Yar, there be a pirate joke in that headline... something about Natalie not being a wench.
For those who haven't heard, Natalie and I have joined a crew. It's like a gang, but geekier... much, much geekier. It's the type of crew that appreciates a photo of Natalie with a character from Katamari while at PAX.
This new crew is The Review Crew: an online magazine/blog of cool things and, well, reviews of games and gadgets.
It's lead by CityTV journalist and Gadget Guy Mike Yawney and we originally connected through work. It seems that, during a talk about a client, I may have mentioned some of the geekier aspects of my lifestyle that may have tipped him off that we might be fit to join the crew.
We're currently contributors to this little project. That means regular articles that are both pretty brief and kinda neat. Aside from the news briefs, we also produce some original stuff. For example, I recently wrote a story of a trio from Edson who are trying to break that world record for consecutive hours playing first person shooters. Natalie, on the other hand, was the first in our household to review a game: Dragon Age: Origins. She's still playing it, so I guess she liked it.
And what do we get out of this? Well, for one, we get to do some writing we don't normally get to do. A blurb about a cool ad campaign for a game is a change from writing news releases (which I like, don't get me wrong) or technical manuals. Plus, we do get a chance to get our hands on new games (and the odd gadget) that needs reviewing. There's no money in it, but there may be... we'll see how the advertising strategy pans out.
But, bottom line: it's fun. Not exactly world-changing literature we're creating, but fun. We play games, write in a different style and hang with a cool crew. Just like pirates.