nicknicknicknick reviewed Significant Zero by Walt Williams
Review of 'Significant zero' on Goodreads
3 stars
1) "My trips to HVS would last anywhere from one to three weeks, including weekends. When planning for these extended stays, I always made sure I would have access to three essential things. The first was alcohol. Nothing takes the edge off hotel habitation like a bottle of top-shelf hooch.
The great thing about working on-site is being able to expense your meals. There was a limit to how much I could spend each day, but no regulation on what I spent it on. If my body could digest it, my report could expense it. Every bar was a gateway to experimentation; an opportunity to develop a sophisticated palate on someone else's dime. To ensure I always drank well, I developed a system built around the hotel's free continental breakfast. Every morning, I'd eat until I was full, and then stock-up on the three Bs---bananas, bagels, and bacon. I could …
1) "My trips to HVS would last anywhere from one to three weeks, including weekends. When planning for these extended stays, I always made sure I would have access to three essential things. The first was alcohol. Nothing takes the edge off hotel habitation like a bottle of top-shelf hooch.
The great thing about working on-site is being able to expense your meals. There was a limit to how much I could spend each day, but no regulation on what I spent it on. If my body could digest it, my report could expense it. Every bar was a gateway to experimentation; an opportunity to develop a sophisticated palate on someone else's dime. To ensure I always drank well, I developed a system built around the hotel's free continental breakfast. Every morning, I'd eat until I was full, and then stock-up on the three Bs---bananas, bagels, and bacon. I could keep these staples in my bag until lunch, so long as I wrapped the bacon in a napkin. That covered two meals per day without having to spend a single cent. Dinner was usually a cheap and greasy five-dollar burger, followed by a liquid dessert of Lagavulin 16; as many glasses as my limit would allow."
2) "We are lucky Half-Life 2 wasn't good enough to warrant a sequel, or else we'd still be subjected to this mute asshole on a regular basis."
3) "You don't get into game development if you don't love and play games. That shared passion blurs the line between creator and player. When we see ourselves as players, we design to our audience, believing we are designing for ourselves. By doing this, we forget that our job is not to give players what they want; our job is to show them things they never imagined."
