I have done it!  My champion in Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Azrah Gestahl, has reached Level 100 Conjuration, Level 100 Destruction, and Level 100 Enchantment.  My overall Level is 47, so I'm about to hit the soft cap of 51 that the gaming forums say is in place. I'm in the process of creating a set of ultimate weapons and armor, upgrading my old "Ganon's" series to a new, "Lord Ganon's" series en homage to the legendary villain of The Legend of Zelda series.  This allowed me to create a … [Read more...]

With all of the Elder Scrolls: Skyrim activity going on in every corner of my life, I began thinking about the various video game platforms and the video game industry as a whole.  Going back to this summer when we were playing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, which I bought on a whim, caused me to realize something: No one in my household, or in the households of my extended family, takes the Nintendo Wii seriously.  It may sell more consoles.  The games may sell more copies.  But Nintendo has … [Read more...]

Update: I've done it!  I've reached Level 100 Conjuration, Level 100 Destruction, and Level 100 Enchantment!   I ultimately decided upon a pure mage strategy my Elder Scrolls Skyrim character, Azrah Gestahl, based upon the early manifestations of Ganon in The Legend of Zelda series from the 1980's.  Although my character is mostly good, serving as the Arch-Mage of the College of Winterhold, a member of the Imperial Army, and possessing a healthy penchant for destroying bandit hideouts, the … [Read more...]

Following a weekend of Thanksgiving meals, meetings, and celebrations, I've been trying to catch up on messages, write new content, finish some things for one of the companies, and master enchantment and potion making in Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.  I found this online potion profitability calculator that will help you maximize your Septim earnings.  It's been really useful to me.  As the Arch Mage of the College of Winterhold, I've been amassing an enormous collection of raw ingredients in my … [Read more...]

Interesting business facts about the video game industry: As of 2011, the average age of a video game player in the United States is 37.  Roughly 58 out of every 100 players are male with the remaining 42 being female.  Video games are larger than Hollywood in terms of revenue.   From a business standpoint, the average American spends 28 hours per week watching television, but the average serious video game player spends 21 to 22 hours per week playing games and only 6 hours per week … [Read more...]

For the past year, many of our friends and family have been playing "We Rule" by Ngmoco on their iPads and iPhones.  I wrote about it in April of 2010 when I first began playing.  It's a great way to pass the time if you just need a three minute break; I think it serves the same psychological role as a zen garden, where you tend to your crops and businesses and then go back to the real world.  I have a 13-page spreadsheet at the office that breaks down the return for various businesses on an … [Read more...]

I have a lot of work to do. No, strike that, I have a ton of work to do. This includes reviewing and signing the tax filings that the accounting firm has completed, getting several things notarized and submitted to our brokers, putting together that 401(k) hub I'm working on for About.com, packaging together all of the stock market data for the past 50 years I've been working on and converting it into a Roambi file for further analysis, reviewing the proposed budget for the household for … [Read more...]

For the past few days, Aaron and I have been talking about how we want a new video game to play.  Epic Mickey was a total and complete let down, leading us to decide that we are done with the Nintendo Wii. For adventure and RPG games, it just seems like a failure of a system; the graphics are pathetic.  Even the newest Metroid: Other M ... it became a distraction because you can't help but compare them to other games on other systems, especially when we're playing them on really nice high … [Read more...]