PixlBit

Hey thanks!  But you know you'll have to deal with an old fart! :)

This was a game I wanted to get, but never got around to doing so.  But I don't feel too bad because I'm not a big fan of those "Mystery Dungeon" style games anyway.

As you said in your blog, I heard it has lots of remixes of classic FF tunes.  Some of them even made it to the Theatrhythm sequel!

Have you ever played Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Tales on DS?

A new Shiren the Wanderer game just came out for Vita.

I don't have a top 6-10 list, but I do have a definitive top 5:

1. Pac-Man (Arcade)

2. Animal Crossing (GameCube)

3. Final Fantasy 6 (SNES)

4. Super Mario Kart (SNES)

5. Namco Museums vol. 1 to 5 (PSOne)

Yeah that's sad about the guy who played the new Chekov dying.  When I was a kid I had a Russian Blue cat that I named Chekov.

Hey I've got another game for your to add to your list of things you should play:  Gotta Protectors!  It's a downloadable 3DS game by Yuzo Koshiro.

I was only in college a year before writing game reviews, so it sounds like we went to college at about the same time.

That's funny that you remember that Lara Croft Memory Card, too.  I remember getting that in the mail and thinking, "How am I supposed to review this?  It's just a dang memory card!"  But you know me, I'll review anything.  I have no shame. :)

Yeah, you know how it is!  The year gap I had between writing for the newspaper and GamerDad was enough that I had to get some of my contacts back into my list.  That's why I don't want to stop reviewing games if I can because I have built up such a good press contact list now.  They may not be as receptive as they were back when I was writing for the newspaper, but times have changed a lot since then.  I may still make my own site someday, but it may be a while.  As you know, it's all a balancing act. 

By the way, Nick, you know what one of my backup plans to continue writing game reviews is?   Heh heh. :)

Well first of all, don't apologize about anything you posted.  I appreciate your comments no matter what!  I just have to say my side of the story, too, just 'cuz.

I have so much control over the content on the GamerDad site it's almost like I own it. :)  But some people can be a bit sensitive so if I ever went to the head editor with any questions about starting my own site, I would want to be prepared and make sure I had a failsafe in case someting went awry.

Since I get a lot of games for free, I consider that some sort of payment.  With things going more and more digital, it's becoming less lucrative, so I am more selective on what I review now.  Regardless of what you may think, I do not feel like I am being taken advantage of at GamerDad.com.  I have a lot of freedom to do what I want there and not have to worry about the nuts and bolts of the site.  Believe me, if I did feel like I was being taken advantage of, I would've stopped a long time ago (for example, ever wonder why I don't talk about volunteering at the National Videogame Museum anymore?)  As far as experience goes, I do have a lot of it, but in this world, it's not what you know, but who you know.  I do have backup plans, and one of them is to start up my own site.  But as I have no idea how to even start that, it may remain on the backburner for a while as I still have a lot of things I have to worry about, like keeping up with my part-time job while looking for full-time work, as well as the duties and commitments I have around the house.  It's a balancing act, and sometimes you have to pick and choose your battles, even if it means you may not get to do everything you want.  And even if I did get paid, it would be a drop in the bucket and I'd still have to worry about all that other stuff.  Aside from ad revenue, I doubt the writers here at PixlBit get paid very much, if at all.  I didn't mention it in my blog, but I did get a lump sum of money at GamerDad one time on the 'old' site whenever he archived a lot of the reviews at WhatTheyPlay.com.  So I did get paid a bit for my earlier works (but that was ten years ago).  Anyway, everyone's life is different so you may not understand completely what I'm going through, but hopefully you might just a little bit.  But thanks for reading and commenting!

Thanks!

Most of the (small amount) of interviews I've done were by email.  But I wouldn't recommend Journalism right now anyway because it's not that marketable.  From what I can tell, anyway.