Square Enix has been improving Octopath Traveler

Based on the survey feedback after the demo release, Square Enix (and/or Acquire?) has been making adjustments to a lot of things. Interface, visibility, and my own favorite change, the ability to walk or run by simply tilting the joystick, with a “sprint” option available that increases your chances of getting into fights!

This game is really looking great still, and I very much respect Square Enix for being humble enough to put out a demo, listen to feedback, and allow the fans of this genre to push them in the right direction. Yes, you could argue that it shows lack of vision or leadership, but think about it: if you don’t have vision and leadership, why pretend that you do? This is why some series get a creator who ruins tons of stuff in the hopes of becoming a great director. They obviously had good ideas from the start, but listening to fans won’t hurt.

Book Update: Revisions Have Come To!

Finally, I have some news to share with you all about the book! Very exciting!

I’ve received the first completed version of the book back from the publisher (in digital form), allowing me to review the styles, fonts, margins, headings, etc. and make revisions to the whole thing before it gets printed and distributed! I’ve also seen how the cover of the book is going to be designed, which I think strikes a wonderful balance between elegant, simple, and expressive. It’s amazing to see a professionally crafted document with my own analysis and words in there!

What does this mean? It means I can put the finishing touches on the book and send it back to the publisher for more revisions, and then it’s time to push my baby out into the world and see where it goes. Once the revisions are done and it’s time to promote the book for wider audiences I will of course share the information with everyone, but until then Patreon backers will all get more sneak-peaks, details and personal accounts of what it’s like to bring this creation to finalization. Yes, I’ll even be sharing some snippets with them, even at the lowest tier of support. Their generosity and encouragement has greatly spurred me on during the brutal Summer of setbacks and hurdles, and kept me producing content for the site, so thank you very much to all the readers and supporters. I want nothing more than to release my book to you guys and kick off a new era of Mr. Wolfe’s META GEAR.

Look forward to more updates soon!

Book update: final editing run

I have personally done several edits of my book, fully revising and touching up the phrasing, structure, trains of thought, etc. etc. I’ve had several people read the book and give me feedback. But now that I’ve hired an actual self-publishing company and finalized the monetary details, I’ve been able to hire an actual editor to polish the book for a final manuscript.

The great news is: we are finally actually working on editing the document and making the notes!

At some point, the author is unable to see the flaws in their own work. If I were to try to edit the book on my own at this point, I’d probably rewrite everything because I’m just bored of the same way I’ve written it and read it dozens of times. But a dedicated and highly particular editor who wants to be proud to put their name on the product is a great way to really pinpoint what can be done better.

This is very exciting to me because for a long time I’ve been waiting in limbo for various things to be finalized related to publishing options, negotiation, contract writing, mail delivery (yes that still happens) and other aggravating details I don’t normally have to worry about with my happy little website.

So although it’s not as great as hearing about the book being ready to buy, it is the final phase before I hand it off to the publishing company and let them do their magic.

If you’d like to stay even more up to date with the book’s progress in the coming months, you can chip in to the Patreon and have insider updates.

Snake Soup celebrates 10 Years, gets new design!

Congratulations to The Snake Soup! Long-time affiliate and sometimes-collaborator Ravi Singh has kept his shitty old site in existence for a decade.  I’m just kidding about the shitty part, check out his articles.  They’re almost as good as mine.

blog_snakesoup10years

In a post titled “Ten years of ‘Soup!” he explains the shiny new design, which looks very modern and slick.  The forums have been redone too, and presumably all this hard work was for something more than a quick hello.  We’ll see what becomes of it, but seems like he’ll be making tweets and posts every now and then.  Makes me feel a bit guilty for assuming he was just leaving it all for dead!

Feels good to have a real partner in the Metal Gear community.  His opinions and style of writing are a refreshing change from anywhere else, and we need him to keep going, even if its just an occasional hobby.

Podcast #8: It’s Not Over Yet!

What the heck, we’re back!  And it wouldn’t be fair to keep y’all in the dark, so here you go!  In this podcast I simply explain what happened with the site, and what I’ve got in the works right now.  It’s a straightforward update for those who want to fill in the blanks and know what to look forward to!

Click here to listen to Podcast #8: It’s Not Over Yet! (mp3 file, 15:08 long)

Obscured By The Clouds: A Metal Gear Solid Article

For your enjoyment, this article has been updated on April 4, 2011

The year was 1998.

While President Bill Clinton was busy dealing with the Lewinsky scandal, the videogame industry was releasing some of the greatest games ever made. It could very well be single greatest year for videogames, before or after.  Games such as:

Resident Evil 2
Final Fantasy Tactics
Tekken 3
Parasite Eve
StarCraft
Unreal
Fallout 2
WCW/NWO Revenge
Grim Fandango
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
StarCraft: Brood War
Thief: The Dark Project

Oh, and a little thing called Metal Gear Solid.

That’s what I call a good year.

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