Our society is going to Hell in an Internet fueled handbasket…and I’m to blame.

This post may seem entirely ironic coming from me, but it’s truth is (in my eyes) inarguable.

The recent influx of media fueled interruptions has really got me shaking my head and pulling a Picard facepalm here. As I watch the Facebook links and catch up on TDS on Hulu, I’m saddened and baffled that people think that what we are sensationalizing is acceptable behavior by todays societal norms.

Kanye West’s recent outburst at the VMA’s, Congressman Joe Wilson’s outburst during the President of the United States’ speech, The countless angry and rather vociferous outbursts at the numerous “Town Hall” meetings across our fair country and the almost inconceivable fear fueled babble coming out of the “Washington Tea Party” is building up to what promises to be the embolism of embolisms in my frontal lobe.

At what point did we decide that the mindless yawing that is produced on “teh intarwebz” is acceptable behavior for polite society? When did we decide that telling an elected official of Jewish heritage that President Obama is the equivalent of a modern day Hitler was acceptable for a public venue?

Through this cacophony of impoliteness of tactlessness I have come to one conclusion: as an intarwebz professional, I have only myself to blame. I have politely stood by and born the brunt of all of the slings and arrows of the internet population, smiling all along, politely responding and at times, acquiescing to their demands and ultimatums. By my reactions and responses to said behavior I have validated it and furthered its perpetuation throughout society.

That being said, I would like to apologize, to the world, for helping to unleash this recent wave of abrupt behavior. While I cannot promise to cease or desist in my efforts to further legitimize this mindset, it is my job to do so, I am deeply sympathetic for the behavior of certain denizens of the internet bleeding into every day society.

There is a time and a place for brutal honesty, I agree. There is a time and a place to call someone out, on this I also agree. However, there is also a time and place for tact and dignity, which seems to be lacking in today’s beleaguered public discourse.

*DISCLAIMER: This is not a political rant. I don’t care about your politics, I don’t want to know your opinion on Health Care,  just like I doubt you give two shakes of a lamb’s tail about mine. This is a rant on the degrading of politeness in our society, nothing more.

Deyz found meh

So evidently someone found my little corner of the intarwebz.

I guess I need to post a disclaimer about things I write here. This is my personal blog, not my “industry” blog where I gossip about so and so and give my readers juicy inside information. This blog is simply the ramblings of a thirtysomething father of two who happens to work in the gaming industry. Ok, so that’s not 100% true, there will be some observations about industry stuff, but that’s it.

Really.

I swear.

Also, as much as I love my community, I won’t answer any game specific questions, nor will I address “PLZ FIX THIS NAU” responses here. I love you all, but I need some “me” time.

Bloggity blog blog

The community I represent has seen a recent decline in the number of bloggers it has. This is a monumentally sad thing for me as I’ve always seen blogs as an extension of the “real” player base, not the vocal minority you find on message boards. Generally speaking, and I realize there are exceptions, bloggers are the average every day folks who play on a relatively “normal” (all things are relative) schedule. Thus, their views and opinions can often give insight into the actual pulse of the player base.

It saddens me to see certain people basically give up on a game, saddens me even more if there is a chance I helped contribute to it, but I can understand frustration. I love the game I work on, and I know deep in the bottom of my heart that we have a lot of new and exciting things happening, but I also know that gamers, especially MMO gamers, can be a fickle bunch, as well they have the right to be. In today’s market there is little margin for error when it comes to pleasing your subscribers. Rarely will lightning strike twice, as it has for CCP/EVE lately, and what was once considered normal attrition is now super hyped and sensationalized as if to make it seem that a game is failing when in all reality its doing well and making money. But I digress…

What’s the future to hold for our blogging community? Well, my golden lining voice is telling me that “they’ll be baaaack”, sooner rather than later. Why? Because I’ve rarely seen such a supportive and tight knit group of bloggers before and I can’t imagine that if we, as a company, give them good reason to come back that they wouldn’t.

One of those weekends…

This was a rough weekend.

Not much more I can say.

Eternal Patch Day of the Restless Soul

Anyone who’s worked in the MMO industry knows the feeling of impending doom that comes with any patch day. Sitting there as the servers are brought down, butt cheeks clenched, all fingers and toes crossed with the still warm body of the chicken you’ve just sacrificed to the ubiquetous Server Gods laying next to your desk in the chalk outlined ceremonial circle.

In my previous life as a player, I used to look forward to patch days as if they were some kind of mini holiday. New stuff! New content! New balance changes! New! New! New! I suppose the feeling of “newness” is still there to an extent, but only to a lesser degree.

We spend weeks upon weeks putting all of this work into patches. As such, one would think that I would be viewing a patch day as a lover views the moment of climax…a joyful culmination of all of our collected efforts. Instead, patch day has become associated with long hours, scouring the message boards for bugs and saying collective prayers that nothing breaks to much.

Oh Noes! It's a Patch!

A successful patch, and successful is a relative term, seems to be like a rogue tornado. You unleash a mighty storm of content and change and pray to god there’s no small midwestern town in its path. Invariabley it will take out a trailer park or two along the way, however these are minor collateral losses and things that you come to expect when dealing with a force of nature.

My apologies to any trailer park dwellers.

Dev Dating Service…

I had an interesting talk with a coworker of mine the other night.

The discussion revolved around whether or not people outside of the gaming industry actually respect what we do for a living. I mean, to the average outside we sit around in our bean bag chair offices, a mini fridge in every cube, playing what ever the game du jour is and basically acting the part of a layabout.

Which is only half true!

He made the point that it’s impossible for him to actually meet a woman because once he gets to the point in conversation where she asks “What do you do for a living?” his answer usually causes one of two reactions:

1. The aforementioned ladyfriends’s eyes will slowly glaze over to be replaced by a milky cloud of disinterest and boredom.

2. “No really, what do you do for a living”

Evidently, being a game developer is not a SUPERCOOLSEXY career to your average prospective mates. Being married myself and therefore oblivious to all needs and wants of other women aside from my lovely bride, the mother of my children and the matriarch of my household (banking brownie points here) I was unaware of the plight of the single male game dev in the modern world.

From my understanding, when speaking to any woman over the (completely random) age of 27 he just can’t be taken seriously. This line of conversation quickly branched into a conversation about the general view of game development in the professional world which in turn caused us to drink more. Then we talked about the Sham WOW guy.

Do other single Game Devs of a certain age, again let’s say 27, encounter this complete and utter lack of respect from their dates? If so, how can we overcome this stigma of irresponsibility and immaturity when interacting with “outsiders” in a social/romantic setting?