Get it? Because there’s a winter storm and I’m soldiering on.

Lot of… bad things happening in the news lately. Just don’t be evil, folks. It’s actually extremely easy to distinguish between good things and bad things, I promise.

Site Updates

So, the plugin I’m using to sort my category pages hasn’t had the bug with A-Z ascending order fixed. I just sent out some follow-up. This doesn’t seem like it should be taking as long as it is. I’m sorry for anyone whose experience has been negatively affected by this. For those wondering if I can just use an alternative: no, not really. Keeping a long story short, there.

I’ve had some plans on enhancing the site that have been put on hold because I’d like to confirm I’m keeping the plugin in question. Making changes to site architecture and then swapping out the pillars later on would be a huge mess. I’m speaking from prior experience, here.

As such, there haven’t been any major site changes for the first time in a while. The backend these past few weeks has mostly been metadata tweaking. I’ve been happy with site performance lately, at least. Part of that might be related to my gradual switching over to .webp images. I know many users don’t like that filetype for compatibility reasons, but as a webmaster, the ratio of file size to quality is beyond reproach. Keeping page load speeds high while maintaining images of a decent size and crisp quality is pretty much impossible with .pngs. Growing up, it always bothered me seeing sites propagate images with artifacts, so I will never embrace .jpgs. .webps are my concession.

I’ve been importing music reviews when able. I had a persistent schedule going again, but my site of choice for high-quality album covers has been consistently offline. I’m looking into alternate databases so this stops being an issue.

Media Log & Upcoming Content

Drakengard and a New Distribution Method (?)

This may come as a surprise, but for a little over a week, my life has been all about Drakengard. I returned to the original game, having never achieved the true finale, Ending E on my physical copy. I’ve since done that and everything else in the game shy of maxing every weapon level (which I still might do). I have so much to say about that game, and I have another article drafted. More on that further down.

I’ve been struggling with how to monetize my work for a while now, and a method recently dawned on me that sounds more appropriate. The Patreon/subscription-based model is probably not the right fit. My content takes too long to come out, and takes too much time to create relative to standard subscription fees. It doesn’t make much sense to charge people monthly for articles that can take over a month to release.

So, why not just… sell the articles themselves? It makes sense to me. Subscriptions work for high-quantity content that’s quickly digested. I don’t typically create that. My articles can take hours to read, and if I’m at my best, I like to think they provide enough substance to come back to.

This is what I’m considering:

1. A basic, free article for all visitors that serves as a landing page and generates interest in further reading from my audience.
2. Certain sections contain previews or brief primers, then direct readers to a separate page where they can purchase the full article.
3. The full article contains the free article alongside everything that was edited out. An appetizer versus a full-course meal, if you will.

My Drakengard draft felt appropriate for this. Large parts of the article are dedicated not only to reviewing the game broadly, but examining the plot and characters. The latter is a good example of the kind of content I’d be making premium. This approach also keeps the base content a digestible size and scope, and anyone who truly cares to know my in-depth opinions will still have access to them. Yes, there’s a price tag attached, but to be frank, I think what I make is worth something. It is labor, and that’s typically paid for. It’s demotivating to do everything for free. I need money to live. That’s all there is to it.

Anyway, the Drakengard article is coming along well, and I’m excited to share my theories on the storyline. When it’s out, I hope you’ll give the preliminary article a gander and decide the full thing is worth a small fee. As for what that fee is, I’m just going to scale it to the work I put in. It’ll be intuitive. I’m not going to go crazy with the pricing, trust me.

Drakengard 2 & The Glory Days of PS2 Games

I knew all about Drakengard 2‘s controversies going in: Yoko Taro’s lack of involvement, the departure in style and tone, its non-canon status, etc. That said, I was still not prepared for how surreal of an experience this is turning out to be. I haven’t played such an uncanny sequel since Deus Ex: Invisible War, which isn’t a compliment.

In fairness, I wouldn’t call it a bad game (neither is DEIW), but its novelty has started to wear off, and I’m only a few hours in. I keep waiting for something interesting to happen in the storyline—anything to show that the soul of Drakengard is still there—but it hasn’t happened, which has me worried. I don’t want to start going off on specifics, as that energy is better conserved for the article. But wow; serious whiplash.

While playing it, I’m reminded of how amazing the PlayStation 2 was for “middling” games. Titles unlikely to blow anyone’s mind, but of such a consummate quality that one can’t help but be breezily entertained. There’s something to say with how you can grab almost any random PS2 game and expect decent production values including full voice-acting, as well as appropriately scaled, easy-to-digest content. Games didn’t seem obligated to last forever, and the platform is a treasure horde of sincere efforts that consistently meet baseline quality expectations while often possessing idiosyncrasies to make playing them still worthwhile.

Drakengard 2, at least on its own merits, occupies that space for me. It’s an easy game to become engrossed in despite its modesty, and when I get lost in its world, it’s never because I was hooked into some eternal grind like a lot of games do. Rather, I think it’s this sweet spot, this perfect ratio of gameplay to story, and production values to approachability. I hope I’m landing on something here for people. I’m just speaking off-the-cuff, but I do believe there’s truth to what I’m saying.

If there’s a platonic ideal for a video game—the kind of game that captures the warmth and comfort of coming home from school or work every day to work away on, knowing that you’ll eventually be done and can move on—it was this generation’s library, especially the PS2’s. Now, is this the generation that defined my childhood? Yes. Could that have something to do with my perspective? Absolutely not. That’s just a coincidence, and I’m correct.

When Drakengard 2 is over, I’m hesitant to move right onto Drakengard 3. I don’t want to burn myself out, and I do feel like it’s setting in already. I’m thinking that I instead check out some other “mid” PS2 games, and I’m open to suggestions. Chaos Legion has been occupying my mind in particular.

Super Robot Wars GC

Speaking of being burnt out… I’m getting close to the end of GC, but I haven’t played it in about a week or two. I’m just so tired of sitting through cutscenes and playing super easy maps, and I’m not that invested in upgrading this game’s specific roster of mechs. It’s unfortunate this lethargy hit now. It was inevitable considering how much SRW I’ve been playing, but GC is actually pretty decent. I respect a lot of its one-off mechanics, and there’s some neat things in the story. But fuck, man. I just can’t get excited about SRW right now. I’m exhausted. The consistently low difficulty contributes a lot to making these games run together, because my strategies rarely change.

I’ll get back to it.

Survival Kids Series

I can’t remember if I mentioned it or not in my blog posts, but before Drakengard, I got pretty into Survival Kids. I played the first game on a whim since it’s on the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy app. It’s pretty addictive and easy to understand. I liked it so much that I got every ending, which involved me beating the game from start to finish probably around five times. I have an article drafted for Survival Kids that’s pretty far along.

Between those replays, I started Survival Kids 2, which is also pretty good. I’m probably near the end of that one, but I’ve been lost. I think it’s harder to figure out what to do than the first game. I was looking forward to going right onto Lost in Blue, but again, I’m hyperaware of burning out on gameplay styles right now.

Just Checking In

I’ve been busy with a lot of things, including new articles, but I wanted to drop a quick line and remind people I’m not dead yet. It’s been three weeks since the last blog post, after all. I’m itching to get back to my projects, so I’ll leave things here. Thank you for reading, and take care!