Monday, August 30, 2010

EXP Update

It’s hard to believe, but the two-year anniversary of Experience Points is just over a week away! Before we go any further, let’s take care of the mushy stuff: Thanks to everyone who visits the site. That so many of you choose to spend your time reading our posts, listening to the podcast, and contributing to the site with your emails and comments is beyond amazing. We are both honored and grateful!

For nearly two years now, we’ve made it a priority to produce substantial, thoughtful material on a regular basis. Committing to Monday, Wednesday and Friday updates provided both a source of stability and the motivation to consistently think critically about games. When we started Experience Points, we were not far from our college years. On top of our naturally nerdy inclinations, we were both fairly serious students and the site gave us an outlet to use mental horsepower that would have otherwise gone to waste.

Now our studious nature is pulling us back into the strange world of academia, and we must adjust our schedules accordingly. Unlike the predictability of 9 to 5 routine, academic deadlines often manifest as droughts and floods. Also, routines are great, but sometimes familiarity and comfort can lead to complacency. With all this in mind, we’d like to introduce a few changes to the site in hopes of keeping things fresh:

1. First the big news: both of us will be writing a column over at PopMatters on the Moving Pixels blog. Long-time visitors will recognize PopMatters as a consistent source of inspiration for Experience Points and we are extremely excited to be joining their talented crew. We will start posting there in a couple of weeks and the style will resemble the kind of material you would find in our traditional Monday and Friday essays. The columns are currently slated to appear on Thursdays. When a column goes up, we will post a link to it on our website along with a mini-essay meant to supplement the piece or address topics we might have had to excise during the editing process. For an idea of what these might look like, check out L.B. Jeffries’ posts.

2. On Tuesdays, we will post material exclusive to Experience Points. These posts will follow a slightly different format than the current Monday/Friday essays. Specifically, we want to experiment with styles that contrast with the long-form essays you’ll find on Thursdays. These new Tuesday posts might be responses to current events, short commentaries on specific games, or think pieces that invite reader participation. Ultimately, these posts will be a more informal counter-weight to the longer Thursday features. These posts are partly inspired by Krystian Majewski of the Game Design Scrapbook and Michael Abbott of The Brainy Gamer.

3. On Wednesdays, we will post the ever-faithful Experience Points Podcast!

4. Friday through Monday will be reserved for further experimentation and miscellaneous thoughts. As of now, we’re leaving these days as unstructured, which means that some weeks may have multiple posts while some may have none. Since we will still be posting material on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Friday through Monday will be used like a sandbox to test out new ideas, post things that never made their way into other projects, and examine the various odds and ends of video games and culture.

We’ll be transitioning from our Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule to our new Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday schedule over the next few weeks. There shouldn’t be too much downtime, but don’t send out the rescue teams if the site is a bit quieter than usual. As you may have gathered from our writing and podcasts, it’s difficult for us to stay quiet. We’ll be up to speed in no time.

Thanks again for visiting the site! It’s been a great couple of years and we look forward to having you along for many more.

- Jorge and Scott

11 comments:

  1. Sounds like there has been enough Experience Points for a level up :)

    Thanks for the update. I don't often comment but I do enjoy reading every post and listening to the podcasts.

    Congratulations on the Popmatters gig, I hope it goes well for you and best of luck on the change of schedule.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Congrats on the PopMatters columns, guys! Can't wait to see what you have up your respective sleeves!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congratulations on your two year anniversary and the new PopMatters columns!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Excellent! That's great news! I also saw you guys are steadily moving up the Google rank. Good job! Please do continue. We need people like you!

    ReplyDelete
  5. What/where are you guys picking up studies? Congrats on the milestone by the way, and the other official writing engagements--feels good not to have to push the publish button yourself sometimes!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for all the kind wishes folks!

    For those interested, Jorge is already actively engaged in saving the world at University of San Francisco. He does a neat combination of Political Science, Peace and Conflict Studies, and International Relations.

    At the end of September, I'll be moving to Oxford to study history.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oxford! You don't mess about! Congrats. I actually am making a habit of travelling there for conferences that you might well be interested in. http://inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/cyber/videogame-cultures-the-future-of-interactive-entertainment/ That conference happens at Mansfield college at Oxford in July. Next year will be the 3rd year it runs, so its still new, but going pretty well.

    I really like Oxford, and intend to travel there again sometime next year, somehow, for some reason.... :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. To echo Scott's feelings, thanks again for all the kind comments. Upwards and onwards then.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Slightly late comment but congratulations guys on both the anniversary and the gigs at PopMatters!

    It's actually hard to believe that I've been reading your posts for two years but then again, I thought the same kind of thing when I hit my own two year milestone earlier in the year, so time certainly flies. I think the two of you both know how much I love the site and what you do, and you've always been a strong influence in how I approach my own writing, so thank you heaps for that.

    I still don't know how you have managed to maintain such a routine for so long, too. You've got a good formula.

    Anyway, congrats again guys and thanks for always being up for chat about videogames.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wow, congrats on two years guys. Time freakin flies. I don't comment much, and time doesn't permit me to really keep updated daily, but I've been here since the beginning. The blog has really grown. Looking forward to what you have coming.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hey Steven,

    Thanks for the kind words. Writing alongside folks like you has always been great motivation!

    Hi Shane,

    Great to hear from you! Your original generosity really helped us start out on the right foot. The Internet can be a rough place, but we're lucky to have come across so many friendly folks.

    ReplyDelete