Category: Thoughts

Eric Swain Recent Posts, Thoughts

Visual Expectations

I want to talk about this quote from a 2k executive. I’m not going to deconstruct everything wrong with it. RockPaperShotgun did a pretty good job of that already. I’ll also point to Destructoid for a slightly more irreverent take on it. Instead, I want to use it as a jumping off point to talk about a closely related and intertwined issue. Visuals are important to video games because they are a visual medium, but fidelity isn’t necessarily important. | more

Eric Swain Recent Posts, Thoughts

The RPG Lineage Chart

Way back at PAX East I got to talking with some people over dinner Saturday and one of the topics that came up was my Dragon Age II Lineage post I did the year before and the research that went into it. I described what I did and that I ended up making a chart. In looking through my collection of business cards from that weekend I believe it was Scott Macmillan that asked to see that chart if he could. Well, I found it recently after the recent home renovation in a pile of papers and roleplaying books. | more

Eric Swain Recent Posts, Thoughts

Shock to the System

I am writing this, because I am freaking out right now and not entirely in a good way. I need to get this out of my right now, before my heart does something it shouldn’t. Twice today I’ve gotten a shock and both concern free games. Earlier today I was hanging out in my room reading my twitter feed, trying to catch up and I’m seeing a lot of chatter on Steam Sales, seems like they get earlier every year, and then I see Justin Keverne mention he feels like gift a game. | more

Eric Swain Recent Posts, Thoughts

End to Navel Gazing Week and Other Thoughts

Well, I said it was navel gazing week some time ago and I wanted to wrap up, after that monster of a last post, with a few more informal thoughts. Since that time has passed and other things have happened, I figure I might as well just mash it all into one post. Really all that’s left to think of are a few musings on how to make game criticism more visible at least in my tiny corner of the world. | more

Eric Swain Recent Posts, Thoughts

A Companion to Comic Culture

I’ve gotten some pretty good buzz surrounding my last post, despite it going up around 2 am when normal people are asleep. I asked if there would be any interest in hearing my opinions on the some of the works I read. That’s read in the past tense, and there was. First realize a single comic issue is about 20-24 pages long. It can be a little more and a little less. That seems to be a consistent with the American, English and Japanese comic publication. No comment, but I do wonder if there is some reason behind the number. | more

Eric Swain Recent Posts, Thoughts

Dragon Age II’s Lineage

(This was originally written several months ago in the run up to Dragon Age II’s release for another site. The editor at the time was swamped with work and it got lost in the shuffle. As time went by I forgotten I had wrote it until a conversation on twitter reminded me about it. I asked the present feature’s editor if it would be ok to take it back for my site. He said it’s a bit late to use it, so it would be fine. | more

Eric Swain Recent Posts, Thoughts

Bioware You Suck

I first like to preface this with: I love BioWare. I love their games, I love their worlds and I love their characters and I love the experiences they have imparted onto me. Baldur’s Gate is my favorite game of all time. I think that series is the pinnacle of the CRPG. Right now that that’s out of the way. YOU SUCK! Let me explain. For those who follow me, or care to pay attention to anything I have to say at all, know I called Dragon Age: Origins my game of the year back in 2009 even though I was only able to play about 12-14 hours of it. | more

Eric Swain Recent Posts, Thoughts

Laptop Fluff

Since this weekend was an overall bust with unexpected work hours throwing off a major project undertaking I had planned. However despite that, this has been a really great week for me. Why? Because my new laptop came. And since I have been taking on too much heavy lifting when it comes to all these what I’m calling projects I’ve been starting. (I call them projects because while the end result may just be an essay or a podcast, but the amount of work and research that goes into it. | more

Eric Swain Recent Posts, Thoughts

I’m Done and Now I’m Back

I've been only lightly using the internet and got pretty much away from the site due to my summer class. The last class I needed to graduate. Well, I passed it this week and minus all the bureaucratic nonsense it will take to transfer the credits to Boston University I am a college graduate. Hurray for me. Anyway that means I'm getting back to reading my backlog, playing my backlog and back to writing. If I have my way I'll be start posting again next week. | more

Eric Swain Recent Posts, Thoughts

What I got from E3

I know it's kind of pointless to write anything on E3, especially after this pretty much summarizes the whole thing, but it's my blog and I want to. inception on youtube full movie Going into E3 I wanted to see only a few things: Beyond Good and Evil 2, The Last Guardian, Dragon Age 2, Mirror's Edge 2 and anything that hadn't already been announced. That last one is a little innocuous, because with the exception of The Last Guardian, none of the others on my list have been announced. | more