I haven't updated my admittedly anemic blog in almost a year, but this week's debacle over the termination of Jeff and Tim's jobs under dubious circumstances and in a manner that I'm sure the bright people responsible for are now regretting has compelled me to update it. There's nothing I have to say on the matter that hasn't been said already, but I do want to express solidarity with Jeff and Tim (and release some of this pent up frustration and disbelief).

I'm not worried about either Jeff or Tim. They are both incredibly talented people who I respected deeply during my comparatively short stay at GameSpot, and I know they'll be just fine. I do worry about the reputation of GameSpot, which has been my homepage for over 10 years and a publication that I deeply respect; I worry about the constantly eroding line separating church and state (editorial and marketing) at the site; I worry about a publication that's being managed by people with no substantial editorial background or an understanding of the games industry; and I worry about the impact that this week's action will have on the credibility of the gaming press as a whole. I love this site and the people that provide content for it, but for some like me, it'll take a lot before I make a purchasing decision based on that content.

To paraphrase something that Greg said this morning, credibility can be gained and lost, though it's much harder to be gained. I hope those responsible for the manner in which all of this was handled are made to publicly answer for their irresponsible actions. That'd be the first step in helping to restore some of that lost credibility.

The Command & Conquer 3 demo is out, and you will download it.

Click me

Enjoy!

Fitting that Tom Chick, currently a freelancer for Yahoo! Games and an ex-GameSpot contributor, would write such a verklempt-inducing piece as this one on Valentine's Day.

 http://www.quartertothree.com/inhouse/news/314/

Hey Tom, you're a generally very well-adjusted person too. I guess that says a lot, considering the industry we're in. This one's for you:

Thanks for the link, Wedge.

In what's promising to be a recurring theme on this weak-sauce blog, I present you with photographic evident of yet another ex-GameSpot editor's existence and success.



Yes, Greg is alive and well and wearing gaudy striped shirts. Oh, and there's Bob too, with his smug "I just shipped over 3 million units of Burning Crusade" smile. We got together a few weeks ago over dinner and cold (to the chagrin of a certain ex-editor, but joy of another) sake in celebration of our successful southern migration from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

I'll make sure to status the likes of Angelinos Joe Fielder and Shane Satterfield later. In the meantime, project deadlines wait for no one!

Because I'm a tireless self-promoter, because I owe him a favor, and because -- in between the rambling lines -- there's a good read about the perception of games as art in there somewhere, I'm linking Mr. Perkins' latest blog post, entitled Citizen Game.

Oh, and I'm still alive. But there's this game I'm involved with, and it needs to get done, and soon, or bad things will happen. I'll emerge from my hole soon and start updating this thing again with more useless junk that six people will read.

Despite the fact that the PlayStation 3 launch lineup is kind of anemic, I still want to get my hands on the latest Sony console when it releases next month, being the foolish early adopter that I am. So it wasn't without a bit of disappointment that I failed to get my hands on a PS3 preorder at my local EB Games earlier in the week. I read the story about the company's preorder plans on Monday afternoon, and made plans to stop by the next morning immediately before they opened in order to get my hands on one of the 8-14 machines that were allocated to each location. Unfortunately, 9-15 people had beaten me to the punch, leaving me PlayStation 3-less.

So when EB announced their Wii preorder plans a few days later, I made sure to wake up extra early the following morning so as not to strike out twice. I got to the store in the Howard Hughes Promenade around 8:10am, some two hours before it was scheduled to open. By that time, there were already about a dozen people already camped out in front. The first person there had set up his own sign in sheet, and as people trickled in throughout the morning, they wrote their names down on the numbered list. It was quite civilized -- I was number 16.

The store's manager finally arrived about an hour and a half later and announced that he would be receiving 25 Wiis on November 19 -- there were about 30 people waiting by now. Impressed by the unofficial list, the manager used it to hand out official tickets to the first 25, while the remaining (and dejected) five left to a local mall in the hopes of finding a less crowded wait. A few minutes later, the store opened and the manager called people in three at a time. Being 16th in line, I had to wait about half an hour before my number was finally called in. I paid for my Wii preorder and put money down for a Wii Classic Controller and, of course, The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess. Since I was already there, I figured that I might as well preorder Gears of War and Rainbow Six: Vegas for the Xbox 360. I normally don't preorder games, but it's gotten all but impossible to walk into an EB and ask for a triple-A calibur game on its launch day without being asked if i had preordered it by the sales clerk.

So there you have it -- I'm the proud new owner-to-be of a Wii at launch...maybe. While I doubt most people will have a tough time finding a Wii at or around launch time, the early adopter in me had to make damn sure. As for the lack of a PS3 at launch, I have one more avenue I'm exploring that doesn't involving camping out in front of a Best Buy the night before. Let's just say that it better work out pronto, or I will level Toronto.

I'm looking at you, RoninKengo.