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Hey you punk! What are you writing down there?
- Erik Twice
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So I'm now taking my writing a little bit more seriously. Sure, I thought pretty high of my pretentious shitty wish fullfilment fantasy characters when I was twelve but I'm beginning to think that hey, perhaps I am not that bad. I have been keeping a blog for two years now ( eriktwicedoesitagain.wordpress.com/ ) and if the embarrasment I get from reading my earliest articles is any indication, I must have improved quite a bit. At least some people agree because I'm now writing a retrogaming column at Snackbargames.com which has been for a while now(More shameless plug:http://www.snackbar-games.com/features/flashback/). While I'm still suffering a bit to write the articles I have to say I'm quite proud of how it's turning out, it's not about the same tired Contra/Chrono Trigger/Megaman 2 stuff and it reads quite differently from most articles on retrogaming, which I like a lot.
I have also changed my blog a bit so it doesn't look like I'm homeless and really, really bored. I still have some bullshit movie articles and most people who get in my site do it by looking for "box" ("corrugated box" for the real pros) but I don't think it's a throwaway project anymore. Hell, I've managed to keep it positive and nice, which is incredibly hard for me, I'm really harsh sometimes.
What about you? I'm really willing to listen to what you do
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- Erik Twice
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- san il defanso
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- ENDUT! HOCH HECH!
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I started writing about games after about six months in the hobby. At the time I wasn't around F:AT at all, so I was really heavily influenced by that "bullet points and numerical scores" method of game criticism from BGG. I'm not proud of most of my early stuff, but you start somewhere I guess. I started feeling a lot better about my work when I stopped trying to put bullet points and headings, and just wrote about them like I'd write about anything else. By that time, I'd started hanging out here a lot more and I'd been influenced by the regular contributors around here.
So I figured I'd start me a game blog, which was in the summer of 2010. I couldn't keep a regular schedule, and it languished for a while. But after I figured out a way to keep it up, I got to updating once or twice a week. The frequency gave me a lot more confidence. Once you really learn how to write regularly, it becomes a lot easier. (duh)
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So far I've only been motivated to write about a game if I've had a hard time buying it because others have been negative about it and then find I like or love it.
This motivated to me to write interviews on Android (it's broken. it's not), Dominant Species (in the beginning it was said to be too random to have decent strategy (it is somewhat random, but it's still quite strategic), Merchants and Marauders (Merchants are overpowered, they're not) and just now Mice and Mystics (Is it just for kids - No. But it IS more of a family game.
At the moment, I don't have the time or inclination to write a blog. Maybe when I retire....
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- Erik Twice
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No kidding! Something that took me long to learn is that if you keep trying to tweak for perfection, you will just fail because you will never learn and be able to start over. I used to write short stories and I kept working on the same one, treading water which resulted in the most stilted writing you can imagine.San Il Defanso wrote: ]The frequency gave me a lot more confidence. Once you really learn how to write regularly, it becomes a lot easier. (duh)
In fact the progress is so fast compared to my previous one it's kind of embarrasing. I can barely read what I wrote just a year ago, much less what I did before I started blogging, uuugh. On the bright side, I barely got any hits so it's not like many saw the shit I had =P
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I've been trying to get a "million dollar idea" podcast off the ground for at least a year now, where myself and my cohort both share our own amazing ideas we have no intention of actually following through on as well as developing the ideas of whoever sends theirs in.
I shot the first episode of a show where I get fall down drunk with the boy and we learn, play and review a children's game. Still haven't had time to properly edit it but it's pretty awesome and will be instant gold once it finally drops.
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The original idea was two fold. First a friend of mine asked me to recommend some good movies. She being the type that always replies "no" when you start a sentence with "Did you ever see..." Second, I thought what would a movie review look like if you stripped out all the fluff like the plot summary and who the actors are and what else the director worked on. Well you'd get about a paragraph of text.
I attempt to get to the heart of what the film made me feel and anything that stands out to me as quickly as possible. I like to think they are pretty funny sometimes too. And for the record it takes me FAR longer than five seconds to write one.
More recently I've been putting up the F:AT Thursday session reports in the blog section. This is more of a thing to hurl thinly veiled insults at Josh, Al, and Uba and to sing the blues about how I lost yet another game.
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- Dr. Mabuse
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I've never really enjoyed writing and the number of posts I write here and on BGG but never submit must be in the hundreds. I love gaming and I thought that the love of it would help motivate me to create the other. Initially it did but after about 3 reviews it became a chore and an exercise in frustration.
My last review, written earlier this year took 2-3 weeks to write. I was done.
There are far more eloquent and thought-provoking writers out there, I was only adding static to the vast stream of digital content.
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- SuperflyPete
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So, I started looking at all these games out there and how many had all these REALLY boring BGG articles. I thought that I could do better, and not be a shilltastic propagandist.
Maybe it worked, maybe it didn't. All I know is that I temporarily imploded a website, got banned 7 times from another, and made some friends. Life is good. Or it was. I got sick, all of the people who ~were~ my friends dropped off of the face of the earth, and so I don't get to game much. That, and being what amounts to a "shut in" has pretty much sucked most of the joy out of my life.
So, now I paint. Lots and lots of painting. And I learned how to make really great bases for miniatures. And I cook a lot. Will I ever go back to writing? Probably not. That's run its course. I may put a couple articles up. I have one that's written but I just don't have the desire to take the 10 seconds to put it anywhere.
"Say "what" again. Say "what" again. I dare you. I double-dare you, motherfucker. Say "what" one more goddamn time."
When I'm done painting these, there's a sense of satisfaction. Purpose. When I'm done writing an article, it's more of a sense of relief. Hell, my favorite article (that I wrote) isn't even a gaming article. It's about the funnels added to Miller bottles.
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- SuperflyPete
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I'm not sure if my eclectic tastes in gaming and history work for a blog, it might need a clearer focus still.
I've decided I need to keep up the writing so I get used to writing regularly, although I'm not forcing myself to publish every day. But I have a string of ideas in the works that can keep me occupied for weeks even if I don't play any games or read any books.
Our club has also recently converted to a blog style website and I do post there once or twice a week. It's easier because it's in my native tongue.
Actually, writing is easy. Research and images are what takes most time. If you want to write something more profound, you need to check on stuff and I don't like using images from the web because of intellectual property issues and because I now have a bit of a personal touch. One goal for 2013 is to improve my imaging skills so it becomes routine and I can do some nice banners.
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- SuperflyPete
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SuperflyTNT wrote: Jur, hit my buddy JASON BENNINGFIELD up on Facebook. He's an incredibly talented illustrator. He works for pennies (my banner on my site cost me a shipment of OLYMPOS to him, 10$, and I got Olympos on review...)
Thanks Pete, I'll check him out
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That's it for me and writing, I find games writing really dull and have a hard time getting through it. Few people can entertain me with games writing, or podcasts (which I never listen to), and certainly video reviews which I just can't watch to completion.
Thread posts on the other hand are more conversational and I have an easier time digesting them.
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