Sunday Mash-up

Nothing new to the #ROW80 crowd, but Anne-Mhairi Simpson had an incredible post on the Round of Words blog.

I Know What You’re Thinking: Yomi

Before I get into my game post this week, I want to thank everyone for the responses I’ve been getting! I love games, and I’ve tried a gaming blog before that was not exactly successful. As long as you guys enjoy these posts, I’ll continue writing them.

This week, I’ll be covering another head-to-head game. This one isn’t traditional, and isn’t a board game, but comes as a series of decks of cards.

Yomi is a fixed card game based on 2-D fighters like Street Fighter or King of Fighters. Each player chooses a character from the line-up of ten decks and begins a fight.

The cards in your deck are separated into Attacks, Throws, Blocks, Dodges, and Special Attacks. Most of the cards have two sides, each one a different option. Special Attacks generally are the same on both sides.

Each turn, the players pick a card from their hand and place it face down in front of them. When both players have chosen, you reveal your cards, and compare them. The ‘winner’ of the play is decided by a rock/paper/scissors style chart, with Attacks beating Throws which beat Blocks/Dodges. If you win, you either get to combo (In the case of Attacks, Throws and Dodges) or draw a card (in the case of a block).

You win when you reduce your opponent to zero life.

This is a game that I didn’t like the first time I played. It seems too simple, ‘iterative Rock/Paper/Scissors’ was my criticism. Then I continued playing, and got comfortable with the mechanics, and the unique strategies offered to each character. Then I began to understand my opponent.

Yomi, in addition to being a reference to the Underworld in Japanese mythology, also means simply ‘reading.’ It’s become a slang term in the fighting game community to reference that sort of preternatural ability of high level players to respond to attacks before they’re even visible. The card game Yomi benefits from that same reading ability, understanding your opponent, and his tools, well enough to react before you know the move he’s going to make.

So, yes, Yomi is just iterative Rock/Paper/Scissors, but it’s Rock/Paper/Scissors with limited options and a variable game length.

If you can try it out, I’d suggest giving this one a shot, if only for the brain-warping you’re sure to experience around game ten or so.

Images both from Sirlin.net.

TweetDeck For Chrome: Sending A Tweet

Welcome to the TweetDeck For Chrome Learning Guide! This series is dedicated to breaking down all of the functions of TweetDeck for Chrome. If you’re not using TweetDeck for Chrome, go back to the TweetDeck Learning Guide and pick your version!

One you’ve logged in and have your columns visible you can start tweeting. First step, click on the Compose box at the top of the screen.

This will expand, giving you a box very similar to the desktop application‘s compose window.

Start typing out your tweet in the box and the character counter in the bottom right of the text field will let you know if your tweet is too long. You can add your location or media with the buttons to the left of that.

Below the text field you see a list of possible accounts to post from. In my case, you see my Twitter account, my Facebook account, my Facebook page, and a series of Facebook Groups I’m a part of.

After selecting the account, or accounts, that you’d like to use, hit send to send it to Twitter. You’ve now sent a Tweet from TweetDeck For Chrome.

Row80 7/25 Check-In

The last few days have been less than productive, with my daily word counts being lower than I would like. But, I’m still above my to-date goal, so I guess I’m safe, for now.

I’ve been working on a piece that I don’t expect to go anywhere, but it’s practice. It’s a very contemporary fiction with no element of sci-fi or fantasy, but lots of characterization. Might even look at it as a therapy piece, but I’m not sure yet.

Just got to keep this thing going and hit my 30,000 at the end, right?

Sunday Mash-Up!

Piper Bayard shares a story of putting yourself out there.

Lost child rescued by the Justice League!

While I don’t write, nor read, romance, I do like me some historical fiction and this article is just fascinating: How to Undress a Victorian Lady In Your Next Historical Romance.

Some good thoughts on building relationships from Ali Dent.

Kristen Lamb, author of We Are Not Alone: The Writer’s Guide to Social Media, reminisces about summer vacation.

Some advice on Ebook Specific Cover Design.

 

Magic Missile: A Self Dialogue

While this post is mostly me attempting to sort out thoughts, it’s not very kind of me to work them out with the world watching without a little background.

As many know, I love games, and the grand-daddy of one genre of games is Dungeons and Dragons. I love tabletop role playing, and so D&D is among my collection. I’ve played it for many years, and currently play the 4th edition.

Of course, any nerd with an internet connection can tell you that which edition you play can make or break your reputation in many circles. It’s a bit silly, but that’s the way things are.

In a conversation comparing and contrasting the 3rd edition and its related material and the 4th edition and its related material (Read: Nerdrage argument) the curious case of Magic Missile came up.

In D&D, from its origin through 3.5, Magic Missile was a simple spell that did a little damage without an attack roll, thus had no chance to miss. It wasn’t very powerful, but it was sure. Fourth edition changed that, making the Missile a basic ranged attack for Wizards, with a roll to hit like any other.

This was a good thing, all things considered, as it was part of a unifying of game mechanics that made D&D more accessible.

Then came Essentials, and they gave the Mage (A Wizard variant) a new Magic Missile, which hit automatically for a set damage. The developers changed the official wording of the old Magic Missile to match this new one, thus bringing the old style back to the game.

During the nerdrage I commented that that was a bad design. My opponent leveled the question of why an auto hit attack was bad. I answered, but I honestly don’t remember the answer now, and I feel my position was tenuous at best.

In the interest of self honesty, I must admit that the reason this new Magic Missile is bad is not because of its inherent design, which would be right at home in a number of games, but because of what it created in the 4th Edition rules: an exception.

As far as game design theory goes, I hate exceptions. They create elements of system mastery that make a game obtuse and hard to play. Have to reexamine the rule books to check the exception on slows down the game.

In the case of Magic Missile, due to the already highly modular nature of 4th edition D&D, it’s only a half sin. It’s a power that works unlike any other power, but it’s rules are part and parcel of the power, which will be printed in many areas for easy reference during play.

So, while my games will continue to use the old version (I frankly like the attack rolls) I must fold to claiming it’s bad for the game inherently, though it creates issues due to the prevailing design.

Bad at Selling? Maybe not.

Michael Hyatt, Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, posted about building a platform when you hate selling yourself. It had some excellent points, and even concludes saying how you’re not selling anything.

It’s all good information and if you haven’t read it yet, I definitely suggest heading over and reading it before continuing here.

Now I’m going to disagree, not with the methods, but with the conclusion. I’ve taken front-line sales job more than once, and I’m actually quite good at it. The key is it’s not the selling that makes you good at sales. If you’re a pusher, people move away and ignore you. They try to avoid what you’re offering, at all costs.

In sales, especially sales that produce returning clientele, it’s about trust. I was good at my job because I got to know my customers, and I did literally everything I could to make sure their experiences were top notch. A mistake in the computer somewhere? I would hunt it down. Hours on the phone or digging through computer records in some cases. Yet, even with such horrid wait times, my customers would come back.

They did more than come back, they started asking specifically for my opinion on their purchase decisions. They knew I didn’t do it for my own gain, I was out to help them. That nature, of reaching out and giving, regardless of what it costs you, is what makes repeat customers.

So, in reality, what Michael is saying is exactly what I think of when I say ‘sales.’ Don’t worry yourself if you think you’re bad at the hard sale, it doesn’t really work anyway! Get to know people, and make them aware of what’s available. Help them out. Make them care about you, and the ‘platform’ and ‘sales’ part is easy.

ROW-80 7/20 Check-in

The last three days have been fairly productive, even if I had a very long day yesterday due to a sibling’s birthday.

As you can see, my word count has been beating my goal consistently, pushing a bigger gap between my goal and my actual. This is always great.

My word counts haven’t been as explosive as last update, but above par each day, so doing well.

Going to link back to my spreadsheets again so that anyone who wants charts of their own can make them.

The Divine Move: The Game of Go

You’ve saved the world, escaped an island with priceless treasures, and done them both with friends. But you haven’t tested your mettle against a real opponent yet. Enter Go, a traditional strategy game that developed more than 2000 years ago in China.

The game board is traditionally a grid of 19X19 lines, with every intersection being a legal space for a play. The turns are simple alternating affairs in which each player places a stone (game piece) on a point (intersection).

If you ever surround one of your opponent’s stones (Or a group of stones) you capture them, removing them from the board.

The only other rule besides the above two is the rule of ko, which for American players is simply stated as ‘The board can never repeat the same position twice.’ This is like one of the stalemate rules in chess.

The winner of the game is the one who controls more of the board by surrounding it with their stones. Often, I tell people to imagine it like you and your neighbor are building fences, and you want the biggest yard.

In the title of this post, I reference The Divine Move, which is the goal of a character from the comic Hikaru no Go. The Divine Move being the ‘ultimate move of Go’ and nearly unattainable. The character, Sai, was a ghost who had been dead for thousands of years, and yet had not yet obtained the Divine Move. It drove his obsession and caused him to push his host, Hikaru, to learn more about the game.

The truth is, Go is an incredibly deep game where a difference of one unit of space can mean the difference between a great move and a bad one. It has at least as much depth as Chess, and has kept up over these last few millennia drawing more players into it. Of course, the strategy has evolved as well, and I couldn’t even begin to scratch the surface of that topic if I blogged for years.

Have any of my readers even heard of Go? What do you think of the remarkable simplicity of the rules when compared with its depth?

TweetDeck for Chrome: The Main Screen

Welcome to the TweetDeck For Chrome Learning Guide! This series is dedicated to breaking down all of the functions of TweetDeck for Chrome. If you’re not using TweetDeck for Chrome, go back to the TweetDeck Learning Guide and pick your version!

Once you’ve logged in to TweetDeck a side pane opens up asking you to add your accounts, if you haven’t already.

To add, click the + Add New Account button at the bottom of the column.

Pick your service (Facebook will also be there if you haven’t already added a Facebook account) and link through the API. This will vary depending on your network, but can be as simple as approving with a button press or using your username and password for the service.

Once you have accounts added it automatically loads three columns for you. Home, Me, and Inbox.

These three columns are Merged Columns and give you an overall feed for all accounts connected to your TweetDeck account.

Home

Home covers your News Feed from Facebook accounts and your Timeline from your Twitter accounts. It weaves them together so you get all information in one place.

Me

The Me column brings notifications from Facebook and @Mentions from Twitter. Again, it weaves them together chronologically, so everything is in one place.

Inbox

Inbox is where your Direct Messages from Twitter and messages from Facebook go. Works the same as Home and Me.

You’ve now set up your TweetDeck for Chrome, next time, we’ll explore adding columns to improve usability.