The Pensive Gamer

Posted 12/12/2008 @ 12:00:00 PM by Joseph Molnar Filed under: Site News , Xbox 360

I’ve always made sure I enjoy my work whether it is at a company I start or a company I join. Loving what you do is even better and since Q3 2004 I’ve loved what I’ve been doing. Managing scanR’s engineering team and being the chief architect has been an absolute pleasure.

Why? Well, we have solved some amazing technical challenges, I’ve learnt a ton about the mobile space, my team is talented and great to work with, and everyone in the company is intelligent, hard working and a pleasure to be around.

But there is one thing beyond a job you love ... the dream job. My dream job is to work in the gaming industry where the work I do on a daily basis has the possibility of influencing the industry as a whole.

There are very few companies that can support such a position. Microsoft is one of them and through a series of serendipitous events I’ll be starting my dream job at Microsoft on Monday.

I cannot give many details of the position except to say it is an architectural role (called a Partner Architect) where I’ll be playing with various technologies and platforms, working with a variety of groups, and I’ll be working for Chris Satchell, the Chief Technical Officer of the Interactive Entertainment Business (aka ‘Gaming Group’ ... makers of Xbox 360, Games for Windows, XNA Game Studio tools, etc).

The decision to leave scanR and move to the Seattle area to join Microsoft wasn’t taken lightly, but when your dream job comes across your plate it is hard not to dig in. I know scanR is in good hands and I offer my sincerest wishes for great success.

Posted 07/19/2008 @ 12:00:54 PM by Joseph Molnar Filed under: Site News

Yesterday I started playing with Twitter. I've been meaning to play with it for quite some time since it is a great way to quickly comment on things I encounter during the day. A friend and I were talking about it yesterday so I figured it was about time I took the plunge.

I've added a Twitter control here on the blog. Unfortunately it doesn't automatically create clickable links from URLs. Of course, if you have a Twitter account you can also follow me.

Posted 06/03/2008 @ 10:00:28 PM by Joseph Molnar Filed under: Site News

Well, it has been a year since my last post but this blog isn't dead. In the past year a lot has transpired. Family and work have been a big focus of mine, and while they continue to be I found blogging is great relaxation tool for me.

One of the main reasons I stopped blogging was because of the amount of time it took to research, write and edit my series of posts; I am going to cut-down on the number of analysis style series and keep my posts shorter (though it turns out I have a few large posts I had started but never finished).

While I expect a majority of what I write about to be gaming focused I will expand my focus. I tend to play with different pieces of software/technology and blogs are a good forum to provide other users and the product groups with feedback.

At the moment I've been playing with a variety of Microsoft products including:

• Live Mesh
• Zune Software Player 2.5
• XNA Creators Club
• Wireless Laser Desktop 7000
• World Wide Telescope

Expect to see more posts soon!

Posted 05/21/2007 @ 07:30:59 PM by Joseph Molnar Filed under: Site News , Wii , Xbox 360

Post Delays

Another long delay between posts; sorry folks. At scanR we have been working diligently to finish our latest upgrade to the service, which we released at the end of last week. If you are curious about what I do and if you have a mobile phone with a camera I recommend you check out the service. There is both a 'PC' site and mobile site.

With the release done I have a little more time to complete my XNA Thread series and Console Evaluation series, so expect some posts soon.

Gamerscore Road Tour

This week I'm up with the development team in Toronto. This happened to coincide nicely with the Microsoft Gamerscore Road Tour which I'll be attending tomorrow night. Should be a good time and I promise to report on the evening's festivities.

Console Shopping in Toronto

Today I spent some time looking to purchase an Xbox 360 for the Toronto office. I went to both an HMV and an EB Games and I noticed a few interesting things:

• The price of a Premium Xbox 360 was $500 CDN while the Elite was $550 CDN. The Premium did come with a game but the game was uninteresting (in my opinion).
• Non-bundled 360 Premiums were not offered for sale.
• The 360 Elite was sold out at both locations.
• HMV actually had a couple of Wiis, the EB Games did not.

Forcing a bundle seems a bit ridiculous and meant I went to the hotel empty handed (I would have taken an Elite if available mind you). The fellow in HMV said the Premiums came that way though he had no idea if Microsoft Canada or the store's HQ were forcing this.

Not allowing stand alone console sales or choice of games forces the consumer to make a decision which may result in no sale. Obviously if the price is right a bundle will get bought. When I was up in Toronto this past Christmas I bought my in-laws a 360 Premium with a full game and some Arcade titles for only $400 CDN. These kind of deals were pretty common at the time (before and after Boxing Day). It is pretty disappointing to seem them raised $100 CDN.

Posted 04/09/2007 @ 06:30:21 AM by Joseph Molnar Filed under: Site News

Lack of Posts

Sorry for the long delay. A few things have been to blame including a trip up to my office in Toronto. My Toronto trips, which I do numerous times through-out the year, generally leave me with very little free time. Next time I'll post a note before I leave.

Mind you, the delay was also due to a tool I decided to write.

Source Code to HTML Formatting Tool

I've been working on my XNA articles (at least one will be out this week) but wasn't happy with existing web or stand-alone tools that format source code for blogs/web-sites. So I spent a few nights putting a tool together; it's called Trellis.

Trellis is complete except for a nice icon which a friend of mine should be sending over tomorrow. The tool is much more customizable than most things I've seen out there and runs either as a standalone application or as a Windows Live Writer plug-in. The plug-in was extremely simple but important to me since I tend to write my articles using Live Writer. The code was also designed to be incorporated into other .NET applications including .NET based websites and blogging engines. I will include C# and HLSL (.fx files) formatters, but you can easily create your own formatters using a text file.

I'll post the tool up for download, along with more details, once I receive the icon.

Missed News

While I have been reading news I haven't had time to comment on what has been going on and there has actually been quite a lot including the PS3 Launch in Europe, the 360 Elite announcement and even yesterday's 360 May Dashboard update and keyboard announcement. Needless to say, I'll be back at it again as of now.

Posted 03/20/2007 @ 10:30:11 PM by Joseph Molnar Filed under: Site News

Hi folks, just doing some expectation management. With my wife out of town and little one sick I haven't had the time to finalize some articles. To hopefully whet your appetite I'm actively working on both my continued adventures with XNA and a new series looking at where we are from a market standpoint with each of the consoles; first in the series is the Nintendo Wii.

I expect to be able to get at least one, though hopefully both, out this week. Stay tuned.

Posted 03/04/2007 @ 10:30:48 PM by Joseph Molnar Filed under: Site News

With this week being GDC 2007 I'll mostly be posting comments related to the announcements made at the conference, particularly if I have something more interesting to add; I'm not a fan of simply regurgitating news. Next week I'll continue posting original articles.

Also, I have and will continue to make minor enhancements to the site and feed this week. While I am somewhat limited to what TypePad and FeedBurner allow, if you have any suggestions please send an email to talvish (at-symbol-here) gmail dot com.

Finally, if you are interesting in contributing to The Pensive Gamer as a writer please email the above email address. I'm looking for people who have technical backgrounds and are interested in exploring the gaming universe.

Posted 01/28/2007 @ 05:00:00 PM by Joseph Molnar Filed under: Site News

Whew. Putting together a blog is a lot harder than it may seem. Between choosing and setting up providers (such as hosting on TypePad and using FeedBurner for the RSS feed) to setting up the visual style, it requires a ton of work. With the basics now in place and only minor tweaks to come it is good to get the first set of posts created.

Welcome to the Pensive Gamer. This blog is written for gamers by gamers that spend their day building software or managing software development. While we won't regurgitate the news you see on other blogs or sites, you will see us responding to it.

We will be introducing various columns over time but the minimum goal is to have one to two postings a week. For the moment, 'we' happens to mean me, Joseph Molnar. So don't be surprised if a majority of posts target the Xbox 360 (see 'About Joseph Molnar' for why).