Just got done with a grueling 9-hour session recording the new Hamtoucher track (that’s the band’s name, incidentally – the last song was called “WAR – Here We Come”).  Kudos to super composer Brad Derrick and audio guru Blaine for coping with the motley (and questionably skilled) Hamtoucher crew.  And kudos as well to the Piglets for stepping up for the choral portions of the track.

It’s a strange experience actually seeing how a rock song gets recorded.  It definitely makes you gain a lot of respect for folks who it professionally.  There’s a TON of relentless repetition and it can be extremely difficult to extract decent performances from people, even if the material seems straight-forward.  It’s an ego-challenging, confidence-crushing, spirit draining experience if you’re not extremely focused and engaged.

So… yeah.

“Rock musician” is officially OFF of my “cushy jobs” list.

That being said, “singer in a rock band” is now checked off of my lifetime “to do” list as well.

Now the track gets “mastered”, which I assume involves sorcery.  It’ll be released in some fashion soon.

From Kotaku, regarding our stance on gold farmers:

…these guys aren’t banning because it’s their job, they’re banning because they love it.

The epically surreal post-launch experience continues as I find my autograph on eBay.

For the record, I think my signature was smudged by one of the other guys, not by me, so if you were hoping to buy that CE, copy the thumb-print and then use it to implicate me in a crime, the jokes on YOU!

Here’s a nice piece the WaPo did on us – featuring a “Godfather Shot” picture of Mark, Jeff, Paul and me.

Curt Schilling digs our game.

If you love baseball (and I’ve loved baseball for as long as I can remember), you know that Curt is The Man.  This is a guy who occupies the most elite territory in professional sports – a dominant player with a truly storied career filled with championships and awards and on-field heroics.

I’ve been a Schilling fan since his early years playing for my beloved (if long-suffering) Orioles.  He plays baseball the right way and is a blast to watch – one of the good guys you can just outright root for without reservation (well… unless he’s pitching AGAINST your team, that is).  He’s one of the people in sports that I can legitimately say I’m an unabashed fan of.

So there’s just something surreal about him even being AWARE of the game I’ve worked on, to say nothing of being a fan.  It’s a good surreal, to be sure, but it’s still a truly unique experience to have one of your heroes digging the work you’ve done.

How cool is THAT?

Curt’s studio has a Top Secret MMO in the works at the moment and I think I can speak for everyone at Mythic when I say we’re all excited and more than a little curious about what his team’s cooking up.  He said it really well himself:

Every company that raises the bar in the MMO space only adds customers, that’s a good thing. Not to mention the bar for what’s acceptable gets raised a little higher for anyone following, and that’s a great thing.

Yes, indeed.