People have been nice things about my work, and I wanted to make sure to thank them. Van Hemlock gave the Massive Update a big shout-out on his blog, and it’s very much appreciated. It’s been great to see an overwhelmingly positive reaction to a concerted effort at covering Massive news on a mass-market site; getting a thumbs-up from someone whose opinion you respect is all the more gratifying.

Sez Hemlock:

Of course this is partly shameless reciprocal backslapping backlinking, as he seems to link to yours truly on an alarmingly frequent basis, down there in the ‘What People Are Blogging About’ bit, but also I can’t help be impressed at an objective level, as these weekly roundups seem to contain staggeringly comprehensive and detailed lists of pretty much everything that’s gone on in almost every MMO during the week; news, updates, patch notes, the lot - along with podcasting and blogging notes too. I can only imagine how much work this must take, and hope a nervous breakdown isn’t in the post.

I’m trying to make the blog/podcasting sections of the Update kinda egalitarian, but they’re usually the last part of the post I do; as such I go for quality. The best win out, and Hemlock is definitely one of the best. I’m hoping along the same lines with the nervous breakdown. Keeping track of that much stuff … can get grating.

And, of course, this week is E3. :D

He mentions having troubling permalinking to the posts, which is odd, but if you’re wanting to follow the post series, I would refer you to my 1up page or the Massive Update topic here on MMOG Nation. Both of these should be running references to the articles as they go up on the 1up site.

More locally, Dan Dormer over at the Videogame Media Watch site was nice enough to include me on a list of his top gaming blog picks. The list was prompted by MTV Games’ list, which Dan thought overlooked a couple of people.

About the site, he says:

To go a little more off the beaten path, let me recommend MMOG Nation, penned by Slashdot’s Michael Zenke. Focusing solely on MMO titles, Michael does a wonderful job going in-depth on issues surrounding a number of virtual worlds. With only a passing interest in some of the games he discusses, I still find myself reading each post because of the passion he has for the topics.

I guess I should “Hi Dan!”, and thanks for thinking of the site. :)

Some of his other picks are much more must-read than mine, of course, and if you don’t follow GamePolitics, GameSetWatch, LevelUp, and Game|Life, I highly recommend them.