Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

There is Another Skywalker... Err Dragonborn!

Bethesda just announced a new expansion for Skyrim called "Dragonborn." As always it will be released on XBox 360 first for a mere 1600 Microsoft points($20).

The trailer boasts Dragon mounts and a new quest line for Skyrim where you find out your not the only Dragonborn in Skyrim. From the video I couldn't tell if this new Dragonborn is evil or not? I guess he/she must be because they wear some pretty scary armor. That said, it could be like the Arnold Schwarzenegger & Danny Devito film Twins. Plenty of "Ill be back" references and your Dragonborn twin yelling loudly.

That or something about evil resurrected and a bunch of stuff hanging in the balance or whatever.

... Read All

Gary_Butterfield wrote on 11/06/2012 at 05:07pm

I bought the other DLC for Skyrim but haven't brought myself to get far enough to get them to proc. I played so much of that game when it came out, the thought of even getting to level 10 to unlock the vampire lord stuff is a little repugnant. I guess I should have kept my old save.

BR Supporter wrote on 11/06/2012 at 06:32pm

Thank god its an expansion and not another crappy dlc. Hopefully it'll be something like the shivering isle in Oblivion. That would be amazing. A whole new continent to explore would be nice.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/06/2012 at 08:17pm

Yeah it would be. I hope some more details surface over the next few days.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/06/2012 at 08:18pm

@Gary: You should be able to do anything in open world games on day 1. Well maybe day 2, but you get the point. :D

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/07/2012 at 01:39pm

I agree with that. If Morrowind did one thing exceptionally right. It was immediately dumping you off the boat and into the game to do whatever it is you want to do. Doing Skyrim's beginning for every character is a bit annoying. I remember using a mod in Oblivion that also got rid of the beginning.

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Zillions of Things Attached to Transients

Borderlands 2 is quite a lot of fun. As I continue on with it I keep running into quests and events that make me smile. The loot I am collecting is pretty bad-ass too. Compared to other loot based games like Diablo 3, Borderlands has it beat in my view. I never feel like any weapon I collected in Diablo 3 held any advantage over another save attack power going through it the first time. I have nabbed a few items now in Borderlands 2 that are not just overpowered awesomeness, but have unique abilities that actually can change how you play the game.

For instance, I got a shield that when depleted, explodes a few times. When the shield depletes and the explosions start I... Read All Borderlands 2 is quite a lot of fun. As I continue on with it I keep running into quests and events that make me smile. The loot I am collecting is pretty bad-ass too. Compared to other loot based games like Diablo 3, Borderlands has it beat in my view. I never feel like any weapon I collected in Diablo 3 held any advantage over another save attack power going through it the first time. I have nabbed a few items now in Borderlands 2 that are not just overpowered awesomeness, but have unique abilities that actually can change how you play the game.

For instance, I got a shield that when depleted, explodes a few times. When the shield depletes and the explosions start I jump further into the fray. This can be used to totally level a room and is quite a bit of fun to boot. Sometimes it doesn't work, but death isn't a huge deal in Borderlands. Paired with the Gunzerkers healing when you pop into Gunzerk mode, this shield ability is pretty powerful. I held it for quite along time until just recently I picked up a shield that has a chance to absorb bullets and return them to my inventory. All this awesome stuff and I am only level 15.

Came across two quests I thought were really awesome I wanted to share. "Splinter Group" is a quest where you head off to kill mutants. You have to start off by getting a pizza from Mad Moxi's to deliver. The mission starts out with you killing mutant rat men and finally end off taking down 4 dude talking mutants with ninja weapons. The gun you get for completing this mission looks an aweful lot like the Ninja Turtle van as well. As you start the mission there is a QR code on the Pizza Box and after a ton of screwing around got it to translate on my phone to:

"Wise man say, forgiveness is divine but never pay full price for late pizza. -Captain Picard"

Another such themed mission was a serious nod to Top Gun and it was fun to notice the person that gave me the quest was called "Loggins."

http://borderlands.wikia.com/wiki/Splinter_Group

Travis Admin wrote on 11/06/2012 at 05:08pm

It's very hard not to think of Diablo and Borderlands similarly. Take Diablo, make it first person, put it in a futuristic setting, and you have something close to Borderlands. A few more tweaks, and you're done.

Also, all the scanning in the world was never able to get that QR code to work. I haven't done that mission yet, but there's pizza all over Moxxi's place anyway. Nice to know what the reference is.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/06/2012 at 08:17pm

Borderlands is similar to Diablo but somehow I love it more than Diablo 3. I just think its more akin to my style.

When I unlock any other QR codes ill post the text.

How far are you in Borderlands 2?

Travis Admin wrote on 11/06/2012 at 08:28pm

I have a level 10 Gaige and level 14 Maya.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/06/2012 at 11:47pm

16 Gunzerker, 11 Siren, 11 Mecromancer, 7 Axton

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War Z Beta

http://gamergrub.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/The-War-Z-Zombie-MMO.jpg

So, today a friend gave me a key to the War Z beta. I had hopes that this would be a good experience but didn't really think the game was going to be amazing. Now, I realize this is in beta and they still have a lot of changes to make, but I feel like its almost too late for some of the issues.

First off, the animations are dreadful. Running and jumping throughout the game just makes me laugh because the animations are just THAT bad. It makes me not able to take the experience, a game like day z has or war z should have, seriously. I feel like the game should have a serious, life or death, feeling to it, but it doesn't. Its just a laughable clone of day z that can't be... Read All So, today a friend gave me a key to the War Z beta. I had hopes that this would be a good experience but didn't really think the game was going to be amazing. Now, I realize this is in beta and they still have a lot of changes to make, but I feel like its almost too late for some of the issues.

First off, the animations are dreadful. Running and jumping throughout the game just makes me laugh because the animations are just THAT bad. It makes me not able to take the experience, a game like day z has or war z should have, seriously. I feel like the game should have a serious, life or death, feeling to it, but it doesn't. Its just a laughable clone of day z that can't be taken seriously.

Second, the building and towns. Almost every single town in the map is exactly the same and has the same buildings with the same layouts. There was almost no effort in making the map feel dynamic. If you didn't start out with a map, it would be impossible to tell a town apart from another besides for the surrounding hills and trees. This makes the experience very dull and repetitive.

Lastly, the game in general. There is nothing in the game that makes me think of it as an independent game. I feel as though almost every aspect has been stolen from the day z mod. There is zero creativity involved in this game. The only difference is the inventory system and the fact that you can see a weapon a mile away because it glows extremely bright. When you die, you lose all your stuff and must wait an hour to play that character again. This is pointless because you are allowed about 5 characters. If they are worried about you logging back in with the same character to get your stuff back, they should of made it to where you cannot join the same server. The fact that you can make multiple characters defeats every purpose of locking your dead character from being played again for 1 hour.

Really, War Z did not have a good impression on me at all. I feel as though the day z mod is a million times better. There is really no point in me playing war z again as I feel that I would make better use of my time if I played Day Z. If any of you guys want to criticize my judgement than go ahead. I'm just stating my opinion on the game. I just wanted to warn anyone who wants to play this game to not get their hopes up before hand.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/05/2012 at 11:32pm

Is this the standalone Day Z project or something different altogether? From how you called it a laughable clone of Day Z, I'm assuming it's not related.

BR Supporter Post Author wrote on 11/06/2012 at 12:32am

It's not related. The Day Z standalone I believe is called exactly that. War Z is something entirely different. Made by different people. I believe its Arktos Interactive.

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/06/2012 at 02:44am

Thanks for letting me know, this wasn't on my radar.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/06/2012 at 04:34am

Sounds like it shouldn't be on your radar after all ;)

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/06/2012 at 05:00am

What I meant is I now know about it, yeah not going to follow them. :D

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State of The Ghost: 3.0

In keeping with the spirit of the very infrequent "State of the Ghost" posts I add yet another to the mix. Going forward I plan on doing about 4 a year talking about the nuts and bolts of what's going on and what we have brewing on the site.

Overall I am really happy with how far Cheerful Ghost has come since I launched the site this year in January. Ill paint a larger picture at the year end with how far we have come, but needless to say I am really proud of Cheerful Ghost as it sits today. Since the site is still so young if you have any suggestions or recommendations forward I would love to hear them.

Last month I added a lot of stuff to Cheerful Ghost to clear out... Read All In keeping with the spirit of the very infrequent "State of the Ghost" posts I add yet another to the mix. Going forward I plan on doing about 4 a year talking about the nuts and bolts of what's going on and what we have brewing on the site.

Overall I am really happy with how far Cheerful Ghost has come since I launched the site this year in January. Ill paint a larger picture at the year end with how far we have come, but needless to say I am really proud of Cheerful Ghost as it sits today. Since the site is still so young if you have any suggestions or recommendations forward I would love to hear them.

Last month I added a lot of stuff to Cheerful Ghost to clear out some long needed features to make it easy to start up some new awesome stuff we will launch very soon. Before I get into the upcoming features currently in the works, lets discuss what I rolled out last month:

Posts now have titles. Its funny because people have been asking for this since the site first launched. I thought it was nothing important so I kept dismissing it as something we needed. Over time I realized that being the ONLY person that felt we didn't need post titles was a bad idea, so I gave you what you wanted. I sort of did it thinking no one would use it but... since its launch its has been used in 100% of all new posts proving without a doubt I can be wrong about what features we actually need :D After using the post titles myself, I can say they are an awesome addition and I am glad people kept pushing on that one. I think this proves that if enough people want something and are vocal about it, it will be added. Post titles now work with our Atom Feed, Emails & Google Searches and when you share a post to Facebook and Google+ the title is incorporated in the content.

If you come to the site on a popular Holiday you will get a trophy. So far I have added Trophies for All Hallows Eve, Turkey Day & Leprechaun Day. As more holidays approach, I will add more. If you have a holiday you think should be memorialised in trophy form, let me know. Yes, I will add a trophy for Star Wars Day. :D

If people haven't come to the site in a few weeks we send out a email letting them know the most popular conversations that happened since they were away. I send this out every two weeks as to not be annoying. We now randomize between 5 or 6 different subjects for the email. I don't want to give the impression the content of the email is always the same because the subject line was. Now the subject will be different enough to hopefully let the user know the content of the email is new and interesting.

We were having a problem with certain people posting content a few users and myself didn't think was awesome. I implemented a system to "bury" a post. Basically it means that a buried post won't be visible to anyone on the main or corresponding game page. The post will be visible to the originating user and on the users personal area. 99% of posts are fine, occasionally some are not and this is just a way to ensure stuff on the main page is awesome for everyone.

Tungsten, Panickedthumb & WhiteboySlim are site moderators. Basically this allows them the ability to bury posts and add and edit games in the Cheerful Ghost database. Wherein its not new they are moderators, they can now bury posts along with me.

I experimented with adding video embed support for Twitch.tv. Basically I can't get a good method to ALWAYS display the video feed to browsers on your phone, tablet and desktop. What I ended up doing is displaying a Twitch graphic pointing the user to the twitch content on the site. I don't love this solution, but I like it more than displaying a broken box to people on iPhones and Androids. Eventually Twitch will provide an embed that will work on all clients and when they do I will be the first to incorporate it.

I had to migrate the database of the provider we host the site with. The free database plan we were on was no longer valid because of all the data the site stores. I guess tracking 26k games all the posts and comments take up more space than they felt should be under the free plan. :D
I also fixed a few bugs and made some improvements to the overall site look and feel as well as a bunch of other stuff I don't remember off hand.

I cleared this list off because I wanted to put us feature wise in a good place for something I have wanted to do since the site launched in January.

Cheerful Ghost is getting a visual upgrade. First off I want to let you know that the site will not lose any functionality you love. I am merely taking the design we currently have and making it better. Since I am the lone developer you have been stuck with the best visual design that I could muster. For not being a designer I am pretty happy with how it turned out but I want the site to be "moar awesomerz" in its visuals.

Yesterday I started the process of working with the new design made with the amazing Twitter Bootstrap Framework(http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/) and after showing it to a friend I am really happy with the direction. What I am doing is recreating the main page in HTML and making sure it works well on phones, tablets and desktops. When I complete the initial design and mockup I will post a "Lets Play: Cheerful Ghost Design Edition" to show you what I have cooked up.

After the design is tweaked and I feel it is awesome enough, ill spend a week or whatever cutting up the site to operate with the new design. After the bugs are all ironed out ill push it out for everyone to enjoy.

The reason I want to give the site a visual lift is because I want the visuals of Cheerful Ghost to be as awesome as the community and the content we create together. For many months I have considered what to do about this and think I am on a pretty good path, but I look forward to your input here when I post the visual "Lets Play" video showcasing the new goods.

Thanks for reading and if you have any thoughts about the above, please let me know.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/04/2012 at 11:47pm

Awesome job getting all of those things into the website. I look forward to the visual overhaul. If what your using has a way to add in anything semi-fancy you should ask me or my brother. I did graphic design on cards and a lot of other things for along while. I believe he is taking courses in school to do some things as well.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/05/2012 at 03:11am

When I get the Lets Play video up showing off the new design I'd love to get your thoughts for sure!

Travis Admin wrote on 11/05/2012 at 03:44am

You should do a beta.cheerfulghost.com for a couple of weeks before launching the new design, just to have a ton of eyes on it with suggestions.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/05/2012 at 04:00am

A beta is a good idea I might do that depending on how much work it is to do it.

Gary_Butterfield wrote on 11/05/2012 at 05:07pm

Great work so far, Jon.

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Not sure who's still playing but...

http://www.diablo3farming.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Diablo-3-keywarden-act-4-Nekarat.jpg

If any of you have the gear, want to farm some key wardens some time? I've run the act II key warden about 20 times on mp2 and have only gotten 1 key.

More than anything, I'm just bored with the run.

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/04/2012 at 09:17pm

I play D3 here and there, but I am only level 54 or something like that. Is that high enough to take down this guy?

Travis Admin wrote on 11/04/2012 at 09:44pm

I don't even think they spawn in non-Inferno.

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/04/2012 at 09:58pm

Well there we are.

Tungsten Post Author wrote on 11/05/2012 at 03:06am

They spawn in all difficulties but they only drop keys in inferno mp1+. So yes, you are 6 levels and 10 mil gold or so away.

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/05/2012 at 03:09am

Ok so an hour of grinding an I'm all set :D

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/05/2012 at 03:10am

That all said I am pretty happy with picking up and playing Diablo 3 from time to time. Haven't got to any of the end game stuff yet, but at some point I will.

Travis Admin wrote on 11/05/2012 at 03:37am

I can wallop The Butcher in Inferno pretty easily now, but the first bit of Act II still slays me. I may have hit the point where you have to love the grind to keep going.

I'm OK with that, I suppose. It's definitely a pick-up-put-down game for me. I play it a couple of days and have loads of fun, then I'm done for a while. If I quit right now and never looked at it again, I would have still gotten my $60 worth.

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/05/2012 at 04:00am

I got a pretty good value out of mine too I think. I got ze Collectors which I think is superb. Prob listened to the soundtrack more than I've played the game.

Chowda wrote on 11/05/2012 at 06:18am

Yes, keys drop in inferno acts 1-3 when you have 5 stacks of valor. Each monster power gives an additional 10% chance for the key to drop. So MP10 has a 100% drop chance. We usually farm them on MP5 or 6.

I just finally got all 3 organs the other day and made my first hellfire ring. It didn't roll very well but at least I get the bonus XP!

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Totally Rad Show Reviews Dishonored

I am a big Totally Rad Show fan. Love me some Jeff, Dan and Alex. I enjoy what they have to say about Video Games, Comic Books and Movies.

On such recent review for Dishonored really interested me in checking it out. I have more games than I know what to do with now, but when a Bethesda deal comes around with Dishonored included I will pick it up.

Did you nab this game? What are you thoughts on it?

Haven't played a stealth shooter yet, so this would be my first. Oh and when I pick this up, it WILL be on PC.

Another interesting article on games journalism

http://images.eurogamer.net/2012/articles/craig-test/1351787650.43.jpg/EG11/thumbnail/360x200/

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-11-02-the-games-media-must-renew-the-trust-of-its-audience

Table Top: Star Fluxx

Table Top just released a new episode covering the Board Game Star Fluxx. One of my friends recently picked this up and I need to play it with him sometime. He said it was good, looks like it from the video.

Cheerful Ghost User Interview: BR

As I mentioned a few days back that I would be sending out user interviews to the most active Cheerful Ghost users. I emailed BR and he awesomely answered my questions.

Ill send out more over the next few weeks. If you don't get a email right away, fear not ill get to you all.

http://cheerfulghost.com/BR

jdodson: I know a bit about this already, but I wonder if you can let us know why you chose BR as your screen name?

BR: For those who don't know, BR stands for BlueRooster. This has been my screen name for the past few years. I first came up with it when creating an account to play Global Agenda. I mostly like it because its fairly simple and unique. I've never met someone... Read All

Non Union Equivalents

http://www.psp-themes.net/data/media/5/Mario%20RPG.jpg

SMRPG is a game that, in retrospect, I consider to be an interesting failure. There's a lot to recommend it but almost as many sore spots. Let's start with the good:

The Timing System: What is the number one genre staple in JRPGs that is persistently tolerated and rarely improved? The grind. 80% of JRPGs consist of pressing the action button. This is true. Random battles rarely require any sort of deep strategical thinking and can be conquered with basic attacks. This is necessary; it'd be exhausting to think each and every encounter. It'd be like having to figure out the best way to tackle a goomba. So, this gets boring, almost every time. In SMRPG, they introduce this... Read All

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/02/2012 at 08:44pm

Aww. This was one of the first games I ever beat all the way. Geno is still one of my favorite characters of all time. I love the marionette. I still consider this to be one of the best games of all time. I love the culex battle as a throwback to early final fantasy games. It also was the precursor to the long running and much beloved paper mario games. The minecart mini game was also really fun. As was the music note tadpoles. Thanks for taking the time to write something up on such and old classic though. It's rarely mentioned nowadays.

Gary_Butterfield Post Author wrote on 11/02/2012 at 09:16pm

I didn't have history with it, is one thing. Coming at games as an adult is tougher than as a kid sometimes. I don't think it's a bad game by any means. It's an experiential thing, right? The important thing is how you felt playing. That's what the podcast is about and also this site, I think.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/02/2012 at 09:31pm

Ya I don't fault you for disliking it or anything. You made valid points about it. Just giving my own opinions on a game from my childhood. I've gone back and finished it again about 3years ago replaying some games to see if it was all nostalgia.

Gary_Butterfield Post Author wrote on 11/02/2012 at 09:47pm

There are some games I definitely give a lot of affection to due to nostalgia. I loved SNES RPGs but this is a weird blind spot for me as a young'n. If I had stumbled across it at that age, I would have ate it the fuck up. Instead, I wasted time on Paladin's Quest.

Jacob_Richardson wrote on 11/02/2012 at 10:12pm

paladins quest...OH! I remember why that sounds familiar. It's also called Lennus. I just recently finished Lennus 2 a month or so ago. It was a great game.

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/03/2012 at 09:59pm

I missed Super Mario RPG too. My cousin played it and loved it, but I didn't have it. By the time it came around I was moving on to being in a band and I skipped this entirely.

I came back to try it later and the faux 3D sort of didn't resonate with me. It seems to garner high praise from people that love it though. The fighting didn't stick with me and the story wasn't memorable, for the small bit I did play.

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