Staycation.
FYI, I’m off all week. Which is, to be honest, kind of weird.
I haven’t taken more than a day or two off in a row in… well… YEARS. Anywho, The Hickman is starting to crack down and force his minions to stay away from the office and relax a bit.
I spent my first two days doing chores, but now I’m MOSTLY done and I still have three whole days to kill. Current plan:
– Watch all of my favorite movies repeatedly. Which basically means “watching Patton over and over again while wearing the helmet Paul gave me from Patton’s army.” Did I mention that Patton is available on Blu-Ray? Because it totally IS.
– Read. My “to read” pile includes a bunch of Mark Twain and George Orwell essays, Sarah Vowell’s new book and a nice chunk of the old Ostrander run of The Spectre that I picked up on the cheap at a local funnybook shop a while back.
– Jog. Or walk briskly. Or something. The last few years have been – for lack of a better term – ri-goddamn-diculously brutal on my overall health. I’ve never been skinny, but before we started WAR I could at least do a few chin-ups. I recognize that it’s my fault for letting work trump fitness, but I figure this is as good a time as any to get back on that particular horse (also, I’d rather not look like a land-whale at my wedding next spring).
– Play games that have nothing to do with MMOs. Lego Batman and Dead Space, I’m looking at YOU.
So… yeah. Don’t expect anything useful from me for at least a week.
P.S. Out launch party is this Thursday, so I may have some pictures from that shortly.
Hamtoucher II.
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.
“Hamtoucher!” – The Music Video
Quote of the day.
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.
Profiteers!
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!
WAR in the Washington Post.
Here’s a nice piece the WaPo did on us – featuring a “Godfather Shot” picture of Mark, Jeff, Paul and me.
Bizarro World.
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.
Gamestop signing.
We just got back. We had a steady flow of people the entire hour, which was great. What did you miss if you failed to come?
– Autographs from Mark, Jeff, Paul and I.
– Autographed posters.
– WAR stickers.
– WAR shirts.
– Codes for the exclusive Skaven Cloak that’s been all the rage with the Cool Kids in WAR for everyone who brought a CE or standard copy of the game to get signed.
– If you were REALLY lucky – pirate cookies.
Thanks to everyone who showed up!
One final WAR baby!
Moments ago, we got word that RvR team lead Jeff Skalski just welcomed his new son – Kaya – into the world! JUUUUST under the wire to get him into the WAR baby credits.
Congrats, Jeff!
Launchmas Eve
We got a package this morning from the folks at Bioware. Inside was this awesome bit of esprit de corps:
Our ad company put together a new set of posters that are just AWESOME. We’re having the team sign a set that we’ll frame and hang in the office:
A close-up of my favorite:
