I've relocated

With just a couple of posts to go until I hit one hundred, I've moved to self-publishing. The blog got a new name, host and address. (And re-vitalization, I hope.)

Please update your bookmarks to http://dustygamer.mcmuumio.net.

Changes

With a new year upon us, I've looked at my blogs with a fresh eye. This one has a bunch of things I need to consider:

There's the name. I regret it, since it's so obscure you can't tell at all what the blog's about. Initially I thought I didn't care about readers, but it looks like you can reach a reasonable audience these days, and now the name feels like dead weight. Then again, there are sites like rllmukforum.com, which obviously don't have any problems because of their obscure name. I can't just change it, though, because -

- although I'd like to, I can't just relocate. I have my own web space these days, over at mcMuumio.net. I've spent quite a bit of energy promoting the blog, getting links and some readers, and it would largely be for naught if I changed my URL or name. It'd easily be a year's work all over again. (I just got accepted for Text Link Ads, which took several months after the initial rejection.)

It would be so easy to set up a blog software over at my webhost and a domain doesn't cost much, if I wanted a new name (which I do). I'm quite frustrated by Blogger's limitations; simple layout changes are a pain to do.

Then there's the whole Blogger image to consider; I know I consider Blogger blogs less worthwhile than ones you've set up on your own. Of course it shouldn't matter next to the quality of writing, but it does.

I'm not sure what I'll do. I know I'm a lot more proficient with the whole blogosphere these days, maybe I could get off from the ground a lot faster this time, but hmmm. Maybe I'll relocate my life blog first and see how it goes technically.

Probably because of this uncertainty I've got some drafts waiting for completion; usually I post immediately.

Sponsored post: Review Me

This is a sponsored post about the Review Me service. It's not like I need the $15 USD I'm getting for this or that it's even adequate money for the sign-up effort and writing the post; I'm doing this simply because I think this is a great idea. I came upon this via GameProducer.net.

The problem is that old-fashioned mass marketing or even targeted marketing like Google AdWords is just not cutting it for some products. To get that community interest you need to engage people. Review Me features products which need community exposure but don't work well with mass marketing. They pay bloggers to discuss their products: it's essentially a global media agency for reaching bloggers.

Of course I'm thinking here that videogames could work very well in this context. I know I can rely on Penny Arcade's coverage of the games they play. Even at the risk of sounding much more influential than I am (and I really have no illusions: I've got a total of 2'000 visitors), it's the old ethos of reaching the opinion leaders.

Take the online RPGs I discussed earlier today. You can use banner ads to reach potential customers for Eve Online and D&D Stormreach, since they have popular imagery and USPs you can throw at the audience. But what about the real niche games, like A Tale In The Desert? Games which are too out there to be explained in a single sentence? You can't tell about them if people don't talk about them. Review Me might be just the thing to help get the word out there about these more obscure games without excessive PR efforts.

So there you have it, a way to get bloggers to discuss your product (or site, or service, or...). The only requirements for the sponsored reviews are to write 200+ words (this post is 444 words) and be clear about the fact that it's a paid-for post. There's no need to be positive about the reviewed thing.

As a blogger, I feel good about this. The products it's good for are the kind of stuff I'd likely write about anyway, and since the advertiser hand-picks the sites they want to feature in, the content I'm proposed should fit my line well. Since writing a post is a relatively big effort anyway, I don't think this is "easy money" - it's a bonus, sure, and if you've got a popular site, you can make $50 USD per review.

Now, this is all theoretical. I don't think I'll see many propositions from the Review Me advertisers, but I just want to be clear that I wouldn't categorically say no to them.

Update 15/11/06: We broke the 50 visitor threshold yesterday. Nice, that.

Child's Play 2006

Penny Arcade is again organizing Child's Play, the gamer charity for children's hospitals. I'm going to participate with my wife. It would be great to have you along.

We haven't participated in earlier years because it's been a US thing, but now that there's an Egyptian children's hospital to donate to, we really have no choice but to chip in. We've been to Egypt a couple of times, since my wife studies Egyptology. The last time we visited an orphanage for handicapped children in Luxor, and the people and their need has stuck with us.

You can buy toys (including videogames) or donate cash via PayPal. It's a great Christmas gift not only for children, but for the gamer community: there really is no better PR for the often criticized and ridiculed gamers than this campaign.

Introducing: The inner nerd

We've talked about it for years, and finally I got a domain with my wife. It's called mcMuumio.net per our shared Live Gamertag. There isn't a whole lot in there yet, and I don't know what I'm going to do with the space, either. But it's there. A friend helped us settle in, I'm not at all sure whether I'm tech-savvy enough to do it all on my own. We chose Dreamhost.

This notification is merely to let you know what the new link in the sidebar is. I'm actually pretty enthusiastic about this, just to know that I have a technological playground when I need one. There have been many times in the past when I've wished I had one, and now I do.

Introducing: Life

I've set up a new blog, Post 1978, to cover my life. Yes, the kind of blog every kid has these days. I've been trying to avoid getting one, but after much deliberation, I've come to think that I might be able to better handle some issues through it. So it likely won't be a "dear diary" type of everyday journal, since I don't have time for that kind of thing, but a distillation of stuff that is affecting me.

This also means that the blog you're currently reading will be more strictly about gaming. Hooray! Being on topic must be a good thing.

Holiday bliss

As the increase in my Gamerscore may indicate, yesterday I played Oblivion some nine to ten hours straight. It was good. I cleared the entire Arena quest in one sitting and got some mileage in the Fighters' guild. My 360 is happy.

I was pretty surprised to find the energy to install and begin playing the original Fallout in the evening on top of the day's unheard-of-in-many-years gaming stint. I've only played the sequel and Fallout Tactics previously, so it was rather exciting to embark on the original Vault-Dweller's journey. The interface was a little clumsy and the resolution is low (looks kinda muddy on my laptop), but otherwise it rocks a lot. The soundscape is excellent.

Today we're off to Tallinn for three days; gaming is probably limited to Dweller on the phone.

Get a friend

My 360 friendlist is very short. Naturally I'm expecting all of my real-life friends to get 360s one day and then we can be one happy gaming family, but until then, it would be nice to have some more familiar faces to play with.

Along comes 360 FriendSpot. It helps you to hook up with people with similar 360 gaming habits as you. I found it via my 360's blog, so maybe it wasn't such a useless service after all.

Blogger Beta

I've switched to the new Blogger today. It is still in beta testing. If there's something wonky with the site, pay no mind to it, I trust that all issues will be dealt with.

So pointless

This is so pointless that I love it! 360voice.com gives my Xbox 360 its own blog. Not only can I check via Microsoft's official offering what my 360 is doing right now (say, from work), now I can also check out what it's thinking about.

We laughed very hard at the Lego Star Wars II trailer on Live and promptly decided that we need the original game. Sadly, it's all sold out at Play.

In other news from a galaxy far, far away, Darth Vader is an ass.

Update: We got the original Lego Star Wars for the Xbox used from the local EB Games. Based on a half an hour's play, it's cool, but a little slow and unpolished. The easygoing nature is very much appreciated, though, and it really does feel like playing with Lego! I especially like the way they gloss over the plot. Much like the Clone Wars animation series, this is Star Wars at its best - condensed so much you don't even cringe at the acting, the writing and the pacing.

It's my vacation, by the way. I've watched some telly (Miami Vice, Over There) and taken it so easy that I've been pestered by a headache all day. Maybe I'll play Oblivion all day tomorrow and not feel bad about it, since I don't have to work the next day.

Google Analytics data

I've been using Google Analytics for around half a year now. Here are some statistics - likely none of you are that interested in them, but since I gathered them for my own use anyway, here you go:

43% use Firefox, 38% Internet Explorer, 10% Safari, 5% Opera. I'm a Firefox user myself, but I have to say that Opera 9 is a sweet browser. I just might switch one day.

75% are Windows users, 22% Mac geeks and 2% on Linux. Nothing surprising here.

The vast majority use the relatively small resolution of 1024 x 768 (45%), but this is explained by the increasing numbers of laptops people have. The next most favored resolution is 1280 x 1024 with 18%. 1440 x 900 (never heard before!), 1152 x 864 (I've got that at home), 1280 x 800 and somewhat surprisingly 800 x 600 are neck and neck at around 6% each. If you're using 800 x 600 and you're on IE, do try one of the alternative browsers - they're much easier on screenspace.

68% use computers that speak English, 22% use Finnish operating systems and there are five more exotic languages in there, too. All told, 48% come from Finnish IPs, 22% from the US 6% from the UK, and the rest are a sub-5% bunch, with Hungary leading the pack. Go Hungarians!

A whopping 98% have Java enabled. This is somewhat more than I've come to expect. Flash version 8.0 is used by 73%, while the newest 9.0 is used by over 10% (I hadn't even heard of v9 yet!). Older ones drag behind at a combined 6%, while 2% don't have Flash at all (Luddites!).

The real surprises here are the number of dialup users (over 13%) and those on corporate LANs (over 5%). For instance, our company site's visitors have under one percent of corporate-cabled users.

What I find encouraging is that the vast majority of visitors take a look at two or more pages when they stop by. Also, 21% of you come back for another round!

28% use direct links, suggesting I've been bookmarked or stored in history folders, 24% come from organic Google searches and 11% from Blogilista.fi. Kotaku and Blogger are also noteworthy sources of referrals. Random hits generate from Roolipelaaja.fi, Roguepolitical.net, non-Google organic searches and Edge Online.

So there you go, my distinctively north-American and Scandinavian audience. Your interest is much appreciated!

Lots of stuff

Regarding difficulty

I've been playing more Perfect Dark Zero and Oblivion. Both have proved to be challenging. PDZ's (default) Secret Agent difficulty has me retrying levels a lot, which I don't mind, but the stealth sections are beginning to grate. I like the multiplayer DarkOps, in which you play several rounds of a given gametype and get money to buy equipment with between rounds. Infection and Onslaught are my favorites. I'm wondering whether the map pack would be worth its price on the Marketplace.

I've got the collector's edition of PDZ. The bonus disc is utterly useless, but the tin can is sweet indeed.

In Oblivion, as I have levelled my character (I'm at level 11 12 13), trolls have cropped up everywhere and they're so much tougher than the wolves and the like I've had to deal with so far. Will o' wisps are also a pain - empty magicka on low-damage spells, run away to recharge, repeat around ten times... Of course you get better at casting spells while at it, but still.

I do like the way the new threats make you think and evolve. Last morning I had to retrieve some items from a burial complex. The faded wraiths patrolling the place are far too hard for me, so I took off my boots and sneaked through the grave barefoot (it's easier to sneak without shoes) and upon discovery, legging it. It was fun, and I improved my sneak skill by quite a few points.

Nevertheless, Oblivion is still very good. Only the conversation system has proved to be utterly pointless - once you figure it out, it's no more engaging than hammering away on the A button.

There's quite a bit of things to do in the game. I only realized today that you can apply poison to your weapons!

Speaking of hard games, I tried my trusty old Ninja Gaiden on the 360. It works just fine, but the Hurricane Packs proved way too hard for me; I can't even reach the first boss! I guess I have to complete the basic game again (fourth time) to pick up my skills for the new challenge.

Next gen rising

So far the biggest next-gen vibes I've got are coming from the recent demo of Dead Rising. It's simply... fun. I like everything we've been hearing about the game, the first reviews are very positive, it looks good, it plays great, it's an absolute laugh. Its looks aren't really anything you could not achieve on an Xbox, but there are hundreds (hundreds!) of zombies on-screen, all moving smoothly. Bodies and blood splatters don't disappear anywhere - indeed, your clothes get stained rather convincingly as you plow through the horde. I've played the demo quite a few times, looking for new weapons (bowling balls, gold clubs, cash registers...) and comedy opportunities (cream cakes). You can even spit at the undead. I really didn't expect a basically very simple "zombie game" to be this good.

Capcom looks like it's got its next-gen development in capable hands. In addition to Dead Rising, their Lost Planet is very promising. I trust that more stuff is on the way.

Random observations

As a geek pursuit, I like checking out what Google searches people are coming to my site from. Yesterday one guy was looking for whatever the King Tut mask is for in Animal Crossing Wild World. Nothing much, really, but it looks awesome!

I'm also getting back into tabletop gaming after a dry summer. Miniatures, too, especially Heavy Gear (check these out... I'm salivating here), but also Warhammer 40'000.

So they chose a director for the Halo movie. Interesting! That short movie he's done is quite something else. I'm getting more and more positive about the whole endeavour. The new comic book seems like it'd be worth the (little) money they're asking for it.

[Edit: so cool! In addition to the rather neat short movie above, the Halo director has also done this excellent Transformers-alike Citroën film, which would be first of the three car commercials I can recall from the top of my head.]

I got a new portable music player yesterday. The 512 MB Philips I had was not only lacking in storage capacity, it's bugged, unreliable and cumbersome to use. My wife's Creative Zen player seems like the right stuff, so I got a Creative Zen Nano Plus (white, 1 GB). I would've liked a black one instead, but what's with charging +5€ just for the color? I haven't used it much yet, but initial impressions are good.

Update: since someone's been Googling stuff on faded wraiths in Oblivion, I finally found something that works: an ehchanted sword which does fire damage (15 pts) on strike. Unfortunately, it runs out of charges pretty quickly, but you can follow up with damage-dealing spells to conserve charges. I cleared a ghost ship I've been trying some dozen times with this. These swords started dropping from looted enemies at around level 14. If only I had the strength to carry several!

Also, after some more use of the Zen Nano Plus, I can say it rocks. It's very well-designed and the battery life is impressive, compared to the pitiful one of my previous Philips machine.

Fire on slopes, fighting chicks, consistent soundtracks and throwing enemies

Completely non-game-related stuff: I was going through my photo archives and stumbled upon my cellphone photos of the Makasiinit fire this summer. It was an old railroad warehouse complex, used for flea markets and concerts, which was scheduled to be demolished this same summer, to much controversy. It used to cater to young people and the fight to keep them as they were was very much a struggle between the leftist and right-wing types. We happened to go by just as the fire was picking up in ferocity. They still can't say whether the fire was intentional or not.

An unrelated, but gamer topic: more backwards compatibility experiences with the Xbox 360! I threw in Amped 2, which I dearly love, and found that it worked without additional patches. I created a new snowboarder and signed into Xbox Live. It wouldn't let me download the, well, downloadable content, presumably because it hasn't been upgraded for current Live standards. Oh well, I can live without that, I was primarily looking forward to some King of the Mountain action. No "quick matches" were to be found, so I set up my own. I had gone at it solo for one round (two minutes), when the first two guys joined me on the slope. Sweet! I was rather worried that there were no players of Amped 2 online any longer, but it seems that's not the case.

The gamer community has been vocal about the demise of E3 as we know it. Just as well. Every respectable game media I know of keeps complaining about how horrible it is, and you get hundreds of games you should care about: it just doesn't work. Please do drip the news all over the year, don't waste money and energy on catering to "professionals". I know I get a sort of "oh no, here we go again" -feeling, opening one of those E3 special editions of my favorite magazines.

Dead Or Alive 4. I've been playing the demo, thinking whether I should buy the full game or not, and I'm still undecided. The AI seems to be broken. One morning I breezed through the time attack in under two minutes, not losing once, later in the afternoon I got kicked around so hard that I was about to give up. I finally cleared the time attack in 13 minutes. Many times, I couldn't land a single blow! The AI blocked, threw and kept the pressure on faultlessly. This has been complained about in the retail game's reviews, too, so apparently there really is something wrong with the AI. Still, it would be primarily a Live game for me, provided that lag isn't a problem. Too bad I can't test that with the demo.

I played the DOA4 demo to the rhythm of Paradise Lost's One Second album. I love the 360's way of letting me listen to my own music within any game, at any time, replacing the game's (often crappy) soundtrack effortlessly. It even works with backward-compatible games, although you need to kill their built-in music manually.

They released a demo of Ninety-Nine Nights. The aesthetic design is unexciting (indeed, rather bland), but plowing through hundreds on enemies like Sauron on fast forward is good fun. I can see that it might get too reptitive in the long run and it seems to be all the same whether you just hammer the attack buttons randomly or concentrate on executing precise combos, but it's sweet that there ate literally hundreds of combatants on-screen at once and the framerate never suffers.

Update: Oh, and we're past one thousand visitors now, if my Statcounter is to be believed. Go audience! Also according to the same data, some of you are returning visitors. Go regular audience! An average of seven people comes to the blog each day, although recently we've seen peaks of twelve about twice a week.

Image test

This is a test, as I haven't tried uploading images to Blogger before.

I might as well tell what the drawing (hopefully) on the right is about. Around two years ago I was playing around with Photoshop and a Wacom Volito tablet (that's the home/hobbyist size), seeing what sort of computer-assisted drawing style would fit me naturally. This is in no way a "serious" piece, I wanted to get it done in one sitting and have resisted the temptation to touch it up later.

I haven't drawn too much since then. I used to draw a lot; back in high school, I wouldn't sleep until I had finished an illustration per day. These days, maybe an image or two per year, including doodles.

So that's that.