Times They Are A Changing

So my friend over at Random Nerdom changed their blog up with a new site to host, new template, and new entries!!!!  I wish them a lot of luck and I will definitely be following them.  I urge you all to do so as well.

This new change has me thinking about things as well with my life and new directions.

To announce, the wife and I are having a child!!!!

YAY

And we are having a boy!!!!

YAY

So there are changes coming.  Around August 27th.  Woooo!!!

If I go silent for awhile around then then thats most likely why.

So I am planning on changing the feel of my mission statement for this blog.  First I need to identify one before changing it I guess.  I have used this medium as my journey through my past games as only a means to talk about that experience.  I will be honest and say I just wanted to get through things so I would not feel guilty when I bought new games.  I thought this would be the best way to keep track of things on the internet and it was some cutting edge idea.  Then I found the Backloggery and thats when I realized it wasn't such a brand new thought.  So I started to slack on writing.

Then I saw that some ads had brought me a very small amount of money and I realized that maybe I could try and make some extra cash with this blog.  People do it all the time so why can't I??  Well these people are very dedicated to this and may not be working 2 other jobs and balancing family life.  So I started to slack again.

Then my wife and the We$$ suggested I should keep a journal and track my experience as I found out I was having a kid and each day passing.  I tried to do that but it didn't stick either because there were days when the mundane would happen and I didn't feel like having to write about that.

This all led me to my new vision for this here blog.  It is still going to be "Getting Through the Games", however I am going to get through them because I want to enjoy video games before the baby comes and things will be cut down in terms of my playtime and what I can play.  I am going to try my best to not do game reviews, however I can't guarantee that.  I like talking about what I enjoy with games and that element to each particular one that makes me love/loathe it.  To add to this though I will talk about how I am going to be gaming while preparing to become a father, and then eventually being a father.  I know that there are probably lots of blogs about those concepts, however different points of view and advice don't always hurt.

I am looking at changing the template to the site (you may have noticed something new) until something sticks.  I am also looking at moving it from Blogger to a different hosting site.  That decision will relate to traffic and revenue brought in. 

I am going to make this endeavor easier to read and enjoy but that will take time and I ask please for your patience and support.  Things will get better from here!

Updates!!

I talked about updating the site yesterday, and in no time at all there have been some major revisions.

First up, the overall theme for the site.  I went with the dynamic theme to help cut down on the clutter that was on the page.  Yeah, the fish are gone, however things seem to have a much better flow to them.  It is a little cleaner as well.  My one gripe with things is the fact that it shows all of my posts on the front page.  I wish it only did one at a time, but the other themes that contained that concept didn't have as much of a straightforward appeal to them as I wanted.  So I will do some minor retooling of the site.  One thing that I might do as well is look up a free online class on basic html so then I know how to really work around with the interwebs.

Second, the List Page.  I went through and retyped every single game that I had on Backloggery to the page.  I had some games that never made them onto The List, as well as never made it onto the Backloggery.  Now things are matched up.  I moved FFXI off the list because it was a continuous played game, and I will have an update on that since I am pondering somethings with it and other MMORPG's.  With each game is its value based on what I could find on the internet/steam/PSN/what I paid for it.  This will work with the bank of credits that I will gain to buy new games.  I also have each game that I am currently playing highlighted in red so when going through the list you can find the games being worked on quicker.

My next task will to work on The Completed List.  I haven't updated this page with all of the games that I have been going through as of late.  I don't know if I will be able to find that list, so I might just take off those games, reset the accumulative time, and start from scratch.

UPDATES A PLENTY!!!

Like the title of the entry says:

UPDATES A PLENTY!!!!

Over the holidays I went up to North Carolina to spend time with my mother.  My wife, Jacob (the pup), and I had a blast up there.  Its so nice to breathe in the fresh North Carolina air.  Things were simple up there with on big stressors.  Nice to relax.  Nice to collect our thoughts and prepare for the final drive for the rest of the year.

Nice to catch up on some games.

I have yet to update my backlog page, but I will do that soon.  I didn't want to screw up my chances of getting some badges on the site when I added some new games.  I beat Mega Man X, and with the progress I made over the holiday I can get a badge on the site.  Yet if I put my new games up on there then I reset my progress made to the badge.  So I am going to wait to figure out what needs to be on there before I add things.

Hold on a second.  Did you say progress???
Yes I did.

Over the weekend I completed one game and beat another.

YAY excitement!!!

I completed Legend of Dragoon!!
It took 12 years and ~70 hours, but I have done it.  I am still formulating my post for this in my head since I have so many mixed feelings from what I felt as a child playing this, and my internal processes from completing it now.  Once I have those completely sorted out things will be put to digital pen and paper and all will be available for your eyes.



The game I beat was..

BAM!!

I finally beat FFXIII-2.  I finished in just over 48 hours, and with 123/160 fragments.  I owned the final fights.  Got all 5 stars for each battle.  Now that I have finished the game, I am going to go back and complete all the quests and achieve all the fragments so I can list this as a completion.  I would love to have this as a completion, plus I feel that I can get the platinum trophy that comes with this easily.  

I too am still forming the entry for this one.  I will be doing one on beating it and then will add one once I complete it.  I think I deserve to do this for sure.

You might be asking why I keep saying beat and complete.  With the Backloggery when you finish a game you must list if it is a beat or a complete.  Beating a game is just completing the main story line to the game.  Completing the game is finishing the main story line, then collecting all the side items, completing side quests, obtaining all the trophies, etc.  Completes are harder to get but that is how it should be.  I like to have as many of them as I can get.  

I am going to work on updating The Completed List with Beat games and Completed Games.  I will toss this into the updates that I have planned for the site.

As for now, thank you for coming by and reading.  I will have more for you soon.

Been a long time...

God it has been a long time.

An exceedingly long period of counting that concerns seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, etc. has passed.


And I have been nowhere to usher those (oh few you are) through the journey that we call completing a shitload of bad investments.


Lets do a little self imposed Q&A on what has happened:

Where the flying f**ktards have you been?
Well kids, I have been here, at my computer.  Also over yonder on the couch.  And upstairs sleeping in the bed.  Plus there is hanging with the wife and the pup.  Oh, and that work thing.  Blah to work I say.

There be an issue with the work thing?
Well, work has been pretty intense lately.  There was a chance that the wife and I would be moving but things unfortunately fell through.  So I have been picking up some extra shifts at work in the morning to make some extra cash.

Ok, I am bummed for you since things haven't gone well.  Have you kept up on the games?
Heck yeah.

Really?
Yeah

Really??
...ehhh.  To the best that I can.  With so much work lately I have tried to do my best to get through the list.  I will also say that I fell prey to the Steam Summer Sales program (maybe one of my biggest enemies) and I got some games off of that for my PC.  At least I got a great deal on them.


Over the months I have been working as consistent as I can with getting through the games (always insert title when you can).  I use Backloggery as my main tracker of all my games.  I routinely praise them for such a great site, and they deserve it.  Its so simple and easy to use.  Nothing complicated or annoying notifications that you get at all hours of the day.  This is one of the main reasons why I haven't been keeping up with my blog really.  Cause my thinking was I could just update things on my Backloggery page and those that really wanted to could follow me there.

Ok.  So why decide now to start back on the blog?
Well I can only do so much with Backloggery.  I like to write out my thoughts sometimes.  Elaborate on what my brain and feelings are saying to those out there in cyberland.  Those are really the main reasons.
I think I also have some grand delusion of being famous on the internet for something that does not involve a sex tape.

Note: I do not have a sex tape on the web.

The Q&A session is now over.

Let me catch you up on things.  I have completed a handful of games, added a good amount of games.  And I am carrying on.  That is all that one needs to know.  I am going to update the List so it reflects what is going on.  I should have a new post in the next couple of days.

Holy Fish!!! (Mackeral)

I know I have been away for awhile and that is in part due to work.  I have been working a lot of late night games and events that I get home exhausted.  Once that occurs I just don't feel like putting words onto paper (screen).

I was checking up on things today with the blog, thinking of a post when I saw that I have surpassed 2000 views. WOW!!!

I know that most of this might be spam sites.  I need to figure out how to counteract that activity.  However still. I am impressed.


Now what have been up to lately??  Well.  I have been working a lot on FFIV, and on Assassin's Creed.  I have been working on FFXI too since We$$ is able to get on more now.  I am trying though to keep my play time on FFXI down so I won't get absorbed into that too much and forget about everything else.

I have been working hard on AC lately.  I have decided to get a complete on it since it will be my first complete since I started using Backloggery.  I have been working a lot on my Backloggery page.  If you wanted to keep up with my daily progress it is the best way to go about it.  I posted a link to my page on the links section of my blog.

Loving it

I think that I am officially obsessed with Backloggery.

I spent almost 4 hours last night inputting games that I have beaten and not beaten into the site and I have almost all of them.  I would add more if I could remember all the games of my youth without having to have them in front of me to remind me of them.

What sucks is that I keep checking my page on the site and not really working on Crisis Core which I need to do.  I am working on the missions for it so I can have a complete for it, as well for better items and whatnot.  The repetitiveness of it however is very taxing on my concentration.

In laymen terms...it bores the shit out of me at times.

I know I have written about this in the past, but it is the slot system that does it to me the most.  I like to get my rewards for fighting immediately and not have to wait for an almost completely random system to award them to me.  I would also like to see where my exp status is.  I digress though.

I am working on completing Crisis Core tonight.  Not much good comes on TV, and I am almost done with season 6 of Law & Order, which has an amazing season finale to it.

So I will have my PSP plugged in and charged as I battle on.


Also, you will notice on the List page that I have almost hit 90 games.  Yeah.  I added a lot of games to the List.  I don't plan on adding anymore for a bit.  The reason I had not had a lot of those games on there was because I didn't feel as if they should be on the List.  They were quick purchases.  However as the Backloggery as taught me though I need to count those games as things that are holding me back.  I can't just pick and choose.  Thats how I ended up in this situation in the first place.

Writing this blog has helped me to stay committed to objectives that I have.  To sit down and say that I will accomplish this task now and not be distracted.  Screw you ADD I say.  Sometimes we just have to find a tool or something that will help keep the nose to the grindstone.  Hopefully in the end its something that we learn to maintain and cherish.

AMAZINGNESS

So I was reading my google news page today and saw this website that had the title of The Final Fantasy Challenge, found here

I realized that this author was doing something pretty similar to what I am doing with my List, just happens to be with Final Fantasy games.

Upon further reading I found that he was using a website called Backloggery, which allows one to make a list of games completed and, most importantly, uncompleted.


I swear its like a gift from above.  Its a system that will take my list to a whole new level in terms of me keeping track of things for myself but for others.

I am working on loading all my games onto this thing, and its a beast.  I am doing the games I have beaten as well as those that I have beaten in the past but have not made it on the List (pre-list, haha).  I think that I will not put all of these onto the List since some of these include games that don't really have an end.  Maybe not.  Maybe it will all go on there.

It might take me a whole night to do this but I am seriously excited.  Is that a bad thing??


I am going to work on adding the link to my backloggery account to the List page, as well as to my main screen so you all can look at it.

I will still use my List and Completed List pages along with Backloggery.




This thing has taken a whole new level I feel.