Starting Another Blog That No One Will Read

I've been tossing around the idea of using my other blog for a place for game ideas, but I decided eventually to use it for more personal stuff, since so many people keep asking me what's been going on in my life. Whether they read that blog remains to be seen. But I decided that I should still have a place for my ideas. So here it is.

Now, anyone who's looking into the game industry probably has the same question I had a few years ago. What do I do to protect my ideas? Well, to put it simply, you give them away. Stay with me. It'll make sense. Four reasons for it: First, you can't copyright an idea. Sorry. Second, the only way you're ever going to get someone to let you make your game ideas is for them to know what they are. Third, ideas aren't games. The Force Unleashed had a great idea, but the execution was a bit lacking. Fourth, your ideas aren't original anyway. Take a look at almost any movie, and I'll bet that you can find another movie exactly like it. Compare The Wizard of Oz and Titanic sometime. You'll be surprised. And honestly, is there a real difference between the ideas for Halo and Doom? A little bit, sure, but the big differences are in the execution.

So, stay tuned for a really strange view into the mind of a very odd person.

The Firefly Effect

I was reading a bit today about Little Big Planet, and I realized that I'm doing the same thing I didn't understand people doing with Firefly. I have avoided the game because of the hype. My wife refused to watch Firefly for two years after I bought it, simply because I was so excited about it. And she's not the only person to do that. I've even read about people worrying that Dollhouse may have the same problem, being a Joss Whedon show. But here I am, not playing Little Big Planet because it's been talked about so much.

It's worth noting that when my wife did finally watch Firefly, she liked it. She wasn't nearly as excited as I was about it, but she did like it. So I should probably give Little Big Planet a try (I think there's even a free demo).

But my question remains - Why are we so afraid of what the crowd is doing?

♪ Snow! Snow! Snow! ♪

Sure, we've been teased a couple times this year already, but today was the first big snow. Well, I say big, but in reality we had a few feet by this time last year. Today we got a couple inches. But hey, it's snow! And it hasn't melted yet!

How Do First Graders Get a Grown Man All Emotional?

I've been volunteering at my daughter's school for a few months now, mostly just helping out in their computer class. Last week I brought in my computer with a trial version of the newest 3DS Max and did a real basic run-through of how a computer model is created and animated, using Wall-e as an example, since he's made of fairly basic shapes. The whole presentation, including the 10 minute clip from the Wall-e DVD, lasted maybe 20 minutes.

Well, I'm fairly certain that they spent a lot longer than that making all these Christmas cards. Tasha brought home a bag full of them, all thanking me for "drooling" Wall-e for them (yes, most of them spelled it that way).

It's good to know I'm appreciated sometimes.

Full Screen Hulu On The PS3!

We turned off our DirecTV service a few months ago. It was getting hard to justify paying $70 a month for something we can get online for free at Hulu. For a long time we were watching it on my 21" computer monitor, which kind of works if you remember to disable your screen saver (why hasn't anybody written a Firefox plugin for that?). Then Sony updated the Flash player for the PS3, and we could watch it on the tv again. No full screen playback, but we could zoom in enough to fill the screen. Well, until a new version of Flash came out. Then it stopped working. I tried a few pieces of software designed to stream internet video from your pc to the PS3, but most of them require way too much processing power.

The latest update to the PS3 not only brought Hulu back, but it added full screen playback. And it's ridiculously simple to use. A mouse and keyboard might even make it easier.

This raises two questions. First, why hasn't the television industry realized that this is the future? I can watch what I want, when I want, and I don't have to worry about filling up the hard drive on some DVR. Second, why on earth would anyone pay for cable or satellite?

I Love Having Kids Around

Keith (my four year old) did the funniest thing the other day. He'd never seen Star Wars, and I thought that had better get corrected pretty quickly. We were watching The Empire Strikes Back, and I was curious how he'd react to the plot twist. I wasn't disappointed.

"Darth Vader is his FATHER!? I thought his father was a good guy!"

My P-A-L-N

My new plan is that I have no plan. I'm going to have this as a personal blog. Why not, right? No promises on how often it'll get updated, but it should be fairly regular.