New Stuff!

So hey people, Austin here. Long time, no post. Well, at least until about two nights ago. In any case, here's what I've been up to.

• After I finished "Free Will and Defiance", I was a bit exhausted as a writer. That essay took me almost half a year to write. So I took a small break from major writing, which is why everything I put up after that was small pieces.
• Those pieces were written after I finished "Free Will and Defiance"
• I got a job. I'm pretty close to actually losing this job. (I'm selling shoes at the mall, and I'm not very good at it. Or rather, I'm not good at meeting the ridiculous expectations that this company has for sales and sales technique.)
• Went back to school. (Technically I never dropped out, but I was barely ever present.)
• Wondered about what to write next while a few different ideas floundered. 
• The only one I'm still making tenuous progress with is an analysis of the late-game design of Ninja Gaiden (NES) and how it defies the consistent pattern of tutorialization that made the game feel "fair".
• Played the HD version of Kingdom Hearts. Stopped struggling with what to write about. It's a good game, and you're gonna hear about it in my next "big" essay.

That about sums it up. Regarding the new stuff, the "Scattered Thoughts on Gone Home" is pretty self-explanatory. Short version: it's a good game.

The two things marked as being part of "Free Will and Defiance" were originally part of that essay, but the flawed structure of said essay gave neither of those parts good place to put in sequence. In a lot of ways, I still view that essay, as proud as I am of it in it's current state, as a rough draft. And in a lot of ways, I view this blog as a place (other than my Twitter) to collect my written thoughts about games, so I wanted to put up those (incomplete) thoughts about things I regard as important topics in Metal Gear Solid.

When I do revisit "Free Will and Defiance", I won't delete those original posts, but I will be reincorporating all the cut material, and new insights I had after I published the original piece.

In any case, sorry for being an absentee. I'm working hard on the Kingdom Hearts thing, and it might be a while before that (or anything else) goes up. In any case, I'll see ya around.

- Austin C. Howe, Maryland, 2013