Blaugust 4th: Faffing

Because Belghast invented Blaugust, I decided to use his word of choice when he just feels like random gaming. For the next 30 days I want my readers to decided what game I play and stream for 30 days. I slapped a poll up on my blog's side bar you can vote on. If you do not see an MMO on there that you want to see, just add it in the comments and I'll add it to the poll.

Right now I am enjoying playing DCUO and this week I start a new podcast with Sitting on a Couch & MMORPG.com for Firefall. I love all MMOs and I love the MMO community, so I would like to play a game for fun people might be interested in. If I get enough people interested and liking my streams/posts, I might refresh the poll every month to shake things up. Of course to be fair, I will remove the last game played so I get a bit of variety.

 For the sake of a great community project like Blaugust, please take the time to vote in my poll. In 6 days I will start playing that game for you. I'll stream it and write blog posts about my adventures. It will also give me content for Blaugust. I really don't care what game I play because I know I'll have fun doing it. Thanks for your support and please watch and follow me at Twitch for my awesome streams.I swear, you will not watch another streamer like me.

Vote NOW!!!

PS... If you know anybody that does web or avatar art please contact me!

Blaugust Day 2: Being Unpopular

This post is going to be short because it's hard for me to post on the weekends. I'm trying though to support a friend with his great idea. It's great doing great things even if it might not be the popular thing to do. It's never popular on the Internet to do something positive. It seems the Internet thrives on the popular and not what is right and what is fun. I've become one of the unpopular guys because I'm not playing the FoTM game. Even though I've been riding the adrenaline high of the speeding beta trains coming out over the past 6 years, it's time for me to get off and enjoy myself. Even if it means all by myself.

The last month I've been playing DC Universe Online. It's not an amazing game, but it is super fun to me. It let's me get in and learn about superheroes. I'm not a comic book fan so I don't know a lot of these stories. The game is like my comic book in motion. I'm having a lot of fun even though I'm not playing with anybody. Yeah I'm in a small, wonderful guild, but most of the time it's only 2 or 3 of us online at a time.

I finally made it to level 30.it only took me 22 days to do. I'm not a hard core player either. A guy in our guild made it from 1-30 in 3 days. Once you hit 30 a bunch of really cool story arches open up. Surprisingly, the grouping in the game is painless and super fast. As a DPS it only took me 20 sec to find a 4 person group.

So, even though I'm playing an unpopular game and streaming my fun every night, I really don't care like I used to. I used to worry if someone was reading my words or if anybody was going to play with me. I feel a lot of the problem with my game hoping was my fault of depending on other people to have fun. I quit playing some really awesome games because others left after 30 days. Wildstar is one of those games. I love that game and I plan on going back to it very soon. When I do I'm going to play by myself, for myself. I won't depend on other people to help me make fun. The best thing DCUO had taught me is to have fun by myself.

Of course I wish all my Internet buddies played DCUO, but I think I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much with them there. I think I would've worried about what they thought and if they were going to play with me. I'm glad they haven't taken interest in it so I could find my own way. I had time to find my gaming voice like my blog voice. It's my style and I need to do what makes me feel happy no matter what everybody else is saying or doing. I might be an unpopular blogger with a wacky style playing an unpopular game, but damn I'm having a great time doing it.

#Blaugusting

Right now my work schedule is nuts! I'm still going to try to do a post every day this month, even on my birthday. Yeah, August is the month my mother jettisoned me out of her ladies bits. This year I turn 40 and I realize I can die any minute now. You might want to worry if I don't post everyday this month. You never know, I could just stop being any second now. If you're not reading this right now that means I died before I even posted it. Are you reading this? Did I make it to the next paragraph?

Luckily, I made it this far. I pressed the space bar, felt a bit light-headed, and continued with: Luckily, I made it this far. I pressed the space bar, felt a bit light-headed, and continued with: Luckily, I made it this far. I pressed the space bar, felt a bit light-headed, and continued with: Luckily, I made it this far. I pressed the space bar, felt a bit light-headed, and continued with:

Wow, a whole paragraph of me repeating myself. Old people do that a lot. I fear my lawn is becoming more important to me and stairs are a challenge not a place to play Hot Wheels.  It's getting harder and harder to stay positive about things and take time to have fun.

People around me are dying left and right. My best blogger friend, River died recently at the age of 42.a guy at work just died from a heart attack at age 46. In the early 1960's the average age was 35 for adults. I don't know about you, but I'm a bit worried I could die soon. I always thought as a kid I would only survive to age 42. I have 2 more years left on this earth according to my math. I'm good at math too. If you haven't noticed yet, I'm a bit of a genius. In the 1960's I would've been considered a Greek God of sorts.

When I turn 40 this month I might inject myself with gamma rays or replace my blood with nanobots. I feel if I live forever, I could save humanity from itself. What do you think? Should I tap into eternal life and rule the Internet?

Talking about the Internet I plan on ruling, Belghast has a really awesome idea for community orginess. I always try to help build friendships over the Internet with cool tasks like this. I never know, one of you could be carrying my casket to my final resting place next week, month, year, second.. It's ok to cry.

So, I'm extremely busy this month. I'm going to try to blog everyday even if it kills me. I might have to make toast while I'm in the bathtub or tweak lighting rods on a cell tower on the Perfect Storm, but I will try my damnest to post everyday this month. Just to prove I'm better than you. It's ok to envy me. I have a large penis and hot wife too. I can feel you now lusting. Bring the sins to me.

If I haven't been taking from this world in the month I came into this world, expect me to post everyday. You've been warned!

DCUO I LOVE YOU!

Growing up I was never a comic book fan. I never bought one until I was an adult and that was Spawn. I was a child of Hollywood. The first superhero movie I ever saw was Superman with Christopher Reeves. At the age of 5, I became an instant fan of Superman.

Looking back at my childhood and remembering all the superhero themed Underoos I owned, I would say I was a DC fan. Of course, The Hulk was my favorite superhero growing up, but I had more DC underwear in my dresser.

I think Marvel is a more popular franchise because they have a better public relations department. Disney knows how to hype their products better than anybody else. Before Disney took over, the Marvel movies were crap compared to the DC ones. Just comparing the movies prior to Disney you can see that. Because Disney produces good movies and great hype, the world is on a Marvel kick right now. It's easy to tell when you watch Man of Steel then go watch Ironman 3; obviously Man of Steel is a far superior movie, but Ironman 3 man more than twice the money, all because Disney.

Even though I seem like a DC fan, I'm really not. I'm a fan of the heroes and I think Marvel has better heroes overall. Yeah I jumped out of a tree thinking I was Superman and whenever I ran as a kid I though I was The Flash, but I liked Marvel overall better. Marvel just seems to have more heroes that humans can connect with. Most of them are just average people that became superhuman one way or another. I know both franchises have their alien heroes and their human/superhuman heroes, but the more popular superheroes are Marvel because of that more human connection. Even though I think I would enjoy a Marvel MMO a lot, DCUO is a great game. I'm sure 10 years from now DCUO will be the Christopher Reeves benchmark MMO, but we'll have hype induced Robert Downey Jr MMO out by then. But until then, I'll be playing DCUO and loving it.

I didn't always love DCUO. In fact, I've been struggling to play it since it released in 2011. I've tried it off and on for over 3 years never making it past level 17 and I only made it that high 6 months ago on the Playstation 4. Before that I never made it past level 8. I think my problem with the game was the console friendly controls. I'm a horrible console gamer and I think MMOs suck on consoles. Hence my distaste with DCUO. Recently a lot of MMOs have come out with the same action based combat DCUO helped pioneer and I think it's helped me grow accustomed to that console feeling of control.

Even though I tried DCUO on the PC in beta, I never bought the game. Later when it went free to play, I downloaded it on the Playstation 3 to try again. Of course, I didn't like the game again because I felt disoriented playing an MMO on a console. I made it to level 8 and shelved the game again. When they released DCUO for the PS4 I tried it again, mainly because there were no games for the PS4 and my son wanted to try and MMO. I played it with him for about a month before I quit... again. About 6 months ago DCUO had an awesome DLC released that caught my eyes and I tried it again for a month. You know what happened after that month, I quit.

Two weeks ago I started playing DCUO on my PC for the first time since beta. I really didn't have a reason to, I just felt like trying it again. So far, I'm loving it a lot more than I ever did on the console. I still think the social menus suck, but they're fixing those in their 39th free patch. Yes they have 10 paid DLCs, but they also update their game with large patches for free. They're not as robust as the DLCs, but they do need to make money somehow off a F2P game. Second to GW2, DCUO has an outstanding F2P model. Their team is small and very dedicated to making a quality game. Not to mention the story is amazing.

All that said, I made it to level 10 last night. I just have 8 more levels to beat my record. Will I quit again? Probably at sometime, but I'm subscribed for a month and I plan on reupping my subscription when it's up in 2 weeks. The good thing is, I don't have to if I don't want to. I can keep playing it for free with minor roadblocks.

Last night playing it I noticed how lively the game is. This is only the PC server I'm talking about; the PC people do not play with the console people. I wish they did, but they are separate. Logging into the Playstation it's just as packed. Some might chalk that up as a F2P phenomenon, but I've played dozens of F2P MMOs and they are not this packed. It makes me feel good the game is doing so great after a rocky start. It proves converting from a monthly subscription to a F2P model doesn't mean the death of a game. If done as good as DCUO, it means the life of a game.

I'm not guaranteeing I'll play DCUO for the next year, month,  or tomorrow, but I'm guaranteeing the game is fun to play for a lot of people. I know it's not for everybody and it is super hard to get into it, but once I found my proper platform, I've had fun. I'm at home with a keyboard and my G600 Logitech mouse with side hotkeys. I can now get on the Alliance of Awesome TeamSpeak server and chat with people while I play a game I enjoy, even if they're not playing with me. I'm having fun and while I get the social interaction I need.

If I reviewed DCUO 3 years ago I would've given it a poor score, but after years of stellar updates and hard work I'd give the game a great score now. I'm looking forward to their 39th free update and their 11th DLC coming out soon. The game just keeps getting better and better, even for a Marvel fan like myself.

Wildstar and Luminosity Developers Work Together on September Ultra Drop

Recently, developers from the popular mind expanding game Luminosity have been spotted entering the headquarters of Carbine Studios, makers of the extremely popular MMO Wildstar. Our reporters had the chance to talk with one of these anonymous developers and this is what she (Sarah), had to say:

"I started playing Wildstar at launch a month ago and I was appalled to see so many quests with words or cut scenes. Then, I came across a Simon Says quest and I was in heaven. The makers of these quests touched my heart forever. It was that moment I decided to reach out to Carbine Studios to help them expand their game's potential. "

Anonymously, Sarah has been working  with Wildstar developers to develop the September Ultra Drop titled: Brain Fart! She told us there will be more than a 100 more Simon Says quests and a special dungeon with a Rubix Cube boss where players will have to work together to solve the mind-boggling cube of doom. Here is a list of some of the other cool stuff slotted for the Ultra Drop:

1. A Sudoku carpet
2. A light bulb hat
3. Newton's Apple tree
4. Chess piece costumes
5. A Dunce cap
6. An Albert Einstein mount
7. A new zone dedicated to PvP thinking games like Chess, Charades, Battleship, Scrabble, and many more
8. A new path called,  Lawnmower Man
9. 1 or 2 bug fixes
10. A new chat channel dedicated to  theory.

All these features are just 10% of Wildstar's potential. In the future Carbine Studios is hoping these brain games stimulate their players enough to develop content for themselves with their imagination. They're hoping when you feel bored of the game, you can just take over the mainframe with your mind and instantaneously become unbored.

I believe this is a genius move for the future of Wildstar and humanity. Together we can grow mentally to take over the universe.

Women's Only Bathrooms at Finnish IeSF Tournament Outrages Male Competitors With Weak Bladders

Recently with the help of Blizzard Entertainment, the decision to have male-only e-sport competitions was overturned. The decision to let females play in all e-sport competitions at the Finnish tournament has been met with thousands of women signing up at the last minute to compete. Unfortunately, the venue reserved for the competition only had male bathrooms.

In an effort to not seem sexist, the Finnish IeSF representatives taped,  "Women Only"  over half the bathrooms in the facility. This has outraged teams sponsored by Mountain Dew and Monster Energy Drinks. Both teams are known to have extremely explosive diarrhea and recurring UTIs. A spokesman for team Dew had this to say:

"I have a doctor's note demanding at least 70% of the buildings I compete at have to have male bathrooms with a minimum of 16 stalls to poop in.  Even with 60% of the bathrooms here I have a 90% chance I'm going to shit my pants more than I normally shit them. That means I'm going to get a diaper rash. I can't win this tournament under these conditions. My adult diapers can only hold so much. "

A woman standing outside a random building was asked what she thought of this outrage. She had this to say:

"For years men have been pissing and shitting in the woods with only their bare hands to scrape the poo from their backside, why should they need a bathroom now? I say, set the computers up outside like real men. There's a tree, man it up! "

Being a man myself that normally urinates off top floor balconies at a hotel in a drunk stupor, I think not having male bathrooms at all is brilliant. For far too long men have sat on toilets becoming more and more female. We're soft! We can't let women suppress us anymore! We need to fight for our rights to party! No longer will we expect a bathroom and toilet paper lined with aloe! We will shit in the streets and wipe our asses with our bare hands! We will go to this tournament with crap under our fingernails wondering if it's chocolate or shit. Only a taste test will do! So men, stand up and fight for your manly hood and refuse all bathrooms! Now go make our species proud!

Wildstar Subscription Numbers Overwhelming!

Today Carbine Studios announce they are having an overwhelming amount of subscribers catastrophically bottlenecking their system. They're quickly implementing a system to help players play and not feel stressed out. Here is a forum quote:

"WTF! I woke up this morning to play and I couldn't! This is bullshit! I then checked my bank account and I haven't been charged yet! I was bullshit! Quickly I threw money and cat feces at my monitor! Catshit! "

Later when server Master Server-Guru Cougar announced:

"Sorry for the inconvenience, we've implemented a fix to get players in the game while our payment server is cleaned of cat shit. Please people, stop throwing cat shit at your monitors. Our system takes all major credit cards, PayPal, prepaid cards, and blood donations, but we're not accepting hot, steamy, cat shit at this moment. Oh and we don't accept Bitcoin, cat shit has more value. Thank you for your patience and feel free to save cat shit for a later date. "

So, there you have it. At this point I'm one of the many that hasn't been charged for my year subscription and I have cat droppings all over my computer. Just so you know, jamming crap into your CPU fan does not work either. Who knew? Unfortunately, I need a new motherboard and my carpets cleaned. I didn't know that when shit hits the fan, it will spray back at me. I should've called Tim Howard before I freaked out; he could've saved me!

Readers Won't Read This

This week I'm doing a writing workshop with my 10 year old son. Last night was our first night where we nailed down our story with a quick outline. We decided to write the same story, but my son will write from his perspective and I'll write from mine using the same outline. Hopefully in the end, we'll have 2 stories we can put together to form 1 great story.

The part that you won't like is, I'm going to write my story here. For some reason the only way I can write is with my phone. I've been writing this way for over 5 years so it's become a habit for me. I could write faster and better using a normal computer, but my mind always draws a blank doing it that way. I figured if I'm going to write a story, I might as well slap it up on my blog. Unfortunately, it's not what my readers want to read.

It seems every time I write creatively nobody reads it. I pour my heart and soul into a grand masterpiece and nobody gives a crap about it. All they want to read is about gaming or some kind of angry rant. It's a bit demotivational  when I do it. When I do break out of my shell and post a creative piece I get hardly any hits and 0 comments or Retweets. Not that comments and Retweets are super important to how I feel about my writing, but it would be nice to get some real feedback on my stories.

Anyways, I'll be posting my story my son and I came up with. It's a bit kiddie because he is only 10, but we came up with a pretty cool idea for a story. At least I think it's a cool idea considering it's more of a pre-young adult type of story. This week I'll post a chapter a day. You'll get to read 4 chapters of the story and most likely that is it. Next week I'll talk a little about my son's story, our differences, and how we could make a better story if we kept writing it. As a reader you can help give feedback or even ideas to help the story. I'm not holding my breath though. You'll just have to skip my feed this week if you want my normal dick and fart jokes.

I hope you do read my story and help my son and I think of better ideas for the story. Thanks for reading.

A Year With #Wildstar

Even though $132 is a lot of money to fork out at once and I'm extremely skeptical with my commitment, I'm going to go through with it. I haven't played an MMO more than 3 months other than WoW in the past... Ever. This might be a stupid idea and I feel Carbine should pat me on the back, give me a hug, and tell me everything is going to be ok. A day doesn't go by without me worrying about my commitment towards a year with Wildstar, but I'm going to hold strong and do it.

I might start to talk about Wildstar a lot on this blog. I'm going to be more serious because I've lost the urge to be an idiot blogger. My childish jokes are getting old and I've lost the heart to do it anymore. I love writing so I figured I'll write normal blog posts like everyone else. I'll talk about my adventures in Wildstar for the next year. I understand if you choose not to read me anymore. I'm really excited about the game, but I wish they'd give me a hug.

That's all I have to say today. Tomorrow I'll talk about my PvP stuff.

Podcast Recap

I understand it might be hard for people to listen to podcasts. Life is busy or you're just not interested in listening to them. There are other factors I wouldn't go over, but I do understand it's not for everybody. For those who can't listen to podcasts I'd like to recap my last podcast for you because I feel it is a very important podcast, at least it was for me.

1. I had my great friend, The River, join me for the podcast. Unfortunately, he passed away last week and he was unable to listen to it. At the beginning of the podcast I talked a little about River. I know people hear it all the time when someone died, but River was truly a good man. He wasn't perfect and earlier in his life he did go to prison for robbery,  but he changed later in life. He became a giver instead of a taker. Reading his personal blog you can see he gave his heart and soul to his friends and family. He made it a point to help them and cheer them up even if it meant sacrificing a bit of himself. He was a great man.

If you only read his gaming blog you would've thought he was a womanizing dick, but that was just a fun facade he put on for his readers. As I said in the podcast, he loved to shock people to help them think outside of the box. Make them realize the stick is so far up their ass you can't even see the end nub. A misunderstood genius I thought of him. Through the years of knowing him I've tried to mimic his style to be as popular as him. I would read his comments and envy how much people loved reading his posts. How he could engage his audience and bring out the best or worst in them depending on what he wanted from them. I was jealous of him.

Now that he's gone I don't know what to do. Him and I used to banter back and forth to get a rise out of people. At times he was the only one to comment on my post because he knew what I was doing when others didn't. I'm not sure how to proceed from here.

2. River talked about his grandmother and grandfather he loved so much. He told me how they got him into gaming through poker and Monopoly. I'm sure that might have been the source of his gambling problem when he was younger... GRANDMAAAAA!

He talked about his love of DAoC and his guild. Some of those members he still played with in WoW up until he passed away. River was very passionate about his guild members. He might have been talking about how much fun he had in RvR, but in truth the fun was with his guild mates. That's why we play MMOs to socialize with people we enjoy talking to.

Sometimes we might play a game just for the people and not the game itself. Our desire to be surrounded by people we know and care about, can turn a meh game into the best game in the world. I could tell talking to River he really enjoyed the people in the games he played more than anything else. I feel the same way too. I've bought games just to be able to talk with people and share experiences with people I talk to daily on social networks. Like right now, Wildstar isn't the best game and it's not perfect, but at this point I'm playing with people I enjoy talking to. I enjoy Zeli, Abb, Belghast, Rae, Tam, Oak, Pete, Chris, Stargrace, ect, ect. That is just a few of the people and not even close to all of the people I wish I could play with, but right now Wildstar is the new hotness and I can enjoy their company while it lasts. Discussing MMOs with River, I knew he loved these games for this exact reason too.

3. Listening to the podcast and River talking about his most memorable moment in WoW when Ragnaros pops out of the lava and says, "With fire be purged!" I get chills up my spine. Not only do I remember the moment I first saw that, the way River says it with passion, erupts emotions in me. Those are the moments we play games for. Moments that flare up emotions like a nasty bug bite begging to be scratched until it bleeds.  When people talk about gaming memories they will always remember them just like real life moments that spark emotions.

4. At the end of the podcast River was waiting to tell me a story. Again, this story was about the people he played with and not really the game. He told me about drama in his guild with a guy he later became good friends with. Years later when he really met the guy in real life, River was more excited about that meeting than the game. He told me how he lost boots in WoW accidentally to this guy even though he had the most DKP; I'm guessing it was a screw up on the raid leader. River told me how the guy and several other guild mates met in real life and how the guy disenchanted the boots right at that moment. River laughed his ass off about that and later drew a penis on the guys back when he passed out drunk. A moment outside of gaming that was only made possible through gaming.

The podcast made me realize why I love gaming so much. It's a time I get to relax and talk with potential real life friends, even if I never meet them in real life. Not coming face to face doesn't lessen the friendship. I always think what I would say to you all if we really met. It would be awkward at first, but after flashing my naked ass at you, we would all chuckle and have fun... OK not really, but it would be funny and you wouldn't forget my hot ass!

I wish I got to meet River, but I'm not sad about it because I had the chance to get to know him through the years. There might be miles separating us all, but we can still be just as good of friends as if we lived next to each other. Even better friends, because I don't have to see you and put up with your shit daily. When I tell you all I appreciate you I mean it. You all make my day better even when you refuse to play a specific game with me.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Dear River

Dear River,

I'm gonna miss you bud! I might not have ever set foot in your house, but you will always stay in my heart.

For over a half of a decade you've made my life better. I always looked forward to chatting with you over Twitter or blog post comments. From the first day I started reading your blog and talking with you, I knew you were going to be a great friend. Talking with you always made me smile.

I'm sad that you're gone. I can't even imagine how your family and real friends feel. You made me a better person from afar, I'm sure the ones close to you feel the same. You were a social butterfly and a person people could look up to. Unfortunately for me, I only new a fragment of who you were.

I spent hours reading all the posts about you on Facebook to try to get to know a part of you I'll never have the privilege of knowing. You seriously lived your life to the fullest and made other happy in the process. You brought a lot of smiles to a lot of people. I'm sure if your friends forget to smile all they'll need to do is think of you to smile again. You were a great man and you'll be dearly missed.

I wanted to tell you I'm sorry. Over the years we've talk we always wanted to do a podcast together. I regret not finding the time to do The Donkey Show with you. What makes it worse is, I finally did a podcast with you and I neglected to find the time to edit and post it before you passed away. I feel horrible about it. All those years planning to do a podcast together and I fail at making our dream a reality for you. I'm deeply sorry.

I haven't had the heart yet to finish editing it. I want to post it so people can hear how passionate you were about games, but I need time before I can do it. I promise you, I will post it for you. I know you worried about sounding stupid on it and wished you were funnier, but trust me, you did awesome. You were passionate on the podcast and that is all that matters. When people listen to it they'll be able to connect with you through your passion. I know I did.

One of your blogger idles started a meme of sorts in honor of you. Syp suggested we all post half naked women on our blogs in honor of you. It was a great idea even though he wussed out and put a picture of a dog up. I guess some people don't understand why you actually did that. It wasn't the women, it was the love of life and bringing smiles to people's faces. Shit, you even posted 1/2 naked men on your blog for the same reason. I understand you and that is why we got a long so well. You knew that life was about living it the way you wanted and not being a stick in the mud.

You know after seeing the 100's of pictures of you on Facebook, I discovered I was a wuss too. I don't have the balls to live my life as much as you did. You showed people like me how to live and made us all smile while you were living for us. I envy you a lot for it. I look at you an wish I was more like you. I'm sure a lot of your real friends and family feel the same as I do. You were free to enjoy life. By all the pictures and stories about you, you lived the way life should be lived. You were and still are, a role model to me. I see I should be more like you and relax to live life to its fullest.

I want to end this post by saying thank you. Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for encouraging me through the years to keep blogging. Thank you for making me laugh and smile. Thank you for chatting with me. Thank you for not changing who you are. You were an amazing man and looked pretty good as a woman too. I'll miss you bud, but I won't stop smiling because I'll always remember you.