#NerdsUnite: Confessions of a videogame journalist (And Now We Play the Waiting Game)
<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy John. We started talking on the twitter not too long ago, and then he reached out and asked if he could write for us regarding his journey through the nerdy realm. I was all DUDDEEE!! That's so raaaddd!! And now, here we are. Like right now, in real time, this is happening. Pretty cool huh? HIT IT JOHN!!! </editorsnote>
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's John Sollitto
If patience is a virtue but isn’t a strong suit, then doctors must be fairly virtuous people with flimsy jackets. Get it? You see what I did there? I said patience, as in waiting patiently, and made a joke about doctors who have patients.
Oh screw you, that was funny. I’m funny.
Fine, I’ll get to the article. In this era of media saturation and CONSTANT contact on all forms whether it be Twitter or Facebook or what have you, we are supremely used to hearing and knowing things like that. You can’t hear or see me but I snapped my fingers in an attempt to illustrate instantaneousness.
For example, I recently got into contact with one of the producers of Rocksmith, Ubisoft’s revolutionary new game that claims to actually be able to teach someone how to play the guitar. By “got into contact” I mean I researched the game in a creepy way to find out who worked on it and found out that he had a Twitter and tweeted him. Maybe ten to fifteen minutes later I got a response back! Happy day! I honestly didn’t think he’d respond for like, a week since he had maybe 100 or so tweets all spaced out over a couple of months.
I told him I had an idea about a project to do with my company and his game Rocksmith and he said he was interested and told me to direct message him. Here’s the thing, you can’t DM someone who doesn’t follow you. So I asked him to follow me or give me an email that I could use to contact him with.
Minutes go by, no answer. Every time I would look up at the clock and think “maybe he responded now,” the clock gave me this answer:
I started to get worried. “What if he didn’t see it? What if he’s in another time zone and he won’t respond till another day or week or something? What if the power went out wherever he is and won’t come back on for days? What if his internet got shut off?” I kid you not, I was so freaking worried about him not seeing my question that I FACEBOOK STALKED HIM. I found him on the Facebook and sent him a Facebook message with the plan for the experiment we were proposing.
Don’t worry, I heard from him later that day or the next day or something and got his email and he followed me and we’ve been in contact since then. That’s not the point. The point is that I literally freaked out and started acting like a 16-year-old girl about whether or not this guy would tweet me back, like I asked him out to the prom.
Ladies, this is not a shot at you, this is more of a statement that we as a race and several generations need to calm the eff down and slow up our lives. Back when I was in ‘Nam, Vietnam to you kiddies, we sent mail through the post office. THE POST OFFICE! Can you imagine the horror of thinking your letter might not get to someone until a day later? Maybe two?? MADNESS! News was delivered only in the morning! And by god we didn’t hear about celebrity affairs until they were over and there was a freaking baby being used as proof!
Okay I didn’t fight in Vietnam but you get my point right? We’ve all become so dependent on technology to deliver messages and news to us at such a constant rate, that we expect answers and information instantaneously. We’ve lost our ability to be patient, and no not the doctor kind.
Good things really do come to those who wait and I know that’s so cliché and fortune cookie but it’s true. I waited for an answer and got one and even got in contact with the PR guy and maybe he might be giving us some free gear to help us out. Even Jen knows this, despite her famed ADD. When she contacted Spirit Hoods and the first time about sponsorship and they said “no” she just plugged on. Sometime later they were APOLOGIZING to her and then gave her a tour and a crap-load of free swag! Seriously, she’s blogged about it I’m sure and she even talked about it when she went to Cal State Fullerton in her lecture.
The moral of the story is this: be patient with what you do and what you put your time into. It may be like pulling teeth and it may put you on edge, but the payoff is worth it. Some of you might say, “But John! I was patient a bunch of other times and things didn’t work out and I didn’t get anything out of it!” To which I reply, “Well it wasn’t a total waste of time because you LEARNED something didn’t you?” And I swear to God if you say “I didn’t learn a damn thing!” I will turn this blog around and ground you for eternity. Nothing is ever a waste. Even if you don’t come out of it with something you can see right at that moment, a couple months down the line, if you’re patient you’ll be able to see what I’m talking about. And if you don’t see what I’m talking about, then you need glasses and I can recommend a good doctor.
#nerdsunite
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