Thursday, October 27, 2005

Fly me away.

Funnily enough, that Goldfrapp song is what I was listening to when I first saw the Revolution controller. I will now always associate that song with Revolution. It happens to me a lot - I associate songs with different things. For example, I will forever associate Godsmack's Voodoo with Metal Gear Solid 3...partly due to the lyrics and partly because my sister was listening to it non-stop while I was playing the game. I don't mind having that association though - whenever I hear the song it gives me a nostalgic feeling or something. Anyway, I have amended my layout yet again, though I'm 100% unhappy with the intro image. But frankly, I can't be bothered changing it right now. So consider it a placeholder. When I have time, I shall change it to something more appropriate. Anyway, today was interesting. I discovered that we may indeed be offering Art of Otaku on CD-ROM. Of course, it will have complete packaging and be correctly labeled and so on. I'm excited about that, although it does put some extra pressure on me - I will be handling all of the design work for that. I don't mind, though. It should be fun. We are also about to do a beta offering for Art of Otaku, so the feedback from that will be interesting. I have a few things to complete on my end before we can do the beta offer, but I expect that we'll be putting that out on Monday or something. So if you're one of the 2,200 or so people who signed-up early on for Art of Otaku stuff, you may be included in that beta. That should be good fun. Other than that, I have kind of spent some more time tinkering with myOtaku. I may not have mentioned it, but not long ago I actually up-ended the tea table on Adam and Justin. Basically, we required a "white" version of the site, but implementing that was difficult for various reasons. During that process I came to realize that our design was great for teenagers, but that it would not be so suitable for older people. So I created something new from scratch, which both Adam and Justin seem very happy about. And that design is what we'll be pursuing for myOtaku 3.0. It is therefore possible that I might be able to show you the design that I'd been working on beforehand, since it's basically now redundant. If you are interested in seeing that, perhaps I could put it up. The new design, which has been in existence for a few weeks now, is about as different to the first design as you could get. When I was working on it, I was thinking about the palettes in Photoshop and how you can easily move them around and create a workspace that suits whatever you're working on at the time. I have applied this same concept to myOtaku - so yes, it will be a more visual site than what we have now, but it should also take all of those new features and present them in a pretty simple fashion. At least, that's the goal. The more you strip away, the more difficult the design work becomes. What exites me most about Art of Otaku is the possibility that we may even be able to offer it at retail or something. I imagine this will depend somewhat on the reception to the beta, but even if we offer the packaged version over the Internet...that would be fantastic. Of course, a PDF is great and I'm sure it's just as useful. The end product is a PDF regardless anyway. However, having a packaged CD-ROM full of pretty artwork is no doubt a much better alternative than a digital file. It would also really be our first actual physical product. So in that sense, after all these years of working on various things, it would be a bit of a collector's item I imagine. I was also talking to Adam today about the possibility of expanding Art of Otaku to include various other little tidbits (like a ton of free wallpapers and things like that). Hopefully we can include some extras to further improve the value. I can tell you that we do have one inclusion planned that we aren't advertising or talking about - it's a surprise for buyers. I think it's a cute little addition, myself. Oh, before I go, gaming fans may want to know that Electroplankton will be available online and at the Nintendo World store as of January 9th. I know a few of you were debating whether or not to import this title, but now you won't have to. I wonder if the American packaging will be like the Japanese packaging. I hope so, because I think it's really worth buying if you are a Nintendo fan. Given the limited appeal of the product, I'd say it's going to be a big collector's item one day in the future. Anyway, on to the responses... indifference: The price of myOtaku Premium will be so low that it will be virtually free. I'm not sure if I can discuss price at this stage, but I can tell you that we're talking pocket change. The big challenge is to make Premium really worthwhile, because even the standard myOtaku 3.0 will be a pretty big leap over what we're providing today. So we have to make a new benchmark and then beat it for Premium. I'm sure the process will be fun though. Aaryanna: Ah yes, I've heard about that restaurant. All I can tell you is that it's basically one of the most warped stereotypes I've ever seen. It's more American than Australian, unfortunately. *shrug* Anyway, Art of Otaku will be something you will need to pay for if you want it. It will be significantly cheaper than most publications of its type, though. And hopefully we will be able to have CD-ROM versions widely available. So I hope that you look forward to it! John: Ah yes! I remember now. We have Takeshi's Castle here, complete with local presenters (and a cross-dressing Geisha). Unfortunately though, Takeshi's Castle is no longer airing here. We also had another Japanese game show here. I forget the name, but I know that it involved insects and body paint. And those pictures...oh yes, I remember. And some people thought they were real, too! They literally thought I was an 80 year old man who was screaming, lol. Funny stuff. XD RaR: Again, I'm not quite sure if I can comment on the price of Art of Otaku. I can only tell you that it will be pretty affordable - certainly cheaper (and superior in quality) to many of the bound publications that currently exist. As for myOtaku, I do not know when we will launch it, given all of the things we are working on right now. At the moment I can tell you that my primary concern is Art of Otaku. After that, I'll be 100% dedicated to myOtaku development. It's a tough wait, but I hope that as things take further shape, I will be able to start sharing specifics with you on here. I would like to perhaps reveal one new feature each week or something like that. We'll see, I guess. Zid: I'm not sure I believe the sinus infection = cleansing thing. It sounds a bit like an old wives' tale to me...like the idea that being cold gives you a cold. Still, whatever the situation, I'm just glad to be over that awful virus. I hope your cold improves soon though! Annie-kun: Ah yes, I am feeling better thankfully. Thanks for the conversation today too, I enjoyed it. I was feeling pretty physically crappy, so it was great to be able to have a good discussion with you. SunfallE: Thank you, you too! Don't worry about not coming by, it's cool. I often forget to do the rounds myself. Bio: You bet your ass! It's so difficult to find the right tone for OtakuBoards, but I prefer what we have now to what we had previously. I am never satisfied, though. It still isn't completely right.

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