New
Focus
-David, webmaster DVGI
New
Focus
-David, webmaster DVGI
As with the last time I wrote an editorial, it's been far too long and I'm sorry. Honestly this time life had simply become very busy and I had continued to be very lazy when it came to writing and contributing to things such as my own site. However an amazing thing happened - I'm back in the trench again. I work closer to the industry again, I play a lot more games and I'm even developing one of my own. I suppose on could say my personal drought of gaming has come to an end. I never quit loving the games, I just let a lot of other things pull me away from the great passion of writing about them.
That was a pretty big concept, the day I realized I could combine writing and video games. Of course that's obvious to most, but it was a pretty big breakthrough to me - and it was sitting right there in front of me the entire time. However it wasn't until I got online all those years ago that I begun to really put some power behind that drive. With that, I began my first gaming review site - David's Jaguar Reviews. I reviewed nearly half the Atari Jaguar library. I really don't know why I picked that system other than I had purchased one at a flea market and the games were still available new and relatively cheap from a Florida online retailer formerly know as United Game Source. That site was long since lost to an era when I didn't back things up and my sites were hosted on free accounts. To be honest, I can't even remember what the URL was or which free host I was using at the time. I'm going to assume it was Xoom / NBCi and that it was simply lost forever. I don't recall having the Jaguar site on Tripod but it's possible that it was there at one point. Oh well, at this time I've learned to simply let the past remain in the past - although I did a LOT of work writing those reviews. The site wasn't flashy or anything but the content of writing was top notch. After the loss of that site and my huge Sailor Moon site, I ported my small mixed gaming site over to Tripod - and the rest they say, is history. That small site was David's Video Game Insanity - which became the flagship site of my destination ClassicPlastic.net.
I bring up the old Jag site because of something that happened last week. I'm stuck in the past, everyone who knows me knows that. So I have the remaining few old video game sites that are still around bookmarked and I still visit them. These are sites that haven't been touched since like 2000 and if they have been it's to archive them in different places. I need to archive a couple of them myself, especially since the parent site of a couple is going through a redesign right now. When I see these old sites I think of my old sites, my old free pages. One of these sites I still browse that is an old broken archive these days is The NES Enshrined. If you've been into classic gaming for awhile, that should sound familiar. I hasn't been updated since January 2000 but that doesn't matter. This comes from an era before we were called "Retrogamers." Back then a term that was tossed around was "NES Preservationists." I never thought of myself as either. I simply thought the games were entertaining originally, thought the games were entertaining after they were replaced with more modern stuff, and continued to think the games were entertaining at the time of the classic gaming movement. They never felt retro, they always felt current because they were always entertaining. Of course I understood they were old and the changes in technology and whatnot - but the games never faded from the entertainment portion of my life. I really enjoyed that a whole group of people felt the same way. So now going back to last week, I was reading through DiefWolf's parting message at The NES Enshrined, essentially his letter of farewell to all his site's users. One of the last things he wrote really hit me...
"All I will say is this: Last as long as you see fit; play the games at least as much as you talk about them; use emulation wisely; do as much your way as possible; and when the third generation of NES sites comes along, make sure you feel as old and sententious as I do right now -- it can be very pleasant."
The part I bolded is what really got to me. That in a nutshell is something I totally forgot over the past few years. I got into the habit of writing about a game to write about a game - case in point Retrogaming Times Monthly submissions. (no offense guys, I really do love the newsletter) I would never be able to write at my leisure because when I would sit down to write something I wanted to for the site, I'd remember I had an RTM submission to complete. That would suck the inspiration out of me to write content for my own site. At first I was able to do both but I got wrapped up in the day to day of living life. I was devoting more time to writing about games than I was actually spending playing them. What does that cause? It causes the whole experience to feel like one gigantic chore. I knew something was wrong so I took last month off from RTM in hopes of finding myself - didn't happen. Here I am one day away from the next RTM deadline and I finally understand. I think I can find the balance again. I think I can make it fun again. That's really the big point, is it not? So, unsurprisingly, I'm going to take another month off RTM and nourish this spark growing within me once more. I actually have a Game Boy review I'm going to write as soon as I finish up this editorial and shoot an e-mail to RTM explaining what's up. I spent seven hours across two days playing that game start to finish. It also helped to wake me up. I really always did enjoy writing for RTM but when the only games you're really playing are one's you're doing so to write comparative reviews, the fun disappears pretty quickly. That's not a problem anymore.
Instead of sitting down to write full reviews, I'm going to go ahead and just write what I feel with no intention of finishing in one sitting. That's how I used to do it, a little here and a little there. There's no penalty for rewriting before something is complete. That's where multiple reviews used to come out of nowhere from. That was also a great feeling, those days when you finish up three or four things you're writing all in the same sitting of an hour or two. I'm happy, I'm energized and I love video games. It's a wonderful feeling, it truly is.
I'm also going to change a few things around here going forward. I'm going to change how the News and Updates are posted starting today. My intention is to make it easier to click the link, see what's new and where it's located. Originally the News and Updates section was my place to rant a little - that hasn't been required since the Editorials section was created years ago. I'm not going to go through and reconvert all the previous News and Updates posts, but from this day forward they will follow the new style. Honestly some of my best writing at the site has been in the News and Updates archives from the early 2000's.
The InsaneTeam page is going to change a bit, giving better profile information and looking less like it was created in 1992. This will also allow easier contact information among currently active and inactive contributors here at DVGI.
No huge changes because big changes make me nervous. I know the look of my site is dated, I really don't care. I've dabbled in using scripts to generate pages from different files and the like. The problem was browsers would change and the site would become broken. That's one thing if you have an IT department running around to keep your stuff current and fixing said problems. However it's really just me that takes care of 98% of the business end here. I don't have the time nor desire for all that. Web 2.0 has put a bad taste in my mouth since day one. Maybe one day I'll change it up but not right now and not in the foreseeable future. Heck, I still use a relatively antique computer and probably will for at least another half year. Also the last time I did a big overhaul to a site, it was met with its demise. Sailor Senshi Sanctuary was just getting in live radio (an early netcast if you would), classified section, all kinds of stuff. Then the plug was pulled and it became too much to manage and rebuild without 100% drive and focus. In effect I took my ball and went home.
So that's about it. I love video
games and that's a great feeling to have again. Now to write that
e-mail to RTM, update the News and Updates format for all updates going
forward and to get going on that new Game Boy review!
Written on 09-24-09 by David, insanedavid@classicplastic.net