I’ve written at this site for more than three years now, a long time for me in terms of actual projects. Despite a deep sense of pride over the work I did at both Slashdot and Massively, I can honestly say that the work I’m most proud of from my time as a game journo is probably on this site. Having a space where you can follow what honestly and truly only matters to you is really important. I was going to whip up a “how to be a games blogger” post for the site before I took my full step back, but you’ve all probably heard it before.

If you want to be a blogger, do it. Blog. Podcast. Write. Don’t let your impressions of what other people do keep  you from doing something on your own. Don’t let your impressions of what other people think of what you do keep you from doing something. Life may be “what happens when you’re not paying attention”, but some things are worth stopping to really consider. As hard as it is to get into certain feilds, the world is much flatter nowadays. If there ever really was a barrier between people making content and people appreciating it, it’s long gone now. We, as observers, are just as much a part of the process as everyone inside the fence. If you want to hop that fence, whatever field you’re passionate about, I guarantee you can work to find a path there. It might be long, and it might be hard, but there it is.

For the time being I’m just going to stop posting here on MMOG Nation. I’m still very new in my gig, I’m still trying to figure out what it means to not be a professional blogger. While I’m figuring those things out, I’d rather not offer up half-formed thoughts or frustrating non-posts. I promise, honest and for true, that I’ll get back to this site. I just don’t know when or in what form that might take, so I want to be upfront about it. This RSS feed is going to be dark for a while.

That said, I’m definitely not going to stop writing. If you’d like to hear thoughts from me, as well as links and other various and sundry, I’d love for you to follow me over at whoisdialogue.com. It’s the newest, Tumblr-based incarnation of a website I’ve been running since I was in college. It’s a lot less focused, but I hope it’s still somewhat amusing.

Thanks for reading along, and we’ll catch up at some time in the future. Take care.

There’s been a bit of a meme going around where people share the sixth screenshot from their sixth screenshot subdirectory. Unfortunately, I don’t order screenshots quite like that. Instead, I thought I’d just go through my big old FRAPs folder (which contains the last 5 months or so of screenies from me) and show you my personal favorites. Here you go (with a key after the cut):

As per Paul Barnett and Kieron Gillen, here’s a list of games I think are canon, followed by a list of ‘in the now’ games I think are worth playing for various reasons.

Here’s my canon list:

1. Half-Life – Screw Doom. And Wolfenstein. I actually don’t like most of the id-era first-person shooters. I played them, of course, but they never grabbed me the way the tram car to Black Mesa did. While Half-Life may have Doom to thank for getting made, Valve reinvented the genre the id guys helped popularize by proving you could tell a compelling story while killing zombies at the same time.
2. The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past – The original Legend of Zelda is fantastico, but the perfect entry in the series has to be Link to the Past. I like it substantially more than any of the entries since, and it sets a tone that was aped by a number of games to come after. While the first game may have set the stage, Link to the Past was the game that delivered on the promise of the format.
3. Super Mario Bros. – On the other hand, the first game in the Mario series deserves special lauding. Not only did it teach a lot of us in the states how to play videogames, it made the platforming genre a bedrock foundation for every console to come after. While FPS titles tend to be the bread and butter of home gaming platforms today, sidescrolling and platforming were the original killer apps.
4. Resident Evil – A dog busts through a window and scares the pee out of you. How can it not be canon? Plus, the dialogue is a great example of why localization is so important.
5. Goldeneye – The first FPS that worked on a console, period. There would be no Halo/Killzone/FEAR/etc/etc without blurry, pixelated work of Bond on the N64.
6. EverQuest – UO and M59 may have come before, and WoW obviously has had a lot bigger impact, but there’s a reason I always call this the ‘grandaddy of MMOs’. EQ is worth playing if for no other reason than it gives you insight into the mind of almost every MMO designer to touch the genre since.
7. Baldur’s Gate – The ur-game for American RPGs. While there are a lot of different styles of American role-playing, the impact of BioWare on the US vision of cRPGs is impossible to overestimate.
8. SimCity – “So let me get this straight. This is a ‘game’ where you pretend to be mayor of a city, and you decide how much to tax people? And where to build industrial districts vs. commercial districts? Yyyyyeah, sounds awesome.” And yet, where are we today thanks to this game?
9. Grand Theft Auto III – Though I was tempted to put Morrowind here, GTA III had a broader impact on gamers and technically came out a year before. ‘Sandbox’ gameplay is ridiculously popular today (even where it shouldn’t be applied). This is the game that made that so.
10. Dragon Warrior – As Baldur’s Gate is to US gaming, so Square is to jRPGs. Dragon Warrior and (later) Final Fantasy defined an entire genre of videogames, all the way through to today.

And here’s my list of more modern plays:

1. BioShock – Stories are all about words or wooden voice acting! Atmosphere is the one thing everyone can agree the developers got right on this one. Plus, personally, I think ‘the twist’ in BioShock is one of the best ones in any videogame I’ve played … even if you did see it coming.
2. Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition – “We have this game that’s somewhat well known but not that many are playing it. Why don’t we figure out why that is and then … make it more fun?” Given that Wizards of the Coast and original D&D publisher TSR were once well-known for their hubris, this simple admittance that maybe they needed to re-examine their thinking was pretty huge. It’s a great test case for anyone with an existing product and fading interest.
3. Fallout 3 – Bethesda’s search for the perfect open-world sandbox came continues with this fantastic post-apoc game. Check out how they make the world seem ‘big, but not too big’. Plus, dig how storytelling can be embedded in a landscape as big as the DC Metroplex!
4. World of Warcraft – Play WoW to level 20. Think back on all the hum-drum, ho-hum activities you went through during your (estimating here) 4 or so hours of play. Now consider that the *reason* you think that’s ho-hum is *because* of WoW.
5. Left4Dead – Recent comments from Gabe Newell about Valve’s innovative highlights with this game is well worth appearing on a list of notable modern games. Not only is it a fantastic example of small-group social gaming, but the huge benefits of free updates after the original purchase are a big deal here.
6. Fable 2 – Hey, guess what? Fantasy RPGs don’t have to be inscrutable hard-to-control borefests! They can be fun, action-packed, even funny! A fantastic example of why accessibility and fun are becoming so important in gaming.
7. Tomb Raider: Underworld – I firmly believe that some sequels are good. Some franchises are worth revisting, some old games are worth remaking. The Tom Raider series continues to prove that I’m not crazy on that front.
8. Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise – Family-friendly games that make Dad and Mom just as happy as the kids? Buy, I wonder if those will sell well.
9. EVE Online – I personally don’t understand this game. This game isn’t ‘for’ me. But to deny that EVE is one of the most important online games in the MMO genre would be foolish. This game is *important*, and it’s getting moreso every day instead of less.
10. Little Big Planet – Despite the fact that this game isn’t as popular as I (and others) would like, LBP is a first step down a pretty amazing road. It’s a must-play.

While I’ve talked here before about how much I enjoy D&D Tiny Adventures, I’ve been stepping up my Facebook gaming of late generally. Mob Wars has impressed me quite a bit, though I think it’s kind of shameful how little context there is. It’s a bare-bones design where they ask you to pay money for their in-game currency, but I have absolutely no connection to the gameworld. There’s no fiction there, there’s no descriptions of the jobs I’m doing – It’s all design and no context.

I was struck by Tipa’s description of much the same problem in her work on her “Dire Bear” encounter. She’s basically creating an RPG run through the service’s API, giving you the same sort of ‘Tiny’ experience that you get on Facebook. She and her MMO-playing compatriot arrived at the “put the design in a fictive setting” almost immediately as far as I can tell. Why couldn’t the guys doing Mob Wars get that?

Obviously this is something I’ve been thinking about in a different way in the last week or so. I don’t know entirely what it is that I’ll be bringing to the DCUO team; you never know how a gig is going to work out until you get there. Especially with something like the development of a game. It’s an ensemble cast, a greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts creation built on the backs of people who are too dedicated to care that their spines might shatter before it gets good. I’ve learned all this just from my work as a blogger, but that’s about it. When I walk in the door at SOE later this week, I bring what I bring but I don’t know what will get used. I’m just hoping it’s enough.

As an aside, Tipa is a tremendous mind. She’s making a freaking RPG over twitter! Somebody hire that lady to do something tremendously awesome and game-related!

I’m going to put up a few more posts over the next week before I head out of town. That’s when I’ll be going radio silent, and I’ll make sure to mention it when I do.

For today though I just wanted to thank you. The outpouring of support in the comments, on Twitter, and on LinkedIn from my co-workers was … kind of overwhelming.

I greatly appreciate it, and I hope that my efforts will prove equal to the measure of your kindness as I try to find my way in a new career.

Many thanks.

Just got this via email:

Dear Michael Zenke:
Your account has been removed by the Vimeo Staff for violating the Terms of Service of Vimeo.com

Reason: Uploading game walk-throughs, game strategy videos, depictions of player vs player battles, raids, or other videos that simply depict individuals playing a video game. We hope you find a video host more suited to your needs. If you believe this was an error, please send a civil response to this email and we will work with you, assuming you are correct.

Regards,
Vimeo

Here’s what I actually sent them:

Dear Vimeo,

No, you’re absolutely correct. “Videos that simply depict inviduals play a videogame” were all I had in my account. Under the terms your site operates, my account was entirely due for removal.

However, I want to note two things. First, I find it a bit offensive that videogaming  should be looked on as somehow ‘beneath’ the notice of your website. Machinima and in-game activities are a rich part of gaming culture, and the dismissive tone of your email to me here is very frustrating. Why videogames and gaming activities are somehow ‘not good enough’ for your site is somewhat beyond me.

Second, I just recently obtained an HD camcorder. Given the (previously) pleasant experience I’ve had with your site, I was planning to spend the money required to move my account to premium status. Now that you’ve removed my account, you’ve also removed my interest in doing so. Your choice to view videogaming in this light has, as of today, cost you money. Please take that into consideration as well.

Thanks for your time,

- Michael Zenke

Here’s what I want to say to Vimeo:

Fuck you. Fuck you and the horse you road in on, you pretentious ‘art-loving’ prats. Gaming’s not good enough for you, eh? Well, gee, I guess I’ll just have to go spend money with one of the other hojillion video-hosting services out there. Sucks to be you! (raspberry)

I’m so glad I’ve grown up so much over the last few years.

Cameron Sorden is an inspirational writer. Cam started writing about MMOs about two years after I did, and about a year after I began MMOG Nation. That said, I think some of my best writing came as a response to things he’d written. Working with him at Massively was a pleasure and an honor, and I’m extremely proud to consider us friends-through-the-internet in that way that a lot of people become.

He’s given his wave and a bow over at Random Battle, signing off on one of my favorite general-topic MMO blogs out there.

I want to give one last thank you to all my faithful readers and my fellow bloggers. It’s been great getting to know you all, and the discussions have been fun. I’ll miss writing about the games, and I look forward to watching the insanity from behind the scenes again for a while. Take care, have fun, and maybe I’ll see you around sometime (in-game or otherwise).

Thanks for all the hard work and earnest opinion, Cameron. Hats off to your success with Amazon, and best wishes for the future. You’ve earned it.