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How to write about games and girls

The following article presents a 10 step guide for a man who wants to tackle the tricky subject of his favorite hobby and why there are so few girls playing:

richardcobbett.co.uk | Richard’s Online Journal | Writing  “Girls In Games” Article

At some point in your writing career, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll think it’s a good idea to write one of these articles. If you’re a guy, that is. By and large, female writers have better things to do with their time than obsess over their gender while playing a game, and tend to be into gaming because they like – how can I put this? Oh, yes, playing games, rather than out of a burning need to practice amateur sociology.But never mind that. Here’s your ten-step path to success.

As so often happens: it makes me laugh but it’s still a quite serious topic, that is if you want to write such an article. I play games because I like them. I’ve played all kinds of games and I just can’t explain why I like some and why I don’t like others … I’ve played some “girl games” and I have seen guys play them and I’ve played “guy games” and enjoyed them. Usually I simply play “my games” …

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WoW and gold farmers

As it happens we were discussing gold farming on the guild forum after one member posted a link to an article on gold farming. Some people were quite surprised that gold farming (the wikipedia article cites most of the same sources I do actually *g*) was so common and such a big issue in our lovely innocent game world. For me this came not as a surprise as a long time reader (since their creation actually) of terranova (read it …. there are so many good articles on all kinds of virtual worlds there it’s just good!) and other similar blogs and a lot of wow related news sources. I have read quite a bit about the topic at hand and collected a few relevant links which I want to repost here.

Continue reading “WoW and gold farmers”

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More projects, apply more projects!

I found the following beautiful list today – and read the whole thing. It’s quite funny as long as you don’t start to seriously think about it and maybe some may even learn a few bits from that list =)

Random Thoughts from a CTO: 50 Beliefs about Projects

Even if you don’t agree with the entire list, you or somebody on your project team have thought of each of these things:

  1. It takes one woman nine months to have a baby. It cannot be done in one month by impregnating nine women.
  2. Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn’t have to do it.
  3. You can con a sucker into committing to an impossible deadline, but you cannot con him into meeting it.
  4. At the heart of every large project is a small project trying to get out.
  5. …….
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Cool Tool: X-treme Tape

I think some of you might like X-treme Tape

This stuff is sort of magical. You stretch it on and it self-fuses tight under tension. It works in cold and wet, and won’t melt on hot surfaces, so you can use it on engines. It is easy to apply even when it is below freezing.

It’s not like I need something like this, but you just never know …. I think it qualifies for “gizmo”!

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Which X are you?

You scored as Jean Grey. Jean Grey is likely the most powerful X-Man. She loves Cyclops very much but she has a soft spot for Wolverine. She’s psychic so she can sense how others are feeling and tries to help them. She also has to control her amazing powers or the malevolent Phoenix entity could take control of her and wreak havok. Powers: Telekinetic, Telepathic

Jean Grey
75%
Storm
60%
Cyclops
55%
Rogue
55%
Nightcrawler
50%
Beast
50%
Iceman
40%
Gambit
35%
Wolverine
25%
Colossus
25%
Emma Frost
25%

Most Comprehensive X-Men Personality Quiz 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com
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Für einen ist es allein

Wie jeden Donnerstag haben wir auch heute bzw. gestern DSA gespielt. Wie fast jeden Donnerstag haben wir haufenweise zum futtern gehabt. Manchmal fragt man sich doch obs ums essen oder ums zocken geht.

Besonders pikant dieses mal die Melone (mitten im Bild). Dazu auch das nächste Bild ….

Zu später Stunde dann gelang unserem Geweihten der Rondra, Rhys noch eine unglaubliche Prophezeiung – nachdem alle in der Nacht Alpträume hatten und wir Cevan mühselig überzeugt hatten, dass wir noch nicht umkehren sondern erst einmal herausfinden was los ist – sagte auf einmal Rhys “Für einen ist es allein dieses Tal zu verlassen” seine kryptischen Worte sorgten für Verwunderung (und einiges an Gelächter) und den verlust fast des gesamten Wortschatzes bei ihm und el doctor Tulachim: mehr als die Worte “einer allein Tal verlassen” war aus den beiden nicht mehr rauszubekommen …

Melon eating

Aber zum Glück war ja auch fast alles aufgegessen … auf dem Weg nach Hause spielen sie jetzt noch ein wenig Ubongo Affentheater (ich muss ja nicht alles verstehen was die so von sich geben oder?) und hoffentlich werden sie nicht irgendwo angehalten …
Deswegen jetzt auch Gute Nacht. Und zur rechten noch die “Melone”-Show -> ein Hinweis noch: das Photo ist in groß nur für “Friends und Family” freigegeben … aber ein paar der Details sind doch zu “na ja” um es einfach so unter “Public” zu posten =)

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rp quiz

Via the inofficial newgods blog comes the “What kind of roleplayer are you?” quiz. My not-so-surprising results:

You scored as Method Actor. You think that gaming is a form of creative expression. You may view rules as, at best, a necessary evil, preferring sessions where the dice never come out of the bag. You enjoy situations that test or deepen your character’s personality traits.

Method Actor
100%
Storyteller
92%
Specialist
58%
Power Gamer
50%
Tactician
42%
Casual Gamer
33%
Butt-Kicker
25%

Law’s Game Style
created with QuizFarm.com
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Total Annihilation

I installed a few more games on the new computer tonight and I thought I’d check out how fast loading times were with TA and played a pretty short game.

I attacked with an army of 10 units and then there was the enemy commander and a voice from the off said “you’re not gonna win like that” and seconds later the commander exploded.

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Bad code?

There’s an article up on the Bile Blog with some interesting points about tomcat … well about one class in tomcat. It would be quite a hilarious read if we weren’t using tomcat everywhere:

The BileBlog

This code is so abysmally bad in fact that I know of at least one person (this is NOT a joke) who uses it in interviews, asks people to identify all the things wrong with it. These are potential employees who I’m sure would be paid a lot less than Craig or Remy, but had they the same coding ability, wouldn’t be allowed in. The whole thing would make a fine contribution to dailyWTF, I’m sure.