It's That Season Again

Christmas always comes early for us gamers doesn't it? So much to play and so little time.

The curse really amplifies when you are a game developer, let me tell you. Our deadlines are almost always falling around these dates without fail, whether a game is being released or not, but we want to enjoy the fruits of everyone elses labors in the game industry at the same time.

I've been trying to be "good" and not buy a zillion games, but somehow they keep sneaking into my shopping cart anyway. I didn't intend to buy Dead Space right after it came out, but lo' and behold I'm still playing it one hour at a time.

I also intend to buy Left 4 Dead, whether or not I have the time to play it is yet to be determined.

I've told myself that I can't keep buying games unless I either beat some of them, or cancel memberships to them if they are MMOs. Somehow, I just can't part ways with EVE yet, because it's just so damn good. I get all of my SOE games for free, so there is no reason to quit playing them (hehe), and I haven't gotten burned out on Warhammer Online yet, but I've definitely slowed down my play due to my work habits.

As far as work has been going, well, it's been going amazing. We have made huge strides with The Agency, and I've been really enjoying how things are progressing with the game. It keeps getting more and more fun, and I am really proud that I have had a nice impact on the game since I've joined the team.

I still feel these twinges of sadness though when I think about EverQuest II. The expansion is coming out very soon, and they just celebrated their 4th year anniversary, so it's a bit tough on me in a way because I not only miss my friends who are still on that team, but I miss being immersed in that game as much as I was. I look forward to seeing how the dungeons I initially designed before I left for The Agency turned out, because most of them were empty shells or just lines on map in a wiki page when I last saw them. I have seen some of the Miragul's stuff, which I'm really stoked to see, because the concept behind that content was a long time coming before it saw the light of day. Some of the ideas that sparked those zones were things I wrote up almost 3 years ago right after I finished writing the Splitpaw Saga quests, so it's wonderful to see it come to life finally. I'm sure alot has changed from those initial ideas, but it's nice to see a little bit of me in there somewhere even still.