A new life on the horizon - starts with a bang!

Bang and ouch(!), to be precise. A life with a new hole in my mouth, a new apartment, a new job and a new g... no, I wont change my girlfriend. She owe me a massage now when Sweden beat Latvia with 9-4 in the Junior Ice Hockey Championship. She is too valuable to me. :)


A New Year with LCHF
Get wiser, learn a bit about this stuff | wiki link

After a little discussion on Facebook, I have decided to go back to LCHF except from at special occations. That is how I will roll. Not only do I feel better while on this diet, I also feel less need for sugar other carby stuff. I must admit it takes a while to get used to it though... and I'm NOT looking forward to those first few days.

Goodbye sweets and nachos, heeello cheese and... why not this tasty looking bacon meatloaf?


What about the Gaming Industry?
Here's some previous blabla from me about this topic | link

I've been blogging awfully much about myself lately and I regret that the subject of my big passion has fallen into the shadow. Well, it's about time we start talking games again. I have some thoughts on Star Wars: The Old Republic and its payment system, but also about the big titles of 2012 as well as the modern way to market games. But more about that later, I got too much on my mind to get into that right now.

Oh yes, just to double check. Did ANYONE not see this hillarious christmas clip from Jimmie Kimmel?

I took an arrow to the knee...

First of all, Merry Christmas everyone! I've never understood why people write xmas. It's an X not a cross/criss/crist(?). Even more hillarious is that most people, inclusive English natives, pronounce it like "exmas", not "christmas".

I'm sitting here, with an injured knee, waiting for the first meal of the christmas eve: Porrige! Later we are following the Swedish tradition by watching Donald Duck, let Santa in to give us all the presents and then finishing the evening off with some Charles-Brighton Johnsson.

Of course, that's just the official end of the christmas eve. Us adults continue the night by feasting with various unhealthy beverages and ateable things.


Ending the year with pain.

You already know about the dread I am about to face with pulling out my wisdom tooth, but I have now also suddenly discovered that something is wrong with my right knee. After some discussion we suspect that the muscle from the top of the knee to the thie is "pwned" as nerds would call it. Also the knee cap is surprisingly flexible. Freaky feeling.

"The porrige is ready!" is now the words that will finally pull me away from the computer and start enjoying a Swedish Christmas Eve. Once again, Merry Christmas everyone!

Sweden and xmas, here I come!

Finally time to get fat, open presents, get fatter of all the candy you got and then pull out a tooth. Good, good, good and NOOOO DON'T TOUCH ME, I CURSE YOU, I CURSE YOU!


I'm back on new years eve...?

Yeah... we all know how flights are during winter time. Either I'll crash and die or I will have to spend lot's of time on an airport because of all the "chaos". I mean, we have snow every freakin' year and still people are surprised when it comes. I'm not. I know people will die, I know flights will be delayed, I know it's going to be unusually cold for some weeks and unusually warm for some. It is called winter!

Oh, now... where were I?

Right, going to Sweden. First stop is my brothers place, next is my parents place where we will immediately celebrate my brothers 40th birthday. I'll have to make sure that I can get hold of the present I was thinking about.


Until then: Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year

I have to say, even though everything hasn't gone the way I wanted it to, things have turned out quite nicely. What I miss the most is my old friends and family from Sweden, but other than that life is pretty damn good!

See you all next year!

New apartments and offices

Today I have been a very good boy. Not only have I used a couple of my mammoth-like muscles to move stuff from one apartment to another, I have also deposited £1420 that I had lying around into my bank account (I can tell you that it felt mildly disturbing carrying that amount of cash around in town) and finally also checked out the new offices where I will work from the middle of January onward.


Eurotowers, 5th block - Here we go!

Got almost everything moved over now. Just the last few essentials left in Kings Warf. The new place is amazing, the new land lord is amazing and it will be so much closer to everything... which brings me to next topic: What it is NOT closer to (the new office).

The new office is not far from Kings Warf, so ironically I will actually be moving further away from it - but hey - no one has died from a bit of exorsize. To be honest, crisps and nachos land has been my home for too long. Time to find my way back to LCHF... after xmas of course ;)

Oh no... It's now just a bit more than a week until I have to remove my wisdom tooth. I have truly never been this terrified in my life *sob*.


Movie Time: Sierra Nevada 2011

The job

Hey guys. Long time no see! I've been in Sierra Nevada, as you all know and enjoyed my nose being burnt to something inhuman and my calf's being turned to minced meat (no, not the animal).

Finally I have signed the contract and is able to finally talk a bit about what's going on. To cut to the chase: I will be staying in Gibraltar, working for a new company in a senior position. More than this I can unfortunately not tell you until we are up and running. You entrepreneurs out there knows what I am talking about.


Staying in Gibraltar

It is not every day you get two offers to choose from and I kind of felt like I had some kind of luxury problem. Still, the choice process has been both difficult and easy. I had to choose between an awesome office and friendly environment at Betsson (now my favorite betting company, by far), and a newer company in Gibraltar. I could probably find these big corporate kind of jobs again in the future, but how often will these awesome opportunities come around where I can really express myself and do _my_ thing?

Also, of course, our future plays a vital part in the decision making. Strong vs. less strong economy and things like this is important if you think about starting a family sometime in the near future (relatives: don't get crazy, we are talking years here, NO ONE IS PREGNANT!).

Talking about pregnant, congrats to my two close friends Johan and Trine. I am honored that they will name their child after me. Thank's guys! <3

Now all energy will be focused on moving to a friends apartment and planning a lot of awesome business stuff.


Oh, so will there be a Sierra Nevada movie?

For now, you will have to be satisfied with some pictures, because my Adobe Premier keeps making my computer crash when I import the movie files. Still, I have to say that the pictures are great and it really shows how much fun we had over there. Too bad I couldn't show you the spa, but I can tell you that hot saunas + surprise cold showers were both scary and awesome.

On the road to something new...

... and I not only mean going to Sierra Nevada skiing (that's where I am right now). I have also finally made a decision about my future. Unfortunately I cannot reveal much about it since it is a sensitive topic, but a choice has been made and I'm hoping that I will be able to tell you more in my next blog post. Promise.

On the road to something new...

Sierra Nevada then? Wzup with that?!

Starting the trip this morning by stocking up on snacks, drinks and medicine for the road, we finally made our way all the way to Sierra Nevada, Spain. Four star hotel with the whole kit. We didn't get any time for skiing today, but we got everything prepared for tomorrow morning.

We did try an awesome restaurant today, after playing some Magic and together embracing the beauty of nature music, and not only found it worth all the money we spent on it, but also managed to get Johans credit card eaten by an ATM. Now... I need to get better at making sentences shorter. Gah.

Tomorrow we are hitting the slopes, so better get to bed. See you in a way more interesting blog post very soon! Sorry for tricking you all that this was _the_ post.

Some amazing food at the local Swizz restaurant. 4/5 stars!

The Interview in Malta - Day 3

After another, hopefully succesful interview by a laid back and down to earth kind of guy called Magnus. We had a nice chat about this and that, but in the end I got a very good feeling about both him and the company, just like I had in the prevous interview.

No matter if I end up with Betsson or not, I must say that they have been great to me and I think that they are a company that works in a fantastic way, which probably will give them much success in the future.

Talking about future... tomorrow we will know mine (or saturday, since I arrive home quite late).


An earthquake on wheels

Today I have explored the northern part of the island by bus. A bus that bounced more up and down than it was taking us forward. Also, the voice narrator was kind of off sync and parts of what she said wasnt true. "To your left you will see a tower...". There was no freekin' tower there! Just a cow that looked at me and said "moo".

Amazing landscape and history though, and I have barely seen half of it... if even that. I like Malta. Even if I don't end up with Betsson I will probably visit Malta again in the future. Except from their disguisting pizza and odd parking spaces in the middle of the street I quite like this island.


Pictures and... a video?
Updated Picture Gallery can be found in the first or second blog post about my trip

The Interview in Malta - Day 2

I am happy to tell you that I have been called in for another interview/meeting. That is good news I guess? I can also inform you that I will make a decision by the end of the week about where I will live and work. Because of the offer I already have, I can't wait any longer. Stay tuned!


Horny drivers around the world
If you are horny, or just like this post, there is now a "like" function in the bottom of this post.

Today I have not only walked around the suthern part of town quite a bit, finding lots of shopping areas (and yes Vlada, I have your present), but also had the opportunity to observer a bit of the Maltese culture.

In Malta, drivers use the horn of the car to signal "Hey, I'm passing through this intersection", where in Gibraltar they use it mainly to communicate (they have certain patterns they use so that their friends will recognize them easily). In Sweden however, we the horn mainly to tell people to fuck off or get the hell out of the way. Charming, isn't it?

Right now I'm waiting for the Hotels pasta buffet and planning my last day in Malta. Tomorrow I will take a tour bus around town, see if I can check out some apartments and have a meeting with both the recruitment agency and a director from the company, probably to try to find out how much I know about the Swedish market.

Here is the Malta 2011 slideshow again, but now with some new pictures added!

Remember that the pictures also have descriptions!

The Interview in Malta - Day 1

After a horrible flight, bouncing via Brussels and expericencing engine problems which caused delays (I was tempted to stand up and scream "THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE LEFT PHALANGEE!"), I have finally arrived in Malta.


From Belgian Chocolate to howling Taxi Drivers...

When strolling around in the Brussels Airport I suddenly lost all my taste for Belgium Chocolate (see picture), but was still amazingly quite satisfied over the meals of today (which they offered me for free on the flight!).

I finally arrived in Malta. I had the luck of be taken on a midnight tour by the proud Malteese senior man named Mario (it's a me, a Mario!). After being dropped off at the company apartment though, my luck changed again. The key didn't work to any of the apartments I was instructed to try. I think I scared some people quite a bit, 01:00 in the middle of the night.

Today I have had my interview with the iGaming company. I think it went good and I hope they liked me as much as I liked them. I am curious if I will get an offer and what it would be. Also I still haven't heard about Dublin so I am quite curious about that offer as well, if I get one. Although... I still have to make a choice between the Dublin, Gibraltar and the Malta job, if I get an offer from all three (I got an offer from the Gibraltar one though! A very good offer!). By the end of this week I will know what the future holds for me. Stay tuned, I sure as hell will :P.

After being taken back to the hotel by a taxi driver that was howling to Lady Gaga all the way back, I now check the internet briefly before going out and eating the first meal of the day. I wonder where I shall go...


Day 0-1 in pictures!

How was London?

I just came back from London. Amazingly crowded city. One person almost got run over by a car at one corner and at another... a person was dancing in only his underpants (unfortunately my video is only of him being done dancing, sorry!).

Pickaxe dilly circus! (naked man just out of picture I'm afraid)

The mysterious restaurant of invisibility

Spuntinos

Spuntinos or something like that was the name, but who really knows the location? In this case, I think that is actually a very valid question. The point of this restaurant seem to be to actually find it. Believe it or not, it has NO signs what so ever. Quite a challenge, actually.

In the end we never got the chance to try it out, since it is extremely busy on a Friday night. Instead we ended up at Plum Valley, a Chinese place with bad service.


Let's play: Guess the whore!

B(r)e(a)st hotel in town!

The rest of the evening we spent at a really fancy hotel bar, playing "guess the whore". Probably half of the people there was whores or people looking for some high class tramp to bring up to his room. One guy brought three!.. but five minutes later one of them came back down and left in a hurry. Makes me wonder what he wanted her to do.

Amazing drinks, good company - successful evening!

London baby! and... then Malta!

Greetings fellow readers. Once again I'm here to bore you with my job hunting adventures. As you all know, I have had another interview, but I wont say more than that I had a great time. This wasn't the Malta interview, which will actually happen early next week. But first... I'm going to London!(?)


London baby! Malta baby! Oh, god... I'm having triplets.
Read more about my interviews here and here.

I got invited by a friend to come on a short trip to London from Friday-Saturday. How can you say no to that? I have actually never been outside of, the extremely annoying, London Airports before so... I guess this will be something new for me to experience!

So what's this junk about triples. No mom, I'm not pregnant. But I have three interesting job opportunities to consider. I am very interested in a specific one, but obviously I cannot tell you which.

I still have not heard anything about the Dublin interview, but I should hear any day now. One interesting news is that early next week I will head over to Malta and stay there until Thursday, probably. Unfortunately my wacky friend Suzy is home in Sweden during this time so I cannot pay her a visit. Too bad, I really wanted to meet "Mr. O'rly". $5 to the first one who can guess who that is, and no Suzy, you are not allowed to participate OR tamper with this guessing contest :P. I will send the Moneybookers and no, I'm not joking ;)


The new Neverwinter game? Hmm...

I am honestly not very impressed so far, but it might be good. I am not a big fan of games that Cryptic have had a hand in (even though it is a Bioware game <3), since I rarely like how their games turn out... but I will probably give it a try. Here is the latest trailer for the game. What do you think about it?

Playing games while waiting...

As you all know I am currently waiting for the feedback from the Dublin interview, but also for the date when my Malta interview will be. Waiting sucks. Will I get an offer? Will the Malta interview go well? If Both goes well, what would I choose? In my mind I kind of already know, but it all depends on the offer and how good they are compared to each other.

But... I have found a good way to make myself think less about these things for the moment, to avoid unnecessary mental torture. SKYRIM (Elder Scrolls V)... and SWTOR (Star Wars: The old Republic)!


SWTOR, WoW with light sabers?
Here's one of my previous posts about the game.

Okay, fair enough, I only tested the game for like an hour. Still I must say that a lot of how the game turned out to be is very different from Bioware's promises from the beginning. They hyped the game as a game totally different from WoW, something new and revolutionary. I am sure that the game has better story line, awesome voice overs and fun epic dungeons, pvp and so on... but is it really THAT revolutionary. On top of this, it is a Pay to Play game. This is a dying payment system. How will they compete with other, almost as fun to play, MMO's that are Free to Play? Age of Wulin is a good example.

Sorry Bioware, my most beloved game studio of all time, but I am not impressed. Still I will give the game a fair chance and play it until end game at least, but my expectations now are as low as they can be.


Skyrim makes me laugh and cry at the same time
Have you read my first post about my Skyrim Experience?

It is amazing how "alive" the game world is in Skyrim. If you wait a minute before rushing into a room full of enemies, stay a while and listen to what they have to say. Every place has a story, a purpose. I eavesdropped on  two blacksmiths on the ground floor of an old fortress: "Sven got what was coming for him, but I don't trust what's going on downstairs." - "Be quiet, or you might end up there yourself, and I will have to work the forge!". Seconds later, of course, they were both dead. :)

My character is currently on the quest of mastering the different kinds of supernatural powers out there. After finishing at the Winterfall College of Magic he will study Vampirism and try to get infected. After that the plan is to become better at sneaking and thievery and finally he will join the imperials and tell them all about the Stormcloaks plans. It was a mistake, trying to join up with those people.

This is what makes me laugh, so what makes me cry? The lags, crashes and annoying graphics bugs that keeps showing up now and then. The game is playable, but it kind of ruins the immersion of my Skryim experience.

Last but definitely not least. Here is something, for you Swedes, that made me laugh harder than I have in a long while:

The power of... silence?

Inspired by some dude that I don't know, but apparently cares enough about me to follow me on Facebook, I am today blogging about "the power of silence". Actually, it is a more interesting subject than you first think.

Just think about how employers, you just visited for an interview from, can make you feel by simply... saying nothing. Or when you come home and your girl/boyfriend looks at you and doesn't say a word. This is truly the power of silence to me.


5 ways of using silence to your benefit

1. When you are on a date, shut the fuck up and let the woman speak.
2. If you want someone close to really feel bad, just do what girls usually do. Look at them... with silence.
3. If you are insecure about yourself and feel like you have to make others feel bad to make you feel better, be silent and try to deal with your own problems instead.
4. When interviewing people, use silence as a way of testing your subjects ability to take initiative.
5. Be considered a good friend by shutting the hell up with someone is trying to tell a story/joke.


5 ways of messing up with silence

1. When answering a phone call.
2. When being asked a question.
3. When a girl you like tells you she loves you.
4. When in a life threatening situation where a shout could save your life.
5. When your boss is telling a joke (doesn't matter if it's good or bad).

There, that should have made your lives a lot easier to live. :)

Now, a tribute to my dear beloved friend Andreas Knöpke:

What happened in Dublin?!

I'm back home... finally! Don't get me wrong. I loved it there, but the trip back was so bad you won't believe me when I tell you. My interview went okay and I just got another face to face interview for the Malta position, so things are going the right way at the moment.

Luckily for Håkan (whom I stayed at), we managed to find Google last Sunday and he apparently had quite a nice first day. Read all about it here!


Dream start, nightmare end

When arriving in Dublin everything was great. The interview was stressful but I think it went fine. We had some really nice food and we even got it cheaper at one point than the real price. Someone must have really liked us. How often does that happen, really?

Read more about my day to day activities in Dublin here.

On the trip back though... things went wrong wrong and WRONG! First, I jumped off the bus at the wrong terminal in Dublin. THEN when boarding they weren't happy with how I packed my bag, so they forced me to repack OR pay €40. Fortunately after repacking it twice they were finally satisfied. Ryan Air bitch.

London Gatwick. Sooo tired. Maybe there's a hotel nearby. Awesome, there's three! Wait. Two of them cost £150+ and the third one that is suppose to be as cheap as £25-50 (depending on if you want to stay 4 or 8 hours) only had premium rooms free for double the price. Fuck off. I decided to find someplace to sleep on the floor. This is the brightest part of the whole trip: I FOUND A CORNER WITH A TV WITH BATMAN ON IT! But then when having watched Batman and then A-Team on my ePC and decided to sleep nearby on the floor... "it" came.

FREAKIN' BEEPY CLEANING CAR THAT, I SWEAR TO GOD, CLEANED THE PLACE AROUND ME FOURTEEN TIMES BEFORE LEAVING ME IN PEACE!

*deep breath*

Later, just to piss me off more, the security bag scanner thing that I was queuing for broke, so I had to join the other queue. Then of course I was randomly selected for a body search. Score!

Oh yes, did I mention the waiting time in Gatwick was 10-11 hours?


Picture time!

Here's some pictures I took with my camera while being in Dublin. Go to the proper gallery to read my captions, explaining the pictures a bit better. ;)

This weeks second interview - done

Wow, that was probably the toughest interview I have ever had, but I can't say I didn't enjoy it. Getting pushed once in a while is good for you, as SwedishMealTime would have said. So far in Dublin, having one and a half day to spare, I have been having a lot of fun. Not only have I had my share of alcohol, but also funny experiences and awesome food.


Arriving to Ireland was...

... scary. When landing at Dublin Airport I noticed something particular. Inside I found signs in English, but also in a different tongue. Apparently people in Ireland also speak by the tounge of MORDOR. "Póg mo Thóin" apparently means "Kiss my ass". After having the first beer on a nice little pub with Wifi on the thursday evening, we explored both nice wine restaruants as well as pizza huts and overprized kebab places where you waste too much money while being affected by the side effects of alcoholic beverages.

Speaking of which - on the friday we found lots of crazy norwegians... and then some more that we invited to join the scandinavian "blob" we now had formed on one of the party streets of Dublin. Although we left these guys when they started switching partners in the club and stuff... too weird for us. Well, we did meet some German girls afterwards and since I'm already taken I kindly handed over both to Håkan (who took very good care of them...).

Today we watched "IMMORTAL" on the cinema followed by some chinese take away and movie night at home. Good movie by the way. Lot's of nice action a la 300! Oh yes, I met Jussi Perkele today at a local pub. Was nice to see that ol' crazy Finn again. He also had some ideas about some other job opportunities if none of the current works out.



Me versus The Games Industry

I got a very good feeling about the position I applied for and the company seems very serious and skillful. Exactly what I like. Now I will have to wait and see what happens.

So, Lead Community Manager for a promosing MMORPG (Yes, I have done some research about it now when I know which game it is) or Social Media Specialist for a Swedish company that seems to have the same mindset as me when it comes to Community/Social Media Management.

Or... maybe something else! There is still a chance that both companies will say no. But surely two companies can't miss out on the fun, profitable and... perhaps a bit weird experience on working with me :P

Off to the Dublin interview... But in the meantime!

After packing everything I need, I start to feel the purple butterflies in my stomach. The interview is one day away and I'm going to a place I have never been before. This is going to be awesome. Oh yes. I almost forgot to put my prepared Presentation onto my USB stick.

Blogging is a life safer.


In the meantime: Stop whining Bethesda!

I have been playing almost constantly since when I got the game, two days ago. I must say that I have split feelings about the game. It has many bugs (I know, I know, making Elder Scrolls games for PC is a pain!), but people have been making functional games for PC for a very long time. It shouldn't be that hard and frankly Bethesda Softworks, stop making excuses for why the game is not as good on PC and start doing something about it. No one likes a Game Developer that whines. Heck, who likes to listen to whine anyway?.. oh... sorry guys! I just realized the irony.


A bad ass Wood Elf Ranger called Loznáir!

Yes, once again my character is a good guy, but instead of being a total angel he has more of a "The Phantom" kind of moral. Be nice to me and I'm nice to you, but if you are a total idiot, then I'll rob you blind and kill all of your children.

What have I learnt so far?
- Don't mess with Giants, they fling you so hard up into the air that you, even though you are already dead, you are a little bit afraid that someone can't resist putting an arrow into your ass, for sport.
- DO NOT KILL THE HOLY CHICKENS! See picture below.
- Old women that live in the Forrest are actually quite bad ass on Magic. Do not anger them.
- It is very fun to scare undead to run away into all the traps you otherwise would walk into. For example the catapult gate was very amusing. When that skeleton finally hit the wall the bones split like fireworks.
- I should blogg less and play more.
- I should remember that my flight leaves any minute and stop thinking about Skyrim.
- I should go now.

Picture stolen from my niece's Facebook. Tnx!

See you on Monday for a full report on how things went in Dublin.

This weeks first interview - done

*Phew*, feels good to have that off my chest. I think it went well. I got a very good feeling about the company, the people there and the location where the company is not as bad as I thought. I think I will be more okay with it than my girlfriend. She is quite picky ;)


Preparing for interview number two

Okay, time to start packing for the Dublin trip. I am very curious about this opportunity as well, since I haven't gotten much info yet. They decided to fly me over, skipping any phone interviews. At the same time as I have a really good feeling about the Malta job, I can't help wondering how it would be to become a Lead Community Manager for a MMORPG title.

It's like "safe choice" versus "mysterious could-be-the-break-of-a-lifetime-choice". Although the safe choice might also be my break. Hmm. Difficult, but I guess I first need to see if I get offered any of the positions at all.

Luxory problems...


STILL NO "!¤#/%( SKYRIM IN MY MAILBOX!

My neighbors must think I have serious problems (maybe they are right?), because I am checking the mailbox every two hours. It would be so much easier if I actually knew what time the mail man comes to our building.

While entertaining myself by solving really hard puzzles in Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012, I now and then check my friends list... finding them ALL playing Skyrim. This really annoys me. Everyone can play it except me! Oh my god. Just listening to myself makes me realize how pathetic I sound... think about all the starving children in Africa! I have it so much better... still... I WANT SKYRIM NOW!

Oh look! Even Arnold Schwarzenegger got the game already :( DAS SPIEL IST GUT!

A positive attitude is everything

Yesterday my friend, again, reminded me how easily excited I get over things (he even compared me to the guy in the video at the bottom of this post). That made me think about how important it is to have a positive attitude towards things.


Believe in good things and they will happen!

You might not know it, but it is actually proven that people that believe that good things will happen will more often experience good things than people who believe nothing good is ever going to happen to them. You will also need the confidence and the will to succeed. Even more importantly you will need to be able to move on when things doesn't go as you hoped.

If you got this then you are already gone farther on the road to success than you thought.

Okay, seriously: Stop whining and just DO IT!

Life isn't easy. Everyone has bad things happening, more or less (even if it sometimes feels like everything bad is only happening to YOU and ONLY YOU!). "I want to work for Blizzard! Nothing else is good enough for me!". Get a grip. Nothing is easy. Everyone has to pull their own weight.

I lost my job a few months ago and you won't see me crying about it. Where many people sees problems, I see opportunity. I know what I want and sooner or later I am sure I will get there, no matter what it takes. You might think of me as an over confident ass that thinks too high of myself. Well, maybe, but I am also confident that you have a good chance of doing what would make you happy if you really put your mind to it.

If you feel that you are not the most positive person in the world, ask yourself this: "Where do I want to end up and what CAN I DO to get there?" Once you have the answer to that you should know exactly what to do.

Choices and Sacrifices

Many things are happening right now. Most or all of these things are connected with choices and/or sacrifices. While some friends are choosing leaving Gibraltar, sacrificing their social life here, they are at the same time gaining other things. Some of them certain, some of them not.

Today my good friend Fredrik and his wacky girlfriend Julie moved to Sweden, next week Håkan is moving to Dublin. After that it is possibly my turn to pack my bags and leave.


Choices are easy...

It is always easy to choose to do something, if you don't have anything to sacrifice. "Would you like to work at this awesome company and have a new exciting social life?". Of course the answer is yes... until you start to think about what you have to give up  to get this.


... but Sacrifices are hard

Every choice has a sacrifice, whether it is something as small as 10 minutes of  your life or if it's something as big as leaving all your friends and going to a place where you know nobody. The latter example was my scenario two years ago when I first came to Gibraltar.

Do I want to leave Gibraltar and my friends here? Of course not. Do I want new experiences, a career, and a bunch of new friends? Of course I do! My choice is hard, because the sacrifices are, but with some of my closest friends leaving, the sacrifices are less and the choice is thereby easier.

We will see where I end up, but wherever it is, I'm sure it will be worth it!


Finally, here is a tribute to my good friend Jussi, who I will meet shortly in Dublin.

I finally got a face to face interview!

It is one thing applying for a few jobs and sitting and waiting for the interview to finally come, but when it actually happens many things suddenly become so clear. Should I start planning for moving to another country? Will the job be as challenging and rewarding as I expect it to be? How would it be to live someplace new?


Back into the gaming/iGaming industry?

The truth is that I do want to get back into the gaming industry, as in "computer/video games", but since my current experience also includes iGaming, that's definitely not off the table.

Two and a half years ago I was not really sure what I wanted to do. I studied Game Design, but was thinking too much about the "big picture" and things around the product. Somehow I have been lead on a road that made me realize that my true passion is about communities, social media and communication in general. We will see where i end up, but I think that as long as I work with people that knows what they are doing and with a company that believes in creativity, I will be very happy.


What about my private projects?

I have currently two major projects that I am working with. Both are concerning blogs and one will hopefully in the future bring profit, while the other is more of an experiment.

I will continue them both, as good as I can. Oh yes. This is IF I get the job. They will not compete at all with any of the jobs I applied to, rather the opposite. They would help promoting whatever I end up doing.

We are currently on the verge of starting up the company officially, but we need to sort out a lot of paper work before everything is ready to go. Competition for what we are doing seems to be quite low, the manpower needed from us not very high and the possibilities seems to be even higher.


This is a picture of the place where I will be going for an interview. Can you guess which town it is? 

Google+ Pages trick! Opportunity!

After a day of drafting Magic with Johan, Håkan, Phil and Fredrik I come home to watch some friends, eat some of my fantastic Spaghetti Bolognese and finally manages to perfect time the release of Google+ Pages.

What would one do at such a moment?


Taking smart names!

One smart, but risky, thing is to take smart names that would benefit you. There is a rumor though that many pages can have the same name, so I can't guarantee that this will work at all. I might come back tomorrow and totally dismiss my own blog post, who knows? :P But if this works, I will not only get fantastic channels of communication, I might also be more interesting to hire, because who ever hires me also get's the channels that I now have reserved to do marketing through.

Always make sure you are well prepared and that you do what you can to get an edge against your competitors.


Job interviews coming up

I do not want to get too much into details, but I have had one interview so far, which I think went pretty well. I am hoping to get a final one soon as well. Other than this one there are a few others that starts to pop up. After waiting a few months, the interest for someone like me seems to have spread.

We will see where I end up, but if everything goes the way I want it, I will end up at a fantastic place with some fantastic people. Keep your fingers crossed for me!


Here is the release video of Google+ Pages by the way!

The perfect win-win solution against piracy

Now and then I always hear this and that about people stealing peoples work/products and others saying that it is so expensive that they don't really have an option. Many game companies has tried to get around this problem by having monthly fees for their online games, others introduce Free-to-Play. In other words, MMO games is doing really fine against piracy.

But what about the other games, movies and music out there? Is there a solution?


The perfect solution is here!

Okay, this is not as concrete as I might have mislead you to believe, but it is a solution even so: Find a good substitute. Everybody wins! Okay, let's discuss this with a few examples.

Music: 
- We got Spotify, a tool where you stream music for free, but has to endure some advertisment now and then. It's like a radio where you can choose what songs and in what order you want to listen to them.

Movies:
- There are websites like Voddler, concept similar to Spotify.

Games: 
- EMPTY SPACE HERE!

Now it is getting interesting. While solutions are starting to come up in the music and movie industry, we still don't have a _really_ good system for games. What would happen if you release your game for free, but put lots of ads in it instead. For people to get rid of the ads, they need to pay. Simple. It works for the other medias, so why shouldn't it work with Games?

The problem is always that you can edit the core files and remove the ads, if you are skilled in these kinds of things, but when the Onlive games streaming software is released, this threat is easily eliminated.

Even so, you wont lose on having this solution, since the people who downloads your games from various Torrent sites will probably only be convinced to change their way if a solution like this was available. You won't get these guys anyway, so what do you have to lose? What your loyal and paying customers will do doesn't really matter, since you will earn money from the advertisement anyway (possibly you could even profit more from this).

Finally, don't forget that piracy is not only evil. It has helped many games and game companies to reach where they are today. The viral effect.

Five steps on how to promote yourself

Since I am currently only working with freelance or personal projects I know how important it is to know how to promote yourself as a person. If you really want a job, you cannot send out a CV here and there and hope for luck to come your way. As Two Face once said: "I make my own luck".


Step 1) Figure out how you want to be perceived

What job do you want to work with? Do you want to look like a strict boss or as a laid back co-worked with a creative mind? What do you want people to think when they learn things about you? What would you like your future employer to think about you?

This is something you need to figure out before you do ANYTHING else.


Step 2) Make a list of tools & contacts you can use

Do you have any contacts that can help out in giving you some positive buzz, writing recommendation letters etc? Do you have a Facebook, LinkedIn (!!!), Google+, MySpace and a Blog Account? Most importanty, have you registered your own www.yourname.com domain yet?


Step 3) Make a plan on how to spread positive buzz

Now it is time to make a plan on what you want to put on your sites, your blog and what to put in your CV & Cover letter. Be aware of that now when you are more "official" than before, harmful information such as Politics and such things might be something you have to try to hide. Choose carefully what you put in the web and make sure it fits the person you want your employer to see you as.


Step 4) Make yourself visible

Use all channels you possibly can to expose yourself to the public. The more pages you have info about yourself on, the easier it will be for someone to find you when googleing or surfing around. The best way of making yourself visible is to have a serious blog, with a www.yourname.com URL and using the different Social Media channels to promote it.

Who would notice the smart kid in the back if he never puts his arm up in the air once in a while?


Step 5) Alertness and quick responses

Now when you are up and running. Make sure you keep everything up to date and that you answer your emails and requests quickly. After all, the weird guy Mr. John Smith that keeps trying to add you on Linkedin.com might indeed be your future employer, trying to contact you for an interview.

Every unanswered mail is a possibly missed opportunity. Be out there, all the time! Ironically, being unemployed is actually hard work, if you do it right!

Blogger vs. Wordpress, who would win?

After discussing blog tools with my friends Johannes Thorén and checking out other nice blogs, like Joakim Nilssons blog about Social Media Management, I decided to do some research to figure out which blog tool that is best for me... and for you.


Three reasons to go for Blogger

Blogger seem to be a more beginner friendly, and actually 100% free, blog tool. It is very simple, user friendly and to a degree you can customize your blog quite a bit. Blogger also offers an easy way for you to earn money  on your blog.

Here are the three top reasons why you should choose Blogger:

1. Simplicity. Easy to use, free and it has a very good interface.
2. Everything is free! You don't have to pay anything for any of the tools!
3. Simple Advertising from Google. It is easy to set up a way to earn money.


Three reasons to go for Wordpress

Wordpress is a tool that can be used by new bloggers as well as more advanced. The problem is that the tool itself is more advanced and could thereby confuse some users. The more options and services you want, the more you will have to pay. For $100/year you will get all special features, but will still have to pay separately for special themes.

Here are the top reasons why you would choose Wordpress:

1. Full customization possibilities. If you pay, you can edit/change pretty much anything.
2. If you are a new user, you can easily set up a free blog without much problem.
3. If you are an advanced user, you can still get a kick ass blog without paying anything.


And the winner is?

If you don't wanna get much into detail with your blog. You just want it up and running and don't care for anything fancy, then Blogger is for you. Although if you want to have full control over your blog and don't care to pay a bit extra for it, then go "pro" with Wordpress, my personal favorite.

Comparing the two tools, not caring about the paying aspect, Wordpress beats Blogger by a long shot.

I do feel the irony of me blogging on Blogger still, but a little bird told me that this might change very soon.

Psychology in Design Choices for Games Part 2

This is the second part of my thoughts on "Psychology in Design Choices for Games" (Read Part 1). Remember how I said in the previous part that many developers tend to use statistics to find out what people like the most? Well, today I will discuss about if going main stream is really a good idea.


Is the Main Stream path good in the long run?

Yes and no. Everything is good in moderate. People need choices, variation - different kind of games! In movies we eventually get tired of the classic "girl is annoyed by hero-to-be-character but learns to love him during the course of the movie and eventually the hero gets the girl" scenario. The same applies to games. You cannot repeat a winning concept so much that you will end up in the "main stream" folder.

There are always indie games, but they rarely got the same financial support as the big titles. What would happen if... Blizzard (!!) decided to do something completely new, not a main stream game at all!? Imagine a the movie "300", where the hero already was married, the wife got raped and the hero actually died in the end - never seeing his wife ever again. Still, a lot of people like this movie. They find it to be something different than most similar movies with a lot of action, but with the classic romance.

People like different. People like surprises. People like riddles, questions, mysteries that you can't figure out from the start!


Main stream is dying, darlings needs to be killed and games needs to be made. 


Here is a video of Star Wars: The Old Republic, a game that was originally marketed as a game much different to World of Warcraft and very little about grinding and the classic "tank/healer/dps" shebang. But what does it look like today? Well, let's take a look!

Psychology in Design Choices for Games Part 1

After talking half the night away with my dear friend Mats Söderholm, Game Design teacher from Sweden, we concluded a lot of very good points concerning the psychology in game design and in particular design choices. This series of blog posts will cover a couple of traps that designers very easily fall into. Have you fallen in any of these traps? I sure have.


What is the "darling" syndrome?

"This game is awesome, because I made it!"; "I can't see any reason why someone would not like this game.". These might be something a game developer could say/think about his/her game.

What I think is good doesn't have to be what other people think is good. People think different. Still, how much can we listen to the customers? Do they really know what they want? Do we really know what is best for them? How do we find the balance between our knowledge and their dreams?

My point here is that it is easy to fall in a trap where your or your players judgement might influence your design choices. Sometimes developers try to convert a classic isometrically perceived game into a first person shooter, because the statistics say that most people like FPS when it comes to action games. At the same time some developers might follow their own dream too much and create something like Spore. You all know how that story went down, no need for me to repeat it for you.

Tomorrow I will talk about "the Main Stream path", to get deeper into this topic.


Let's finish this post off with a game that has worked hard (experiencing both good/bad stuff) with finding the balance I mentioned above, EVE Online (the "I was there" trailer):

Ways of lifting the customers spirit

Yesterday I decided to have an easy going day with my friends and girlfriend, starting the day with a draft of Magic and ending it with watching the shittiest Marvel movie in history: Captain America, the man who thinks infiltrating an enemy head quarters requires a metal shield painted with the flag of USA. Idiot...

Anyway, that's when I started to think about how movie makers and game developers use the things people care about to lift the spirit once in a while. To get a "let's do this together, for us!" kind of feeling. In movies this might be a man dressed in a country's flag (satisfying that countries population) or in games perhaps a Halloween or Christmas event. Speaking of which, the reason why I decided to take a lazy day was because I might have been too enthusiastic at the Halloween party the day before.

Johan the Priest, Me the Vampyric Wolverine, Phil the Death and Fredrik, being himself.

Developers: Take advantage of every opportunity you get

Every holiday or special occasion is an opportunity to do something fun for your players. It is also a very good opportunity to create buzz and great PR. The "We are celebrating EVERYTHING!" motto is something I embrace a lot. Aprils fools; Halloween; Christmas; The players birthday; The games' birthday... you name it!

There is so much to gain and so little pain.

Here is an old Simon an Lewis Minecraft video I've always loved to watch. Those crazy brits sure know how to create buzz about a game with their weird, but fantastic personalities.

Please spank me if I have been bad.

Before getting into what the heck the title in this blog post means, I need to express my feelings about Google removing the search engine words statistics feature. This is a quote from Google's announcement about it:

What is the impact of this change for webmasters? Today, a web site accessed through organic search results on http://www.google.com (non-SSL) can see both that the user came from google.com and their search query. (Technically speaking, the user’s browser passes this information via the HTTP referrer field.) However, for organic search results on SSL search, a web site will only know that the user came from google.com.

I might consider moving my blog to Wordpress after this, honestly. Anyway, today I will talk about games that punish you when you have been a bad bad boy/girl.


High Punishment: EVE-Online

The most fun AND the most boring MMO I have every played is EVE-Online. The reason why I have and always will love this game is that it punishes you for your mistake more closely to the real life. This is also sometimes a bad thing. It takes time to build something up, but it can be taken away in a blink of an eye. That could cause momentary motivation loss. This combined with the "playing solo" part can make this MMO so boring that I want to puke. It is a love/hate relationship!


Low Punishment: ANNO 2070

The ANNO games have always been very nice to you. Worst thing that happens is when you go unprepared to war, but otherwise you are pretty much safe and got all the time in the world. The latest ANNO game: ANNO 2070 is soon coming out and it does look very interesting. The multiplayer seems to have become a more central role in this game and you have bigger space for customization.


High Punishment vs. Low Punishment: Different game types for different moods. It equals a game of tension and excitement versus a laid back and relaxing game where you got all the time in the world.

Here is a short, but informative trailer on the new ANNO 2070 game:

The "Leaking" Strategy of Marketing

It does feel nice when things are starting to roll in my direction. My recent productivity boost has started to pay off. I even got missed by a falling rock and escaped death today. It is amazing what you can do to increase the chance of things come your way. But what are the game companies doing? Is "leakage" the new viral trend?


Is the EA Spouse just a viral marketing strategy?

This one is really hard to crack, at least for me, but the blogger that is called "The EA Spouse" might be an internal trick to create publicity. The thing is that much of what was originally "leaked" through this blog was negative. As they say: "All publicity is good publicity". But it might also be something else. An entrepreneurial spirited blogger, maybe even the real thing! Who knows? That's the thing with leakage, you can never really be sure.

To get to more every day "leakages", which seem to be the new name of "Announcement from company PR Department". Sometimes a song from a game gets "leaked", sometimes the beta, sometimes the demo gets out too early. In some cases you can even see movies filmed by amateurs claimed to be taken in secrecy. Also, have you ever thought about why some companies at live events to closed parties says "No cameras allowed or what we are about to discuss next"? Of course somebody will film it, put it on Youtube and create massive headlines everywhere. That's a good way of getting really cheap advertising. Just be smart.

I am aware that I have a little negative tone here, but in fact, I would like to finish off this blog post by saying that I actually admire this kind of marketing strategies.

Here is some typical leakage webcast on the Sony Playstation 4:

The first and the last successful "Grind-MMO"

The last few days I have tried out a few MMO:s that I should have, but never earlier have, played. The first one on my list was Age of Conan. The game lacks, at least initially, interesting ways to grind your way up in levels. Most things was just running from A to B without any real purpose. Then today when I tried Warhammer Online I realized that this game had a much better system for grinding. Although for me it is not much different than grinding in World of Warcraft.

Anyway, today I will discuss what I believe is the first big Grind-MMO and what I believe might be the last.


The first was Ultima Online!

Origin Systems masterpiece. This is the first MMO that I ever played and apart from EVE Online this is the MMO that has brought me most joy. It was a very open, free, but also punishing game, just the way I like it. It makes you actually focus and take care of your every moment.

In the future I think many companies need to look back on this game, that might have let people grind in a different way than people do today, but still has a lot of interesting design parts that can be re-used and optimized.


The last is Star Wars: The Old Republic?

This is a long shot, I know, but the time of grinding based MMO:s are dying. After World of Warcraft everything seems just the same to me, just with different graphics. We need something fresh. SWTOR offers good opportunity for role play and makes the game become more like a movie... but it is still based on the very same Grind and PVP game play we are all used to and a little bit tired of.


Let's finish off this blog post with a glimpse of the past. Who remember this old trailer? It is amazing how they tried to make sense of the "multiple servers" issue for the roleplaying perspective on the game.

Game Developers: Are you playing safe or taking leaps?

In life there is only two things. Doing what feels safe or taking that big leap into the unknown, hoping for grandeur, but risking fiasco. For me this would be the difference of starting up my own company versus starting a career at an already established company.

But what about today's games? Do they stand conflicted between these two choices?


Bioware: "I don't mind leaping once in a while"

Bioware is one of the big companies out there that are willing to sometimes take a leap. Looking at their track record they have failed, but also had huge success. While titles as Baldurs Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect or Dragon Age might have originally been literally a leap into a big pile of money, some titles has instead brought shame to the developers. Their biggest failure in my opinion was Dragon Age 2. This proves that taking a leap to early, might cause you to trip and fall. Sometimes it is just better to play safe.


Blizzard: "I like what I got, I play safe for now".

Blizzard is known for playing extremely safe. They refuse to release a title unless they are sure it will be a success. They spend a lot of money making sure that risks are minimized and profit are maximized. This doesn't mean that they haven't failed before, but it means that they learn by their mistakes and this is one of the key stones of why they are the best out there. Although playing safe is not always the best choice. In the long run you must, as a gaming company, be able to prove that you have the courage and brains to take a leap once in a while. This is what Blizzard yet has to prove.


Let us finish off this blog post with another brilliant cinematic trailer by Blizzard. Let me present to you the new "Black Soul Stone" trailer for Diablo III:

The upcoming Games Race

As many of you know, there are certain months where new games typically tend to hit the stores. One combo is November-December, specifically BEFORE x-mas. I bet you can figure out why. The other one is before the summer, generally May-June.

Right now we have the pre-xmas games coming up. Battlefield 3, Assassins Creed: Relevations, Anno 2070, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Star Wars: The Old Republic are a few examples.

Games that I fear we will have to wait for until May-June is StarCraft 2: The Heart of the Swarm and Diablo III. Blizzard would have overwhelmed us with their, usually, brilliant marketing by now if they aimed for x-mas.


Who will win the big race?

Is there a race? Of course there is. All of the games listed above are competing about becoming this years x-mas present. This is when all the big companies gather their brilliant minds to create the best marketing plan for their title. Some go for the more experimental viral methods (like Bungie) while others aim for TV commercials and overwhelming banners.

Just before x-mas we have a great moment where we can learn a lot about marketing and PR. Keep an eye out and think for yourself "Could I have done it better?". If your answer is yes, well... either you are wrong or you really got something.


Let's finish off this blog post with an awesome new trailer of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm.

Keep your hands where they belong...

I just came back, a bit drunk, from my big birthday celebration. Although I am a bit annoyed that someone was not so nice to a dear friend of mine, I am pretty satisfied with my birthday celebration. It was fun, most of my friends where there and I got a nice "Rena Rama Rolf" DVD to hang around my neck.

Thanks everyone for an amazing party. I hope I see you all again soon.


Marketing vs. IRL: The ice breaker

When you are out partying you often come across something one may call "ice breakers". It is the phrase that people use to initiate a conversation with you. Todays ice breaker was: "How are you? What are your plans now?". When you think about it. The ice breaker principle not only applies to parties, but to the way you communicate with your customers in a company.

When communicating to your customers, you need a good ice breaker. Think of it like you are in a club and want to pick up a girl. You don't want to use whatever everyone else is saying. You want to be original, but still  not be to "far fetched", so to speak.

"Are you out of premium credits? Maybe I can help!". If you are playing a game, would you not consider learning more after hearing this phrase?

Gadaffi arrested on my birthday

Well that's funny. Apparently they caught the bastard... on my freekin' birthday. Now, how good birthday present isn't that? ;)

I want to thank you all for the nice birthday wishes. It kept me in a good mood all day, while I was applying to jobs within the gaming industry. Now when Håkan got a job at Google, it seems like it is not impossible to get jobs after all.

It's good that my personal projects are starting to become something more than just ideas. Got two other people onto the project now.

Learning more about Social Media Management...

I have recently started following www.joakimnilsson.com, since he actually seems to be a quite cunning Social Media Specialist. I would recommend anyone interested in this area to check out his blog. It sure taught me one or two things I hadn't thought about before.

Anyway, now I am off to eat some awesome Chicken Tikka Masala at Charlie's Tavern in Ocean Village. See you tomorrow!

(the picture is taken from markdraws.com, excellent artist)

Evaluating my blog

Just came home from Alex third birthday. Pelle's little boy is growing so fast! Although, he kind of looks the same size as when I first saw him, but kids grow fast and... yeah you get the point.

MOVING ON...

I have decided to evaluate my blog and see if I can get better at keeping myself short (you see how I already failed at that) and try to make my posts easier to read.


Vote on what you want to read!

I have made a survey on the top of this page where you can vote on what you would like me to focus more on. You can vote on more than one thing, so you will no longer struggle between choices.


Anyway, that's it for today. After watching an impressive game play video of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, I am now off to try out Age of Conan for a bit. A good way to finish off a productive day of applying to jobs here and there in Europe.

The Dawn of Micro Payment Systems for Games

While spending much of this day to re-build some of my, yes I know how nerdy it is, Magic: The Gathering decks. After building the first out of three decks I worked with during the day, I started thinking about Magic as a strategically brilliant product. Richard Garfield's idea was around 10 years before it's time if you compare it to how more and more computer games are sold today.



Micro Payment is the Key

Magic: The Gathering is a game where you commonly play with 40-60 cards built from booster packs of 15 randomized cards from a certain theme each.

The game it self is free to play. You may play it as much as you can, as long as you buy the "parts" yourself. Much like many of the current Free to Play games we have today, only that Magic: The Gathering actually required you to actually own some initial parts to be able to take advantage of your free unlimited game time.

This system has worked since the game was released in the 1990's and it is only now that the concept is REALLY starting to show itself in digital form.

Today the monthly payment system is dying out. Welcome to the future and thanks Richard Garfield and Wizards of the Coast for showing us game developers a brilliant way to sell our games.


Oh, yes. The decks I built during the day was: Life gain (BLUE; WHITE; GREEN), Pumped Creatures (WHITE; GREEN) as well as a very odd deck where much of it is based on messing the opponent up with spells and dirty bombs (RED, BLUE, BLACK).

Sugar rush!

I have been on the Low Carb High Fat diet now for a while, with the exception of doing what the hell I want once or twice during the weekend. Yesterday I made a very... sweet milkshake. Vlada got so annoyed at bed time that she had to say "shut up I want to sleep!" to finally get my corn hole to close. It is amazing how many things you feel you want to philosophize about when you are high on sugar.

Tonight we are doing a Rock Band + milkshakes to experiement our performance with a lot of sugar in our system. Will our performance increase... or cause DISASTER?!


Watching the Schulman Show

Recently I have started watching this Swedish online show where this guy Alex Schulman (who might think he is a bit bigger than he actually is) is inviting a famous person and then laugh about some Youtube-videos or special topics that they find amusing/disgusting. I must say that I'm finally coming around. The show is not that bad.

Although... I must say that he does not do well in front of a camera. In the picture to the right of this text he kind of looks like he had a rough night with Hulk Hogan and lived to tell the tale.

Top 5 every day annoyances

After spending a lot of time in entrepreneur spirited meetings I had the misfortune of being annoyed every single minute of the transportation route to and from the places in town where we had the meetings. Therefore I am now forced to make a top 5 of annoying every day things that recently have... annoyed me.

The top 5

*EDIT*
HONORARY STAR LEVEL. F*CKING FIRE ALARM GOING OFF EVERY 15 MINUTES! This has been the case since I moved to Gibraltar. Most buildings here seem to have a little troll dry humping the fire alarm button once in a while. This would never happen in Sweden. It's not that it's just annoying, but also dangerous. Imagine if a real fire would start some day...
*/EDIT*

1. People on the street walking in a "wall formation", looking backwards - noticing that I am trying to squeeze through - and just keeps walking as if nothing happened. WHAT THE FUCK!?

2. People in Morrisons decide to have "meetings" in the middle of the way, blockading all "traffic" what so ever and don't even get the point when there is suddenly a big que of impatient and annoyed people behind them. FUCK OFF YOU RETARDS!

3. People on the street that is about to cross past you and can't decide on which side they should pass you. This is so simple: The standard is to walk on the LEFT side of someone. Cyclists does the opposite.

4. The TV channels have synchronized advertisement. I mean... COME ON!

5. Stores being closed during the weekend. "Let's close ALL of the stores on the weekdays just when people are off work and let's make sure that they wont get a chance during the weekends either. We are not interested at all in making money in our company."


What I have learnt during my time in Gibraltar is that the average IQ is somewhat a hell of a lot lower than in Sweden. No offense if you don't consider yourself to be doing anything of the things above, but if you feel that this describes you pretty well, then I pity you.

Star Wars: The Old Republic... what to play?

As most of you guys know, Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) is being released on 20th of December (or so it has been said) and expectations are sky high. My expectations has sunken quiet a bit since the first announcement though. The more I learn, the more disappointed I get.

So... what will I play?

Jedi Knight versus Smuggler

My initial thought has always been smuggler, but after learnt a lot about it, it is only still interesting in a story/RPG point of view. The game play looks pretty lame and the fact that a smuggler CAN in fact beat a Sith Lord in a combat at all is just unrealistic to me. A force wielder should kick a Smugglers ass any day. But Game Balance sometimes demands things like this to happen... understandably but unfortunately.

Since my guild is playing the light side of the force, I will probably go for Jedi Knight. I mean, why play a Star Wars game and not be a "lightsaber class"? ;)

I was thinking about the consular, but it seems like they are pretty much a mage/priest in gameplay perspective, I am not really interested. I was hoping that they would be a more powerful version of the Jedi Knight, but with slower power regeneration and faster exhaustion, to balance things up. But my idea of a consular might be totally wrong...

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Todays big lol: Sheldon Cooper does it again!

Bazinga!

Mass Effect 3 + Multiplayer = True

It seems like what we have hoped for is going to happen, actually. Is it my dream coming true? Co-op in a story driven Bioware game? Could it be one of the disappointing "deathmatch" kind of multiplayer that awaits us?

Co-Op is the future

I think that the brain dead Death Match multiplayer type is dying out. The world needs multiplayer with a purpose. A goal to reach, a story to follow. This is the future. Many games has already embrace this. Just look at Gears of War or Army of Two.

Let's face it. We have been waiting for quite a while now for multiplayer to be included in a story driven game like Mass Effect. Bioware better be very careful to not disappoint the fans they have hyped for some time now.

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The ending better be good!

Mass Effect has been a game that I have been very critical against and for a start I refused to play it. Once watching it at a friends place, I was convinced to give it a try.

To my surprise it was one of the best Bioware Games ever made (except from my favorite: Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark). Mass Effect 2 was even better and I can't imagine the third and last one being any worse... but, who knows? Dragon Age 2 was the biggest disappointment in Biowares history, imo. So... well, we just have to wait and see!

A shift of generation

Can you really define when a new generation starts and an old one dies out? Is it not as hard as defining what is REALLY "normal"? Anyway, while reading the news on the net I figured that right now must be some kind of generation change.


Charlie Sheen's out, Ashton Kutcher's in!

One old pathetic pathetic party boy is going away, while another one is entering the stage. Of course I am talking about the whole "Two and a Half Men" circus. Not only has the main character reflected the life of the actor, but it was succeeded still doing so after a shift of cast.

Is not Ashton Kutcher starting to look more and more like a young Charlie Sheen? Let's go back to this blog post in 30 years and see how right I was.

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Steve Jobs is out, "Google Guys" is in!

Even though Jobs still has a few surprises prepared for the next couple of years, it has been interesting to see how the fresher brains Sergey Brin and Larry Page has gradually stolen the spotlight of good ol' Jobs. You cannot compare them as competitors, but rather as geniuses of their time. Steve Jobs had his boom long ago and managed to keep the ball rolling to this day, but in my opinion, the greatest surprises has already been revealed. The rest is pretty much "good marketing", rather than amazing inventions. I mean, Ipad 2, Iphone 5... simply enhanced versions of the same thing, carefully planned to make more money.

The Google Guys on the other hand have still some way to go before they can properly conquer the world like Steve Jobs once did. They may have a lot, true, but I think their greatest achievment is still waiting to be revealed. Anyone can make a search engine, good or bad, or an online spreadsheet, or a good email service... even a social network! If you look at it, most things they have done is copies of other peoples ideas. Usually with smarter marketing, better solutions, but copies still.

I believe in Google, and their brightest day is still to be had. You go guys!