Update) State of Dpad200x

Since I started this website over a year ago, I have maintained a consistent update schedule, posting new entries every Tuesday and Friday with the only variation being when I would post more often. Originally, I posted my thoughts on a different game with each update, which I maintained up until fairly recently. However, as anyone who keeps up with the site or looks at the date stamps on the articles will know, for the past two weeks Tuesdays have been silent. I wanted to address this as well as give updates about the my plans for the site moving forward. In addition, I wanted to clearly state a few things I want to make clear in regards to my commitment to this site.

Update Schedule:

As I've stated in a previous update, my goal is to post my thoughts on a new video game every single Friday. This means a minimum of 52 games will be covered each year. That remains unchanged and will allow me to take longer with each game. However, for a short time, I will be cutting back on Tuesday updates. Currently, I plan on still posting on the first Tuesday of each month as a minimum. I will use this "time off" in a variety of ways behind the scenes. So, check for new articles every single Friday as well as the first Tuesday of each month for the foreseeable future.

Shattered Destinies and The R Team:

I'm by no means done with either Shattered Destinies or The R Team. Shattered Destinies posts will primarily focus on the mechanics and larger story of the hypothetical crossover RPG, while The R Team will focus more on the story of the other team of heroes chosen by Reddit. I still have a lot more to cover with both, as well as getting some artwork commissioned for The R Team, so stayed tuned for that.

The Dpademy Awards:

The second annual Dpademy Awards, my tongue in cheek excuse to gush more about my favorite aspects of the games I play each year, will still be happening. Four of the five Tuesdays in December will feature posts where I award games in a variety of categories, culminating in crowning my personal Game of the Year. The other Tuesday in December has already been marked for something a bit different, so stay tuned.

My Hero Legacy:

I'm a big fan of My Hero Academia, which is a manga/ anime focused on a world where the majority of the population have super powers and follows the exploits of Izuku Midoriya in his journey to become the greatest hero. The manga finished up in 2024, and the anime has officially ended earlier this year. There are still a few more seasons of Vigilantes, a spin-off prequel series, that are in the work, but there are currently no plans for any official sequel or continuation of the series. While I personally find the ending to be a satisfying conclusion to the story the author wanted to tell, that doesn't mean I don't want to see more.

My Hero Legacy will be my attempt to follow in the author's footsteps and continue the story in a completely unofficial way. Yes, it will be fan-fiction, and I am unashamed to say that. The story will follow the next generation of characters, more than a few of which will be the children of various My Hero characters. It's a story that will focus on the lasting effects of how the source material ended, including the positive and negative ramifications of how the world has changed. It will also allow me to try and fill in a few of the gaps and theory-craft on possible plot lines that could be explored. As the title suggest, the primary focus of the story will be less on the school life of the main characters and more on the long shadows cast by those who came before and the shoes that must be filled.

Behind the Scenes and Commitments:

Finally, I wanted to talk about a few things I'll be doing behind the scenes and clearly state a few commitments. There are a number of changes I plan on implementing on the site, primarily for ease of use and navigation. This will include adding a slew of new catergories to make finding similar games or articles easier, updating a lot of older articles to fix either spelling or grammar mistakes that I failed to catch, and implementing new ways to browse the site both for newcomers and for veteran readers.

As for the commitments I wish to make, most of them have either already been what I've been doing, though I do want to make the official commitments. The following are things I want to publicly commit to so that I can be held accountable if I fail to uphold them:

• This site is, has been, and will always be 100% ad free. I pay out of pocket to maintain this site, and will never compromise on ensuring that there are no ads, sponsorships, or anything else that could sway my thoughts and opinions. There are precious few ad-free sites on the internet, and dpad200x will always be one of them.

• I will openly admit that I have used AI in order to produce images that I have used on this site. The logos for Shattered Destinies, The Dpademy Awards, and My Heo Legacy are currently all AI generated. I plan on making a post in the future about my thoughts on AI, however I plan on phasing out the AI images I feature on the site. As I've said, I pay for everything on the site out of pocket, including all comissioned artwork. I will be moving away from AI images and instead getting new logos and artwork comissioned from real artists.

• As I've said previously, every single Friday will feature my thoughts on a new game. This will not be changing.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I do apologize for the two weeks of silence. This site isn't going anywhere any time soon, and as I move into year two of this venture, I am commited to making this site the best possible version of itself that I can.