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  • I’m thinking of writing a book

    I’m thinking of writing a book

    I’ve been thinking about it a while, in fact. But I’m not sure if anybody would be interested or how to go about the research it would require.

    For a while it’s fascinated me how, since I started gaming back in the 1980s, how the method of game payments has changed – how the companies have made the money from them. Everything from a one-off price for a game (No Man’s Sky) to loot boxes (Overwatch), season passes (Call of Duty) and beyond.

    I’d love to write about them – what they all are, how they work and the pros and cons of them, along with the controversies. And all with discussion from insiders across the decades who’ve had first hand experience.

    And some crystal ball-gazing too, trying to predict where this is going in the future.

    I’ve been thinking about this all for a while but Jon Bentley’s Autopia: The Future of Cars has inspired me further.

  • Why I’m concerned about the NGL messaging app

    Why I’m concerned about the NGL messaging app

    And not for the reasons why you may expect, either.

    But first, for the uninitiated, let’s look at what NGL is before diving into my deeper concerns…

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  • The 3 ranges of Chromebook

    The 3 ranges of Chromebook

    1. High end. Over £1000. Way too much power for an OS that is, after all, just a browser. Speedy with a great keyboard and display, you have a couple of years of life out of it before Google stops supporting it.
    2. Mid-range. Around £400-£600. Decent build quality and a reasonable lick of speed, you’ve not over-spent this time. However, the keyboard and display is a bit crap for the money you’ve spent. Google will definitely have stopped supporting it within a year.
    3. Budget. Costs about £200-300. Poor keyboard, slow as hell and don’t even get me started on the laughable display. Google will stop supporting it, quite possible, within months, if not by the time you’ve bought it.
  • Sabbatical: Week Six

    Sabbatical: Week Six

    So that’s kinda half the sabbatical gone. Time really flys.

    What have I been doing this last week?

    Well, I’ve come to realise that the feeling that I wasn’t doing enough is down to the type of work changing over the last few weeks. Instead of big, epic projects, where I can see a massive change at the end, I’ve moved to quicker one-off pieces of work where each result is less impressive. So, yeah, I’m still doing things but I need to re-adjust my recognition of it.

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  • Sabbatical: Week Five

    Sabbatical: Week Five

    And what an unusual week it was too. Lots of things unexpected plus lots of things to pull me out of my routine.

    In both cases, that’s not always a good thing – a routine is what keeps me going, striding forward to a specific goal. It’s how my brain works. It doesn’t like chaos.

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