Because PAX Houston is in the process of becoming a real event you can attend, I gave a ton of interviews this time. That's typically not something I do, for a couple reasons. It started to seem like I had been asked and then subsequently answered every question imaginable, which made me feel like there wasn't a way to be a real person inside that context. Also, there is a type of hostile person who uses the rules and framework of the interview to be a dick and minimizing contact with that kind of thing while I'm doing a show is just good opsec. So coming back into the light after being away put the differences into relief. For example: there are people so young that you can't imagine it.

The influencer space was not baked when we were at our proud zenith, and even if it were we would not have engaged with it in an ennobling way. For example, once somebody made this cool game called Orcs & Elves, and they sent us a wand stylus and a black DS and then we wrote this comic. Times have, uh… well, times have changed. I feel like it works in a different way now.

The rest of the lore on that was because we felt like they were trying to manipulate us, we didn't even open the DS. The post goes into more detail: the system had been signed by John Carmack and was intended to be a donation to Child's Play. This happened in 2008, and hot shame still cooks my face when I think of it. Anyway, Gabe has always been better at receiving things. I'm always trying to find the strings.

Now, if you can swing it, influencer is a discrete channel and probably the fundamental mode of modern advertising. Like Content Creator, I think Influencer is another term they invented and applied without consulting any of the parties. I see the word like a hundred times a day and it doesn't really seem like a compliment.

(CW)TB out.