Twitter intergration!
Just a quick one to point out the obvious…. I now have Twitter intergration in my blog, just to the right in the side bar.
I’m still unsure if this is a good idea. The concept of having my “micro blogging” embedded into my blog seems a bit odd.
I’m still pretty sure there are only a few people reading this site, if at all. Not that I can blame them, it’s top quality rubbish that I’m writing.
Anyway, now you can seem my micro and macro (I guess thats the term?) blogging all on one site. Let the good times roll 
So I have the good drawing skill, n’est pas?
So I borrowed a tablet (the pc, drawing kind, not a pill) from a mate.
I re did the little monkey logo in my header.
It kind of looks like what I was going for, a sort of crayon type drawing.
I know if it’s pretty average, but the tablet was much trickier to use that I thought.
I’ll leave it up for a while an see how it goes.
Let me know what you think, if indeed anyone is actually reading this blog.
I’m not very good at blogging.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not very good at this.
I really need an idea or reason to be doing this.
I’ll get back to you about that.
In the mean time, here are some photos from Japan:
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I pay for software!
This may be a really crazy idea to a lot of people out there, but, I pay for software.
The short reason is based on the fact that I wouldn’t walk into a pc games store, pick up the game I wanted and just walk out with it. It’s simple and how I was brought up.
Anyway on with the show…..
That’s right, I hand over money I have worked to earn in exchange for software that someone else worked to produce. (see how that works, money keeps going round and round and we all get the stuff we need)
I mainly buy computer games, things like World of Warcraft won’t work without payment so that’s a no brainer. There is a continual subscription element, no pay, no play. Simple.
Games that only require a single payment are another story. I could pay over $100 (AUD) for a game that I may end up not even liking. That’s a lot of money. I work full time, have a car and rent a house, $100 is still enough money to warrant a second thought before just forking it over. What is the solution?
Enter digital distribution such as Steam. Purchaing games on Steam means that I don’t get a disc, a booklet or something to wave around showing everyone how much $100 dollars buys you. What I get is the same game that I could have paid too much for, for much less.
For example take Counter Strike: Source, currently $19.99. It’s an old game, so lets look at something newer, Left 4 Dead is only $49.99. The same game at EB Games is $99.95.
whaaa? you gasp in your best Professor Farnsworth voice. ok, now pick your self up off the floor, people are looking at you.
Yup that’s right, $49.96 extra for a box, disc and manual. Granted you do get the security of “I’ve still got the disc so I can reinstall is my pc crashes”. To counter that Steam does this -> You pay once and you can download the game whenever you need to. Your pc crashes you just reload the Steam client and download it again. That’s only if you haven’t backed the game anyway.
And before you think, “Well why can’t I just download the same game on my friend’s pc, then we both have a copy?” Stop that! Your just not getting my point are you? Yarrrrrr, your being naughty. Steam has a client that you sign into each time you want to play a game, so it gets around your plank walking ways.
If you live in a country like Australia where, if download quota was tangible you’d lock it in a safe, it can chew through it like a bear chewing through jelly (OK thats a weird analogy to use, but you get the point) Even if you have some download limit of xxGB per month, split the cost of buying one Steam game vs. boxed game. Use that extra $50 and buy a few data blocks, more than enough to download multiple games. You still end out on top.
Steam is just one example, but the other that comes to mind is GoG and I’m sure others, let me know in the comments.
My very naive and simplistic view of the money-for-software world that eludes so many of you is thus:
If more people pay for software, the cheaper they can sell it.
It’s a crazy-simple idea, and it may never ever come to pass as free is obviously much cheaper that paying just a small amount for a game (legality aside). Take a look at the current state of the music industry for example, but thats a whole other blog.
I should finish this up, but just a little bit more.
The same idea can be applied to buying software other than games, although that sector has a way to go. Only a realtivley small gripe for the benefit of cheaper software mind you.
For example, if I purchase product A as a digital download, I can download it at the time of purchase. If I then need to download it again in a years time (afte a pc crash for instance), I can’t….. unless I bought the “download protection/longevity/extra $5 for nothing” service which then means the software vendor grants me the ability to be able to download Product A at a much later date. Of cousre to get around this, download Product A once, then back it up to a cd, ftp server and usb key and you should be fairly well covered.
OK this post has gone on for way longer that I thought, but I’m hoping some people out there read it and see the point I’m trying to make.
Few that over with. Hit me up with comments, ideas and questions….
BTW. I’m not affiliated nor do I work for Steam, I just like their chosen method of cheaper game distibution.
My favorite pod cast is….
Just to add to the nonesense on my blog so far, I thought I would share this with the 0 readers I currently have.
My favorite podcast is….
Octale and Hordak versus The World
It’s a World of Warcraft-ish/gaming internet radio show/podcast.
The three hosts, Octale, Hordak and most of the time Docdead have a very natural and funny interaction.
From my point of view, they appear to have a close friendship outside the podcast which leads to a very interesting and hilarious dynamic of mud slinging and man love that you can get away with with your mates.
I hope I don’t get some hate thrown at me for using the phrase “man love”.
It’s great, it’s informative and funny and best of all keeps me amused on the train to and from work every day.
http://www.wcradio.com/ or you can subscribe on iTunes.
Check it out WoW oriented people!
If the awesome people from the Octale and Hordak ever ready this, keep up the great work! You guys are awesome and continually remind me that not all people playing online games are 13 year old kids with nothing better to do that swear at me.