Okay, so for the first time since we started, Piro has managed to get his drink on and his rant on before I did. No matter, I've come back from the depths of Baldur's Gate II, having finally beat the game. To give you an idea of the time I put in it, realize I received the game late Thursday afternoon, from that time forward I've done nothing but the play the game, and some laundry - though I won't get into that. I liked the ending, again I'm satisfied with this franchise, Bioware has scored two for two and now I want them go make me some more kickass games.
Today's strip is more a jab rather then a insult to Maxis. I even liked playing The Sims, for all of four hours… After that I did like everyone else and just locked my Sims in a tiny room with no doors and waited for them to keel over. Don't look at me like that! Everyone was doing it!
As Piro says, it's getting colder, and I do love the cold weather, it's my all time my favorite climate, which makes me wonder why I've lived most of my life in such warm areas of the country. Perhaps it's because like all things, including games, when you are around it everyday, you don't see it as refreshing and wondrous as you once did, all things over time will lose their luster. It seems everything has a cycle from fresh beginning to climax, and then the fall to the end. This process can be quick or dreadfully slow, hell - it took Star Wars twenty years to do it. I bring this up because I've thought about comics as of late, and this seems to hold true even for them, I don't pretend to know why people read comics, I can't even explain why Piro and I are making one now. If the only reason is entertainment, then I acknowledge we too, are not immune to this cycle - and this is how I think it should be.
With all the shows I've watched, I always preferred series' that before even the first frame was inked, the creators knew the series had a beginning, middle, and end. Rather then the ones that find something the audience likes, and then milks it for as long as they can. Effectively ramming a once good idea about fifty miles into the ground. Who really wins in this? The fans trade in what could have been a great epic in favor of a seeing their favorite characters on a regular basis. For the creators, true - they make more money, steady employment is never a bad thing, but they get forced to spend several years doing 'the same old thing'., which to a creative type person - can be very painful.
I suppose there are tradeoffs to everything.