You might notice that the site is still online. This is a small victory, of sorts.
I had intended, going into the new year, to commit to blogging once a day — and then I became painfully ill and didn’t feel up to writing anything just a couple of days into January. A resounding defeat that made me stop and ask, who really cares how often I write stuff here? Existential pontification under the influence of cold drugs is never good, but I managed to stay the course and not completely delete the site despite my brain’s insistent insistence that it would be a good idea. So here were are at blog entry 500 — which is of course only the 500th since the installation of the current backend, slightly more than two years gone by, and doesn’t begin to account for the thousands lost to the ether, or more accurately lost to previous realizations of the sobering insignificance of this entire website venture — and, who knows, maybe I can prove a point and be at entry 867 in a year’s time. Or maybe not!
In any case, I think this website does serve a valuable purpose. To date, it’s helped disabuse me of the delusions that (1) I could be a competent fiction author or (2) a capable cartoonist. I intend to embed an autoplay sound effect in the main page, just as soon as I can decide what shattered dreams sound like. And, of course, the site plays host to weekly columns on how to squander your hard-earned and rapidly devaluing dollars:
Add to Queue | Weekly DVD Release Column
The best theatrical releases of 2007 continue to trickle their way home. Also, columnist VsRobot stands over the cooling corpse of HD-DVD and cackles maniacally — as is his right! Frankly I would have advocated gloating over the corpse of either HD format, regardless of which lost the high noon shootout. This town just weren’t big enough for the both of ’em, y’all.
New Game + | Weekly Game Release Column
This week is pretty much the last of the holiday doldrums; the industry is about to shift back into high gear with two or more worthwhile titles per week. 2008 probably won’t have as many massive blockbuster titles as 2007 did, but its offering may be even more insidious: tons of games that merit attention because they’re simply good, not merely huge.
But between this site, 1UP, your 1UP blog, and various other projects, isn’t there only so much you can write in a single day? I know that I’m mentally exhausted after expending 3000 words in a single 24-hour period. Blue-collar laborers ain’t got nothin’ on writers.
I’m not trying to enable you; I’m just saying that our expectations aren’t as high as yours (PLEASE DO NOT DELETE THE SITE AGAIN).
I always thought the sound of dreams being shattered sounded like the loser sound effect from The Price is Right.
Deleting the site or not is up to you, of course, but there are some of us who can’t get enough Parish-created content. Feel better!
The page “Media/GameRelease080108” doesn’t exist.
Kevin, try…
http://www.gamespite.net/toastywiki/index.php/Games/GameRelease080108
Also, I’m still backing HD-DVD. You guys are a bunch of haters. Besides, when everybody starts dropping HD-DVD, the prices of the movies will plummet, leaving me the victor with cheaper movies of similar quality.
Also, I can just download most of the movies I want in HD off the Xbox Live Marketplace. Sure, it’s only a rental, and the cost (around six bucks) might be steep, but here’s how I look at it. I’ve already got the TV and I don’t need the player. Spending 6 dollars on a movie I’ll watch once is much better than spending $400 on a player, and then $15-$35 for the movies I’ll watch once, maybe twice. I’m usually more for physical media, but I like digital distribution when it comes to this.
Okay, NOW we’re in emotional blackmail territory.
If it’s any consolation, I’m absolutely terrible at sticking to any sort of deadline or regular update cycle. Most of my best writing (thankfully, not all of it) has been forum posts, which sometimes upsets me (though at least I can say that every forum I’ve been to I’ve knocked one post out of the park). I’d kill to have your ability to hit deadlines, and the only reason I haven’t yet is because it doesn’t appear to be an ability granted by anything I can steal.
The Gamespite issue articles and other game specific content on the front page are some of the best I’ve found on the web. It’s relatively unique, as well- it’s rare to find retrogame writing that has any analytical or critical value.
I’m not looking for some sort of affirmation, here. I’ve long since accepted that writing about video games is a worthless enterprise with no real future. I just can’t think of anything better to do with my life. So, I’ll keep plugging away here and at the office until I do.
… hmm.
That you can’t think of anything better — you don’t feel, by chance, that you’ve entrenched yourself too deeply in your current professional role to imagine yourself as anything else, do you?
I can totally relate to this post. I find that my own site/show is but a small spec in the internet’s ocean and at times I think of hanging it all up and doing something else with my time. But making the show has been a lot of fun (and work)and I have met a ton of cool people through it. Not the least of which is yourself Jeremy. The forums have been great and I love all the writing on the site. if it was gone tomorrow I would be genuinely sad. (which is not something I can say for any other website)
You are one of my favorite reviewers and from what little I’ve been able to talk to you, you seem like a stand up guy. Rest relax and think twice before you delete the site that gets me through the day. :)
I appreciate your “In the Cage” quote as the post title. Also, I appreciate your site, but I know that anything you do over and over becomes trudgery.
Thanks, reibeatall!
Man, I’m getting flashbacks to the time when I was the Joke Guy at college.
See, I used to put up jokes on my dorm room door, for kicks. People liked them! So I kept doing it, because I liked jokes and I had an audience.
Then I discovered bash.org, and printed out a bunch of the ones that made me rofl.
I did not find an appreciative audience for them, and I sort of petered out after that. I’d started putting up jokes not because I liked jokes on my door, but because I wanted the attention. It’s folly to try and run a website for the attention and the fans, because you’ll never get the chance to do something for yourself – make sure you’re doing it for your own reasons, not for anyone else. Perhaps as an opportunity to practice, see how something turns out – I’m reminded of Ze Frank’s advice in this regard, where he does an idea as soon as he gets it because he reckons that holding onto an idea for too long ends up getting you addicted to the thought of how perfect it’s gunna be when you finally do it.
Can’t agree more with you on that, Merus, or with Ze Frank.
I started writing a long, rambling comment before coming to the realization that, hey, what’s the point? (what’s, like, the point of anything, man?) Parish, do what you feel you have to do for yourself. I enjoy your writing and I’ll take it wherever I can get it.
I think everyone is misconstruing what I was actually saying. This post wasn’t a matter of, “Oh, poor me, everything is so repetitive and unappreciated.” Rather, “Why stress over something so ultimately insignificant? Do it or don’t — nothing changes either way.”
I’ve only just started reading this blog, but I already love it. It’s the only place I’ve found where I see interesting stuff about new games without tons of hype, interesting stuff about old games without rose-tinted glasses and highly amusing venom fueled rants – and all without an eye hurting, bandwidth raping design (Gamespot, 1UP etc – I’m squinting at you).
In short, it is significant, and a little unique, but not worth killing yourself over. So update it when you want to (and please keep doing so), but don’t stress if you don’t.
“Why stress over something so ultimately insignificant? Do it or don’t — nothing changes either way.”
Not to be glib, but isn’t that true of most of our efforts, regardless of whether we enjoy them or not? The only real way to change the world is with explosives.
I think the site is good for a read, hopefully you don’t pull it.
By the way Jeremy, there is this guy on my campus who looks exactly like you, and I’ve seen him a few times now. I will have to start carrying a camera with me to snap a shot of him to show it here. It’s uncanny!
Clearly that is Jeremy, educating himself for his dream career: marine biologist. He loves dolphins, you see.
Damn. I haven’t seen you this publicly depressed in a few years. If were to help, and I know it wouldn’t, I would tell you that nothing we do matters. Nihilism’s a riot, isn’t it?
A sense of perspective is not the same thing as depression.
In the same vein, it’s possible that a compliment is an active display of appreciation for work another considers worthwhile, and not simply an attempt at attitude inflation. It’s always read like good work to me.
I understand the feeling of being utterly superfluous pretty well myself. I wouldn’t argue with anything you’ve said. Watching the world burn while you run out the clock sucks. But that’s going to be the sum total of life for most of us. At the very least, you still seem to be doing better than you were back in 2002 or so when you were working the shitty graphic design job. The site’s still here, after all. When you figure out your purpose, do me a favor and tell me how you did it.
Well. It’s a bizarre and creepy thing that I’ve been crouching invisibly on the periphery of your life for this long… Talk about pointless.