Work, Study, Play

@Bizarro_Mike on Twitter, Freelance Writer, A&E Reporter working the video games beat at www.statepress.com, ASU Cronkite student, shameless promoter of the cutest kid in the world.

[michaeljmartin]

GIVEAWAY ALERT: WIN The Witcher 3 and a Collector's Game Guide

[riptapparel]

GIVEAWAY ALERT! Enter to win today’s giveaway, a copy of The Witcher 3 and the official Collector’s edition game guide. Enter here: https://goo.gl/7N0oEM

[michaeljmartin]

GIVEAWAY ALERT: WIN A Star Wars Battlefront Pre-Order

[riptapparel]

GIVEAWAY ALERT! Star Wars Battlefront is coming this December. Enter for your chance to win this pre-order here: https://goo.gl/ml7OMy

[michaeljmartin]

Work, Study, Play - I'm officially a freelancer

My first feature was published over at Kill Screen: "The ghost towns and metropolises of EverQuest, fifteen years later." I am very proud of the article and sometime in the near future, I might detail how it came about. For now though, I'm excited to see it published after a lot of hard work on multiple sides of the project. I'm humbled at the reception I've gotten from readers and peers also.

[michaeljmartin]

Work, Study, Play - Surrounding yourself with a support system

Time for some real talk. No. More real than the usual real.

I've let the blogging slip a little, along with some other things because I've had to go through another round of stress related personal stuff. I won't get into the gory details, but it really got me thinking about my support system and who I surround myself with.

What I mean by that is that many of the people closest to me haven't actually been supportive of my desires and goals to finish school and to transition into a writing or journalism career. I've come to accept that. I have to because I can't force someone to change. I can only hope they'll see the light when it all comes together. I also have to be realistic and understand that it may never come together the way I see it and that doesn't have to be a bad thing.

So what do you when the people closest to you don't support you? For starters, you have to be your biggest supporter. I absolutely 100% believe in what I'm doing and that I'll succeed. You have to believe in what you're doing. If you don't, you've already lost. On an episode of the Nerdist podcast, Chris Hardwick asked Morgan Freeman if he had a backup plan when he was younger if acting didn't work out. Freeman said he didn't because if you have backup plans, you might as well go do that instead. Safety nets don't allow you to take the chances you need.

I have also leaned on the friends and acquaintances I've made in recent months within the gaming journalism community. I'm constantly trying to build that network. I also draw inspiration from those that I admire in the industry. Those individuals are thankful for their place in the industry and to the fans that support them.

I'd also like to point out that Nathan Meunier, freelance games journalist and author of the Game Journo Guide series, started the Freelance Game Journo Network on Facebook. I've been a part of other gaming journalist communities but this one has been an amazing resource for connecting with other like-minded people.

So I've got a few projects in the works, including recording a new podcast. More on that soon.

As I get closer to an upcoming vacation, I'm still just managing everything the best I know how - one thing at a time.

Now, allow me to plug Nathan Meunier's site, http://nathanmeunier.com/, where you can find updates on everything he's doing and links to his books which you should purchase if you're serious about getting into gaming journalism. You can also find his and Andrew Hayward's podcast about freelancing at http://freelancegamepodcast.com/.

I'm going to switch it up a little too. Instead of shamelessly promoting my beautiful son. How about a cute sleeping dog?!

[michaeljmartin]

Work, Study, Play - Stay in the moment

There comes a time—something everyone goes through—when you need to take a step back, look at the big picture, and if need be evaluate and reevaluate what you're doing. I'm in one of those moments, but it isn't a bad thing. It doesn't have to be discouraging, something I've come to realize in recent years. Heck, recent months to be totally honest.

If you know me or you’ve read some of my backstory in previous posts, you’ll know that I have become a professional at time and project management. You have to when you still work full-time, attend school full-time, raise a family that includes an 18-month-old toddler, and still find some kind of time to play videogames and write about them as you try and break into a freelance career in the hopes of turning that into a full-time career.

No big deal—except when life wants to mess with you a little bit. The kid gets sick and has an infection so uncomfortable that every diaper change is an exaggerated meltdown of epic proportion. My elderly mom (I’m 37 and she’s 75, making her as old, or older, than some peoples’ grandparents) falls and breaks her arm, shattering her elbow which required reconstructive surgery. Throw in a little kerfuffle in a class I’m in with the instructor, thus losing my enthusiasm and motivation for that class, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster for me in the not-so-distant past.

The last few weeks have been stressful for sure, but not overwhelming. Sure, I sit at my desk and I struggle with what I should write or which pitch I should put together. I even struggle at times with what games I should play. Do I want to become heavily invested in this or that game right now? Thankfully, it isn’t a crippling unhappiness or depression holding me back. I’m finding that I need to kick back and relax. It’s okay to put some of these projects off. There’s always tomorrow.

I’ve got a year left at ASU. I’ve got plenty of time to pitch more stories and pick up more work. I can get more involved in video projects later. I can play more intensive games next week. Right now, I feel the need for comfort gaming with Titanfall or Ultra Street Fighter IV. That’s how I’ve grown in recent months. I can finally accept where I’m at and what life is giving me.

My biggest priority now is to spend more time with my aging parents. They’re doing well now, but when you get a phone call about your mom falling, mortality, namely theirs, really starts to sink in. I’ve wanted to do something with my parents for a long time now. It might surprise some people to hear me say that I don’t really know a whole lot about my parents and my family. My parents are 76 and 75 years old. My mom is Korean. She lived through Japanese occupation of Korea and the Korean War. My dad was born at the end of the Great Depression and grew up during World War II. My mom has multiple brothers and sisters and even having had the fortune of visiting South Korea twice, I still don’t know their names. I plan on changing that. I plan on visiting them more, and for lack of a better term, interviewing them about their lives and their families.

I feel like there are stories here that can be told and it is far different from any kind of games journalism I have done and want to do. Even as I type this, it feels weird to be able to reconcile it with myself. Ever since I truly decided that gaming journalism is where I want to end up, I’ve worked tirelessly towards that goal while maintaining balance with all of those other things I mentioned in the second paragraph.

I have a vacation coming up at the end of the month. We’re going to San Francisco. I can’t wait. It will be a much needed time of rest and relaxation. Until then, I’ll just kind of go with the flow and maintain the work on the most important project there is--me.

I’ll be streaming more too, so look out for that at http://www.twitch.tv/bizarro13. Keep in mind, my channel is a work in progress.

I'd like to throw out a special thanks to Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project and The Nerdist's Chris Hardwick for his interviews with Anthony Bourdain and Dr. Drew for helping me to not lose my shit, be a happier person, and staying in the moment.

[michaeljmartin]

Work, Study, Play - Make the pain go away!

The last couple of weeks I've had some back troubles that have really messed with my sleep schedule and, therefore, my production, and the kid has this nasty rash/infection thing going on. It has been a challenge just to get the minimum done for school and writing for the newspaper. Luckily I don't have as tough a schedule for summer classes.

At any rate, I've had some ideas bubbling lately and I think I'm ready to explore some new writing options. I've been taking it easy on the gaming this week, mostly because I'm prepping myself to finally dive into Bravely Default on 3DS. I figure, why not play what is supposed to be one of the better recent Final Fantasy games after having run through Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

I think I'll post my gaming task list later this week also. Bravely Default is obviously at the top of the list anyway.

Oh and watch out. The 360 is back on the desk and hooked up.

Would you believe this kid has been a nightmare the last couple of days? Can't blame him though. He's not feeling well at all.

[michaeljmartin]

Work, Study, Play - Weekend RPG Overdose

I don't think I can remember any time where I accomplished so much in one genre of gaming in a single weekend.

I completed the primary main scenario in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and finished the Dragoon job quest. I have to say the class armor looks pretty badass. The game doesn't track time played but I'd say I would say I was easily in the 40 or 50 hour mark.

I also played through Transistor. I don't want to say too much at the moment because I have a review coming for it this week, but damn it was so good!

This is my favorite PS4 game of the year. Between Transistor and inFAMOUS: Second Son, I feel Transistor was the more memorable experience. Both games were my most anticipated PS4 games coming into 2014.

I was playing South Park: Stick of Truth. I was just finishing up the first few hours of the game when I died and the game set me back to a checkpoint two hours before where I was at and my manual save was an hour earlier than that. How ridiculous. I immediately took the game out of the PS3 and sealed it in its Gamefly envelope.

At any rate, this has been the most RPG filled weekend I think I've ever had. Look out for an EverQuest piece this week at Kill Screen and a couple of pieces for the State Press, including the Transistor review.

Oh yeah, I haven't shilled my kid lately. Here you go. One day short of 18 months old.

[michaeljmartin]

This could possibly be the final Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn screenshot dump. Surprisingly good game. I won't say where some of these are from because of spoilers.

[michaeljmartin]

More adventures in FFXIV: ARR.

[michaeljmartin]

Work, Study, Play - Ding Fiddy!

I got some confirmation on my first article over at Kill Screen. It's a feature on EverQuest that I put a ton of work into getting interviews, pitching, and selling the idea. Look for that sometime next week possibly.

I also have a review of Super Time Force coming up at The State Press. Should be live tomorrow.

I recently hit level 50 on Final Fantasy XIV. I wanted to at least be able to say that I made it to 50 with a character. Of course, I was a goof and didn't level up another class in order to take on the Dragoon job with my Lancer, so I tooled around a bit to get that too. I'm not sure that I want to continue to invest more serious time into the game as I have other games that are vying for my attention. I'll say that this is a really good game. The single player campaign is really extensive.

That's all for now. Transistor is calling my name.

[michaeljmartin]

Work, Study, Play - Final Fantasy XIV grind

What do you do with a couple of weeks break between classes? Catch up on that backlog task list I was supposed to make last week? Maybe dive into some new releases? Nope. I'm grinding Final Fantasy XIV. I had the rest of a free month trial and I didn't want to waste it.

I haven't played an MMORPG this much in a long time. Years. I'm currently level 37 and I'm still having fun, for the most part. I've hit the grind. I'm not sure how much mileage there is in FFXIV for me now that I went ahead and paid for a month - my trial ran out last Sunday and I wasn't ready to throw in the towel.

I don't want to go into too much detail right now because I have a story idea percolating. Just know that this is probably the best RPG you will find on PS4 right now, with or without the massively multiplayer aspect. There are some extremely tedious fetch quests that I could do without though. Having to run back and forth between cities to talk to one person and then another drives me bonkers. It is such a waste of time. That's my biggest complaint.

As for the freelance game, I still don't want to divulge details on my first paid gig until I know its ready. I'll talk a little bit more about that process later, but I will say that I love the editing process. This writing thing is my heart and soul.

Speaking of freelance game, there's a new podcast by a couple of full-time freelance writers, Andrew Hayward and Nathan Meunier called The Freelance Game. These guys are taking their time to share information and knowledge on how to be a better freelance writer for video games. They periodically have special guests who are important to listen to because they'll likely be the people you'll be working for in some way some day. Also, it just so happens, I have a question that was read on the most recent episode - Episode 6: Hitting the Panic Button!

That's my Internet fame for the week. Back to the FFXIV grind. I leave you with a pretty badass image of Ifrit, one of the quest bosses.

[michaeljmartin]

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn screenshots - Ralfein on Adamantoise server

[michaeljmartin]

Work, Study, Play - Spring semester finals complete

With the submission of my last exam in my social media class, I am officially done with my first full year at Arizona State University. It feels amazing. I never thought I'd be back in school to finish a Bachelor's degree, let alone at a major PAC-12 university. I always wanted to be a Washington Husky, but quitting my job to go to school full-time was not an option. Thankfully, ASU's Mass Communication and Media Studies program is right in line with the journalism/media field I want to transition into. Now, I'm about a year away, give or take a few credits, from graduating. With studies over for a few weeks, I guess it's time to play.

I've been reading a book called the Happiness Project. I highly recommend it for anyone who is looking for ways to be more happy or just appreciate their lives in general. It has offered some great suggestions. One of which is to create a list of tasks you want to accomplish when you feel like you can't focus on one or another. School is easy for me to focus on. It's the rest of the working and playing that I need to organize better. I'll always have time for my son who turns 18 months old this month, but getting to the ever-growing videogame backlog is tough. I figure by my next post, I'll have a videogame task list ready.

I have been able to sneak a few games in recently. Hitman GO for iOS is fantastic. It takes the core of the Hitman games, yes, the third-person stealth assassin games, and melds it perfectly with tabletop board games and mobile gameplay. It has this simplistic look and feel, but it gets way more difficult as the game goes on. Each board features a new levels with different scenarios and newer enemies that change the dynamics. I've been thinking about how other videogames might work with this style of iOS board game. The possibilities are endless.

I've also dabbled in some Mario Golf on 3DS. I've played a few rounds here and there. I'm not great at it, but I'm still trying to figure it out. The game is surprisingly ambiguous for a Nintendo game. They're usually quite overbearing about holding your hand through tutorials and such.

The one game I've put the most time into in the last week is Final Fantasy XIV. That's me in the decidedly lame armor on the right. This was one of the instanced missions that featured a really cool boss that I can't remember the name of.

I'm currently level 22 dragoon and I'm finally in a portion of the game where I've started to get more group missions. I find it interested it was designed to be somewhat of a solo MMO experience through level 15 or 20. Once you've hit those levels, you start getting into quests that need groups. Since I don't know anyone in the game yet, I've been using the autosearch function for groups. It's worked well so far. FFXIV is pretty good about not overloading you with too much right away. It eases most of the game's features through quests set around the level of your character.

I'd like to keep going, but my free trial is about to run out. I haven't made the decision if I should bite on the subscription. I guess we'll see in about a week or so. It has been more fun than I thought it would be and I actually think a lot of that has to do with the single player aspect of it which seems so weird to say about an MMO.

Finally, I'll leave you with an image of Colin playing at the park on our first 80 degree day in Seattle. I think we all feel this way when the sun comes out.

[michaeljmartin]

Work, Study, Play - Paper Powers Sucker Punched

About a week ago, Sucker Punch silently dashed the hopes of many people playing inFAMOUS: Second Son expecting to get the powers of paper by finishing the Paper Trail DLC and somehow avoided a protracted Internet public relations war over it.

My intent isn't to stir up controversy where there is none. I'm not condemning Sucker Punch for not giving fans another half-ass power. In fact, I think they did the right thing by announcing there wouldn't be paper powers. I think the timing could've been better.

A tweet went out that was but a ripple in the pond.

Paper Power would have been cool. Creating a new power set requires a lot of time.. Hope you enjoy the free content and new bonus items!

— Sucker Punch (@SuckerPunchProd) April 22, 2014

Just like that, Sucker Punch dropped a pillow bomb on inFAMOUS: Second Son paper powers. It also happened to be in the sixth and final week of the Paper Trail DLC. This could have, and I believe should have, come sooner. With over 1 million copies sold worldwide, and the first part of the Paper Trail DLC available right away, it was no secret players expected to earn paper powers as a reward.

The only issue I take with this whole scenario is that if Sucker Punch would've announced the rewards for completing Paper Trail sooner, people likely wouldn't have bothered to finish it. It is common knowledge that the majority of people don't finish games, but Second Son is a relatively short experience. Two playthroughs resulting in a 100% completion and platinum trophy took me roughly 12 to 14 hours max. Keep in mind, that's still a good amount of time spent on a really good game.

I actually found Paper Trail to be somewhat more interesting than a lot of the regular game itself. It proved that I was a TERRIBLE detective, but I still liked it nonetheless. I was a few weeks behind before that tweet went out. I have no desire to go back and complete it because I don't care for an origami mask and more vests. I don't even need all the vests I earned in the campaign.

What the hell would Delsin use paper powers for anyway?

I don't know. I'm not sure Sucker Punch knows either. And that's why I think they finally bit the bullet and put the kibosh on the hopes of a fifth power that, as silly as it may sound, would still be a heck of a lot cooler than concrete. I'm okay with it. Paper powers would've been awarded to a great deal of people after they'd already completed everything possible in the campaign. It wouldn't have served any purpose beyond future story DLC that one can assume Sucker Punch is working on. I'm fine with exclusion of it.

What I also find curious is why it wasn't made a bigger deal? These things always seem to explode in a grandiose display of bad language, name calling, and trolling. IGN's news about the "announcement" generated a paltry 900+ comments. The tweet itself got 43 retweets and 75 favorites. Why so little reaction? Frankly, I think it is because Sucker Punch is a fan favorite developer and have earned the right to make a tough decision and be up front about it, even if they could've done so a bit sooner.

Maybe they distracted us with that amazing Photo Mode which had people sharing and tweeting some fabulous images. Maybe it was because they were adding features that players asked for, and some players didn't ask for, that gave everyone such a warm, fuzzy feeling that we were lured into a state of mind that would accept bad news much better than we normally would.

At any rate, what's done is done. Paper Trails was an intriguing idea that wasn't quite executed to perfection. Kudos to Sucker Punch for creating a solid game featuring some innovative powers, fantastic visuals, and being upfront about the lack of paper powers even if it came a little after the fact.

[francavillarts]

SWAMP THING Ink & Inkwash on bristol board Art by Francesco Francavilla

Doing a one-a-day original art sale on http://francavilla.bigcartel.com/ all May long, so if you never get a chance to go to a show I am doing, this is your opportunity to buy some original art from me.

MAY FF BE WITH YOU! :)

Cheers, FF

[michaeljmartin]

That is so amazing.