriously, SOE is not doing great these days and this could push them over the brink.
Plenty of subscribers will likely jump ship after this for a variety of reasons. Couple that with the amount of incentives that SOE will have to give out to retain the people that don’t go running away and Sony might just cut its losses and drop the whole thing. Focus on making more overpriced 3D HDTVs and their ilk.
So assuming that this does occur, what then? There will be somewhat of a vacuum left where the SOE lineup was. Obviously it would not be a huge vacuum (i.e. if Blizzard shut its doors), but it would leave a significant hole in the MMORPG landscape. What would fill this hole? Would it be a good thing or a bad thing for the industry?
Sadly, I don’t think it would be a horrible thing for the industry as a whole. Sure all the people who could lose their jobs might argue with me, but overall it might free up the industry to grow. A little pruning might make room for some new shoots and eliminate some dying branches. It might allow for another company to buy the rights for Everquest or one of the other titles and take the franchises into a new direction that SOE was not intending or capable of doing. Some new leadership on existing titles might bring them back from obscurity. If EQ2 had a decent F2P model, I think many more people would play it. What if Turbine bought the rights to the game and worked their freemium magic on the game?
I wish I had a crystal ball to see what this predicament portends for SOE and its games. I wonder what the aftermath will look like. Maybe my ideas are way off base, but then again…
-Pid
The Meat Shield - An MMORPG and General Video Game Blog 