When it comes to teaching a person how to play a video game, there have been two extremes over time that have been prevalent in gaming: “too much hand-holding”, and “throw you to the wolves and see how many times you get shredded alive.” Earlier video games - long before gaming became a mainstream hobby for millions of people - typically skewed toward the latter category. Old school NES games would drop you right into a situation with no explanation of how to play -...

I love open exploration. This fact is actually relatively newfound information for me. I have always enjoyed RPGs and the “exploration” they offer - by that, I always meant whatever new world tidbit or experience I had as I progressed through a linear storyline.  But as open world exploration started to permeate several different game genres, I found myself finally at a place where open-world sandbox and RPG intersected: Skyrim. As far as my immediate recollectio...

The weather in Michigan has started to turn colder, though for the time being we've dodged any real abundance of snow (I know, I know - I just cursed us). As we enter into the holiday season, I find it impossible not to reflect a bit on how fortunate I am to have become friends and share so many experiences with my inredible colleagues at Stardock. The last two-ish years have been a bit strange, to say the very least. The pandemic forced us all into remote work and kept us from seeing each ot...

The Internet can sometimes be a cesspit of vitriol and negativity, but no matter how gross it can get there's always something that manages to shine through the murk. This story from Kotaku a couple of weeks ago about a couple who put out an ad on Craigslist asking for someone to help them beat The Last of Us 2 is definitely one of those things. Karen and Bruce Klein retired and took an interest in video games in 2021 after looking into things that they could do to keep themselves active. T...

I have long known that I work with plenty of people who love games - that's not news to me, and if you've been reading these blogs at all, it isn't to you either! What did surprise me, however, was just how many of my colleagues actually love Dungeons & Dragons and other table-top RPGs. About two months ago, we were coming off the high of having a fantastic in-person game night . Raeann - a member of our amazing operations team - said in one of our chats "Stardock D&D night, when?", ...

We absolutely love Halloween here at Stardock! Frankly, there are a whole bunch of us who will jump at any excuse to dress up in a costume and have fun - Halloween just happens to be the time when everyone  else  is doing it, too.   Our operations team here is amazing and they always make sure that we have everything we need to have a good time! They played Monster House on our big TV downstairs and had lunch catered from a local company - everything was absolutely deliciou...

I am in a unique and wonderful position here at Stardock in that I genuinely enjoy spending time with my colleagues. Many of us spend time outside of work hours playing board games, slaying monsters in Dungeons & Dragons, or critiquing new and popular films out at the theater together.  Once in awhile, our amazing operations team plans an outing for us so we can all get out of the office and enjoy some teambuilding activities. Autumn is widely celebrated in Michigan as cider season, ...

I am a lover of soups, stews, and chilis. The very  second  the weather dipped below 60 here in Michigan, I popped my head out the door and bellowed "SOUP SEASON!" ...you think I'm exaggerating or being dramatic, but I'm not. My friends (and my poor neighbors) will attest. Anyway, I'm not the only one who loves this time of year around here! Fall sees all sorts of fun activities popping up at Stardock, from visits to Cider Mills, to Halloween costume contests, and of course al...

If you know me, then you know that the idea of  me  writing about any form of organization is a ploy of comedy in and of itself. Still, as all over the place as I am with just about every aspect of my life, that doesn't stop me from  trying  to be more organized. I spend quite a lot of time at my computer, both for work and for leisure. Beyond a few very important things, I don't really have much of a system for where I put documents or shortcuts - they just sort of get lo...

In news that shouldn't be especially shocking: we really love games here at Stardock. This extends beyond just PC and video games and well into things like board games and tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons. I've definitely talked about it before, but I also have a fairly sizeable board game collection at home. Before the pandemic, I used to bring games in fairly regularly and have game nights so that my coworkers and I could enjoy playing some together. Earlier this month, we held ...

I am constantly amazed by the things technology has evolved to do. If you’d told me 15 years ago that we’d move past dial-up internet and have the sheer amount of information at our fingertips that we do today, I’m not sure I would have believed you. Honestly, I still hear that AOL dial-up tone in my head sometimes - is it just occasional nostalgia, or am I going a little nuts? Probably both. Anyway. People are always finding new ways to make technology work for...

Greetings, GalCiv IV fans! Over the last month, we have been hard at work turning out a new update to Galactic Civilizations IV for all of you. v0.45 released last week and focuses primarily on the ideology system. Let's take a look at what we added in the update! Before we get into it, though, please take note that this new update WILL break your saved games - sorry about that! We do our best to maintain game saves because we know how much time goes into them, but the new ideology system ...

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I am highly prone to nostalgia. I am an emotionally memory-based person who lives and breathes sentimentality. I have a hard time parting with objects I own because I can remember exactly who gave it to me, the circumstances surrounding the gift, and why it was important at the time (even if it hasn’t been useful for a very long time).  It’s not just physical things, either - it’s anything that allows ...

I remember when I had my first interview at Stardock. One of the people in the room, a guy named Kris, looked at me and fired off a series of PC user questions, things like: what kind of computer do you have, what operating systems do you run, and what web browser do you use? I answered each, and when I got to the web browser part and answered Chrome, he fired back with a question that caught me off-guard. “Why?” ...honest answer? I have no idea why . I...

Gaming is a constantly evolving industry, which is both a blessing and a curse. Obviously, the blessing in this is that games are constantly looking better and are able to add so much to the experience that was barely fathomable ten or fifteen years ago. One of the curses of constant growth, however, is the need to update your gear (PC or consoles) in order to keep up with the latest and greatest. Within the last 10 years or so, game companies have started remastering their greatest h...