Some Cool Things On My Radar

I just wanna pass along a few cool things this morning.

First, Squenix announced some partnership with Marvel about which there are no details, and thus I am not hyped at all, but some people I respect are, so there's that. It has to do with the Avengers.

Big News: @SquareEnix and @Marvel announce a multi-game partnership leading with The Avengers project. #Reassemble pic.twitter.com/DS87Iuzk7G

— Square Enix (@SquareEnix) January 26, 2017

Second, there's an awesome Kickstarter going that I've backed. Apocalypse Now. A first-person survival horror RPG. No shit. It's Francis Ford Coppola + a bunch of devs from CDPR, Obsidian, and other awesome studios. Seriously, give it a look. It's worth your time.

Third, BioWare is dropping another Mass Effect trailer today. I'll post it later. Keep an eye on their Twitter or the Mass Effect YouTube channel.

Last, the thing about which I am the most hyped, is the pending reveal of Pillars of Eternity 2 at noon (central) today. It'll be on their main site.

Anyway, I'll post some stuff later today once details and awesomeness solidifies.

Word.

-Blaine

Anti-social media

I was born in the late 70s, which means I've borne witness to some amazing and drastic changes in the world, both socially and technologically. I don't always realize how fast it all changed, but it is honestly more than I can handle at times, and I've worked in IT (both on the tech side and dev side) for years now. 

I think the part I struggle with the most is the social media side. My psyche doesn't mesh well with how most people my age use it, and it frankly wears on me. Moreso on Facebook than on Twitter, actually. Twitter just seems to carry less baggage. And it seems like a narrower 'type' in terms of who uses it.

But I digress ...

Facebook, lately, seems like hundreds of preachers lined up on the street shouting at each other about politics masquerading as religion masquerading as philosophy and science. It's horrid. Even the people I agree with come off as assholes. I've filtered and filtered, and directly expressed that Facebook is the last place that I want to have a meaningful discussion, and not that I expected anything to change, but it's becoming a less and less attractive way to spend my free time.

In a lot of ways, social media, I believe, has cut into free time that none of us actually had. It's not relaxing. It's not work. It's not really social (by which I mean that most people seem to use it to shout their beliefs and bully/shame others that don't share them. There's no dialogue.) it's this other ... thing. I haven't thought about it enough to decide if it's useful or not, but it's something that I need to reshape, for myself. My approach is flawed, and part of me wonders if it's a generational thing. 

Anyway, I vastly prefer Twitter, but, and this is going to mark me as 'old man,' for sure, but Twitter moves too fast. I feel like I can't keep up. Ha. I know. I probably just need to cut my follows waaay down.

OK. Just thinking out loud. What say you?