Blaugust Day 26 - Postcards for Josh

A couple of days ago I wrote about about my history with gaming. One of the good friends I referred to, in fact the first person I corresponded with through PBMs and subsequently met years later, is Jason Johns and he or at least his son, is the subject of my post today.

Joshua Johns is seven years old. He's already an avid gamer, a huge Minecraft fan, so he's definately "one of us"

On the 6th of March this year, Joshua was diagnosed with Pre B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.  Since March Josh has been treated with seven different types of chemotherapy and has spent time in hospital on four different occasions with suspected infections. He has had a central line inserted into his chest and now has an ng tube in his nose which is used to feed him as his weight dropped drastically. The chemotherapy has affected his legs so he is unable to walk very far and has a wheelchair. It has also affected his hands and so he is also unable to write. Josh hasn't been able to attend school since he was diagnosed in March. At the end of the school term Josh was sent homework for the holidays which included writing a diary of what he did in the holidays and to send a postcard from his holiday. Unfortunately he is currently going through a particularly intensive block of treatment and so won't be able to go away on holiday this summer. 

For this reason his folks have decided to make his summer homework a little bit different. They have bought a large World map and are asking everyone to send a postcard to Josh from wherever you are if you have the chance. They will then mark the areas he receives postcards from on the map and send this map into school with the postcards in September. 

So if you're going away on holiday or even if you fancy sending a postcard from home please send to Joshua Johns at 2 Swansmoor Drive, Hixon, Staffordshire ST18 0FP. 

If you want to see his progress, there is a Facebook group called Postcards For Josh.

Blaugust Day 25 - the Treasure Hunt grind is over!

So pretty much most of the weekend was spent In LOTRO, in the damn Treasure Hunt. Now I've been sucked into this occasional event on a number of occasions, each time testing my patience to its limit. The hope of a random drop of the Treasure Laden Goat or the grinding of tokens for a emote I'll never use.

 So what attracted me to bang my pick into the ground over and over and race other hungry treasure hunters to berry bushes every fifteen minutes to earn a new pick (and risk being called 'rude' as I was on one occasion!)?  

Cosmetic pets....

Turbine have finally release these to non-Loremasters and everyone is after one, and for a mere 300 treasure tokens, an ugly beast with a blade for a beak could be yours. So I did it...I dug and dug, and chased berry bushes using caffeine induced speed boosts, and I got 300 tokens. Now I'm the proud owner of a green beaked beastie that I'll probably summon a couple of times before I forget he's there.

Oh MMOs, you do like us to run round your little hamster wheel, don't you?

Blaugust Day 24 RPGs - my potted history

The history of my love of fantasy gaming goes back to around 1982. My sister bought me a copy of basic Dungeons and Dragons. I'm not entirely sure she knew what it was and neither did I but a friend and I pored through the rules of that game and tried to figure out how to play it. He managed to roll characters and even run a few fights, but without any kind of mentor, our 11 year old brains couldn't get our head around the concept of role playing. 

It was then this kids brother came on the scene. A good five years older, he got the concept straight away and began DMing basic adventures for us. We then got a grasp and brought others into the fold. The group grew, spread out and soon enough, we moved to Advanced D&D. That was the heyday of RPGs. Huge Monster Manuals with reams of creatures and hundreds of prepublished adventures at our fingertips.

At around the same time, I discovered Warhammer Battle, a mass combat tabletop game, and found other people who enjoyed that. Not long after, the Warhammer RPG came out, a favourite if mine and among other games Dragon Warriors, Rolemaster, Middle Earth Roleplaying, Paranoia, Judge Dredd, these became our bread and butter. Summers were spent morning til night running through games. I fell into the role of DM for most games, and he 80's flew by. 

Toward the end of the decade, college began and I started playing games by post, Play by Mail or PBM games. Through that I met several friends, some of whom I'm still close with today and as I moved away from home and our gaming group disbanded, I turned to PBMs for my main source of entertainment. it wasn't long before I started to run my own games by email, incorporating some of the players from home, along with my new friends from other Postal games. Craig's PBeMs was born. Several years later, computers caught up and email took over from post as the form of communication for these games. Cheaper and more efficient, the pace stepped up and the amount of games I ran increased. At one point I was running 6 campaigns for various game systems. Craig's PBeMs became Knifesedge PBeMs and the name stuck as my handle for most internet dealings.

As work and families have grown, most games have come to an end. Currently, Knifesedge Games runs just one game, set in the 1920's Lovecraftian world and even that drags as players have less time to commit, but I still hold out hope. Computer games fill the gap that RPGs left behind and while I still not for those good old days, MMO's are a good second best.

Blaugust Day 23 - Epic Grumbles

I didn't get up to much gaming today, the wife took the baby hobbit to the in laws so I got to do jobs around the house and garden I don't normally get done when they're around (much as I'd loved to have spent the whole day playing games!)

I did, however, get into LOTRO in the evening and ran Helms Dike with a kinnie. Now a lot of people have complained about the Epic Battles but ideally enjoy them. Yes, they're a challenge to solo and. Bit of time sink but they're fun if you know what to do. However, my recent experiences have started to cloud my love of the system.

I was informed by another kin mate that the catapults are bugged and can crash the instance, so I avoided using them (which happen to be my favourite part of the battles). Then today I found the Powder at the Gate side quest to be bugged. Having wiped out the opposition effectively, the instance ended before it registered our victory, thereby robbing us of valuable rewards.

I don't understand how these instances, that are working perfectly well for the most part, can now be so riddled with bugs. I really hope Turbine sort these out before launching any more!

Oh and another thing, if you are in the Treasure Hunt and rob a berry bush under another players nose, don't get all butthurt when said player uses a speed boost and beats you to the two next bushes. You had it coming!

/endrant

Blaugust Day 22 Hytbold at last and a new game!

I've not posted my activities for a couple of days because there's not been a great deal happening. In LOTRO, my warden Pinestro has finally started the rebuilding of Hytbold and acquired his first armour piece today. Also, the irregular event, the Treasure Hunt, has kicked off again, so I've been spending time there. All very Grindy.

On the positive side, I've installed one of the Humble Bundle games I've been sitting on, Mafia II and I love it. The narrative is engaging, the voice acting outstanding and the 40's soundtrack is incredible. Can't wait to get stuck into this one.

Things in Eve have moved ahead. I've now officially left my original Corporation and joined a new one under the wing of a new mentor I mentioned in a previous post. He has set my training on track to where it should be and given me more invaluable guidance, as well as giving a few million ISK worth of implants.

I'm also happy to announce that I've received my first couple of sponsors for my beard shaving in October. Thanks again to those generous people, and if you too would like to support the Extra Life charity, there's a link in th side bar.

Blaugust Day 21 - Questionaire.

Thanks to Jasyla over at Cannot Be Tamed who has posted a series of questions and asked people to blog the answers, so for today's post, here goes...

When did you start playing video games?
1979

What is the first game you remember playing?
Space Invaders. I remember a local cafe got a machine in and it was literally, out of this world. The feeling of excitement of just watching people play, let alone playing it yourself, still stays with me. I was only 8 years old.

PC or Console? 
Both but right now PC is my gaming machine of choice.

XBox, PlayStation, or Wii? 
I own both XBox and Playstation 3, but right now my preference is for PS. Never played a Wii.

What’s the best game you’ve ever played? 
A tough question, as right now I play some games that are my favourites right now, but the one game that I still hanker to play is the arcade version of Kung Fu Master. We had a fairground that visited our area during Easter and Summer holidays and they had this machine, which I completed over and over. In the process of researching this article, I actually discovered an emulator online so I know what I'm doing after I post this.

What’s the worst game you’ve ever played? 
I don't remember a game I didn't like, though one MMO that I tried once and have no love for at all, is World of Warcraft.

Name a game that was popular/critically adored that you just didn’t like.
World of Warcraft

Name a game that was poorly received that you really like.
When Neverwinter was first released it got a bad rap, at least from some people who's opinions I value but I loved it and still do.

What are your favourite game genres?
Fantasy RPG's, Wargame Simulations

Who is your favourite game protagonist?
Thomas, the Kung Fu Master!

Describe your perfect video game.
Good immersive story, graphics that take my breath away and something challenging but not to the point I rage quit.

What video game character do have you have a crush on?
Lara Croft - an affair I've engaged in since 1996, but she has no idea :(

What game has the best music? 
I love the early music on Lord of the Rings Online but another arcade game that I used to love, was 1983's Gyruss and the music for it was Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. I still love that piece of music and all thanks to that game.

Most memorable moment in a game:
Running Draigoch in LOTRO for the first time. As I'm not a regular raider, this was my first experience of a successfully run, on level raid and the feeling of excitement while doing I still remember well.

Scariest moment in a game:
Seeing Draigoch for the first time. I'd been warned he was big, but running down while he was breathing fire was very scary!

Most heart-wrenching moment in a game:
The end of Batman: Arkham City (no spoilers!)

What are your favourite websites/blogs about games?
Currently Contains Moderate Peril and Massively

What’s the last game you finished? 
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

What future releases are you most excited about? 
Assassin's Creed Unity, Arkham Knight, Alien Isolation

Do you identify as a gamer?
Definately

Why do you play video games? 
To pass time, for entertainment, escapism and to socialise with like minded gamers.

Blaugust Day 20 - I do a lot of work for Charidy (but don't like to talk about it)

Just in case you haven't been spammed by my Facebook and Twitter posts, I felt this was another great avenue to announce that I've joined Team Turbine to raise money for Extra Life.

I have opted to support the Boston Children's Hospital, as it's local to Turbine (and the charity doesn't yet support UK hospitals) and on October 25th I'll be shaving the beard I've worn since 1992.

If you haven't heard about it (and if you're a gamer reading this, I'd be surprised if you've avoided it!) you can check them out here

If you want to lend your support to me directly, here's the link...

http://www.extra-life.org/participant/knifesedge