I didn’t think anything could tear me away from World of Warcraft (especially now that my paladin can create some decent armor) but Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door did it. I bought it for my (older) daughter for Christmas and it is just so fun and so funny and so well-made that we could not stop playing it once we started.
Come on, EA…
How loyal do you think developers are going to be after a hostile takeover? It’s obvious DICE doesn’t want to be part of your empire – they are happy to simply make the games they want and then contract with you to publish them. You then make millions selling the games; where’s the problem? Why do you feel the need to absorb them into the Collective?
This should be a warning to developers: yes, you can go public and make yourselves rich, but you also open yourself up to crap like this. If you really want to keep your self-determination, stay private. Make your money slowly over the long run. Otherwise you’ll be snapped up and your good job will turn into yet another EA deathgrind.
New Daughter
My new daughter arrived at 11:53 in the morning on December 6th, 2004. Needless to say, I’ve been a bit busy since then!
She is our third child, so at this point my wife and I have the drill pretty much down – trade shifts sleeping, keep the bottles and nipples clean, always burp her or she’ll get the hiccups and won’t be able to go back to sleep, etc, etc.
I’m happy she came along. Seeing your new child for the first time is a wonderful experience, and it was one I thought I’d never have again (although now I know I’ll never have it again – we’ve…taken steps).
I think everyone should have kids. Note that I said kids, plural. If you have only one child you do not get the full experience. It’s like Bill Cosby said – if you have only one child, and something in the house is broken, you know who broke it.
Of course, that’s not the sum total of the child-raising experience. There’s lots of other great stuff as well, like when my first daughter climbed up onto the couch next to me when she was three and said, “Whatcha doin’ Daddy?” and I said, “Playing Final Fantasy VII” and she said, “Oooh, what’s that?” And we ended up playing through the whole game together, with me reading all the text out loud to her (editing a bit for content in parts) in different voices for the different characters. It was a wonderful parent-child experience, and is only one of many.
Now my first daughter keeps me buffed while I’m slaughtering Harvest Watchers in Westfall. She’s also always up for a game of Magic. My three-year-old son likes to steal my Neo-Geo Pocket Color so he can play Pac-Man.
Being a gamer dad is great. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Sorry…
Sorry I haven’t been posting. I’ve been a bit distracted these last two weeks by the approaching birth of our third child. Today is the day…wish us luck!