Ryan Lockhart RSS

letting the past go

fausty@gmail.com — 2010-02-07T10:55:30-08:00

I've always had a collector mentality. Or, as my wife would label it, a hoarder mentality.

When I was a kid, I collected toys and comics and games. These days I collect collectable toys, graphic novels and...well, games.

Lately, through, I've found the urge to hold onto my gaming past waning — perhaps thanks to my increasing age or just reality setting in. Will I ever open up and play that copy of Onimusha 3? Do I need to keep every game I've ever played? In the past the answer to these questions was always "yes," and I have hundreds (many hundreds) of games to prove it. These days that answer is starting to lean towards the "are you fucking kidding me?" side...

It started with getting rid of recent games I've beaten or just stopped playing. Amazon is a great place to buy stuff, but it's also a great place to sell the same. While I've never made a profit, getting back an average of half (or sometimes quite a bit more) of what I bought a game for makes it that much easier to buy new games. And it also keeps the shelves somewhat clean of items that would normally just collect dust.

Then a couple of weeks ago I began to put PSP games up for sale on Amazon. I have a good 40 of them, and now that I'm mainly rocking the PSPgo, they're just taking up space. Those sales went well, and I began to eye plastic boxes of the past in my closet.

This weekend I went a little nuts, took a solid look at my DS, PS2 and Xbox games, and started putting them in piles.

Things I'd Keep - These have sentimental value of some sort, or I really, really plan on playing them one day
Things I'd Sell - Looking up prices on Amazon was quite a shock. Everything in this pile are games I'm done with, but will fetch 8 bucks and up on the market (some as high as 40-60!)
Things I'd Donate - Games that have almost zero value on Amazon, or are too damaged to sell. Wow, I kept a lot of crap (and cool but worthless) games...

The crap pile (note X-Squad)

The numbers were pleasing. I'm keeping around 10-20% of what I looked through, selling around 60 games, and giving away about the same. Which means my collection just got around 120 games lighter, and I should have enough to cover a majority of my future iPad with the sales...

Also, a cleaner closet.

I still have many hundreds of Japanese and PS1 games I'll likely hold onto, and quite a few collectable ones I'll never let go, but it is a strange feeling of freedom knowing I could sell this stuff. A few years ago I would have laughed at the idea, and now I couldn't be happier.

Ah, getting older...

happy day

fausty@gmail.com — 2010-02-02T17:07:55-08:00

OMG, my day was just made. The "This American Life" iPhone app (iTunes link) is simply amazing... It has every show ready to stream (nearly 400 of them!) plus tons of extras, and it starts to play instantly over 3G. Instantly. Not sure if I've ever made a better $2.99 purchase. :)

want

fausty@gmail.com — 2010-02-02T15:55:35-08:00

Lordy, these would make awesome framed prints. I think my geek side just giggled.

elementary

fausty@gmail.com — 2010-02-01T22:11:07-08:00

Was expecting to enjoy this, but not quite as much as I did. Hot damn, what a fun flick...

ff7 re-remixed

fausty@gmail.com — 2010-02-01T17:54:02-08:00

A shockingly solid mashup of Final Fantasy VII tunes and hip-hop from Team Teamwork — liking it much more than I was anticipating, I've got to say. The album is "pay what you want" (I threw them $5), and is very worth at least checking out.

$7.99

fausty@gmail.com — 2010-01-31T22:12:08-08:00

Jump!

cleaning for cash

fausty@gmail.com — 2010-01-29T23:36:47-08:00

You know what sucks? Having tons of physical PSP games and mainly playing on a Go. Meaning they are just taking up room in my overloaded closet. Now, I could trade them in to GameStop and get a couple of bucks for each (gah), but instead I turned to Amazon Marketplace. And, hot damn. I've sold a bunch of used games, cleaned up a bit of room and just got a nice check deposited in my bank account... Really, really happy with the process, much better overall than dealing with eBay or its ilk.

Huh, my one-stop place to buy stuff is now also my one-stop place to sell things as well... Ah, my Amazon overlords, I welcome you.

a commander shepard i can believe in

fausty@gmail.com — 2010-01-28T16:26:04-08:00

Heh, more here.

the kindle factor

fausty@gmail.com — 2010-01-28T10:02:44-08:00

I just started thinking about what the iPad means for the Kindle, and the Kindle Store in general. I have a Kindle, and I love it. It's a super great reading machine, but that's pretty much it. The e-book functionality of the iPad (called iBooks — a similar name as the precursor to the MacBook), on the other hand, is just one of the device's many capabilities.

But, again, focusing on these machines solely as e-book readers, they both still have clear strengths:

iPad / iBooks Advantages:

Full Color
Larger Display
Faster Screen Refresh
Swipe to Turn Pages
iTunes-like Book Store
Potential for Comic Books

Kindle Advantages:

E Ink Display
(Way) Better Battery Life
A Better Selection of Books at a Lower Price
More Durable

I can't emphasis the awesomeness of E Ink enough; I'd much rather read a long book on the Kindle screen than an LCD, color and nifty touch-related animations be damned. The Kindle screen really replicates paper, and I can stare at it for hours without strain. Something I doubt I'll be able to do on the iPad.

Then there's the kicker: the Kindle App.

If Apple allows Amazon to create an iPad version of this application (which they might have to, seeing how they previously approved the iPhone / iPod Touch one), what's to keep Amazon from replicating the same visual appeal of the iBooks application, and linking it to a much larger and better-priced store? Even though the iBook experience (store and reader) is more tightly integrated, Amazon still has the Kindle name and the size / price advantages of the Kindle Store.

I personally hope to see a Kindle reader on the iPad, mainly for color versions of certain textbooks I have (which don't fit that well on Kindle's small screen), and also to create some real competition to hopefully drive down e-book prices in general (seriously, electronic books don't have the printing, shipping, unsold stock and returns that eat away their printed cousin's bottom-line, pass on the savings to consumers).

Either way, I'll be curious to see how this affects the e-books landscape — which is a little funny, especially when you take in account Steve Job's public dissing of the Kindle's "flawed concept" a couple of years ago...

34 years old

fausty@gmail.com — 2010-01-28T09:58:03-08:00

In a couple of hours. Huh. It's going to be a good year, though. I can feel it in my (starting to ache) bones.

the pad

fausty@gmail.com — 2010-01-27T12:56:02-08:00

Will I get one? Heh, lame question.

First thought: Neat! Sure, the iPad is a large iPod Touch with a slightly horrible name, but I'm starting to think it could be something to eventually replace my laptop... I mean, it's smaller and way lighter, and easier to carry around (you know, between rooms or meetings). Plus, aside from a few caveats, it can do nearly everything I use my MacBook for these days. Well, more or less.

Key MacBook functions easily replaced by an iPad:

Web Browser
Email
Music Player
Instant Messaging (with Beejive app)
RSS Reader (with Byline app)
Reminders (with OmniFocus app)
iWork Document Creation (with keyboard dock)

Stuff I wouldn't be able to do without new or advanced apps:

Blog
Watch Hulu / Netflix
Upload pictures to FTP

Stuff I'd never be able to do:

Handbreak

Yeah, aside from the lack of a DVD drive, there's really nothing stopping my future iPad from completely replacing my laptop, and the size / weight differences might make the switch just that much easier.

Or, at the very least, it'll be a great machine to read web stuff while on the couch / in bed.

Hot damn I love technology...

(less than) 12 hours away

fausty@gmail.com — 2010-01-26T22:08:52-08:00

Hot damn I'm hyped for tomorrow morning.

Also, please let it be cool.

40k

fausty@gmail.com — 2010-01-26T21:58:12-08:00

Well, a bit more than 40k...

My Gamerscore has been hovering at the high 39,900's for a while now, and thanks to Mass Effect 2, I finally broke the barrier. Huh. Um, yay?

Oh, the game has been freaking ace so far. Wow.

second chance

fausty@gmail.com — 2010-01-26T14:29:04-08:00

Sci-Fi? Rad. RPGs? Sure thing! Shooters? Heck yeah! The Bioware-created combo of all three? Eh...

To tell the truth I was shocked — like, super shocked — at how much I didn't like the original Mass Effect, especially considering how much some of my friends (and everyone else) loved it. I found the overall experience a giant clusterfuck of great ideas / story moments and horrible gameplay / pacing. The combat seemed clunky, I hated the AI of my squadmates, the non-combat areas were tedious and the health system was annoying. Also, not very pretty, with tons of pop-in. Maybe I started the game with the wrong mindset, but I got about ten hours in and couldn't be bothered to pick it up again.

So, yeah. Two days ago I couldn't care less about Mass Effect 2, then I started reading up on the changes that were made for the sequel. And now I have it in front of me, and am looking damn forward to starting it up.

Please vibe with me this time, I really want to be a fan...

get ready. pop it. let's go.

fausty@gmail.com — 2010-01-25T22:47:18-08:00

I listen to music. Lots and lots of music. But, thanks in no small part to the fact I may or may not be working on a project that may or may not involve music in some way (wait, is there such thing as a game that doesn’t have any music?), I’ve been exposed to quite a bit of new stuff and my tastes have expanded like nuts.

Case-in-point, I can’t stop listening to this:

Over produced? Maybe. Hated by Pitchfork? Oh, yes. Addicting? Very much. I don’t love every track, but there are a good half dozen or so that are on constant repeat, and now it’s wedged firmly in my current St. Vincent / Cut Copy / Johnny Polygon / The Bird and the Bee / Regina Spektor mix.

Hell, I’ll go as far as saying it’s my new favorite album of the year. Um, so far.