A New Day.

Welcome friends.  Let's get something straight first: I didn't really want to change my blog at first.  I liked the whole website-esque thing I had going on.  But I had some very vivid realizations about blogging that alluded me to the future of this blog.  But first, let me show you the first of one of the best additions to my blog, and that's page jumps.  Yes, blogger has finally allowed me to shorten the actual length of my blog on the home page and just show you the introduction.  It's much better looking to start as it makes the site look like something appealing rather than a super long list.  Secondly, it allows readers to actually browse my recent posts without having to scroll for ages.  Anyway, just click the link below here and we'll get the rest of this post going!

The page break is just a good thing, okay? It shortens the entire size of the blog and makes it a whole lot easier to take the poll and other things.  And there is the second of the much needed improvements.  Other things.  My page was getting a bit cluttered with the video of the month, the screen of the month, the gigantic blog list, and everything else.  I decided simpler is better.  So the "gadgets" of the blog, if you will, will for now consist of only my gamertag, the past posts index, a poll now on the left-hand side, and a list of several external links that have all those useful things that were on the blog but can now be found on the actual websites that make a living on that stuff. 

Which is where my newly recognized philosophy of this blog comes in.  I realize I can't do everything with this blog.  I can't give you awesome previews and reviews like IGN does.  I can't give you first-hand experience at a gaming conference like Kotaku.  I can't give you oogles of game videos and screens like GameTrailers.  This is for many reasons.  First, I HAVE NO TIME FOR THIS CRAP.  Well, at least some of this crap.  Yes, I check several gaming websites every morning, but that doesn't mean I can show you all that I saw or that I even should.  They are there for you to look at too.  As life is getting more and more time-constricting, I can't report everything I see.  I'm not making a living off of it like other sites you know.  That's right.  I don't make a cent off of this. 

Secondly, it's time for this blog and the blogger who runs it to realize the true value in a site like this, and that is in opinion.  I think we can all agree that the best posts on this blog, the ones that really incite discussion, are the ones that have to do with gaming opinion.  And fun fact: they are the ones I most enjoy and the ones I put the most work into.  So given my time situation, I thought how I could improve this blog.  At one time I thought about shutting it down.  I thought about closing it and moving to another blog.  I even thought about making it an all video blog on YouTube (glad I didn't do that...).  But when I actually used some common sense and found the real value in this blog, it was the opinion.  I mean, it even says that at the top of the page below the title.  My posts need to do something that IGN or Kotaku or 1up can't do, and that's give an opinion not from the industry, not from a developer, not from a publisher, and not from a news site, but from a person who divulges in the games.  I have the ability to give a perspective that others can't necessarily. 

So from now on, all posts, ALL OF THEM, will be opinion posts.  There will be very few times I will give previews and that type of stuff.  If you liked that, I apologize, but I think you'll enjoy this more.  Now, there are exceptions.  I still will do awards after major shows.  That's just fun to do.  And I suppose if some major news comes out I'll have to write about it.  No reviews.  I repeat.  NO.  REVIEWS.  I've been thinking for a very long time about how I wanted to review games, and the best conclusion is that maybe I shouldn't.  There are two types of gamers in this world when it comes to a game.  There is the gamer that cares for a physical score for a game.  They already have sources for game reviews, like GameInformer or IGN.  And that's perfectly fine.  Those guys know what their doing, and except for a couple of games in their history, they tend to all get it correct and their scores are all around the same comparatively.  Then there is the gamer who doesn't care for a score, like myself.  We are the ones who actually READ the review and want to know specifics.  Once again, there are many sources that know what their doing.  I myself read many reviews. 

You may be asking "Then why did you redesign the blog?" The answer is a simple one.  After not wanting to change it and then realizing it needed to be changed, I wanted to change it.  With a new philosophy and a new idea I feel it's appropriate the site gets an overhaul.  It's also appropriate because of the smaller size of the home page too.  It just couldn't work with the other style of the site. 

Lastly, I'd like to bring your attention to a new feature I've discovered, and that is subscription services for my blog.  Maybe it's because I've never investigated the features, but blogger has some very nice ways for letting you, my readers, know when a new post is up.  Blogger has e-mail notifications, where if I enter a reader's e-mail address, blogger will send an e-mail when I post something new.  I can also add an RSS reader (oooh, fancy tech language), so if you want to subscribe through that it's possible.  RSS is great because you can use it for lots of things.  For example, RSS can be sent to an e-mail or even a phone.  RSS can also be displayed on newer Windows systems.  Vista and Windows 7 both have gadgets you can put on your desktop that will automatically pick up RSS feeds and display them right on your desktop. 

So here's where I need your responses.  How would you like me to let you know I've written something new?  I can continue facebook messaging, or I can do one of the new ways, such as e-mail notifications or RSS.  If you do like e-mail, please DON'T leave your e-mail in the comments.  This site still is open to the internet.  You don't want your e-mail floating around.  I pretty much know all the e-mails of my current readers, but if there is someone knew let me know you want e-mail and I'll contact you.  Of course, you always open to leave any comment or question you have regarding this post and the site changes.

Enjoy the new site!

:D