BenPaddon.co.uk

I’ve spent the better part of the past two days trying to reduce a 41 page Jump Leads script down to a more sensible, manageable 20. I wrote with a view to sending it to the BBC, so it’s a bit long for a comic adaptation. In its unabridged state, it would take nearly a year at one page a week to tell that story. That’s an obvious no-no. The first issue itself it probably going to take another two or three of months to run its course. That’s a quarter, nearly a third, of a year on one story. That’s probably ideal, given the format.

It’s not been easy. I have trimmed, shortened, removed, modified, nipped, tucked, adjusted, reshuffled and neutered every single scene, every single line of dialogue, every single aspect of this script. I’ve sanded it down and polished it and done what I feel is all that I can possible do without having to rewrite the entire thing. All that time, all that effort, and I’m still only down to 27 pages.

27 Pages! I honestly don’t see how I could possibly excise any more from the script without seriously compromising the humour or the story. But Euan’s said he’ll have a look at some point, as he has experience trimming stories down. He usually plans the stories for Rooms out with a daily strip in mind, and then trims it down for his three-a-week schedule. Sometimes I envy him, with his four-panel comic, then I remember just how big Jump Leads is, and I recall that attempts to adapt it to a four-panel format did not work so well. Maybe I’ll show you those strips some day. Maybe the Universe will collapse inwardly. Who can say which will happen first?

As my Xfire profile will no doubt show, I’ve spent a lot of time playing The Settlers II: 10th Anniversary. This game is something of an oddity - it’s a remake of The Settlers II, an MS-DOS game released way back in ‘96. Originally intended for a Germany-only release, UbiSoft quietly released it across Europe in September of last year. They also planned to release a DS port of the original MS-DOS version, but that got pushed back to this year, having been renamed to The Settlers and made a GAME exclusive in the process. Meanwhile, The Settlers II: 10th Anniversary gets planned for a US release, which is pushed back further and further until it eventually coincides roughly with the release of The Settlers for the DS and the sixth game in the series, The Settlers: Rise of an Empire.

Are you still with me? Good.

Bizarrely, UbiSoft went out of their way to promote and market the game in Germany, where The Settlers is enormously popular, but decided not to market or promote anywhere else in the world. They just sort of dropped the game, waved and went on their merry way. Which is a shame, because The Settlers II: 10th Anniversary is without a doubt the finest game in the series since, well, The Settlers II. The sequels always lacked something and when UbiSoft bought the game’s developers, Blue Byte, they seemed intent on running the franchise into the ground by making it look and play just like every other bloody RTS game on the planet. Which, y’know, is stupid.

I should probably review the game properly for RealVG. I imagine I will. For now, just make do with: It’s awesome, it’s very cheap, buy it now, you won’t regret it.

Last night I handed in my resignation over at GamePartisan. It’s a decision that has been, being honest, a long time coming. The past year hasn’t been great, and I’d had enough. I’ve since spoken with everyone there, this evening, and explained why I’m going. I’ve wished them good luck and I’ve told them I’ll stay in touch, but I don’t think I’ll be returning. For one thing, I have Jump Leads to focus on right now. For another, DeViney doesn’t seem keen to engineer another Comeback.

One less site to write for.

My writing for RealVG has been somewhat sporadic this past month as well, and I do hope to get back into a regular routine at some point this coming month. At the same time, I have yet to begin writing my new column for Snackbar Games, concerning my experiences as a gamer immigrating from one country to another.  I’ll still be very busy, but at least that’s one thing off of my mind.

I really do hope Game Partisan picks things up, and I wish those chaps all the best.

Both Microsoft and GameStop have made it their solemn duty to royally shaft the Limey Immigrant (that’s me, if you hadn’t noticed) and as much as I would love to write about it here in blistering detail, I will instead be writing about it on a fairly high-profile gaming website as an introduction to a regular column about the joys and pitfalls of being a UK gamer moving to the US. Hopefully the first edition will be up sooner rather than later, but I imagine I’ll have finished writing it by the end of the weekend. Suffice to say, Microsoft are complete and utter idiots, GameStop moreso.

Which reminds me, I should really write something for RealVG. I haven’t had much in the way of inspiration in that area, and as most of my gaming thoughts these days have been concerning my immigration, and as that area of thought is pretty much reserved for my as yet unstarted column on That Other Website, I haven’t been particularly inspired to write anything for RealVG. Which is disappointing.

We went to the Midnight Launch of the final Harry Potter book last night. That is, we went at around 6pm but left at just after 9pm because we were all very, very tired. Dad and Linda have ordered their book elsewhere anyway so we were largely there for the atmosphere and the experience. It has to be said that Muggles are an interesting folk. Y’know. Mentally. But they’re fun, at the least.

I’d almost forgotten about the impending release of The Settlers for the DS, and when I discovered it listed on GAME.net’s “Coming Soon” list alongside SimCity DS I had a moment of excitement followed by one of disappointment: The game comes out on July 27th. A whole month after I’m gone. Considering that the game is largely more popular in the UK and Europe than it is in the US, I honestly didn’t expect to see a US release for the game. To pour salt in the wound, I couldn’t find a single UK-based online retailer who would ship to the US.

But shock! EBGames.com have it listed with a US release, and a rather boring cover. What’s more it’s coming out in the US before it comes out here in the UK - by a whole month, no less! The game actually ships on June 26th. How’s that for an omen?  So of course I pre-ordered it, and while I don’t imagine I’ll be playing it much at first (jetlag + excitement of being in the US + seeing Dad and Linda = more important than games) I’m looking forward to playing it and, yes, reviewing it.

The Settlers DS is going to be the first game I review for RealVG after going to the States. How bizarre it feels to type that.

Yesterday, during the ONM incident, I confided in Paul that the whole event had led me to question whether or not I wanted to continue writing my column, The Way I See It, for the site. Truth be told I have been rushing my articles for some time now, very often writing them late at night, hours (sometimes minutes) before they are due to go live. It’s hardly a good way of doing things. It’s hardly professional, and it shows in my writing. My contributions to RealVG used to be something I was proud of, but eventually it just became Something To Do, like the course you take in College because you’re not really sure you should be there. You do the coursework, but your heart’s not really in it. It’s not up scratch. You can do better.

I can do better.

Paul offered some criticism. It was negative, but constructive. I have good ideas, he says, but they’re poorly executed. I can come across as “flamey” at times, and I don’t really think things through. He is, as usual, utterly right. I have written more than a few articles which have thoroughly pissed people off, and sometimes that’s a good thing, but because I haven’t thought things through I have occasionally pissed off the wrong people. That’s not what I’m trying to accomplish at all. If I write an article about how so-called Linux Gamers can’t actually exist, I’m not having a stab at Linux users in general. It’s a shame that doesn’t come across in my writing.

In fact one of Nintendo: The Official Magazine’s staff, Chris, had said this at one point:

I find your columnist’s tone and demeanour highly unprofessional and if you indeed intend for your site to be a professional and credible online publication with a strong position in the games industry then I do suggest that you make attempts to ensure your writers do not make childish attempts to insult other publications, since it will do nothing for your reputation within the industry.

And he’s right. My articles come across as rather childish at times, and wholly unprofessional more often than not. I read back through my RealVG articles now and I don’t really feel I have anything to be proud of there. I’m strongly considering stepping down entirely, or perhaps just putting the column on hiatus. I need to seriously rethink what the fuck I’m actually doing on that website.

Someone who visits the Nintendo: The Official Magazine forum stumbled upon my “Stomp the Presses” article concerning the magazine. Naturally, the regulars there are a bit miffed that I’ve negatively criticised their favourite magazine, and that’s something I’m going to talk about in Wednesday’s The Way I See It.

In the meantime, I had hoped to register on the forum and defend myself. Once I was able to read their indecipherable CAPTCHA, I completed the registration process only to be told I have to wait for an Admin to activate my account. I don’t honestly expect that to happen. Which is a shame.

Really I just want to get on there and confirm just how pro-Nintendo I am. I’ve been accused of hating Nintendo, of being a Sony fanboy for writing this article. That’s a bit stupid. Sure, I may dislike the official Magazine for the UK. And yes, I do happen to think that Nintendo of Europe is poorly-managed. But on the whole, I prefer Nintendo’s consoles, Nintendo’s games, Nintendo’s philosophy. I always have done. There’s a reason my first games consoles were a GameBoy and a SNES. There’s a reason I would go to my friend Adam’s house almost every day just to play on his NES. I have previously confessed to being a Nintendo Fanboy. I’m just a Fanboy with a realistic view, not a fantastical one.

I am, perhaps, taking this a bit personally.

It’s been a weird day with a lot of lows, a few highs, and a tolerable takeaway burger from a kebab shop.

The first thing that irritated me today was having to get up, closely followed by having to walk into work. Now, the walk into work from here (my Mum’s) takes about an hour and ten minutes, depending on how fast I walk and how awake I am. This morning I made it into work at 9:22am, my shift starting at 9:30. I would’ve been a bit later but my work colleague, Zahid, stopped to pick me up around the corner from work. Which was nice of him.
The next thing that irritated me was working. Work work work work work work work. Obviously I can’t divulge any specifics, but working in a call centre really does affect your faith in humanity for the worse. Still, it was made slightly more enjoyable by the fact that seeing as I’m doing all of this additional work - taking escalations and so on - the company have decided to reward me for it. Which is nice. I’m getting a slight payrise as a result. Yeehaw!

During my lunch I received a private message at the Penny Arcade Forums. I had previously mentioned in a thread about gaming websites that I used to write for Game Partisan, and this message was from one of the Snackbar Games crew saying that they are always looking for new writers if I’m still interested in writing. I mentioned that I write for RealVG and linked him to a list of my editorials. Bizarrely he came back to me saying he didn’t mind me writing for two sites (Game Partisan took issue with this), even after he’d presumably read some of the garbage I’ve written*. I’m seriously considering the offer - Snackbar is probably one of the few gaming websites on the Internet I actually trust.
More irritating calls followed into the evening, then I had to walk home, stopping briefly at Amy’s to sort out the bill stuff and steal some of her precious, precious Fanta. Then I came home and didn’t contribute any further to my NaNoWriMo.

I’m beginning to think that I’m losing interest. I’ve stayed out of the “Write a novel in a month!” thread at the Gorum; even getting the link to the thread, I right clicked and selected “Copy Link Location” for fear of actually reading its content. I’ve avoided the NaNoWriMo website, the link in my Firefox links bar is glaring at me mockingly. It’s irritating as Hell. Besides which, I’ve hit somewhat of a creative wall, and I can’t feel anything spurring me to continue. Bugger. I really want to “win” NaNoWriMo. Maybe I should just roll up my sleeves and write any old crap that happens to materialise in my tiny, sleep-deprived mind. I’ve not even reached the 10,000 work mark, and we’re nearing the end of week two. Urk!
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* I am, of course, being modest. I like my writing. I’m awesome.

One of the great things about writing for a videogames website, even a relatively small one like RealVG, is that you do on occasion receive review copies. At the moment the only publisher/developer support we have is with THQ UK, who have sent us review copies of various games including Monster House and Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers. They email me when review copies are available and I’ll usually post these notifications on the RealVG Staff Forum. However I’ve been a bit cheeky with a couple of recent titles where it’s something I’m interested in myself, and I’ve just leapt in and requested the copy myself without telling the other realVG staffers.

Yes, I’m a bastard. Sorry. It won’t happen again.

If it’s any consolation, the first game I snagged - Company of Heroes - won’t install on my PC because I don’t have enough Hard Drive space (it’s by far the biggest game I own, clocking in at 6.5GB of required disk space) and so I’ve had to play that on my friend Chaz’s laptop. Looking at the specs for the game, I doubt my computer would be able to run the game well anyway.

As it happens, Chaz enjoys the game more than I do, so I’ve asked if he wants to write a “Guest review”, which will hopefully go up on the site in the next couple of weeks. I can’t actually recall why I wanted to try Company of Heroes, to be honest. It was a rash decision that in retrospect I shouldn’t have made, as I know there’s at least one other person at RealVG who would’ve loved to review that game (and get a free copy in the process) so I’ve sort’ve felt a bit bad about that one.

But you can excuse me for jumping on the next game I snagged - Broken Sword: The Angel of Death. I jumped at the chance to review this game, mostly because I’m such an Adventure Game freak it’s unreal. To see an adventure game released in this decade that isn’t a Telltale Game really is a ray of hope for the genre.

I’m also quite surprised to discover that there’s a new range of Star Trek games coming out over the next few months for various different formats. My appreciation of Star Trek has been revived somewhat over the past few weeks, so hearing about some new Trek titles, particularly games that look as good as these do, is great to see - there’s even a game coming out for the Nintendo DS. Kooky, eh?

The America Thing continues to roll onwards. I’m looking to go out in January/February some time and stay out there for a few months. It’d be nice to just get away from life for a while.

RealVG has arrived!

We’ve finally set a launch date for RealVG.org. The site should go live on September 1st barring anything stupid occuring. Development of the site seems to have gone into overdrive now - Andrew has declared this month to be "crunch time" and I don’t think you could find a more appropriate phrase than that. The splash page now shows the launch date and reflects the look we’ve settled for.

Personally, I think the current look for the RealVG website isn’t perfect, but we’ve decided to launch sooner rather than later and cross bridges when we come to them. At the moment what’s important is that we have a functional website with content, and that’s exactly what we have.

If you want to have a look at the RealVG Forum - which is a shiny vBulletin board - then by all means do so. We’d love someone else to talk to!