Writing Exercise Based on Minecraft

I’ve become a bit of a fan of Minecraft, thanks to my daughter. I enjoy the creative aspect of it, and have challenged myself to build multiple towns and even cities. Not only do I play the game, I record myself doing so. If you want to see my successes and failures, you can check out my channel. It’s called Dad Plays Minecraft for obvious reasons. I play Minecraft, my daughter is not involved.

So, I’m an adult who plays Minecraft. Aren’t I too old for a game like this? Well, I wrote an article on gamers.media (part of vocal.media) about this, and I’d like you to tell me what you think about it in the comments below. That will explain why I play it, and why I think it’s perfectly fine for adults to play it.

But the purpose of this post is to talk about writing. Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about writing for the first time in a long time on this blog. Sounds like I’m reviving it, doesn’t it? I had this idea for a while now, and I’ve found that I keep thinking about a background story and lore for my Minecraft world. It’s a fantasy story, and I’ve been thinking about writing a series on this blog in a diary/journal style related to each episode of my video series. Not only can you watch the video, but you can read what the character is writing in a journal about his journey and adventures. In a way, it reminds me of Myst.

I’d like to know what you think of this idea, as I’d love to see it get off the ground and turn into an interesting first person account of his life in a strange, wonderful world. Let me know in the comments section below what you think of this idea.

What Is Going On?

So, it’s been a while. I’ve just been quite busy with so many things. And yes, I do plan on getting back into this blog. But one thing that has been interesting to see is how much the blog has been viewed recently.

Since November 12, 2018, the number of views has dramatically increased. Why? Because of a single blog post, one I wrote about citrus fruit and how most of them are hybrids. Kind of an unusual thing for a writing blog to have go viral. In November, there were nearly 5,000 views, which is higher than any other month ever on this blog. Since then, it’s been averaging more than 2,500 views per month, a level not seen since 2016, when I was posting daily. Very interesting to see how things have been going while I haven’t been posting.

But I intend to be back, though the next month or two are quite hectic for me, as I’m working far more than usual.

Other than that, I have been doing some online things, particularly on YouTube. One of the things I’ve been doing is an ESL channel, which I just started. Only one lesson is up so far, but more will be coming. And because I’ve been quite busy, I needed an outlet for something a bit more fun, so I’ve been playing Minecraft and uploading my gameplay to YouTube. This actually requires minimal editing, and is quite easy to do. You can check out that channel and see what I’m doing there. I’ll have a post shortly about that channel, as well.

What have you been up to? Let me know in the comments!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you had a great Christmas. I know I did. My daughter had an incredible Christmas, as she got a lot of things she wanted. And this was one of them:

She’s always wanted a toy kitchen set, and this one looks really good. Quite realistic looking, and she’s really enjoying it. She also got a lot of things for PAW Patrol, My Little Pony, and Barbie.

I got some books, a movie, a new wallet, and my sister and I are sharing an XBox One S! We have Final Fantasy XV, NHL 17, and Minecraft, which I’m sure we’ll enjoy. Also, something we ordered several weeks ago finally arrived this week: Cards Against Humanity! We played a game tonight, and this was one of our rounds:

The one on the right was our “4th player” Rando Cardrissian, a player who was just random cards. I had the middle group of cards. The game is hilarious. I love it! Have you ever played it?

Something I wanted to talk about was you. That’s right, my readers. I want to thank all of you for reading, following, and commenting. You are what makes doing this blog fun and worthwhile. I appreciate every one of you.

I made a video on YouTube that has a message that I think applies to this blog, as well. Please watch.

I hope you all had a great Christmas! Let me know what you got and how you spent your day.

Can No Man’s Sky Be Salvaged?

It’s been nearly three months since I’ve played No Man’s Sky. It’s gone through some major issues with losing most of its players, many people complaining about false advertising, and a game that seems to have no direction. Well, it’s finally being updated! It’s called the Foundation Update, which adds many features, such as the ability to construct bases, build and operate freighters, hire alien workers for your base, and more. And these are some of the things that were originally promised. What’s even more interesting is that this isn’t the biggest update to come.

Check out this video about the updates. Don’t mind the people in the video. They always joke around about the games.

Will I resume playing it? Of course! I want to see how it’s been improved. Unfortunately, the update is buggy, as my sister has found out already. But they should be ironed out. But I’m not particularly interested in spending all my time building things. I still want to explore every planet I discover. That’s what I like about the game, despite its issues.

Is anyone considering playing again? Let me know in the comments below.

Books in Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is a reality now. You can get Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, use it on your computer, and enjoy immersing yourself in another world.

But this had me thinking. What if we could enter the world that exists in a book? You can fully interact with everything in that world, including places, characters, and more. Which book would you choose to enter?

I think I would love to be in the Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. I want to become a dragon rider and ride a dragon. That would be incredible.

Or maybe join Ender in Ender’s Game, training in that zero gravity training chamber. That would be a lot of fun.

Or how about exploring Mars in Red Mars? See Olympus Mons, the polar ice caps, or Valles Marineris.

The possibilities are endless. Which book would you choose? Let me know in the comments below.

In Memoriam: My First No Man’s Sky Game

Early last week, I signed in to No Man’s Sky only to discover that my saved game wouldn’t open. It started a new game on a new planet in a new system! I was quite disappointed. I was originally on a very colourful world, and I was going to take screenshots of the scenery on all the planets I discovered.

Has this soured my enjoyment of this game? Not really. I just started over again. The problem was a bug in the game that has been addressed by a patch recently, so it shouldn’t happen again. The game has been getting a lot of hate recently because it isn’t what was advertised. So many things that were said to be in the game actually aren’t. But I have expectations that some will appear in future patches. It seems more like they were pressured to release the game, and they released it unfinished. But what we get, I’m really enjoying.

My initial expectation of this game was to be able to explore planets and discover interesting landscapes, plants, and animals. That’s what I got. If you take this as a straightforward exploration game, then you should be satisfied. That’s what I love about this game. And so, I’m enjoying it a lot.

So, I’d like to share with you the Ariadne system. It was the first system I arrived in and I renamed it to Ariadne. Unfortunately, I didn’t get screenshots of one of the planets before the game reset. However, I have images of the first and third planets I played on. So, here is the first planet, Ariadne II:

The view of Ariadne II from space. It looks like it has water, but I didn’t actually get to see it. It was mostly a rocky world.

A night time view.

The sun is coming up, bathing it in a pink hue.

One of the local animals. Interesting looking, isn’t it?

Ruins in the foreground, big mountain in the background.

The second planet I went to was pretty barren, and it had no animals at all. I didn’t get any images of it. The third planet was totally different. Very colourful and had abundant plant and animal life. No forests, but a pink “grass.”

A view of the pink planet, Ariadne III, from space.

So brightly coloured. Look at all that pink!

At a trading post on Ariadne III.

More colours on display, with a pink sky matching the pink landscape. Sunset.

What’s this? A dinosaur? Kind of.

I loved this planet. The colour was amazing, and it seemed so comfortable and inviting.

These planets have been saved on No Man’s Sky’s server, so someone way stumble upon it sometime in the future, although that’s extremely unlikely. I wish I could’ve seen the other planet in the system.

Despite the problems and issues people have had with the game, I find it beautiful to look at, and very inspirational. I love going into the game to just explore. That’s all that matters to me. I can’t wait to discover more.

In the future, I’ll have more posts about the worlds I’ve discovered in the game. I’m not sure if I’ll be doing animals, but I will certainly do landscapes. If you’d like to see animals, then let me know. I can still show you animals from these two planets, as I have the images saved.

Let me know which planet you like the most. Also, if you’ve played the game, did you enjoy it?

No Man’s Sky and Worldbuilding – Part 2

I already talked a bit about No Man’s Sky and worldbuilding in a previous blog post, but I decided to talk about it on video, as well. However, I go into far more detail in the video. You can watch it right here.

I mentioned that I’ll be putting up images from the game here on this blog. Consider it inspiration for worldbuilding. There are some fantastic landscapes and very interesting animals to see. Expect some posts about that soon!

Let me know what you thought of the video in the comments below. It really has me thinking a lot about what to do with developing the landscapes, animals, and plants of Ariadne.

Worldbuilding and No Man’s Sky

As you may know, I’ve been playing No Man’s Sky. Every planet in the game is unique. And it’s actually quite inspirational for me. You see, it’s giving me ideas for worldbuilding.

However, we’ve had a bit of a bumpy road getting the game to work yesterday. It’s no fault of the game. It’s Steam that was being idiotic. Watch this video and you’ll find out.

I played the game today, and there was no problem. I’m loving the game. I spent the entire time today exploring this one planet, looking for resources, technology upgrades, and trying to learn more of the language. And the thing that struck me was how beautiful this world was. What you saw in the video above is that world.

The landscapes, ruins, plants, and animals inspire me. They’re giving me ideas for worldbuilding on Ariadne. And as I explore other worlds, I get even more ideas. This world is so colourful. I’d love to show you pictures, but I couldn’t actually take any screencaps of the game today. I’ll have to take photos instead. I want to show you the landscapes, the whole planet, and the animals. I’ll be making a feature on this blog about No Man’s Sky, and I’ll catalogue all the planets and animals I discover.

I probably won’t be playing the game for a few days, though. At least not until next week. But when I do, I’ll take pictures. I’m going to go through all the worlds I’ve been to, as I search for more things. I want to discover all animal species, which gives the player a big reward. Once I’ve done that, I’ll move on to the next star system.

On the topic of worldbuilding, it’s making me think about sketching landscapes and creating the animals for Ariadne. I’m really looking forward to that.

Continuing My No Man’s Sky Adventure

I played a bit more No Man’s Sky today, and made some pretty good progress. But let me show you the third planet I visited.

That is so pink! The first two planets were much more subdued in colour, but this one was so brightly coloured. It’s like the fluorescent planet with pink grass.

From where I left off yesterday, I managed to get my hyperdrive and a warp cell, so I can travel to another system. However, I haven’t explored all the planets in my home system. I’ve made it to my third planet, and still have a fourth planet to explore.

So, starting at the second planet, I was able to get my hyperdrive installed, and I went searching around for fuel. I needed antimatter. I found an installation that had a door sealed with steel. I tried destroying that, but I was then attacked by a couple sentinel drones, which I destroyed. Then they sent elite sentinels after me! I don’t have a weapon yet! I only have the mining laser. I ran for my ship and took off, going straight up into space. I went to the space station, did some trading, and decided to head to the third planet. But before I went, I got a transmission from the second planet to come back to an outpost I visited before. I actually got some antimatter at that outpost earlier on, and now they were asking me to come back. I went down, and the alien there asked me for some titanium. I went out searching for it, came back, and he changed his mind. He wanted carbon! I gave him carbon, and in exchange he gave me… carbon? What was the point of that?

Anyway, that’s when I decided to get off the planet and head to the third planet. I haven’t explored it much, but I did check out a beautiful cave filled with colourful minerals.

Some other things that happened included going swimming in a small pond on the second planet, which is about 30% water. I discovered many kinds of plants, animals, and minerals. I also renamed all the animals and planets. I haven’t done the plants yet, though. You see, when you discover something, you have the right to name them whatever you want (but don’t bypass censors), and you get money! And if you discover all animals on a planet, you get a lot of money. My first and third planets have eight or nine species to discover, but the second planet is totally devoid of animals. Only plants.

The first planet is considered balmy, but it’s actually quite hot, requiring me to use thermal shielding in my suit. Also, it has active volcanic vents. The second planet is also balmy, but it’s far more comfortable, and quite earth-like, except it has less water and only plants. The third planet is humid, nice temperature, and very colourful.

I’m thinking of keeping track of all the planets and showing you a picture of what I see. I’m not playing this game on my own computer, so no screenshots. Only photos. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.

No Man’s Sky – First Impressions

No Man’s Sky, the game I’ve been waiting for my entire life to play. When I saw gameplay several months ago, I wanted this game so badly, I thought time would go by too slowly. Well, it came out last week. And this morning, I got to play it for myself for the first time.

What I’ve Done So Far

I started out on a rather hot planet with strange fan-like plants and active volcanic vents near my damaged ship. The fissure gave off a smoky gas once. The sky was often yellow with dark clouds. I searched the area to find resources and repair the ship. I walked to a shelter, found some new technology, gathered carbon, plutonium, and iron, then found I needed some zinc. It took me a long time to find that. I eventually got my ship repaired, and I could fly around.

During my exploration period, I discovered several shelters, a mining facility, and a few other things that weren’t manned. I was able to fly to space, but I didn’t have fuel for my pulse engine. Thamium9 was hard to find! I looked around, found a couple ruins where I learned some Gek words, classified a couple of animals, and noticed several ship going in one direction. I followed them, got lost for a few minutes, then found where they were going: a manufacturing facility. It was manned! And I finally had some new technology and access to the galactic trading system (can’t recall what it’s called at the moment). I bought some Thamium9, then found out that there’s a ruin nearby. I flew to the ruin, and learned several languages. I am in very good standing with the Gek. They have partner status now.

So, after that, I flew to space and went straight for a space station where I did some trading, and located a beacon on another planet. On my way to that other planet, I ran out of Thamium9. But, I discovered that the asteroids are made of Thamium9. Lucky! I eventually made it to this new world, which has a lot of water on the surface! Lakes! I landed, and that’s where my game ended.

I’ll be playing more this week. My next objective is to build a hyperdrive and be able to fly to other star systems. However, I’ll explore all of the planets in my home system first. I want to be thorough. And I’d like to discover all of the animals, too. I’m an explorer. I want to know everything there is to know in each system I visit.

My First Impressions

Be prepared for repetitive actions! The mining and searching for resources may bore some people, but I have no problems with that. I love exploring, and that’s what this allows me to do. Some of the landscapes are incredible. The first time that sentinels came flying around me after I mined some plutonium, it felt quite creepy.

It’s a beautiful game, and I’d love to play it in a full VR environment. That would be incredible! The chance to discover new worlds and animals, as well as aliens is so fascinating. I’ve only scratched the surface of this game, but I’m loving it. The time I played passed so quickly, I didn’t realise how long I’d actually played. It’s addictive.

I can see myself spending hours on this game. It’s too easy to get immersed in it. I have to watch the time I spend on it. I could live in it all day. If I were to give it a star rating for the limited time I’ve played, I’d give it full 5 stars. It’s that good (at least for me).

How About You?

Have you played it yet? What have you done so far? Let me know in the comments below.