by John Hoskin on Dec 28, 2006
Welcome to your Thursday Loading... You can read previously enjoyed editions of Loading... in the blog archive. (For the navigation impaired that means you click the link and then look in the right menu.)
The 485th edition of Loading... is brought to you by EBgames.com: The authority on gaming.
Congratulations to the Canadian Junior Mens Hockey Team on their victory over the U.S. yesterday. That's 14 wins in a row. Let's flashback for a moment to the Christmas season of 1987 in what was then called Czechislovakia. Welcome to a world where a game allowed Canadians and Soviets to show just how much they loved each other.
Canada vs Russia - 1987 (Turn sound down if at work)Remember friends, in Soviet Russia hockey fights YOU!
Now on to your regularly scheduled program.
Apparently the chasm between individuals who write about games and those who write about, well, everything else is quite large. I'm not referring to their I.Q., their social status or even their ability to string six words together in a coherent manner, no, I'm referring to swag.
I don't read a lot of "tech" blogs. I have Tom's Hardware and AnandTech if I want to know about the latest gadget, gizmo or software. I suppose the bottom line is that I don't trust a blogger even if he is a "pro" (does he get drafted by a team on the pro blogger tour?) when it comes to hardware and non-game software.
For the love of all that is holy, if you aren't playing games on your PC then you are primarily using Word and Outlook Express or the Apple equivalents. You have no need for a tech blog because the machine Dell will sell you for $499 will do everything you need it to do for the next three years, maybe more.
Yet these blogs exist and they finally got some swag...and of course, they blogged about it.
Just to put things in perspective, many (some?) of the TenTonHammer.com staff receive swag on a weekly basis. I'm not sure that any of them ever received a laptop, but I can assure that the dollar value of the items that I receive in a year is far and away more than those Acer laptops that Microsoft gave away.
I've known the good folks at Edelman (Microsoft's PR firm) for about 10 years. I attended the inaugural GameStock in Bellevue and at the time the fact that they were willing to fly me to an event to hang out with Chris Taylor, Chris Roberts, Bruce Shelley and the like was almost too good to be true. My row-mate on the flight down was a fellow Canadian who wrote about games for USA Today. When we arrived in Seattle we were greated by personal limosines to take us to the hotel. It was a surreal experience.
Attendees to the event were showered in gifts and trundled like kings to dinners, booze-fests and showings off of all that Microsoft Games had to offer.
Our staff are often flown by developers and publishers to events in far off lands like Iceland, France and... Indiana. It is a great perk, until you sit in JFK for 18 hours waiting for your connection, but it is by no means a bribe. A flight to some exotic location doesn't make a lousy game any better. It's not like we are going to trick our readers into playing a game that smells of dung.
Bottom line, the folks who are writing about games have been receiving swag for years and it hasn't changed review numbers or Op/Ed commentary. Why then, would it affect Vista reviews as the above linked blogger and harem imply?
Maybe the tech bloggers just need a hug? I can see the blogs now... "I got a hug from soandso! I felt obliged to disclose this in case it taints my review of the Vista operating system."
Disclaimer: The above rantings apply to all tech bloggers except for this guy. I worked with him in the past. He's a good guy. Go read his blog.
Check this link out for the scoop on Vista.
Gaming Post-Vista: Myths and Realities--
The Vanguard community continues to take the other gamers out behind the shed and kick the love of Brad McQuaid into them. Wiki Pwnage continues for the Vanguard players and would-be players. If you haven't visited the MMOG Wiki yet then click a link.
Let me get you started:
--
I promised some predictions for 2007 from our developer friends today, but I can't get the docs to open. What in the name of all that is Microsoft is a .docx? (Belay that, Nicole tells me it's a 2007 format. I'm still using Word: Chisel and Rock edition)
--
Do you have predictons for 2007?
Let me know, either in the comments section of the blog or in our forums!
--
Guild Management has never been easier! Not sure what GuildPortal is, or what it can do for your Guild? Click here to read about what GuildPortal is, why it's the most imitated, and why people have been using us since October of 2001 to host their Guild web sites!
Exclusive TenTonHammer.com Content!
12.28.2006
Hot Content
World of Warcraft: Getting Your Mount World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade - Shattered Halls Gallery Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - Open Or Regional Servers? Pirates CGS Online Interview With Scott Martins Pirates of the Burning Sea: Exclusive Screenshots World of Warcraft: Decursive 2.0 Lord of the Rings Online: 50 Beta PassesReal World News - You Can't Make This Up
Firefox Ad (sound) [Thanks Matt]Vin Diesel Fact: Vin Diesel can bite off more than he can chew, and then chew it.
As always, thank you for visiting TenTonHammer.com.
- John "Boomjack" Hoskin