Showing posts with label game. Show all posts
Showing posts with label game. Show all posts

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Minecon - Minecraft's Own Con

Minecraft officially has it's own Con.  It's called Minecon.  As of this posting there are 88+ days left until the Convention.  That's right.  Why is this so important?  Simple.  Notch is going to have an important announcement.  Several actually.

One thing we do know, is that Minecraft will officially be out of Beta and be an Official game.  So, what does that mean for a lot of players who want Minecraft?  That means you should get it now if you can.  at 20 Euro, you can't hardly go wrong.  Notch has already sold over 30 million copies of Minecraft.  Why not add to that, because once it's out of beta, it's going to 30 Euro.

On a side note, Bethesda, is trying to sue Mojang, for using the word Scroll inside the game.  If you're unfamiliar with Bethesda, think Elder Scrolls, Morrowind and Oblivion.  Both popular games by Bethesda.  This little tid bit of information is turning me off to Bethesda.  Just like when Facebook tried to sue someone for using Book in their website address.  Gasp.

With that said, Minecon should be awesome, if you're a Minecraft fan.  If you don't even know what Minecraft is yet, go to the Minecraft website to check it out.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Empire Avenue. Second Look.

Empire Avenue, I've written on this before, but my thoughts on this have changed.  First off, for those of you who are reading this for the first time, might want to know what Empire Avenue is.  Empire Avenue is a Social Network driven stock market game.  Wait...What?  Socially driven stock market game?  Yep, that's right, in other words, you're activity on your other social networks, is reflected in your stock price.  Not a very active Social Networker?  You can expect your stock to drop a bit and for people to sell your stock.  You're stock price is also affected by how many people sell you versus how many people buy you.  The more people that buy than sell, the higher the stock price.  Dividends are given to your stock holders.  That's also calculated based on your Social Network activity and how much people interact with you.  There you have it.  The basics of Empire Avenue.

Now, some of you might wonder why exactly, am I writing another post about it?  Well, some times, after a while of playing something, we have to step back and look at things from a different angle.  Is the game really living up to our perspectives.  Yes, many people consider Empire Avenue a game that merely connects your Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, Facebook Fan Page, and Blogs.

So, what exactly do I think about Empire Avenue now?  Well, first off, I should probably point out that, regardless of what I say here, I'll probably still end up playing Empire Avenue.

Empire Avenue to me has really taken a hit.  There are a lot of legitimate people out there playing this, but there are also a lot of content farmers.  I've noticed something lately, that the people that are really high up there on Empire Avenue, are people that are on it all day basically.  Well, most of them.  Not all of them.  Also, many of those people tend to have 15-25 blog post or more a day.  Just to produce good dividends.  Though, luckily Empire Avenue only counts 20 blog post for the day as the limit.  These people are also on twitter a lot.  They tweet often.  Not so regularly that you get sick of it, like spammy, but they do tweet often.  Their Facebook pages, get a lot of likes.  How?  I don't know.

It make seem like I'm complaining about this, but I'm only complaining that it takes so much effort to even make yourself a top stock.  It's ridiculous.  On top of all those Facebook Post and Twitter Tweets, a lot of these guys upload at least 2 videos a day to Youtube.  The system isn't really that fair for a lot of the smaller people.  Especially people who aren't used to posting 10 blog post a day.  You know how hard it is some times to find something to write about?

Well, I think you get the idea, the game is pretty much suited to people who are really active.  Also, if you miss one day, it's not that bad, but if you miss two days on inactivity......your stock takes a hit.  How is that even fair?  Ok, I've done enough rambling.  That said.  I'm still probably going to play Empire Avenue.  I'm still going to be producing content and writing articles.  It may however slow down a bit over time.  This can be quite a time consumer.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Empire Avenue - Full Strategy

Everyone on Empire Avenue seems to have a different strategy.  While some strategies share things in common with others, I thought I would share my own strategy for investing on EAv.

First off, let me start by saying that there are three different types of investors on Empire Avenue.

First type of EAv player is the Connector.  The Connector is the kind of player who really doesn't care about the game much at all and staying active.  All they really care about is making connections and making new friends.

Second type of EAv player is the Investor.  These are the players who focus more on being a good investor than being a good investment.  These people may have a good Netwealth, but have a crappy Return On Investment, or commonly known as ROI, which we will be using here on out.

Third type of EAv player is the Investment.  The Investment players have a strong focus on being a good Investment.  In other words, these are the players that are creating content, but not always so.  They usually have a good ROI and their stock prices are usually pretty high, or steadily climbing.

You don't really need to know much to be the first type of player, but for the other two, you need to know how the game works.  So, I'm going to give you a bit of a strategy that you can use to be one of two types of players, the Investor or the Investment.

Like I said, first off, you have to know how the game works.  EAv calculates your top five scores and that total along with your shareholders activity, determines your ROI.  Usually anyone that has a ROI of a 1% or better, is usually a good investment.  Some people will say at least 1.3% or 1.5%.  Everyone has their own strategy.  The question is, how do you increase your shareholders and activity?

First off, you have to connect all of your accounts.  Except for the Facebook Fan Page.  Most people don't have them to begin with, or have no reason to have one.  Next, connect your blog or two, or three.  How ever many blogs you feel comfortable using.  Many people connect Tumblr as a blog, it's in the works for Tumblr to have it's own connection.  Next, complete your profile and add a BIO.  People want to know who they are connecting with.  Finally, add a profile picture.  Sad to say, but a lot of people will not invest in you if you don't have a Profile Picture.  It can be an Avatar, as long as it represents you.

Step one is done now.  Now what?  It's time to get active.  Join a few communities.  I recommend at least 2-3 communities to start off with.  Their much more manageable that way.  When you get used to the working of the game, you can increase to 5-8 communities if you wish.  I currently have 2 City, 5 Interest, and 5 Personal community connection.  I may or may not increase that number.  I feel comfortable where I'm at right now.  Once you've joined those  communities, get active.  Read post.  Thumbs up the post.  Reply to them.  You don't have to read every single post in that community.  You can if you want.  But, I recommend at least the first page of them for starters.  Don't want to be over whelmed.

Ok, I'm active in the communities, now what?  Next step is to change your status.  Change it frequently.  You don't have to change it every hour like some people do.  After you start receiving shout outs on your home page, start giving a Thumb up to those.  The more active you are, the more people will notice you.  The more people will Thumb Up you.  This activity produces dividends.  After about a week, you should start to see advertisements.  Thumb them up too and don't forget to get your own advertisements after one week of play time.  Advertisements don't cost real money, so relax, just do it.  They help out buy factoring in the likes and click through rates you get on them.

Now that you're a bit active and your starting to get the hang of things.  It's time to start looking at who to invest in.  You can start to do this from day one.  As mentioned above, ROI is one thing to take into consideration.  You don't have to invest in everyone that invest in you.  That's a good way to lose some Eaves.  Eaves is the virtual currency of EAv.  We'll refer to Eaves as (e) from here on out.  Look at a person's ROI, if the ROI is above 1% on return, they are a good investment.  If you'd like to set your own standards, feel free to do so.  I'd recommend no less than 1% though.  If you've invested in someone and they've dropped below a 1% for example - if they dropped to 0.98%, don't sell them right off.  Check out their activity levels and see if they are still active/gaining in value.  Chances are, they just got a shareholder increase and can sell more shares.  This is a temporary factor that really doesn't factor in at all.

Next thing to look at is their gain.  These two things are easiest to look at right off the bat.  How much are they gaining?  I recommend people that are gaining at least +3 per day.  You can do less if you desire, but for quick returns, I recommend at least +3 per day.  Here's why, if the person has a bad ROI, but has a good gain, let's say +5 or better.  I probably would invest in them.  After I've checked their connections.  That's in the next section.  If they've been gaining for a while, and they're still affordable, I'd probably invest in them.  A lot of the whole Gain factor for me, is a combination of Connections, ROI, Gain, and if they have a blog connected.

Blogs.  Does the person have a blog connected?  If so, how many?  RSS feeds to such sites as Last.fm which are music sites, Yahoo Answers, and Wiki type websites, don't count as a Proper Blog Feed and won't count towards your score.  So, it's kind of pointless to add them.  Instead, a better strategy would be to link your favorite songs to a blog post and write a short paragraph on why you like these songs.  If the person has steady blog post on a regular basis, I probably would invest in them.  That is if they are a gainer and/or have a good ROI.  If you don't have a blog connected, chances are, I probably won't invest, unless you have strong connections elsewhere.

This brings us to Connections.  For twitter, I check to see how many followers they have.  If all of their connections only have a few hundred people connected.  Chances are, they probably won't be a good investment.  Facebook.  How many friends to they have?  How active are they?  How many likes do they get compared to their post?  Facebook Fan Page.  Same as Facebook.  LinkedIn.  How many connections do they have?  What about recommendations?  Flickr.  How many photos do they have on Flickr?  Do they appear to be getting comments?  Youtube.  How many subscribers do they have?  How many video views do they have total?  All this goes into factoring if they would be a good investment.  It takes time to find a good investment.  But, if you stick with it, the rewards will be great.

I'm finding good investments, what's next?  Well, now, we have to produce some content of our own.  As Chris Pirillo mentioned in one of his videos.  Use what ever equipment you have available to you to use.  If all you have is a cheap camera at the moment.  Use it until you get a better one.  You can find the Youtube channel of Chris Pirillo Here.  You can invest in Pirillo buy visiting his ticker on Empire Avenue.  e(PIRILLO).

What do I produce for content?  Well, for starters, try creating a blog or two.  You can use Wordpress, or Blogger, which are the two common blogs.  I happen to be using both.  One blog is for one thing, While another blog is for another.  Next, you want to grab a camera that can record video and get that onto your PC or Mac for uploading to Youtube.

Get active on twitter.  When you produce a blog post, tweet it.  When you produce a video, tweet it.  Don't stop their, Retweet other peoples tweets.  Talk to people on twitter, that counts as a mention.

Use Facebook.  Post your videos and Blog post on Facebook.  Often times, different users watch different platforms.  Chances are, you won't have very many people on all platforms.  Interact with your friends, so they'll interact back with you and like your post and comment on them.  Same for your Facebook Fan Page.

Perhaps you want to have a Facebook Fan Page that's a completely different topic.  That's fine too.  Just be active.

On LinkedIn, Join a few groups, be active in them.  Add connections and recommend people you've worked with.

On Flickr, take photos and upload them.  Simple right?  Comment on other peoples photos.  They'll notice and probably comment on a few of yours.

What is an Activity Score?  After two weeks of play time, all your scores are added up, and you'll get an Activity Score.  Why is this score important?  This score determines your rank as an employee on a certain index.  What index?  You get to choose a your index when you sign up for EAv.  The higher your rank, the more likely people will invest in you.  Not always. the case though.  Much still has to do with connections in those cases.

How are scores calculated?

First off and foremost, understand this, all of your scores are calculated based off overall activity on that network and how people interact with you.

Empire Avenue - Thumbs Up You Receive.  Comments you receive in communities.  Total Shareholders.  Total Recommendations you receive.  Likes and Click through rates on your advertisements.

Twitter - There isn't much to twitter.  Your tweets ReTweeted.  How many Mentions you get (how many chats you have with people.  Each mention count.)  How many followers you have and how active they are.

Facebook - Comments.  Likes on Comments.  Comments on comments.  Comments on photos too.

Facebook Fan Page - Basically the same as Facebook.

LinkedIn - How many connections you have.  How many recommendations you have.  How active you are on LinkedIn.

Flickr - This one is easy.  It's comments on your photos, favorites, and uploads.

Youtube - Many options here.  Don't have content?  That's easy to fix.  Thumbs Up other videos you like.  Comment on other videos.  Add other videos to your favorites.  Produce videos?  How many subscribers you have.  How many views you have.  How many Likes/Favorites you have.  How many comments you have.

That's basically Empire Avenue in a nut shell.  My strategies and guide to help you get started on EAv.  Hope you enjoyed it.  Comment/Share this blog post if it helps you.  If I've left out anything, feel free to let me know.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Why I Like Minecraft?

Minecraft

What the heck is it?

Well, Minecraft is a simple, easy, fun game.  Well, that's not all it really is.  It can be aggravating at times, but which game can't?  No, seriously, what is Minecraft?  Well, Minecraft simply put, is a game based off Mining and Crafting.  Hence the name Minecraft.  The game itself is made up of 3D cubes.

"Oh no, 3D Cubes" (runs and hides).  Ok you sissy.  Run away, but your missing a great game by judging it by it's graphics.  While it isn't top "NOTCH" graphics, it is still a great game.  Graphics isn't everything.  I've seen some crappy games come from some beautifully designed games.  Too much effort into the graphics, not enough into the gameplay.  And if you like those kind of games.  Pft, I feel sorry for you.

What's with the caps lock?  Well, it just so happens that "Notch" is the God of Minecraft.  But, Notch isn't the one you have to fear in Minecraft.  Nope.  I think the worst thing in Minecraft, has to be Creepers.  What's a Creeper?  Well, they are Green things that run around and blow you up if you aren't careful.

..........Wait..........Did you just say blow up?  Yes, I did, but, they have to touch you, or you have to touch them first before they start flashing.  If you run far enough away, they'll stop flashing and won't blow up.  Thus is the tactic to kill them.

Hit, and run like a bat out of hell.
Rinse and repeat.

Why would you want to play a game where the whole purpose of the game is to Mine and Craft?
Well, that can be easily answered.  I'll admit, the game can be addicting.  But, with the right elements, any game can be addicting to the right person.  But, that's not why you should play it.  There are a load of crafting options you can make.  On top of that, they are always updating the game.  Once you buy the game, it's yours.  You can update the game free of charge.  What you can build, is really up to you.  I've seen some pretty creative things coming out of Minecraft.

Also, on a side note, you can host your own server with the game.  Create mod packs and what not.  The sky is the limit here.  So, if you are interested in getting this game.  I'd advise you to go to the link below.

Minecraft.