I know you can all read...but...some responses to the McGEE. (Originally posted on MySpace on Thursday, August 31, 2006)

First off...

There seems to be a micro$oft style gold lining to this whole thing. I downloaded the beta for the XNA tool and when I tried to install it, it told me that I needed to have Visual Basic C.. installed.

Ah, I see...so the XNA is only 99 bucks...but the Visual Basic...I don't know how much that is...but I'm guessing it's like 500 bucks or something. haven't looked into it to hard...but if we're gonna make any money of these games we're gonna have to buy all the necessary software...it'd make our (eventual) legal team a little leary if the PONG clone we churn out and make millions with was made using a cracked copy of Visual Basic...and we get sued.

Also, I can't work on any game stuff at work...since I signed this form that said that THQ owns the rights to game related stuff I work on while here...fair enough, I don't have time to do much at work besides work anyway...sometimes I have demand a piss break...but more on that in a later blog.

Here are my thoughts on Greg's questions.

- you thought the old man was hard to convince The Arnold Brothers' true fortune lies in the future of American gaming, wait to see the colossal effort involved in getting the wives on board

That maybe true...but once they're buying new living room sets every six months "Vickie-style" they'll change there tunes. Besides...we ahve no choice...we need to harness the "GIRL GAMER" voice if we are to penetrate the POGO/Yahoo Games set...these days you can't rely on gamer's to pay all the bills...gotta get those soccer moms sitting in the bleechers on their cell phones during practice...;)

- does this mean we get to buy $3,000 PC setup with peripherals and write it off our taxes?

That is what that means.

- Shall we unlock the full potential of an already overmined genre, or invent our own, hearken to better times, or look to the future of interactive imaginitive play?

We're not reinventing the wheel here...we're going to refine a well worn genre with our patented "ARNOLD-Y-NESS". Just to start out with we gotta come on strong with quality and innovation then we can experiment. Just look at Geometry Wars...hardly a new concept but that game is fun and excellently executed...we want to do something at that level of quality...with a 99 dollar development tool and little in the way of true computer programming experience...in fact...most likely Emma will be the CTO for the company since she has the most programming experience...even if it is only JAVA...but still...

-who will be the Aeschylus to our Shakespeare? (original issue vs. later guy who made ripped-off stuff famous) - Family Fun Sierra? Cult Classic Westwood? Pimple Faced Microprose? Korean Supertech Blizzard?

I'm leaning towards something along the lines of a star control (just to get raleigh and emma passionate and on board) or a classic heroes of might and magic side on tactical thing...

-which foreign market is best for laundering our fuzzy math bank accounts?

looks like we're all "moving" to Jamaca.

I'll start sketching for the first big high power business conference in Wells

KYOTO - AUSTIN - SILICON VALLEY - WELLS!!!!