On Inspiration and Dedication

(Holy wall of text, Batman!)

Inspiration is a funny thing. As I'm sure many of my friends -- or, indeed, anyone with a creative streak -- can attest, inspiration can certainly be fickle thing. Sometimes you will be awash will brilliant ideas, your creativity pouring forth in so many directions that sometimes it's hard to keep up with it all. But seemingly just as often, the well can dry up and you're left sitting with a dearth of ideas. Authors and musicians call it "writer's block", and many others just call it a "dry spell". It is something that everyone has encountered at one point or another and, unilaterally, it is something that sucks.

Searching for "Lack of Motivation" on Google is
really entertaining, actually.

A very different but related -- and arguably worse -- problem is finding the drive to stay dedicated to a project. Even if you have a veritable spring of creativity bubbling forth, if you are having difficulties staying focused or motivated to continue something you will never make any progress. It's a frustrating process; you have all these wonderful ideas that you want to breathe life into but just can't bring yourself to make it happen. You make all sorts of excuses as to why you aren't working on these ideas -- maybe you have other stuff going on right now, and you will get around to it sometime later; maybe you need better equipment/software/connections/locations/sleeping patterns/catering services/et cetera; or maybe you feel like your mind has so many amazing ideas that you couldn't pick just one to work on. You list excuse on excuse and nothing gets done.

It's something that I have firsthand experience with and something that consistently plagues my life. It's something that society battles with on a daily basis. And I'm the first to admit that it's all based on baseless excuses that all boil down to being lazy. And I'm tired of it.

Fun fact: I created this blog back in 2008. I had thought up the excellent name Loading Checkpoint and immediately stole the account name for it. That being said, my first post wasn't until April 2011 -- the first bad sign -- when I posted a review of the movie Paul, the alien stoner movie with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Seth Rogen. I wrote solidly for about three months and had a decent amount of success, writing about everything that interested me -- I focused primarily on video games, but also wrote about movies, music, fun YouTube videos, and just anything else that struck my fancy. During that same span, I actually got two articles published on The Escapist (yes, a real video game journalism site) and got a ground floor position providing content to a different blog called Digitally Downloaded. Things were looking up!

Then the summer hit and I lost my dedication to all the projects I was involved with. To be honest, I had been losing dedication over the course of June. The updates were coming less and less frequently, which meant the possible spike of traffic from The Escapist and Digitally Downloaded was squandered and, eventually, the updates just stopped altogether. (I still regret that I didn't capitalize on that "success", as limited and inconsequential as it may have been.)

At the time, I was making excuses for my behaviour. Right at the beginning of June I was in a nasty auto collision with my now-wife and father-in-law, an event that totaled my car and set our finances back quite a bit. It's easy to say that things spiraled downward because of that but, really, it's just an excuse. If anything, such an experience should have given me drive to make my dreams reality, to buckle down and really focus on this sort of thing. I mean, that's what all the success stories and Hollywood movies tell us, right? Creativity + Brush With Death = Unbreakable Focus and Unending Drive to Success. But that didn't happen to me and it annoys the heck out of me.

I didn't post anything on the blog again until the New Year, when I decided to do a top 25 games for 2011. I spent a lot of time writing entries for it, going so far as to write up blurbs for my picks from 25 to 2 -- but then lapsed and didn't write anything for my game of the year. (Bastion, for the record. That game was amazing.) And then the blog sat empty until late into 2012, when it became what Loading Checkpoint looks like now, logo and all.

I'm going to stop detailing everything so intricately -- you can go back into the archive and follow along with the bouncing ball, if you really want -- and just give the Cole's Notes version: this blog has been a rollercoaster of activity. Sometimes I will update things regularly for months on end, but it always seems to spiral back to inactivity in short order. Recently I changed topics from video games to tabletop RPGs, thinking that would keep me motivated. Hell, earlier this year I started recording videos for YouTube but that, too, only lasted a few months. You could probably do a quantitative analysis of my online activity and find that each "cycle" lasts somewhere around three months, with a peak toward the end of the first month and then slowly petering out. It's frustrating and, frankly, a bit embarrassing.

This. Times a million. Ugh.

You see, I have all sorts of inspiration for creating online content, written or otherwise, but my dedication lapses after a while. After every bout of silence, I'll come back offering apologies as to my absence but, really -- internally -- I'm frustrated at myself. There's no reason to lapse but sometimes I can't bring myself to write or record anything. "I don't have enough time right now," I'll say to myself. Or: "I have so many ideas, how can I pick just one?" Or maybe: "This is just not logistically possible right now." Or even: "I'm too tired from work, I just want to relax." I make as many excuses for myself as I do for my imagined fanbase and, ultimately, nothing changes. And I'm tired of it.

Which brings us back to the start of this article.

Sometimes inspiration is tough to find. But, for some people, dedication to and motivation for a project is harder to keep. I am one of those people, and it sickens me, and I'm tired of it. So I'm going to start doing something about it.

The end of the year is quickly approaching and, because of that, I am going to do a list of my Favourite Games of the Year. I am pledging to finish this list by no later than January 1st. I will do whatever it takes to make it happen! And, though I don't want to pass the buck on to my friends, I would really like your help with this. If you are reading this -- and I really don't care who you are -- I am asking you to help me by making me accountable for this list.

I am going to set a schedule for myself: there are four weeks between now and January 1st. If I make a list of my top twenty picks, that is five games per week. That is absolutely possible -- easily so! I ask you, whoever you are, to call me out -- privately or publicly -- if it seems like I am not keeping to the schedule. If I make excuses for a delay, berate me until I get caught up. There is no reason I can't meet this deadline so make sure I know it.

I want to get in the mentality of being accountable for the blog and I think this exercise will help me with that. As for what happens in January... Well, I don't have any plans yet. But if I can make it that far sticking to the schedule I have set for myself, then there's absolutely no reason to stop. I have plenty of plans for what I could do but let's take this one step at a time. First thing in January, though, we'll talk about what the future can hold.

If you've made it this far, I want to thank you. I started writing this with the intent of doing a quick blurb about the difficulties I've had with this blog, and a promise to make things better moving forward but I just couldn't lie to myself any longer. It's time to move forward, to prove that I really want to do this and just go for it. There's nothing in my way except my own excuses -- it's time to realize that and just make it happen.

So let's do it!

(TL;DR: I am lazy and a procrastinator and it annoys and frustrates me. I want to get back on track and stay motivated. I am going to write a Top 20 Games of the Year list and have it posted, in full, by January 1st. I plan on releasing it in installments -- probably five games per week -- until the entire thing is posted. 

I want help making me accountable for this list! If it looks like I'm making excuses, or just not posting at all, I want you all to berate me -- publicly or privately -- until I complete the list! I want to make myself accountable to this blog again and if I have people egging me on if I lapse, I think it will help me maintain my drive to do better.

Thanks!)

The Channel Update

Hey everyone. There's no video today -- I had some technical difficulties on this end with new footage, unfortunately -- so instead I offer you a quick review of the channel thus far, and a little update of what else is coming in the future.

In Review

To start let's take a quick look back at the channel thus far. I originally claimed the channel name back in of June 2011 -- yeah, that long ago -- but it took me until March of this year to actually upload any videos. It was a long and arduous process (mostly of laziness) to get it done but I'm glad that I finally committed to the task because it's been really fun thus far and I hope that people have been enjoying it!

It's been almost two full months since the channel started -- next Friday will be that anniversary -- and so far we've uploaded:

• Three (3) Minecraft videos
• Eleven (11) Sir, You Are Being Hunted videos (check out the playlist!)
• Seven (7) Banished videos (check out the playlist!)
• And three other assorted videos

Bringing us to a total of 24 videos in total. So far the most popular video has been my first episode of Sir, You Are Being Hunted, with Episode 2 and 3 following closely behind. We are sitting at 340 total views over all the videos and have actually reached 10 subscribers! Double digits, whoo!

I hope that the people who have been watching are enjoying the content thus far. It's been a blast to record and edit all of my videos and I really appreciate every single view on the channel. It was nice to see a few comments from other YouTubers -- some really nice folks have stopped by to watch stuff on the channel, like Morgan from TheDynamicGamer87, and the guy behind the channel ProphetsAwaken -- and the support from all of my friends has been really great! 

Also, a big shout-out to my good friend David and his channel Midnight Marinara, which takes scary stories and converts them to radio plays -- he's been a really big help with insight about the YouTube scene and I'm glad that he's been there with advice on different stuff. I had the honour of being in two of his episodes ("Daycare" as the mysterious stranger, and "The Russian Sleep Experiment" as Subject C; I'm two for two as bad guys!) and I hope I'm able to take part in more in the future! Recording audio for an old school radio play is an interesting and demanding process, to be sure, but it's hella entertaining. I'd definitely recommend checking out the rest of the material on Midnight Marinara -- David has very high standards for quality and the voice actors he gets are all excellent. Each episode is better than the last so get on board now and help him out!

But enough about the now! Let's look to... THE FUTURE!

Tomorrow and Beyond

In incredibly exciting news, the PS4 has finally received the firmware update that removes HDCP from the output signals. This means that video capture is now possible and, in preparation of this, I have ordered an Elgato HD Capture Device in order to get some PS4 content on the channel! I'm hoping that the device will arrive this afternoon so I will be able to record some content over the weekend.

There's quite a number of exciting games already on the PS4 that I would like to record, with even more coming in the near future! The horror game Daylight was released this past week, so I am planning on recording that for the channel. If I can figure out how to properly capture video with my new webcam, I might even throw in some facecam footage.

Further in the future, the game Transistor is going to be released shortly and I hope to record that as well. Watch_Dogs is out at the end of May as well, and Destiny comes in September, so there's plenty of awesomeness to be recorded on PS4 in the coming months. 

More presently, though, I have an idea for a very special series that I can hopefully make work for next week! So keep an eye on the channel and I'll be sure to post any updates here on the blog.

If there is any particular content that anyone would like to see from Loading Checkpoint, just drop me a comment or something and I'll definitely take it into consideration.

So Much Appreciation!

I want to reiterate my appreciation for all of the support I've received for the channel. It's been a great process so far and I'm excited for what the future holds. Thanks again to everyone who has watched the videos, or even those who are just supporting me from afar -- all of the support, every little bit of it, means so much to me and it really helps encourage me to continue making more content!

I started a Facebook page and a Google+ page for Loading Checkpoint, if you would be interested in following me. I update them with both YouTube videos and the blog posts here, including my RPG stuff (more of which will be coming next week), so you should take a gander over there sometime!

Thanks one last time and we'll see you again very soon! Cheers!

Blog Updatitude: The Lateness

Hey everybody! Long time no blog! Hope everybody is doing well and that the "spring" has been treating them well. I use quotations because thus far spring has yet to fully arrive in Edmonton. We've gotten spits and starts of warmer weather but it has snowed the last two days here and, frankly, I'm beginning to think Mother Nature might have skipped the rest of the year altogether and just gone straight back to winter.

I apologize for the lack of updates on the blog; YouTube has devoured the time I usually spent thinking about here and, though I won't complain about how things have been going over there, it has meant that the blog has fallen by the wayside. Which is too bad, because print has a versatility that even video can't reach. But you should definitely check out my channel because it's doing awesome!

Regardless, I'm planning a few blog updates over the next week or so. I need to get back to tracking our Ravenloft campaign, because that is still going strong (though things have changed dramatically since the last update), and I should really be linking each of my YouTube videos here as well, if only for some cross-platform promotion. I've also been toying with the idea of doing some board game reviews -- if you actually read this and think it might be interesting, leave a comment to tell me so and I might take it a bit more seriously!

There's also another idea that I've been toying around with: I spend quite a deal of time world building and have a veritable plethora of worlds that I like to use for my tabletop games. Fantasy, sci-fi, and everything in between; there's a lot of stuff there and a lot of content inside each world. The one that I've grown most fond of over the years, though, is a setting I created for a Mutants & Masterminds campaign: a floating metropolis known as Eden City. I've fleshed out quite a lot of the setting, including detailed NPCs, villains, technology, politics, economy and everything else you can imagine. Because of the work I've put into it, and the positive feedback I've gotten from various players over the years, I've been thinking about developing an official sourcebook for the material. It would be a compendium of everything about Eden City, including plot hooks with various villains, and maybe even a brief outline of some campaign arcs you could run. For those of you who are into tabletop RPGs, is that something you would be interested in? Would it be worth the effort to actually put down on paper and make available to the public? Let me know if you have thoughts on the matter!

I'm happy to say that the first month of my foray into YouTube has gone quite well thus far! I am up to eight subscribers in eighteen videos (half of which are playing Sir, You Are Being Hunted) and am trying to make connections with other burgeoning YouTubers. I've talked to Mike Weem from the Weemcast, who is already quite successful (over 8,000 subscribers!). He's a really nice guy who offered me a little bit of advice, which was helpful! I have also recently found a few smaller channels: one called TheDynamicGamer87 who is run by a lady named Morgan -- she seems really nice as well and primarily seems to play Mass Effect, so what's not to like there? There's also another channel by the name of ProphetsAwaken who I found by looking for stuff about the upcoming horror game SOMA and he's a really cool guy too.

I've been struggling with ideas on how to promote my own channel thus far but I think just getting your name out there and talking with other YouTubers is the way to get it done! One thing I have definitely been struggling with is creating artwork to help brand the channel. My lovely lady Kait has been helping me on the front, designing me a new avatar/icon/thing but I need to think up an idea for my channel art (the banner above your videos on YouTube, which could double as the banner for the blog; any artists out there who might be interested in helping me with this, hit me up!), and eventually I would like to have a splash screen before my videos. But that's something quite beyond me and isn't strictly necessary. We'll see how things go, I suppose!

Anyway, I've rambled a bit too long, I'm afraid. Let's wrap this up by saying thanks to everyone for all the support they've given me. I was in kind of a bad spot, creatively, but things have picked back up and I'm happy to say that I'm doing much better now! I'll endeavour to get some more updates to the blog over the next week or two so keep an eye out for that! Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

And the Blog Lives On!

Loading checkpoint... Please do not restart system... Loading checkpoint... Loaded.

Well hiya, folks. Welcome back to Loading Checkpoint!

Some of you may have noticed the two-and-a-half-month emptiness on the blog. I know I did! Truth be told, I have no good reason for why it was abandoned for so long, especially after the resurgence of views I had been receiving back in October and November. I ate through my backlog rather quickly during those two months and didn't really fill it out again. I could make excuses -- I started a new job back in September, and it really ate up my time so I could write new articles -- but, really, they wouldn't be true. I could have taken the time to write up stuff for the blog but I got distracted and didn't come back. C'est la vie.

I'm back now because I have felt inspired again! No, I don't have any video game previews in a backlog, and no, I don't have any other Indie Spotlights in the works. I'm not even going to try and force myself into a regular schedule. Instead, I am going to post stuff as I feel inspired, and it just so happens that I thought here might be a good place to chronicle my efforts as I write up a D&D adventure for my regular group of gaming friends.

Yes, I am that much of a nerd.

I've been working on the adventure over the last week or two and have made some good headway, and I'm excited to share what I've got with anyone who would like to read! And, who knows, maybe in the interim I will throw in some news about video games.

So stay tuned, dear (imaginary) readers! Loading Checkpoint is back... It just might take a bit longer to load than usual.

- Nick

PS. Happy Valentine's Day!

Back to the Grind!

Hello one and all and welcome back to Loading Checkpoint!

Sorry for the absence in posting, things have been a little busy since I returned from Mexico and I haven't really had a chance to get back in the swing of things quite yet. The rest of the week looks spectacularly busy as well so I'm not sure if we'll have much content going up this week, but expect a true return to form next week.

In other news, who else is excited for Far Cry 3? It comes out next week -- sadly, we probably won't have a preview for the game posted before it is released -- and looks to be a competitor for Game of the Year. Such lofty acclaim, especially this late into the year? Indeed, my dear readers; from the extremely favourable reviews being given to the game from all corners, it is a wonder the game hasn't already received the award preemptively! Regardless, we will save our verdict until the game is actually released, but I am expecting spectacular things.

Anyone else get struck by the buying bug during the Steam sale, or other sales that happened over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend?

Update!

Hi all! Hope your November has been a good one thus far!

I just wanted to leave a quick note for all of our beloved readers: next week will be a slower week here at Loading Checkpoint. I am heading on vacation with my lovely lady Kaitlyn -- we are going to Cabo San Lucas; yes, I know you're all jealous -- so we will not be updating the blog throughout the week. I will try to get some posts ready to be published while we are gone but, if that does not pan out, we will resume regular publishing the week of November 26th!

In other news, I have finished the campaign for Halo 4 -- with which I was thoroughly impressed -- and have started watching Dallas play through Black Ops 2. While I still have issues with the factory built around the Call of Duty franchise, the game itself looks quite entertaining and features some really excellent set pieces (not to mention really cool gadgets and weapons)!

I was extremely impressed with the "Access Kit" feature; every mission, you choose the loadout you bring into combat, much like in multiplayer. One of the perks you can use is an Access Kit which allows you to access parts of the map you would not be able to otherwise. The first mission utilized this by allowing you to unlock a storage shed, inside which was a sniper rifle and bear traps, both of which proved very useful as the rest of the mission progressed. Using an Access Kit in the third mission gives you a sword just after the opening scene, and mortar rounds to use as grenades later on. It's a very interesting way to augment the gameplay as you progress through the levels, though part of me wonders why anyone would use any perks other than the Access Kit!

I'm also very close to finishing Assassin's Creed III and, I must reiterate, this game is phenomenal. I am a little disappointed by the character development on the part of Connor but I am really enjoying the setting and the landscapes, and most of the other characters are also very entertaining and involved. My only real complaint is that the game features Achievements/Trophies that are only unlockable in multiplayer. Considering I don't play much multiplayer, this means that the prospect of getting a Platinum Trophy for ACIII is slim to none. Not that this detracts from the game itself, I'm just sore because I love the game so much.

What are your thoughts on multiplayer-only achievements? And what have you been playing lately?

Happy Halloween!

Hello dear readers, and happy Halloween!

Our blog has been a bit empty this week but fear not! We have a preview of the much-anticipated Halo 4 coming soon and much more approaching in the following weeks! I want to make a big push and start getting video content produced to put on the blog but that requires some scheduling and some gathering of minds. Expect those in short order, most assuredly, and we apologize for the lack of updates.

On to better things: while I was fairly sure that the Game of the Year battle would be fought solely between Dishonored and XCOM, Assassin's Creed III has already made a huge impression on me. I picked it up yesterday and started playing it, and was immediately drawn into the world. It is giving me an experience I have not had since Assassin's Creed II, which is exactly what I was hoping for. I will be writing up a review in very short order but, if the game continues in this same fashion, I imagine it will be a top contender for Game of the Year.

In other news, Lucasfilms was just acquired by Disney, with three more Star Wars movies promised to come in the near future. So mark your calendars, Star Wars fans; we may get a proper modern Star Wars movie yet!

Also exciting, Skyfall is being released very soon! Anyone else excited for some more James Bond action? Because I know I am!

Update!

Hey all! Nick J. here, your friendly lead blogger here at Loading Checkpoint, ready to give you an update on the progress of our blog!

First off, I want to thank all of the readers we've had over the last few weeks. We've managed to get a respectable number of views over the last month (somewhere in the ballpark of 400), with traffic increasing every day! We really appreciate the support we've been given and hope that we can continue to produce entertaining and informative content to keep people coming back to Loading Checkpoint. I do want to apologize for the lack of articles last week -- we only posted the single preview for Medal of Honor: Warfighter -- but we have a few more articles in the pipeline for the next few weeks.

Also in the near future will be the inclusion of videos to the Loading Checkpoint weekly updates. We had some initial technical difficulties (and some slight interference from life) when getting started with our Dishonored and XCOM videos but we have gotten most issues sorted out and will be working on those and uploading them in the near future. Also in the works is a comparison between Chivalry and War of the Roses and perhaps even an editorial -- and let's not forget the continuation of Night and DayZ! All these things and more will be coming in the near future, so keep an eye out for them!

In news unrelated to the blog, I recently picked up Borderlands 2 -- a game I initially ignored, a decision I now regret -- and, between powering through Dishonored and kicking alien butt in XCOM, have been enjoying it immensely. I have been playing with Dallas, another of the contributors here at Loading Checkpoint, and we have been having some great times. What have you been playing recently?

Greenlight Spotlight: An Explanation

Recently, Valve added a new feature to Steam called Greenlight, a project that allows indie developers to submit their games for approval in hopes that they will be given a spot on Steam. The thing that sets Greenlight apart, however, is that the people approving the games are the users themselves: Valve has set up a process that allows users to review submissions to the Greenlight project and vote on which games they would like to see for sale on Steam.

There has been some criticism directed at Valve for some of the choices regarding Greenlight's direction: some people believe that the voting system is somewhat arbitrary as it seems no one knows exactly how many votes a game needs to receive to be approved. Likewise, there have been issues with joke games being submitted for approval -- something that Valve has aimed to correct by requesting a $100 fee for any new submissions.

Regardless of any criticism, I believe the Greenlight project is something very noble: it gives indie games a chance to be published on Steam, a platform that is already huge and is growing every day (especially considering Steam's Big Picture has just launched). It also gives them a chance to get some publicity that they may not have been able to get otherwise, which is often something that indie games desperately need.

Valve recently announced the first ten games to be approved via the Greenlight project, a list you can check out here. Of the first ten games, there are a few that I'm excited for: most prominently, Routine looks absolutely amazing -- and, as a hard sci-fi-themed survival horror, right up my alley; Kenshi speaks to me as being similar to Mount & Blade, a game that I really liked; and Black Mesa, the remake of the original Half-Life (a game that is forever a classic), is a project that has been a very long time coming.

What our Greenlight Spotlight will be for is to highlight games that we have found on Greenlight that we believe should be approved. We will do this in an effort to get them a bit more coverage and to help them achieve their Greenlit status, simply because we want to play them! Some of the games that we feature in the future may not actually be on Greenlight, but the project itself is a wonderful opportunity and we think that it is worth bringing attention to!

Check out our first Greenlight Spotlight later today and keep an eye out for them in the future; we have to do everything we can to help out these indie developers. It would be a shame to let this awesome opportunity pass us by.

Today's The Day!

This is actually a print from an Etsy store.
Credit where credit is due!

Well hello, folks, and welcome to Loading Checkpoint! As my note a few weeks ago alluded, things are getting started on the blog once again -- and today is the day.

Over the course of the next few weeks, we are planning on bringing you a number of different articles. We have a number of previews for upcoming titles, as well as a few Let's Play series, written and otherwise, to entertain you! We also have a series that shines a spotlight on some indie titles that we are excited to support, and we even have a few videos in the works -- stay tuned for those! (And, as a bit of a happy bonus, I just yesterday was given access to the PlanetSide 2 beta, so keep an eye out for my coverage of that game!)

As blogs, by their nature, are largely run by personal interest, the games that we plan on showcasing are ones that we are truly excited for: whether big-budget titles from major publishers, or indie titles that capture our interest, all of the stuff showcased on Loading Checkpoint will be stuff that we are excited to get our hands on and play. As gamers ourselves, we want to appeal to other gamers; what better way to do that than by talking about the games that we want to play?

We're planning on posting at least twice a week, with more content coming to the blog as we are able to churn it out. We here at Loading Checkpoint take this project very seriously and we hope that it comes across in the content we publish for you to read! So stay tuned: things are only just getting started!

- Nick J.

New Beginnings

Hello Blogiverse! Any of you familiar with the old Loading Checkpoint may notice that things are looking different. For one, the layout has completely changed; for another, all of the past entries have been removed. What's going on?

The answer to that is quite simple: after spending some time settling into my new apartment, after spending some time working for a living, and after some soul-searching, I've decided to give this blog another shot. And this time I'm not alone.

The small group of us have grand aspirations for Loading Checkpoint, ideas that I'm sure will not pan out for some months, if not longer. For the time being, however, we're going to be starting small. We've got some previews of upcoming games in the works, as well as some opinion pieces and even some videos!

We don't have a set schedule, and things probably won't get started for a few weeks yet, but we are excited to get out there and show you what we've come up with. So keep an eye on us over the next few weeks: things are just getting started again for Loading Checkpoint!