So the big tech story of the week is Google’s new Chrome browser. I’ve been using it since it released and not surprisingly am impressed on many fronts and find other things severely lacking. Can’t say it isn’t the best first version of a browser ever (beta even!), but it’s still a bit behind Firefox (although I’d say probably ahead or at least close to IE).

I’m surprised though that as much as the blogs and Digg lit up, well, nobody seems to have caught on to how big a deal this is.

Google just ninja’d an OS onto millions of computers.

There it is, the Google OS. That’s it, Chrome. You’ll see, give it some time and Google will be operating on all gears (pun intended) with this thing. It’s too bad they came up with such a bad name for what is quite possibly the future platform of…computers…

Is that a scary thought? Maybe. I’m not one of the Google conspiracy theorists. Is Google trying to take over the world? Pretty much. Is that such a bad thing? If the company continues the way it’s always been, I don’t think so. Good people run the place and it’s more in it’s best interest to play the “Do no evil” card than be malicious with it’s power at this point.

All hail our Google overlords.

Quickly I began to see a pattern as story after story was posted concerning the game and the man, who is rather proactive in commenting everywhere on stories concerning him and Braid. The community seemed polarized into for and against camps, as per usual the gaming community. Generally negative depending on what site your on, I began to wonder just who was this unfortunately named chap and why did everyone care so much.

I was greeted today by this article, which gave me all I needed to know about Mr. Blow…

“Games are going to be huge. Games will heavily impact patterns of human thought, and thus what it means to be human. Yet the industry is unethically exploiting all these players, because we don’t think about what we’re doing.

World of Warcraft says: You are a schlub who has nothing better to do than sit around performing repetitive, mindless actions. Skill and shrewdness do not count for much; what matters is how much time you sink in. You don’t need to do anything exceptional, because to feel good you just need to run the treadmill like everyone else.

Games right now are teaching a lot of the wrong things.”

That’s an immediate jump to one of my favorite people in the industry. Especially combined with the fact that Briad is one of the most memorable gaming experiences I’ve had since Portal. It’s like Mario meets Zelda’s puzzles with some Prince of Persia for good measure, and an ending so twisted something like Killer 7 comes to mind. An absolutely wonderful experience unlike any other I’ve ever had from an indy game.

I’ll be keeping an eye on Johnny’s adventures from now on, suffice to say. And I wouldn’t doubt a bit of his influence rubs off on me in my own game design in the coming years. Which reminds me, I start my first actual “Game Design and Development” course tomorrow. It’s not the kind of thing I expect can be well-taught in a classroom, but it’s a helpful start point.

Life Lesson: It always pays to be considerate and professional. [/sarcasm]

I’m so behind on all this work. I take a bit too much time to play games but it’s the ridiculous time I spend sleeping or being sleepy that’s killing me. After an 8-hour workday I just can’t seem to bring myself to do more work.

Addicted to DotA and Age of Conan now. My current “games to beat” list is now at about two dozen, with school starting in a couple weeks. My FunCom days are probably over with school starting too, I just can’t pull the hours. I’ll talk a bit how that’s been going soon.

I still plan to totally remake this blog, I just gotta find time where I’m not having trouble holding my eyes open.

Of interest to some maybe, I met with a marketing rep for TAP Interactive the other day. They own a little site you may of heard of called EscapistMagazine, not to mention a very funny little Australian guy. The guy I met with actually roomed with Yahtzee at GDC, which he said was quite the funny time. Interesting things are afoot in the triangle area for gaming, and I may get the chance to be a part of it. More info soon.

And so begins my journey into the wonderful world that is the games industry. Even if that journey starts with $10/hr working in customer service and banning people selling gold in a MMO. xP

Basically, while the top few associated terms are what I would expect and hope for (my name, web design, etc.), many of the other keywords came from a source I question if I want associated with my business self…this one.

The way Google interacts with Wordpress blogs, every post I’ve ever made here counts as an external link to my site (courtesy me putting it in my links). So with hundreds of external links from here, it’s no surprise “wii” is my 3rd biggest term according to Google.

The internet didn’t use to have this automatic two way street. In the old days, people exchanged links if they wanted to be associated, but an idle link was not an immediate flag of relevance between two points. Despite my wishes, my online persona as the Nintendo Master and my web designer self Mr. Campbell have become closely intertwined. It’s said that even bad press is good advertising, but in an industry where reputation is so important, do I really want my business self to have even the smallest connection to my gothed-out MySpace or occasional emo rambling here?

It’s tough, weighing the pros and cons. Do you advertise yourself at every possible opportunity? Or do you keep quiet except in times you’d have no shame if the advertising were turned around on you?

Either way, I don’t think this blog is going to stay around much longer. The only question is what will replace it. I have some interesting ideas, but surprisingly the technology is just a little bit behind what I’d like to do. It might require a small but significant time investment for me to tweak various software.

Then again, if I manage to land this job over at Funcom (any other Age of Conan players out there?), I definitely am going to want a blog to keep a record of my life beginning and ending in the games industry…

However for a even a much longer time I’ve held a great love for the man and myth, Adam Sessler. While his contract requirements with a horrid writing staff have confined him to mediocrity on one of the most worthless channels on television, he still gets to show his awesome side on rare occasion and remind me why I love the guy. See below.

***Edit: G4 pulled the copyright card on the YouTube video. You’ll have to watch the video, “A Review to Kill”, here or subscribe to “Sessler’s Soapbox” on iTunes.***

Credit to the original.