My laptop suddenly went dead on me during my vacation. Nothing can prepare you for such a thing. Your computer is like your mobile phone or keys or fridge - it’s just there all the time, working, making your life easier without you ever really noticing it. Right? It’s just one of those things that combined with other things constitute the backbone of your modern existence. Let’s face it, we tend to take stuff for granted.
So, I found myself not reading e-mail for about two weeks, not writing anything on the blog, not checking the posts in the forum, not reading any hot Hollywood gossip, no real news - basically no idea what was going on in the world.

And guess what? It only took a few days before I kind of got used to it. The world shrinks, you only know what people close to you are up to. The ones that you either live with or know well enough to call and see how they’re doing.

Not trying to pretend I didn’t miss my logged in/online existence after a while…just saying it’s a good idea to take a break sometimes. And remembering not to take everything for granted

// L

There was a new version of Power Soccer released yesterday. Normally, if you work here you can’t miss when there’s a release around the corne. The pace is far from sustainable - it’s frantic.

And that’s the number one weird thing - yesterday it was…calm. Quiet. I would say that instead of despair and grief the general mood was optimistic and cheerful.

We’ve gradually improved the process, workflow, during the last six months and I think we’re actually getting somewhere. Production- and otherwise. Meetings, checklists, teamwork, testing…it’s all beginning to come together. This has probably helped a lot with keeping people out of the stressloop.

As always- more can be done. We can get even better with our planning and estimating, stop lying to ourselves and everyone else with how much work that can be done within a sprint, we can probably improve how we communicate with our users and hundreds of other things. But still - it was a good release and I’m very proud of everyone here who’s worked hard to make it so.

I read some of the posts in the PS forum yesterday and, as always, most of them basically said “bring the old version back”. I spoke to Thorbjörn (Powdersnow, a legend in PS and now part of the crew) about it, just checking if this was normal procedure and guess what? It is. It’s like this after every release. So I’m very curious to see what the buzz in the forum will be like during the next week or so. If our users will be able to rise above the fact that we changed some of the things they were used to and try to accept, embrace and enjoy the improvements.

Because, as we all know, us humans are creatures of habit. We like to know exactly what to expect, be in control. Change can be really hard getting used to.

Hey there all our dear Power Soccer fanatics! How’s the summer been so far? Stayed out of the sunshine, staying indoors to play PS? Well, good for you! You can always get a fake tan from a bottle, but you can’t stay ahead in the game if you don’t play - right?

Kidding aside, hope you had a good time on the summer holidays with a healthy mix of outdoor activities and some gaming as well.

This is my last day of freedom, tomorrow I’m back at work and you know what? I’m actually looking forward to it. Yes it’s true. I even made a quick stop at the office on Thursday (ok, so I went there to get my computer fixed - it somehow died while I was on holiday - but still…).

I’m slightly out of the loop with what’s going on in PS at the moment, but I know it’s Beta testing time and I truly hope you’ve all taken the chance to trying some of the new stuff out. If not - hurry hurry! Soon it’s live release time and business as usual. But in a brand new way. You know what I mean.

Seeing you all next week, with an updated version of the game and a “just-got-back-from-the-holiday”-refreshed mind.

// Linda