Blogging

I’m making necessary preparations to upgrade to WordPress 2.0, so I took the opportunity to take a look back at the past year of buttonmashing.com. Here are a few highlights:

• Resident Evil 4 took control of my gaming in early January. I was so impressed with the authentic Spanish phrases that I started keeping track of them, with their English translations. This ended up being one of the most popular posts I made this year. It was popular when the Gamecube version was hitting its stride and then had new found popularity when the PS2 version came out. It’s been linked in numerous forums and the like. I’ve tried to keep it updated and I’m pretty proud of it.
• The greatest moment of 2005 was, hands down, the birth of my son Mason. He’s now almost 10 months old and is starting to like playing with the controller when dad is playing games. He’s another button masher in the works!
• Of course, the best blogging moment of 2005 for me was the birth of the Carnival of Gamers. It started with a simple proposal, resulting in some interest. The first Carnival rolled through these parts in May (with a little controversy thrown in) and has continued on ever since. I’d like to thank all of the people who have been involved with the Carnival, whether it be participating or hosting or simply taking the time to enjoy the blogging, it’s been wild ride. I’m looking forward to many more Carnivals!
• Discussing 2005 wouldn’t be complete without a nod to the Hot Coffee mess. I had some thoughts about it and posted them, as usual. I was actually playing GTA:SA at the time, how convenient. In the end, it wasn’t about the game, it was about everything but the game. Hopefully everyone learned their lessons in that case.
• Mentioning Hot Coffee and not mentioning Jack Thompson is, like, a crime or something.
• The Xbox 360 was released to the gaming public, making me instantly jealous of anyone who had one.

Phew, what a year it was. And what of 2006? A few predictions:

• I’m not going out on a limb saying this, but the Nintendo Revolution is going to follow in the DS’s footprints — its initial reception will be lukewarm but once Nintendo starts releasing killer apps, it will explode. I’m talking BIG TIME. People will be praising it the way the DS is getting praised now.
• Nintendo will learn from its initial mistakes with the Nintendo WiFi Connection and improve its online functionality for the Revolution, giving Xbox Live a run for its money.
• The PS3 will suffer greatly in the US as backlash from all the Sony troubles and debacles (Rootkits on their music CDs, graffiti “ads” for the PSP, constantly crippling the PSP with updated firmware) of the past year. It will still sell like hotcakes in Japan but will not have the same success the PS2 did here in the states.
• PC gaming will be declared dead no less than three times, only to be revived with releases like Neverwinter Nights 2, Spore, and the WoW and Guild Wars expansions.
• I will still have a pile of games to play this time next year, resolving to get to them “sometime.”

Time will tell on most of those, but that last one is pretty much a forgone conclusion.

For the past few years in the blogosphere, there have been various “Best of” awards, including The BoB Awards (The Best of Blogs Award) and The Weblog Awards but as I’ve surfed the various categories, I see that Gaming Blogs have been left out in the December cold. I know Spike TV had their “Best Gaming Blog” Category, along with its whopping 3 nominees, which ended in a tie, but come on. I’m not saying the blogs weren’t worthy of their nomination, but there’s more out there than just those three. While I don’t consider Slashdot a “blog” per-se, Kotaku and Joystiq are both commendable blogs. Those three sites are great, but I think there’s more than just those guys.

So I’m thinking about doing a Best of Gaming Blogs poll here. Before we can have a poll, however, we need some nominees. Leave a comment here with a list of your favorite blogs. I’ll take nominations until Monday. If there’s enough interest, I’ll post a poll where the votes will be tallied. If not, I guess gaming blogs will have to wait another year for their own award.

As a courtesy to the Spike TV finalists (whether they’re proud of that distinction or not) I’ll start out with Joystiq, Kotaku, and Slashdot Games as nominees. I’ll also add my nominations: Dubious Quality, Wonderland, Kieron Gillen’s Workblog and 4 Color Rebellion are a few of the many blogs I thoroughly enjoy. (and how could I forget my favorite MMO-blogger, AFK Gamer!)

There’s a lot of good blogs out there, so nominate away!

Update: I also submitted a forum topic at Evil Avatar on this subject, you can read it here.

In cyberspace, no one know’s you’re a dog.

In the blogosphere, everyone is a someone. Look at me! I’m a someone! I’m the buttonMasher! Alright, so some of us are less than others. I love that some of the blogs I read are written by some really talented people. Bill from The Blog for the Sportsgamer has a new book coming out, the Gamer’s Almanac. I’ll be picking up a copy of the Almanac, as should you! Of course, I’d never turn down to a copy to review (wink wink). Crecente at Kotaku is now the video games guy for the Rocky Mountain News. Peterb at Tea Leaves has joined the ranks of “professional reviewers.” (let’s not forget the “controversy” Peter’s entry into the inaugural Carnival started. Ahh, good times! I wonder how ol’ Matt is doing). Of course there’s more. These are just a few that have happened recently.

Just like they say in the PGA Tour commercial, “These guys are good.”