Tag: Blaugust

Posted on

Most “free” stuff actually isn’t

Well, hello there. It’s Introduce Yourself Week in Blaugustland, so: hi! I’m Mailvaltar, and I like, from time to time, to rant about stuff other people do or say that annoys me. This is such a time. Don’t say you’ve not been warned.

*Takes a deep breath*

No matter the game or genre, but especially regarding MMOs or “live service games”, players often talk about this or that being free, and I can’t help but wonder if they actually think that to be true.

I mean, nothing really ever is, is it?

Don’t worry, I’m not going to talk about powering up your PC costing electricity and stuff like that (although it obviously does). I’m pedantic, but not that pedantic.

But still, in my opinion rewards you only get if you do something, even if it’s just logging in, aren’t free.

It’s lying! Even the top row isn’t “free”, it just doesn’t cost any real money

The idea for this post came to me when I recently watched someone review other players’ Zenless Zone Zero accounts (yep, that’s a thing in gacha game circles). Several times during the video the host says that this character or that weapon should totally be leveled up to the maximum because “it’s a free power upgrade”.

If you’ve played any gacha game before I don’t need to tell you this, but in case you haven’t: the resources to level stuff up are far from being free!

Now, I know what they mean by saying that. To farm for things in this type of game you need stamina (in ZZZ it’s called battery charge), which replenishes on its own over time. So, technically speaking, given enough time you have a virtually unlimited amount at your disposal, which of course cannot be said about gacha currency, hence the distinction.

However, in reality there’s quite a bunch of caveats to calling those upgrade mats “free”.

I sure as hell didn’t get all this just because I’m such a nice guy

For one, your stamina pool always has a cap. Usually it’s 24 hours worth of recharge, sometimes even less, which means that you have to spend it very regularly in order to use as much as the game is willing to hand out to you.

More importantly though, to spend stamina you actually have to, you know, do stuff. I mean, that goes without saying, doesn’t it?

Now, granted, in ZZZ I can burn six hours’ worth of battery in about ten seconds if I’m in a hurry (or actually need and want just the most basic of materials), but even that can become a chore if done each and every day. Hell, spending my stamina in Genshin Impact became such a burden after a while that I had to quit playing altogether for a long time. But to my point, even if stuff like this does only take a couple of minutes each day – that’s still not fricking free!

Even adopting a cute cat was a lot of work, believe you me

But what about rewards I get just for logging in – those are surely freebies, aren’t they?

Well, here’s the thing. The idea behind all of this, whether it’s “only” farming a bunch of stages for a couple of minutes or even “just” logging in, is that at least some players will not immediately log out again. Since I’m already here, they might say to themselves, maybe I’ll also take a quick peek at the new event, or whatever. And before they know it they’ve spent an hour or more in the game. And time, seemingly contrary to some people’s opinion, is neither free nor without value.

Sometimes the incentive to log in can be so big that it might lead to stuff happening that you didn’t actually want to happen at all. Here’s an example. A couple of weeks ago an email informed me about ZZZ celebrating its first anniversary by gifting everyone an S-rank character and weapon of their choosing from the standard pool.

I wasn’t going to play that game anymore (I even said so not too long ago), but this? Well, guess what…I re-installed and patched up the ~70 GB client, claimed the “free” stuff and then thought to myself, well, now I kinda want to try them out, and let’s have a look at what’s new in the game, too, and…sure enough I went and played the game for many hours over the following couple of weeks.

They sure know how to tug those heartstrings

As long as I’m having fun that’s not actually a bad thing though, is it?

Not really, no. Playing the story chapters I’d missed, visiting new areas and doing some events really was quite fun. However, considering that I’d much rather play Marvel Heroes right now, the fact that they’ve managed to pull me back in, and that I now feel almost obligated – again – to at least log in and spend some battery every day (and tend to my video store, and hang out with my agents, and…see what I mean?) does bug me quite a bit.

And, yeah, that’s completely on me, I do realize that. Nobody forces me to do anything. I know for a fact that I’m not the only one who’s susceptible to these practices though – which is exactly why they exist in the first place of course. That’s why we should stop pretending (or actually believing) that it’s all completely harmless, and that game developers give so much stuff away solely out of the kindness of their hearts.

That all being said, I’m not here to tell you that you shouldn’t enjoy collecting login rewards, spending your stamina or whatever. If those things make you happy and don’t lure you into spending your time on gameplay you don’t actually fancy doing, more power to you.

But please, let’s stop calling stuff free when it actually isn’t.

Blaugust 2025 post count: 3

Posted on

Welcome to Blaugust 2024! I’m Mailvaltar, by the way.

Hey folks, it’s that time again: Blaugust is here!

The annual festival of blogging, as always hosted by our friend Belghast, is back for another round. I won’t rehash what it’s all about for the umpteenth time, but in the unlikely event that you really don’t know you can look up all the details here. The TL;DR version is this: we’ll all be posting a lot, reading each other’s stuff, and generally having a whole lot of fun during the month of August. Also, you should totally chime in if you haven’t already.

As for myself, this is my seventh participation – or eighth if you count Blapril and Blaugust Promptapalooza, which both happened in 2020, as two seperate events – so you might say I’m somewhat of a veteran. Still, you (yes, you) may well have found your way to this corner of the internet for the first time, so I’m gonna introduce myself a little.

It’s just common courtesy, isn’t it?

Hey, don’t you dare sticking out your tongue at me!

In the context of this blog I’m a gamer first and foremost. As its subheader suggests MMOs, and especially MMORPGs, have been by far my most beloved kind of game for quite a long time. I say have been because I have, for the most part, distanced myself from playing with others in recent years for various reasons.

I still give new releases a shot if they interest me of course, and I also regularly return to old favourites if the moods strikes me. As a matter of fact I picked up The Secret World once more just over a week ago – yes, the servers are somehow still running – which I’ll most likely talk about in my next post.

MMOs aside, ever since Genshin Impact introduced me to the concept I pretty much always play at least one gacha game. Right now it’s mainly Zenless Zone Zero, and a bit of Arknights every now and then. What I like about this type of game is getting and building characters, obviously, but they usually have a lot of other qualities going for them too, for example very high production values, funny stories and engaging combat. Also, once you’ve completed the main story many of them don’t really offer more content than for, say, half an hour a day, which makes them very much suited for either people with little free time, or to provide some variety alongside your current main game.

Overall it’s fair to say that gaming is my main hobby, although there definitely are other things that are just as important to me, if not more. Such as…

It’s such a beauty, I’ll just use this picture again

I’m not a fan of saying things like “I couldn’t live without xyz“, because unless you say “oxygen” or “food” it’s obviously never true. However, it’s my firm belief that life would be a very dull and sad affair if it weren’t for music.

From my early childhood days, as far as I remember them, listening to music has always brought me great joy. When I realised that usage of modern technology had started to diminish said joy for me a couple of years ago I even turned around and went full-on oldschool.

I’ve also played the guitar and the drums in various bands and projects over the years, although the last gig I played that wasn’t just cover songs at a birthday party or some such happened like 15 years ago. I had my reasons for quitting – and good reasons too I feel – but I still wouldn’t completely rule out forming or joining a band again in the future.

In my opinion great music makes everything better, which is why I always enjoy games, movies etc. all the more if the score is really good. Oh, and speaking of movies…

Yeah, you guessed it – I’ve always been a big movie buff too. Ever since I watched Star Wars for the first time I absolutely can’t imagine not going to the cinema or turning on my big-ass TV to immerse myself in galaxies far, far away regularly.

I don’t do reviews and such, so I don’t often talk about the topic around here. If you do get me started I usually have a lot to say though.

I miss those days, I really do…

Lastly for today, I’m also a big sports fan. American Football and Basketball are far and away my favourites. I’ve played the former myself “for real” for a couple of years, league matches and everything, which was great. Once I had to sadly conclude that I’d gotten too old for that shit I joined a hobby Basketball team. It’s a great bunch of people, and I play with them once a week to this day (and hopefully beyond).

Right now I’m watching every game of teams Germany and USA at the Olympics, great stuff!

Again though, despite my various interests you’ll find that I mostly talk about gaming around here. I guess I usually deem stuff that goes through my head more worthwhile to write down if it’s related to that particular topic. Also, it’s right up there in the blog’s name, isn’t it?

Anyway, that’s enough about me for one day. Happy Blaugust everyone!

Blaugust 2024 post count: 1

Posted on

Five hugely successful and influential games – that I’ve never played

As you can see it’s “Introduce Yourself Week” in Blaugustland, formerly known as “Getting To Know You Week” if I remember correctly. Since I’ve already introduced myself in the past and you can dig up those posts at any time if you’re so inclined I’m gonna use this opportunity to talk about something more specific that’s been on my mind lately instead.

This one hasn’t aged well enough to be on this list I’m afraid

I guess we have all missed out on some games that seemingly everybody and their mums have played and that are widely considered to be masterpieces any person who likes video games should have experienced.

Obviously there can be a multitude of reasons for not having done so. Maybe a particular title just came out at an inopportune moment, and once you would’ve had the time to play it any kind of momentum was gone. Or you had a specific reason for not wanting to play it, and no amount of rave reviews was enough to change your mind. Of course some games are just not your cup of tea, and that’s that.

Without further ado, here’s my (by no means complete) list of highly successful and beloved games that I’ve never played.

    • Skyrim

My history with the Elder Scrolls franchise starts with 1996’s Daggerfall. I’d read about it in a PC gaming magazine and liked what I saw very much. I bought it shortly after release, played the hell out of and absolutely loved every minute of it. Given the game’s enormous scope I never finished it though, I seem to remember that I ran out of steam about two thirds through.

In 2002 I bought and played its sequel, Morrowind, without any hesitation. However, this time around I lost interest a lot sooner. Sure, it looked much better, but somehow felt very lifeless and sterile to me, which killed my immersion rather quickly. I wasn’t really happy with the combat and progression systems either, although I’d quite liked those in Daggerfall. Oblivion I didn’t even buy, but still checked it out for a bit (ahem). It felt pretty much the same to me, if anything it seemed to be even more lifeless and sterile. I didn’t like it at all, is what I’m saying.

Hence I’ve never felt even the slightest urge to play Skyrim. I’m sure that it’s a much better game overall than its predecessors, but what I’ve heard and seen points to the “Elder Scrolls Formula” still being in there, and all of the above suggests that I just don’t enjoy that – or at least not its 21th century incarnation.

    • Mass Effect

Oh boy, this one I really regret. I’m a huge science fiction buff, I like to play RPGs a lot and gamers worldwide seem to agree that this trilogy tells one of the best stories video gaming has ever seen.

For me this falls squarely in the “came out at the wrong time” category. The original Mass Effect and Everquest II’s Rise of Kunark expansion launched pretty much simultaneously, and at that time I’d really dug my teeth into the latter, including raiding and everything. As it would turn out, playing anything else wasn’t going to happen for another year or so.

I don’t remember at which point in time I first contemplated finally playing Mass Effect with any seriousness, but somehow…well…the moment seemed to have come and gone.

That being said, the “Legendary Edition”, including all three games and countless DLCs, was discounted to 15 bucks on Steam a while ago, and I pulled the trigger – this is actually what gave me the idea for this post – so at least I now have the somewhat serious intention to finally play them. We’ll see how that goes…

    • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

I don’t really have one specific reason for not having played this, and I’m pretty sure that I’d love it if I started playing today. The thing with sprawling single player RPGs that take ages to complete is…I don’t feel that I have the time to play this kind of game.

Which is, of course, a load of bollocks. When I can play MMORPGs for hundreds (or thousands) of hours, surely I can spare one or two hundred for a masterpiece like this, right?

Only that, ever since I started to play MMOs, investing that kind of time into games that are not meant to be played “forever” somehow doesn’t feel right to me. Knowing that all the cool sword skills, magic tricks and whatnot, as well as relationships and reputation I’ve built – in short, that everything I’ve worked for will basically cease to exist as soon as I hit the end credits makes me very reluctant to even start. It’s silly, I know, but that’s how I feel.

It’s much different when I know that a game is only like 15-20 hours long – stuff like the Uncharted series comes to mind. Those I can finish in less than a week without even taking a break from my current “main game”. Titles of somewhat average length, let’s say 50 hours or so, require a bit more commitment, but can still work for me if the time is right. 100 hours and beyond though…I’d rather not. Which, I guess, is yet another reason for Skyrim also being on this list.

    • Elden Ring

By far the most recent game I’m mentioning here, but at this point it seems already safe to say that it’s one of the all-time greats too. However, I’m fairly certain that I’m not going to ever play it.

The thing is, I play video games for a variety of reasons – a desire to overcome big challenges is not one of them.

It’s not that I only play games that are as easy as pie, mind you. As I’ve said earlier I’ve even raided and stuff, so I can definitely enjoy playing difficult content – as long as I do it with friends. When we’re talking single-player games though beating my head against tough as nails bosses (or even normal enemies), having to learn and master intricate dances of attacking, blocking, dodging and all that jazz – to me that’s pretty much the polar opposite of fun.

From Software’s worldbuilding may be the best in the industry, and I’d most likely love all of their games in that regard, but I’m just not willing to submit myself to the frustration that would go along with it.

    • World of Warcraft

I wrote a whole post about why I’ve never played the world’s most successful MMORPG during my first Blaugust participation (jeez, that was five years ago today!?), so I’ll keep this short.

Everquest II and WoW launched pretty much at the same time, and a friend of mine convinced me to play the former. While the game initially had too much forced grouping for my taste it turned out really great by the second expansion, which is when I got into it big-time and never looked back (see above). It easily ranks among my favourite games of all time.

Also, although Blizzard as a whole was still widely regarded as a top-notch development studio at the time, looking in from the outside I never felt that they were doing a particularly good job with WoW, considering the huge piles of money they were making with it. Much fewer expansions, races and classes than EQII, inferior crafting, no housing, the list goes on. Due to this it’s the one game on this list that I’ve never played at least in part because I felt – and still feel – that they didn’t deserve my support and money.

And there you have it. Which all-time classics did you never play?

Blaugust 2023 post count: 2

Posted on

Introducing my not-so-new-anymore apartment

As always, click the pictures to enlarge

Blaugust’s Introduce Yourself Week is long over, but since my last post already featured some parts of my home I figured I might as well show you a bit more. Considering I promised as much to y’all over nine months ago it’s about damn time anyway.

What you see up there is indeed the view from my apartment’s balcony, amateurishly stitched together by yours truly. Technically I moved in on February 1st, however neither bed nor couch had been delivered yet, so I’m actually living in it since about a week later.

The kitchen arrived another two months further down the road – I don’t know if you’ve tried to buy anything other than everyday-stuff lately, but delivery times are hell on toast since Covid started, no matter the line of business. Luckily I already had fridge, stove and washing machine, so I lived, but it wasn’t pleasant regardless.

This is the view from the kitchen window, obviously at dusk. On the left hand side you can see Cologne’s big cathedral in the distance. I don’t care for it that much as I’ve seen it basically every day for over twenty years now, but I’m sure I’m paying part of the rent just for that.

As you can see living on the 12th floor (of a 23-story building in this case) definitely has its upsides, and I’m digging it a lot. I’ve always been fascinated by tall buildings anyway; every time we’re in a city like New York or San Francisco I love to just wander through the street canyons with wide eyes and stiff neck. As Germany doesn’t have many high rises I never would have placed this high on my must-have list for apartment-hunting though, so I consider myself very lucky in this regard.

There are downsides too however. We have two elevators, and in a building with approximately a hundred flats there’s pretty much always someone coming or going, so waiting times are a thing. By now I’ve gotten into a habit of taking the stairs when I leave, especially on weekday mornings. When I come home though, not so much. Lakisa and I had to climb up once because both elevators were out of order, and, well, it’s manageable of course, but I really wouldn’t want to do it every day, especially not during summer.

Overall I’m very pleased though. Another plus is that my “cellar” is on the 22nd floor, consequently it’s completely dry and for the first time ever I don’t have any concerns about storing stuff there long-term.

This is the building from the outside, and the X marks the spot…err…I mean, the circle marks my balcony.

You’ve already seen parts of my living room, but since it’s rather big the gaming cave has also found its place in there:

Now you know where that Diablo II record went

All those CDs I mentioned last time have to be stored somewhere too, as well as books, photo albums and stuff like that. This is still a bit of a work in progress though. Of course the keepsakes of my time playing football are kept in a place of honor (pardon the reflections):

The dining table in the foreground turned out to be a tad tiny, so I’m currently looking for one that looks basically the same, but is bigger, yet not too big at the same time. It’s funny, some things you thought will be difficult turn out to be a piece of cake, while stuff you’d basically taken for granted can become a real headache. Astonishingly that table falls into the latter category.

As soon as I own enough records for storage to become an issue the bookshelf on the left will be moved next to the one on the right, and the vacated space will be occupied by a dedicated record-shelf.

And there you pretty much have it. I won’t bore you with pictures of the other rooms, as they look like…well…like kitchens and bathrooms and stuff usually look.

I’m really glad that I found this place and the owners accepted me as their tenant. Here’s hoping I won’t have to look for a new place anytime soon.

Blaugust 2022 post count: 5

Posted on

Blaugust 2021 Kick-Off

So here we are, Blaugust 2021 is a go, and despite my initial doubts I did decide to sign up after all. The thought of giving such a great event a hard pass just didn’t feel right. Which means, of course, that I’ll try and post at least a tad more regularly than I have in recent months.

As I’m in a bit of a gaming slump right now…no, that’s not actually true. I’m in a blogging about gaming slump, I guess that’s what it is…they key to that will most likely be to also write about stuff I usually don’t write about, or at least not nearly as often.

Which, incidentally, is what I already did during Blaugust 2018. Of the 31 posts I penned during my first ever Blaugust participation eight had pretty much nothing to do with video games at all.

Since this week’s theme is “Welcome to Blaugust” and veteran bloggers are encouraged to give some advice to newbies – not sure whether I would call myself a veteran quite yet, but let’s just roll with it for the moment – I guess this would be mine: don’t feel obligated to only post about a certain range of topics.

First of all, your blog is exactly that – yours. As long as you don’t intend to reach a very specific audience and keep it happy and/or plan to make a living with your writing you can post about whatever floats your boat at any given moment.

Sure, on first glance this corner of the blogosphere is all about gaming, but that doesn’t mean we don’t read and enjoy each other’s posts when they’re about something else for a change. You’ve probably heard this truism about giving speeches: “It’s 70% how you look, 20% how you sound and only 10% what you say”. I think there’s some truth to that, and despite the negative connotation it also has its upsides and kind of applies to writing as well. For example, it’s because of their writing style, their use of language and their sense of humour that I always enjoy some bloggers’ posts, no matter the topic.

And, again, it’s your blog. Whether I like your posts doesn’t really matter. As long as you enjoy the process of writing and are happy with the outcome yourself, you’ve already won. And you’ll have done something a great many people never do: stopped just consuming and started creating. Go you!

In the spirit of leading by example my next post will indeed not be about gaming. Well, not about actually playing games at least, so I guess it counts. What the heck, my blog, my rules – it’s gonna count! 😉

Happy Blaugust, everyone!

Blaugust 2021 post count: 1

Posted on

Buckle up, folks, it’s almost (Bl)August-time again!

As July slowly but surely draws to a close we’re once more approaching the season of Blaugust, and as Bhagpuss accurately noted we’re collectively gonna let you know about it, like it or not!

Despite having lots of other things on his plate Belghast has graciously decided to host another round of our (well, his, but also kinda our) great annual blogging festival.

Why? Let’s ask the man himself:

The why is pretty simple. The blogging community is nowhere near as large as it once was. Many of us have aged out of blogging with real-world responsibilities or just moved on to other time-consuming hobbies. Blaugust gives us a chance to infuse the community with a fresh lease on life as we court new bloggers to join the fray. Those of us who have been carrying the torch of blogging for decades now, can sometimes lose hope as our blogroll loses a few voices each year. I’ve come to learn that getting out and mingling and mentoring a new crop of fresh bloggers can give us the perspective to stay engaged and hopefully make this community thrive. The thing is… it has over the last several years as we migrated from “just blogs” to a bustling Discord community that takes place year round instead of just during this one month.

As I’m not much of a socializer I’ve never been very active on that Discord myself, but I absolutely feel like being part of a great community regardless, and it all started with my first Blaugust participation back in 2018.

That being said, I haven’t decided yet whether or not to chime in this time around. Don’t get me wrong, I’d very much like to. It’s just that blogging isn’t very high on my priority list right now, and it has also started to feel more like work than fun more often than not. I’ve talked about one of the reasons for this in my blogiversary-post back in June. Another is that work has been very stressful lately, and chances are it won’t be any different during the whole of August.

Now, I know that nobody is obligated to post more than they feel comfortable with. Still, the event’s stated goal is to post every day for a month, and signing up for it without even having the slightest intention to put my back into it and at least post a little more often than in recent months kinda feels like cheating to me. There’s still some time left to decide though, so maybe I’ll change my mind.

Either way, it’s an awesome event, and if you have a blog or are thinking about starting one you should absolutely seize the opportunity! No need to be shy, everybody in this community is extremely helpful, and we appreciate each other tremendously.

Should you consider participating, all you need to know is in this post over at Tales of the Aggronaut. Here’s looking forward to reading even more terrific posts than usual!

Posted on

A quote about underrated music

Prompta2020

We’re just one third into this year’s special version of Blaugust, and the awesome blogging community has already outdone itself with lots of great posts about various topics.

The fourth blogging prompt, introduced to us by Roger Edwards on August 3rd, was this:

What type of content do you feel is severely underrated?

Well, that’s an easy one as far as I’m concerned. It’s Metal, of course!

Metal1

Err…wait, no, not this.

Metal2

Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!

My cousin, ten years my senior, introduced me to Metal when I was about eight. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Helloween, Ozzy Osbourne, stuff like that. I fell in love immediately.

At the time I didn’t really know what it was, exactly, that I liked so much about it. What I did learn incredibly quickly though was that, generally speaking, most people don’t share my passion. Which is severely downplaying the issue of course, as almost everyone I’ve ever met who doesn’t love it actively dislikes it at best, and regards it as “unbearable noise” at worst. According to the latter group anyone who’s into Metal surely must be some kind of psychopath.

Metal3

I really don’t know where they got that idea from…

Anyway, with kids being kids you can imagine that eight-year-old me, already wearing Metal band patches on the denim jacket, had to develop a thick skin rather quickly. It never grew quite as thick as I would have liked though, and I can still get pretty angry when someone badmouths something that I really like, especially when I feel that they have no idea what they’re even talking about.

Yet over time I’ve wisened up at least somewhat. A couple of years ago I would have, at this point, carried on to beat you round the head with at least half a dozen paragraphs “proving” that many flavors of Metal are, in fact, musically vastly superior to most forms of mainstream music, that geniuses like Bach and Beethoven would undoubtedly be metalheads if they lived today, and that channeling your inner rage through aggressive music does actually make you a less aggressive person, not more.

Instead though I’ll just leave you with one of my favourite quotes – which, incidentally, fits nicely into our Blaugust groove too, as Wilhelm gave us the prompt to do exactly that.

It’s taken from Helloween’s song Heavy Metal (is the Law), where Kai Hansen posits

If you don’t feel it you won’t understand.

Truer words have never been spoken about Metal – and I think it actually applies to pretty much anything human beings can be passionate about.

Posted on

Media that’s shaped my worldview

Prompta2020

2020’s version of Blaugust is in full swing, and it’s my turn already. Thank you Dragonray for handing over the baton, I hope I’ll be able to meet the high expectations you’ve set for me. 🙂

Here goes.

Blaugust Promptapalooza – Prompt 3

What are some key sources of media (games/movies/etc) that have shaped your worldview?

As I’m writing a blog that mainly focuses on video games in general and MMORPGs in particular it shouldn’t come as a surprise that those will get a mention here. I was born in 1976 though, so I’ll have to start off with some earlier types of media.

Radio
Not ours, but we had the exact same model in our kitchen

You know, it’s funny. I’ve been working in radio broadcasting for almost 20 years now, and during that time I’ve often said that I enjoy it despite not being and never having been a radio listener myself. While thinking thoroughly about today’s prompt I’ve realized that it’s actually not true at all.

I couldn’t for the life of me tell you the stations’ names, but back when I was little the radio was always on at home. My mom also played vinyl (and shellac) records, of which I mainly remember The Beatles and ABBA, but mostly it was the radio playing.

I liked it a lot, and it didn’t take long until I begged for my own one with a built-in cassette recorder so I could record my favourite songs. Once I’d got it I would sit on my bed for hours on end, listen to the music and record the songs that I liked the most. To this day Depeche Mode’s Everything Counts is one of my all-time favourites, for example.

I guess radio shaped my worldview insofar that it taught me early on how beautiful, heart-warming and life-enriching music can be. I can’t imagine a life without it.

TV
Ok, I’m not actually THAT old, but you get the picture

Growing up during the eighties in an urban environment also meant watching a lot of TV. Until about 1985 we still had a black-and-white set and a grand total of three programs to watch, but around my 9th birthday we got a color set, a VHS recorder and cable TV. From then on there was no stopping me.

I soaked up everthing a boy of that age ought to like (at the time): shows like The Muppet Show and Sesame Street, reruns of The three Stooges or Laurel and Hardy; a bit later I was really into The A-Team, Knight Rider, Airwolf and so on. I even got my first taste of Anime (without knowing it) with Captain Future and Saber Rider.

I wouldn’t call any of that life-changing experiences, but the things I watched have undoubtedly shaped me in some way or other.

At the age of twelve or so a true landmark event happened though: I got to watch Return of the Jedi – and thus a Star Wars movie – for the first time. I believe I’d never been so enthralled by anything in my life. Other stuff I’d just watched, but that movie took me to a galaxy far, far away indeed, and I think it really changed the way I watch movies. Nowadays I get totally absorbed by the story – usually even if said story isn’t all that great – and forget about everything else until it’s over.

I have to admit that it can be somewhat demanding to watch movies with me as I don’t tolerate talking, cell phone usage or anything else that might distract me (chips are okay though as long as I can have some too), but that’s just the way it is now and the price, I feel, for being able to immerse oneself completely.

Great movies and shows take me to places and let me experience adventures I would never see and have in real life, and I’m extremely grateful for that.

Reading

You probably wouldn’t be reading this now if I hadn’t been a huge fan of reading all my life.

It started, unsurprisingly, with comics, mainly Mickey Mouse, Asterix and Clever & Smart. I tried to like Marvel and stuff, but those were just too ‘loud’ for me, if that makes sense.

At age 13 or so I shifted away from comics and started to read ‘real’ literature – if you’re willing to call penny dreadfuls literature, that is. John Sinclair is written by a German author and tells the stories of a Scotland Yard inspector specialized in paranormal investigations. I used to read those every week for a couple of years straight, and that’s what kicked off my turning into a serious bookworm. I assume it’s also where my penchant for horror movies came from, to boot.

For the next ten, fifteen years I read a hell of a lot, mostly science fiction and fantasy, but also thrillers, historical fiction and even non-fiction (the latter especially about ancient Egypt).

These days I’m not reading as much as I’d like, but I still do of course.

If you’re reading this I don’t need to lecture you about the power of the written word, do I?  Suffice it to say, without reading so much I wouldn’t be the person I am today, and I’ll never stop enjoying it.

Games

Playing video games is pretty much the earliest memory of consuming any type of media that I have, and it has always been my main hobby, if you will. It’s much more to me than a hobby though.

A really great game can, in a way, be the culmination of everything I talked about above. Experiencing adventures I could never have in real life? Check. Music that evokes strong emotions and makes the ride all the more enjoyable? Absolutely. Thrilling, touching or funny stories with heroes to root for and villains to despise? Sure thing. Well, sometimes anyway.

Add to that the ability to play an active part in all of it instead of just consuming passively, and in some cases to even fundamentally affect the outcome, and you get something truly marvelous.

Unfortunately playing video games has also helped to shape my worldview in a negative way though, as it has taught me that even amongst ‘normal’ human beings (i.e. not counting scum like terrorists, rapists and so on) there’s a frighteningly large number of dickheads out there. I’ve had stretches where I outright refused to play online-multiplayer games because I just wasn’t willing to take it anymore.

Apart from that though, what can I say, I just love playing video games. They’re inextricably a part of me.

And there you have it.

Tomorrow the wonderful Roger Edwards (thanks for all the great movie reviews by the way!) will be there for you with the fourth installment of Blaugust Promptapalooza 2020, so head on over to Contains Moderate Peril and have a look. I sure will.

Posted on

Blaugust Promptapalooza incoming

In light of the rather trying cirmumstances we all find ourselves in this year the regular Blaugust event was rescheduled to April, which was great, but left us with the question of what to do come August.

Belghast, reliable as ever, had another great idea though. As being asked to post for thirty-one days straight is quite trying for many – even if it’s voluntary, the pressure to deliver is kinda there once you’ve signed up – we’ll not do that a second time within half a year. This time around we’ll pass the torch on a day by day basis. Enter Blaugust Promptapalooza.

Prompta2020

On July 31st Bel himself will start the event by offering a prompt to write about a certain topic to the blogging community, and he’ll also present his own thoughts about said topic to us. Towards the end of his post the next day’s participant will be revealed by him, who in turn will give us his own prompt on August 1st, and so on.

If the suspense of who’s gonna post when is killing you already, fret not, for it ain’t a secret at all:

I think this is a really great idea, maybe even better than ‘normal’ Blaugust, because it creates more interaction between us, more cross-linking and -promoting, and it also gives us all a plethora of, well, prompts for topics to write about.

Can’t wait to read it all and to chime in!

If you’d like to hear from the man himself about his idea behind the event, here’s the original post.

Posted on

Wrapping up Blaugust 2019

Blaugust-2019-1000px-wide

And just like that another month of August is almost over again. Time flies if you’re having fun, as the saying goes.

Counting this one I made it to 15 posts this time around. Quite a step backwards from last year’s 31, but since I wasn’t sure if I’d even manage to pen this many I’m pretty happy nonetheless.

From the second week onwards all I’ve been talking about is Warframe, and I expect that trend to continue for a while because I’m still having loads of fun. Since we’ve just returned from our vacation I didn’t have time to check out my new frames yet, which I’ll do right after finishing this post.

Or maybe not. Turns out I was wrong when I predicted it might take the folks at Digital Extremes a good while to introduce a playable version of the shawzin. In fact they’ve just released a meaty content update that already delivered it to us, alongside other goodies like a brand new frame, new weapons etc.

I’ve only tested it for like two minutes, but I dig it a lot. It sounds like a shamisen, which of course fits the game’s space-ninja theme perfectly. You can either strum about freely or try to record whole songs. There are also some pre-built songs you can play along to.

WarframeHero
It’s basically Guitar Hero in space, what’s not to like?

It’s activated via an emote, which I had at my disposal right away since I’d already bought the decoration before. Nice! They’ve also released some colour variations, according to its description one of them even sounds differently. I’ll wait for a video of it to pop up before buying though.

Apart from playing Warframe I also look forward to reading all those posts my fellow bloggers have undoubtedly written during the final stretch of Blaugust. I guess there are at least a hundred new pieces that I very much want to read, not counting the catching up I have to do over at Massively OP.

First I’d like to once more say thank you to all mentors and participants of Blaugust, and of course to our host Belghast. It’s been a blast just like last year, and I hope I’ll be reading all your blogs for a long time to come. Also a big welcome to everyone who’s started just now. I think you’ll find that this is a great community all year round. I know I’m happy to be a part of it. Cheers!