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Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:52 pm
by DefunctGamer
Devin wrote:In my eyes 3DO is kind of a Chicken and Egg scenario. My aim is to build an open 3DO community with 3DO ZERO, then who knows what this project could spawn? Maybe it'll inspire new websites, blogs, whatever. At least it draws attention to the system and provides a place for like minded gamers to gather. Then we have a melting pot of 3DO GuRuS :idea:
That makes sense to me. I think that when it comes right down to it you and I have similar interests when it comes to these forgotten systems. That was the whole reason I started Defunct Games. I wanted to develop a site that looked at all of these systems that I felt were getting a bad wrap. Systems that were made fun of in magazines because they didn't sell well, or because they only had a few good games, etc. That was my original idea, and to this day I feel like I'm doing what I can to keep interest of those systems alive. I've been contacted by several American-based magazines for comments when it comes to these old/forgotten systems, and I find myself saying a lot of the same things to a lot of different people. It's easy to make fun of the Jaguar or the 3DO, but that doesn't mean there aren't good games for the consoles.

After six years I find myself at a crossroads, though. There's only so much one can do with these systems, and the idea of having a website that updates every single day is difficult when the subject is 3DO and Jaguar. So I find myself doing what I can to discuss the industry as a whole and laugh at the stupid things these companies do. And to make things even more complicated, to further grow the site and get new contacts (which will help cultivate my original goal) I have to take the time to review newer games. So it's a balancing act.

It's nice to see communities rise up out of these old systems, but it's frustrating when you can only go so far with one idea. No matter how good the webpage and writing is, there's kind of a cap when it comes to people that are interested in one defunct system. At least, that's what I've found.

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 12:13 am
by Devin
DefunctGamer wrote:It's nice to see communities rise up out of these old systems, but it's frustrating when you can only go so far with one idea. No matter how good the webpage and writing is, there's kind of a cap when it comes to people that are interested in one defunct system. At least, that's what I've found.
Luckily for us Philips CD-i is a bottomless pi... no, make that a bottomless chasm that needs to be filled with new information. The system was overlooked for so many years that the people involved are really enthused to learn of projects such as Black Moon, CDinteractive and of course Interactive Dreams besides the other excellent CD-i websites that have sprung up and endured for many years, I'm looking at you CD-i Collective! I find it difficult to keep pace with new [read old] developments that we managed to uncover, then the difficult part of writing about it. I don't care how many people are interested in it as this stuff interests me. If your not interested in the story then why write about it? At least that's my viewpoint! :D

Can't imagine the workload you take on through Defunct Games. Kudos to you for sticking it out. It's a tough job and if anybody asked why we bother I for one honestly couldn't answer that question. I would say this, it's taken me to places I'd never have imagined and also made friends I never knew I had. It's been one hell of a journey so far and I look forward to the next year and the surprises ahead :shock:

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 12:19 am
by DefunctGamer
Devin wrote:
DefunctGamer wrote:It's nice to see communities rise up out of these old systems, but it's frustrating when you can only go so far with one idea. No matter how good the webpage and writing is, there's kind of a cap when it comes to people that are interested in one defunct system. At least, that's what I've found.
Luckily for us Philips CD-i is a bottomless pi... no, make that a bottomless chasm that needs to be filled with new information. The system was overlooked for so many years ...
It's frustrating because even Philips is overlooking the system now. I've done countless interviews with various people that work/worked at Philips and none of them seem to want to talk about the system. It's actually kind of frustrating, because I've done interviews with Sega about the 32x and Nintendo about the Virtual Boy, but getting Philips to comment on the CD-i has been a lot harder than I thought it would.

The reason to keep at it (at least in my case) is that it allows me to show off my craft and get writing gigs at other, larger publications. There is definitely a workload involved (especially since the site makes absolutely no money), but considering the jobs (and interviews, and games, etc.) that I get, it's ultimately worth it. If somebody is doing it just to do it I'm not sure it's worth it, but if you want to parlay it into something bigger, then it's a great stepping stone.

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 10:25 am
by Bas
It's easy to make fun of the Jaguar or the 3DO, but that doesn't mean there aren't good games for the consoles.
That's a nice sentence to quote again ;) You're a very friendly man, Cyril, I really appreciate that. And while I'm sometimes irritated by the type of CD-i reviewing done by Chad and Tom (see above), that shouldn't involve my whole point of view towards Defunct Games. Do you sometimes know why the site is so slow? Sometimes it takes up a whole minute before the main screen turns up, right after the "Probably won't Press charges" intro screen.

I always wanted to create my own whole website, but it's merely time (and knowledge!) that keeps me from building it. I found Blogger a perfect way for leaks like me to start something they like, and I'm loving it more each day to build a decent archive for CD-i.

I don't know for sure why I'm focussed like this only on CD-i, I think that's because I love Philips as well. It's an underrated format and with that at least I know I'm not writing about something that has been done before ;)

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:24 am
by DefunctGamer
Bas wrote:
It's easy to make fun of the Jaguar or the 3DO, but that doesn't mean there aren't good games for the consoles.
That's a nice sentence to quote again ;) You're a very friendly man, Cyril, I really appreciate that. And while I'm sometimes irritated by the type of CD-i reviewing done by Chad and Tom (see above), that shouldn't involve my whole point of view towards Defunct Games. Do you sometimes know why the site is so slow? Sometimes it takes up a whole minute before the main screen turns up, right after the "Probably won't Press charges" intro screen.

I always wanted to create my own whole website, but it's merely time (and knowledge!) that keeps me from building it. I found Blogger a perfect way for leaks like me to start something they like, and I'm loving it more each day to build a decent archive for CD-i.

I don't know for sure why I'm focussed like this only on CD-i, I think that's because I love Philips as well. It's an underrated format and with that at least I know I'm not writing about something that has been done before ;)
Yeah, trust me, Patrick (my behind the scenes man) and I are working very, very hard to resolve the speed issues. In the next week or two we are going to do a full site overhaul. Nothing visual, but we are going to get rid of everything we don't need and once and for all fix the speed issues. I apologize for that, it's something that really bothers me as well.

Yes, you should not view Defunct Games merely on what is said about the CD-i. When it comes right down to it the CD-i stuff is only 24 reviews out of more than 700. And even if you take the reviews out of the equation, there are still thousands of articles that are featured on the site (including videos, podcasts, etc.).

When it comes right down to it there's nothing I can do about the CD-i stuff. Chad/Tom send me their reviews and I post them. I check them over for spelling and grammar, but outside of that they go up as is. After talking with you (and the rest of the people on this site) I look at these reviews a little differently. When these reviews come in I think: "Oh joy, I know somebody who isn't going to like this." This is usually reflected in my description of the review.

For what it's worth, I do understand how that kind of thing can shape your entire opinion of the site. I'm a big supporter of the PSP (not sure why, maybe it's because I love racing games and like to support an underdog), so I sometimes get sick and tired of the way 1up.com treats Sony's handheld. They constantly talk about how there aren't any games, nobody plays it, and how Sony should just give it up because Nintendo is selling more units. This kind of thing really irks me, and it sometimes changes the way I view their site. But at the same time, I do understand that not everybody on that site agrees with Luke Smith and the other jerks that hate my beloved PSP. People will have their own opinions, and there's nothing I can do about that ... however, at some point I really do plan on proving that they have a bias (which will be a lengthy and fun article to write).

Anyway, enough rambling. The point is that I do understand where you're coming from. I'm good at hearing criticism, comments and complaints. I want to make the site as good as possible and do generally enjoy talking about it. I try to be friendly about it, there's no reason to be rude and mean, at the end of the day it's just a video game website and it's not like it's going to change the world.