Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, American Idol voters hating Asian people, Apple laying the smack down on HTC, or the iPad going on sale in less than a month, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
In the immortal words of Barry Manilow and Shania Twain, “Looks like we made it.” Yes, it’s Coffee Talk #100!!! Thank you all so much for your support and readership. Today I’m going to be a little selfish and write about me. What I wanted to tell you all on this special day is that I am not a journalist. I am a verbal entertainer.
Most people that write about games for enthusiast outlets are not journalists — not in the sense of reporting. Certainly there are exceptions. Leigh Alexander, Patrick Klepek, and Stepehen Totilo are fine reporters. Most “game journalists” are actually critics. Some are just hacks that vomit thousands of words on a single game just to get multiple page views. I’m not any of those things.
Nobody is going to use it, but I prefer the label “verbal entertainer”. Reporting news isn’t my priority. Most game reviews are crap and and most people/outlets don’t know who they’re reviewing for, so I don’t want to be called a game critic. I use the term “game writer” a lot, but that should probably be saved for people that write scripts for games (like the totally outstanding WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010!).
What I like to do is entertain you. Whether it’s through cool discussion, goofy video interviews, or asking developers your questions on PadCasts, my goal is to make your day a little bit more fun. Whether you read my words or listen to them, my motivation is similar to Robbie Williams’ — “Let Me Entertain You”!
My name is Raymond Padilla…and I approve this message this. That’s not right. I meant, this…is American Idol! That’s not right either… Oh yeah! I’m a verbal entertainer!!!
We've only just begun.
LOL
Keep it up
Haha. You selfish….
I agree! Rpad you are a great verbal entertainer and your comedic stylings are impeccable. Keep up the great work!
Congratulations for making it this far! We will TRULY celebrate at the turn of year 5.
“verbal entertainer” I like that. It's great marketing. You should patent it!
-M
Thanks for all the kind words!
@N8R I love The Carpenters.
So would this make you the equivlant of Rose, or Rose's mom from Gypsy?
Woot Grats on 100!!!!!
Site got blocked from work for a week or so… hopefully they can keep it open this time :)
Glad to see you again Larcenous.
@Ray: thanks for letting us all hang out at your place.
@ R Pad
They're the group with that fat girl singing, right?
(bad joke)
hilarious vid of the muppets screen test for Star wars
http://dbsw.tumblr.com/post/428746615/muppets-try…
PSA:
Street Fighter IV is $20 this weekend through Windows Live.
Here's to another 100 Coffee Talks.
Congratulations on 100 coffe talk's. Here's to many more!!
I do think it's interesting that you blatantly said you weren't a journalist, most people try to get that title and wouldve defended themselves about how they should be respected as a journalist, etc. I deal with a lot of people who always try to puff themselves up like that, so I really respect you even more for just being honest with how you feel about yourself about something like that. No matter what you call yourself, people follow good work. Keep it up!!
Now, I'm looking forward to Coffee Talk #1000
well, I finaly found the party!
@RRODisHere Cheers to that!
I have known about ya for about a 1 1/2 now. I still remember when you played Uno with the G4TV.com crew and you were just the nicest guy in the world. You entertain and keep me informed everyday. I hope you nothing more than success in the future and hopefully I will learn things from you to further my career aspirations.
@ Blasphemous
Welcome, dude.
(I wonder who will show up at Coffee Talk #200)
@Blasphemous Welcome! It's nice to "see" you again. The site kicked off on October 9th. I hope you stick around. It's fun here and more peeps are always better.
@TheJediRevan Thanks for the kind words and your long-time support! This time I'm serious — there will be Uno after GDC!!!
Whats Up, N8R! glad to see that everybody found a new hangout. how long has this been going on?
Hey, Blasphemous! Welcome.
-M
Congrats! Let's keep it going :D
I'll still beat you guys in Uno. I got all the decks too.
I might have to get UNO
rpad, love the new place. I am excited to see that the whole gang is here. Also glad for another place to get the news rpadstyle! my only question is did N8R put you up to this or did you do it own your own?
@Smartguy Awesome! If you're interested, the Street Fighter deck is pretty cool. I promise to kick off a few games after GDC.
@Blasphemous 50% of it was encouragement from N8R. 50% of it was someone pissing me off about keeping in touch with old readers.
@N8R
Not if I win again :P
@Ray
Do I have to have the special decks to play a game? (does the game itself preclude you like say if you don't have the same map pack?)
@ R Pad
I know you will never inform us as to who the person was, but that sentence alone makes them sound like a total d-bag. You did good. Verbal entertainment at it's finest.
@ Sandrock
If you played Uno on 360 last time, you're lucky I left early to allow other people to play.
@ Smartguy
The Kameo deck is also pretty cool. There's a card that allows you to switch hands with someone. It can get chaotic.
@ Smartguy
No, you don't need to have them as long as the host does. It will just take a bit longer to load the game.
UNO is bought. Bring it!
@bsukenyan;
I appreciate your interest. On the subject of books, I have to say that I am biased. The best marketing book I've ever read is called "The Marketing of Evil" by David Kupelian. This is by no means a scholastic marketing book, but it is a very entertaining read. Some people will brush it off as propaganda, but that is marketing at it's finest, is it not? Ha, ha.
OK, but seriously, the book is about some of the most successful covert mass marketing campaigns outside of presidential elections. It focuses on some of the most controversial social issues of our day such as abortion, homosexuality, sexual revolution/freedom, separation of church and state, media bias, and the public school system. It's pretty heavy stuff at times, but I would recommend checking it out of a library or at least reading a few chapters at a book store to see if you like it.
If you want something more "technical" or traditional, I would suggest reading anything from Philip Kotler. He's somewhat of a rock star in the field of marketing… and he didn't become popular because of his good looks, that's for sure.
I hope this helps you. I can go hours on end talking about marketing, but I don't think Mr. Padilla or the other people on this forum would tolerate a "book" post. I like it so much because to me, marketing is to a capitalistic society as physics is to the universe. Utterly fascinating.
-M
@ N8 (and everybody else playing UNO on XBL);
I'm going to have to get in on this and show you all what a real ass-kicking in UNO feels like (if I'm lucky).
Anyway, hit me up next time you guys play. My gamertag on XBL is: Silicon Iceman
I'll probably be online a lot this week since my wife is going to be going away for the whole week on business.
-M
@iceman
I seem to remember you being in the field of marketing…?
If so I am curious if you know of any books that are a better read or just informative about marketing techniques and strategies, etc. I’m just looking for something that can explain concepts and strategies better than a cut and dry textbook.
Btw, the header image is from E3 2006 where I got to be a zombie for day. The picture in the body is Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime and my BB Zoe Flower. When I get a chance, I'm going to post the old episodes of Yahoo! Reset, since you can't find them on the interwebs anymore.
@Iceman
Yeah…I might have to start talking about tax accounting on Mondays, Cost on Tuesdays, Financial Statement preparation on Wednesdays, Financial Accounting on Thursdays and recapping on Fridays lol.
@Ray
amazing when you can't find something on the net isn't it?
@iceman
thank you for the information. I too find the study of marketing pretty fascinating, and I am probably going to drop my major in advertising just because I still have a lot to do for that, and it really isn't panning out like I had hoped it would. But that would leave me with only a major in anthropology, so I am thinking that if I can I would like to pick up a minor in marketing to compliment anthropology. I can spin that to work to my advantage in an interview, and I think overall it will work out better than advertising would have anyways. I have learned plenty from advertising, but I think that marketing can serve me better.
I probably could also talk about all of this a lot more than anyone else here could stand, lol. I will have to look up some of those books when I get back to the campus library. Thanks for your help!