As big of a deal as I’ve made this out to be, this won’t ever compare to the laughs we shared, the friendships we formed, the lessons I’ve learned, the games we bonded over, the charitable work we performed, and the adventures yet to come. Thank you. ❤ pic.twitter.com/hIVqKLROp4
— Jett (@inthirdperson) February 27, 2019
video games
Twitch, the Road to Affiliate, and Losing Myself in the Chase for Numbers
Numbers are great. They help us quantify what we have and what we aim to achieve. But numbers aren’t everything.
When In Third Person launched a decade ago, I made it a point to not use numbers as the primary measure of success. Part of that was out of necessity. It’s easy to fret over pageviews when you don’t generate any.
But more importantly, this is a creative medium where the success that comes from the work one creates isn’t entirely defined by pageviews, clicks, or ad revenue. Factors such as (but not limited to) the quality of the work, the satisfaction felt from releasing those ideas out into the world, and the impact the work has on others are some of the intangible things that can mean a whole lot. Whatever that quantitative and qualitative mix is, success is usually a balance.
Finding that balance is difficult. It always changes from day-to-day, from one piece of creative work to the next, to whatever mood you happen to be in at the time. In recent months, I lost hold of the balance while chasing a particular streaming goal. I’m on the precipice of finally reaching that goal, but I’m not proud of how I lost myself along the way.
Should I Apply My Wife and I’s Academy Awards Tradition to Video Games?
Every year, in anticipation of the Academy Awards, Steff and I make the effort to watch every movie nominated for best picture. I’m far from the target audience for Oscar bait, but it’s an opportunity for us to bond over her love of movies. Along the way, this journey has exposed me to some of my favourite films in recent memory, such as La La Land, Whiplash, and Mad Max: Fury Road to name a few.
As we wrap up the 2018 crop of best picture nominees, it got me thinking. Would I consider taking the approach of playing every major game of the year contender?
SNES Hidden Gem! X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse
A game I remember fondly from my childhood, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse has kind of slipped off the radar. We give this slept-on X-Men game some love by playing through the opening missions!
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Buy The Hori D-Pad Controller (L) (Zelda) Now From Amazon.com
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Return of Retro Game Streaming?
Retro game streaming has been something I’ve wanted to do since I started doing this seriously at the beginning of 2018. However, it fell pretty low on the priority chain as my laundry list of technical things to fix piled up. On top of all the basic things I struggled to sort out – such as broadcasting a stream with a decent picture quality at a steady frame rate – retro hardware added additional obstacles to work through.
Knowing that I couldn’t solve everything at once, all of my retro-specific issues were put aside in order to broadcast a solid modern stream first. After months of research, tweaking of settings, breaking of stuff while live on-air, and the purchase of numerous pieces of hardware, I think I’m finally [knock on wood] at a point where I can finally play old games more regularly.
Super Nintendo Show and Tell
Donkey Kong Country! Super Mario World! Shaq-Fu? Take a look at some of the hits and misses in my Super Nintendo game collection while we share stories of retro gaming awesomeness!
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Buy The Hori D-Pad Controller (L) (Zelda) Now From Amazon.com
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Hip-Hop Week | Hip-Hop vs. Game Design: How Game Designers Incorporate the Freestyle Elements of Hip-Hop into Hip-Hop Themed Video Games
Hip-Hop Week concludes with this post on In Third Person! For the grand finale, I look at the point where the elements of hip-hop freestyle collide with game structure. Has any game ever found the right balance? Thank you for joining me on this adventure!
The element of improvisation is a foundational block of hip-hop music and culture. In the beginning, the scene started with DJs, rappers, and breakdancers making things up as they went. Though hip-hop music and culture has been mainstream for quite some time, the ethos of what freestyle means still permeates.
Translating that freeform nature of hip-hop has been a challenge in the world of video games. By virtue of being a game, the “game” part needs some sort of quantifiable benchmark to define success. This flies in the face of the freeform nature of the culture.
Let’s look at a few ways in which developers have tried to provide structure for the purposes of making a fun game, while trying to maintain the freestyle nature of the activity its emulating.
Carpet Ride from Hell! Disney’s Aladdin on SNES Live Stream
Do you remember this one from back in the day? We play through the first few levels of Disney’s Aladdin, but man that carpet ride level is no joke!
Highlights
Finally beating the carpet ride level!
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Buy The Hori D-Pad Controller (L) (Zelda) Now From Amazon.com
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Hip-Hop Week | PokeRap and Your First Exposure to Hip-Hop Music
Hip-Hop Week continues on In Third Person! What was your gateway into hip-hop music?
I remember my gateway into the world of hip-hop vividly. Borrowing my friend Faiz’s cassette copy of Homebase by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, I dubbed my own copy and bumped it all the time. Despite “Summertime” being an enduring classic, starting out with Will Smith doesn’t do anything for my street cred.
It got me thinking about other potential gateways into the genre. There’s no shame in where you start or where you end, but when I started to think about it, the “PokeRap” from the original Pokemon animated series immediately came to mind.
Daemon X Machina: Prototype Missions Impressions
First making its debut at E3 2018 as part of Nintendo’s E3 presentation, we now have the opportunity to try out Daemon X Machina for ourselves thanks to a demo on the eShop. Having never really played Armored Core or any other mech game for that matter, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. By the end of the hour-ish demo, I got a pretty good sense of what this game was about and whether this was something I’d interested in picking up someday.
In Third Person 
