2014 in review

This was my first year really working as an anthropologist of videogames. I spent so much time travelling, writing about what I saw, and saving up for events that it was sort of a relief to get that speeding ticket. I have met a ton of amazing wonderful people who love videogames. During that same time, I did some stuff outside of that realm which was also pretty cool.

Rather than go through everything month by month, I will go event by event. It just keeps it easier to follow, especially since a lot of these things overlap.

Emerald City Comic Con

Besides small literary conventions, I had never really been to a con. When I say small, I mean most of us fit into a hotel room, and were more like traveling tourists. It is a fun group of folks, but compare that to a Comic Con, and it sounds so pathetic.

ECCC was so large that it took my breath away. I was so nervous about going there that most of my time was spent at my booth, which was in a hotel away from the main floor. It was busy, but never main floor busy.

Since it was my first real convention, I had to learn how to ask people for their photograph. I learned about the volunteers at the event. People were dressed up for awesome things. I met Thor.

NorthWest Pinball and Arcade Show

The NWPAS is the worst acronym of the shows I saw. On the other hand, it was also the show that got me into all of it. I had been following someone about arcade enthusiasts in the UK. Through him, I found out about Arcade folks in Seattle. I attended their meetings, helped them out at conventions, and befriended many of them.

I helped out in two areas, the kid/history area and ticket sales. The vast majority of my time was spent in the ticket sales. There were people who would buy hundreds of tickets in one go. The funniest part was I kept wondering if I should have bought a ticket. There was no way I could compete against these guys spending $400-$500 in a day.

The history and kid center was great for breaks. I wrote a timeline on the history of arcade games. I included Pinball and Electromechanical machines as well. The list was finished for the show, but I am still working on it, for the next show. We had games that were 70 years old at the museum, and a dusty old Pong machine. I had to set up all of the machines, and get them to work in that zone. It was hard since I barely had any experience with the machines.

The Pong Machine Vancouver Trip

In the wreckage of a fallen warehouse was an old Pong machine. I promised to show it off at NWAPS to see if anyone wanted/could fix it. I spent months driving around with a Pong machine in my car. Someone with a lot of skill in the old machines did want it.

Before SRGE, I went out to Vancouver to deliver the device. I should have taken it as an omen when my car was checked at the border. The folks checking my machine opened a door incorrectly, and it wouldn’t close completely. This meant my van wouldn’t lock.

The buyer owned a museum of arcade equipment. His building had been around for a century, and held original Computer Space machines. They would play a machine for high score to see who did what chore every night.

I stopped at a McDonalds to buy some food, and check my email. The World Cup game was Korea vs Belgium. After enjoying my food, I found that my passport was missing. A little while later, I found that there was no freeway heading south. It turns out there is no freeway period in Vancouver. It is a lovely city, but after about 6 hours of getting directions, and them not working the view was not as impressive.

By the time I got back to my buddy Tuan’s place it was 3 AM, and I was playing loud music to stay awake. On the other hand, the gas station near the border had Dr. Pepper with real sugar.

Seattle Retro Gaming Expo

Set up for SRGE was the very next afternoon. We had to set up several TV’s to systems, and make sure everything worked. Testing was very rigorous, and done by professionals. There was no giant battle session for over an hour in the XBox room.

I spent a lot more time interviewing people, which was just like talking to folks, and remembering what was said. I am sure you think there is some technique to this, but not really. The people promoting their games wanted to talk about their business, and loved talking about it. Dealers were a little more busy, but were still able to answer questions at times.

Of the conventions, I think this one was the most chill. I hung out, talked about games, and had a lot of free time. If I ever felt a little woozy, I could go into the break room.

We did some canvassing, which was a lot of fun. Moragan was a lot more forward than I was, and handed out way more cards. In fact, I ended up not meeting anyone who he hadn’t already canvassed. On the other hand, he was a great tour guide, and I saw some really cool stuff.

PAX

If ECCC was huge, PAX is its own city. There were so many things to see, and do at it that it overflowed into Seattle itself. I had to walk several blocks away, and go into a place I knew tourists would never go into to get some peace and quiet.

The interesting part about PAX was that I had been to enough conventions that I knew what to expect. I knew the buildings well enough, and how things worked that there was a lot more ease with seeing things. I hung out with folks, and joked around a lot more. At one point I lost it and high fived 500 people on an escalator. It was a lot of fun.

This was also where I started to really take notice of how things were organized. PAX had taken things apart into clans. If you wanted retro only, there was a section just for that. Indies had their own area, as did the arcade. It was full, but the compartmentalization was very noticeable.

I also noticed the girl to guy ratio was way off. In the arcade it was 1 girl to every 8 guys. Every woman I met was married, or brought their kid. It was something noticeable for me. The women who did come didn’t seem threatened or scared.

Portland Retro Gaming Expo

PRGE was my first convention in Portland. It was a lot of fun, and about the size of a big convention. The really big conventions are city sized, and have untold masses of people walking through them. PRGE took up an entire convention floor.

I helped out at the Arcade. It was about 100 games, and fairly easy. The manager runs the big arcade in Portland. Tony is very experienced with arcade games, and had a few stories to tell. The folks I worked with handled everything professionally, and were easy to get along with.

I think the most I learned from this convention was during the train rides. I would get on, and someone would notice my T-Shirt. We would end up talking about what we saw, and how videogames fit into their lives. I really wish I had taken their pictures.

The interviews were more setting things up for further study. The Portland Indie Game crew has been inviting me to events. The problem is that I got a speeding ticket on the way to Portland, and have to pay that off before another big event.

Plays

I was in two plays during all of these studies. The first i played a Frenchman, and the second I played an Asshole. Before you ask, they were nothing alike.

Honestly Now was about a Rich woman trying to throw a big event so she could get into high society. In reality, both she, and everyone else she was dealing with had alterior motives. I played the hapless French waiter Raoul. The biggest problem I had was being loud, and not quite that French.

My Mom is French American. Her family has been in the US for 400 years. Although they will speak to you in perfect accents, they have a very French ideal on life and how to do things. They are incredibly quiet. Usually, I speak the language when trying to be polite. So, when I first started my character, I came off as very timid, and incredibly French. I had to learn to be much louder, and less French so people could understand me. It was a ton of fun, because the characters could never be taken seriously.

Dadies Dying Whose Got the Will is about a family waiting for the patriarch of the house to pass away. The kids have tried to escape the family in various ways, and it is hard to face all of it. There were layers of character growth, and it wasn’t always easy to show.

My character was an asshole. Other characters could have swear words taken down, and not act as bad, but mine really couldn’t. These were really complex characters, with a comical covering. It was a really hard play, and everyone was really stressed out during it. My character was grumpy, and abusive during the entire play. I figured him out by realizing the author of the play gave reasons to why he was such an asshole. Because it was just a bunch of people getting together, the play was that much more stressful because of the skill needed.

Webelos

I haven’t talked about it online a lot, but I am a Webelos Den leader. While I was going to all of these conventions, I was also taking cub scouts to day camp, and having weekly meetings. It has been a learning experience in trying to keep the attention of a ten year old.

Honestly, I feel like I sort of didn’t do well enough for the kids the first year, but seem to be doing better this year. The reason why has been the attempt at gametizing the pins and badges needed to be earned. Rather than go through each one separately, and try to make it sound really important, we made a theme.

The honest truth is that I wanted to build a ballista out of PVC pipe, and having Webelos do it was a good enough excuse. What we discovered was that the scouts really wanted to work on the theme. I chose out Roman Siege Warfare, and had them make shields, swords, and spears for battle. We had volunteers teach them how to make padded weapons, and how to fight. They had to earn citizenship in Rom, and prove their worth by being athletic. Without working too hard, we got the scouts into doing homework, and getting their pins done fast. Within about 3 months, 5-7 Webelos had earned their Webelos badge.

Webelos stands for We’ll Be Loyal Scouts, so that isn’t a plural, its an acronym.

The reason why I haven’t talked about it is rules for den leaders are very strict. We can not post pictures online of our scouts. We must always have two leaders working with scouts at all times. No scout can be alone, and especially not alone with a supervisor. If you haven’t figured it out, every rule is to stop perverts. The worst is knowing that every rule probably has a story behind it.

Hopefully this summer we have the big Siege, but until then we need to get more scouts involved, and earn more pins. Tomorrow though, I will tell my kids they have earned their Webelos, and play some games.

My Buddy Adam’s House

Although I haven’t been posting videos lately, i have a large back catalog of videos taken from his place. When I go to his house, I ask to play specific games, and he has every single one. He has been a great asset, and I really hope I haven’t overstayed my welcome with him.

Not only has he been useful, he was the one who pointed out that I was sticking my wires in wrong. This is why so many videos don’t have the audio from the games. I didn’t listen to him.

I hope to finish those videos, and post them soon. It will be about how Disney games have changed over the years.

Aaron’s House

After several articles, or during studies Aaron would have some great insights for further thought. I think my articles would have sucked if it wasn’t for him.

Not only that, he has opened up his house, and game library for study. In fact, he has said he will edit videos together. We hope that next year, a video series will start up to show our studies into gaming.

We will be first presenting on how game companies have changed their styles over the console generations. We will be using Naughty Dog as our first example. Then will be the search for a family friendly GTA.

Non videogame related writing

I have been working on several books, and thought I should cover those.

Myron’s Gift is the first book in a trilogy about a little boy who can remember the future, and go back and forth through time using his memories. He has to stop an alien invasion using this gift. It’s actually about being gifted, and how folks don’t quite know how to deal with it. The book is out, and ready to download off of your kindle.

Clockwork Elf is about Naureen and James Heinlein who try to fix magical things in Victorian England. I doubt I get the history right, but then again, one of the characters is an elf. It has a lot of characters, spells, and plot twists throughout. I am having a lot of fun writing it.

Lawyer of the Gods is about a recently graduated lawyer who represents the gods. He has to get a treaty done, to fix a computer problem that is destroying several realities. I laugh every time I read a chapter. If I don’t laugh, I rewrite the chapter.

Various others. i have been working on short stories, novellas, and other things that I don’t really want to name right now. In fact, some of them are going to become full sized books because the people who have read them asked me to.

Thanks

I wouldn’t have been able to do all of this without some help. First off, I want to thank Tuan, The Hands Family, Polli and Tex, and others for giving me a place to stay during these studies. Some of them talked with me about my studies late into the night, and at least twice Tuan fell asleep in mid conversation. They have been really helpful, and I want to publicly thank them.

I want to thank Chris for giving me a ride that one time. My car broke down, and he stepped in to help out.

I want to thank my teachers for their help. They pointed me in the directions I needed to see how to use my own studies. Some of them still advise me even after graduation. In fact, at one point i was having a hard time doing interviews, and one of them taught me how to get people comfortable around me. I am incredibly grateful.

The many folks who were there during the conventions, or studies. At many points I felt lost, or a bit overwhelmed. My friends stepped in, and helped me out at every turn. Many of the people I have worked with have become friends. Thanks guys.

Finally, I want to thank my readers, i don’t get a lot of comments from you. In fact, I suspect that some of you don’t actually exist. Still, seeing that people are reading my little writings has been something that keeps me going. Thank you.

Next year

Expect more game culture coverage next year. I hope the videos will do well. Also, I hope to expand better into the whole North West. This includes Portland, and maybe Boise. Hopefully more videos will be made.

I intend to create children’s books, get more books out, and start many many more. Expect a sequl to Myron’s Gift, and the finished Lawyer of the Gods. I am also trying to reedit a book called Lord Haupfenn’s School. It’s a YA book, that got way too much outside advice. I need to go in and take a lot of that out. Also, Expect some art, both comical photoshop stuff, and artistic stuffs.

The big thing for this year is that I am starting the assets for a game. It’s been a project of mine, and I have everything set up to finally make it. Hopefully it comes out next year.

Have I bitten off more than I can chew? Yes, which is why I fully intend to direct a play or movie.