After about a year of contemplating I have gotten a new computer! I have gone with a laptop solution this time around. I have gone with an Acer Nitro 15inch. i9, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, RTX 4060, 144Hz TN 1080P panel. Quite happy with what I have spent. Look forward to having a better work station to push out some more creative content. Currently only using Windows 11 until I figure out what distro I want to move forward with.
Just got around to publishing my open letter to Scott Ross of Stop Killing Games. I actually found there not to be a lot of information or opinion pieces out there about the topic of games distribution. Because of that I found it difficult to articulate exactly what I was trying say as I did not feel well researched. I think my cautious optimism came through fine.
Still playing Xdefiant when I can. It is a very addictive game, especially for one that I suck so badly at. Getting better slowly, hopefully to the point I'm good enough to provide some worthwhile commentary on the game.
Can't remember the last time I can say this but I spent the week gaming. Fallout 4 has FINALLY clicked for me. I wasn't a big fan of the RPG elements but now that my character has some power exploring doesn't feel like a punishment and I'm REALLY enjoying it. I have also been getting into Xdefiant, Ubisoft's new F2P live service FPS. I have to say I am very impressedwith it. It has an awful lot of polish with a high production feel. I genuinely have not gone out of my way to make time for a multiplayer game like this in a long time. It has only been out for two weeks, so lets see where it goes.
Finally finished the Domestic Violence article tonight. I will be posting it tomorrow during the day. As I said in my last update, it is a bit more academic than I would have hoped, but I think it agitates the point I am trying to make. Moving forward, I won't be writing in such an academic style unless the topic really calls for it. I suppose I just defaulted to that academic way of writing as it is what I know from my years at University. I also intend on posting all my writings as .EPUB files so they can be taken for reading on eReaders.
I actually got a pretty nasty back injury at work. I did some damage to my L1 through to S1. Currently unsure of the scope of it, though I am feeling better then I was a few days ago. If I can manage it myself with stretching and staying sensibly active I am going to try and return to work sooner rather than later.
I have almost finished my piece on domestic violence. It has been a while since I have written anything of substance since I graduated from University five years ago. WOW! The tone of the piece does change because I started to find the academic way I was trying to write as uninteresting and dry. There is a meaningful message in there somewhere and I feel like that if I write too academically the purpose does get lost. I suppose I need to find my voice based on what I am writting.
There has been some movement in the Stop Killing Games space (read more here in the resources page) which has me thinking about game distribution, the digital age and how smaller studios having distribution at their fingertips has not really done much to encourage innovation. I have some thoughts about the unintended consquences of Stop Killing Games that I plan on elaborating on at a later time.
Called in sick for my night shift so I can try to be better prepared for a job interview this morning. Hoping I can nail it as its much closer to home than my current job. The interview is remotely using some web based platform similar to Zoom. Surprised it worked out of the box with my Linux setup. I wonder if the cats will behave during it and not get involved.
Woke up at about 2am and worked a bit more on my domestic violence article. Currently trying to read up on the role of gender in criminal deviation as I want to argue that gender specific interventions are not effective interventions and rather a more gender-neutral approach needs to be taken to domestic violence.
I have soft relaunched the site. I have decided to go with a different approach that is less ambitious, but easier to update.
There has recently been a renewed focus on domestic and family violence in my country. I am currently working on a long form article that identifies the faults with contemporary criminological perspectives on domestic and family violence.