Roy eats bubbles.

Of course I decided to change something in my games list before it has even gotten off the ground! I am loving playing a scheduled game per day, but have been asked a good amount about what server I play on/etc…a lot of those people would have to buy a game in order to join me, so I decided to only include games that are FTP or freemium. Since I write about FTP mostly, it would only feel right anyway. So, here is my updated list:

Mondays: Wurm Online, Freedom server. Character name: Beauturkey

Tuesdays: Ryzom, Arispotle server. Character name: Beauhind

Wednesdays: Alganon, Adrios server. Character name: Beaugh

Thursdays: Mabinogi, Mari server. Character name: Beau

Fridays: EverQuest 2, FTP server. Character name: Beau

I will be working on times to play, as well. I am slowly scheduling most things so that it all gets worked out. This is a lot easier for me, too.

Beau

I have begun my gaming schedule. The rules? None. I hate rules. I tend to not follow them when it comes to games, so I’ll just make a schedule and stick to it. I’ll do it for a few weeks and see if it works out. Also, I will only play these nightly games ONLY if I have my work games played. I need to play sometimes 3 or 4 games per week for work, so those are always priority. Anyway, here’s the list — feel free to join me in game. Normally I am on in the evenings, Central time USA. Of course that might change a bit — if I have some free time during the day I might jump in. Following me on Twitter is the best way to get a hold of me or to find me. @Beau_Hindman

Mondays: Wurm Online, Character name: Beauturkey

Tuesdays: Ryzom, Character name: Beauhind

Wednesdays: Vanguard, Telon server. Character name: Rikoo Rakoo

Thursday: Mabinogi, Mari server. Character name: Beau

Friday: EverQuest II, Antonia Bayle server. Character name: Bowe

The list is open to change, but I think I’ll stick to it for now. That’s the whole point, isn’t it? I have been missing getting certain things done in games, since I have to skip from game to game so much, so this will help me out I think. Weekends are still open to whatever I want, though…”days off.” Again, work will always come before any “play.” 

Join me in game if you want. 

OK, so many of you might know that I discussed playing one game per night in my recent Free for All column on Massively. I would switch each weeknight to a different game, but only after playing any games for work (I have two columns, sometimes 3 or 4, to cover.) 

So, I had to pick the games. This was very hard in some cases and really easy in others. I went with this so far:

Monday: Vanguard

Tuesday: Wurm Online (after streaming live for Rise and Shiny.) 

Wednesday: Ryzom

Thursday: Mabinogi

Friday: I decided finally go with EverQuest 2 on this one. It was between several others, but I can always switch if I want. LotRO is good stuff, but better for rainy days and weekends. 

Speaking of weekends, I will save those for my “other” games, and of course for making up time for Rise and Shiny and any First Impression games. Remember, work pays me to play, this does not. So work always comes first. 

Anyway, I’ll try it for a month and go report on it in my column. I will list here on Tumblr my character names and servers in case you want to join me or say hi! Please do — I love company. 

Beau

It’s funny, I have always been a relatively organized person but in these last few months — especially since I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis — I have become obsessed with becoming more organized. I think it started with cleaning the house and preparing for spring, and then it moved on to getting rid of all the paper in my house that was not needed (receipts, stuff like that.) After a while I realized that between the cleaning, getting rid of paper and watching my diet very closely I started to move the organization on to other areas of my life. 

My job is in the process of getting the treatment now. I keep a killer calendar, write down when and where I need to, and be sure to write down (digitally and on ink) any new jobs and interviews. It’s been a miraculous thing for me to feel, this feeling of almost bliss. I am simply excited to get up everyday, first to eat breakfast (I am obsessed with food now for some reason) then to perform a series of tasks that fills out my day. Each day is full and that makes it last longer. The more longer days I have, the more time slows down. I don’t feel as rushed. I don’t feel like I’m only spiraling towards being bored or, worst yet, dead.

I am going to attempt to use my organization skills to help with my need to find more immersive and meaningful play. I want to have those feelings with games that I used to have. It’s not as though I was missing them, really, being that I am still having such an incredible time working where I work, but I miss having a home game. 

So, I decided to pull a Van Hemlock and will pick out a game for each night of the week, save for 2 days “off.” I will play the game only after my work games are played, but I will try to get in some time with them, period. 

I think I am going to start with Ryzom, Mabinogi, Vanguard, EverQuest 2 and…..hmm…I’m thinking SWG or something else. I won’t be so rigid about it that it is not fun, but I will go so far as to stick to it no matter what. At least for a week or two. I have found that “forcing” myself to sit down and play one game without being distracted is really good for my gaming soul.

Anyway, that’s that. Organization is making me feel so much better than I did before. I was never a depressed or down type, but over the last few years I had become much more morbid. I hated it, it made no sense and in the middle of feeling good I might be thinking about my last days. What a dumb thing to do, and possibly a mid-life thing (I’m 36.) 

So, it’s good to see that feeling lifted. I blame the organization, the cooking, the keeping of the house, the job and the yoga. The yoga — ah, the yoga.

Beau

I love this little basic notebook. She’s clean, runs great and works for most of the tasks I want her to. The funny thing is, the more I get into mobile gaming — iPhone, iPad, browser and other devices — the less I think about bloated PC setups. We have spent thousands of dollars over the years trying to keep up with the latest crop of games, and even then we weren’t buying the latest, state of the art stuff.

Now I find myself obsessed with seeing how far back I can go with technology. Let me clarify: how simple I can go with technology. I want my life to be self-contained, ready to go, easy to lift and fun. I have been spring cleaning the house and throwing out piles and piles of papers and trash. Stuff….so much stuff.

The standard paranoid person inside of me worries that, one day, after a major world catastrophe, all of this electronic life I have built up might just go away. What does a geek do without electricity? 

Until then, however, I want my PCs to be bought all-in-one, using on-board graphics chips and only cracked open once in a while for a good cleaning. This is my goal. Ironically, the normal march of technology has made it possible to live this all-in-one lifestyle. Years ago this basic laptop would have cost 4 times as much. You can now get an iPhone for 50 bucks…iPads are the next to drop.

Point being, I enjoy the Hell out of games like Rift or Ryzom, games that require a good setup and sometimes even an expensive one. But I look at the console players and I am immediately jealous of their contained gaming identities. They can literally pick up their box and go anywhere they want, the rest is stored in the clouds. 

Lately one of my favorite past times is shopping online for devices or items that will further all-in-oneize my life. I have pretty much everything I need, now, though. A good phone, a good enough laptop, and a decent gaming rig. Still, I want to push it further. I want to get rid of all the cords on my desktop. I want to connect all of my devices together through my network, and I want to be able to grab one device and go, while still being able to game (or at least participate in some way with the games I love through apps or browser technology.)

These are my goals for this year: get rid of paper. Get rid of wires. 

Simplify, simplify, simplify. Clean, plastic, portable.

Cheap, too. Cheap so that I can tell others (who cannot afford it) how to have fun on little money. 

Beau

Bettie makes a homeless friend on our walk, then sprays grass all over his face.

For a long time I have been talking about free-to-play games. I have always known that free basic access will sometimes make you more money than asking for a lump sum up front. It just seemed obvious. It turns out that free-to-play and freemium (a velvet rope model) works really, really well. I respect it for the fact that it gives opportunities for people who, at the very least, have no money whatsoever. A poor college student, a stay-at-home Mom — people who might not want to sit down and plunk down 50 bucks for a box and 15 bucks for a game that they might not play.

But, give that person the chance to buy a purple dress or a potion that helps them level faster, and they’ll find a way to spend a little. People love spending little bits. Despite the free-to-play trolls you’ll find sprinkled across different sites, it’s obvious that we gamers love downloadable, cheap and small bits of content. It connects to our impulse buy….impulse. 

Well, browsers games are my next big thing. What free-to-play was 2 or 3 years ago, browser games and technology are now. 

I promise you, and you can reference this later, that browser technology is going to allow us to use machines that are not only lighter, smaller and more portable but seamless in the way they fit into our lives. 

I am in the middle of checking out about 50 new browser-based games for research, work, whatever you want to call it. As a games writer, as someone who might be expected to know about games, I need to know about games. All of them that fit within the genre or definition of “MMORPG.”

That definition rules out a lot of the browser games, which are really just multiplayer games that are played mostly alone. 

After that, many are left out because they simply will not work. Amateur attempts or poor execution. 

Then I will rule out that suck. That takes care of quite a few. 

After that I will have a hefty new list of dependable, fun and true MMORPGs that require no fancy gaming PC or upgraded power machine. They need a browser, period. If you notice how Google has been pushing their new laptop, and how that new laptop is basically just a browser machine with limited graphics capabilities, you will notice the beginnings of exactly the type of future I am talking about. Gmail and all the Google connectivity is not only brilliant, but slowly disappearing. I mean to say that we will not even notice the computing being done, the numbers being crunched. “Cloud” computing is simply easier for us, and let’s the heavy work get done by the service providers. 

I love this. I LOVE this. I am obsessed now with organizing my digital life. Thanks to the browser, I can essentially do everything I need from this simple 500 dollar laptop. I can play so many good games — many of them fully 3D — and if I want to can even stream those games through services like OnLive. 

I’m not just saying this because I am excited for the future. I am saying this because all we need to do is look at how we are communicating through services like Twitter or this very service, Tumblr. It’s instant, easy and can potentially be spread throughout the entirety of the connected world in seconds. 

Look for more browser talk from me in the future. I have played a few browser games over the years, but the tech and design is moving insanely fast. 

Keep an eye out. Trust me. 

Beau

Look what played with Roy on our walk. Generic non-tagged Chihuahua #47. Notice the limp. I hate owners.

I’ve been a fan of Golemizer for a while, but have never really taken the time to get to know it. It’s essentially a free, old-school looking browser MMO that allows players to build all sorts of great stuff and to generally do what they want. A sandbox in your browser.

It’s really primitive looking, but as with many indie games that have taken time to develop, the game has a passionate community and some really smart ideas. Over the years indie developers forget how to step outside into the light, becoming somewhat of a hermit as they spend countless (and thankless) hours cranking away at code. Luckily for us players, this behavior tends to bring out some really good ideas. We get to play with the end result, and ask the developer for more.

Check it out if you can. Spend an evening messing around with the game and see if you like it. If you DO like it, spend a few bucks on the game. After all, for free you are getting a great little world to play in while laying in bed or chilling in the local coffee shop, and that’s worth at least a few bucks. 

Check the site out here, and see what you think!