PATREON EXCLUSIVE: DOCTOR WHO, AI, NOSTALGIA & NETWORKING
Added 2024-10-10 15:59:17 +0000 UTCThis is quite the thing of chaos. We go right off on one heck of a tangent, plus I rant and rant and rant.
Upper tiers: there's an EVEN RANTIER video on the way for you too...
Comments
Bloody hell. This really resonated with me, as another "survivor" of games journalism. To be fair, most games journos I met were really nice, but there were. a handful - as I guess there are in any industry - with a real sense of entitlement and over-importance.
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
2024-10-12 08:47:14 +0000 UTCYour commentary on "networking" resonated with me. As an autistic person with social anxiety, I have always found big social gatherings to be incredibly daunting, unenjoyable experiences where I inevitably sit in a corner, somewhat torn between wanting someone to acknowledge my existence and considering that getting into a conversation with a random stranger is rarely something I actually enjoy. When I worked in games journalism, I had a number of such experiences. One somewhat convoluted tale sticks in my mind, so forgive me while I recount it, with the names involved redacted as the main figure is still, to my knowledge, somewhat in the public eye. Back in 2010 or so, I joined a loosely organised collective of bloggers on Twitter to take part in the "#oneaday" challenge, where we tasked ourselves with writing something -- anything -- every day for a year. A lot of the people who started (including the instigator) didn't even last for the full month of January, but I carried on for 2,541 days in total on that first time out... and I'm currently 125 days into a new stint, as I thought it might be helpful with my own mental health issues. Anyway, after that first year passed by and (I think) only maybe 2 or 3 of us made it to that initial "finish line", I decided to step up and do something a bit more "organised" for the following year. I rallied the troops, including both existing participants and newcomers, set up a "showcase" website where we'd collectively pick our favourite posts from the group each week, and organised a charitable sponsorship effort (this was long pre-Patreon) to both keep us motivated and perhaps do a bit of good for a couple of charities that were important to us. (As I recall, we divided the proceedings between a cancer research charity and a mental health charity.) As part of this process, and after discussion with the new participants, I relaxed the "rules" on the whole thing a little, so that those who didn't think they'd be able to stick out daily posting for a whole year, but, say, thought they could deal with regular weekly posts could still participate. It was a shot at inclusivity, in short. One of the original participants that dropped out after the first month of the first year (with a tweet that just said "fuck #oneaday", as I recall), who just happened to be a UK-based games journalist at the time, got *super mad* about it and went off on one, badmouthing me to kingdom come and back on his own (now deleted) personal blog. This was obviously not a very nice experience, and it somewhat coloured my perception of this individual, who was relatively popular at the time thanks to his irreverent humour. Some time later, when I was working on GamePro Magazine, I had the opportunity to take a trip to London for a Sega event about Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. We went to the Tower of London, we played the game, we met an impersonator of the Queen. All that was fine, as the day was pretty "structured" so that we could concentrate on actually doing our job. At least I did; I didn't keep an eye on the others who were there, but I did notice the person who had been a real shit to me over the #oneaday blogs was there. In the evening, we retired to the hotel that had been laid on for us by Sega. I decided to pop down to the bar to have a drink or two and *maybe* see if there was anyone I knew who might want to socialise with an awkward twat like me. And there he was, sitting like he was "holding court" in the hotel bar, surrounded by what I can only describe as sycophantic groupies who, presumably, thought they could schmooze with him to get ahead in their career. That image has remained *burned* into my brain ever since, and every time I remember it I think two things: one, I hope I never have to be in such an awkward situation again, even though no-one else present had a clue why I might have found it awkward; and two, I hope I *never* become as arrogant as this person. Thankfully, I've been relatively lucky with my career ever since; I have rarely been required to "network", and, after many years of being battered around a bit by redundancies, site closures and suchlike, I'm now in a position that I really like. Like many disillusioned former games journalists, I stepped sideways into production. I still get to be creative and passionate about what I do, and there's not really any need for me to "make contacts" through "networking" events with what I do now; the people I need to speak to tend to be readily accessible through the nature of our professional relationship! That went on a tad longer than intended, but I wanted to share my experience, anyway. Thanks for your considerate attention if you read this far! :)
Pete Davison
2024-10-11 09:03:03 +0000 UTCThe weird thing is, I agree with you. As a writer, it's by FAR the best of the three. I really appreciate the choices they made with subverting expectations, and possibly would've done the same. BUT... as a fan, I was disappointed. And yeah, I'm becoming worryingly Marxist...
Paul Rose (Mr Biffo)
2024-10-10 20:03:58 +0000 UTCI liked this. I agree about AI - I'm currently not sure I'll have a job next month thanks to corporations ruining humanity introducing so called AI technology that we absolutely do not need. Secondly, I disagree with you on The Last Jedi. I LIKE that it pissed off a lot of the fanbase by doing it's own thing. I like that she didn't need to be related by blood to another Jedi. I like that we didn't need to go over the top with the Luke fight (even if it was building to it). TBH, this is better spoken about in person, but I think it's the best of the three. The main problem is ended up with Rise of the SLywalker which decided to retcon everything into what become, imo at least, the worst movie of the entire franchise. Thirdly, with the recent videos and your views on capitalism, you are verging on socialism/marxism. And that's a good thing. We welcome you with open arms.
Lee McCormick
2024-10-10 19:59:47 +0000 UTC
