Two years, bitches!

Yep, it’s December 31, that magical day when we celebrate another year since I decided to start writing things about video games and posting them on the interwebs. This year hasn’t been as content-filled as last year, but that’s okay. I prefer quality over quantity.

This year I’ve written 96 blog posts (down from 157 last year, holy crap) which you guys have commented on 431 times. I need to step my game back up in 2012!

I started PK Bloggin’! as a way to start writing again and hopefully become a real, honest-to-goodness game journalist, and this past year I’ve gotten that started. First I wrote for Bits ‘n’ Bytes for a while, and that was fun. Then I started writing for KINECTaku and became a REAL GAME REVIEWER. Companies were sending me games! It’s so rad. Now I’ll get to realize one of my goals in the coming months as I start writing for Nintendo Life. Even though my foot is now in the door, I’m not going to stop working hard and constantly trying to improve.

I will never give up on this blog, though. I’m lucky enough to have made some good friends through PK Bloggin’! and I’m not going to give up on that. I still love writing for this blog because, well, it’s mine. As much as I absolutely love the deadlines and challenges of writing for a professional video game site, it’s nice to be able to write what I want and how I want.

So again, a sincere thank you to Andrew, Yonathin, Megafan, Syphon, Alt, Eric, Hirushi, Nall, Noofer and Hexen. I love sharing the forums with you guys and getting your feedback on what I write. It sounds corny, but you guys are just as much a part of this as I am.

Oh yeah! The blog looks different now. HUGE thanks to Michael Enger for designing the new layout for me. I love how it looks and it really makes things so much easier for me. The last layout was a pain in the ass to work with, and it’s going to take me some time to get everything looking right again (my old layout required me to use < small > tags on all text, which looks really bad with this layout, so I need to go back through all 200 something posts and manually delete them) but it’s absolutely worth it. I wish I could do more to thank Michael, but apparently writing code is what he does for fun on his vacations. Still, I appreciate it!

Anyway, now to recap my favorite posts of the year. Again, I just wanted to re-post this little paragraph from my very first post, something which still makes me laugh when I read it again two years later: “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Joe. I am 25 years old. I live in Boston with my fiancee who I think is pretty rad. I am an advocate of video games, anime, hilarity, and other things that I think are awesome. These things include, but are not limited to, ninjas, zombies, zombie ninjas, catapults, guitar solos, Han Solos, Rolos, not acting my age, the soundtrack to EarthBound, writing, overthrowing dictators, Dragon Punches, Falcon Punches, Hawaiian Punches, and the Nintendo 64 controller.”

Hanging from a Telephone Wire is funny. You should read it again.

New Look, Same Great Taste was kind of a riot for me. All I did was change the colors of the blog from the eye-bleeding blue and green to something less hostile and I just about had a mutiny on my hands. I know most of you will hate this new layout, but I don’t care. I love it, and Michael worked hard on it. That’s enough for me!

Is it Game Over? I had a trend of emo posts this year, which was odd considering I write stupid humor articles about video games, but whatever. You all seemed to like it, so here it is again.

Gotta Catch ‘em All… Oh Wait, I Already Did! I’m still proud of my Living Pokédex. I need to finish getting all the Black and White ‘mons.

What else can I say about Udderly Ridiculous?

I really enjoyed my Interview with Nerd Trivia Creator Laura Massey. Laura is one of my favorite nerd icons (and I have a crush on her sssshhh) so doing an interview with her, even over email, was awesome.

My smackdown of analyst Michael Pachter was pretty awesome. I don’t know what goes into being an analyst, but I bet I could do it.

Aim for Their Feet: How the Gears of War 3 Beta Taught Me About Myself was interesting to write, and surprisingly personal for a post about Gears of War.

I’m just posting On Tweets again because I like bragging that JG Quintel thought something I said was funny.

Fan is Short for Fanatic I keep having to look at again because I think it’s a post about Megafan. Then I remember that it’s a badass video of me with a lightsaber. No offense, Mega, but I like it better this way.

Hahaha, Con Artists. I thought that was funny when I wrote it, but go back and read the latest comment it just got a couple of weeks ago.

I’m just putting up Regarding Mines (and Also Crafts) because I like the headline.

The Internet Makes Me Sad Sometimes is still funny. I love the alt text I put on the picture of “Darth Malis”. Also the joke about Darth Mom at the end. Okay, I just like everything I wrote there. That’s not illegal.

PK Blogimations! I had big hopes for but everyone just seemed to point out what I did wrong with them, and they’re a ton of work so I don’t know if I’ll do more. Here’s episode one and episode two (not of Star Wars).

Dude. Skylanders. Seriously. still gets me so much traffic it’s not even funny. A lot of my referrals are from people with technical problems with the game, which is weird. I did, however, spend a morning at work doing email correspondence with a mom who wanted to get the game for her sons for Christmas and had lots of questions. I gave her all the info she needed and she was very grateful. I felt good about it, and I hope her sons had a great Christmas morning with their awesome new game.

Broken Links and Skrimming the Rim was fun to write, because I still call the game “Skrim” whenever I refer to it. When I announce to my wife I’m going to play it I still say “I’m gonna Skrim the Rim.”  We have an interesting home.

So yeah! 2011 was a good year if you ask me. I’m really looking forward to 2012 and I hope you all stick around to share the journey with me. Thank you again for all your support!

]]> http://www.pkbloggin.net/2011/12/31/two-is-more-than-one/feed/ 4 http://www.pkbloggin.net/2011/12/30/change/ http://www.pkbloggin.net/2011/12/30/change/#comments Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:15:57 +0000 Joe http://www.pkbloggin.net/?p=1970

I mentioned it a few days ago on Twitter and Google+, but I’m going to be an honest-to-goodness game reviewer for KINECTaku!

I’ll be honest, I hadn’t even heard of KINECTaku until I saw their call for reviewers pop up in my Twitter feed as a retweet from Nintendo Life. What immediately got my attention is that it’s run by the same team as Nintendo Life, which is one of my favorite gaming sites for a long list of reasons.

One of my favorite things about Nintendo Life is that they review every single Virtual Console, WiiWare, DSiWare and 3DSWare game released. It seems like an odd choice, but the vast majority of these games fly right under the radar of the gaming press; in addition to providing excellent coverage of all news pertaining to Nintendo, they’re the only site you can go to check out any of those games and know that they’ve reviewed it.

They have two other sites, KINECTaku and MOVEmodo, focusing on the motion control efforts of Microsoft and Sony respectively. Again, it’s a small focus, but it really sets them apart. If you’re a Kinect or Move owner who doesn’t buy into all the “casual vs hardcore” garbage and just want to know what games are good, where else can you go?

So I’m a reviewer for KINECTaku now and I’ll be writing my first review this weekend, and I’m hoping to have it posted Monday or Tuesday. I’ve signed up for a few other games that are coming out (a few of which are BIG titles) and I’m incredibly excited. You guys know about my dream to be a legitimate games writer and this is a BIG step in the right direction.  I’m gonna be working my butt off to improve my writing and, fingers crossed, be able to make the step up as a full-fledged member of their team.

PK Bloggin’! isn’t going anywhere, though. I know I said that last time I started writing somewhere else and my productivity dropped off, but this is a completely different situation and I won’t have anywhere near the volume of things to do at KINECTaku, at least at first. I am hoping that will change, however.

I know things have been a little quiet around here lately, but I’ve got a few things I’m working on that I think you guys are REALLY going to enjoy. There’s one project I’m in the early stages of planning that I can’t wait to show you; you’ll really dig it.

So yeah, hooray for opportunity!

This channel will be open 24/7 for whoever wants to join in and will supplement our Google+ hangouts. If you’re sitting on your computer with nothing to do, why not see who’s on IRC?

All you need to do is download an IRC client (I recommend mIRC) and connect to the DarkMyst server. From there, all you need to do is join #pkbloggin and you’re in!

Basic IRC commands are easy to find through Google, but one thing you’ll for sure want to do is register your nickname with the server to make sure no one can pretend to be you.

I also have it set to play a noise every time someone says my name, so keep that in mind!

So yeah. It’s all set and ready to go! See you there!

Okay it didn’t happen QUITE like that, but we are going to start making them again. We listened to the beginning of the last episode we recorded (which was last August for those of you keeping score at home) and listening to the comical bickering we were tossing back and forth made us realize that it was as good a time as any to start doing these again.

We fell out of the habit of doing the podcast for a variety of reasons, mostly changing work schedules and the fact that on our old laptop, oftentimes closing Audacity after a recording session would break the file into a million pieces and Christina would have to go back through and piece it all together (I didn’t make her do it, she was just good at Audacity and preferred to edit it herself rather than teach me how to do it).

That said, we’re going to be opening it up to the occasional guest host this time! If you’re interested in talking games with us, I need you to shoot me an email containing the following:

1) A short summary of why you want to do a gaming podcast.

2) Why you think you’d be a good podcast co-host (basically tell me why you’re awesome and everyone else sucks).

3) What kind of gamer you are and what you like to play. That way if we decide on a topic that you’re an expert on we can make sure to include you.

4) An mp3 file of you talking about a recent gaming news story and what your thoughts are about it. Don’t make it too long, but long enough to where I can get a sense of who you are and how you’d be behind a microphone.

Also, try to record using a decent microphone. I won’t hold it against you during your audition but if you make the cut  you’re going to need to sound good. The Rock Band USB microphone works great… we recorded all 15 episodes of PK Podcast! by holding it between the two of us!

Look for episode 16 later this week!

I’ve made a few references here and there to a project Christina’s been working on, and I’m happy to announce she’s finally finished! Introducing Otakuholic!, the brand-new website for anime and manga fans featuring articles, features and a community for those looking to talk shop.

(If you’re wondering why I haven’t written much over the past week, a lot of it has to do with Christina monopolizing the computer to get it done!)

We both apparently enjoy website titles ending with exclamation points.

ANYWAY. You should definitely check it out, as I’ve seen what she’s got coming down the pike and it’s awesome. She’s got a message board too, but you guys don’t post on mine very often so why would I expect you to break your bad habits for her?

Make sure you like her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter as well!

I liked being part of the BnB staff but it just got to be too much. I’m a married guy who works full-time, so when I’d come home each day and have extra responsibilities, it just got to be a bit much for me to handle. My phone was always going off with email alerts and there was always something to do. That’s not inherently bad in and of itself (in fact, were I a few years younger, I would have relished it), but it got to the point where I didn’t even have time to play the games I was writing about and I wasn’t spending nearly enough time with my wife.

Another aspect of it was I realized just how apathetic I am towards the “industry” side of video gaming. I don’t care what this company’s financials are, I don’t care what this CEO said, I just don’t care. I like playing video games, and even then there’s a specific group of video games that I like, and I just didn’t have the interest to keep going into things that were just irrelevant to me. I thought I wanted to be a games writer, and I don’t think that’s true anymore. I certainly enjoy writing about video games, but only the way I do on this blog… typically tongue-in-cheek, informal articles written by a guy who just likes video games.

The last part of it was that I just missed this place and I felt guilty for not having the time to pay attention to it. I’ve written for PK Bloggin’! for over a year and I really enjoy talking to the people I’ve met along the way, whether it’s on the forums, in the comments, or on Facebook or Twitter. Coming back, it seems a few people have left and I really regret that.

I started PK Bloggin’! because I liked writing and I wanted a place where I could write the things that I wanted to write the way I wanted to write them. I don’t have a formal writing style. I write the way I talk, and I rarely go back and re-read what I’ve written before I post it. I prefer to think of my writing style as just me putting up half of a conversation.

The team at BnB was great to work with. They’re an extremely talented crew and I certainly wish them the best, and I’m still keeping in contact with them through Twitter and Facebook.

I’ll be re-posting a few of my articles over here just so I have them in my personal archive, so don’t think I’m being lazy when you see them pop up. It’s mostly just for my records. I mean, I got to interview one of my favorite gaming “celebrities” and personal nerd crush Laura “lollip0p” Massey. I want that on the record here!

So now that I’m here full-time again, I’m re-commiting myself to writing SOMETHING every weekday. It doesn’t have to be huge, and it doesn’t have to be related to video games, but it will probably be funny and hopefully entertaining.

If you stuck around for the dry spell, I thank you for that. I hope you enjoy what’s coming up.

So for a long time now I’ve been wanting to get a group of people together to play Pokémon. I’ve missed having a group of people to swap strategies with, discuss different movesets and lineups, and battle with. An informal Facebook and Twitter poll later, and I introduce to you, the PK-Mon League.

(C’mon. You know that title is awesome.)

Taking place on the forums, it’s going to be a way for Pokémon fans to enjoy the finer points of the game with other people who are just as into it. With Black and White a little over a week from release, now is as good a time as any to jump back in!

It’s not a paid position or anything, but I’ve been following their Editor-in-Chief Martin for a while and he’s put together a very impressive news blog with a very talented staff in a short amount of time. They’re not as big as Kotaku or Joystiq, but I feel like they definitely have a shot at it, and I’m very honored to be a part of the team.

However, despite me writing for another blog, PK Bloggin’! is NOT going anywhere.

PK Bloggin’! always was, and will continue to be, my personal blog. I’m not going to abandon it because I have a position at a news blog. I won’t be able to write the same things there that I do here, and I don’t want to give that up.

I’m very proud of this blog and very thankful for the people I’ve met through it. I’m still going to post stupid crap here frequently. How am I supposed to become an internet personality without this place as an outlet?

So yeah. Things will be different, but not too different. Make sure you bookmark Bits ‘n’ Bytes to keep up with what me and the rest of the staff have to say!

The color scheme before was my attempt to make the entire site look like the “What’s Your Name?” screen from EarthBound, and it did look like that. Unfortunately I didn’t take into consideration that you look at that screen for all of sixty seconds, whereas I’m hoping people come here EVERY DAY. I was asking too much of you, dear friends, and for that I am truly sorry.

But seriously, Christina is working on a new layout for me (since she’s the artistic one, I’m just good with words) but it’s a ways off since she has her own projects she’s working on, so I wanted to just change the color scheme in the interim. Honestly though… I like it. It made more of a difference than I thought it would. Maybe I’ll keep it this way?

Anyway, let me know what you think, although I don’t imagine many of you will be clamoring for me to bring back the internet equivalent of staring directly into a solar eclipse.