Brief blog, sorry...

[Just an abbreviated Vent, one that I had mostly written up, as I'll be at the hospital with my Mom during most of the day. Not sure if I'll be able to blog tomorrow. We'll see what happens]


I first started using Twitter in September of '09. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was hot, and Robert 'Fourzerotwo' Bowling encouraged CoD fans to engage with him and Infinity Ward on Twitter. I started Joker961's HQ, my personal gaming blog, around the same time, so it seemed a logical way to promote the blog, which would be mostly gamer-oriented. It's been a mixed bag... Right off the bat, I got a bunch of gruesome porn tweets, which didn't bode well for my social media experience. I got fooled at first by a few twitterbots, automated tweeters posing as human beings. In fact, they're sometimes more interesting than human beings...
One thing which does grind my grain a bit is the unfollow. My interests, tho not exactly narrow, are pretty well defined. I'm interested in gaming, especially FPSes. I enjoy news about the sciences, especially astronomy and paleontology. I'm also something of a tech buff and love reading about new gadgets, internet connectivity, pop culture, and social media. Some folks are on twitter for one thing and one thing only, so they follow based on one tweet (like if I retweet someone's news about a new font, or some sporting event), and then unfollow when they see my tweets are mostly about gaming and tech.
It's totally unfair of me to expect them to keep following me if they're not interested in what I'm tweeting about. But it still galls me.

Picture credit: Geek in Heels

In the main blog today, we have yet another YouTube review for Blacklight: Tango Down. Prominent YouTube director Hutch gives the game a solid 8.5/10 score based on its strong, tho flawed, multiplayer.

• BASHandSlash coverage of the CoD4 PC mod Frontlines R3L04D.

• New Left 4 Dead 2 mutation 'Hard Eight' more like just 'Hard'.
• How Xbox Live Achievements work.
• Xbox Live 'Achievement Unlocked' sound almost never happened.
• The helmets, visors, and Masterchiefs of Halo: Reach. Variety is the spice of game lives!
• Electronic Arts selling off 15% of Ubisoft.
• Multiplayer gaming at fault for June game sales decline. Apparently, some of you are merely playing the games you bought and liked instead of doing your job and buying new games you don't give a shit about.
• Pach-Attack, Episode 124. Pachter poses on his pulpit proposing his point of views on gaming.
• Gaming Without a Safety Net. Extra Lives author Tom Bissell discusses the difficulty of communicating the gaming experience to non-gamers.
• GameArt: New Bayonetta figure captures the essence of Bayonetta.

• Second SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket arrives at Canaveral.
• Dark energy sheds new light on universe's expansion.
• 'Heat wave' weapon deployed in Afghanistan. Zaaappppp!
• Cracked: Six days undercover as a Justin Bieber fan.