West Virginny

The last week had me traveling around VA, MD and DC. I saw some customers, a Nats drubbing of the Red Sox and a lot of time in the rental car and hotels. I believe that if I tattooed my rental and hotel numbers on my forehead, it mught make checking in even quicker. Travel Tattoos is the latest thing, trust me on this.

Big Buck Parties: Nebraska

In the airport sipping some sweet, sweet free wi-fi and ready to jump in line to get a middle seat. We held the first few Big Buck Parties in Omaha and Lincoln this weekend and it was a good start to a fun campaign. This is to help promote the World Championship for both Big Buck Hunter Pro and Big Buck Safari. These parties have also been promoting the online features of both games as well.

Dave Snipes and I signed up many a cornhusker to the Online network. I also found out last night that there are a few online secrets on Big Buck Safari as well. I thought Pro was the only one... I just need to see if Pappy is wearing Safari gear or not. Only 40 more online games to unlock it.

Off to the DC area next week.

The Week Home and Promotion

I am not on the road this week and I get to stay home and see the family as well as follow up with the past two weeks and prepare for the upcoming travel. 

Texas was my playground last week and I think I did enough damage in the lone-star state in regards to talking to existing and potential clients. It is becoming evident that more operators are looking to add value to their customers (locations) and that value keeps coming back to promotion.  The CoinUp product allows the operators to make promoting the Buck Hunter and Buck Safari machines a lot easier and it digs up new revenue sources as well. The other great products that are out there that can also help promote business are Incredible Technologies' Online games and FACTS and TournaMAXX by Merit. These are the most dominant promotional tools in the arcade industry but the focus needs to turn to getting the word out.  

If your location does not have a website or myspace page, help them start one up. Almost every bar and FEC location has one of these, but there are a few out there that need help. Reach out to me if you need help with this. If they are already on the bandwagon, ask them to help promote your events (tournaments, leagues, etc.). Start a twitter account and let the people in your area know what is going on. Also, keep an eye open for fan-run sites for your location. 

No matter what you do, be consistent and keep updating. Yes this coming from a guy that has not been the best about that on this blog, but the twitter updates have been a nice crutch.  

On The Road

I am in Kansas City, MO for the first time in my life. With my new gig, I am getting to see the nation and all of it's great bars. I need to start getting a list on my favorite bars. Look to see posts coming soon.

It is good to say hi again.

My Date with Kate

This is video from the motel in the Catskill Park in NY State.

Playing Games

Worst father of the year award is going to be given to me this September. Apparantly, video games are more important than my son's first birthday. Yes, I will be abandoning my son as he turns the big 1, so I can be in a bar in Oregon City to watch people play BBH Pro. I am not a happy camper about this, but I will be back the day after, so he gets to have a long celebration.

I am so sorry, little man.

rc

Packing Up and Ready to Hunt

I am going to be going to lovely Cleveland for the week for work. Many of you may not think that going to different bars each night and playing Big Buck Hunter Pro is work, but in my case it is. It is simply amazing that this game has been out for over 2 years and I am still getting such a strong reaction in so many different areas across the country. There is something to be said about drinking PBR and dispatching digital deer across a virtual North American landscape.

I imagine soon I will be going on Safari across the nation in search of the best trophy collectors in the lower 48. However, I may need to check out how the players are doing in Maui next November...

rc

1 Week, 1 Day and 1 Solid Neck

Wii Fit has been perfect for me. I imagine most people find the exercises a breeze, but since my figure was copied by Pillsbury, it has been a little tougher for me. I just unlocked all of the yoga exercises and everything was good until the shoulder stand. If I pushed myself any more, I would have ended up as a joke in a Kevin Smith film.

Seriously, someone is going to break their neck doing that pose and Nintendo is going to have issues. I am very surprised that exercise was included.

Maybe Mario has secretly been training to be a chiropractor.

rc

The Joker's Girl

As I am getting deeper into Wii fit, something is starting to bother me. The exercises and games are great and the balance board seem to be working like a champ. The issue is my trainer. She is really creeping me out.

She talks and moves her head in weird little jerks, but the fact that her mouth does not move is really messed up. She reminds me of Jerry Hall in Batman, when she is wearing the mask. The only thing that could send me over the edge, is if she was a little kid with blacked out eyes like all of the current American versions of Japanese horror flicks.

Nintendo, please don't scare me out of my fat ass.

Shiggy, Does My Ass Look Fat?

Mr. Miyamoto,
You are a genius and because of your imagination and hard work, you kept me out of trouble and in my den while I was a kid. Armed with my NES Max, I destroyed the creatures of Hyrule and saved the princess several times. Hell, I even played on the power pad about 6 times. You gave me hours of entertainment that I cannot thank you enough for (either can my parents).
However, you also did a couple of things to me that were not so good. I did not get laid until I found the one that most looked like Princess Peach and my ass is fat. Yes, I am blaming you because you are a scapegoat and you will never read this (either will anyone else). I now have the tools to become a healthier nerd and of course, you created them.
I tried Wii Fit for the first time last night and I am a bit sore. The goal is to stick with it and make this work. Mya from Yourself Fitness was doing a good job for awhile, but she was not making it fun.
There is an army of overweight men and women in their late twenties to late thirties that have you and your cronies to thank for the extra cushion for the pushin', and now you have to bring us back from the brink so we can by more of your games in the future.
Shiggy, you have your work cut out for you.

-rc

Putting the Work in Social Networking

Social Networks can be very fun and entertaining and every once in a while, they can help out with work. However, the entire social networking phenomena is out of control. I am a huge facebook fan because of the ease and clean look that it offers (I am aware that they are further streamlining it), but I do poke around linkedin, plaxo pulse, twitter and myspace. Since I am one of three people in the world that actually purchased a Zune, I am also a part of that network as well.

The zune network is a great concept, but they have yet to work all of the kinks out (where the hell is the fav button?). Besides the fact that the zune network is a bit clunky (it could be so great) the main issue is that I have to tell 6 different networks the same damn thing every day. With Twitter, I have it changing my facebook status, but that is as close as it gets to a solution. To me, that is as crazy as AIM not working with Windows Live Messenger (the current name of the week). I should not have to download Trillian or anything else to talk to people with an AIM account.

All of these networks need to start lifting up their skirts and showing each other what they have and let the best application win. My fingers cannot take anymore abuse from the keyboard.

-rc

ReLAX

On my trip out to the greater Los Angeles area, I put my DDR skills to test. I went to the airplane bathroom about 20 minutes before we landed. As soon as I started to rinse the silver bowl of any remaining blue liquid from the prior passenger, the airplane hit some serious turbulance. I was bouncing all over, but I did not veer from my target. It was truly amazing.

So I am in Huntington Beach for the second round of the Beat the Pro Events for Big Buck Hunter Pro. The last stop included a very entertaining but quite intoxicating young man that was shouting "Shoot! Cock! Shoot! Cock!" to the lady that he was trying to coach.

Ahh, the wonders of alcohol and video games.

Ryan

Omahama

I am in the lovely land of Nebraska right now and besides the bumper stickers that inform me what marriage is, this is a pretty suprising place. I actually just left one of the best bars in America, in fact it has enterd my top 3.

1. Shorty's Coney Island in Seattle, WA
2. The Crown and Anchor in Las Vegas, NV
3. 49er Lounge in Omaha, NE

The 49er has one of the best Jukeboxes is America as well as a Big Buck Hunter Pro and a Family Guy Pinball.

I am going to get a cot and put it under the FG Pinball and move in.

rc

Long Time No Post

A few things happened on the way to this post.

Lost my dad.

Gained a son.

Got a 360.

Got Rock Band.

Also, I have been traveling and working a lot.

More to come...

Let’s Go Jungle

The PS3 launch has had a few black eyes (probably literally) and that is not good for the video game community as a whole. The camaraderie of a launch used to be a bunch of gamer geeks hanging around in the cold and talking about the possibility of touching members of the opposite sex in the way off future. Now people are using the launch of video games as a way to extort money out of others, use violence and continue to give video games a bad name.

The PS3 is finally out and the Wii will follow in less than 30 hours. The big three are at it finally and now we get to watch the fight unravel. My final prediction is that the 2600 by Atari is going to be a graphical juggernaut.

Washington Irving…

Been awhile, it seems like we only meet when I am on the road. In Davenport, IA. Do not be jealous. Seriously, don’t.

The drive from the Chicago land area to here was very pretty in a winterish farmland sort of way. It was not until this trip that I had experienced a billboard for corn farming supplies. That poster was absent from downtown Manhattan.

I do not have a Wii pre-ordered, I believe that I will have to wait a few months to get my dirty paws on it. Since I am poor white trash, that may not be such a bad thing. Mario and Link, why are you such tempters? Your pixilated visages get me in a tizzy.

Nintendo, my first love.

I cannot believe that someone married me. Oh yeah, she is normal and pretty too.

Help Is On Its Way

There is only one day left of the Digital Life convention and I am very happy that it is almost over. I can only stand so many "clever" t-shirts. I know that so many of these people have been waiting months to take these garments out of their closets and wear them out in public.

It makes me think twice about getting some vintage looking gamer shirts.

The other thing that I am not going to miss, is the length that some of the booths are going to get attention. Just about everyone has a PA system or a bullhorn around me. The worst was putting the person wearing the frogger costume in a wheelchair. "Frogger got hit by a car" was the joke, but the Konami rep pushing the chair was asking people to put their company stickers on the convention center wheelchair.

Shoot me now.

Carnac

Since I am at the Digital Life show and games seem to be taking over, I have been thinking. As the big three keep duking it out, many folks have been exclaiming who the winner and losers will be. Although I may not be an industry insider, these are my thoughts:

This race is Microsoft's to lose. The 360 has a head start of a year and the killer ap has been XBOX Live so far. There have not been any have to have games, but I believe they have the best chance because of the XNA. The XNA created an outlet for people with little to no budgets to make games. All they need is one counter-strike and they have given the tools to everyone out there.

The dark horse is the Wii. Nintendo surprised everyone with this little thing at E3 and many people are still on the fence. Is it a novelty? Why does it have so little power? None of those things matter if the games are good and they continue to use their IP well. Also, their online play with the different channels could prove to be very interesting. For a company telling everyone that they don't want your living room, their online offering is much more than games.

The PS3 has the longest shot even though they dominated the last generation with the PS2. Sony no longer has the press, the gaming community or the developers firmly on their side. They have decided to be more cocky than Nintendo was in the late 90's. The PS3 seems more to be a tech demonstration than a game machine. The system is also directly linked to the format DVD format wars. Blue Ray is one of the reasons why PS3 is much more expensive and no one knows if Blue Ray will be dominant over HD-DVD (I personally think that the war will be moot in a few years as internet connections continue to speed up and the movies will all be downloaded.) Don't forget that Beta-Max was Sony's and they will continue to fight HD Dvd no matter what. Sony also has monitary issues and besides movies, video games are the only thing propping up that company. If PS3 flops, Sony may not bounce back.

Ryan

Trade Show Blues

I am writing from a small hotel room on 34th and 8th. I have seen 3 different restaurants and a lot of the Javitz center. My seventh month old probably does not know who I am and I am pretty sure that my wife has completely forgotten.

Played with the Wii today and although it was Madden, I got a tingle in my stomach and a little moist in my man-panties. Digital Life is really attracting a lot of gamer geeks and I feel like I am amongst my brethren.

2 more days to go with this show and I will be home for a while.

Sorry for the lack of posts. Too many miles and work to check in. I miss you all. You being the only person that reads this.

Head Above Water

The family unit is pretty much settled in the land of White Castle and corn. The smallest member of the clan has decided that she actually likes me and she gets a big grin every time I walk in the room. Fatherhood is pretty good, even though I don’t happen to be at home too much. The hookers prove to be too tempting to me. Good thing I have a good supply of penicillin.

The Wii is on its way and I am starting to get the anxious twitter of a fan boy. I have never looked forward to a console since the Super Nintendo. I will not have too much time to devote to it, but I am looking forward to teaching little HQ how to play. Passing the nerd genes from one generation to the other brings a tear to my eye.

Darwin was wrong.