Tuesday, 20 August 2013
Big Picture: "In Defense of Booth Babes (Sort Of)"
Posted on 11:46 by Unknown
Monday, 19 August 2013
ACAM Book Event Update
Posted on 06:01 by Unknown
The American Classic Arcade Museum has posted an official press-release page about the Brick-By-Brick signing event on 9/14. Readers of this blog already likely know the details, but it still trips me out that I'm going to hold an event there so yeah you bet I'm going to post about it.
Tuesday, 13 August 2013
OVERBYTES: "Don't Censor Me!!!"
Posted on 22:40 by Unknown
After an unplanned/overlong hiatus, OVERBYTES is back with some thoughts on the evolving debate about game censorship - and why it has a lot more evolving yet to do:
A Note On Ads & Promotions
Posted on 22:33 by Unknown
I just wanted to address a few few issues that some have voiced concerned about vis-a-vi advertising - specifically advertising on this blog and my own promotion of my book and other projects. Those who've had such concerns, please hit the jump for more. Those who don't care, wait just a moment because a new (and overdue) "OverBytes" episode will be going up right above this one shortly after it's posted.
Okay, firstly to the issue of on-site ads. It's been brought to my attention that the infamous "For Male Gamers Only" ads have been popping up in the rotation on this blog. Rest assured that I'm as annoyed by this as you are, that I did not ask for them to be present and that as soon as I have the means to do so I plan to block them from re-appearing further. For now, I apologize to anyone who was offended by their presence.
Why not block them right now? Well, the issue is that this blog uses a Google Adsense partnership in order to display ads as unobtrusively as possible. The way that works is that I effectively "sell" specific empty spaces on the site to Google, who in turn provide the ad content. For the most part, these ads not only change (ideally) each time the page is re-loaded, but which ads appear are often influenced by the browsing-history of the individual person logging on. As such, in order to blacklist an individual ad or an entire advertiser, I need to first see the ad trigger for me and then follow it back to it's source in order to get the correct URL for a complete block.
As of yet, I haven't been able to grab that code because the offending ads have not been triggering for my browsing in a manner condusive to reaching the source (no, just looking up the company's site has not done the trick) but I'm working to resolve this. If any fellow adsense participants out there have dealt with these ads already themselves, I more than welcome them to post the relevant info here.
Now, as to my book:
I appreciate that some folks have become tired with promotions for either the sale of "Brick-By-Brick" or a public-appearance book signing appearing so frequently on the blogs and at the tail-end of my various series. I'll be honest - I don't necessary grasp why some are so bent out of shape about them (I wanted them to be as skippable as possible, which is why they're both at the very end and just part of the clip rather than some kind of hyperlinked/unskippable thing) - but I'm sympathetic to both the "I don't want to see ads" and "I've seen this advertised too often" positions. I understand this, I only ask that readers also to understand my end of the situation.
I've been pretty open and clear about this, but just to reiterate: I'm not one of the internet personalities for whom this is a hobby, a student project or supplement income - This is my entire job right now. Escape to The Movies, Big Picture, Game OverThinker, OverBytes and all their attendant separate profit-streams are my sole source of income. I'm not looking for sympathy there. These are time-consuming jobs, but they're also fun jobs and while I don't earn nearly as much as I would in an office job, or in retail, or construction I'm doing alright for myself. Still, the economy is the economy and every little bit helps.
I'm not going to get into hard numbers here, but these are the facts re: "Brick-By-Brick." Nobody paid me to write it. I didn't get a contract, there was no down-payment, I didn't use a Kickstarter. I wrote the initial manuscript, then I shopped the pitch around until I secured an arrangement I liked the look of with a publisher who would handle the editing, formatting, online-sales, shipping, warehousing, etc. However, the actual costs of printing the first run of physical copies was paid for by me. Period.
That wasn't, I stress, the only option - sharing the expense with the publisher was also a possibility, and while that would have provided a "cushion" should the book turn out to not be success it also would've meant a lower overall profit for me if it did end up selling well (it also would've potentially delayed the release, which I didn't want either.) I decided to roll the dice on "this will work out." My only "insurance" move was to have a portion of the first run of physical copies sent to me while the majority went to the publisher. My allocation (though, since I paid for them I can always ask for more) roughly evened-out to the number I'd need to sell (at regular price) to cover the initial printing cost, the idea being that if worst came to worst and nobody bought any copies online I could maybe eventually break-even selling these on the convention circuit.
As it turns out, I was selling the book's appeal a bit short: Again, without getting into specific numbers, between copies sold at SGC 2013 and the subsequent online-profits, I actually made all of my initial investment back (and then some) in roughly the first week and a half of sales. Never in a million years did I expect a response like that - in fact I'd been steeling myself for exactly the opposite - and I remain awestruck and grateful to all my fans and readers for making it possible. Basically, this project that I took a total leap on with no assurance of succeeding was in fact a success (and a profitable one) right out of the gate; and thank you so much to everyone who bought a copy - I can only hope you find it worthy of your money and time.
Now, on the one hand, that means I probably won't be keeping a full-scale ad blitz going for much longer because, frankly, it's not necessary. There will continue to be mentions on this site and I'll keep the post-credits ads on relevant videos where appropriate, and I'll tweet about it, but the P.T. Barnum routine won't be needed; and as glad as many of you will be too hear that rest assured I'm much gladder.
On the other hand... the remainder my overly-cautious "insurance" allocation of physical copies (cut roughly in-half by SGC and the event at Comicazi) is still taking up space in my apartment. And since the Escapist Expo is still aways off (and since I don't know what the "rules" are for selling at PAXEast - though I can confirm that copies will be at Fangamer's booth at PAX Prime) I figured setting up some potentially high-turnout signing events would be as good a way as any to move some of that inventory - especially when ACAM said they were interested, I've wanted to do some kind of event there for years.
So... yeah. Basically, I overestimated how much in-person selling I needed to do on my own, but I'd still like to move that inventory all the same hence the signing events. And when those crop up, yes, I'm going to promote them. But if things keep going the way they've been going (i.e. very well) the ad-blitzes for those won't be nearly as frequent going forward as well. Again, I appreciate the "broken record" aspect of promoting this project, but this is a business for me and sometimes that entails advertising.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.
Okay, firstly to the issue of on-site ads. It's been brought to my attention that the infamous "For Male Gamers Only" ads have been popping up in the rotation on this blog. Rest assured that I'm as annoyed by this as you are, that I did not ask for them to be present and that as soon as I have the means to do so I plan to block them from re-appearing further. For now, I apologize to anyone who was offended by their presence.
Why not block them right now? Well, the issue is that this blog uses a Google Adsense partnership in order to display ads as unobtrusively as possible. The way that works is that I effectively "sell" specific empty spaces on the site to Google, who in turn provide the ad content. For the most part, these ads not only change (ideally) each time the page is re-loaded, but which ads appear are often influenced by the browsing-history of the individual person logging on. As such, in order to blacklist an individual ad or an entire advertiser, I need to first see the ad trigger for me and then follow it back to it's source in order to get the correct URL for a complete block.
As of yet, I haven't been able to grab that code because the offending ads have not been triggering for my browsing in a manner condusive to reaching the source (no, just looking up the company's site has not done the trick) but I'm working to resolve this. If any fellow adsense participants out there have dealt with these ads already themselves, I more than welcome them to post the relevant info here.
Now, as to my book:
I appreciate that some folks have become tired with promotions for either the sale of "Brick-By-Brick" or a public-appearance book signing appearing so frequently on the blogs and at the tail-end of my various series. I'll be honest - I don't necessary grasp why some are so bent out of shape about them (I wanted them to be as skippable as possible, which is why they're both at the very end and just part of the clip rather than some kind of hyperlinked/unskippable thing) - but I'm sympathetic to both the "I don't want to see ads" and "I've seen this advertised too often" positions. I understand this, I only ask that readers also to understand my end of the situation.
I've been pretty open and clear about this, but just to reiterate: I'm not one of the internet personalities for whom this is a hobby, a student project or supplement income - This is my entire job right now. Escape to The Movies, Big Picture, Game OverThinker, OverBytes and all their attendant separate profit-streams are my sole source of income. I'm not looking for sympathy there. These are time-consuming jobs, but they're also fun jobs and while I don't earn nearly as much as I would in an office job, or in retail, or construction I'm doing alright for myself. Still, the economy is the economy and every little bit helps.
I'm not going to get into hard numbers here, but these are the facts re: "Brick-By-Brick." Nobody paid me to write it. I didn't get a contract, there was no down-payment, I didn't use a Kickstarter. I wrote the initial manuscript, then I shopped the pitch around until I secured an arrangement I liked the look of with a publisher who would handle the editing, formatting, online-sales, shipping, warehousing, etc. However, the actual costs of printing the first run of physical copies was paid for by me. Period.
That wasn't, I stress, the only option - sharing the expense with the publisher was also a possibility, and while that would have provided a "cushion" should the book turn out to not be success it also would've meant a lower overall profit for me if it did end up selling well (it also would've potentially delayed the release, which I didn't want either.) I decided to roll the dice on "this will work out." My only "insurance" move was to have a portion of the first run of physical copies sent to me while the majority went to the publisher. My allocation (though, since I paid for them I can always ask for more) roughly evened-out to the number I'd need to sell (at regular price) to cover the initial printing cost, the idea being that if worst came to worst and nobody bought any copies online I could maybe eventually break-even selling these on the convention circuit.
As it turns out, I was selling the book's appeal a bit short: Again, without getting into specific numbers, between copies sold at SGC 2013 and the subsequent online-profits, I actually made all of my initial investment back (and then some) in roughly the first week and a half of sales. Never in a million years did I expect a response like that - in fact I'd been steeling myself for exactly the opposite - and I remain awestruck and grateful to all my fans and readers for making it possible. Basically, this project that I took a total leap on with no assurance of succeeding was in fact a success (and a profitable one) right out of the gate; and thank you so much to everyone who bought a copy - I can only hope you find it worthy of your money and time.
Now, on the one hand, that means I probably won't be keeping a full-scale ad blitz going for much longer because, frankly, it's not necessary. There will continue to be mentions on this site and I'll keep the post-credits ads on relevant videos where appropriate, and I'll tweet about it, but the P.T. Barnum routine won't be needed; and as glad as many of you will be too hear that rest assured I'm much gladder.
On the other hand... the remainder my overly-cautious "insurance" allocation of physical copies (cut roughly in-half by SGC and the event at Comicazi) is still taking up space in my apartment. And since the Escapist Expo is still aways off (and since I don't know what the "rules" are for selling at PAXEast - though I can confirm that copies will be at Fangamer's booth at PAX Prime) I figured setting up some potentially high-turnout signing events would be as good a way as any to move some of that inventory - especially when ACAM said they were interested, I've wanted to do some kind of event there for years.
So... yeah. Basically, I overestimated how much in-person selling I needed to do on my own, but I'd still like to move that inventory all the same hence the signing events. And when those crop up, yes, I'm going to promote them. But if things keep going the way they've been going (i.e. very well) the ad-blitzes for those won't be nearly as frequent going forward as well. Again, I appreciate the "broken record" aspect of promoting this project, but this is a business for me and sometimes that entails advertising.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.
Friday, 9 August 2013
Book Signing Event: September 14th at THE AMERICAN CLASSIC ARCADE MUSEUM!
Posted on 15:21 by Unknown
So, then, the cat is out of the bag.
On September 14th, I'll be appearing at the American Classic Arcade Museum at Funspot in Weirs Beach (Laconia), New Hampshire to sell and sign copies of "SMB3: Brick-By-Brick."
If you'll be in the area, I'd love to see you swing by and check it out - not just to see me, but because this place is amazing - one of the ultimate landmarks for fans of Golden Age gaming. Funspot is a massive family-entertainment complex, current holder of the Guinness record for world's largest arcade, and along with games they also have bowling, restaurants, redemption-games, etc - plus, it's in the neighborhood of Weirs Beach on Lake Winnepesaukee, so there's an actual beach, water-slides, go-karts and other great places to hang right nearby. To my fans/readers with children: Imagine a rural, more parent-friendly Chuck-E-Cheese's the size of an indoor mall - it's really pretty incredible.
ACAM itself takes up the Funspot complex's third floor, and houses over 300 classic games including many ultra-rare machines you won't see anywhere else. I could not be more excited for this to be happening here.
You can find Funspot/ACAM at 579 Endicott St North (Rt 3) Laconia, NH 03246 I'll be there on September 14th from 12pm to 3pm. Supplies of the book are limited and not garaunteed, all dates/times subject to change. Watch this space for more details.
On September 14th, I'll be appearing at the American Classic Arcade Museum at Funspot in Weirs Beach (Laconia), New Hampshire to sell and sign copies of "SMB3: Brick-By-Brick."
If you'll be in the area, I'd love to see you swing by and check it out - not just to see me, but because this place is amazing - one of the ultimate landmarks for fans of Golden Age gaming. Funspot is a massive family-entertainment complex, current holder of the Guinness record for world's largest arcade, and along with games they also have bowling, restaurants, redemption-games, etc - plus, it's in the neighborhood of Weirs Beach on Lake Winnepesaukee, so there's an actual beach, water-slides, go-karts and other great places to hang right nearby. To my fans/readers with children: Imagine a rural, more parent-friendly Chuck-E-Cheese's the size of an indoor mall - it's really pretty incredible.
ACAM itself takes up the Funspot complex's third floor, and houses over 300 classic games including many ultra-rare machines you won't see anywhere else. I could not be more excited for this to be happening here.
You can find Funspot/ACAM at 579 Endicott St North (Rt 3) Laconia, NH 03246 I'll be there on September 14th from 12pm to 3pm. Supplies of the book are limited and not garaunteed, all dates/times subject to change. Watch this space for more details.
Tuesday, 6 August 2013
Thursday, 1 August 2013
Tropes vs. Women Part III is now up
Posted on 14:44 by Unknown
Ugh. This goes up just as I'm on my way out the door. Here's the embed, commentary to follow when I watch the damn thing - though I'm most interested to see/hear where she falls on "ironic" sexism:
REMINDER: Spam, abuse of other commenters and/or hate-speech WILL result in comment-deletion and IP Bans.
REMINDER: Spam, abuse of other commenters and/or hate-speech WILL result in comment-deletion and IP Bans.
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