The Dark Side of the Internet

I posted this link a few days ago via Twitter, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to put it up here. Thank you to John Wick for drawing my attention to it.

This is a 10-minute segment of a longer interview with Kevin Smith, where he talks about his realization that it’s OK to ignore the bullshit that people say about you on the internet. It’s a lesson that sounds easy, sure — but speaking from experience, it really isn’t. We’re sort of hard-wired to defend ourselves — the trick (which I’m still trying to perfect) is in understanding that the only people who care about what’s being said are 1) the one doing the shit-talking, and 2) you — and you can remove yourself from that equation.

Worth watching, and, speaking personally, something that I really need to work harder on putting into practice.

I need to remember to heed the message of the T-Shirt:

Making the Negative Brand Work….

In the comments of the previous entry, Eddy Webb asked:

“Have you given any serious thoughts on ways you can take this toxic GMS brand and convert it into something that’s useful for your business?”

I said at the time that I hadn’t — I think that I’m too close to the issue, and I can’t figure out how that would work.

Unless…

A thought occurs to me. Imagine this: I put up a Kickstarter Project: Announce that if I can raise 25K in 30 days, I’ll leave the industry for good, never to look back — no releasing product, no posting on forums, nada. Then, I go to all of the hives of GMS-hate and advertise the offer. Offer incentives, like T-shirts for a certain level of funding that say “I Drove GMS Out of Gaming” or something equally triumphalist.

If it works, I’ve got 25K to cover me for a few months while I transition Adamant to other things. :)

 

 


 

 


(….and for the record, NO, I’m not serious. For one, I’ve still got stuff I want to release, even if it’s only as part of a more widely-focused effort. For the other, I doubt it would work, since the Haters talk a good game, but would never pony up. Amusing to contemplate, though….)

Work Load

So, yeah. 41.

My birthday was over the weekend, and now I’m back into the work, up to my eyeballs as usual.

Birthday swag included Red Dead Redemption, Tales of the Gold Monkey, and a 1-1 draw between the US and England in the World Cup, in a game that drew more viewers than any game of the 2010 Stanley Cup or any of the first 4 games of the NBA finals.

The World Cup continues, but I’m not getting to watch nearly as much as I’d like (beyond the evening’s highlight show on ESPN), as I’ve got a mountain of work piled up — and more being added to the To-Do list every day. The work load is preventing me from diving into RED DEAD REDEMPTION as well — which I’m chomping at the bit to explore.

Just the stuff that I can talk about: Final layout and release of the EPUB and MOBI versions of ICONS (for the Gulf charities– details here), release of the next installments of Thrilling Tales Theatre (fallen horribly behind on what was supposed to be weekly releases), finish layout and release “Warriors of MARS” and “Face of MARS”, layout and release the first ICONS PDF adventure (Steve Kenson’s “The Skeletron Key”), layout and release “The Valley of Mystery” (the next THRILLING TALES adventure), finish layout and release PDF and Print editions of Pathfinder version of CORSAIR….

…and that’s not even talking about various contracts, proposals and prospectus that I need to be working on, this week alone.

I seriously need to be hiring some production freelancers, but the problem is that by the time I assemble templates and artwork, I’ve already done most of the work and it just seems simpler to do the rest myself. But that way lies logjams (as is evidenced by the above list, which I remind you is partial).

Those of you with comparable work loads — how do you avoid drowning? I’d welcome suggestions at this point.