Monday, September 27, 2004

A Jeh for All Seasons I often talk about "various online projects" and how they take up large chunks of my time. So I thought I'd write a post that actually talks a bit more specifically about what I'm working on and what I'd like to work on. Like many people, the work I do online is a hobby that I enjoy. But at the same time, my online work often has a direct financial impact on me. For example, I make a lot of contacts via N-Sider, which can then translate to "real world" situations (ie: magazine work and so on). By the same token, my online work ends up becoming a continuously moving portfolio, which I can show to potential employers. For those of you who question whether or not it's worth building a site, I can tell you, it's definitely worthwhile. Had I not involved myself in various kinds of work on the web (everything from design to writing to management), I definitely wouldn't have been able to jump into the job of my choice. And even more than that, I'd have had a lot more difficulty building a portfolio for school; in many ways, my online work has really benefited my life. And that is partly why I'm still so committed to it (apart from the fact that I still get a kick out of it). Obviously, since you're reading myOtaku, you already pretty much know what I do at this network. My role here is pretty varied and I'd venture to say that I probably do a lot of things here and there that you wouldn't know about unless I told you. But I like it, because Adam, Justin and I are able to work together so cohesively. The fact that the three of us are somewhat versatile means that we can quickly leap from task to task, without any worries. I really enjoy it, because my work at this network is never static; there are always plenty of new things to do. Lately I've been doing my part on theOtaku.com's new version. Lucky for me, the bulk of my work ended relatively quickly -- I was responsible for the layout and once that's done, it's up to Justin and Adam to translate that to code on the Internet. I play a role after that, but it's mostly in an advisory and editing capacity (ie: editing images that need updating or fixing and making sure that things are translating properly). Right now, my biggest online task would have to be N-Sider. That site is kind of in the middle of a major change right now. Various staff have been promoted to new positions and the entire leadership has essentially changed. It's a long story, but in terms of workload, it means that I probably have more pressure on me than ever. The reason there's more pressure is because the guys over there want to do three things. They want to edit the current design of the site, to accommodate certain principles; they want to design an N-Universe (more on that in a moment) and they want to design a new N-Sider itself. If you're at all familiar with N-Sider, you'll have heard of N-Universe. Basically, N-Universe is a seperate site from N-Sider. It's an art-based site, where you can browse through different character "universes". If you enter the Mario Universe for example (which is the first one we'll be developing), you can kind of visit all of the locations within that franchise, you can explore all the characters, you can read all sorts of information about the games, etc. The unique thing about it is that it'll be very art-intensive and it won't be like a traditional gaming site. It'll have its own unique layout and it will be written in a creative way (ie: you'll have pieces written by photographers who were paid to travel with Mario, and take photos of his journeys). There will also be a Zelda Universe, which will have its own layout and features (and it'll have articles written by an archaeologist who studies the various locations from the games). All in all, it's going to be highly impressive...once it's finished. In truth, N-Universe has been plagued by delays for about a year. A year-long delay sounds bad, but really, it was always a very ambitious project. And when you consider that it took us two years to create N-Data (which is the world's largest and most comprehensive index of Nintendo games, personnel and companies), you start to get an idea about the kind of work that goes into that type of thing. But we achieved N-Data and I think we can achieve N-Universe as well. It will be my responsibility to design these individual "universes", as well as the overall N-Universe design, which will encase the seperate mini-sites. At the same time, we are going to be working on a new version of N-Sider, which will be radically different from what you see today (and radically different from any gaming site that currently exists). It will essentially be a digital magazine, with actual pages that you can turn. Articles will be presented in large, two-page spreads, and the entire site will be designed specifically for 1024x768 resolution and above. The layouts will be very art heavy and everything will integrate with N-Universe. As you can imagine, such a project is enormous. The scope is so large that we've had to push everything back and do an interim facelift of N-Sider to accommodate certain changes. Some things that we want to do aren't even possible at the moment, they can only be done with the upcoming version of CSS, which presents a number of issues in and of itself. I have to say, the prospect of these two ventures is both exciting and very daunting. I had originally thought that I'd only have a couple of months' work in there. But as it turns out, this whole thing is probably more like a year's work, all up. But there's nobody else to do it, so...there you go. Apart from N-Sider, there are two other major things for me to do online. The first is to make my next major revision to OtakuBoards. Previously, version updates at OtakuBoards meant a new default skin and some other minor changes (usually staff and forum updates). But as I mentioned with Version 7, we won't be moving to a Version 8 until something major happens (either a new version of vB, or a new Site Director, or something like that). vB2 lasted from 2001 to early 2004, so...vB3 can probably last a similar length of time. However, this doesn't mean that my next update won't be significant. On the contrary, Version 7.1 (or 7.5 or whatever) will be quite significant. You'll see at least one additional skin, a new postbit design and you'll finally see our comprehensive new arcade (with a cool new feature to accompany it). Those are the cornerstones of the upgrade, but I'm sure there will be even more involved. And finally, there is my own new site, KILLING-BILL.com. In truth, this site could already have been online now, today, had I not been so busy with other projects (both online and offline, but predominantly online). But having said that, I am absolutely determined not to let this site fall by the wayside, like ShineGet.com did. There are a few people who are supporting me in my effort, because they are strong believers in the concept. And I definitely won't be letting them (or myself) down. Apart from anything else, this is a project that I feel very passionate about and I feel that it deserves my attention. The only problem with all of this is that there are only 24 hours in a day. For me, that means two things. One, a constant juggling act; I'm always having to push certain things back and bring other things forward, in order to have things completed in a reasonable time. But secondly, it means that there are certain sites and projects that I physically can't work on, even though I'd love to. In fact, there are quite a few things I'd like to do online, which I simply can't do right now. The first is a portfolio site of my own. I was working on one a while ago, but I wasn't satisfied with it and I scrapped it. As my online and offline work develops and as I begin to create a cohesive brand of my own, I would really like to create a destination for people to visit, which archives and indexes all of my stuff. But I don't want "james.killing-bill.com" or something. It would have to be a proper site in and of itself, with as much of my work presented as possible. This would be incredibly useful for me, not just in terms of employment, but also with education and other things. But right now it's impossible. No time, no money. What else? Well, a while ago, GCAdvanced.com approached me, wanting me to run their new PSP site. I said I'd only do it if they let me design it myself, because (just between you and me), GCA's site layouts are absolutely awful. I can spot that newbie-like heavy-bevel a mile away. Yuck. Of course, they said that my conditions were a bit too much, as I expected. Had they said yes, I may have considered it, but really, I think I'm too close to N-Sider to dump it for something else. However, I would still like to start my own gaming media site at some point. And even then, there are so many options. For example, I've always wanted to make a site dedicated to SEGA arcade games (there's something about the flashy/silly menus and the totally cheesy music that I adore). I'd also like to do a retro gaming site, or a site based specifically on handhelds. Too many options. I could keep going, when it comes to web projects that I'd like to do. I'd really love to make a Sims-based site, with all my own objects and skins. That'd be a lot of fun, especially since many Sims sites have become pay-only lately. I'd also like to make a music site, particularly something that allows artists to submit their own music for review and distribution. I'm very keen on the idea of new music communities and sampling of new works. I'd really like to create something with a wealth of options, where people can create individual riffs to share online (and use via sound mixing programs like SoundForge and Peak), or where people can search for other artists in specific fields (perhaps by instrument), so that they can collaborate or start a band of their own. That would be a really fun type of project, I think. There's so much more, too. But I should probably stop, because I can already feel this post being too long. ~_^

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