We received this email through our contact page from a fan who was looking for a little advice.

Hello,

I am contacting you on behalf of my shattered dreams. I have had the same dream in mind since I can remember. This goal helped me through many a difficult time in my life, ranging from the abuse suffered at the hands of my step-mother to the mundane day to day interactions “suffered” at work. Continue reading “Ask Jace: Should I Give Up My Dream Of Being In The Gaming Industry?” »

I get a lot of questions from fans of the Jace Hall Show ranging from breaking into the gaming industry to 1337 secrets on living the gamerlife.

I do read EVERY e-mail that is sent my way by fans and try to respond to as many questions as time permits. With the volume of e-mails, it is just not possible for me to answer them all, even though I do MY BEST TO TRY! If you ever want to send me a quick message on Twitter, as many of you who follow me already know, I am VERY active and can respond to your messages on there as well.

Please feel free to submit your questions using this link and I hope you enjoy the response below! Continue reading “Ask Jace: How Do You Make Friends in America?” »

Is America Leaving Innovation, Exploration Behind?

This was submitted to me by a fan of the site. Check it out and let me know what you think. Send me your responses or anything else you feel is epic and worthy of being shared on the site.

It’s been about 5-6 months since my awakening, and the last time I contacted you…

In that time I’ve devoted myself to studying history, economics, and philosophy. I wanted to share with you some of the ideas I’ve been working on with people.

What we (meaning mankind) are facing right now is a morality crisis that is manifesting itself in a total financial collapse. The boomer generation has dropped the ball in this country, and it’s unfortunately understandable given the circumstances under which they grew up.

The biggest accepted lie in society is Continue reading “The Future is in Our Hands, Do We Want To Do Anything About it?” »

Things are getting heavy…

Actually, the world hasn’t really changed that much, but that’s the point isn’t it? To maintain the status quo. To keep the order and the structure in tact so that no one has any wild ideas of breaking any rules or revolting against the powers that be.

But what about these popular sayings: “To each his or her own.” “Whatever floats your boat.” (personal favorite) “Hey…it’s your funeral.”

Let’s run from this angle and say that life doesn’t really have any rules…just certain regulations (which by common sense we all have a cognitive understanding of) we all choose to follow. Continue reading “Jace Hall Video Blog – What Do YOU See?” »

There are a lot of things that are wrong with the world, some of them we can’t fix, but most of them we can. This is because most of the things that are actually wrong relate to the cumulative effect of the many choices we all make as individuals on a day to day basis.

How we act, what we value, the orientation of our priorities, our fears, our hopes, the disconnect between what we truly feel inside versus what we choose to present to others… It all conspires together and can leave us feeling lost, confused, angry, depressed, etc.

Indeed, we all feel that there is something wrong with the world, but just can’t quite articulate what it exactly is.

So in the meanwhile, we medicate in our own different ways…

We want to look to others for guidance, but who? Our politicians? Movie stars? Sports stars? Maybe? Or maybe not…

What lessons do they really teach? What stories do they really tell?

Something has changed over the last 50 years – Something besides technology and the other obvious advancements.

On average, people have more conveniences than ever, more access to information, more awareness of themselves and the world… but yet, it seems to me people are more confused and unhappy than ever before. What is happening? No, I mean really?

I’ve always felt that if someone in the know would just say SOMETHING – no, not just SOMETHING, but some honest, usable TRUTH that we all can use to help make sense of things and provide some kind of structure or thought process, it would be greatly appreciated by many.

Yet no one really says anything. Not really….

Then it occurred to me. Maybe I should say something.

Not that I think I am “in the know” or anything special really. In fact, who am I to say anything? Right?

But isn’t that the question? We all have been trained to think that way, and I am just playing along with it – which results in people not really saying anything…. And the wheel goes round and round…

So I am going to start sharing things that I have learned. Things that I see. Things that I know. I do this with the hope that it is useful for at least ONE person out there. So that maybe, ONE person’s life can be improved a little because they learned something from me, which I had to learn the hard way.

Now some of the things that I will say may completely contradict things that you have been taught by the conventional system. I don’t know what to say about that. You can either believe me, or believe the conventional system that taught you.

But before you disregard what I say, please consider that the conventional system is what has left you confused, probably in debt, probably stressed, and most assuredly feeling trapped on some level. The conventional system benefits from you behaving according to it’s rules – well, I should say that the people who control the conventional system’s rules benefit from you sticking to plan.

I, on the other hand, gain nothing from you and am just trying to share what little I have.

It’s up to you – but please know that everything I say, I believe – and I am able to prove, debate, and support. And I accept all challenges to my statements.

So with all that being said, here are three random beginner things you can tell your family and friends and you can rest assured that what you are telling them is true:

1.)   Going to college only guarantees ONE thing – and that is you (or someone) will be paying the college in order to attend.

2.) Our system teaches you to define yourself internally by what you CANT do. It teaches you that the further you define yourself by the things you are NOT, the better your life will be. In fact, that is what an EXPERT is considered to be – a person who knows all the things that can’t be done in their area of expertise.

Imagine a newborn baby, who knows nothing, ALL possibilities are available to its thought process when trying to solve a problem it has never faced before. It doesn’t know what CANT be done, so the likelihood of that baby coming up with a solution that was never before realized is MUCH higher than an adult expert who already has set rules and limitations in place with their thoughts.

Don’t define yourself by what you CANT do. Keep that newborn baby  example in mind and try to define yourself by what you CAN do, and know that you can continually add to that list of things and ever broaden the definition of yourself.

We literally live in an infinite universe, with infinite possibilities – don’t believe for one second that things that one person has achieved are beyond your reach. The only real factor is time. It might take you longer than someone else, but you CAN do whatever you focus on.

3.)  Whenever you tell a lie, a big one or small one, it doesn’t matter if you get away with it. It always hurts you. It hurts you because you know you lied. You cannot escape it and it will hurt your self-esteem. A lowered self-esteem causes people to sometimes make poor choices for themselves, which in turn can sometimes cause more lies to be told.

The system teaches us that lying or misrepresenting ourselves can be a good thing.  It teaches us that it can be a justified thing (think of the end of “The Dark Knight”) In fact, on occasion we are told that doing things covertly is the best choice.

I am here to tell you that you that this is flat out wrong and you will get better results on average if you choose to act OVERTLY rather than COVERTLY. In all areas of your life. Period. More on this later…

This article has run long, so I will stop here.

Let me know what you think. If you think I should just shut up – let me know that too…

Jace

I'M BACK!

Well where do I start?

I guess that the first thing I should say is “WELCOME” to Paul Nyhart!

For those that don’t know, Paul is the guy who has been doing a great job keeping the site updated and managed recently. His goal is to help build the JACE NATION (heh heh) and join the fight in eliminating NOOBITRY worldwide.

Although Paul will be writing most of the articles that you see on the website, please rest assured that I will be personally updating the site as well whenever I have time to do so. So I haven’t gone anywhere.

…and even if you haven’t seen an article from me in a while, please know that I am reading everything on the site, ESPECIALLY your comments and feedback (which I encourage you to do more of.)

Generally speaking, the kinds of articles I look forward to writing will fall into 1 of 3 categories:

1.) Video Game / Technology Culture Related
2.) Online Content Development / Business Model / Industry Related
3.) My Viewpoints on World, Society, Community and Individual Issues.

Based on the community feedback I will focus on whichever topics seem to interest people most.

For now, I would just like to simply explain why I have gotten behind in my site updates. The bottom line is that I simply run out of time in my day to do it!

HDFILMS is a company that is focused on the future of entertainment, and the future is all about people having direct and immediate access to content wherever, however, and whenever they want it. All devices, in all forms. The challenge with that is virtually every traditional media business model relies on creating value through “scarcity” and that “scarcity” has historically been created by the result of direct manipulation and control of distribution.

Blah Blah Blah… The above is just a long way of saying that there are tough challenges for me in my job because not only to I need to oversee the creation of new and cool content, but I also have to figure out entirely new business models from front to back in order for that content to reach people and hopefully become profitable!

So it means I have to wear a lot of different hats and that keeps me scrambling. In fact, everyone who works at HDFILMS does. We all have to think creatively and push the limits of our understanding of certain things, sometimes even leaping into the void with just the faith of success!

I dont really have typical days. Each one is different. I guess I could say my typical work day is for it to not be typical!

HDFILMS hasn’t really announced all the stuff that it is working on. We sort of keep a quiet profile when compared to other companies that like to blast messaging out to the world whenever they close a deal, but please know that we do have numerous cool projects in the works! Which again, is why I’ve been a little out of touch…

Anyway, I just wanted to say “Hello” to everyone, and let you know that I’m still here and preparing some cool personal articles to write and add along with Paul’s contributions.

As an aside, I’ve been working on the new JACE HALL MORTAL KOMBAT SONG, and it is basically PURE AWESOMENESS!

Lastly, if there is anything in particular you want me to write about, let me know in the comment section of this article!

Stay tuned!

Jace

Greetings.

As the New Year begins I have decided to make a concerted effort at updating this website with more regular thoughts and articles than I have done in the past.

As the Jace Hall Show and other productions I am involved with continue to grow in popularity, I am finding that more and more people seem to have interest in who I am and what I might have to say about different topics.

It has gotten to the point where I simply cannot meaningfully respond to every e-mail and Facebook message I receive, and that is disappointing for me because I actually do want to answer everyone and provide whatever thought or insight I can to help.

All that being said, I don’t care if it turns out no one reads this blog, or finds it interesting. I am writing this blog for me. I am writing this blog because I think that there are some things in this world that I feel need to be said, yet no one is saying them exactly – so I will, over time, and I am starting now.

To be clear, I do not think or feel that I am special, super smart or better than anyone else. I don’t think that I am somehow entitled to pontificate from some lofty platform and tell other people what to do or think. However, one thing I do feel is an obligation to share whatever I have learned to whomever might be interested, so that they may benefit from it, or add to it, or help educate me further by showing me a different perspective.

t I think the best way to kick off my new effort on this website is to simply tell you who I am in the simplest terms I can so you can decide for yourself if you have any interest in hearing what I have to say.

Obviously, it’s easy to look me up on Wikipedia or IMDB or whatever. Most (not all) of what you see there is reasonably accurate and gives you a general idea of my work accomplishments – which is fine – but that is my work, not who I am.

Here is who I am:

I grew up in a household with low income. My mother used food stamps, I had government assisted lunch tickets for school.

I have a younger sister (6 years) and a younger brother (15 years). We are all from different fathers.

I had no male role model.

My household contained violence and fear. I witnessed violent acts by the adults in my household between each other.

I was the recipient of unchecked, excessive, violent disciplinary acts.

I never fought back. I always did as I was told. My home was the least safe feeling place for me.

My defense was to stay in my room, keep out of the way, and live my life inside of comic books, movies, television shows, and computers/video games. These were things that the oppressive forces could not understand or take from me once they were in my mind.

I went to public school.

I was picked on. I was not cool. I played Dungeons and Dragons. I was “downloading”  before anyone really knew what that was. I had crushes on girls, but never dared to speak to them.

I played sports when forced to. I would always tend to be picked for a team last.

I read books. I dreamed of cool concepts and ideas. I was not into school activities.

Few people paid attention to me.

No one ever gave me anything. I had no advantages. I had every excuse to fail. I was told that I could not do things by many people.

However, somewhere in all that, I became determined to accomplish. I decided that I would not accept the situation I was given, but instead I would change and take control of it. Unfortunately, I had no one to show me how.

Obviously, my life’s early story is longer and more detailed than what is written above, and perhaps one day I will detail it more – but for now it is sufficient to say that I am like most of you out there: not perfect, not taken care of, not from a fairy tale situation…

Now if  you fast-forward from my past to today, and look at my accomplishments, you will see that I have been able to alter my life situation significantly and positively.

I’ve been involved in creating numerous successful business that have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

I’ve created and produced all kinds of successful content spanning video games, film, television shows and online entertainment.

I have more than 15 years experience in executive management, running companies, building businesses, and operational management.

I know 4 different computer languages.

I’ve written and produced hit music!

You can see the rest on IMDB… etc.

None of this was handed to me. No inside tracks. No family connections. Nothing.

I have been able to do all of this without lying, cheating, hurting others, compromising my integrity or personal honor. I trust people and people can trust me. My word is my bond. I have created companies, jobs, opportunities, and touched millions of lives of people in a positive way whom I will never meet. In fact, as I sit and write this, the second season of the ABC television show “V” will premiere in few hours, hopefully bringing some entertainment and joy to 10 million people for an hour – and this show would not exist on this day had I not existed.

I don’t say this stuff to pat myself on the back, I only say this stuff to offer you some semblance of my credibility to my blog posts.

All that being said – My goal with this blog is to entertain, educate, and share a dialog with people who are interested in doing so with me.

I will show you very specifically how to achieve your dreams and ambitions. I will give you some perspective based on my experiences that  perhaps  your parents, schools or friends have been unable to provide.

I will explain to you the ideas and philosophies that drive me as a person, and how I have been able to do what I have done.

Over time, through this blog I will share what I know, and it may help you understand that what you think may be impossible for yourself, is actually quite possible. I am living proof of this. I will only tell you the truth as I see it.

Because it is time that someone said SOMETHING.

I ask for nothing in return other than for you to share what you learn here with others when you have the time or inclination.

Until next time!

Oh, AND MAKE SURE YOU WATCH “V” !!!

Who to Contact Jace Name Daniel Pevahouse Email xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject Who the fuck are you Message Bah! Who teh fuk is this guy? ha ha ha Actually I saw tha behind the scenes for The Matrix Online MMO on the Matrix Revolutions DVD back around 2005 YAH BISHES! I only watched it about 2700 times. Geez my girlfriend back then hated video games I wasn’t even allowed to own a system. So watching the short MxO preview was the closest I could get. I remember Jace standing out in the crowd in the short Matrix Online documentary. All the computer stuff an everyone talking about the new MMO genre, and where things were headed. I found the whole thing fascinating. I’d say it was the one thing that pushed me over the edge to go out an buy a computer. I had just got out of BMW tech school an was working in a dealership shitcaning BMW’s like a true yuppie slave, and I remember any time I got a chance I’d sneak a peak into the MMO or online gaming world on one of the dealerships computers. Which you know, ended with me droping my life savings on a computer just to play around in Mxo (Matrix Online). Most of the people that spent time in Megacity ended up loving it. I remember the first time I was just having a blast running around lost as hell in this huge city. Yah sure the game got flamed all to hell, but it was still a new genre somewhat. SOE actually cut their teeth on customer service support on that game. When it first launched you couldn’t even get internet here. I had to use satellite internet which was a nightmare. I ended up traveling the country instead fixing BMW’s like a true yuppie slave. If the place I ended up staying at had internet then I’d pop in an kick some dirt in Matrix Online. Then like 4-5 years later I moved back to the family farm an bam high speed internet had reached all the way out here in the middle of nowhere. After 3 years of Mxo an music, it fried the motherboard in that fancy computer I bought so I ended up building a new one. Then pretty much I spent the last year of Matrix Online running around without shoes on (squishy) without a evade bubble an normal clothing. Hostile servers FTW! I guess it made it harder for me to win, but more of a win when I did. Yay Yay I won omg I never win. Plus I figured it would be more fun for the other folks to fight a half naked sexy chick without shoes on. There were a whole bunch of folks that had tons of fun with Matrix Online, and for a lot of us it actually brought us into the MMO genre, online games, or in my case computers. I caught The Jace Hall show on Hulu today. I kept saying “who the fuck is that guy?” LMAO then bam I was omg that’s him. Whatever it is you still got it man. The show was interesting an fun, you know, mostly due to you still standing out in the crowd. Everyone was great though. I’d like to show my support of the show if that can be done. I know a whole lot of people would enjoy to watch it. For example Tosh.O which is good, but please it’s way out of line. Got to keep it real. I don’t think Tosh.O really cares about that, but I reckon you can be so funny that it hurts to watch. Most of the time I’m in so much pain from laughter that I can’t wrap my head around the next joke. So it’s good to catch a show where you can just chill out an enjoy. Kudoz for that yo… Well, thanks a bunch for The Jace Hall Show, an fer all the Matrix Online stuff too. Heck nowdays I pretty much spend most of my time on computer doing creative work for games. It’s just a way to get the creative bug out right now, but I’ve been slowly learning over the last 6 years. It started with editing pixels of screenshots of Matrix Online, and now I can pretty much make a texture do anything I can think up. Now I’m working on learning how to make 3D models. I never thought I’d ever even get close to anything creative like this. So thanks a bunch to all you jackass honkytonk & slackjaw yokel developers out there fer inspiring the n00bs to reach out toward greatness… w00t! taters, Daniel Pevahouse

MUCH LUV TO YOU SIR! STAY STRONG! GREAT LETTER!

Jace



Name
	Joshua Portelance
Email
Subject
	Hey Jace
Message
	Hey my names is Josh, I’m 15 and I play W.o.W pretty much every day. Lately I have been mass agroing my parents and they are telling me to go out side and hang out with my friends. They don’t even listen to me when I tell them that sense I play W.o.W I have better leadership and multitasking skills as well as improved hand-eye coordination, well I hang out with my friends digitally. I’m starting to get quite annoyed with them sense they are insisting on putting a 3 hour limit per day on the computer when one raid lasts 4-5 hours, and when all my friends are on all after noon. They just don’t understand that I would rather be inside playing video games with my friends then outside. P.S: I have the same tank gear as you in my bank. Don’t worry I wont tell anyone what server your on.

Dear Joshua,

I understand  your dilemma and I know how much it sucks to be in a situation where you are surrounded by people who do not understand what you are doing or why you are doing it. It can become very frustrating trying to explain yourself over and over, only to have them not listen or understand what you are saying. I would get all AGGRO too.

NO WORLD OF WARCRAFT FOR YOU!!

However, you have to keep in mind that these people who do not understand you are YOUR PARENTS. It is their job and responsibility to make sure that you are safe and healthy – and all they want to do is protect you from things THEY THINK may harm you.

Normally, when people don’t understand something they tend to be afraid of it in some way. Since they don’t know what it is, the natural instinct is to be better safe than sorry. That is what is happening with your parents. All they see is you sitting in front of a computer with a headset on, doing something that looks completely unproductive. On top of that, they likely don’t have any similar experience in their own childhood to reference against so that they can at least tell themselves that what you are doing is similar to what THEY did so they can know you will be ok in the end…

So, without that information they just perceive you being kind of anti-social and worry that you are not learning important communication skills or developing your mind enough socially. They fear for your future because if you don’t know how to work/play/speak with people well, life can be way more difficult! Their job is to equip you to WIN!

They just don’t want your life to suck – but in certain areas like WoW they are TOTAL NOOBS so they simply conclude that you sitting and staring at a screen being “unproductive” might lead to mass suckage for you later on. So they tell you to get off the computer and “go outside and play with your friends!” You would do the exact same thing if you were them. Trust me.

It is totally understandable. So please don’t get mad at them. They are just trying to do a good job – and since they appear to live in a house on NOOB MOUNTAIN, they ARE doing a good job…at least for being NOOBS. Know what I mean?

Anyway, the goal here is to help educate them about what you are doing. You have to show them that sitting in front of your computer grinding on WoW is actually giving you MAD SKILLZ in life by teaching you: Goal Setting, Leadership, Extreme Multitasking, Communication, Management, Strategy, Cause and Effect with Consequence, Technical Skill, Familiarity With Complex User Interface Design, etc.

They need to see that you speak with more people in one day during a WoW session, than they EVER did at your age while they were out playing with “friends.”

The truth is that what you are doing is impressive, you just have to help them understand it.

Try this -

1.) Wait until your parents are home.

2.) Figure out a way to Re-Route your headphones (all incoming chat audio) to external speakers. Make sure they are capable of being loud. The idea here is to allow everyone in your household to hear all the chatter coming through your headset.

3.) Then go on an HUGE quest that requires a ton of people.

4.) Turn your speakers up LOUD. Get your parents to want to come in your room to see what kind of party you must be throwing.

5.) All they will find is you by yourself, playing WoW. However, the sensation they will feel from all the chatter and the audio will be that you are with a TON of people, being social.

6.) Ask your parents to sit down and watch you play for 15 minutes. During this time, GO INTO OVERDRIVE WHEN YOU DO THINGS. Just play the game abnormally fast. Make your parents see and understand that there is NO WAY they could be doing what you are doing. It’s just too fast and too complex and there are too many people, etc. OVERWHELM them by handling it all with ease.

While playing, explain to them what you are doing. Show them the multitasking, the communication, the leadership, EVERYTHING.

They will begin to understand I promise! They may be even a little bit proud of you. It is impressive to watch. Trust me. What seems simple to you, looks like magic to them.

Hopefully this will help.

If it doesn’t and they STILL tell you to go outside. Just go outside. They are your parents, just trying to do a good job. Yes, as I said before they are NOOBS, but they are YOUR NOOBS. Take care of them and make them feel good. They are people with feelings just like you. It is your duty and responsibility as their son to honor their wishes, even if you think they are being unfair. Be a champion, have understanding and patience, especially when it is hard to have patience – by doing so you will build up your HONOR POINTS in the REAL WORLD.

This is how the JACE HALL LEGION MUST ROLL. Join or be cast out as a NOOB.

If nothing works at all you can click this link and get the early beta of Diablo III and be happy again!

Jace

Dear Mr. Chalfant,
You can no longer say that you have no friends, because I am now your friend which automatically makes you cooler than everyone you know. I’m the only friend you will ever need. If anyone ever tells you that you have no friends, just show them my picture and say, “YOU JUST GOT PWNED, NOOB!” – Then laugh to yourself, because you can know deep in your heart that you are so much more awesome than that person that they cant even understand it.

In regard to my W.O.W. characters, the realm that my Blood Elf Paladin lives on must remain a secret! This is so that I can continue to rule the lands I inhabit with impunity and merciless power. Anyone you see in the game with the name JACEPWNS is likely a fake. Pay them no respect!

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!

As for your mom and dad, clearly they are TOTAL NOOBS and can’t understand how amazing and awesome you are while in the World of Warcraft.

They obviously cant see how your social skills are being developed by what you are doing and how you are learning powerful leadership skills through your guild participation at such a young age.

As NOOBS they can not grasp that you are training your mind to be more and more proficient at multitasking, while simultaneously improving your hand-eye coordination far beyond your future fellow competition.

The pure NOOBNESS that your parents bask in, totally keeps them unaware of your ever increasing comfort and skill with using a computer with complex software – nor can they appreciate the purity of watching someone pursue a passion with all their heart.

Alas Mr. Chalfant, your parents are trapped in their own NOOBOSITY, and they dont know it.

They can never know the joy of W.O.W. they way you do. They will never have the fond memories of killing their first Murloc or battling the Lich King… Don’t hate them for this, just give them hugs and kisses. That might make them feel better.

In the meanwhile, despite the fact that they live in a house built on NOOB mountain, THEY STILL ARE YOUR PARENTS!!

They pay for everything and take care of you and keep you safe and worry about you and make sacrifices and do the best they can – so it is only fair and right that you give them respect and honor and do as they ask of you!

Your parents have earned the right to be in charge, and it is your DUTY to follow their lead!

Remember, they have lived a lot longer than you and know a lot of things that you don’t! Listen to them and learn from them!

So if they ask you to stop playing W.O.W. for whatever reason, YOU STOP PLAYING OK?? If you want to stay as my friend, then you listen to your parents. I don’t want friends that can’t live up to their duties and responsibilities! W.O.W will always be there for you later.

Stay strong Mr. Chalfant!

Your friend,

Jace

For those that are unaware, I recently hosted an annual gathering called SONY’S FAN FAIRE that takes place in Las Vegas. Sony asked me to do it and I was honored and delighted that they would consider me for such an honorable opportunity…

FAN FAIRE is a gathering of  about 2000 of the most hard-core dedicated subscribers of Sony’s MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER GAMES (such as EverQuest, Star Wars Galaxies, etc.) and they are an amazing and awesome community focused on coming together, having fun and learning a few things about what Sony has planned in the future for their games.

Bottom line is that they are true gamers, in every sense of the word.

Anyhow, I was a “new face at FAN FAIRE” hosting THEIR show and it apparently has generated some thoughtful opinions that have been expressed to me.

I thought I would share a small exchange I had with a FAN FAIRE attendee;;

New comment on your post #1591 “Twitter Updates for 2010-08-06″
Author : You Sucked (IP: 68.204.53.191 , 191.53.204.68.cfl.res.rr.com)
E-mail : Yousucked@hotmail.com
URL    :
Whois  : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=68.204.53.191
Comment:
You sucked at the MC for Fan Faire.  Do us all a favor and stay home next year.  You are a poser about the only thing you could ever pwn is a wet paper bag.

You can see all comments on this post here:
http://www.jacehallshow.us/blog/twitter-updates-for-2010-08-06/#comments

JACE SAYS:

From: Jason Hall
Date: Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:42:15 -0700
To: <Yousucked@hotmail.com>
Conversation: [The Jace Hall Show] Comment: “Twitter Updates for 2010-08-06″
Subject: Re: [The Jace Hall Show] Comment: “Twitter Updates for 2010-08-06″

Your e-mail is awesome – therefore you are awesome. Sorry I failed you at Fan Faire. I followed the script that Sony provided – but if I had any talent or skill I probably would have done a better job. You deserve much better than me.

I agree that I am a poser, but you are probably giving me too much credit because a wet paper bag would probably pwn me too.

Thanks for sending a letter to me that puts me down. I should get more of them.

You stay cool and fantastic, and I will just go back to my hole.

Sincerely,

Jace “guy who sucks” Hall

I JUST GOT PWNED

-Jace

SHOW SOME SUPPORT!

This amazing young lady made her own music video to the “I PLAY WOW” song we released and it is a great effort!

We don’t know her  personally but please check it out and help her get some views on youtube! Spread the word! We like to encourage the youth to do positive creative things like this, instead of negative things.!

GREAT JOB!!!!

-Jace

Many of you know that my company (HDFILMS) has been working on a cutting edge computer animated WebSeries called “CHADAM” for the last couple years.

“CHADAM” is a story about reclusive character who lives as the “chosen one” in the hyper-stylized and exaggerated metropolitan island city of Vulture. His power of imagination is strong enough to physically change his environment and, therefore, his world … to save it from evil. The series finds Chadam in a place of refuge where he and others have retreated to plan their attack against a serial killer known as Viceroy…

The challenge of the project was not only to tell an engaging story, but to also make an unprecedented attempt at producing nearly an hour of detailed computer animation within the extreme budget constraints of current internet economics.

To put this in perspective, in order to be viable as a project, CHADAM’s budget for the entire 10+ episode hour long computer animated series had to be significantly smaller than what it typically costs to produce ONE SINGLE half hour animated network television episode.

Not an easy feat. I assure you.

These extreme limitations led us to focus on more creative and out-of-the-box approaches to accomplishing the task at hand. A notion was conceived to see if it was possible to use video game technology (specifically UNREAL 3) to lower the barrier-to-entry and actually be used to produce the desired final product.

Coming from the video game industry, and having been personally involved in working with numerous game technologies, I felt strongly that we could tell the entire story of CHADAM within a video game engine technology like UNREAL 3 – and so our journey began and we discussed it with the character’s creator, legendary artist ALEX PARDEE…

Historically, the use of video game technology to tell linear narrative has been limited. Utilization as transitionary moments in-between video game levels is a typical example of the limited use. Never has there been a whole movie completed in such a way - Although there has been a great effort and community known as MACHINIMA that has always held the idea that movies could be made with video game technology, and it is only right that I should mention that in this article.

The issue with most MACHINIMA efforts has been that typically all the content that appears in a MACHINIMA-type production, is primarily a re-use of a particular video game’s art assets. This immediately brings in extreme story-telling limitations because if your story requires a scene or character interaction that the original game never conceived, there was no simple way to do it.

Nonetheless, there have been some pretty cool MACHINIMA efforts and if you want to see/learn more about it, you can go HERE:

CHADAM, however is different than that. The CHADAM production represents a complete-front-to-back original content creation effort without any game asset re-use. It literally is the ultimate expression of the MACHINIMA idea, and guess what? They were right! It works.

It is also an expression of what can be created within “internet economics” by a VERY small team, using nothing but video game technology.

CHADAM was never intended for any other medium besides the Internet. It is not an independent film that couldn’t find distribution. It is not a direct to DVD effort that then suddenly changed strategies. CHADAM started as a web series for the internet and it has remained so.

The description of the production journey itself (the trials and tribulations) will have to be discussed in another blog entry – there is also a “making of CHADAM” documentary that we shot and will become available…. But my point here is that there is clearly new opportunity in animated series that can make use of state of the art video game technology, and the internet is a fantastic medium for its distribution.

It is important that you know that Warner Bros. demonstrated vision and leadership by choosing to get behind this project. They stood strong where many would have faltered. Please do us and them a favor by spreading the word to everyone about CHADAM on theWB.com and getting people to check it out. They won’t be disappointed!

Please tell people to go here:

www.chadamtheseries.com

And now for the first episode. Let us know what you think!!!

We are very interested in your opinions. Please share them with us!

Jace

As most of you probably know, The Jace Hall Show owns a super exotic sports car called a “T-REX”

If you didn’t know this then WATCH THIS EPISODE TO SEE HOW IT HAPPENED!!!

In any case, a few months ago we loaned our T-REX out to Fergie and The Black Eyed Peas for what was supposed to be just a day or so, but DAY became DAYS and I started to wonder where the heck the T-REX was…

Anyway, after a few DAYS, we get the T-REX back, and it is all covered in dust and dirt and a bunch of the electronics were unplugged and not working, and we were like DAMN!!! WTF!??? But the people who dropped it off fixed it all up and made everything perfect again…

Then I kinda forgot about the whole thing…

Until I WATCHED THIS MUSIC VIDEO:

Everything becomes clear at ’3:06′ in the video….

THAT IS WHY IT WAS SOO DUSTY!

So the Jace Hall Show T-REX seems to have become even more famous, since now Fergie and Will-I-Am have sat in it!

What do you think?

-Jace

Got this letter and I wanted to humbly share it with you all:

Name
	Dex Robinson
Subject
	Inspiration
Message

Dear Jace,

First of all love the show! I like how you get everyone that comes on your show to be like “What’s the Jace Hall Show?” Anyways, I have been wanting to write you an email to tell you how much you inspire me to be a better programmer/artist/person. I just graduated college with a BS in Game and Simulation Programming(yes that is the actual degree name). Before I started watching your show I was starting to think that everyone in the game industry was just hard ass, non joking, unfriendly, snobby people. All the programmers I worked under treated me like garbage. Something like a maid or personal servent. Granted I was an intern and I thought it was just a hazing thing I didn’t let it bother me. Any time I had a question everyone would jump down my throat and get annoyed when they had to show me.

I thought about giving up and just become a normal programmer and getting away from the game industry all together even though I love making games and nothing brings me more joy. After an episode of your show I sat up and watched the entire 3 seaons from start to finish. I like your show a lot more than any other show out there because you talk to the developers and not the stupid marketing director who knows nothing about making games(i espically loved the Blizzard team meetings you did, are they really like that?). But after watching your show it gave me hope that the game industry is a fun and exciting place to work and while it is a VERY stressful place to work there is still time for fun and pranks. Keep up the great work and I am looking forward to new episodes of the JHS!

Thank you,
Dex

The idea that the show that I work on here with everyone at HDFILMS is actually inspiring people to not give up and pursue their dreams REALLY makes all the effort and hard work worth while.

It is an honor to serve.

Jace

This just in:

J!NX is having a 72 hour sale, 25% off all products! Stop by and pickup your favorite JHS Tee. Use promo code JHS25OFF during checkout.

GOTO J!NX.COM NOW!!!

STOP MAKING EXCUSES AND GET YOUR SHIRT NOW! PROVE THAT YOU ARE L337 and C00L ‘n Stuff!!

-Jace

A recent message from my inbox that I thought was worth answering in a more public fashion!

Name
	Mike Rastall
Subject
	Screw the game industry…whats your diet!
Message
	Love the show, your humor, and all that jazz. Sure I’m a hardcore gamer but I’m also an obese american that was grown up on video games and that we all are nerds/fat/freaks compared to normal society. Now I don’t feel that way anymore(26 years old now) but still you give hope to a hardcore gaming nerd with your fitness. Did you ever post your diet and workout routine anywhere? Any advice on how to motivate gamers that want to get in shape but lack the proper motivation? I try to throw out the advice that they should pretend that the gym and real life is a video game like WoW. Each pound you lose or each minute longer you can run is a level gained in life. When you achieve your master weight, strength, endurance(whatever your goal) is when you max out! Keep it up Jace. Love V but love your show more. P.S. Is Ian Somerhalder cool like Boone and Damon from his TV shows or is he one of those metrosexual actors that just know how to act like a bad ass? Lol.

Dear Mike,

I have never fully discussed or published what I do for my diet or exercise routines. This is partly because I am not a certified trainer or anything and partly because I don’t really think I have any secrets that aren’t mentioned a million times in different ways all over the internet already.

However, there ARE a few things that I can tell you that may be useful in general – and these are things that for some reason I rarely hear “expert” people discuss. I’ll leave it to you to speculate on why that is…

Insight #1 -  You should have ZERO expectation of actually enjoying working out and dieting. I can tell you most definitely that I do not enjoy it. I don’t wake up every morning looking forward to putting myself through unpleasantness, strain, exhaustion and hunger. I have met and know MANY superfit, magazine cover, awesome-smiling, happy-looking, life-must-be-amazing people who diet and work out every day – who absolutely do not enjoy the actual acts of exercising or dieting. What they enjoy, is THE RESULTS THAT COME FROM IT.

Now certainly, there are certain types of people who like pain, discomfort and general self-inflicted suffering of various types, but I am not one of those people and you probably aren’t either. I like to eat BIG and gobble yummy foods and sit around and CHILL. The problem is that if I do that too much, I will not enjoy the way that I physically appear, and I will not be pleased with my  compromised physical capabilities.

So when people try to motivate you and say crap like “imagine like the gym is a video game you play” and basically try to sell you on the idea that exercise is fun and easy, just tell them to piss off with that BS. You hate the process, and the fact is they probably do too. They aren’t really being honest.

What is honest then? Well, I think the honest truth is that it is a simple decision you have to make about what you HATE MORE.

If you hate the way you look, or how you physically perform, MORE THAN how much you hate dieting and exercising – then that is all the motivation you really need. Because frankly, you are going to have one or the other.

To make it easier, I would encourage you to develop a viewpoint of dieting and exercising as an unpleasant absolute necessity with no option to avoid. Sort of like going to the bathroom or paying taxes. Learn to enjoy hating the process and hating the fact that you have to do it. Master the art of complaining about it to yourself and make every exercise session that you complete an additional burning ember of internal hatred at the universe for making difficult dieting and exercise the key to the body you want instead of 5 glazed donuts + Super Street Fighter IV every day.

It is important that you believe that this is something YOU HAVE TO DO – NOT CHOOSE TO DO. Consistency is key to progress. When you absolutely do not feel like exercising, TOO BAD, go to the gym and just stand there and look at people then – but GO TO THE GYM. More likely than not, once you get there you will do something, which is better than nothing at all, which is not even an option, because like taking a crap, you MUST do this…

If you can set your expectations in this manner, I promise, diet and exercise will be less difficult to do. This is because you will successfully remove some mental disappointment from the equation.  No longer will you be looking for an “easy way” or to somehow “feel good” while doing it. You will know that it sucks and it will meet your expectation every time. Eventually you will learn that the harder and more intense and miserable you make your diet and exercise, the faster you will achieve your goals and the less time you will have to spend doing it (but that is another article.)

Insight #2 – KNOW WHY YOU ARE DIETING AND EXERCISING.

There are two entirely different ways to optimize your time spent on diet and exercise: (1) To improve your health and fitness OR (2) To alter the way that you physically look.

If you are looking to achieve a result as fast as possible, CHOOSE ONE NOT BOTH and orient your exercise and diet program for it.

Now certainly, when you choose one, you will get some positive effect toward the other – but in order to make sure that you aren’t wasting one second of your effort and that everything you do takes you toward your goal, you MUST be clear as to what your priority is – HEALTHY AND FIT? OR THE WAY YOU LOOK? These are very different approaches.

Almost ALL of my knowledge and orientation is focused on the art and technique of affecting the way that I look. All of my workouts revolve around this paradigm, as well as my diet.

I don’t care how strong I am. I have no desire to run a marathon. Who cares how high I can jump…? I don’t. I want to look / appear like the comic book and film/tv action heros I grew up watching and that is the target I head toward. So my diet and exercise follow that pursuit.

Now the fact that my pursuit has had the side effect of making me stronger than the average person, or quicker or whatever doesn’t matter to me. If  I cared about that and that was supposed to be my goal, my time at the gym doing what I have been doing would be considered wasted. This is because there are many people who look “smaller” and more “normal” than I do who are faster, can jump higher, and are stronger because that was their primary focus instead of “looking” impressive.

Professional bodybuilders look FAR more impressive than professional powerlifters, yet the powerlifters are MUCH stronger than bodybuilders. In fact, I’m almost positive that the “World’s Strongest Man” title has never been held by a professional bodybuilder. Again, Bodybuilding is about a “look” whereas strength competitions are about power. Two different goals.

My point is that your focus is very important in determining what you should spend your time on.

There are many people who look “normal” that are incredibly healthy and can run 10 miles no problem and feel great. This pursuit of fitness like this is just as valid as looking like a “hero” arch-type. There is no one answer. It is all good.

I could elaborate on this further but the main takeaway on my insight here is that you will get more bang for your buck if you recognize that working out for optimal “looks”is one thing, and working out “to just be healthy” is another. Try not to confuse them together completely.

My 2 cents!

Oh, and yes Ian Somerhalder is a very cool dude to hang out with.

-Jace

Greetings to all.

Very sorry for my absence. Just been super busy trying to get our gameplan figured out!

We are asked over and over again when new episodes of the Jace Hall Show may be coming, and the good news is that Todd and I are going to figure that out this week!

Our discussions with IGN are great and it looks like we will be able to also make the show available to “take with you” via mobile download solutions as well.

We have been brainstorming as to what kind of cool and exciting things we are going to include in these new episodes and the suggestions that we have been receiving from everyone have been very helpful. We definitely read them all and consider them – so please keep them coming!

We have decided to go with shorter episodes, but more of them so that we can keep the show going and going with new stuff. Hopefully people will like the modified format. We’ll see. Please trust that we are doing our best.

As for other things we are doing here at the HDFILMS offices… here is a simple list:

1.) We have been developing FIVE(5) full-scale television show concepts/pitch documents. If you have not had to do this before, believe us when we say that it is a LOT of work to develop just ONE, let alone FIVE. I can’t tell you what these show’s are, but since you know that ABC’s “V” television show was developed here by us, you can rest assured that the shows we are working on are epic and awesome.

2.) We have been working on the AWESOME new Street Fighter ANTHEM song and have begun planning the music video shoot. We want it to be better than the “I PLAY W.O.W” song/video (which is almost up to 1.5mm views on youtube alone btw) and it looks like we are going to be able to pull it off. Fingers crossed. At the moment, Capcom itself is reviewing the song and initial feedback is that they think it is SUPREMELY AWESOME. Stay tuned.

3.) We have been putting the finishing touches on CHADAM which is a completely computer animated film for the internet ONLY that was entirely created in the UNREAL 3 video game engine. I cannot begin to tell you how awesome it is and how it is going to forever change the animation landscape because people are going to really see what a small group of people can do at home with nothing but hard work and a copy of any game that uses UNREAL 3, like Bioshock and etc. This project is going to be put out into the world by our great partners at Warner Bros. so please keep an eye out for information about it. More is coming soon!

Obviously, there is more that we have been doing but we can’t give everything away! Just want you all to know that we are doing our best to not only continue the Jace Hall Show and make it better, but also create other cool and awesome stuff for you as well.

More updates soon!

-Jace

I often get asked how one should go about getting a video game idea they have made, or how to get a start in the game industry. I thought I should just try to answer the below e-mail I received the other day on my blog so that anyone who was interested in asking me this could hear what I have to say on the subject:

Name
	Mike
	Breaking into the Industry
Message

First, I would like to start off by saying “Thank You” for the Jace Hall Show. For awhile my only means of video game news/entertainment was the G4 network, which is good for what it is, but the majority of the hosts are not gamers and have not worked in the video game industry, so I feel somewhat disconnected from them on that aspect (But I’ll be damned if some of them aren’t hot!!).

I’ve been a gamer since my first nintendo in 1986, and I’ve played so many games over my lifetime I’ve begun in the past 15 years or so to heavily critique games in the genres I love, mainly RPG and Turn Based Strategy games. So much so that in the past few years I’ve been working on what I would call a “Video Game Screenplay”. Basically I have written down everything I want in a game, and how I would like to have it made. I know it sounds childish to some point since I’m going on 28, but it’s a hobby to me, and one that I enjoy immensely. Which brings me to why I’m writing you. I have basically written an entire video game (story, battle engine, character devlopment, etc.), and I’m wondering how to go about possibly presenting this idea to a perspective company for production. Think along the lines of Final Fantasy Tactics (in my opinion the greatest turn based strategy game ever). I think that many of the greatest games ever will go uncreated simply because most people with the ideas (gamers like myself) don’t know what channels to funnel their ideas through. I understand that companies hire programmers, artists and writers, but how do you produce credentials and a video game creator, the person that decides “THIS” is the game we are going to create. The field has just become so lucrative and expansive, unlike 25 years ago when a person with a good idea could get a game made with minimal prodcution expense compared to today. Will companies take a chance on an idea from an outside source, or is the little guy with big ideas forced to create facebook and flash games?

Any insight that you could provide on this matter would be appreciated greatly (I need something to do with the 100 page binder I’ve amassed over the years).

Thanks Jace,

Mike

Dear Mike,

While I can imagine that a tremendous amount of thought and work has gone into your game design idea, the short answer is that, generally speaking, the video game industry is not set up to easily digest and process “outside pitches” that come from individuals with little to no proven game design/creation experience.

There are many reasons for this but here are just a couple of easy-to-describe reasons:

1.) The video game industry is not short on ideas. Go to ANY game company and within its walls you will find individual employees with numerous concepts, ideas, stories, even functional prototypes / proof of concepts that they have built themselves. Ideas are plentiful and a lot of them are great. YET, they do not get made. This is because while the ideas are many, the number of people available on Earth who can actually MAKE THE GAME is incredibly limited.

This is not even a question of money, of which there is plenty of. It is an actual physical limitation of having access to human beings that know how to take an idea and forge it into reality on a Playstation 3 or XBOX 360 (or whatever.) Currently, the demand far exceeds the supply.

One of the toughest challenges that any sizeable video game publisher has to face is how to fulfill and execute on all the ideas they already have. Video games can take years to build, so any decision is not only a big economic one but also one that ties up valuable human resources for extended periods of time. The video game industry is constantly facing an issue that is referred to as “opportunity cost.” If they make this game today, they can’t make that other one tomorrow – they just wont have the capacity. Publishers have a finite number of game development teams.

This is a key differential from Hollywood. In Hollywood, although the production investments can be enormous, generally the physical supply of talent to create film and television programing exceeds the demand of the number of available productions (one of the huge advantages of having a fixed final delivery platform of  ”film”, instead of having to literally re-invent everything every 5-7 years when the consoles “upgrade” – but more on that in a different article!) On top of this, the bulk of most film’s heavy spending and en masse team work is measured in months, not years. So key talent can get in and out of a production and be available to work on something else. This creates the opportunity of more and more productions of varying sizes and types and eventually over 80+ years time the need for new ideas wherever they might come from since they have used up every internal idea imaginable and still have capacity.

The video game industry is not there yet. Instead, imagine if Will Smith signed on to a movie and simply could not work on anything else for over 3 years. Key, bankable actors being tied up for 3 years at a time would have a profound impact on the film industry. Some things would be quite limited and different. Welcome to the video game industry!

2.) Given the above points (and many others I don’t have time to articulate) it just does not make a lot of sense for publishers to open the front doors and let inexperienced people come in and pitch game ideas. On top of that there are numerous considerations that must go into a game design that relates to the actual limitations of not only the current hardware technology, but also the particular software technology that an individual publisher uses or has developed and it is very unlikely that an inexperienced designer would know to design with those considerations in mind.

Due to all this, the current business model really doesn’t support the notion of buying random external “game designs” and then doing all the heavy lifting to make the idea into a product.

There are many other factors that I could go into, and I’m sure there will always be some exception to the rule, but I’m going to stop describing the obstacles and now I am going to tell you what you CAN do to possibly make some headway with your efforts.

2 SIMPLE THINGS YOU CAN TRY:

Option 1.) One of the points that I made above is the scarcity of competent development resources in the video game industry. Publishers look left and right to find independent developers that demonstrate capacity and promise and  they quickly engage them with projects and determine if a longer term relationship might make sense (i.e. BUYING THE DEVELOPER.)

Given this publisher need, you can use it to your advantage – your challenge is to approach DEVELOPERS with your idea/design instead of PUBLISHERS and convince them that you have something amazing. Among many things (like budgeting) a developer will be able to examine your design and if there are technical problems with it (unfeasibility, etc.) they will know what can be done (or not done about it.)

IF you can get a developer to get excited about your design, it will be UP TO THEM to take it to publishers and engage them.

A competent developer with a track record, and an idea they are passionate about will get the attention of a publisher, I assure you. At that point, you will be in the game and have a chance.

Now, I am not sure of the size and scope of your game design, but if you are targeting premium AAA game production as your end result (like GEARS OF WAR), to be honest, most competent developers with worthwhile track records that could do that job, will likely not be interested in speaking with you. They are busy. Forever. Seriously.

So, if you are going to take this direction, aim high, but set your expectations more toward finding a smaller, perhaps somewhat unproven independent developer that is looking to make it big. It is possible that they have been so busy doing grunt-work just to survive as a business that they may not ever have had time to develop a full-super-big game development idea and document. It is possible that you might just walk in and provide the missing piece they’ve been looking for!

You’ll never know until you try.

Option 2.) Build your own game team and make the game yourself. I’m not going to go into the detail of how to completely do this (I’ll save it for my book!) – but basically you need to find other people with the necessary complimentary talents who are as hungry as you are and work together toward the common goal of creating the game. Everyone will need to contribute, everyone will need to sacrifice, and everyone will need to cooperate. They may be inexperienced, or poor communicators, or whatever, but as long as they share your passion to see it through, you will all be successful. I promise. I know this because this is the route I took to enter the game industry. I founded MONOLITH PRODUCTIONS INC. with 4 of my friends when I was 23 years old. The rest is history!

I know this is not an all encompassing answer to your questions – but I hope it helped a little. In the end, I can tell you that there is no single way to break into the games business, but it all starts just by making the attempt – which you have done by sitting down and writing your game design document – KEEP GOING – try anything – define yourself by what you CAN do and not by what you CAN’T.

-Jace

This just in…

After solid ratings gains this week (14% in the adults 18-49 demo), V is being renewed for next season. Lizards rule!

More info can be found HERE:

http://www.deadline.com/2010/05/primetime-pilot-panic-abc-renews-v/

For those that are unaware, I am one of the Exectuive Producers of the show “V” on ABC and actually was the primary person (along with Jamie O’brien Moore) who re-imagined the franchise and championed it through the entire sales process – so it is very rewarding to see the show make it to a successful second season and also see so many other people get great opportunities with this show.

It is also just awesome to make something like this and know that an audience is enjoying all that work! That really is the point of it all when it comes right down to it. YAY!

-Jace