Hi GameSpot,

It's been awhile. You look good. I saw you with whatshisface.. what's that? Oh, just friends, huh? So... um, we had some rocky times back there, didn't we?

What's that? Oh, I've been seeing other sites, but mostly pretty casually. A stop by to get Yahtzee's opinion of something, or maybe I could read a quick overview at 1up on something. That Dan Hsu is cool, but we're just not that compatible.

You know, you and I had some good times. I remember stopping by a computer lab on the UCLA campus around lunchtime sometimes just to see what kind of crazy chatter was happening in Deep Fighter... er... Goose's Garage when we first contemplated heading into Iraq. Those were good times. The time we spent together, I mean, not the Iraq war.

I didn't know what I was gonna do after college -- I knew I needed a job, but my Political Science degree turned out to be not all that practical -- go figure. I had even thought about going back to my original home state of Wisconsin. But then Greg Kasavin saw a PM I made about an intern position, and since we had been casually acquainted due to Developer for a Day (I!) and thanks to my previous stalkership of the GameSpot booth during E3, I had a very small part of a foot in the door.

I ended up with an internship in San Francisco at GameSpot, a place that was awesome. The people were awesome. And it turned out, that led to a career in development. Just turns out I had a knack for it, who knew? GameSpot gave me that opportunity, and I look back on those days fondly. I also look fondly at stuff like the DDR Arcade machine on the third floor, which I sadly do not have access to anymore.

It's been a turbulent time, GameSpot. Some bad stuff went down, and everyone's unhappy with that. But I happened to check the site today and saw fiddlecub... er.. Kevin van Ord is taking over the reigns of Developer for a Day, that contest whose first iteration I ran while I was still in college, and the TOTAL prize for that? $100.. I guess I found it touching that after everything, people like Kevin are showing they truly care. It made me realize that there's plenty of good still in you, and maybe, just maybe we can someday work things out.

We've all gotten a little older and wiser, and what's happened in the past is done. For the good of the country, GameSpot should drop out of the race... err.. wait, that's politics, not gaming. Anyway, remember what got you where you are, and with persistence, you can get back there. There are still thousands of talented people who'd love a job there. And I have no doubt that Ricardo can take care of things since the man has literally been able to break the laws of the Universe by being in eight different places at once, or so it seems.

Bring back GameSpotting Live! There are plenty of talented people in the organization who are behind the scenes. Remember Vinnie? Anyway, have a good one.

I'll be watching you!

Sincerely,

former Superfan, Intern, Data Produer, Associate Software Engineer, Software Engineer, Lead Software Engineer,

-Adam

I don't have much more to say than that...

Oh, hell, sure I do. "Almost perfect" just doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it?

In how many games did Tom Brady lead a come-from-behind drive to win the game? Well, he almost did it this time, till he got outshone by Peyton's little brother...

Billy Billachek showed what a great sportsman he was when he left the field before the game was even over. Go cheat some more, Bill.

So so sweet.

Hi again, GameSpotters!

I ended up taking a couple pictures of my home theater setup the other day, so I figured I might as well post them here. I went with a video projector, which means it's a great big image, and also means that the room needs to be dark enough to watch it.

In order to take the first couple photos, I had to turn on some lighting, which is why you can't see the image quite so well. The third photo is without the ambient lighting, giving you a better indication how it looks.

I took these for my personal blog, where I outline some of the pros and cons of adding a projector to your home theater setup. I also outlined some of the challenges you may have to solve when implementing your own setup. Check out my blog post about it.

So I followed the trend and finally got my own blog. It'll let me be a little more straightforward and honest, and no threat of random blog deletion.

The very unoriginal URL is: http://adambuchen.com -- I'm making a personal commitment to myself to update it at least once a day, so bookmark it, or add it to your RSS feeds.

I'm not even sure how to really write this, so I'll just write it as a stream of consciousness. Greg Kasavin represented the sane, clearly articulated, and highly methodical vision of the editorial department at GameSpot. Jeff had the humor, charisma, and breadth of knowledge to inform and entertain users at the same time. But for me, the person whose editorial voice always sounded the most genuine, the most brutally honest, and the one with whom a lot of gamers and myself could really relate, has been Alex... AlexN, for old-times sake.

I don't know how many people out there can name the four games GameSpot has rated a perfect 10. But I bet a LOT of people can name the one game to receive a "perfect" 1.0. Big Rigs, of course. And why do we remember that? Well, for me, it's pretty much because I remember Alex's ingenious video review of it. It was not a "professional" review. Alex did not systematically name each of the game's faults as reasoning for the score. He did not pretend to be civil about how he felt. He was honest. Do you remember his GameSpotting Live where he showed us how he went about reviewing a game as terrible as Robocop? It was funny, it was caustic, but most of all, it was HONEST.

This showed in all his contributions to the site. When he was writing Burning Questions, he was not afraid to address a dumb question as such. On the forums, he had a persistent presence; known as the guy who wouldn't take crap, but also known as the guy who actually had some personality and wasn't afraid to speak his mind.

So I honestly have no idea what's going on inside CNET these days. But it sure seems like things need a very rapid turnaround. If there is pressure on the editors to be more "professional," whatever that means, then we're not going to be able to get the straight dope we're used to. The audience for editors is NOT the PR department of some publisher. It is the readers. It is GAMERS. And if a reviewer believes a game is ugly, or dumb, or broken, I want to hear them say that. That was how Alex communicated with the audience and it's why so many people trusted him.

I do hope GameSpot can turn it around, but it'll take a lot of work. In the meantime, I wish Alex the best of luck. And I hope that CNET can try to remember that they didn't become such a large, respected company by reviewing products with their advertisers in mind.

Well, it's been some time since all that nastiness happened, and I'd like to think I made some point, in some small way. I canceled my paid account and I know I wasn't the only one. I'm Basic.. er.. Free, now, and that suits me just fine for the forseeable future.

I'd like to make something very clear -- the reason I continue to hang around here, on the forums, writing blogs, whatever else, is because I love GameSpot. I've been a fan for years and years, well before my three or four year tenure. Why was I so vocal? Because I was very angry. It's not anger toward GameSpot -- but instead at someone who put GameSpot, and the great people I knew who still worked there, at risk. I wanted to telegraph a message to that person that this wasn't gonna be the kind of issue that just blows over. But more than that, I wanted to defend the people I knew, the people that were so dedicated and passionate, and who put integrity above all else. I hope I was able to do at least that, if not anything else.

I have no ill-will or vendetta against GameSpot whatsoever. Yes, it's true that a blog post of mine was deleted in the middle of all that craziness, but I can't really blame that person in his situation. It was up long enough to make an impression, and for that I am grateful.

So, what now? I'm curious what a Jeff-less GameSpot will be like. Don't get me wrong, everyone who's on staff now is great, and I know Alex will do a great job. But Jeff had the ability to be an entertaining live presence. I still think that there's some really awesome stuff to be conjured up. (Dear Alex, Whatever happened to Burning Questions? By the way, do you play Rock Band? Or are you sticking with the real, non-achievement-point-awarding set that's not even compatible with.. well.. ANY video game system?? Sincerely, KarlBFan11)

At any rate, I hope that this is the opportunity for the editorial staff to shine. And I don't mean a lame new series that's designed for an advertiser ("Welcome to Zane's Diamond in the Rough, where we feature games you may not know about. But don't get too addicted or you'll have to grovel to that special someone for neglecting her! Fortunately for you, if that happens, we can help you find the perfect gift, the gift that says 'I just got you a diamond, so let me play Halo 3 in peace for 5 freaking minutes!'")

Yikes, that sounds like it could almost be real. So GS, I look forward to seeing you guys continue to adapt and grow and innovate. I'll even pitch another segment for you: Every week, we watch some poor, randomly selected soul face everything the DDR machine has to offer. You could call it "Dance or Die Revolution." Okay, well, the name needs work. Or perhaps Alex can give his next review while totally doing some awesomely irrelevant drum solo.

I think this blog might start to return to normal ol' Adam B. Kind of already looking forward to writing my next entry. Someone gave me and a friend the best Christmas gift ever. We got tickets to go see Van Halen - David Lee Roth style! It was this past Friday, and it was freaking awesome. I hope some of my photos turned out.