Category: General

A quote from the Globe and Mail, relaying the death of James Barber, cooking-show host of the Urban Peasant.

Mr. Barber, 84, died at his home on Thursday of natural causes. He was found at the dining room table, where he had been reading a cookbook.

A pot of chicken soup was simmering on the stove.

What a way to go. Doing what you love. For those who are into cooking but may not have heard of James, he reminded me of a male version of Nigella Lawson (but way before she appeared on the scene) in that he made cooking enjoyable and accessible to anyone. He didn’t mind getting his hands messy with the food he was cooking, actually revelling in it as part of the experience of cooking. In a sense, he was the opposite of Martha Stewart in that instead of making cooking appear to be for perfectionists, he showed that it could be a thoroughly casual and uplifting experience, something that anyone would want and enjoy doing at the end of a busy day to relax and unwind. Here’s to you James!

You know I’ve always felt that I was pretty decent designer, yet I knew that out there were designers who stood above the crowd and were really truly worthy of the name “designer” (something I’m still not comfortable calling myself). One such designer I’ve noticed lately that utilizes Squarespace exquisitely is Tyler Thompson over at JOB Design. If you get the chance, definitely check out his work (especially his latest work on Edgewater Cottage Community as shown below). You definitely won’t be disappointed.

A quote from Hugh MacLeod from his post entitled Blogging Is Dead? According To Whom?

“…a blog is constantly working, constantly growing. I like that.”

Wow. Well said and so true. What’s interesting about this statement though is that it’s more than just your blog that’s working, it’s every blog that you’ve ever spoken on. For example, I still get a lot of traffic from comments on other blogs from years ago. It’s why I find it funny when people ask me, “How do you get people to visit your site?” Just get out there and start having conversations elsewhere on other blogs. That’s how people will notice you and start coming to your site (assuming they find your writing interesting).

Another thing that I find interesting about how your blog is “constantly working” is that because it is, you don’t have to feel pressured to write on it everyday. In fact, to me it’s more about the quality than the quantity of posts. Are you writing something that is meaningful to you or are you just writing about something, anything that’s in the news, just to get attention? I’ve done this in the past on certain occasions and whenever I do, I always feel like those posts are diluting my site if anything.

I mean think about a great bottle of wine. Do you open it and start guzzling it right away? Or do you open it, give it some space, and let it breathe to let it’s flavours really mature and come out. Same thing with a blog in my opinion. The best ones are those that give each post time to breathe and mature, so that it can be fully absorbed and appreciated by others.

Jeff Gerstmann, one of Gamespot’s editors who has been around the longest, was recently fired. Rumour is that Eidos was paying Gamespot big bucks to advertise the game Kane & Lynch: Dead Men all over their site but Jeff’s honest review of the game gave it a dismal 6/10 ratings, thus obviously making the advertisement worthless. Apparently Eidos wasn’t too happy about this and it led to Jeff’s firing.

If this rumour is true then CNET, who owns Gamespot, has officially shot some of their extremities off. Anyone who has read The Cluetrain Manifesto or Gonzo Marketing knows about this kind of thing and the need for integrity when relaying news and reviews. As soon as that integrity is gone, people are going to jump ship and go elsewhere for this type of information. From the sounds of it, many people are already indicating they won’t renew their Gamespot subscriptions due to this fiasco.

BTW don’t know if this is a coincidence or not but the Eidos site is now timing out and inaccessible (however their Eidos Interactive site is still working). 

Related:  Blues News, Penny Arcade, Destructoid, Digg

“Whoa”, as Neo would say. Just found a really great MMO gaming news site called Massively. I haven’t seen content this good since I used to read The Game Chair some years back. If you’re into massively multiplayer games and you love talking MMO design and theory, Massively has some excellent articles that you can peruse.

You know the old saying about how people are like onions in that they have many layers to them? Well the interesting thing about this is that each of these layers varies in complexity. Thus the initial surface may appear light and straightforward, yet the deeper you go, the more complexities are revealed.

What I find even more interesting about this though is how it relates to good design. Some of the best appliances, devices, or programs I’ve used take this same approach. A very simple exterior that easy to understand and use immediately but with many layered complexities that give you more control the deeper you go and more time you spend using it.

The funny thing is that I never really thought about this approach with regards to websites before, yet it could be easily applied as well. I mean just like a relationship, you start off with light chatter about everyday things in common and then over time you begin speaking about more deeper and complex issues and discussions. Therefore the initial home page of the website talks about simpler things on an understandable level and the deeper you go into the website, the more you learn about the product, service, or person and the more complex the discussions may be.

Miss Rogue writes about community freeloaders within social networks.

And don’t get me wrong, promoting your events, asking for connections and telling people about your company are totally viable, real and legitimate actions that are and should be performed within networks and communities every day. The trick is, just like a bank account, make sure you have a healthy account balance (ie. more deposited than withdrawn). As well, much like a personal bank account, it is beneficial to carry a higher balance. You never know when you’ll have a rainy day.

I look at these things on a simple relationship level and with every relationship in life, no matter what it may be, both sides should be both giving and getting something out of the relationship. I mean if one person is getting everything and the other person is giving everything, that’s an unhealthly relationship and it isn’t sustainable.

Great comment quote on Gizmodo regarding the World of Warcraft.

“I played WoW from the day it was released for over 2 years. Then I realized two things. The first was that in order to do the fun stuff you need to be part of a Raiding guild, which was no problem. But that in order to go on raids you had to do work. When WoW got as tedious as real life there was no sense in paying it anymore.”

Massively multiplayer game developers seriously need to start figuring out ways that casual gamers can still participate within these games in meaningful ways. And by meaningful, I mean be able to contribute to larger community goals without having to play the game every night but instead just a few hours a week. Even better, make simple meta games within the main game so that people can contribute in simple ways using completely different interface clients (i.e. mobile phone / PDA).

We are all uniquely diverse within this world, as we’ve all come from different backgrounds and environments, as well as had different experiences throughout our lives. This is the most important thing to remember when trying to communicate our differing and unique identities to each other. In other words, if we can’t communicate on a level that a person can understand or relate to then they won’t have a clue as to what’s being said.

Something I myself need to take into consideration after rereading my ramblings from yesterday. Way too verbose for what I was trying to get across. Probably why a lot of people express themselves visually with artwork or photographs when they can’t find the right words to express themselves verbally.

One thing that I never mentioned in all this slew of realizations is that I think what made them possible was being able to get away from a lot typical things that I normally do. I mean for those people who know me, I love games, especially massively multiplayer games. I’ve always believed that games have the possibility to teach us things about ourselves by giving us a different perspective or viewpoint on things that we might not otherwise had the chance to experience.

At the same time, however, games can both be a real time waster and also muddle your head with so many extraneous thoughts that you often become dazed to other things. I mean some games today are so complex they are almost like jobs, so much so that people are almost always deep in thought trying to figure out new strategies and ideas for the game (i.e. economy, combat, etc). Nothing wrong with that, if that is you actually get some enjoyment from it and it doesn’t become overly stressful to the point you’re no longer having fun.

For me, last month I decided I had enough of the World of Warcraft. I was just going to take a break till the new year but since I’ve been off, I’m not really sure I want to go back now. In addition, I had been playing Team Fortress 2 as well on the side. What started out as a fun silly game (i.e. Incredibles style) become very stressful, violent and aggravating, especially since it requires a high level of teamwork to pull off. Therefore as of last week, I’ve uninstalled both of these games off my computer.

Last but not least is EVE Online. I wasn’t playing it but decided to try it out again after removing WoW from my computer. While it is definitely much more relaxing to play then WoW and Team Fortress 2 (especially since I’m not really interested in the combat aspects of it), I noticed a reoccurring pattern happening again with it, similar to other games. What pattern? Well like with Team Fortress 2, I wasn’t really having any fun. It just seemed like an endless grind, more than anything.

EVE Online

I mean don’t get me wrong. EVE Online’s visuals like the World of Warcraft are extremely beautiful and many others obviously find the game very enjoyable. For me though, something was missing. It just seems like so many games today are focused too much around loot (i.e. making money or obtaining equipment) and skills (i.e. leveling) with very little focus on what I value the most, the experience (and ironically I’m finding our culture is imitating this). I mean I keep thinking back to many of the fantasy and science fictions books that I read earlier in my life and I keep wishing to find games that give some sort of emotional connection with the experiences within it. So far, especially with massively multiplayer games, I’m not seeing this. With earlier single player games I played though (even text based games like Zork), it was possible to achieve this as these games were often very cinematic, like reading an excellent novel or story.

So am I going to go back to single player games? Not sure. For now, I’ll keep EVE Online installed but not sure how much I’ll play it. If anything though, and I’m sure this will sound somewhat strange, I’m more interested in playing around with my site. Like a game? Well sort of. You see before when I wrote in my journal frequently, relaying stories, it enabled me to interact and share things with others which in turn allowed them to interact and share their stories with me. Therefore, in a sense this site became an interactive environment to communicate and share experiences with others similar to how games are interactive environments to allow people to communicate and share experiences online as well. Again for me, the most enjoyable aspect of this interaction is the emotional connection between myself and others who can relate to the stories in my journal.

So in a sense, could you say I’m starting a new game called Life? Not sure. I’ll let you know when I level up though.  🙂