Archive for January 2009

I thought it was time to break out the games portion of my site and send it out on its own. This site’s main blog content focuses on business, marketing, writing, and technology. Though games technically (pun intended) fall under technology, it worried me that it would bother some readers to have it blended.

I tried to keep the content separate, but I noticed the game’s content was showing up in the email feed. The two parts of the site attract different audiences.

Prizes!

To celebrate the official launch, I’m collecting prizes to give away to you and your friends. How big will this be? Well, when I celebrated my blog’s 8th birthday in June 2008, I collected over $5000 worth of prizes and jumped out of a plane as a thank you.

No plane jump this time (hey, I’ve had enough injuries for 2008 to last me a couple of years). Anyway, if you would like to be a sponsor, you can count on link backs to your web site from this blog, the new site, twitter, and everyone who helps spread the word.

To Sponsor

To sponsor a prize please email me (merylk [AT] game DOT] com) with the prize you generously wish to donate along with a link to your web site so I can link back and the value in $ of your prize. Here’s the 8th birthday bash final list of prizes if you need ideas.

Hold on to your codes or whatever you’re donating — we’ll work it all out later.

Excited? You betcha!

Wanna peak? Wanna give feedback? It’s all happening at TheGameZen.com.

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Mon. January 12th: 50% off on Solitaire Studio

Tue. January 13th: 50% off on Stardrone

Wed. January 14th: 50% off on 3C Texas Holdem Poker

Thu. January 15th: 50% off on Hollow Ground SE

Fri. January 16th: 50% off on Ashley Jones: The Heart Of Egypt

Sat. January 17th: 50% off on Tic Tac Files

Sun. January 18th: 50% off on Tags: discount, downloads

• Manta: Database with the profiles of over 40 million companies.
• Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2008 [Link: Jason Falls]: Amazing list.
• How to Write Fast.
• Minimal Web Sites for December.
• 80 Best Lifehacks of 2008.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Notebook: Amazing animation. Amazing patience.
• Jane Austen Facebook: Humorous phony Facebook page with her characters.
• Tilt Shift Photograph: Are those real or toys?
• Fail Blog: Fail moments in pictures.
• Adtunes: Find music in commercials, soundtracks and more.
• blippr: twitter of reviews. Reviews in 160 characters or less.

I helped a client, Martin Amm of adenin, set up a twitter account since he’s a very busy feller. It was a breeze compared to when I set up my twitter account for the first time. The difference: Experience. I made two blunders, which better helped me understand the mistakes.

Mistake #1a: Selecting a bad ID. When I started, I chose “contentmaven” as my twitter ID. That coupled with a picture of my book cover told nothing about who I was.

Remember, the bio doesn’t show up unless people click your twitter ID. So people saw something like this:

contentmaven Brilliant insight that has everyone retweeting and linking. OK, so I am dreaming. Hey, it’s my blog post.

Any idea who wrote this? Unless you have super vision, you can’t see my name on top of the book cover. So I changed my ID to merylkevans and replaced the book cover with my mug shot. I thought it would be less egotistical to have a book instead of my face, but it’s A-OK to use your face.

Mistake #1b: Picking a so-so ID. The new and current ID I use is “merylkevans”. Few of you don’t know my middle name or middle initial even though I sign almost everything with it. By this point, this ID was already ingrained in twitter.

Also, experts recommend coming up with an ID no longer than 10 letters. The “K” makes it 11. Remember @yourID in replies already takes up 12 letters (@ plus name), so you’re down a few characters before you share your thoughts.

Good news about mistakes #1a and 1b: It’s not a disaster. Most of us “Reply” to tweets or click on our IDs. I don’t enter a person’s ID often because many don’t use their names or a short variation of their name. Besides, there’s always search.twitter.com and twellow.com. Twitter also has a drop-down box of people on the Direct Messages page.

Mistake #2: Following everyone. OK, many big shots do this and encourage it. For the rest of us, if we follow 2,000 folks, we can’t add any others until we have 2,000 following us. So I chiseled my list when I hit 2,000. Besides, it created a lot of needless noise in my timeline (seeing updates from everyone I followed).

Martin has another advantage over me. He has a niche in intranet software. The people I follow often discuss writing, marketing, technology, business, and games.

Plus, Martin’s company has a short name. Sweet! That takes care of the ID thing. OK, his company is officially adenin TECHNOLOGIES, Inc., but shortening it to adenin is no problem.

As for following — I searched for software and intranet professionals and experts. I took care to ensure Martin doesn’t follow too many people as a starting point. It’s about keeping the following, followers, update ratio healthy and not spammy.

Four Steps to Blast off with Twitter

So the first things we did for adenin on twitter:

1. Sign up with a short ID.
2. Post a bio and location.
3. Add a picture (avatar). It took time as twitter kept giving us “Over capacity” message even though the picture was smaller than the max size.
4. Post a mix of updates: retweeting, linking to high quality intranet-related resources that have nothing to do with his company’s product or web site), and replying to other comments. Not one link or mention of his company’s product other than in the bio.

Going forward, we’ll continue with #4 on a consistent basis while slowly adding more people to follow to keep the following:followers:updates ratio balanced.

Twitter offers the opportunity for Martin to meet other intranet experts, software journalists and editors, and professionals interested in intranet software. The key to twitter is to think of it as building relationships and not as a “get rich or get publicity fast scheme” like all those internet marketers tend to do.

If you’re interested in intranet conversations, let me know so I can be sure Martin follows you so he can listen to you.

I hit 2000 “following” on twitter. Yet, I discovered more brilliant people I wanted to follow and couldn’t because I hadn’t reached 2000 “followers”. This compelled me to do way early spring cleaning of my twitter account.

Twitter puts this in place to minimize spammy accounts. It would be nice if it would use math instead of a flat 2000 number. A person with 2000 following and 1500 followers is obviously an active twitterer. I’m not about to go begging for 500 more followers, so cleaning it is.

The chiseling process amazed me as I found that I followed people that I wouldn’t follow today. They had one or more of the following seven bad traits:

1. Contain lopsided numbers of following, followers, and updates. There’s no magic formula. The numbers and updates quickly tell the story.

2. Discussed company and product constantly and in a promotional way. Some company twitter accounts do serve customers and they’re there to help. But helping isn’t akin to marketing and promotion. There’s a difference!

3. Did nothing but link link link … mostly to their own stuff.

4. WYAIM: Was yet another internet marketer. How do they earn a bundle of money when there are this many? These folks tend to violate #2 having over 1000 “following,” 100 or so “followers” and one comment linking to the next get rich scheme. Block these people to send a message to twitter that it may be a potential spam account to delete.

5. Sent a DM or @reply with “Thanks for the follow, check out my site…” Please don’t add to the noise with wasteful messages. Some will debate this, but this is my take (oh, and Mashable’s too as I discovered after drafting this post — honest). I try to avoid “Good morning, twitterville,” “How are you today?” and “Time to hit the pillow” as twitter has too much noise with this. But I know lots of people who think it’s nice and we need to bring such greetings back in conversation. Agreed! But not in twitter.

6. Talked about every mundane detail of their life: I’m going to the store for milk, I ordered a veggie pizza, going to sleep… this is what many folks think twitter is about. Yes, a lot of people do the this — but the ones benefiting most from twitter are business professionals who do a little of everything: link to good content, say insightful things, add another thought to someone’s original thought, retweet someone else’s good thoughts or links (retweeting is valuable as that’s how things spread).

7. Had the default avatar: I do make sure the person has “settled in” twitter by looking at the followers and updates because not everyone immediately adds a picture as it takes a little time to figure out all of twitter’s features. Smart of twitter to make it ugly to encourage folks to change it ASAP. Those disproportional eyes look eerie. Avatars are no longer a tech-savvy thing. If you don’t know how, ask for help! Twitterville loves to help.

Bonus Tip

Showed last update over six months ago: These users obviously tried twitter and didn’t like it. Such people don’t stick with twitter long enough or interact the right way to see the magic happen and why so many of us keep coming back.

This is more for people who weed their twitter “following” list because you probably won’t follow them if you look at their updates page.

Agree? Disagree? Missed something? Love to hear your thoughts. Next post: How to get going fast with twitter.

Samantha Swift, an archaeologist, travels all over the world to find rare artifacts for a museum. Her latest venture calls for finding six roses that belong on the Shield of Athena. Adventurers will find a rosy game in Samantha Swift and the Hidden Roses of Athena.The game ranks up there with Natalie Brooks and other hidden object games slash adventures slash mini-games.

Samantha, Adam Woodson and her father’s former partner, Dr. Butler, must also deal with two bad guys who also want the roses, but for selfish reasons.

Anyway, I played this game over a month ago while recovering from hand surgery as it only needed one hand. Since typing was not possible, I had to hold off writing the review until my hand healed. What stuck with me was the game had wonderful hand-drawn graphics along with a strong story that neither overwhelmed nor confused.

In replaying the game, I got stuck on a scene and couldn’t get pass it even though I did what I needed to do to move on. I used a hint to confirm I wasn’t forgetting something. So I tried starting over with a new ID and it froze in the same spot one step further than before.

Thank goodness, I got through it the first time. I tried exiting the game and restarting the computer. Nothing worked.

Replaying the game also showed me that objects rarely change location and the list of items to find changed a little. So once you finish the story, you won’t want to replay it. But that’s often the case with this genre.

I also appreciated this wasn’t a timed-game, something I couldn’t manage with one hand. Besides, non-timed games compel us to enjoy the game more because it’s not a race. When it’s a race, we take short cuts and use more hints.

Every hidden object scene contains items highlighted in blue. You can’t find these until you’ve collected the other hidden items. Once done, use the found hidden items to interact with the scene to find the blue items. This feature appears in more of these point and click adventures. That and you may need to find items in other rooms before completing the puzzle in the current room.

Hidden objects often fit the story line and theme rather than have you find things to make the game longer lasting. Found artifacts end up in the museum that you can visit anytime during the game. Click an artifact to get its details and place of origin. Samantha travels to Guatemala, Tibet, Japan, Rome and elsewhere.

Lightning bolts hide in every scene to give you more hints. Experienced gamers might find this one a little easy, but worth experiencing the gorgeous graphics, interactive puzzles, humor and fitting background music.

Just play one hour of Samantha Swift and the Hidden Roses of Athena and you’ll find you want to keep going.

Download the game from Big Fish Games.

Typed note: This is sad. People said my first speech-to-text software entry was funny and I wasn’t even trying to make jokes Seriously, I agree the software does funny translations of my speech.

First the script, then the translation.

Script
Official test number two. I’ve revised the script from the original. I usually write contractions, but decided not to use them while speaking. So I put them back in.

This post shows you what I said and what the software heard. Instead of striking out the software’s mistakes and put the correct version in brackets, I present you with this script followed by the software’s version. Here we go…

For those of you not familiar with speech to text software, you begin by training the software with your voice. I completed a long training program — broken down into shorter sessions over a two-week period — using a chapter from Dave Barry’s cyberspace book. My deaf accent needs more help than the average user.

A little background: I was born deaf and had 12 years of speech therapy. I took public speaking classes and even taught a few while I was in college.

I’m trying the speech recognition software. I’m hopeful it’ll catch what I say. So far, it’s not perfect. It looks like it needs more training. I’m itching to get back to writing articles.

I haven’t been able to write because of my hand surgery. The doctor says I need to lay off using my hand because of swelling. Plus, a pin had to stay in it for six weeks. The pin comes out of my hand today — it better!

So maybe I won’t need this. I’ve learned that I can’t speak my writing as well as I can type it. Writing by speech feels unnatural to me.

I’m ready to get back into my routine. However, I’ll need to attend physical therapy a few times a week for at least six weeks. I’ll know for sure after my doctor’s appointment. My hand feels stiff and achy, so it’ll be a while before it feels normal again.

I may still have to wear the current splint until I see the physical therapist. At least, typing won’t hurt as much without the pin around to stab the insides of my thumb. Trying to keep my hopes reserved, but I have loads of work to do for my clients.

The software works better when I speak one word at a time — that is, say a word and wait for the software to capture it instead of speaking in slow sentences. That’s what I’m doing in this paragraph. I originally used parenthesis, but it wouldn’t get it right or even brackets.

I wish everyone a happy and healthy 2009.

Translation courtesy Dragon Naturally-Speaking

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Mulan (“new line” command)

I’m ready to get back into my routine. However, I’ll need to attend physical therapy a few times a week flippy six weeks. I’ll know for sure after my doctor appointment. My hand because Steffes and achy, but it at the end file and put the ocean Lamar again.

And they still have to well koans land until last it that this to a therapist. At least, I can want her as much without a pin around to stab the insides of my thumb. Trying to keep my thoughts Goudreau, but loads of work to do from my clients.

The software looks better when I speak run road at a time — that is, say a road and leaked for the software to capture it instead of speaking in Schroer (Typed note: when I said “sentences” the software thought I said “center this” and formatted as such.).

That’s what I do when and as you not laugh. I originally used to(, but it wouldn’t get it right well even practice (Typed note: oh sure, this time it got the parenthesis after “used to”.).

I wish every one a happy and healthy 2009.

My Tribe came to my rescue during winter break. I can’t play fast action games like diner-style games because of hand surgery. My Tribe and hidden object games kept me entertained as I couldn’t do much else including typing and laundry (staring at a pile of laundry racks up the guilt, so it’s not a good thing though it gave me a valid excuse not to do laundry).

Generally, I try to avoid comparing games in a review. As a Virtual Villager fan, I must compare My Tribe and Virtual Villagers (VV).

Both games call for patience especially the start where you need to build up on science points that can get you places later. But once you have all the science points in the world, you don’t need them anymore.

Innovative in My Tribe is the use of moondust and stardust. These help you with potions, building, increasing villager strength, hair style changes (whoopee di doo) and more. I like the way you mix potions using the potions screen instead of having a tribe member fetch everything and mix it up.

I’d rather hunt for one moondust or stardust at a time than for VV‘s collections, which make me dizzy. You can also build lunar and celestial towers to receive a shower of dust all at once. Although it’s tiring to keep your eyes open for flying dusts, you can build an observatory that lets you know when one lands. Well, I can’t hear the sound it makes over the music and other sound effects. I’ve tried playing with the sound controls, but nothing worked. The game should have an option for visual notification.

Trees and flowers are available for planting. Flowers don’t do anything except add color. Trees provide wood. The tree feature should work like the flower feature — keeping the plant window open until you close it. I often plant more than one tree at a time and have to keep opening the plant window. The flower window stays open and lets you spray flowers.

The potions screen has three types of potions: element, liquid and catalyst. Elements include solid things like mushrooms, rocks, wood. Liquid is seawater, rain water, and fountain water. Catalyst consists of stardust, moondust, and golden relics. Pick one item from each category, mix the potion and pour it on an object, ground or person.

The game’s marketing materials say you can mix loads of potions. Half of them are cosmetic, so no sense in wasting moondust to give a villager a new hairdo or color job.

Both tribe games involve earning points so you can upgrade science, construction, etc. Well, one of the four categories is art. I don’t see much difference between level 2 and 3 art (clothing design and nothing else).

Art lets you build a clothing hut and make clothes. Males and females get three tops and three bottoms plus you can customize the color. After two or three outfits, it loses excitement unless you were big on Barbies and dolls as a kid. Well, in Virtual Villagers, science points help you buy clothes. Not exciting there either.

Both provide skills for each tribe member. My Tribe goes overboard in including rock and wood gathering skills. I’d lump these under construction. I’d also blend farming and fishing so the villager can do both as he or she pleases.

My Tribe does a better job of increasing a villager’s point earning capability. VV would sometimes take ages even when you keep pushing the villager to do something.

Barrels also show up at sea on occasion. They might provide recipes, ingredients or change a person. Or they might destroy buildings or explode.

Both games let you produce babies. My Tribe, gratefully, doesn’t take women out of commission until they’re babies are two-years-old as they do in Virtual Villagers. Instead, the mama goes right back to work.

In Virtual Villagers, only children under age 14 can pick up stuff. In this one, anyone can pick up stuff except babies. It was annoying that adults couldn’t pick up anything in VV. If they could build buildings, they should be able to pick up things.

My Tribe limits the population to 50 (you can get 52 if you manage to have two couples produce twins at the same time as I did). I prefer the limited population so you don’t make yourself crazy trying to give everyone a preferred skill. It forces you to control your population’s age.

I love that you can build a dock and ark so your tribe can sail to one of millions or billions of islands. Don’t be impressed by that number. They look alike after you’ve solved all eight of the mystery items. Each island holds three mystery items. You also work to collect 25 trophies. Once you do all that, you might not be motivated to play the game again unless you simply like to hang out with the tribe.

The game lacks keyboard control. Yes, arrow keys can move you around the island, but not as well as it could. You can use the Map view to see the island from a higher perspective, but it pauses the game. Map view doesn’t open very fast. Virtual Villagers provides plenty of keyboard options for easier management and traveling around the island.

The game has a bug as of this writing — if you have tree saplings that haven’t bloomed into trees and you hop into the ark, the game crashes. It sets you back a little, not much.

My Tribe is neither better nor worst than Virtual Villagers. It provides another addicting experience for those craving a new world of villagers. Once I get pass the slow start, the game captivated me that I checked on my tribe too many times even with fast speed (you can do pause, slow and normal speed as the game keeps going when you exit unless you pause, of course). Speaking of which, I need to check on ‘em as I want to set sail for another island to earn the five island trophy.

Download the game from Big Fish Games.

The following games will be discounted next week on Game du Jour, the ‘one-deal-a-day’ website dedicated to indie and casual games:

Mon. January 5th: 60% off on Master of Defense

Tue. January 6th: 50% off on Hacker Evolution: Untold

Wed. January 7th: 50% off on Sudoku Arena

Thu. January 8th: 67% off on NOMBZ: Night of a Million Billion Zombies

Fri. January 9th: 60% off on Rotoadventures Momos Quest

Sat. January 10th: 60% off on Restaurant Rush

Sun. January 11th: 50% off on Indyo Sokoban