Happy Hour #3 - The Sound and the Streaming (Patreon)

I guess it was about two years ago when Troy and I first started talking about going full time. It was mostly a joke back then, but here's one example of what we imagined: "...and then on Wednesday's we'll set aside the afternoon to play Mage Knight or Netrunner, and that will be our JOB." It was a nice fantasy, and after actually going full time, it turns out that Wednesday afternoon board gaming indeed remains a fantasy. It's been six weeks already since we went full time and not one game has been played that hasn't been recorded or twitched. Noble as our intentions may have been to make this "gaming for a living" job just as lazy and wonderful as it sounds, we unfortunately have found that it's been a lot of work! What the hell?!

Lots of work went into these last couple weeks. We flew out to Dallas and had our fourth session of Strange Aeons. It was a magnificent and, dare I say, revitalizing gaming experience. RPGs can have a dark side. Sometimes you can get a little wrapped up in the bullshit. The pressure to get every rule right (whether that's put on you by your GM or your friends or yourself), petty conflict at the table, scheduling issues, players and/or GMs competing with each other in a cooperative game, your players not caring, great plans for your character falling apart, the list goes on. But every once in a while you have a game session that makes you forget all of the bullshit. A session that, very simply, renews your child-like love for playing RPGs with your friends. I haven't laughed that hard or had that much flat-out fun in a long time. Those of you that were in Dallas know what I'm talking about. I can't wait for the rest of you to see it.

Before we even left for Dallas, though, we were putting the finishing touches one of the main things that got lost in the shuffle in 2018 and needed to be straightened out the moment we went full time: The Glass Cannon and Syrinscape. There were hours of work needed to finish the deal and we just could not find the time to get that done, but it was finished as of this week! So keep an eye out for something official from Ben Loomes of Syrinscape soon. I can't say for sure when the audio will be available, but our work is finally done and I'm very excited for you guys to have access to it.

Inventory was also a big part of this week for me. A brand new tee shirt design premiered in Dallas and I don't want to say it was the REASON the session went so well, but it certainly didn't hurt. Refreshing the inventory after our sales on the road has proved a little tricky. I have to work out a smoother system for the whole process. I won't get into the weeds here explaining how the counts of what we take on the road may get fouled up by what is purchased on our website WHILE we're in transit - it's boring and annoying and I won't allow it into this post! The interesting part? You should see the new shirt available for sale on the website next week!

Before we get too far away from singularly boring topics like inventory, I should also mention that I finalized our company's tax returns this week. And that is...that's all that needs to be said about that. Moving on!

Over the last two weeks, I've put more time, energy, and research into Twitch streaming than the previous two years combined. It's no surprise that I had so many streams with laggy video or just flat-out dropped signals. It's because I had no idea what the hell I was doing! I would look at a screenshot on imgur of someone's settings and just plug those numbers in, with no context of what sort of equipment they are using or what they are playing. It's foolish, I know, but hindsight is 20/20, my friend. Well, last Friday morning, before my first stream of Bioware's stunning new shooter Anthem, I had a breakthrough. I couldn't employ my new knowledge in time for my 9am ET stream, but with a week to test and fine-tune, I had a killer stream this morning of Anthem at a great resolution for a full 90 minutes with no drops and, as far as I could tell, no laggy hiccups at all. It was exciting and fun in that last hour to just enjoy playing the game and not be stressed the whole time about my computer dropping the stream. I think everyone that could make our Friday Morning Meeting saw the remarkable difference one week made in the stream. A huge thank you to a member of Glass Cannon Nation at NGON, who has helped old man O'Brien through this process and contributed directly to the stream some of you saw this morning. Those of you that missed it, can check it out on our YouTube Channel! I'll be posting it as soon as it's fully exported and available in HD.

Emerald Spire prep continues and for the moment I will be very hush hush on those details. I know a lot of you are nosing around on Twitter trying to get me to reveal some details, but I honestly think it's going to be much more fun if information about that project is revealed in a more strategic way. Suffice to say, I'm very excited about the progress that was made this past week and I as soon as I have news about Emerald Spire that's fit to print, you all will certainly be the first to know.

I have to run since it's basically Happy Hour and time to drive down to Philly to see some family that's in town. I also thought I'd call these posts Happy Hour. It's end of the day Friday and who is happier right now that this guy? I think the title fits, so I'm going with it.

Thanks for another couple weeks of dream job, guys. I owe you.

-Joe