Late Update #1

In which I add the word "late" to every title

Greetings, Programs! We’re going to try something a little different today...

We’ve now moved into a new year, which is apparently the time when all the things change. I’ll be honest, a new calendar year does not usually bother me. As a natural problem solver, I can make resolutions anytime I feel it is necessary to. Incrementing a year by one does not really cause me to stop, reflect or consider change. To me, it’s just another day leading into the next.

Of course, a lot of people take great stock in this milestone, and I have been reading a lot of yearly recaps of everyone’s wonderful achievements and what they hope to accomplish this year. I’m not immune to this, and it does make me wonder whether I should consider this type of thing to be more important in my life. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that I should continue as I see fit, even if that means I don’t follow the crowd. Change will happen eventually, either by my choice or not, and I will handle the situation as it arises.

However, I am planning some small changes to my publication, hopefully for the better. It all started with a conversation I had with Cat over the Christmas break - the full conversation is here.

The gist of it was Cat’s great advice of just being consistent with posting your writing; that will lead to eventual results. I agree with this sentiment exactly, although I ventured an opinion that it may not be necessary to stick to a rigid schedule to be consistent (I’ll come back to this point). With some back and forth between me and Cat, I started to realise something thanks to her point of view. Maybe a schedule helps the writer, but also the schedule can help the reader too.

This really made me stop and think. Is it possible that my other reader is... interested in what I have to say? That my other reader... looks forward to my next post? Hmmm...

I’ll be honest, this never crossed my mind at all. Once I resolved to starting a Substack publication midway through last year, my goals were not for world-domination, or thousands of adoring, paying subscribers. My goals in fact could be summarised, in the format of RoboCop, as follows:

Directive 1: Write about things that I wish I could read about myself.

Directive 2: Not charge anyone for reading the nonsense I put out.

Directive 3: Write and publish when I want to, not when I felt I had to.

None of those original goals assumed that anyone would actually read my articles, let alone care about them; I just wanted to write because it was fun and it started engaging a part of my brain that was dormant and made me feel awakened. I now get to write the kinds of articles I love reading, and I feel like I finally have a voice to say something. Nonetheless, after six months I’ve had people comment on what I write about, say they like it, and some people, strangely, keep coming back. It seems I need to add one more goal going forward:

Directive 4: Engage with my community.

So I have been thinking about where to take things with Late to the LAN Party, and have come to some conclusions that are not a million miles away from where I am today, yet will incorporate some small additions.

Firstly, after thinking hard about schedules, I’ve decided that I am happy as I am in that regard. I am not a video games journalist, I already have a full-time job, I’m a dedicated family figure, and I still consider this to be one of my new hobbies. I don’t want to take the fun out of that by enforcing deadlines on myself. I am prone to going all-in of something to my eventual detriment, and it will ultimately lead to me feeling it become a burden, not a joy. Looking back through my old posts, despite sometimes having the feeling that I don’t contribute enough, it seems I have been more consistent with publishing than I thought; at least two posts a month since I started, sometimes more. That feels like a level of consistency that I’m happy with, even if no-one knows when those posts appear. So, that will not change; I will post when I’m in the mood to and I feel it is good and ready.

What I think will change though is a new type of post - this one, in fact - giving a preview of what I’m thinking of writing about in the coming months. Another excellent point Cat made is that some people here may not engage with Substack notes, only posts. This led me to the idea of writing an “update” post throughout the year, listing suggested articles I’m willing to write about - though not a guarantee! I think this might give my other reader a sneak peek into my thought process and show that I am still here and planning to stick around even if I seem quiet sometimes. This might also give myself a bit of structure and not sit on drafts for ages - because that has happened!

Without further ado, here are some ideas I want to get started on in the next few months:

• Musing about how the narrative works in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

• After looking deep into the “vania” side of “metroidvania” with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, it is time for a retrospective on my all time favourite game - Super Metroid. I have actually been sitting on a draft for months, but now I realise I need to redo it and split it into parts to make it more digestible.

• Another retrospective follow-up - after Sonic 2, I think it is time to focus on the next adventure, Sonic 3 & Knuckles (with all-new “Lock-On” technology!) I enjoyed the research part of the Sonic 2 post, so I hope to learn some new facts again with this one.

• I want to attempt something different with my writing, and expand on the topics I cover to venture slightly beyond video games. I have been watching Arcane: League of Legends on Netflix, and I feel there is something I want to say about it. This one might take me some time to get right...

• Finally, I’ve been shocked to discover that I’m obsessed with the music in Super Mario Wonder. So, I shall attempt to use words to describe a wonderful (pun intended) audio experience. What could go wrong?

Are any of these guaranteed? No. When will they appear? Don’t know. Will I change my mind? Possibly.

I would like it to be known that these are not hard and fast ideas or rules, though they are ones I want to think and write about. Plans change, of course, and maybe new ideas may come into my head in the coming months. I just thought this would be beneficial to you (and, to some extent, me) as a rough guide of what to expect. And then a new Late Update post will appear, with more random ponderings and suggestions for the future. Repeat.

Whilst planning out new posts, I’ve also spruced up Late to the LAN Party with a better theme and updated welcome emails and about pages. Not a new logo yet though; I lack the artistic skill to pull that off and would rather not rely on AI to do it. So shoddy clipart will have to do for now.

At the moment though, I still have other hobbies beyond writing too, which also demands my limited free-time. I’m currently doing another playthrough of Batman: Arkham Asylum. Also, my teenage children actually want to do things with me that I enjoy for once, so who am I to deny that? My son and I have started watching Stranger Things from the very beginning, since I have shamefully never seen it. And, after recommending Arcane to my eldest daughter, I’m re-watching it again with her. She is a fantasy fan, wanted a story not just about good vs evil, and was intrigued by the animation and art style. After watching episode 3 and immediately saying “one more episode”, I knew she was hooked. Plus it includes strong female characters who punch really hard! All this is me saying I’ll get around to new posts soon, when I find the time.

Most importantly, I want to start thinking about this little corner of the internet I’ve somehow built up. At the moment I try to like, comment and restack anything I see which I think deserves it; it makes me happy when I see other people’s works get more eyes on it. There may be other ways I can cultivate my little community though, these update posts being one of them.

Thanks for reading. I should probably go and write something proper now.