Hi, my name is Shawn and I’m a recovering fanboy.

Yes, it’s true. I used to think Guild Wars and ArenaNet could do no wrong. Everything about the game was perfect and I didn’t want to hear anything to oppose that mystical fantasy. When people would complain about how the game sucks because it’s instanced, or ZMG!1 it caters to PvE only, or PvP only, or whatever, it actually physically upset me sometimes.

Well now I realize that a) there are better games out there and b) attaching yourself to only one game is unhealthy. Not only that, but when you surround yourself with only one game, it closes your mind to the whole reason you play games in the first place: to have fun and experience new things. You can’t experience new things if you’re locked into the same farming run day in and day out, and you can’t have fun if you’re getting upset and flaming people on forums because they used the name of thy holy game in vain.

Are you listening, Warhammer Online fanboys?

Seriously, you people are the absolute worst. The game hasn’t released yet, a select few are actually in the beta right now playing the game and they are under NDA to keep their mouths shut, and you’re defending the game like this? Wha? Hengh?

This is simply a case of those people who want to claim they were into something before everyone else. “I used to play Warhammer pen and paper before all of this even came out” or “My dad invented Warhammer”. Shut. Up. First of all, you’re 14, so you didn’t play Warhammer pen and paper in the 80’s. Second of all, this transparent attempt at being an early-adopter is a waste of your time because no one believes you. I don’t care about your love for the Greenskins or whatever other buzzwords you read about lately. The game hasn’t released yet. The developers haven’t gauged player reaction yet, which will inevitably change the game a few months after release. You will cry when it’s released and you will cry again when they make all these changes to appease the initial crying.

Not only that, the word on the street is it will be heavy on the PvP (even though this isn’t entirely true, but people are idiots, which is the main point here anyway), so this means the bloodthirsty little 14 year olds whose entire lives revolve around killing another character on an effing computer game will finally have a place to call their own. At least until they find out the game sucks.

Rule #1: you can’t please PvPers. There, I said it. Let’s look back at GW for a second as an example. Once that game became so heavily PvP-oriented with tournaments everywhere, the forums turned into a Chuck-Norris-teabagged-your-mom-i’ll-eat-your-soul mess. I’m so sick and tired of complete idiots ruining my experience in a platform that is supposed to be fun and a change from normal life. If I wanted to interact with morons all day, I’d go work customer service at Walmart.

Take it from a recovering fanboy: you’re only going to embarrass yourself when the game ends up sucking. Right AoC fans?

I think about PAX every single day, probably at least 10 times each day. Last year’s event pretty much helped me make up my mind that I wanted to pursue gaming journalism for real, and not just in a free podcast I did twice a month. Being within that element in a professional setting really did it for me. This is what I need to be doing.

That makes this year’s even even more special. When I realize how far I’ve come in regards to these dreams, it’s overwhelming, sometimes. This will be my first time going to PAX as something other than “just” a gamer and I can’t wait.

In other news, I’m in the process of developing an easy way to capture all “grey water” in my house to recycle in my garden. I already have a rain barrel for capturing rain water, but now I’m capturing water from one of my sinks, too. Next is the kitchen sink, because without a dishwasher, I waste a lot of perfectly good water doing dishes. Using that water on my garden will help save water (and money) tremendously. So the agenda includes eventual collection of all grey water into usable garden water and the installation of another rain barrel. Then for next year, more garden area! I just wish my yard wasn’t so shady.

A few months ago, since the weather started to get warmer, I’ve been placing my laundry on a clothesline to dry in my backyard. I haven’t started up my old energy-hog dryer once in that time. Ironically, my washer is the one on the verge of a meltdown. It leaks water from the bottom, and I’ve figured since I only do maybe 1-2 loads a week (you wear a lot less clothes when you don’t have to leave the house for work…I’m just sayin’), that I could get by with a little leakage and cleanup every time (the washer/dryer are in my basement). Well, the leak is getting larger, and it’s just time to fix it. In lieu of fixing it though, I figured I’d try washing some clothes in the bathtub. Hey, it works. Amazing!

I’m convinced that I’m using less water and certainly less electricity doing it this way, plus I’m giving my arms quite a workout in an attempt to replicate the little washer movements. Lord knows I need all the workout I can get. So I’m very excited about this Little House on the Prairie-ism I’m doing with my clothes now.

In other news, the job is going great and I’m enjoying it very much. My garden is rebelling against me, but I do realize that plants need sunlight. There’s just nothing I can do about the walls of trees that surround my yard. Oh well, I tried. I may postpone the large garden thang until I can get a house out of the suburbs (i.e. ghetto). Until then, container planting is my friend.

Also, R.I.P. George Carlin.  As inappropriate as it may be, I grew up on George Carlin. My parents were HUGE fans and I bumped into him once on an elevator at Bally’s Casino in Vegas. Good times.

So things have really changed drastically for me in the last few weeks. I mentioned the Massively gig, and some upcoming projects, but I thought I’d take some time out and give my personal blog some much-needed love.

When I started writing at Massively, and even before that, I’d had my eyes set on making that a full-time gig eventually. I thought it’s certainly doable in a few months, or maybe a year, right? Well after I’d been hired, I learned of the potential to write even more for more money. They’re always looking for more feature articles or news stories. Plus, I discovered they have “sister” sites with various topics. The one that caught my eye was GreenDaily.com, because, as you may know, I’m way into green living. So I emailed the lead at GreenDaily and I’m happy to say that I’m now writing for them as well.

With all of this potential for more work looming overhead, and my day job getting more and more stressfully busy, I finally took the plunge and left my day job for good. I didn’t work out a notice. I didn’t tell them anything. At the end of the day (or what was supposed to be the end of the day, but with that job, you never knew when the end of the day really was) I told my manager that I’m going home, and not coming back.

He laughed at first, then when he saw me walking towards the door, not laughing, he asked me if I’m serious. I told him I was, and walked out. They called me as I was driving home, to let me know what a terrible mistake I was making, and how badly I was screwing them over, but I figured it was par for the course.

I’ve only quit one other job ever in my life, so this isn’t exactly a regular practice of mine, but I knew it had to be done. In order for me to better myself and live the life that would make me the happiest, I just went for it.

So currently I write for Massively and Green Daily, plus I am the editor and co-host for the Massively Speaking podcast and soon-to-be editor for the MMOG Nation Broadcast.

I’m finally getting paid to do what I most enjoy, and I don’t regret anything.

Yes, I’m still alive. And I’m only now realizing what busy really means. Remember back when I bumped GuildCast down to every 2 weeks, because I was having time issues? Yeeaaaahhh… I’d love to have those “time issues” again.

A few weeks ago I got hired by Massively.com as a blogger. This means I actually get paid to blog about MMOs. I mean, seriously, they pay people to do that? Apparently they do. But the drawback to this is that it’s not exactly enough to quit my day job over, so I’m doing both jobs still, just as we’re entering the busy season for my day job (i.e. 12-16 hour days ftl). Plus 2 other podcasts. Plus a weekly audiobook. Yes, I know, QQ moar noob, but I’m not really complaining. Well, I am, but in that special Shawn way of complaining where I’m so extremely happy and grateful that I’m at this point in my life, but it’s not easy.

I’m enjoying the Massively gig more than anything, and I am so enthralled with how all of this works. I won’t give out any trade secrets, but I feel like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory, to use an over-used analogy.

We have some projects we’re working on, and I’ll be very excited to officially announce those, but until then I will continue to shoot for the sky and hopefully one day make this gaming journalism thing a full-time gig.

When I started podcasting over 2.5 years ago, there were maybe a dozen gaming podcasts. Maybe. And that includes general gaming podcasts and only 2 WoW podcasts at the time. Now there are thousands and thousands of game-related podcasts. It’s really quite incredible, and it makes me so proud that I was able to get into that whole scene early.

BUT.

Yes, there’s always a but. Lately, podcasting has taken an ugly turn. It’s an inevitable turn, but ugly nonetheless. I’m talking about the corporate influx of podcasts. Now, I don’t care if Ford has a podcast about their upcoming cars and trucks, or Nestle makes a podcast about their newest line of dark chocolate truffles or whatever, I’m speaking of major game developing companies doing their own versions of what the average-Joe gamer has been doing for years.

Here’s what gets me the most about this, it’s the progression of events that led up to this.

Step 1. Enthusiastic Gamer starts podcast about their favorite MMO.

Step 2. Enthusiastic Gamer (now Enthusiastic Podcaster) contacts the developer team of his favorite game for interviews and any exclusive breaking news regarding said game.

Step 3. Game developers pat Enthusiastic Podcaster on the head and comments on how cute it is that some random guy with a microphone is talking about their game.

Step 4. Enthusiastic Podcaster continues to be ignored for interviews, and generally seen as not real media or journalism.

Step 5. Enthusiatic Podcaster reaches a unique download count of nearly 10,000 for each episode.

Step 6. Game Developers notice that this new-fangled podcasting thing on the interwebs might actually be something afterall.

Step 7. Game Developer’s publisher gets the ball rolling on their own podcast, featuring inside reports from the devs themselves, top quality audio with top quality equipment and an automatic listener-base of hundreds of thousands from the start. Who cares how enthusiastic they are.

Step 8. Enthusiastic Podcaster loses most of their listeners, resulting in the dreaded podfade.

Sony did it. Blizzard did it, and now NC Soft is doing it. We all knew it was coming, and quite honestly, I’m surprised it took them so long. But it’s here.

Does this mean the end of grassroots podcasting? No, of course not. There will still be people who enjoy the real opinion from the real gamer. And to be quite honest, I think in a sick twisted way, this might be a good thing for podcasters. It gets the word out that podcasting isn’t some strange cult fad, and it’s growing.

All I ask of the devs is… don’t forget who started it.

Wow, what a crazy week it’s been. GuildCast is ending next week, so I’ve been making some preparations for that. The final episode is written and now it’s all up to recording, editing and releasing. Plus, this last weekend was the GuildCast Grand Finale Event ™ held during ConNooga in Chattanooga, TN.

The convention itself wasn’t much to gawk at right away. We got there like RIGHT WHEN THEY OPENED at noon on Friday and it was D to the EAD. But to be fair, this was the first day of the first year of this con. I’m sure it will only get better.

We walked around a bit, mainly looking for other people, but also to get a feel for the event’s layout in case a mad rush of people suddenly stormed in, throwing off our equilibrium completely.

Well, that never happened, but it was at least making fun of the fact that it was not an amazing time.

The next day, on Saturday, we got in around noon as well and there were considerably more people there. Still not to the level of PAX or E3, but it was a nice-sized turnout. Saturday made it all worth it, definitely.

I placed my assortment of podcast stickers and flyers out on our “Fan group table” and we were off to see the rest of the con. To me, anywhere where there’s live music that’s halfway decent is an automatic good time. Extra points if they play 80’s music and dress in silly costumes. So when we saw Radio Cult I was thoroughly entertained. Sarah thinks it’s because of the bubbly (i.e. completely insane) lead singer chick, but they were all very talented. I did make a suggestion (to Sarah) that they change the name of their group to Attention Whore. What? Seriously, that’d be an awesome band name.

Afterwards, a few of us got together at the hotel bar and drank the evening away. It’s always fun to be the sober one in a group of drunk people while they tell you how they REALLY feel about you and your podcast, including what other people have told them. Yes. Fun.

On Sunday we had to get to the convention center at 10 because apparently I was speaking at a Podcasting Panel. Boy am I sure glad I got there with about 5 hours of sleep under my belt, because it would have been a shame for those 2 people to miss my infinite wisdom on podcasting. Pedantics aside, if those guys actually make a podcast and were inspired by something I (or the other podcasters on the panel) said, then it was seriously worth it. I wish them the best of luck.

The weekend wound down and we all decided it wasn’t so bad afterall. Granted, the most fun we had was outside of the con, with just a few of us hanging out together doing the hokey Chattanooga touristy stuff, but it was worth it.

Now, I have my sites set on PAX 08. If it’s even half as fun as it was last year, I’ll be there in a heartbeat, but the way that event has been growing each year, I imagine it will be even larger and more fun this year than last.

For the remainder of the week, I’ve spent every day so far doing an interview with someone new from the Tabula Rasa Community. Last night John and I interviewed Tia, the European Community Coordinator for NCSoft. That was really a blast and I’m so glad she agreed to do that with us. All day at work today I’m thinking about how much I want to go home and edit that thing. Stupid work getting in the way of the important stuff!

One of the beautiful things about having my own personal blog is I can write about whatevertheheck I want. Since I have other outlets of creativity and expression, this personal blog is more for me, and I’m truly not concerned about how many people read this (tell your friends!1).

So for this reason, here I can talk about touchy subjects, or “political” issues. One that is prominent in my life, is the state of our meals these days. I may get more into this topic in another post, but for now, let’s just say I’m not a big fan of the McDonaldizing of our planet. How ironic since I just talked about how I would steal ketchup and napkins from McDonalds, right? Well, that was many years ago. Read on

I’m against several things here: the mistreatment of animals for our consumption, the hormones used to create fatter, faster-growing animals for the sake of profit, and the insane misconception that we all need 86753876 grams of protein and 287623876 grams of fat in our diet every day to be “healthy”.

I’ve only recently really been made aware of all of this, but I think I’m now interested in taking things to the next step.

About 2 years ago I really started getting anti-processed foods and hormones in food. Then, while doing more research, I started to realize just what is actually put into the food that we consider basic nourishment. It’s really frightening. So from that point I stopped eating “as much” red meat, and only ate “organic” or “free-range” meat. Well, thats one of the biggest consumer jokes of our time. In about 5-10 years from now, we’ll look back at this free range and organic craze and laugh at how stupid we were.

For a year I raised my own chickens and slaughtered those chickens for my consumption. I don’t have much more to say about this other than killing an animal in any regard is no fun. And it certainly didn’t make me want to eat it later.

The fact is, the creation of animals and the slaughter of those animals for the sole purpose of providing this delusionary onslaught of protein that we’re all supposed to consume daily, is not only ruining our collective health, but it has made our healthcare system completely defunct, it is destroying our environment and use of land, and creating a generation of obese children.

Sure this is a lot to take in, and sounds a bit paranoid or conspiricy theorist, I understand that. But that’s kinda the point. We’re raised to identify Ronald McDonald over the current president. Or think that milk really does a body good. Guess what. Calcium is a mineral that comes from the grass that cows eat, not somewhere magically inside of them.

So in a natural progression, I’ve gone from 2 Big Macs a day to no red meat and only ‘organic’, to vegetarian, and now I’m looking veganism right in the eye. The only thing stopping me from giving up all animal products? Cheese. Hey, I never said I was perfect

But the point here is even if I never did give up cheese, or leather shoes, or wool sweaters, or anything crazy like that, I’m making steps in the right direction. Doing something is better than doing nothing.

If you’re interested in learning more about anything I’ve mentioned here, check out this video, and the podcast Food For Thought. Colleen Patrick-Goudreau is militant about what she believes in, and I love her for it.

Last night I released the first teaser trailer for my new podcast novel due out this March 1st. Strangely enough, I haven’t announced the release of the trailer on any of my podcasts yet. Heck, I haven’t announced this blog on any of my podcasts yet, either. In due time though, I will.

I’m especially excited about what the future has in store for my first podcast novel. I’m excited about the feedback I may get (good or bad) and generally how people like it. Since I have several ideas for more podcast novels, or even traditional print novels, I’m eager to discover the potential for a fanbase.

Head on over to the book’s website to listen to the first teaser trailer. Plus, stay tuned for another teaser trailer coming soon, and the first real installment of Eve of Adam to be released on March 1st.

Go away pervs, I’m not really a 14 year old girl, but I feel like it sometimes with my current music tastes.

I’ve always had this preference for female singing voices, but lately I find myself downloading (yes, legally) Top 40 “pop” songs like Colbie Caillat’s Bubbly, Sara Bareilles’ Love Song and Pink’s Who Knew. I’ve always been a closet fan of Pink (or, as she’s known now… P!nk…), but now I’m actually purchasing her albums.

/sigh

This coming from a guy who listened to Slayer and Death in High School.

I also saw the new Hannah Montana 3D movie this weekend (with my daughters…) and I actually enjoyed it. The 3D technology sure has come a long way since it’s previous popularity in the mid 80’s. Jaws 3D anyone?

Although I think HM has a great voice and a real knack for the stage, I predict a burn-out in about a year, followed by a hiatus and a come-back tour in about 5 years. I don’t think she’ll ever follow the path of Britney Spears though, because her dad seems like a good father and a good role model who’s downhome parenting set a solid foundation for HM to take fame with stride.

Yes, these are the things I thought about while sitting in the theater. Well, that and “Omg, were those tickets seriously $18 a piece? Did I seriously just pay that?”