And so we return to our regularly scheduled updates. Today we bring to you a small slice of what the life of a fighting game fan is like. Can you relate?

Now that the behind-the-scenes stuff is done with our server, I took a few minutes to see if I could figure out what the actual changes were. Typically, I don’t mess around with any of the server side stuff, as that is better left to our resident owl expert, but I do know how to access our site’s page view history and statistical tracking information. This is how I present to you the best search strings and the international traffic results each month.

Being as this is a new month, I began digging up the information for October, but found that it has all been screwed up. Like screwed up hard. Normally the system keeps twelve months of statistical information readily available, but all of my old information is lost and the current stuff is not accurate. Hopefully this can all be corrected on the server side or is just a temporary side effect of the updates that occurred last week. I meant to do a double update because I forgot September, but now it might not even be possible.

That’s really sad, too. The monthly numbers feature was one way for me to really tell if I was resonating with the fanbase. When I held that impromptu contest and declared the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands my winners, I noticed a big jump in the traffic from some of the other countries. Germany had a stranglehold on fourth place for, well since I started tracking the results, and didn’t look like they could be toppled. Just before the server changes, I noticed that the Netherlands, Mexico, and Brazil had either passed or were close to passing Germany for the fourth place spot.

Unfortunately, unless the old information can be retrieved, it looks as though I’ll have to let September’s update go. I’m hoping that the data does come back, but from what I’ve seen thus far, it isn’t too likely. Well, it could be worse . . . it could always be worse.

- Dover

Dover really does love his numbers, in case you could not tell. It’s sweet, in an OCD way. I sorta get interested by proxy, but I can’t feign much excitement over international fan wars for our meager internet offering. But Dover can use this as a lesson in backup, and I can be free to be giddy about the potential for our shiny new server.

This holiday season, like the many marching proudly before it, should awaken feelings not unlike a spinning suplex to the wallet region. I always resolve not to buy nearly as much as I did the year previous; this tradition is quite entrenched, much like the holiday that prompts it. Equally traditional is my ever-weakening will that eventually collapses like a neutron star, mired under the pull of its own gravity, contracting closer into itself until the white-hot core cannot sustain the load. This metaphor falls apart somewhat when the shrunken star begins purchasing videogames en masse, but you get my drift.

First up: Borderlands. I love collecting useless trinkets. As I have aged, that portion of my mind has thankfully recessed through an oft-repeated daily regimen of willpower and slapping back my hand when it instinctively creeps out to scoop up some random McGuffin. Borderlands mines this rich vein of "just one more weapon/armor/equipment piece" like its Diablo and Phantasy Star Online inspirations. That it does so in the first-person is not inherently remarkable, but the fine lads at Gearbox use the FPS trope to good effect. Like Reese’s Pieces, they got their shooter in my action RPG. I could profess a like for it, but that doesn’t quite summarize it. These games are the worst kinds of addiction for me, pulling at my thoughts at odd hours and tempting me with ever-ratcheting rewards. Borderlands is a fine example of this, but thus far (after two admittedly short plays), I have escaped its hooks. With Phantasy Star Zero on next week’s horizon, I can only hope that I don’t end up bouncing between Pandora and Ragol, my days spents wondering if I want to loot by slashing or by shooting.

- Irving