Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Cheerful Ghost 3.0 - Even Better Than The Real Thing

Now that Starship Rubicon has been launched into orbit I want to focus some attention to Cheerful Ghost. As a community we've come really far on this current site and technology platform but I have some ideas on ways to improve things that should help us out quite a bit. Over the last couple months i've sent out some emails to community members where we've discussed ideas i've had but I want to now ask everyone together.

What kinds of things do you want to see Cheerful Ghost do? Is there something you do on the site now you'd like to see improved? Is there something you'd like us to get into? We are a community and as such i'd like to hear your ideas and work on the... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 10/07/2015 at 02:19am

The ability to write about a game without it being on your list would be great. If I see some news about some game that I want to share, before I do that I have to go through the process of adding it to my list first. I can add them to many different lists, but what if I absolutely hated the Fallout series (I know, heresy) and wanted to share something about Fallout 4? I'd have to pretend that I want it or own it before I write about it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/07/2015 at 02:50am

That's a great suggestion Travis, added that to the list thanks!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 10/07/2015 at 08:14am

I totally agree with Travis! I remember at least one time I wanted to write about a game, but it didn't show up on my list of games to write about and I asked you to add it, but he pointed me in the right direction and reminded me that I had to add the game to the list of games I own.

Being able to edit comments would be cool! That way we wouldn't have to delete a whole comment just to fix one little typo or whatever. Someone else said that and I've realized that's a cool idea.

I sometimes think of things and even if they don't get implemented or if someone shows me how my idea isn't that great, I appreciate you being open.

Thanks for providing a GREAT site!

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 10/07/2015 at 04:24pm

I agree with Greg's agreement with Travis.

Travis Admin wrote on 10/07/2015 at 08:19pm

I agree with Adam's agreement with Greg's agreement of me.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 10/08/2015 at 12:08am

I agree with Travis's agreement with Adam's agreement with my agreement of Travis's. Do we have enough votes now? LOL

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/08/2015 at 02:35am

Uhm. I think I need one more person other than you three to bend the needle.

Travis Admin wrote on 10/08/2015 at 02:37am

I, totally not Travis, agree with Greg's agreement with Travis's agreement with Adam's agreement with Greg's agreement with Travis.

Travis Admin wrote on 10/08/2015 at 02:38am

Oh snap, I should have signed in with my alt.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 10/08/2015 at 06:01am

Hi, my name is Jill, I am Greg's cat and I most definitely agree with these humans. Meow! =)

JaBo wrote on 10/08/2015 at 03:41pm

I have also tried to write about a game and been stopped. Therefore, agree, I do.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 10/09/2015 at 12:13pm

I just thought of something that I think might be cool. Right now, I see the page in pretty much three columns. The middle contains the main stuff and the right now has the activity feed. What if we had something on the left to kind of center it all? I think our profile picture and info used to be there. However, I think it would be cool if it contained a list of titles (along with links to the post), perhaps along with the name of the game talked about, there on the left. It could be like the 10 most recent posts on main. So, it would be a linked list of the most recent posts. I tried to show what that would look like in this comment, but apparently my HTML didn't work, which makes my second idea that more relevant. Perhaps, along with the ability to edit comments, we could have a preview button. That way we can make sure our HTML codes work and everything looks right before posting. Perhaps enticing people to proofread before posting, too. =)

Travis Admin wrote on 10/09/2015 at 02:10pm

I like your second idea, but for the first we already have that info on the main page, it just requires scrolling. Adding it to a new left bar would add redundancy that isn't really useful.

Plus I like simplicity. As sites have more and more columns I start losing track of where my eyes are supposed to go.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Charisma. Master Using It And You Can Have It!

Charisma isn't something i've spent many points on in Fallout but I am thinking having a more Charismatic character might be something I do this time around. Talking people into things seems like a better solution and I remember many times in Fallout 3 where it would have saved me much grief to make friends instead of blasting away.

Chet Faliszek Talks About The Year Ahead for HTC Vive And Steam VR

Chet Faliszek is a writer at Valve that worked on Portal, Left 4 Dead and Half-life. He is currently working on VR at Valve and gave a great talk at this years EGX. If you are interested in learning more about VR and how Valve and HTC are making the Vive you need to check this out. Plus, you know, it's more from Valve.... Don't we all love everything they do?

Terrible Job, Missing People And a Crazy Cult Make Knuckle Sandwich Look Delicious

Cough. Yeah, well you know I couldn't really help making that pun so... anyways, let's not count this too far against me ok? Anyways, oh right Knuckle Sandwich is a great new upcoming RPG game from Indie developer Andrew Brophy that just dropped on Steam Greenlight.

"Knuckle Sandwich is an ａｄｖｅｎｔｕｒｅ／ｒｐｇ thing where you play as a young man who starts working at a run down diner. His job sucks and his boss isn't much chop either! Luckily, people from around town start to go missing and a hella mysterious cult appears and they're looking for someone who seems dangerous.

Wait, no - that's not lucky, that's bad!

It's not up to you to get to the bottom of this mystery, but... Read All

Blizzard Talks Starcraft 2 LoTV Collectors Edition Details

https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/gallery/q7/Q72L5AZ2H9YB1443572097409.jpg

I've been waiting to pre-order Legacy of the Void until details of the Collectors Edition dropped and today was a good day. If you saw the Diablo 3, Reaper of Souls, Starcraft 2 or Heart of the Swarm Collectors Editions this is fits along side those. Featuring the base game, CD score, behind the scenes DVD & Bluray and field manual this version should round out my collectors set for the trilogy.

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/19907624

Spin Up Those Record Players Because The FTL Score Is Out On Vinyl

"To accompany the game, Ben Prunty composed a masterful sci-fi soundtrack that we're thrilled to release on vinyl for the very first time! Give it a listen here. To do this vinyl recording its ultimate justice, we had the audio mastered at Telegraph Mastering Studio. We can't wait for you to hear it like this!

We teamed up with Leif Podhajsky to design a vinyl package that blows our minds with its awesomeness! Leif's pedigree includes album covers for many top labels, including famed rock group, Tame Impala."

I like seeing this kind of lush physical release treatment for Indie games and soundtracks as they generally only exist digitally. This is a nice piece to put on... Read All

Watch The Recent Chucklefish Stardew Valley Stream

As WhiteboySlim mentioned in the latest roundtable, ConcernedApe is nearing the release of Stardew Valley. He says it should be out sometime this year and as such Chucklefish streamed the game for an hour. Personally I want to wait to experience the game fresh, but I don't fault you for peeking early. I'll clip out a bit from a recent blog post on the matter:

"The game is very close to being finished. I don’t have a set release date yet, but it will certainly be out this year. Single player is 99% finished, but needs a more polishing and debugging. Multiplayer still needs some work, and I am looking into possibly switching to MonoGame, which would allow for a Mac and... Read All

The Humble Bundle Gets Netflix Like Subscription In "Humble Monthly Bundle"

"A highly curated bundle of our favorite games at one fixed price. Includes everything from recent hits to hidden gems to timeless classics - every month. Receive a bundle every month. Simply sign up, and let the games roll in. Discover games that haven't been featured in other bundles. Help worthwhile causes — 5% of each month's proceeds support charity."

If one of the problems in your life is not having enough games to play, The Humble folks are on the scene with The Humble Monthly Bundle. You pay a monthly subscription of $12 a month and you get a bundle delivered to you each month. New subscribers get Legend of Grimrock 2 and you can cancel anytime. What I like... Read All

Click And Tap Your Way To Virtual Riches In AdVenture Capitalist

I thought it would be fun to talk about AdVenture Capitalist on the day we drop traditional web advertising from Cheerful Ghost. AdVenture Capitalist is a free to play game by Hippo Games that takes the cookie clicker formula, simplifies it and is styled after a 1920's era Capitalist Utopia. You start the game by selling lemonade and can upgrade to a newspaper route, car wash, pizza delivery all the way to running your own oil company. Since clicking each time you want to sell something is tedious and not very Capitalist the game allows you to hire managers to do the clicking for you. If you get Managers running all your companies you can step away and come back to... Read All

Why We Dropped Traditional Web Advertising From Cheerful Ghost

http://cdn.na16.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/scrooge-mcduck.jpg

When I launched Cheerful Ghost more than three years ago I wanted to build an amazing video game community that was funded by its users. Initially I had three ideas for ways to make enough money to keep things going and one was using traditional web banner advertising. I didn't plan on this making us much money, but felt it was a good compromise to make a few bucks to offset some of our traffic costs. In a perfect world, I don't actually mind this model as it mirrors much of how traditional forms of radio and television use to fund the programs we love. With that, there have been some very interesting conversations recently about web advertising, privacy and respect... Read All