Two Cool New Writing Sites

I was browsing the interwebz looking for a group of writers that could somehow get me motivation and guidance with writing my books and came across writing.com. Haven't spent a ton of time on there yet but it looks really promising.

Then on FB today, someone posted this blog called Anna Reads and I got super excited about it. She LOVES YA Lit and takes review requests. I'm going to stalk her site a little more before I'll see if she'll read my book where the words resemble mashed potatoes more than actual plot lines and see what she thinks. We'll see where this goes. :)

Photo stolen off of a creative writing website. XD

DCUO

DC Universe Online is a VERY new MMORPG. I stopped playing WOW a bit to give it a whirl. Obviously, an MMORPG is a difficult thing to really critique in one post but I'm going to highlight what I think are important aspects of the game and hopefully not spend too long on this. >.<

Character creation: 4 out of 5 coins

Better than WoW but worse than City of Heroes. Of course, it could be said that COH has TOO many options and that it just gets chaotic trying to pick everything that you like for your character. DCUO has a careful balance where it doesn't take you forty-five minutes to pick out an outfit and yet it's kinda hard to get the same character as anyone else. There are two sets of power combinations- a physical and a "magical" (so to speak). You can mix and match them all instead of having one set "class" for your character. This really enhances the uniqueness of your char.

Graphics: 3 out of 5 coins

The graphics are good as far as the world is concerned but I gave it one less number because I personally believe they should have gone with just a touch more cartoony. It'd be awesome to play in a world that looked just a little bit more like comics than it does real life. This is compared especially when you get a cut-scene and it's done all in comic book artistry and it's all pretty and stuff and then you pop back into the game and it's all real life and junk.

Game play: 4 out of 5 coins

Game play is unlike any MMORPG that I've ever played before. You use your mouse a TON which is why I gave it 4 coins instead of 5. I was worried that I'd break my mouse or something by wearing it out. >.< This aspect of the game is also influenced by the fact that it is available for the console so they'd have to make it accessible for a controller- which I've actually heard is the preferred method of playing even for PC users.

The actual skills and spells that your character has aren't based on a "cool down" but more of a build up of certain elements like mana or rage. This leaves the actual fighting less turned-based and more active. It has a completely different feeling compared to WoW that does take some time to get used to.

Gear system: 4 out of 5 coins

The gear system is pretty cool. You can lock the "looks" of your character so it'll keep the same style you picked at the beginning or you can change it up with new gear you find as you go along on your missions that aren't available in the beginning selections so you can at least see visually how far others have progressed in the game (if they've unlocked their gear). This also means you're not stuck with a style you first picked out and then decide you hate two hours later. This category didn't get all 5 coins though because the system is not casual-player friendly. By level 23, I still wasn't sure what kind of stats I needed for my character and her certain power sets.

Storyline: 5 out of 5 coins

My background isn't necessarily the most comic book savvy but I do know the basics and this game really sticks to them. I LOVED running into all kinds of classic characters and interacting with them. You can pick Batman (and lots of awesome others) as your mentor and then run around doing missions for him. I was like "YEA! BATMAN said I did a good job! WOOT!"

It was also cool to play the mission plots and run into favorites. "Hi Robin!"

Main concerns about the game:

Chat system is AWFUL. Obviously console players don't chat a whole bunch textually but PC gamers, I like to think, chat it up a bit more. Basically, it's difficult to chat and play at the same time. You're so busy using the mouse while fighting that it's impossible to talk like you might be able to during a WoW battle. Essentially, it's one player game in a world that just happens to have other players in it. Luckily, you've got Batman to keep you company.

Level cap is 30 and is easily attained in a 10 day trial period. That is messed up.

You can use your main transportation ability from the very start. This is comparable to having an elite mount in WoW at level 1. Traveling is crazy easy and yet since you need to travel a lot to get to different missions, I'm not entirely sure that's a bad thing.

The game does feel too easy and I wonder how long I would last playing it. On one hand, you can create TONS of characters and never get the feeling of repetition (except for the missions, of course) but on the other hand, you hit 30 in three weeks and there is just only so much raiding and pvping you can do. This last reason is why I haven't felt comfortable shelling out some cash yet because I'm not sure it would have the longevity that WoW certainly does. Players complain that you can't ever totally "beat" an MMORPG but if you can, it'd be SUPER boring and people just wouldn't stay with it.

As of right now, I'm in limbo and I guess that probably means I shouldn't buy it. It's an awesome game but I'm just not sure I'd stick with it long enough to warrant spending much money on it.

Update on BP and upcoming review for DCUO!

Writing is going SUPER slow. I'd like to say it's because I'm super busy selling my other books and being awesomely rich but it's not that at all. I'm just freezing in my house and my fingers don't want to type. Oh and also, I'm just super lazy.

BP: 12 pages.

On another note, I played a trial for 10 days of DCUO (DC Universe Online). Be ready to see a review on the game soon (maybe even today if I get too un-lazy) and see why I'm still not sure if I want to buy it or not.

P.S. Batman rocks!!

Writing

I'm going pretty slow so far on BP 3. With the first two I tried to write a set number of pages a day like 3 or 5. With this one, I'm just happy to get some writing done. BP 2 needs to be revisited and heavily edited but hopefully not as much as BP 1 did. And hopefully BP 1 doesn't need more but I'm afraid it does. Guess I'm just taking a break with all that.

Gotten at least 10 rejection emails so far but I'm going to keep trying. Considering self-publishing but not quite committed to it. I guess I feel like that'd be coping out and not really fulfilling a dream of having a book published. We'll just have to see how desperate I get.

BP 3: 10 pages.

By the way...

I blame Netflix for how long I've not posted. :P Oh and WoW, Facebook, and having to get a job.

Working on book three of BP now and hope to have a few pages in today. I've got 8 so far.

Netflix

Netflix.com is awesome. There is no arguments about that. While the site advertises that it costs about $9 per month it's really something more like $12. But do I care? No way.

First of all, you can get almost any movie or television show in the mail. You can get as many as you want per month for the same fee. They can come as fast as you can watch and mail them back. And for some reason, they seem to be super mailers because it's mere days that you send one in and get one back.

Personally, I prefer the instant streaming from Netflix. This allows you to instantly watch a show or movie from the Netflix.com website. There is no limit of how many you can watch per day or per month. You can pause them at any time and come back even months later to the same spot. You don't have to wait for the mail. You don't even have to leave your computer (unless you need some popcorn). There is only one major downfall to this method but is being addressed more and more each day. That being not everything is on instant download. Many television series are and many movies are as well and the list just keeps growing weekly.

But even if you can't see it instantly, just order it through the mail and you'll have it within days anyway.

This website has personally saved me tons of money. So much I can't even estimate. We like movies at my house and used to just buy all kinds in hopes that they were good or just fixing a craving to watch something new. Now I don't have to buy them at all unless I REALLY like them. Suffice it to say, I haven't bought many DVDs recently.

Not to mention the fact that you can watch your favorite TV shows (with the exception of perhaps a year of delay on the current seasons which isn't great for the ongoing shows but is great for catching up or expanding one's horizons) without those horrible commercials. That has saved me time and guess what? Time = money.

So everyone should own an account to netflix. You only need one for the whole family and can easily watch two things at once with multiple computers or an Xbox or Wii.

On the other hand... just be careful you don't waste ALL your time trying to watch everything... You just might explode.