#spunkify

[thepersonalwords]

No matter how strong or strong-willed you are, you cannot live a stressful, maxed-out life without that pace eventually biting you in the butt. It is necessary to take breaks, set parameters, and be kind to yourself if you want to continue making an impact in your little corner of the world.

Cynthia Mendenhall, Spunkify Your Life: 8 Secrets to Living with More Focus, Fascination, and Fun

[quotelr]

You are a beautiful creation and were made like no one else. Your uniqueness is a pleasant gift you can give to the world if you are willing to define and live that out. And, it is the best gift you will ever give yourself.

Cynthia Mendenhall, Spunkify Your Life: 8 Secrets to Living with More Focus, Fascination, and Fun

[mmoanthropology]

The MMO Game Review Community and Spunkify's Career Change

For those interested in the non tl;dr history of Spunkify's move from editor-in-chief of MMOHut to MMOBomb here is the reddit link displayed in the video:

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/wzev5/i_was_the_former_editorinchief_for_mmohutcom_and/

All media markets have two competing groups, one that produces and one that consumes -- in the case of the MMO market there are developers/publishers and an audience. The developers want the audience to patronize their game with money and time and the audience wants to enjoy the games produced. However, producers are constantly gaming the system to jockey for position against one another using marketing  and sometimes cutting-corners.

This gives rise to a layer between them that consists of journalists and reviewers -- and it is also often saturated by astroturfed versions of the same made by publishers to generate further marketing -- as a result, trust is a very big deal when the audience is listening to a reviewer or a game journalist. Impropriety can compromise the integrity of a reviewer and taint them to the audience even if they function extremely well for a developer/publisher and in a mad dash to make money, many gaming review sites have seen a problem where they've fallen prey to the desire for money over good review and reporting.

Without proper and careful criticism of games in the MMO and online market, it would be difficult to quality control what comes to the audience. The industry would be simply adrift in the changing whims of social interest and it would look a lot like the children's movie market where almost anything goes as long as it fits into particular parameters. Right now, MMO gaming is niche enough that the discernment of the audience can float or sink an entire game and review communities wield a great deal of power to change how outside culture views our as a whole.