Just giving a heads up on what I'm currently working on as well as future plans to post on this blog.

Priority 1: Expect me to follow up my Art Academy First Semester review with, naturally, a review of the Second Semester. Hooray and Huzzah. Once I've finished the lessons and made three additional images, I will post this review.

Priority 2: In the first of what I hope to be a regular feature of my blog, I tackle those who have made a Sacred Cow of The Divine Comedy and are physically ill at the concept of Dante's Inferno for PS3/360/PC. Join me as I suggest they succeed where Dante failed, in killing themselves.

Priority 3: Sure, Art Academy is awesome for still lifes and such... but we're gamers. We want to draw more gamerly stuff. Expect me to do a full tutorial in a gameart related Art Academy image. I'll take you through some of my techniques and how to transfer them over to your own as well as throw in some traditional art theories. This tutorial will assume you've completed the Art Academy curriculum.

That's just some of the stuff I have baking. So feel free to add me to your friends list and I'll be sure to do the same.

I'll go ahead and admit this right now. I'm not a fan of DSiWare. I know it's the popular thing to say right now but in a lot of ways, even the games I enjoy most on it, I find myself making excuses. It's usually making excuses for it's shortcomings based either on price or the hardware. I recently bought my third point card exclusively for DSi and the sentiment is typically the same. And keep in mind I have many of the "top games." This is my history, you should know this because when I say Art Academy requires no excuses, that's exactly what I mean. It's not "good for $8" or "Well, what can you expect for DSiWare." This is good and I dare even say a reason to own a DSi by itself.


But when I said I was going to review Art Academy, I was greated with responses like "What's that" and "Art Whatsit?" Being a Nintendo published, Headstrong Games developed, application so deeply entrenched in DSi's features, everyone should know about it. For this, I blame NOA. Art Academy: First Semester is available on your DSi right now for 800 points. What it is about is something so much more. You see, Headstrong COULD have just put out a paint program and called it a day. Instead they give you legitimate art lessons, history notes, and even explain why you're doing what you're doing as you go forward.


For now, we're going to focus on the lessons. If you've taken an art class, that's like that. The first three lessons are completely throwaway images to get you familiar with the tools. When the real lessons start, you'll also gain access to mini lessons. These are really just review sessions that further delve into the theory of what you learned and leaving you to your own devices. Yes, you COULD skip them, but you'd be cheating yourself. For practice, you may even want to repeat lessons. For your benefit, the images done with the exercises will fill this review and I'll even include three images done post lessons . The lesson breakdown is as follows.


Lesson 1: Simple Apple pencil exercise
Lesson 2: Simple Sunset paint exercise
Lesson 3: Simple Tree compositing media exercise
Lesson 4: Advanced Pencil Techniques: Drawing a Pear
Mini Lesson: Drawing a Pepper
Lesson 5: Advanced Composite Techniques: Painting a Lime
Mini Lesson: Painting an Apple and two Peaches
Lesson 6: Advanced Painting Techniques: Painting a Wave
Mini Lesson: Painting a Seascape


As you can imagine, this isn't going to go over everything you could possibly know and, as predicted, many of the more advanced lessons are being held back for Second Semester (currently slated for release on September 28th). In fact, theories like the Color Wheel and Paint Mixing are held back. However, 5 minutes in Free Paint Mode can help you riddle out those controls. And the lessons, as stated before, are geared in the exact same way as if you purchased an art class textbook. Trust me, I was an Art Major. So I can tell you right now, the lessons alone are worth the purchase price. I will even go as far as to say of all the "edutainment" titles released on DS, this is definately the most well planned curiculum of any I have seen.


The Free Paint mode is another tremendous asset to this application. By itself, Free Paint is more than worth the price. But keep in mind, you just completed some lessons telling you how to use it. That's what makes it much more powerful. While the application lacks the ability to zoom in really close (one zoom setting), the zoom available is decent enough to get some of your detailing desires done. Also within the toolset are grid functions, source image filters (more on that later), and a completely customizable palette via paint mixing. Things I would have liked to have seen will be mentioned later. For an artist like myself, this tool is a great portable boon leaving the only question on why it hasn't been done sooner outside from the homebrew community.

Now you may ask, what kind of paint program is it? MS Paint, Photoshop, or Painter? Well, the simple answer is Painter. You see, MS paint has Pixel on/off functionality. Photoshop has Pixel on/off + Opacity. It's Painter that emulates natural media, which is exactly what Art Academy does in a limited fashion. You see, you CAN use the flat of a pencil to blend crosshatching in (I almost yearn for a blend stick in their toolkit). Likewise, using a brush spent on paint in an area allows you to blend colors. In other words, these are REAL skills based on the real medium and you can, in fact, transfer them to real life.


So earlier I mentioned how well integrated this app is to your DSi. Now's as good of time as any to REALLY sell you on this app. This app is directly tied to your Camera channel. All images you create can be saved out to your photo album. From there, you can upload to Facebook. When you export these images, you CAN add a frame. A couple of my examples have such a frame. So, then, is it ONLY exporting to the photo album? Here is the really cool feature and one which I've taken advantage of. On your top screen in Free Paint mode, you can import an image from your photo gallery. This means you can snap a couple pictures as source material thanks to the DSi functions and bring it directly into this app. You cannot paint over the image so skill is still involved. From there, this application has additional features. By pressing B and A, you can go through several filters. These range from simplifying and saturating the colors (a paint guide) to desaturating and increasing contrast (pencil guide) to even reducing to outlines (compositing guide). As I said before, really powerful tools.


So the only question you probably have now is "Well, everything seems perfect, what COULD be wrong?" There are, of course, limitations set to the program and almost all of them seem like nitpicks. In fact, I feel like an asshole bringing them up. The first is that it's broken up into two semesters (thus far). I feel like a douche mentioning this but it has to be said. That makes this program 1600 points total although as mentioned above, the free paint mode is completely unlocked. You can also only save one work in progress at a time. Not exactly sure why since the DS has internal memory and SD card support. This seems like a limitation built entirely on "Well, we could make it a feature next time around." It would also be nice to be able to save the paint palettes you've mixed. For example, you may want to do more than one Batman image, not having to remix all your paints would be excellent. I'd also like to be able to save multiple stages (or checkpoints) within free paint. So that if I make a mistake, it's easy to roll it back a couple spots. Color sampling should also be a feature (You CAN mark a sampled color on the color wheel helping you mix a palette but you cannot directly sample) as well as a closer zoom. It'd also like to be able to pencil over the paints to try and achieve a more illustrated look. And the final bitch really, really is nitpicking. I would like to be able to load and play an MP3 or playlist while working in Free Paint mode.

If Headstrong Games would like to correct any of these complaints with instructions on how to do them, I will gladly update this review and share the knowledge.


All in all, I thoroughly enjoy this application and continue to be baffled by the fact that not even Nintendo is promoting this. It's very easy to dismiss this as shovelware and a ripoff by the title alone but this application has me tied to my DS in a way I've never been before. This is a great application for art beginners and veterans alike. And the way it's tied to DSi functions completely validates the more expensive hardware. If you, as a Nintendo Gamer, do not support this unique initiative while buying the Express crippleports, you have no one else to blame as the next round of gameclocks come out.

9 of 10.

Consider for a moment that there literally was a time when Sony, Nintendo, and Sega all played with the idea of portable expansions to their home console experiences. All three raced towards this money making gimmick with reckless abandon, sometimes even drawing ire from the gaming community. This was a period not so long ago, which makes one wonder why, with Nintendo and Sony both having portable consoles, this trend seems all but forgotten. But before we look at that, let's look at the start.


Pokemon. Fine, I'll expand more and say Pokemon Stadium. You see, Pokemon was addictive and fun but lacked a certain feature, decent graphics. Even by Gameboy standards at the time, static sprites were considered dated. While static sprites and lazy art remains a Pokemon Tradition to this day, the other tradition started here was watching Pokemon battles on much beefier hardware. So with the GB Adapter, which shipped with Pokemon Stadium on N64, players could upload their pokemon onto Pokemon Stadium and watch a pokemon battle with their friends in glorious 64 graphics. This device would be used for a couple other games but really it was all about Pokemon Stadium. To my knowledge, this was the first shot in this direction.


Now this next step is controversial in a lot of ways. The first point of controversy is really who did it first, Sega or Sony. You see, Katana was starting it's hype cycle mentioning an awesome new hardware feature while Sony was hinting towards a new way to play Playstation games. Turns out, both companies were working on similar concepts. Despite Sega Cults tendacy to claim Sony stole from Sega about everything (Dreameye was a camera....) the timing was far too perfect and with the popularity of Virtual Pets, it's VERY probably both had the same idea. So who cares which one came first or was shown first or was rumored first, they both were great ideas far too close to one another to be a theft. Now, Pocketstation never left Japan. The primary reason being the same earthquake which severely crippled GBC's production on it's first christmas also hit a Sony factory. By the time demand was met in Japan, Sony was in full PS2 swing tryng not to mention PSX. Even though the US and European launches would eventually get cancelled, there were games releasing in the US and Europe with Pocketstation compatibility. If one is so inclined, yes... import Pocketstations do work with domestic copies of R4 and FFVIII. The other side of the coin was Sega's Virtual Memory Unit (VMU) which was and extension of the controller itself.

So we know their names and the controversy, but what exactly did they do? Pocketstation would plug into the memory card slot and be able to download a miniature app which would often be a virtual pet or some other simple game. Progress could then be uploaded back into the game. Sega's VMU did exactly the same thing with a couple added features. The first being since it was a window on the controller itself, it allowed you player specific information such as stats in a multiplayer RPG or a playbook for football. The other thing is it served as a memory card itself. Both had remarkably similar implimentations and the number of games supporting it was also comparably large. This concept would eventually, and unfortunately, die out.


Sidebar: Of course Sega, being the idea before implimentation company that they were, had another volley to fire into this little war. The NGPC to DC cable. You see, since Sega had failed in the portable space before, they left that war to be waged by the spunky newcomer NeoGeo Pocket Color. Sega promised to support the console just as SNK promised to support Dreamcast. Thus, cross game expansion was born. Get this, you could put King of Fighters on Dreamcast AND on NGPC, and they could totally talk to each other. Nifty, huh? Unfortunately, that's ALL that happened. It was only supported by two games total, and only one made it to the states. Which of course makes this the SAME level of software support as the Maraca controllers. This failing meant the ONLY reason for this feature to exists was for the hardware pervs who got off on plugging exotic devices in their Dreamcasts.


Nintendo, feeling left out, decided to take this a few steps further. Gamecube launched with a nebulous announcement of the GCN/GBA link cable and promised of possibilities that sounded remarkable similar to what Sega and Sony did years before. Of course we all know Nintendo invented everything so this went unquestioned. One of the experiments with this was Metroid Prime and it's connection to Metroid Fusion. The early reaction from gamers, naturally, was rage about it being a ripoff. Of course things settled down because it was still a feature largely unused. Until Miyamoto started getting big ideas. Pacman Versus, Four Swords, and Crystal Chronicles were the main gunners on this battleship.

You see, Nintendo finally wised up and realized you could do more than simply download minigames or unlock bonus content at the premium price. No, you COULD make owning multiple GBAs integral to the games design. Take Pacman Versus. Players could control ghosts and try to hunt down the first player. With the GBA screen, the full map wasn't visible. Instead, the ghosts got their own POV. Crystal Chronicles did something similar. Despite most of the gameplay being on the screen, this multiplayer RPG forced users to use their GBAs as controllers and stat devices. Your healer couldn't see your health, so teamwork via costly devices was the key to success. This of course leading to the biggest of these designs, Zelda: Four Swords. This competitive multiplayer game was expertly designed and a blast to play, supposedly...

You see, for the most part, these were great ideas. I only wish everyone could afford it, myself included. To pull this off, one needed four GCN/GBA connectors, four GBAs, a Gamecube, and the game. Priced out, that was a mammoth investment. Many hardcore gamers, myself included, never had the resources or the group environment to try this out. That would ultimately be it's downfall. To this day, many people even within the most devout Nintendo fans, never got a chance at this. And that would be it's downfall.


Sidebar: What would a new Nintendo device be without the initial gimmick? Not very good, apparently. You see, Nintendo DS had a GBA slot and Nintendo, in turn, allowed games for both systems to talk to each other. While Nintendo largely ignored this, Sega exploited it. Several early Sega DS games played well with Sega GBA games. Still, most companies never bothered which made the loss of the GBA slot on DSi not really a big deal.


So where are we now? Two of the three major consoles have portable cousins on the market and the third is just launched theirs. Let's take a look at the three. We'll first talk about the one that has the least to talk about. Microsoft recently launched the Zune HD with vague mentionings of games. Literally, they won't talk about it. The first Zune had games... let's see if this actually becomes important before we talk about long term implications.

Next, let's talk about Nintendo. Nintendo confuses me here. I want to say Nintendo has shown us their intentions but right now, despite being one of the biggest innovators in this space, they now seem completely dormant in the concept. For example, the Nintendo Channel on Wii can download DS demos onto your Nintendo DS, no matter the variety. However, the Nintendo DSi has a built in online store for miniature apps yet cannot download demos. So Wii and DS can connect to one another quite easily. It's just that no one is trying to do it.

Sony, however, is doing it a bit too much. PSP and PS3 seem connected to each other in ways that sound cool, yet goofy. Take Remote Play. Sony has a feature on PSP where you can "dial in" to your PS3 online and listen to music, boot Blurays, watch videos, cue downloads, and even play select PS3 games. Wait, WHAT?!? This SOUNDS cool but in practice this seems like a "let me show you what this can do" and not a "I want to do this" feature. Now PSOne classics you buy on PS3/PSP can be transferred, free of charge, to the other device. So let's say you buy Crash Bandicoot. That means for $6, you just bought it for PS3 AND PSP. Now the final is the weirdest. Select games are now speaking to their portable brothers to unlock features across both. Take Resistance on PSP, for example. Connecting Resistance PSP to Resistance 2 "infects" the game and grants access to special sections and new rulesets for the campaign. Likewise, hooking the two up allows a player to use a Dual Shock 3 for their PSP game.... yes, it is odd. The upcoming Assassins Creed games tout similar features. While Sony is the most active in this regard, their approach seems REALLY batshit crazy.

Where we go from here is really anyones guess. Will Nintendo go back to their experiements in this field? Will Sony completely jump the shark with something so odd we'll push this idea away? Will Microsoft actually give a damn about Zune gaming? I have no answers... only curiosity.

Article notes:
-Many will want me to mention Super Gameboy. This SNES cart allowed you to play GB games in glorious 12 color graphics on your television with custom borders. While innovative in it's own right, it took Gameboy graphics from "Godfuckingawful" to "Godawful." Like the GBA adapter for Gamecube, this device really only illustrated what you were missing on the other console thanks to, nicely put, cheap hardware. In addition, this wasn't really bridging the gap between the two devices but rather giving your Gameboy games another place to play. If I mention this, I have to give the nod to Turbo Express for bridging this gap first (to my knowledge) and most importantly, fuck all this noise. The only reason why I mention it was because someone will mark the exclusion as a failure. So here's the inclusion...

-It should also be noted that the original intent of this article was for a monthly musings Untapped Potential submission. My laziness in completing the illustrations and realizing the original article sucked ass eventually doomed this piece towards Dreamcast retrofitting. This too proved far too focused for the attempt and went on to be the article you see before you.

-Yes, I know my drawings are shitty.

Here is my problem. A new Wii game comes out, looks promising, I start to get interested, it comes out, and I suddenly question the purchase. It's nothing against the Wii, really. It's just that damn price tag. $50 seems a tad expensive on a game rack. "But wait," you say. "Aren't you the guy with a huge PS3 and 360 collection?" Yes, yes I am. So the question at it's core, isn why $50 seems too expensive. After all, the last Wii game I bought at launch was Klonoa, a $30 game. Now you have to wonder why I would have a hangup like that. Doesn't make sense, does it?

Actually, it does. Here is the deal in it's rawests, simplist form. $50 is just $10 shy of $60. Since the Wii libraries are often kept next to the PS3 and 360 cases, the value proposition is almost instantly defeated with the $60 games. It's a hard line to draw and soemthing many Nintendophiles have started declaring is an unfair practice. "You can't compare Wii games to PS3/360 games." Why can't I? Why do we have to treat Wii games as the retarded special child in the room? You can only compare Wii games to Wii games? This WOULD make sense, if these Wii games weren't priced dangerously close to the other consoles releases.


I'm sure you know where this is going and are already planning the angry response. Hold back a minute and think about things this way. On August 26, 2008, Namco Bandai dropped Tales of Vesperia on the Xbox 360. It was, as many other 360 games, priced at $60. Critically acclaimed, gorgeous, and often referred to as the best Tales game in years. Three months later, on November 11th, 2008, Namco Bandai dropped Tales of Symphonia: DDay of Discovery on Nintendo Wii for $50. By this time, Tales of Vesperia had dropped at several retailers for $10-$20. Critically pounded as a reskinning, Symphonia 2 had an uphill battle. But let's ignore the price drop and focus on launch pricing, $60 vs $50. What DID that extra $10 buy you? A much better story, better graphics, better sound work, and Coop. Facing each other down, Tales of Symphonia 2 looked downright silly being priced at $50. Especially since it was facing down a possibly cheaper Vesperia.


This is but one of many examples as the article goes forward. Now I shall tackle one of the console saviors. This is one of those games that, for some reason or another, is hailed as a "finally" title on Wii. I'm not quite sure why gamers do this but certain games follow the curse of being blown up to messianic proportions. They can never live up, stop it. One such game was The Conduit. This is a Scifi shooter with unusual weaponry, the only thing making it stand out were the controls and a messiah complex. $50 was the curse they gave this game. I say curse for a simple reason. Both PS3 and 360 already had scifi shooters that kicked Conduits ass in everyway except the mythological "best controls EVA (provided said users never owned a PC)." On 360, Halo 3 has a huge and thriving community in addition to a much better campaign and a unified online community inherent to the system. PS3 had Resistance 2 which also featured a better campaign, better online, and a unified console community. And worse yet, both of these games had graphical prowess sufficient to make Conduit laughably bad. The final nail, of course, is the fact that both Halo 3 and Resistance 2, by this point, could be found for $10 cheaper than Conduit. But even at $60, the value proposition is not even in question.


Now, I mention all this because I recently added some Wii games to my collection. These are all games I really wanted when they launched, but the price instantly turned me off. Listed below are the Game, launch price, and price I paid.

Madworld $49.99 $14.98
De Blob $39.99 $ 9.99
HotD: Overkill $49.99 $14.98
EA Active $59.99 $39.99

You may have noticed the dramatic price drop I waited for on three of those. Reasoning is simple. The longer out from a launch a price stays high, the less I care about said game. This is not a Nintendo exclusive BTW. I'm still waiting on a pricedrop for Killzone 2. But let's just say my enthuisiasm for Madworld was significantly less when it hit $30 than when it launched at $50. When I spied the copy in a clearance bin, my immediate reaction was "Oh yeah, I wanted this game." Ironically enough, would it have LAUNCHED at $30, it would have been a day 1 purchase for me. But that's the problem in a nutshell. The $50 price tag immediately turns me off. It's too damn close to a better looking, often better playing, and better supported PS360 game. Saddest part is I know I'm not alone in my sentiment.

So what is the problem? The first issue I'd say is a genuine misunderstanding of the Core vs. Casual market. I know I typically hate using terms like that but let's put it this way. Who is House of the Dead, Conduit, Symphonia 2, and Madworld aiming for? Typically, they're aiming for the exact same kind of gamers that ARE multiconsole owners. Whether PSWii or Wii60, or even PSWii60, these consumers have a WIDE option to purchase. So we've defined the customers, what does this mean to publishers? Well, simply put, they are pricing their games as if Wii is the only console their consumers own. Conduit looks like Game of the Year compared to Water Wars and Call of Duty 5 on Wii. Symphonia 2 is the be all, end all, if you don't have access to Lost Odyssey or Valkaria Chronicles.


Are all games not worth $50 then? Exceptions to the rule exists and most of them come with a Nintendo logo. Fact of the matter is only Nintendo games are at the calibur of quality (most of the time) to compete with the bigger boys on PS360. It's hard to argue the value proposition of Super Mario Galaxy. But the rest? Let's just say the farther they run for the $60 price tag, the better. To a man waiting on a Killzone 2 price drop, $50 for a Resident Evil light gun shooter is fucking ridiculous. But $30? I'm there day 1.

Of course the entire crux of this article entirely hinges on the concept that you can only play one game of one genre but even if you break those down, and want to play more RPGs, SciFi shooters, etc. fact of the matter is the top tier not only kick a lot of Wii $50 games ass, but the secondary tier does a fair amount of rump kicking as well. I expect if publishers started taking this into account, more "core" games would do better on Wii. And considering the number of $40 Wii games going into the Holiday season, they are wising up. They just aren't quite there yet.

Update: Was a big misunderstanding. Apparently people have posted stuff like that before and been serious. By christ, that saddens me. Oh well, Cheapy responded. No hurt feelings all around.


As a big fan of CAG (although admittedly I'm a lurker more than active community member) and the CAGcast, I was amused by the contest CheapyD and Wombat did two weeks ago to win a copy of 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, presumably for Xbox 360. The contest rules were simple, curse in the show feedback. And so one of the rules of the internet is as follows.

Give your audience permission to cuss and they'll be fun with it. Forbid them from cussing and they'll be downright ugly.

I THOUGHT I would be cheeky and overly obvious with my entry. Something blatantly sarcastic and couldn't possibly be misconstrued as serious feedback. A friend and I were both amused by the Live apologizing that was going on. Sort of an "oooo, we went too far, let's back it up." To be fair, they are critical of all systems and anytime they go a little too far, we always see them back up a bit over the next couple podcasts. But regardless, we joked about this and I thought, "hey, that'd be a great thing to post about." And so my entry on the contest was going to be cheeky, fun, and basically laced with enough bullshit nobody could ever take it seriously.

Thus enters the second week of Cheapy apologizing to his redmond masters. God forbid he say anything (Shaq Fu) ing wrong about his Xbox...
Edit: In the original post, enters was posted as Entires... because I'm a fucking moron.... and wanted to win a game rather than comment on the show.

Now I showed this post, after it went live, to a couple friends and all of them thought phrases like Redmond Masters gave it away. I was wrong...

This weeks podcast held a suprise for me at 33:42

Give it a listen....

Wow, shocking huh? Apparently I wasn't blatant enough with my sarcasm to reveal it as such. And so I posted this in the show feedback.

[i] Dear CheapyD,

Hi, remember the contest you ran two weeks ago? The 50 Cent cuss in the show feedback contest? That you mentioned directly after pointing out my comment as a Sony Fanboy thing? Yeah... about that. That was where my entry, or what you considered legitimate feedback, was coming from. Imagine my suprise, discovering what you had to do in the show feedback was taken seriously. I was neither being critical nor fanboyish, just filthy mouthed and sarcastic. Listening to the show right now and have yet to figure out who won it but just trying to point this out. How you could take ANYTHING seriously in the feedback where you openly invited filthy language is beyond me. If I was really that concerned about your "redmond masters" (seriously, THAT'S the giveaway to sarcasm), I would have stopped listening to your podcast long ago, like I did with Talking About Games Podcast (Jay managed to keep Paris in check, without Jay, it was gonna be harsh).

Of your many quarks (no podcaster is perfect), only two annoy me. The first is the fascination with fecal matter. But I can deal. The other is the point you often make about how, if PSN was as good as XBox Live, you'd gladly pay money for it. This is not a sentiment I and many others share. After all, looking at XBL price, tripling that (assuming Nintendo does the same adjustment), you're spending more than an annual DS Lite purchase in services alone. As for Live itself, I said it before, I'll say it again. Without live, you really are getting half a console with a 360. But oh well.

But all in all, sorry you missed the sarcasm in my post. I thought I was being cheeky and fun and I showed the post to a couple friends making sure it was obvious enough. We were, apparently, wrong. Also, for the record, I do not smell of poo. I do smell of Herbal Essences shampoo though, and Kilo Axe Bodyspray. I figured if I'm trying to clean up any confusion as to the intent of my post, might as well clear up confusion as to my scent as well.[/i]

So far, no response yet. I fear I didn't inadvertantly piss off a bunch of fans of the show. Here's why, when I grief, I grief with funny names. Nothing tied all over the internet. sheppyboy2000? It's everywhere. It's my email, my instant messenger, my steam, my ebay, so on and so forth. So far, a wave of crap hasn't hit me... yet. I expect it to and I hope the olive branch I extended at some point gets picked up.

Maybe you've heard of this Penny Arcade Expo thing. It's kind of a big deal. In fact, people won't stop talking about it. Every site, Pax Pax Pax. Every Cblog, Pax Pax Pax. Every condom machine at the gas station, Pax Pax Pax. It's a big, big deal. Well, you would think so considering how much it would cost for me to go.

I live in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Nice community and I love it. Volition is based here and I even found a job in my field here (although not at Volition). Grand total costs for me to go to PAX this year? Estimated $1400 without swag. Now, that's if I go alone. What if I could get others to join me? Then it still goes to around $900. Can I ask friends to join me for $900 each? One just bought a $1700 TV, the other just got back from a trip. And truthfully? I know much better things to spend $900 on.

So the question rises, what about Pax East? Same problem, different coast. That's actually a big problem really. Observe this map.


See the problem? The games industry and even it's fanbase really set up tents in certain locations. The concept being, of course, if you build it, they will come. It's a cute sentiment from an industry that wants our money. Instead, the more appropriate response is usually "If you build it, they'll say fuck it and stay at home playing Warhawk instead." Look at the cost estimate above for my trip to Pax. Do you realize, with that money, one COULD track down the entire domestic library of Dreamcast? It's true. Travel somewhere and visit with strangers who are likely not going to give three pigeon squirts about you a month later OR collect the entire Dreamcast library. Kinda of a no brainer, huh?

So until these functions start acknowledging the people who live outside the hotzones on the map above, I've just grown apathetic. So what are my plans for Pax? A case of Strongbow Cider, a copy of Dragon Valor, and a genuine notcaring on what I'm missing.