Today, I just wanted to ramble a little about what’s new over here, and since I’m obsessed with anchors, you can skip sections. Hooray! Most importantly, I’ll talk about Blogging and Blaugust so far, GamesCom plans, a little about my health, and other stuff.
Blaugust 2022
How’s it going?
We reached the halfway mark for Blaugust 2022 and I still haven’t created a reusable block that features the Blaugust Participant Appreciation post at the end of every post in August… I may do that later after a nap but I just forget to do it.
In terms of blogging daily, no issues at all. I think the day after tomorrow is actually Day 600 of daily blogging… something I probably just won’t talk about. I mean, I wrote a fricking post on 540, so doing another extra post only two months later isn’t really worth it, is it? I mean, I may write a paragraph about it but I wouldn’t know what to say.
I will have to write a few more posts in advance though (see in the GamesCom section) just in case I miss out on a day or can’t write because of my internet being janky… We’ll see.
Reviews
This month, so far, we’ve published a review on Cartel Tycoon, Retreat to Enen, and Tyrant’s Blessing. That’s pretty good, eh? Innit? No? I mean, yes, it is but it’s nowhere near the 17 that should be out by today but I have plans to at least increase the number over the next two weeks. Would be pretty cool if I could double-post a few times!
In terms of the actual process, I’ve struggled a lot with the intro section but honestly, I’m just overthinking anyway.
I also don’t wanna turn into much of a drinker but Rosé pairs well with writing reviews. I should drink more often while I write about games. It just kinda softens those constraints like “overthinking” and “over-editing” and stuff. Instead, I can drink a glass or a few while I write. Then I go to sleep… and I wake up, ready to edit.
I feel like that’s good… or I’ve edited it before already while tipsy. Anyway, that worked out quite well for the Tyrant’s Blessing review and I’ll most likely do something similar at some point again – but I don’t wanna turn into much of a drinker, so I’ll try to keep it at a glass at most… maybe two or three.
Paragraph-Length
Paragraph Length has improved, I think.
Honestly, once you understand stuff like the whys and whynots, it gets easier to figure out when to go short and when to go long… More importantly, I’m orienting myself along the preview that shows it on a phone screen and then I add line breaks to that.
Seems to work. Feedback would be lovely!
Topic Spacing
This is a weird topic but I have to do better in terms of topic spacing.
It’s not something that a casual reader would probably notice but I put a lot of thought into what posts are posted after other posts and stuff…
If you release two negative reviews next to each other, it will seem like you’re being overly negative at the moment.
Similarly, I kinda wanna write about specific genres more often but I can’t just published a Vampire-Survivor-like game as a review right after another, so I’ve got two drafts sitting there and one will be published today or tomorrow and the other will be published at another day after I published a different review before it.
I don’t think it matters in terms of SEO or whatever but I personally don’t like posting a review of the same genre twice in a row… or overly negative and ranty posts and stuff back to back… I remember recommending Death’s Door but then talking about how bad some stuff is (with spoilers) a day later. Felt weird.
Spacing out posts is great though as different days do well differently. Naithin once wrote a post about weekend metrics being worse than normal metrics which may be something worth considering when spacing out posts for the week/scheduling stuff.
If you get a post done on a weekend, you can schedule it for Monday, another for Thursday, and then you have two posts out in a week and those may do better (in my experience) than posting two posts back to back with no posts until next week. But I guess that doesn’t matter if you post daily anyway.
#GamesCom2022 Preparation
This year’s GamesCom is coming up next week and I’m incredibly excited about it but I have a lot to prepare for… as you can see right here!
Opening Night Live – with Geoff Keighley
So, the ONL is happening on a YouTube and Twitch live stream on Tuesday, August 23rd, at 11 AM PT/2 PM ET/7 PM BST/8PM CEST and I think I may watch the video of it on Stream on Wednesday, given that I’m not sure if I’ll be at home for the broadcast on Tuesday.
I believe that I only heard about Geoff Keighley in 2021 much to the shock of other Blaugust people. Anyway, in this past year, I’ve come to like him kinda. I respect the work he does as an organizer and host and journalist, so I’m looking forward to watching the broadcast even if it’s not gonna be live for me. I then may write about games I’m looking forward to or something on that day.
Interviews
Just like in 2019 when I first went to the GamesCom, I wanna do interviews with people and I wanna publish a bunch of interviews that I wanna do with Indie devs and stuff.
I actually have a few sessions scheduled already with specific developers that reached out to me but I’ll probably do some other ones as well on titles that I discover at the specific event.
There are also a few publishers that will be there with their own booth and I wanna talk to them about what they do, their values, and what games they’re publishing at the moment. I’d love to learn more about publishers in the process as well and can’t wait to possibly to talk to the people from Daedalic, Raw Fury, Super Rare Games, and others if I get the chance.
Past Mistakes
In the past, I honestly was winging it… and I did so poorly. The interviews had way too many questions, a lot of which weren’t relevant to the game in question either and more focused on the person behind them.
I didn’t have the idea of doing interviews until the last minute, so I basically wrote down a few that I could come up with at the time and then I asked people those questions… That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it pretty much wasn’t great either.
I did do interviews with people in the past few years, so I learned a lot already and I hope that I can do a better job with that this year.
Quality over Quantity
So, one of the things I learned was that it’s often better to ask a few good questions rather than a lot of generic and boring ones.
Rather than including every question and every answer, I can be selective when I write the post and see if I can trim the length in the process to get more people to read the most important things about these devs.
I also don’t want to talk to every single developer given time constraints and stress. I think it will be better to focus on a fair few and then just see how it goes and then publish a select few depending on the answers I’m getting.
Audio Recordings via Phone Suck
I don’t quite know how to deal with this one but essentially, I will have to do another audio recording for every interview and I’ll do some mic-tests at an upcoming party or maybe at our main station here in the city I live in since the background noise is similarly loud. That’s gonna be quite useful, I believe, and then I’ll gauge how close to their face I’ll have to be with my phone.
I’m no professional but since I’m writing a transcript of the answers, I wanna be accurate and hence, I’ll do voice recordings.
Questions prepared in Advance
I don’t want to wing it, so I’m sitting down tomorrow, most likely, to get the questions out as soon as possible and then I’ll have an easier time at the GamesCom without me needing to sit down somewhere with questions to ask.
Scheduling
Up there you can see the plan and essentially, I expect the halls to be quite full, so I’ll primarily stick to the Indie Area, the Retro Area and some other spaces where other people are.
I’ll most likely get ready to leave around 6 AM and then take the bus/train to Cologne. My bus ride to the main station takes about 20 minutes. My train then should take about 30 to 40 minutes depending on how full it gets… Sometimes doors end up taking too long to close because of the train being super full when the GamesCom is happening and I basically have to account for that.
So, I’ll need roughly an hour to be there. Since the event won’t be open until 9 AM, I wanna get up around 6 and basically prepare breakfast for the ride as well as food for during the day… and then I will pack all the things I’ll need (masks, my vaccine pass thingy, food, phone, a battery, a charger, etc.) and I’ll most likely get going around 7 in the morning, meaning I’ll have time to possibly talk to people that are waiting in queue before the event.
Will we do interviews with people in the queue? Maybe! Will it be a bit of an annoyance? Yes, most likely.
During the day, I don’t really have too many things planned at the moment. I wanna spend the early hours looting (lol) because I still regret that I only got a mouse pad last time. I’d love to grab a free T-Shirt, some posters, pins, and maybe something cool like a USB stick or something. That’d be rad.
Then I’ll try to get around to the various areas and maybe talk to some devs already in the early hours while it’s not too busy. I also wanna take some pictures, play demos, and maybe check out that new tech that some devs work on. That’d be rad.
At some point, I’d love it if I could just chat with different people, maybe take pictures with cosplayers or something if I find a Bondrewd or someone with a cool costume… I’d also love to meet other people that write about games, although that may just be a thing for another event or year entirely, haha.
At last, in the evening, I’ve got a few appointments with developers to talk about their games. My only worry is that I may not find the place where I need to go in time or that it will be too crowded or something… but I’ll figure something out!
Wanna Meet Up?
If you wanna meet up, message me on Twitter or Discord! I’d love to chat, hang out and do stuff that you do when you meet in person. I don’t know. It’s been a while since I met online people IRL.
Covid and GamesCom
Since Covid is still going on, I’ll most likely wear my mask (FFP2) for the majority of the event, especially when it’s crowded. I’ll also do a test on the same day, probably, just to make sure that I’m good and that I don’t have it or something.
At the same time, though, I want to enjoy the event and I get that it may not be the most responsible thing to do but I wanna be selfish as well at times and enjoy my youth while I have it. So, I’m taking safety precautions (I may get a fourth shot, potentially, as well) but I’ll still be there even with all the concerns.
Health
Headaches
So, uh, for anyone that doesn’t know, I’ve been having constant headaches for the past four years, daily… and that sucked. Nobody was able to find an answer. In fact, for the past year or so, I’ve been sent from doctor to doctor because I decided that I could live with the headaches but I couldn’t live with the “suddenly turning blind” thing that I experienced.
Well, I’ve been to physical therapy… and I’m trying to be more aware about my posture and stuff… and that helped. The headaches are still there, though, and I still don’t know why my eyesight was gone for a few hours when that happened. Who knows?
I also don’t know for sure if the headaches are caused by bad posture and stuff. I mean, it’s gotten better but I still feel them.
Getting Stung By A Wasp… In The Lip.
Yesterday, I went to a BBQ that we did with our debate club and I wanted to hydrate but didn’t see a wasp in my soda. So, I took a sip and ended up getting stung in the inside of the lip.
Now, it’s been seven hours and the swelling is less noticeable… and it’s no longer burning as much but it still hurts and it’s quite annoying actually but I’m trying to cool it every once in a while.
At the same time though, this has been a very new experience for me. I mean… not only have I been stung by a wasp into the lip for the first time… I’ve actually been stung by a wasp for the first time… at all. You know. This is a first for me.
I liked wasps until now. I mean, they’re kinda cool. Also, wasps don’t do anything unless you aggravate them… So, put them in your mouth, I guess. They’re also endangered, as I learned yesterday, so if someone were to record a video of me harming a wasp, I could possibly face a charge of up to 50,000€ which translates to “a shit load of money” in other countries’ currencies. So, uh, save the wasps? The “W” in “UwU” stands for “wasp”?
Going to the Gym again
This has to do with my posture as well but I have to go to the Gym. It’s, honestly, been great to go there and work out and to be completely drenched in sweat. I mean, it’s hot outside… and hot inside…
I guess the main thing here is that I’m doing it to achieve an overall level of all-around fitness at the moment. I haven’t really done many sports in general and according to the physical therapy guy, I’m not allowed to go running anymore until I fix my posture. Apparently, that’s not good to do.
So, my goal is to go swimming and to the gym. It might also be a great way to deal with stress…
Also, it helps with my self-esteem and the way I see myself. I mean, I feel great in my own skin and I don’t struggle too much with my self-esteem or loving myself or anything… but then there’s my thighs and my butt, for instance, and ever since I reached my ideal weight (still gotta gain a few kilos more until I get to that sweet 95kg!), my belly has become a bit more belly-like.
So, all-around fitness and stamina stuff will be great, so I wanna go swimming and to the gym and see if that helps with the posture and stuff as well… but I also wanna get a perfect butt going. I feel like that’d be nice. Mostly, it’s a nice pastime, so I’m looking forward to doing that more.
Also also, I wanna do that thing where you take a picture after every session to see the process and maybe I’ll post pictures of that on Twitter if I feel comfortable enough with sharing pictures… maybe not of my butt but like my upper body and arms and stuff maybe?
End of the Post: A few more Words!
So, Blaugust is halfway done and I wanted to write a post or two about specific things that I learned in the past. I’ll publish those in the next few days! I will also have to write a few posts to be published on the day that I’m going to the GamesCom.
At the same time, I have a few reviews lined up for today and the next few days. I plan on maybe double-posting a few times to get the number of reviews up. 31 reviews is still doable, after all. It’s a challenge. I’m challenging myself!
But yeah, figured I should maybe give an update on the health situation but I also wanted to talk about the GamesCom (again) and blogging and stuff. :)
This post was first published on Indiecator by Dan Indiecator aka MagiWasTaken. If you like what you see here and want to see more, you can check me out on Twitch and YouTube as well. If you find this post on a website other than Indiecator.org, please write an e-mail to me. Thank you!
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