Hey folks!
I’ve tried really hard to stick to my guns on not excusing myself every time I have a long break between posts but I felt like this warranted at least some kind of signal that I am actually still active and avidly writing up pieces to post up here.
First, the serious ‘real life’ business: without going into too much detail, some pretty life-altering events have occurred over the past month or two that have caused a need for relocation and a general upheaval of my way of living. Sadly, this isn’t as cool as being a super spy or anything like that. I do want to reassure anyone that despite my vagueries, I’m doing all right and managing things like my mental health well. As a part of managing that, though, I feel like transparency is important on a subject that involves a sudden drop in frequency that may take some time to recover from.
That said, I’ve been working on some pieces for the blog concerning reviews, collecting, and editorials! “Like what?” you might ask.
Well, I’ll be happy to tell you! For one, I have a few mobile games that I’d like to get some quick and dirty reviews out on. I’ve also been working through my Steam backlog a bit and on the back of writing about Lucius as my last entry, I’ve started playing through Lucius II: The Prophecy so I’m sure I’ll be working on something regarding that soon!
So far as collecting, my relocation has made things a bit difficult regarding my original plan to accumulate the Atelier and Fire Emblem series, but I have some other items to show and chat about. That particular vein of chatter, however, may dry up just a bit until I’m back up and running on all cylinders again.
Editorially, I asked a question on Twitter recently about the nature of spoilers and folks’ opinions on them. Some interesting answers popped up and along with expressing my own opinion, I’m looking forward to finishing up a piece involving those discussions.
Last but not least, I’ve signed on to write a piece for a collaboration being set up by Matthew over at Normal Happenings about “The Games That Define Us”! While I’ve just started conceptualizing and jotting down notes, the cast of contributors is phenomenal and have been super energetic and friendly to engage with so far. If you want to check out more about the project, the original call for entries is here. I am definitely looking forward to the project and see how it all turns out!
I understand that that is never a need to explain your hiatus or a long stretch of time between posts- real life happens and sometimes it happens in a hard and sudden fashion. I appreciate everyone who stops in and checks out what I have to say here so at the very least, I wanted to let people know that I’m doing all right and that while I may not be at my previous frequency for a bit, I’m still standing.
Thanks for understanding and keep being great!
– Matt (a.k.a. The3rdPlayer)
You know, it’s interesting that you mention spoilers because I think that’s the biggest difference between my current reviews and my oldest ones. You see, I used to write reviews keeping spoilers to a minimum. Eventually, I realized that attempting to write spoiler-free reviews meant having my audience unconditionally take me at my word at all times when I was better off presenting material evidence to back up my claims. Not to mention the fact that many of the games I’ve reviewed such as OneShot would be impossible to talk about without resorting to spoilers. Now, my policy when it comes to spoilers is that, unless I specifically say that spoilers will be unmarked, they will only be visible when highlighted. I tend to mark spoilers if I’m discussing a major twist in a different game or in my non-review posts because I find it’s easy to separate spoilers when talking about films.
Anyway, it really is great to hear from you again. No matter what radical changes you’re going through, I’d like to let you know that we have your back.
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I actually realized while I was writing the Phantasy Star pieces that I wanted to talk more about the plot than plenty of people might want to see, so I kind of took a page from your book (among a few others) and decided to make a section for plot discussion with a constant ‘spoiler’ tag at the beginning. I’ve relocated it to the end of the reviews now for more ‘secure’ viewing, but I love the way you handle it in your blog, even as someone who doesn’t mind spoilers. I just find it fascinating since I’ve been called out by friends IRL for spoilers on things I would never have thought of as spoiler material.
I’m glad to be back, even if my rotation is slow for a bit. I’ve got a lot of outlines and material going so hopefully, I’ll be back to full swing soon.
Also, on a serious note, thanks for being supportive pretty much the entire time you’ve been following this blog. You’re a super positive part of my experience here!
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So happy to have you on board for the collab! Zombies Ate My Neighbors is such a unique pick that I simply cannot wait to see how you plan to turn this into a fascinating piece. Thanks for the shout-out! 🙂
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I’m glad I reached out! What I’ve gotten to read in your blog has been great, and you definitely have a hype train rolling full-speed on this project. I’m anxiously excited to be a part of it and to hopefully supply a piece that really illustrates why I picked ZAMN from my 30ish years of gaming!
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Thank you 3P! You are so kind, and it really encourages me as a writer to hear you say that! 😀 I like your writing as well, and I have no doubt that your piece on this unique game will be amazing.
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