Virtual Party celebrating the original Newbie Blogger’s Initiative

(Started- 2 May, updating through the month and leaving sticky for May)

…And there I was casting around for something to do on here! It’s around a year since the redoubtable Syp from Biobreak set up the Newbie Blogger Initiative, and it was a good, good thing.

It is alas no more at time of writing, but many of us have fond memories – good excuse for a party say I. So, I’ll collate anything I spot written about it recently here, and also, if you’ve started a new blog since the original NBI, or are just starting one now, do put an url and short description in my comments. I’m only a little humble blogger, but some bigger bloggers sometimes stop by and that way we’ll have a few new newbies to cherish this year too.

To start the ball rolling here are three blogs that are also remembering that wonderful initiative – in fact they prompted this post:

http://casualaggro.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/the-newbie-blogger-initiative-1-year-later/
Links to many advice posts here : http://healingthemasses.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/newbie-blogger-initiative-info-and-guides/ (this one has some extremely useful information in organised lists, I’m enjoying rereading some of these.)

http://worldsendtavern.net/2013/05/02/newbie-blogger-initiative-one-year-later/

9 May update: Wilhelm Arcturus has done a very thorough and cogent analysis of NBI 12 months on – http://tagn.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/new-blogger-initiative-a-year-later-who-survived/#comment-82095
plus he has a talent for making the raw numbers interesting, lucky person

11 May: Heyyy!, Ravalation has a post out: http://ravalation.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/nbi-one-year-and-week-later.html – (ha!)(ha! as in just what was needed – an old new blogger, blogging a year on)  and sent us this pic too. This post is getting festiver and festiver! Thank you!

Awesome!!

and look what Italic Pig sent moi. Italic Pig’s first blog post reads at December 2012 which makes it a new blog then, (love to be able to publicise more new blogs, hint, hint)  http://italicpig.com/blog/. It is a nice blog, a devblog with a science bent and I’m happy to give it some air here

(I am @ Cabbidges).  Wow – thank you!!

Had a little break from the blog to do some otherstuff and now it’s 16 May, two more related posts!

http://stnylan.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/personal-blogiversary/ Another new blogger still going strong – this is so nice to see, I’m really glad it worked out. Stnylan’s posts cover quite a few subjects there (must have a read).

and The Delver has added some good and hearty advice: http://thedelver.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/newbie-blogger-initiative-a-retrospective-for-2013s-class/, woohoo!  And there are sound words of advice from Rowan here too: http://ihavetouchedthesky.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/nbi-retrospective.html?showComment=1368665777386#c3043964843924802350

On we go…

Maybe we could do something every year? I’m not sure. I’ll leave such mighty decisions to Syp himself and the blogcommunity I think. But I don’t want the occasion to pass unmarked. And I definitely want to do my bitty to get others started or help them on their way. So if you’re starting out, don’t be shy!

…errr what is a pingback? ) (it ok I figured it out)

Some posts that I still remember:  Many of the older bloggers did advice posts (mine was “Curling up with a good bloog” it’s in here somewhere (and no it wasn’t a spelling mistake but  I know people pointed it out from kindness, so I like them, mwah!)). Some of the advice posts I read then, since I wasn’t a very old blogger, stuck out in my mind and I’m busy tracking them down. Here’s one:

http://bhagpuss.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/take-moment-nbi.html
the points about time management struck me at the time. I don’t spend as long over my posts as some people (just bat them out at a furious speed) – still. It does take time, and it’s worth figuring out how to fit blogging in amongst all the other joys of life.

And this one ha! glad I found it: http://toomanyannas.com/feature/names-dont-fence-me-in/ about picking a name in such a way that it doesn’t become troublesome, an important but easily forgotten detail.

There was another one… Yep, got it:

http://tishtoshtesh.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/nbi-for-love-or-money/ – that one’s really interesting. I don’t agree full-on because I try to keep all the parts of my life working together like a well oiled machinie, rather than partition things. So if an activity blurs into a worky thing I don’t mind. But nonetheless making a chore out of a pleasure is a silly thing to do. People do this in games all the time too, which mystifies me. People are… strange… (or it could be me…).

I’m sorry I was so resistant to Twitter!

I hope I didn’t call it the work of the devil ….errr…. yes, well. I have been using it for a couple of months now and it’s really quite sweet. It does a very nice job indeed of aggregating news sources in a superbly concise format and saves me loading sites that are heavily overburdened with ads and tracking software (not only exploitative but o so sloooooooow).

It also does an extremely good job of letting me know when something is happening, far, far faster and more efficiently than the kingmakers (our mainstream media). If there is misinformation, there is no shortage of people quick to correct – which is no surprise.  The few with a mission aside, most people prefer truth and accuracy. (Yay for people!) I don’t have any apps yet – that’s still to be explored. If anyone knows any good ones I’m willing to have a look and give ‘em a whirl. The bus remains my cleanest source of news, since I can filter it via how well I know the person talking but Twitter adds a new window to the world, which is welcome.

In particular, I like the way it undermines the kingmaker-media completely. I suggest they stop believing their own selves and have a good gander at what their potential customers really think. Might find it something of an eye opener (giggle) – and a rather large clue as to why their influence is waning and their sales are foundering. Still on the subject of the kingmakers I suggest they find a personable lefty to be nice to and rather quickly – the right, right, right and right are not grabbing the public’s imagination in quite the way intended.

I’m in such a good mood today. I really don’t mind being wrong and admitting it – it actually cheers me up, it’s just like losing a wart. Now for some more Neverwinter!

Freedom to protest peacefully is a rare and precious thing

So rare nowadays that there is much shock expressed that it actually happens  hahaha. I think “hahahaha” just about sums it up how I feel about a politician been heckled in Edinburgh anyway. Put away your brown-shirts nobody got hurt and no missiles were thrown, no arrests – (hahahaha!), people, (real ones!)  just, you know…. protested…loudly in a public space.  Anyone remember what that’s about or are we all so sense-dulled that a very basic human right now ‘reads’ to our brains as a “surely-it’s-a-crime?”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/may/16/nigel-farage-edinburgh-protesters-van

As I wrote before, freedom of speech is as neutral as gravity. You can say what you like, but it’s probably not a good idea to jump off a cliff. Or try to do a  PR shoot  in an Edinburgh pub – you’ll get told what people think in return,  loudly and very clearly. We also headbutt terrorists up here btw. (I’ll get in trouble – Glasgow headbutts terrorists is what I meant to say).

Only $ 8 billion, I’m soooo tempted!

What do you think readers? Shall I buy Activision-Blizzard?

Well who of us WoW players hasn’t fantasized walking in there and shaking the thing up? I definitely have, more often as I became more tired of some of the stupider things in WoW. I’d… separate the pvp and pve rulesets and stats, get rid of “school of hard knocks”, open the buildings in Stormwind and all the other cities,  retrieve all that content they stripped out, introduce housing -  zazz up endgame – the list goes on and on! Some fun to be had with the other assets too I have no doubt, and not to forget the satisfaction of demoting some overhyped personnel.

Well, not this year. Got other things I want to buy ( – much less costly things like  … food), but yeah it’s …tempting.

Little Gem (Trip Through Time)

I know I now officially keep small games and unusual and old ones safely listed at the other blog where I can’t lose them, but I’m waiting for a child to arrive home (oh sorry, teenager) and came across this:

which filled the gap perfectly. (I hate that weird wait time before people arrive). It’s a simple idea, simple ideas are often The Best – plus, the sound track made me all happy!

Also unlike the 2 below it runs perfectly. You cannae fake good code

Bop!

City of Steam first look

City of Steam open beta started at some ungodly hour this morning and I definitely didn’t stay up for it because I’m old leave me alone sort of thing. This morning however I logged in to have a look. It’s quite nice. There are some techno-niggles, but it’s fun and light and it runs. Being a browser game downloading wasn’t a problem. Unfortunately the screenshot I took came out black, will try later, but you can doubtless see what it looks like from other places in the meantime.

The Unity Web Browser chugs, no doubt about it. I’m not sure it’s great on complexity. My fps was between 2-5, but the game was still playable by some miracle. I meandered through the tutorial until the part where I have to find some coal wagons. Got two, couldn’t find the third and it’s time I did something else. I think we are all evacuating from a city, but I’m still not properly awake, and I’ll pay attention next time I promise.

Mainly I was exercised by the control system and camera which combined are annoying. Perhaps the people who made this game played a lot of isometric games, just guessing. WASD, AS= strafe, no turn, never a good sign. Then the camera which you can toggle out of isometric follows very loosely and definitely does not turn with your character. It’s ok, you get used to it. Use right mouse button to turn, go forward, adjust view with rt mouse button. Constantly tweaking the view via mouse though, which does not make the gameplay flow.

The other problem which is minor or major depending whether they address it, is needing to be exactly positioned to pick things up. Things despawn. Plus lag = annoyance when I cannot get into the exact position fast enough to loot. Opening doors temporarily freezes the wasd buttons. Opening doors also needs pixel positioning, and opening doors can leave you running on the spot (even with click to move disabled). Meh, these are all just niggles. The game itself is nice, nice enough to go back for another look for sure.

There are some  things I bet they are glad they included given the astounding lag and chuggy engine:  pressing an attack autotargets anything attacking you. That’s helpful given the awkward controls – means you can fire back before you struggle around trying to see what is having a go at you. And also helpful is that the basic attack is an autoattack (well mine was on the arcanist), meaning even with the lag some shooting at nasties happens. At tutorial levels this is enough to triumph.

I do think though, and same with Neverwinter,  if the only real fight is with lag and the controls, I won’t be playing that much which is a shame. Doubt the makers of City of Steam would be wanting to port their game away from Unity (I’m guessing here) at this early stage, but maybe an autoloot keybind and a bitty work on door opening could be considered if there is no way to deal with the lag. And best keep the fights forgiving. Oh yes, also,  I never found the logout button, if there is one. Logged out via esc and then logout option in what looks like an unrelated menu bottom right. Made the game feel as if it was still in it’s IDE.

Anyway that was all fairly pleasant, if a bit worky. Nice things! Loved the train window when you first enter the world with the blurry scenery (sort of) going by. The cityscape and graphics are interesting, and the story seems to hang together (what I remember of it). There are instanced minidungeons even in the tutorial. Can’t comment on any other systems (I think I have the bare beginnings of some kind of spec). Most of the game works fine as far as I can tell which is all I ask from the tutorial phase of a newly released game.

It’s later on that I get picky!

Hey, this is quite fun! (first quick look Neverwinter)

At first I found Neverwinter pleasant in a steady, middly way. Then I got used to the controls a little and the very new strangeness of everything eased. Once you get to just playing without thinking about your fingers too much, it’s really a very nice game. The controls are a little strange – to me anyway – a reticule points you and the wasd keys move you (strafe not turn for ad), there’s that. Also there’s just the normal learning things. I haven’t managed to figure out how teleport works properly for example, but then I’m only just starting this Control Wizard.  I do have a Guardian that I’ve taken to level 8 too, and that was a blast!

As is to be expected from Cryptic, download, install and play worked just fine on the old laptop. The graphics look ok on highest setting, and it still runs well for me. This is a good thing because the graphics are pretty hideous at less than best settings, very jaggy. There is some lag in cities – but all in all the performance is not bad for a game at the beginning of its life. I expect things will smooth even more in the coming months but  even if they don’t, play is acceptable.

Alas, can’t comment on companions or crafting, or anything too deep yet. I hope I find time to play this enough to do so though. Being a D&D game, the dungeons are the thing, and they are fun – corners to explore, treasures to find, lever mechanisms and of course monsters. Combat includes positioning yourself and blocking attacks, which is all flavour of the month just now. Dancing about waving your reticule isn’t really what I enjoy but fortunately it isn’t maddening and I mostly hit what I aim for and stay out of trouble. It would flow more smoothly if there was just slightly less lag I think – but Cryptic was smart enough to make fights quite forgiving, your reticule doesn’t have to be exactly on what you aim at, nor do you have to be pixel-perfect when moving. (Mind you I can only comment on the lower levels.)

One thing that’s really well done is you can group or solo at will. What a breath of fresh air that is! I’m not sure if there is some coercive choice there – possibly groups get better loot? Well, I have a lot to explore still. I’ve not been nagged to spend at every turn and so far my bags are adequate but there may be trouble ahead on that. I believe bags can only be bought for cash. I hate it when you’re forced to pay for bagspace and have never bought a bag for cash in a game yet – doubt I will this time either. I’d prefer to shop for a nice outfit or mount sometime.

So far I am liking this game. It doesn’t have much of a virtual world feel, more like being in a stage-set. You cannot explore at will, and so far quests have been “on rail” affairs – not my normal kind of game at all, but I’m coping

Wurmian Motion

Nowhere can I escape interesting times it seems. I was thinking about successful monetisation this morning as I ploughed through 2 more forms that shot through the door. 2013 has been the Year of Unprecedented Form Flood. I keep thinking it’s over, and then more arrive. The nation is quite obviously in disarray. I have not done my household budget this year due to interesting times. A tiny amount of it is reserved to spend on games though. It will be even tinier when I do a Graet Economisation in June. So where do I spend it? In F2P games with decent cash shops is the answer. SOE have very nearly got the model right now, giving you an investment (house for example) that you can accrue to (fancy items for house) as one example. I spend by choice, as little as is appropriate to my means – or as much as I wish if I have a windfall. And I like this, so they get money now and again. And I am absolutely sure a way could be found to apply this model  to endgame.

The only sub I pay is to Wurm – this is because Wurm is special enough to warrant an exception. My Wurm spending though, over the time I have played has gone down, not up, and is going to go down further. I think this is a sub problem – the same happened with WoW. Paying for time you cannot play is annoying. All games have activities that aren’t your favourite (maintenance chores, dailies) and paying for them is annoying. I  kept finding ways to keep the cost down to compensate for the above two points.

Then there is the price point. A sub of £3.50 per month would be a no-brainer – I’d do it (provided I like the game ofc). £5 is about right. Anything over, and you can forget it. Why? I don’t know. I have theories…but they are bit odd, such as “I feel it in my waters” and “mostly it’s because you do a subconscious multiply on it, (price *the-amount-of-games-I-want-to-play = someamount. It’s someamount people subconsciously judge by.  As in: I play roughly three games at a time, usually, so at £5 per sub my someamount would be £15.00 – look familiar?). The fact that I don’t sub for three games or anywhere near is irrelevant. Oh… lets leave my theories for now eh It’s probs best.

So now we have an interesting price hike in Wurm to add into my musings – and once again Wurm grips my interest totally as I watch things play out and try to see patterns. It’s kind of a game itself  watching the game evolve and trying to make good choices. A mad game at times, but yes, definitely fun. I did my default thing of shrinking all commitments to the absolute minimum so that I am in a better position to move/expand.

It was sad… sort of – but as I disbanded little deeds that I had kept because I enjoy playing on them I looked back and saw how built up the areas are now. I had deeded when they were wild-wurm and because they were wild-wurm. That’s another subject really, but it does tie in because if Wurm became less crowded it would be more attractive to me and I’d be thinking to expand spending again. (Why can’t studios grasp “wilderness?”. I’m tired of suburbia-with-mobs. Most of which are killed by guard towers anyway.)

Judging by the disbands on some servers, a lot of people are doing the same or similar – shrinking and rationalising their holdings. Others are seeing good places free up and are moving in. Premiums are being considered with a view to are they vanity or necessary. All in all there is a lot of shuffling about just now. So that’s one pattern.

Another is that some people would have bought ahead before 2 May to save themselves money through the year (or because they saw some real money  opportunity in doing so. What will that do to the revenue? Hmmm – well, it’s good and bad. Rolf and CodeClubAB got a windfall. The hope is doubtless that with that money already spent people will be tempted to add premiums and land here and there. It’s easy to discount money already spent and see additions in isolation. I think people mentally write off spent money. A big hike plus a “soon” deadline is always a good way of bringing in a cash boost. (Otherwise known as manufactured need – not my fave). But I’m rivetted! Even with extras gradually being bought or added since people are not paying in their normal amount, (having done so ahead), will normal revenue drop too much? Ahead-payers won’t be paying regularly now…It’s so risky, ooooo, or …. are we about to see another idea to sustain that normal income. Who knows?

One thing I’m fairly confident of is that as people’s paid ahead time runs out there will be a funny patch when it’s time to renew. Some will look and decide that at the new levels it’s too much to pay and will balk. The can was kicked down the road on this. When that possibly big drop in income arrives (maybe a year from now?) I’m pretty sure there will be yet another exciting big development/change/idea/ploy/server?? to induce spending and to keep the marvellous saga that is Wurm Online online and to keep us all wurming.

Beltane 2013

I  skive off going these days, but I always like the pics:

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/edinburghs-beltane-festival-1863046

Revision…

fun