After taking a look at some of my web traffic statistics, I’ve been advised to start treating this damn website like Serious Business, because while my numbers aren’t great, they’re actually good enough that a guy like me can “turn pro” and start collecting some real cash. That’s the reason why you’re seeing ads creep onto the site. I’m trying to keep them as unintrusive as possible, but the changes around here have only just begun.
The Spoony Experiment is due for a complete overhaul. The site design right now is about three years old, and I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not very good. It’s basic, it’s relatively simple and the text is readable, which was the goal, but it’s always looked pretty amateurish. Makes sense, since I’m a complete amateur at web design, and I’m honestly amazed it’s worked as well as it has so far. We’ve had some pretty major disasters around here migrating the site to new servers, and it’s not all due to the size of the forum. I did a piss-poor job of coding this place, and whenever I had a choice between improving the site or creating new video content, I almost always chose creating more content. Probably the right choice, but it didn’t make TSE much more pleasant to be around.
So I’m tearing it all down. In 2009 this place will look completely different, from top to bottom. The content will remain, but the site is being restructured and redesigned so that all of the content will be much easier to access, and it’ll be easier to read. I’m still working out the details. The forum will remain relatively untouched, I think.
The conclusion of the Phantasmagoria review will also likely mark the end of my regular YouTube updates. I’ll probably change to posting small teaser trailers and funneling the traffic to the full-length videos on TSE where I can get some ad revenue. I owe a lot to the YouTube community, but I need to get some of that regular traffic to my site. I know it’s somewhat annoying, but those videos you watch add up to a lot of traffic.
Until I know more about how the new site will look, I’m hereby canceling all the requests I’ve made in the past for new banners. I’m definitely going to change the way those look into something narrower.
Well, I just finished recording game footage after pulling an all-nighter session. I nearly went postal on this thing because almost an identical thing happened to Phantasmagoria as my last Final Fantasy VIII review. I played through about three discs’ worth of content, felt very satisfied with myself, checked the footage and…
There was no sound. On any of it. Three hours of footage, and no sound.
I’d fucked up. I’d chosen the wrong sound device for my video capture software, and as a result the only sound I caught was my commentary, which I was recording on my DV camera. Basically the entire recording session was a disaster, and none of the footage was usable.
There was nothing for it but to record it all again, watch all the same FMVs again, do all the same stuff in the same way. Basically I had to play the game as if I hadn’t played the game before, leaving pauses to allow the viewer to read e-mails along with me, inspect items and game screens, in essence, listening to my own commentary and playing the game so that my actions synced up with my narration. Very tedious, very infuriating, but it came out well in the end. I don’t even think you’ll notice anything amiss; the puzzles are mainly of the “guess the password” and “use all of your items on the thing that’s about to eat you” variety, so I didn’t really spend much time fumbling around for clues. The playthrough is pretty smooth.
The videos will take a little longer to finish than I thought, though, but only because there’s about three hours of game remaining. I can probably trim some time off of it just removing lulls in the action (Curtis walking around looking bemused), but I’d guess there will be twelve to fifteen more sections to go on YouTube. Hard to say.
It’s pretty exciting, though. If you thought the game was funny before, that was when crazy shit wasn’t happening. The insanity really kicks into high gear very soon, so look for updates around Wednesday night. My advice: don’t read any spoilers on this one; you’ve gotta see it to believe it, and you want to be surprised to find out who’s good, who’s evil, who lives, and who dies, right? Is it demons, druggies, ghosts possessing your rat, or aliens from Dimension X? Or is it all in Curtis’ latently homosexual mind?
Oh, there will be KY Jelly before the end, folks. Stay tuned.
I’ve just finished Fallout 3, so I thought I’d offer up a belated conclusion to my previous review!
What spells terror like a visit to your psychiatrist? Prepare yourself for a load of long, talky scenes that somehow makes the Senate scenes in the Star Wars prequels seem taut and suspenseful.
Ah well, maybe now we’ll finally figure out what’s wrong with Curtis.
This part of my blog is a follow-up on my previous rants on Guitar Hero and Rock Band, as well as my short review of Far Cry 2 for the PC!
