Clearing The Decks

Summer is basically over and it's time to organize some things.  No, not my closets, although I need to do that too.  I have this whole blogging and gaming life thing and I need to shake some things up.  I found that I've diverted a bit from the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year and I want to get back on track.

On the blogging front, I'm going to stop following Player Auctions on a daily basis.  Sure, graph porn is good, but that particular project takes up so much time.  The last PA graph I made represented 45 hours of labor.  Admittedly, most of that time was spent on the train ride home from work, but that is still a lot of time.  Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view), a group of game journalists decided to, perhaps unwittingly, open up the gaming scene to the wider culture war. So my next project is to start seriously cataloging the articles and different points of view flying around. Even if I never write about the subject, I need to pay attention now.  Some people think I'm some sort of "investigative journalist" or that I produce "scholarly work".  Trust me, the people who are starting to sniff around make me look like a rank amateur.  If I decide to write about the subject at all, I need to improve my writing.

On the gaming front, I'll probably not sub up for Final Fantasy XIV.  Not that I don't like the game.  I do.  I just don't have the time needed to commit to a good free company.  Maybe I'll feel differently after I run a battleleve, but I'm just invested in EVE and have neglected the game too much.  I finished reactivating my planetary interaction colonies last night and am using Trello to keep track.  The software is cool and I'll probably write about it in a couple weeks.  Also, I now have Mastery V in all logistics ships.  That doesn't mean I'm good at flying the ships, but I have the skills that will help.  Did I mention I hope to have at least one Prospect BPC when I get home?  Outfitting and flying that ship could lead to a lot of fun.

I also want to get back to playing single player games.  I bought Tropico 5 and haven't even downloaded the game yet.  I think that is an offense that warrants the death penalty in some jurisdictions.  I also purchased Papers, Please and the Fable Anniversary Edition.  I also want to get check out Kerbal Space Program again to see what's been added recently.

All in all, my hobby takes up a lot of time and I need to prioritize better.  Even the unfun stuff.