Pages

Monday, March 12, 2012

Let's F.A.Q. Part 1: Personality disorder


1.1 Who is The Beta Critic?

Who am I? What do you see? You must tell me what do you see! 

(+10 in charisma for whoever catches the quote).

The Beta Critic is a 36 old guy who's been a gamer to various degree for the better (or worse?) part of his life. During the day, he is the typical white-collar focused on productivity but when the night comes he transforms in to some sort of Super Geek who spends his time playing games, reading fiction and watching a lot of sport, movies and TV series. The Beta Critic has even have some sort of life beside his hobbies but he will never speak about it here. You know, privacy, family and all that kind of stuff... 


1.2 Are you going to play "let's pretend" for long?

You're smart, ain't you? There's no way to trick the internet. No, I'm not going to play let's pretend anymore. From now on it will be all in first person, just like a damn hardcore shooter bro'. 

1.3 Ok, thanks. Are you 36? Maybe you are too old for videogames...

I'm not old, I just get better with time like good wines. Seriously, yes, I know that maybe I'm too old for this but that's precisely one of the reasons I started this blog. I'm just trying to make something positive and productive out of my addiction to videogames, something that remains and that can be shared with other people.

1.3 Where do you come from? I guess you are not a native english speaker...

I was born and raised in Italy. I studied a bit of english at school but I'm mostly self-taught. I've never been in a foreign country for a long period and I never took part to courses or masters. As a teenager, I learned most of my english trying to translate the lyrics of my favourite rock and metal bands.

Some years later, I needed to improve my english because I was tired to wait for the italian translations of George Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels (the wait for the regular books is long enough, if you know what I mean). So, I started to read the ASoIaF series in the original language. The next step felt natural and I've begun to read most fantasy and science-fiction books in english.

Then, I tried to write in english forums, blogs and boards and my errors caused the hilarity of many native speakers during the years. But I never surrendered to my shame, to the merriment of the global internet. Now I'm here and that's all you ever need to know about my english résumé.

1.4 Why don't you just write in italian? Your english sucks!

Fair question.

First of all, I must repeat that one of the point of The Beta Critic is to make something productive out of my addictions. Writing is the best form of exercise. And writing about things I'm interested about is easier. 

Secondly, english is the language of the gaming community. Since I hope to reach someone else beside the restricted circle of my family, friends and cat, I believe that using english will help The Beta Critic to expand and reach a wider audience.

Last but not least, in my humble opinion there is no point writing a blog about videogames in italian. Why? Because the videogames culture in Italy is way behind its current status in most civilized countries. Writing in italian could mean irrelevance and I'm betting for something more.

So, please, be patient with me. I already know that I will make a lot of errors of grammar and syntax. I know that the pacing of my periods will raise your eyebrows.  I apologize in advance for all of that. I can only say that I will always try to get better and to learn from my errors.

0 commenti:

Post a Comment