We couldn't let this slide, I'm afraid. I'm aware that StarForce has supposedly apologized, but that and a cracker will get you a cracker. Already a deeply despised company, one of their employees openly provided links to pirated materials - confirming every suspicion about their debased operation. Of course they made some show of contrition.  

I'm sorry that updates haven't been hitting the site when they should have the last couple times.  The new site generates static pages automatically, so it can look like we're still up even if the tools we use to manage posts and strips aren't available.

The machine just gets pulverized every update.  Minus forum traffic, we can usually expect two million or more pageviews a day.  I would have thought that we had reached some kind of saturation point long ago, but that hasn't been borne out.  Where are these new readers coming from?  Are they Apple enthusiasts, heartened by our move toward fruit?  Are they recently manufactured androids?  Are they phantom pings - the first wave of a Denial of Service phalanx?

Who knows.  Anyway, it shouldn't matter who it is.  Our stuff should be available when you want to read it, and I'm sorry.

(CW)TB   

I have an incredible opportunity to discuss with you!

Saturday was my six year wedding anniversary. We decided to have the grandparents come over and watch Gabe for the weekend while we relaxed at a fancy five star hotel in downtown Seattle. We made sure to find a place with wireless internet and we both took our laptops so we could play WOW all weekend. Normally at home we only play after Gabe goes to sleep so this was going to be a real treat.

The Gambler exeunt.

Enter The Gambler.

We'll be getting our copies of the stuff that came out today when we leave "work," here in a couple hours or so. I suggested that it was the darkness of my predicament that kept me from previewing those games earlier, when the reality is more that I had a very brief time with each one, so brief that I can't tell you anything you won't learn in the first twenty minutes with either title.

Guitar Heroism has in no way abated around here, so Eurogamer's revelation of genre specific songpacks was felt with almost kinetic force. If a person my be crushed beneath pleasure and anticipation, I am not long for this world.

We are going to be at various places at various times over the next couple months.

I'd never used one of the new iMacs before I bought it, and though we've added dialogue here to grease the wheels I thought Apple Enthusiasts might be amused to know that I spent almost five entire minutes trying to turn it on.

There has always been something illicit about playing for the other team.

Just an update on the 1,200 donuts situation. We were able to give all the donuts away. We gave some to the other businesses here in our office building. We also sent a few hundred over to the Seattle Children’s hospital for the staff there. Then we let our PAX enforcers come by and dig in.

I’ve had a couple people mail me and tell me that the word among the Austin dev community is that the DCO team is hemorrhaging people. I’ve heard a few stories but they all seem to agree that people are jumping ship in frustration. I don’t know how true it is but Gamasutra has a job posting from SOE looking for a creative director for DCO.

There was a drawing for a Metroid Hunters Crystal Thing at the press event yesterday, and Robert actually won it.  Behold:



I will talk about the game itself later, but I just found this object impressive.  It's three dimensional, tiny bubbles like "voxels" (remember those?) describe the entire image.  These objects (along with their black case/purple velvet interior) were given to the developers when they completed First Hunt for the DS launch.  So owning it makes me feel a little like a fraud, but then I gaze into its tranquil depths and the world (with all its troubles) disappears.

(CW)TB

I didn’t really mention it when I tried out SWG a few months ago. After they completely changed the game I thought I should take a look and see if they changed it to something I’d like. Within the first 10 minutes I had met Han Solo and Chewy and I was shooting down Tie fighters from the Goddamned Millenium Falcon. Listen guys, I know it’s a fucking Star Wars game. I don’t need to be best friends with Luke Skywalker before I’m level 2. It’s a huge universe and shoving me into encounters with my “favorite heroes from the films” just feels manipulative.