Whoops

I apologize, the post for today had links to some bundles that ended before the post went up. My bad for not reading the date.

That said, there is a Humble Bundle up for Racial Justice and Equality up that includes a few table top RPGs (like Starfinder). There is also a 5e bundle with some other books that may interest you.

We'll have more RPG and GM thought stuff for tomorrow and Friday. Today, help out some of the charities keeping people in action and consider how you can get involved at a level that works for you.

Off Topic: The Health Benefits of Gaming

Gaming, all gaming, is near and dear to my heart. So when I was asked to share an info-graphic about the health benefits of gaming, well, I couldn't turn it down. I'll let the infographic maker give the explanation.

Gaming used to have a bad rep. When I was a kid, saying someone was a gamer was akin to saying they were a social outcast; that they were uncool, unfashionable and out of touch. Media portrayals and stereotypes were often similarly negative. However, in the last couple of decades, this has changed massively. Gaming has become a big business, videos games have gone mainstream, and it has become socially acceptable for people from every demographic to play video games, from the suburban housewife to the 30-something male. However, something of the bad reputation has stuck: the idea that gaming is somehow unhealthy. People assume that playing video games is the antithesis of good health, and that gamers must thus be unhealthy. This is not necessarily the case. 
  
I am obviously not recommending gaming as your only form of physical exercise. Possibly keep on going to the gym or whatever you do in the way of exercise. Or not. As you wish. However, gaming can actually be healthy. Gaming can actually be good for you in a multitude of ways: it can improve your memory and problem solving skills (as anyone who has ever played an RPG will surely attest!), it can allow you to develop and hone your spatial awareness, it can reduce the subjective feeling of pain, and it can also (as has been shown by studies) reduce the feeling of trauma of those who have been in accidents. 

So, gamers need no longer be tarred with the brush that they were even a decade and a half ago. Likewise, as a gamer you can confidently declare that your gaming can actually be good for you, and scoff in the face of those health freaks with their protein shakes and supplements! Everything in moderation, mind!


To find out more about the benefits of gaming, see this infographic from the experts at Computer Planet.

Off Topic: What Makes For A Good Contest?

Bit off topic for this, but I figure it is for the greater good so it should be ok. See, this coming January we are going to be coming up on the 4th Birthday of Reality Refracted and I thought it might be fun to do a small contest or something.

The thing is, I have no idea how I'd even run a contest. What does it need? What makes for a good prize? What makes for a bad one? What should it be about? Do you guys even want a contest being run?

Sound off in the comments with your thoughts, and we can see about whether or not there will be a contest, what kind of contest, and what we might be looking at for a prize for said contest.

Oh, as a note, keep in mind ideally it all should be gaming related.

Off Topic - Custom Fate Dice

In general I try not to plug too much commercialization here, but I also like to help people who write the blog asking for me to look over a project or other thing. Why do I mention that? Well, because last week the fine folks over at Front Range Games noticed that I've been talking a lot about FATE Core and the Dresden Files RPG and reached out to me about a kickstarter they have going. I figured it was neat enough, and definitely directly related to the core concept of this blog enough, that I'd bring it to your guys attention today.

3 Year Anniversary

Today, or sometime about today, marks Reality Refracted's 3 year anniversary. In truth, the date is probably closer to earlier January as, originally, I started this blog on LiveJournal under the name Art of Gaming. The reason? Well, I wanted to share my ideas on table top gaming, figured it was something I could talk about for years, and well, what do you know, I was right.

Not saying every topic has been original and that we haven't gone back over things several times on occasion, but it has been 3 years of very regular content. However, at present I am averaging 289 posts per year. I update Monday through Friday only meaning that I am actually averaging very slightly more than 1 post per posting day. Though, admittedly, some days get small posts and in the beginning I was doing 7 days a week. Still, it's been a lot of good times.

The best part? The responses and comments. I've really enjoyed reading everyone's responses, thoughts, and stories that they've shared here. It's been a lot of fun. Hopefully the trend will continue as we make our way to 4 years of comments and commentary on gaming.

Thanks again!

Off Topic: RIP City of Heroes

Today's November 30th. That means it is the last day for City of Heroes to be online. The game shut its doors to new characters some time ago, and tonight at midnight the servers come down forever. There was a good try by the community to save the game, but it wasn't meant to be. Ultimately, the powers that be decided that the game just wasn't going to be viable for their future plans.

Off Topic: Thanksgiving & Black Friday Round Up!

I'm going to be a cheap no-goodnick today. No RPG advice for you. Instead I'm going to wish you a fond weekend and hope that those of you in the U.S. enjoy your turkey day. Everyone else, enjoy your Thursday (have some Turkey!) Then hopefully everyone will have a safe black friday and not go club someone over the last pack of Game Science dice that they can find.

Off Topic: Assassin's Creed 3 Mini-Review

In my time away from work, after I've hammered out the day's word count for NaNoWriMo (for those who care, current word count is just shy of 40k) I've been playing Assassin's Creed 3. Yesterday I finished the game, and felt it might be good to give a bit of a mini-review as a change of pace. That said, let's begin.

Off Topic; NaNoWriMo

Today being November 1st it is the beginning of NaNoWriMo. As someone who enjoys writing and aspires to get paid for their writing I intend to use this month to shake off the dust and get back into writing. I am aiming for a full novel, not just the 50k normal cap, for this month. However, with the new responsibilities I have at work this is likely to cut into blog time.

As such, for the month of November I am going to ramp back the expected new content to 3 posts a week. Most likely this will be Mon, Wed, and Fri. Posts may still pop up on Tues and Thurs depending on my free time, but I can't make any promises for it.

That said, is anyone else planning on giving NaNo a try or otherwise participating? If so, what are you planning on writing?

Off Topic: State of the Blog (and Blogger)

Sorry again for late post today, I'll address it below. Today is a quick post but I just wanted to keep everyone up to speed with what is going on.

Off Topic - A Damn Cool Blog

Hey folks, today I'm going to use my viewership to try and help the viewership of a cool blog that I've been reading a lot of lately. If you read here regularly than you've probably seen several of Shorty Monster's comments on posts I've made. Did you know that he has his own blog? More to the point, did you know that his blog has some damn cool stuff on it? Like this post here about an interesting technique that can be pulled off with a long sword.

Seriously, go check out the blog. It can only help you. While you're there, give Shorty Monster some love!

Faster Than Light - That Old School Kick

Forgive me for having an Off Topic on Tuesday, but I'll try to relate it to our table top games as much as possible. Before I begin though, have you played this game? If not, and you like playing games on your computer, you should give it a shot. It's only $10 on Steam, and while a quick play is entirely possible it is intriguing in how the game works out. It also has a lot of fun things to use in your table top game.

Off Topic: R.I.P. Paragon Studios

Sorry for no post today, but I wanted to bring attention to this.

Late last week Paragon Studios received word from NCSoft (their parent company) that they were to cease all development work on the game, close all the market/subscription services, and shut down effective immediately with the game to come down before the end of the year (approximately end of November.) This came as a shock to everyone, especially the fans.And why wouldn't it? Just about six hours before word came down the the most popular Super Hero MMO out there was going to be shutting down teasers were released for the newest content that was to be released sometime within the next 30 days (it was already in Open Beta.)

To be clear, this is not a game getting a sunset. The story, which has been in development for 7-8 years now, is not getting an ending. The studio is not moving on. Everything is being shut down and packed away as suddenly as it sounds.

I wish I knew why. All signs point to CoH having been a profitable game with a stable population. The servers were more populated than ever since the game went free to play, and the game even won awards recently for how well its free to play and microtransaction models had been set up. There is no visible reason for why a company would shut down Paragon Studios aside from not liking money (if you have one, let me know, please.)

NCSoft's official reason so far is that they wish to go in a different direction with the games they support/put out there. A friend's theory - which I don't agree with - is that with Aion having done so poorly that they're shutting down CoH in the hopes people will go to Guild Wars 2 which just released. Only that doesn't make much sense to me as MMO players are notoriously spiteful, and people who are dedicated followers to an 8 year old game likely don't have a copmuter capable of handling a brand new game, and if they did they likely already had a copy.

Whatever the reason, I know that one of the big inspiration points I had for Super Hero stories and a place where I could test out ideas is now gone. So, today I wanted to give an R.I.P. to Paragon Studios and hope that the developers find new homes soon. They honestly were the best development team I've ever seen. Especially when it came to community involvement.

Off Topic - E3 Trailers

So, while we all quietly toiled away at our jobs this week the video game industry had it's E3 convention. I rather enjoy E3, even if it has been hit or miss over the years, because it gives the video/pc/console gamer in me stuff to look forward to. Sometimes that's enough to get over what's known as the summer slump. This year, at least from what I've seen so far, I rather enjoyed two of the trailers quite a lot.

The first:

Poor Capcom and Ninja Theory are getting a lot of flak for the look of the new Dante. Approaching this game as a whole new thing though - which I am doing - and I am looking forward to it. I actually like Dante's voice, and while I prefer the old Dante's appearance, the new one is growing on me and works for the world they've made. Also, how many of your characters would love to do that club entrance?

The second:

I may be one of the few people who actually liked Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2. Sure, he was a bit whiny but he got the job done, and all in all I thought he did a good job of establishing himself. In Metal Gear Solid 4 Raiden returned, this time as the Cyber Ninja, and won over a lot more fans. I'll admit I'm not a fan of how his head looks, but it serves its purpose well. Metal Gear Rising is a game with the Ninja Raiden as the protagonist and one of the design goals is to let players pull off the action sequences in game that Raiden pulled off in cut scenes in MGS4. To help do this, Kojima called in the folks at Platinum Games (of Bayonetta fame.) As a fan of both studios, I really am looking forward to this game as well. Also, I just like the trailer a lot.

How about you? Did you have any favorites from E3 that you want to share? Post a link in the comments!

After Edit: I know I said 2, but I found this trailer and wanted to share it as well. Anyone who likes mech anime probably loved the Zone of the Enders series of games for the PS2. Well, Kojima Productions are putting out an HD collection this fall - complete with a demo for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance for old time's sake. There are also rumors that Kojima is finally working on a ZoE 3. Enjoy!

Off Topic: Darksiders

Yeah yeah, I know. Not only is this post late, but it's also about an old game that no one cares about? Well, sit with me for the short post and see if you don't change your mind. Alternatively, sound off in the comments and let me know what you'd like to see Friday's dedicated to.

Off Topic - Self Pimpage - Corrupts Absolutely?

Off Topic: Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer

For today's Off Topic I want to take a few moments to, well, gush about ME3's multiplayer. Now, I'll admit, when the game was in development I was skeptical about this mode. I didn't want Bioware taking any time or resources away from the game in order to add a multiplayer component to what was so far a single player exclusive series. That said though, the game has convinced me that it deserves to be there. Enough so that my ME3 time lately has been spent in multiplayer instead of finishing my first play through of the game. (I'm still only at Tuchanka, so if you respond please keep spoilers out.) So, why do I like it? Well, there are a few reasons. Let's discuss those below.

Off Topic - Maverick Rising

There's a lot of cross over between videogamers and RPG gamers. It is also my experience that this cross over also extends to other areas of geekery, and that many folks who like playing games also enjoy 'geeky' music. So, for today's off topic I figured I'd share this link. It is a recently released collection of remixes of tunes from the Mega Man X series. I've been listening to it for the past couple of days, and it has made a nice change of pace from the various pandora stations and itunes libraries I'd been using before.

Enjoy.

Maverick Rising!

Off Topic Discussion: Favorite Genre For Stories

This Friday I figured I'd combine things and have an off topic discussion. Now, I know we've discussed our favorite genre for games before, but is it different for stories? When you read a book, what type of book do you find yourself going back to a lot? What about with movies? TV shows? Cartoons? Comics?

Off Topic - Every Book Except One

There's been fairly little in the way of participation of discussions lately, so I'm going to shake things up a bit. Fridays are now going to be open for "Off Topic" posts. These posts will still be, tangentially, related to gaming, but not necessarily on the table top RPG area. Some days it will be videos, some days it might be thoughts on movies, and other days it might just be something random.

This doesn't mean that discussions are done. I'm just not going to force them down folks throats every friday. I also don't intend for every Friday to be an Off Topic. However, I am keeping the possibility open for me to free blog here once a week, or just to share something I found that I thought was kind of cool.

Today's Off topic? This neat little comic a friend posted on his facebook earlier today. Read it, enjoy, and perhaps get an idea for an RPG setting.

http://paolody.multiply.com/journal/item/554/All_The_Books_In_The_World..._Except_One