Denis Baldwin - Writer & Voice Actor

 Greetings! We're cruising along through the first quarter of the year, and let me say, it has been a doozy for the world over. Everything that I've invested myself in as far as a career, hobby/entertainment, and any personal interests, have seemingly taken an uppercut from uncertainty and left me rudderless at sea. Do I care to explain? Sure.     Like many creative types I grew up inside of my imagination and projected what I saw in my head out into the world but either actively daydreaming or writing/videoing/capturing the stories or plots that played out uninterrupted. As a kid, I never envisioned turning my imagination into a business or monetizing it, because, well, I was a kid .  Why would I? After a series of ups and downs over the years (I.E. see life)  I've circled back to my passions and am still enjoying them as a hobby, but have been making strides to also profiting off of my unpaid work. Here's where it gets complicated: The want or need or desire t...

 Dear Reader, We're nearing the end of the year! It seems that a lot of websites and social media fronts are doing their end of the year wrap up with statistics, memories, and the like. There's also a few awards ceremonies going on to look back at some of the entertaining releases we've had in the form of books, movies, music, and video games, all of which seem designed to frustrate the masses as taste and awards generally don't seem to line up. Here's where I divert: Black Myth: Wukong. At the 2024 Video Game Awards Black Myth: Wukong was up for game of the year amonst a smattering of titles that all kind of seemed lackluster. At the time I hadn't played either Wukong or ReFantazio, but I had safely assumed that one of the other would take away the award. Astrobot won, and it has a lot of people confused and ranting about the wrong things. I had just finished Astrobot a few days before the awards, and even I was confused since the game seemed like a Super Mario...

I think the art/media community/profession is in one of it's most precarious positions ever. Every day it seems I'm reading an article that talks about how some big multi-million dollar project became a massive flop and then the artists behind it are laid off without a second chance. Video games and movies have been the biggest failures recently since they've been chasing trends rather than setting the tone. I don't think it's entirely the industry's fault: Art does have to follow the money often times because without funding, well, it's hard to live and continue your unpaid work. It looks like there is a shift back towards quality experiences versus quantity (thank Marvel and DC for the flood of mediocrity in the last few years).  But. I say "but" with a big emphasis because quality used to dictate whether or not something was successful. That is no longer the case. Look at the recent release of Dragon Age: Veilguard of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (...