Final Post (on this blog)

Three Simple Questions...

Why do I blog? Why do I write? and Who is the blog for?

I was asked these questions by a co-worker nearly a year ago, and I didn't give it much thought (Sorry Jeff), but I think I'll share it with my "friends" on G+ now, and the answers I just came up with.

Let's start with Why do I write, that's the easy one.  I write because I love it.  I have a game I'm in the process of creating, I enjoy telling, and documenting RPGs and stories, and I just love looking back on something I wrote years later, and tweaking (not twerking) it, laughing at it, and what not.  I've even learned to not be entirely humiliated by a writing my fiancé found that I made in 3rd grade or somewhere around there.  I love to write, that's why.

Who is it for.  This is relatively easy to explain.  It's for me, more than anything else.  I write because I enjoy to write, and blogging will give me a spot to write in regularly.  Yes, I hope someday that people will come to read my blog, maybe even learn about something that interests them, learned a little lesson I might share, or even walk away smiling because I shared a funny story.  Yes, I hope to touch readers in some way, no matter how small, but if I'm really going to be honest, my blog is not going to make a monumental change in the world, or raise the country's expected lifestyle.  The blog is for me first.

Why do I blog?  That's pretty easy too, I blog because it's a way to get tidbits out of my mind, thoughts I want to share, and honestly as I said, I hope that someday I'll have some people that regularly check my blog to see what insights, thoughts, complaints, or just whimsical RPG story lines I might propose.  Perhaps it's a little vanity, or pride, that I hope people come to enjoy my reading enough to look for it again.  But my blog is not to make money, it's not to be rich, etc.  Sure, I probably will always have google ad-words in the corner, it's free and every 500 trillion viewers I get earns me enough to play a round of Galaga, but that's not revenue, and the blog isn't a revenue stream.  It's fun for me.

That's the problem I've had.  I made two blogs, categorized them, set up a schedule, worked hard to find topics that kept tightly to the established themes, and the thing became a job.  And worse yet, a job without pay.  So my Geek Personified blogs (Gaming and Technology) will be closed.  I'm leaving the links up, and please, feel free to look through them, there are a number of postings that I'm really proud of in both.  According to google I've gotten around 1000 views on my gaming blog, and nearly 2800 on my tech one, so I'm very proud of that.  You can find those blogs linked from my Google+ About page.

Now it's time for something new.  I would humbly ask you all, when I post it sometime this week, to check my new blog out.  Thoughts from a Script Monkey (JustAScriptMonkey.blogspot.com).  I'll try to post every weekday, but I won't even guess about the topic.  Might be about gaming, or technology, or business etiquette.  Maybe I'll post about changes to my code standard, who knows.

If you're a programmer that likes gaming, then the odds are you will at least relate, if not enjoy, every post.  If you've only got part of that, then you'll like part of my blog.  If you don't program, don't play games, and just hate fun, then screw you and don't bother reading it. :)

See you all soon!

P.S. General Warning: I invite you all to read my blogs if you like.  My blogging is not hate based, there will be no racial slurs, or anything else that I personally deem to be offensive.  That said, I don't often censor myself as this is my "personal time" blog.  This means that I may or may not curse, use innuendo, or make casual references to "15 gold-plated hookers."  In other words, I don't go out of my way to be crude or vulgar, and I try my best to have a deliberate, clean and moral point, but sometimes I get there through the circular route.

Come on snake eyes, I need that railroad!

Today's Daily 60 (seconds) is, pick up an OLD game!

Yeah, I know I'm always ranting about how you should try something new, play a new game, explore a new concept, try a new genre.

That's all great, and you really should, but don't let that make you forget the awesome stuff you loved last year, last month, or even last lifetime!

There's something about grabbing an old game off the shelf that everyone already knows and throwing it on the table to play, like Clue, or Parcheesi, or Sorry!!

You don't need to teach anyone, you don't need to waste time in the 15 minute setup.  I mean I love me some Arkham Horror, but sometimes you just want to play already!

So grab some friends and break out a copy of Monopoly sometime (there are only about a googolplex of themes you can pick from) and have an old-fashioned, non-euro game night sometime!

Come on snake eyes...

See you next time!

Get your Candy Crush Saga On!

Ok, so I've mentioned cheesy little games and time killers before, but today's Daily 30 is about one of my favorites, Candy Crush Saga.

Candy Crush Saga and I have had a tumultuous relationship.  I started off loving it, then hated it because it was hard, then loved it as I figured out the hard levels.

Then more happened, but that's for another blog. Leave it at "administration problems that they fixed."  It's an older game, but I wanted to bring up a favorite that I don't feel is dated. 

Either way, I never stopped loving the gameplay, the new inventive problems, and the catchy sound effects.  This is your basic color match Bejeweled clone, only with candy.  There's nothing (now) that you ever need to buy with real cash, and the game itself is free.

Just be careful!  Once you start playing it, it becomes very addictive. Saying "just one more level" will become a mantra.

Seriously, I would suggest that if you pick this game up, you practice dodging interventions.
(I skipped 3 myself).

So have fun, and I'll see you next time, if I can stop playing long enough… ohh SWEET!

Download a cheesy game!

Today's Daily 30 (seconds) is a simple thing to kill time, download a game!

Casual games are the new fad, the new craze, and the new black (whatever that means). Most of them are free to play, with little add-ons that cost real money but usually they're not required to play or enjoy the game.  There are puzzle games, thousands of Bejeweled clones, running games, matching games, dripping games, and all kinds I don't even think I can describe.  What would I suggest you do? Go to iTunes or the Google Play Store and just click on the top downloads in the free games section. I was sure I'd never like this kind of game, but now my current time waster is Minion Rush.  They're great for waiting at a bus stop or during a bad movie!

So go, find a free game that looks fun and go waste a lunch break, it's what they're for!

Have fun!

Wheaton's Law

Sorry it wasn't posted yesterday, but Today's Daily 30(seconds) is a topic we all should know, Wheaton's Law. (Much of this is paraphrased from Mr. Wil Wheaton himself, but I felt it was very worthy of being repeated)

This law was announced back in the early days of PAX, when online gaming has proven that when you're not face to face with someone, when you're anonymous to the people that are playing with you, the opportunity to be an arrogant little shit becomes available.  If some people act the way they do on those games when face to face, then they'd have their heads beaten in.  All this law wants you to do is just think about what is going on and remember you have a choice in how you act.  Everyone needs to stop, evaluate themselves, and follow Wheaton's law: Don't be a dick.

Thanks Wil!

Curse the Darkness

For today's Daily 90 (seconds) I'm going to talk about a new RPG that I picked up recently and can't say enough good things about.  Let's talk about Curse the Darkness.

I had wanted to wait until I could run a game before I reviewed this, but the chance just hasn't come up yet so this is my unplayed once-over.  Maybe I'll do another one when I've played.

Curse the Darkness is a deep, gripping setting with an amazing storyline and very strong sections of fiction, combined with the rules system that was made to support it.  To be honest, I got my copy of the game based purely on the setting itself, I found it so enthralling that I had to see the game based around it.

This game makes you think about ideology as it fits into the human condition, and on a much more basic level it makes you really think about what you would do to defend your rights as a human being.  All the mechanics, from character creation to challenge resolution, even to death and second character generation, are all based around making sure the mechanics don't get in the way of the story you're trying to tell.

In a nutshell, ten years ago the world was conquered by Him, a mysterious being that has outlawed all forms of ideology, which includes nationalism, religion, racism, and the like.  It's been ten years since he crumpled the world, forming from it the scattered huddled masses of people struggling to survive.  He keeps his laws with ruthless ferocity and his shadow-dwelling servants know and see all. The game circles around your one intrinsic choice. Should you stand up and fight back?  Should you strike out and even if you don't survive inspire others, or at least die knowing that you died a free man? Or do you just cower, cursing the way the world is because you know you're powerless to change it? In other words, do you Light a Candle, or simply Curse the Darkness?

We all love Hollywood, right?

Today's Daily 60 (seconds) is a way to make a quick one-shot game.

What's your favorite movie that no one else has seen.  Go on, I won't tell anyone, but you know you have one.  Is it Repo, The Genetic Opera?  Maybe it's Sharknado, or Twilight.  Maybe it's Equilibrium, or Expendables?  I could go on for ages naming campy or cliquey movies, but the point is that everyone has that one that the odds are most of their friends didn't see.  Well go watch it again, something campy, or fun, or pure action, or whatever.

The point is that you should pick a scene, or section of the movie (or if it's a low-plot movie, take the whole damn thing) and make an adventure out of it.  If you're lazy, you could probably even search online and find someone who made a host of NPCs on your movie.  Either way you could probably fashion a game out of that movie in an afternoon or evening and play the next day.

Give it a try, don't avoid the hollywood stigma, play it, run it, and use it.  It makes them millions of dollars, abuse their research groups and try a game yourself tonight!