James

Oh? :P

At the moment I'm playing Bloodborne for what feels like the millionth time. It's just that good. I'm also playing Far Cry 5 (which I'm quickly tiring of). Sea of Thieves and Sunset Overdrive also make their appearances now and then. I'm eagerly awaiting God of War at the moment. I think this Sunday will be all about that. ;-)

Wow, congratulations! Sounds like you had a bit of an ordeal there, I'm glad you and bubs got through it. :-)

It has taken me a while to respond here because every time I went to say something, I couldn't find the right words. I think I'll still fail to really describe my feelings, but I'll give it my best shot. I've been away from OB (and this whole community generally) for a long time. Admittedly I don't really keep in touch as closely as I should, and so, the first I heard about this was via a Facebook message from Adam. I had to re-read it a couple of times, because it felt completely out of left field (given that I don't use Twitter at all, so I wasn't aware of Jon's condition). It's really hard to summarise years of knowing someone. I asked Jon to be a moderator pretty quickly after I became the admin here; he was an obvious choice, because everything he said somehow communicated a feeling of kindness, warmth, and wisdom. He always had that aura about him, and so it was very easy to see - without even knowing him very much initially - that he was a unique and special person. For a very long time, Jon was really my number one supporter and colleague in the sense that we worked closely together, we talked regularly via AIM, and he actually counselled me during some fairly dark times (in terms of what was happening with me on a personal level). There was this air of effortlessness about him; every challenge was surmountable, nothing was ever too hard or too much work. He was so incredibly dedicated that I used to actually ask him to "take a break and stop working on OB for a while!" - he was like a machine, and he wouldn't stop until something was done, no matter how huge the task. Although I haven't really been part of the community for a long time now, I have to acknowledge that OB was a huge part of my life at one stage. And Jon was someone who I thoroughly enjoyed working with, and who became a friend and confidant. Rest in peace, Jon. Mrs. Goudy, thanks for posting here for us - it was lovely to hear from you, and I'm glad to know that you and your husband have a sense of how much Jon was loved by so many people. If there's anything I can do to assist you, please don't hesitate to ask. :-)

Hey Shwa, what platform are you playing The Division on? If it's PS4, then feel free to add me to PSN... my name on there is white-pikmin. Here's what I'm playing at the moment... Dark Souls III Still playing this and adoring it. I'm almost 60 hours in, but I'm not yet finished the game. I've just finished Lothric Castle, so I'm near the end. I veered off and did some optional areas, and I've done quite a bit of cooperative play. I love the Souls series, and I'm almost sad that Dark Souls III is coming to an end for me. But I guess there's always NG+ and a second character to try... The Division Since DSIII came out, I've been off The Division a bit. But I will return to it! It's a bit repetitive and bland in places, but overall I'm enjoying it quite a lot. As you progress and your load out options increase, the game becomes more diverse and enjoyable. The re-creation of New York City itself is worth the price of admission (almost)! It's really beautiful, and very accurately re-created from what I can tell. Destiny Yes, I still play this a bit here and there. It's getting a bit lackluster now, even with the latest patch (although the weapon and armor infusion is a lot better now...) I'm pretty much awaiting Destiny 2, though. Aside from that, I still dig into Cities: Skylines now and then. And lately I've been playing Tropico 5 a little bit (it was free on PSN this month - what a great deal!) The Tropico games are always a good way to melt away a few hours. :P

Congratulations! That's great news. :D

Boo, I think I need some marketing advice from you. :P My career has been all over the place. I studied graphic design at University (while I was still active on OB years ago), but I ended up moving into the health industry (weirdly enough). I got to a fairly senior point in that industry, and then I finally made a move I'd been wanting to do for ages; now I work in a software company, and I'm actually involved in software design (mostly business analysis and user experience).

XD

Thanks for completing the move, Petie. By the way, I'm more than happy to revert back to a regular title on here. :)

At the moment I'm kind of re-discovering Louie - just finished watching the second season. What a great show! Also, I've lately been reading Bram Stoker's Dracula, which has been fascinating. I'm about to order Uzumaki, as I only just heard about it recently, and it looks like it's right up my alley; surreal Japanese horror at its finest!

I'm happy to see that OB really left people with some positive things, even if the site isn't active anymore. For me, it's actually a little complicated. On the plus side, OB actually helped me through a difficult time in life; it was at a point where I'd just started studying at University and I was living at home with my parents. I went through a good couple of years that were very tough for me. Looking back, I actually think I was probably clinically depressed for a period of time there. During that time, OB was one of my primary windows to the outside world. The experiences I had and the people I met actually helped to keep me going in a number of ways. I don't want to overstate it, but I think OB was probably crucial to my life for a time there. I certainly honed various skills from being here, like many of you, and I definitely gained new perspectives on a number of topics due to debates and discussions. I think my mind was opened on a lot of issues because of OB. And I had some really awesome experiences with people here; many of them were very very meaningful to me. So, I'll never forget that. On the down side, I suppose that I started off on OB with this mental dividing line between the "real world" and the "virtual world", which I think caused some problems over time. And because of the way things were back around the v2/v3 era (where we used to have very heated debates and spam attacks and stuff), I actually gained my first experience with fairly serious online harassment. My reaction to that was pretty undesirable, and it caused me to create a really strong and deliberate divider between "virtual" and "real" for a long time (which was really the wrong approach, and I think it majorly distanced me from people who I actually cared about quite a lot on here). So, uh...I don't want to end this on a negative note, but I haven't really said those things before on OB. It shows how much OB did play a role in my life for a few years there. Overall, OB has been a positive experience for me. Some things have come full circle, I've re-connected with people a bit, in a more honest way, and I think that's a good thing. I'll never forget those lessons, that's for sure.

It's great, although I only use it for a few features. Mostly, it's good for meeting notifications and things like that - I find it very useful for work stuff. :-)

So good to see more names from the past that I fondly remember! :D

Well, I did get Fallout 4 a bit earlier than expected. The good news is that it's great. The bad news is that I'm addicted to it. -_-

Interesting, most interesting. ;P To clarify, the Demon's and Dark Souls games were all on the previous generation platforms. Fromsoft released a remastered version of Dark Souls II for PS4, called Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. That's actually been my first (and currently only) Dark Souls game. Bloodborne is exclusive to PS4. They are releasing the DLC for it shortly (end of November I believe), which is called Bloodborne: The Old Hunters. I believe it's a fairly big DLC pack, too. And then you've got Dark Souls III, which is coming out early next year on PS4. As far as I know it's also PS4 exclusive; I'm not sure about any Xbox One release at this stage. If you end up grabbing a PS4 at some stage, then I highly recommend getting Bloodborne. It's insanely awesome. It almost feels like a next-generation Castlevania...that is, a good 3D Castlevania. There's even a cane whip type of weapon. :P