HOTT 52 - Getting Ready

Kaptain Kobold over at the Stronghold blog has been holding forth on the game HOTT (Hordes of the Things) for years now. This year, they decided to play a weekly game of HOTT a year and record them as HOTT 52. This sounds like a great idea for me, and will allow me to get off my painting/modeling obsession (and Minecraft addiction -- you should see the "Empire" I'm creating in my world, all in Survival!) .. anyway, to actually play games.

(See [1] for what HOTT is, if you've never heard of it before.)

I'm going back in time, though, back to the last published version of HOTT, 1.2, which is now available again on Lulu! After playing a version of HOTT that was updated for the latest DBA 3 rules, I've decided to go back. Not because the update HOTT2DBA3 rules are bad, but because a lot of HOTT play at conventions/events is still based on 2.1. I wanted to re-familiarize myself with the actual version.

I was reading through my well worn copy of the rules and kept finding odd notations that implied I had done something earlier, so I went through my Google Drive and found this:

HOTT Reference Sheet (Google Drive Link)

The first page is written for my Etinerra campaign world, and I converted the measurements to inches because "'Murica", but the rules summary works very well as a one sheet/two page summary of the game.

Rather than try to do a huge big restart to my wargames campaign in Etinerra, I'm just going to play some games with miniatures and get to playing HOTT regularly, THEN I can see about tying things back to Etinerra. So this coming weekend, I will do two games to catch up with the weeks - last weekend was all about my playtest of Hommlet!

While I love Chaos Wars and still play it, HOTT is perfect for an hourlong game that gives me some fun, but doesn't require a lot of time.

Thanks, Kaptain Kobold, for the inspiration!

[1] HOTT/Hordes of the Things is a fantasy miniatures wargame that uses a small number of figures to play out just about any fantasy setting you can imagine. It also allows you to make just about any army you can imagine, with an army list that ranges from high Tolkein fantasy, to Asian Indian mythology, to Discworld and even Christmas Land! The rules can be interesting to interpret, with "Barkerese" on the same level as "High Gygaxian" in terms of writing. There's a ton of help on the web and my reference sheet to help you with the rules!

Meet Commodore's VIC(-20), The Friendly Computer

When Commodore made the PET-2001, they made a computer that found some success in the market, especially in Europe.  The PET turned into a series, but it was an all-in-one PC that came with a monochrome monitor and was rather an expensive product.  Commodore wanted to expand to more of a mass-market, and they designed the Commodore VIC-20, the first personal computer to sell for less than $300.  The VIC was very successful when it was released in 1981, becoming the first computer to sell over one million systems.  Its low price and feature set (color graphics, 4-channel sound) helped it to outsell its competitors.  But it days in the limelight were short-lived due to the arrival of its successor, the Commodore 64.  Having acquired a VIC-20, let's take a look at some of the practical issues with using it.


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You say "obsessed" as if it is a bad thing.

G Fuel Alternative (Monday Musings 83)

When I saw one of my friends stream, she mentioned that she was drinking G Fuel, and felt that it gave her very smooth energy, and no crashes after the effects wore off. She felt too jittery on the other energy drinks. Intrigued, I looked into G Fuel.

The ingredients aren't harmful because of the low dosages, but I hate the Sucralose and Acesulfame after taste, which G Fuel contains, and further, G Fuel is rather expensive at $35.99 for 40 servings, approximately $1 per serving, so I thought I can find a healthier and more cost-effective alternative to G Fuel.

After doing research, I found that the most effective way to improve energy and mental alertness is the tried and true, boring and effortful healthy ways such as:

1. Going to bed and getting up at the same time, i.e. good consistent sleep - most people need 8 hours
2. Exercising around 30 minutes between 55 to 85% (60% makes the most sense) of your max heart rate, at least 3 times/week, calculator here.
3. Fruits and vegetables - at least 5 servings - and whole grains
4. Reduce stress through meditation, problem-solving, and so forth
5. Smokers, QUIT!
6. Limit alcohol use 
7. Diaphragmatic breathing
8. Hydrate
9. Avoid sugars

However, there are going to be days when we can't get the 8 hours of solid sleep, eat nutritious foods, exercise, and smokers may slip due to increased stress and anxiety in their lives, and so on.

As streamers, should we then engage in performance drinks and pills, of which G Fuel is the most recently hyped, as marketing states that it was created by professional gamers? 

Reviewing the ingredients of G Fuel, the first part lists vitamins and minerals. However, it's much more cost-effective to take a generic multivitamin which is dirt cheap, and even free with some insurance plans. 

Even so, almost all research studies note that multivitamins don't really improve upon things and I recall my chemistry professor saying that multivitamins only lead to "expensive urine". So, unless you're literally not eating and at risk of scurvy, there's no need for multivitamins.

But, if you want to replicate G Fuel, you can take a cost-effective multivitamin for the first part of the ingredients.

The next ingredient of G-Fuel is the energy complex which consists of 140 to 150 mg of caffeine. Jet-alert caffeine at 100 mg is dirt cheap at $9.95 for 240 pills here at Amazon! You can take 1 and a half tablets (total 150 mg) for fraction of the G Fuel costs.

G-Fuel's other energy complex ingredients include, in addition to caffeine, Taurine, L-Citrulline Malate, Glucoronolactone, and N-Acetyl-Carnitine HCL. All these ingredients, including caffeine, are merely 1.7 grams.

Merely 1.7 grams, because to obtain the stimulating effects of Citrulline, you need on average 3 to 6 grams of L-Citrulline and 8 grams of Citrulline Malate! That's a lot! However, G-Fuel's concentration of Citrulline is well below the dosage needed for its effects (total of all ingredients at 1.7 grams).

Supplemental dosage of Glucoronolactone are between 500 to 3000 mg, so to be conservative, that's 0.5 grams minimum for this ingredient to be effective. Please note that G Fuel does not say how many mgs are included in their drinks, so I'm assuming they don't want to advertise the sub supplemental dosages. I'm assuming it'll be less than 0.5 grams.

Finally, N-Acetyl-Carnitine's recommended dosage to gain effects is 1500 to 2000 mg, and up to 4000 mg for depression.

Taking all these ingredients and breaking them down, the energy complex as to why G Fuel works is pure and simple Caffeine 140 to 150 mg. Again, Jet-alert is the cheaper and healthier alternative (i.e. no artificial sugars).

What can be said of the energy complex, the same can be said of G Fuel's focus complex. Again, total listed of the focus complex is a mere 1.2 grams. Like the energy complex, there's no breakdown of dosage of each ingredient in the focus complex. The ingredients here include L-Tyrosine, Choline Bitartrate, and ATP. ATP degrades through the digestion system, so ingesting ATP gets you nothing.

As for Choline Bitartrate, this study shows no acute benefits in healthy, young human adults - since we're using G Fuel for those immediate, acute effects, Choline Bitartrate does not appear to help in that situation. 

L-Tyrosine may be the only ingredient in G Fuel's energy complex that may have effects, even so L-Tyrosine had mixed results in reducing stress and improving focus. Some research showed benefits from taking L-Tyrosine, but at 500 to 2000 mg, but because there's no breakdown in G Fuel label, it's unclear if there's at least 500 mg of this ingredient in G Fuel, which I suspect is not the case. Again the total listed of all three ingredients is a mere 1.2 grams, and there's no breakdown for each ingredient!

Lastly, G Fuel notes the antioxidant complex, consisting of various fruit and vegetable powders and extracts, and given how many are listed, these might be in such small amounts that they don't have any effect. Indeed, they don't list how much of these powders are in the drink.

Let's pretend that G Fuel's combination does add up to having some antioxidant effects. You can quickly consume orange juice, or shove a handful of grapes or blueberries before stream, and have the same, or even higher antioxidant effects with less effort. No need to waste money and spend effort mixing your G Fuel powder and water!

Even so, the fact that G Fuel doesn't list how much powder and extract they use, most likely there's no antioxidant effects.

Therefore, after breaking down these ingredients, it appears that the effects of G Fuel on focus and mental energy are due to caffeine 150 mg and questionable multivitamin (per research studies). Again, you can get these extremely cheap or even free (multivitamin through insurance).

You may ask why my friend didn't feel jittery on G Fuel compared to other energy drinks? I'm suspecting it's because other energy drinks often include Guarana. G Fuel does not contain Guarana, and the other ingredients listed in G Fuel are such low dosages that you won't feel the effects except for caffeine. The combination of Guarana and caffeine in many energy drinks can make you feel jittery. I think in my case, it also caused heart racing.

The tried and true method in the above numbered list is the best way to improve energy and focus. However, if there's a day that you'll be streaming when you couldn't incorporate these healthy but boring strats, and you found G Fuel helpful, taking caffeine at 100 to 150 mg and a multivitamin will work the same. Not only that, this alternative is not only significantly cheaper than G Fuel, but healthier (no artificial sweeteners).

Conclusion: G Fuel is making a lot of money by brilliantly marketing popular Twitch streamers and professional gamers. However, you can get the same effects by taking cheap caffeine tablets (or drinking your favorite coffee beverage!) and any multivitamin. More effective yet, incorporate healthy life style changes. Don't believe the hype and save your dollars!

The How of Happiness Review

About Hyper Casual Games

In 2014, I wrote a post titled "Casual games for casual players", analyzing important features a good casual game must have. This category of games had a boom with the rise of mobile media (smartphones and tablets). Probably the most iconic case that we can discuss here is the Angry Birds phenomenon: a beautiful game with rules you can understand in a second, a high level of replay, and available for a cheap price. Angry Birds became a model in the app stores and after that we could observe a great number of casual games that explored different business models using these simple mechanics.



We have many casual games in different platforms today, but there's a new idea rising strongly: the hyper casual games concept. These categories of games, according to Johannes Heinze are "games that are lightweight and instantly playable". Note the difference: the hyper casual are instantly playable; this makes a big difference in today's gaming context.

Companies like Voodoo and Ketchapp Games (both French) are two good examples of how to explore business models using hyper casual games. They are creating very simple and addicting games. You play them and, if you like them, there's a possibility to buy a premium version of the game without ads, or you can play it and watch the ads.

One good example of this kind of game is the awesome Helix Jump (one of my favorites). Check the gameplay trailer below:



Here in Brazil, companies like Sioux are investing in this gaming category. They launched a very interesting title named Overjump. Do the exercise: watch the video and notice that in the first 8 seconds you already understand the mechanics.



The most important point of this discussion is the rising of hyper casual games parallel to a big triple A titles showing us that we are living a great moment in the gaming industry: a moment full of opportunities.

#GoGamers

Game 357: The Dungeon Of Danger (1980)

The game efficiently blends its title screen with character creation.

         

The Dungeon of Danger

United States

Written and published as code in the Mostly BASIC series by Howard Berenbon
Versions released in 1980 for the Atari 800, 1981 for the Apple II and TRS-80, 1983 for the Commodore PET, 1984 for the Commodore 64
Date Started: 7 February 2020

Date Ended: 7 February 2020

Total Hours: 1

Difficulty: Very Easy-Easy (1.5/5)

Final Rating: (To come later)

Ranking at Time of Posting: (To come later)
           
And here's a final (for now) quick entry to clear up another "game" that made its way onto MobyGames recently. We already had a discussion, relative to The Devil's Dungeon (1978) as to whether a book of type-it-yourself code constitutes a "game." Having not reached a satisfactory conclusion, even in my own mind, I decided I might as well play this one.

                     

Yep, another one of these.

          

Dungeon of Danger is a lot simpler than even The Devil's Dungeon, and to be honest I think I could argue that this lacks enough elements to be considered an RPG. The problem is that to investigate a game this simple is the same thing as playing it, so I figured I might as well toss up an entry. Putting a "rejection" in the status column isn't satisfying to anyone.

             

A random encounter with a good wizard offers the only graphic in the game.

          

You start the game. You enter a difficulty level. You enter your name. You get dumped into a two-level dungeon with 64 rooms per level arranged in an 8 x 8 grid. Your goal is to collect as much gold as possible and get out. You do that by finding your way to one of the stairway squares on Level 1. The rooms are randomized between north-south passages, east-west passages, caverns, and chambers. Any one of them might contain one of a couple dozen monster types and a couple hundred pieces of gold. You can fight or flee them.

          

Killing a dragon and getting its gold.

         

When combat comes, you and your enemy exchange blows until one of you is dead. The rolls are all randomized (roughly 1d8). You start with more hit points than any enemy in the dungeon and you can replenish them with healing potions and encounters with a friendly wizard, so you have the edge. You need to find enchanted keys to climb levels and a map on each level to actually see the 8 x 8 grid, which reminds me a bit of The Wizard's Castle from the same year.

         

A map of the level. The fuzzy bit in the seventh column is my current position.

         

There are some special encounters in the dungeon:

            

• Rooms with pools of water that might freeze you, do nothing, or burn you

• Thieves who may steal your gold or drop theirs

           

That could have been worse.

          

• Vapors that might knock you out, causing you to awaken in a random part of the dungeon

• Trap doors that might dump you to the next level (or into a pit if already on Level 2)

             

All of these events are delivered with maddening pauses between short bursts of text, as if the entire game were narrated by William Shatner. 

           

Every one of those sets of ellipses is accompanied by a pause as the text loads.

       

If you make it to the exit, the game gives you a score based on your gold, how many enemies you killed, and how long it took you. It took me less than an hour to get the highest level (Dungeon Master) on "expert" difficulty. 

            

I won. I hope someone, somewhere, is happy.

          

The Dungeon of Danger appeared as 12 pages of code in a book series called Mostly BASIC by Michigan hobbyist Howard Berenbon. It specifically appeared in the "Book 2" volume for each platform. The earliest seems to be for the Atari 800 in 1980; editions for the Apple II, TRS-80, Commodore PET, and Commodore 64 followed over the next four years. 

            

The initial lines of code for The Dungeon of Danger.

        
There's no character development, combat is based on random rolls and not any intrinsic attributes, and there's no inventory, meaning that the game fails all my criteria for an RPG. (Frankly, it fails MobyGames's definitions, too, but it's easier to write an entry than to get them to change incorrect information.) It thus earns only a 5 on my GIMLET.
         
That catches us up to where we were before someone with too much time on his hands decided that The Devil's Dungeon, Knight's Quest, and The Dungeon of Danger needed to be preserved in our memory. Back to Ragnarok and the final entry on Blade of Destiny.

****

Note: An earlier version of this entry, accidentally published before I was ready, was a lot angrier. I was trying to make a joke by which my entries got progressively more ranting and incoherent over the last three games, culminating in my basically frothing at the mouth on this one. I had scheduled all three games a few days in advance. I later decided that people wouldn't get the meta-joke, which was only a little funny in the first place, and removed the setups from the first two entries but neglected to edit the third before it automatically published yesterday. I quickly took it offline to edit out the more irate language. Sorry if you got the premature edition; it would have been confusing.

        

Brave Browser voted the best privacy-focused product of 2019

Out of all the privacy-focused products and apps available on the market, Brave has been voted the best. Other winners of Product Hunt's Golden Kitty awards showed that there was a huge interest in privacy-enhancing products and apps such as chats, maps, and other collaboration tools.

An extremely productive year for Brave

Last year has been a pivotal one for the crypto industry, but few companies managed to see the kind of success Brave did. Almost every day of the year has been packed witch action, as the company managed to officially launch its browser, get its Basic Attention Token out, and onboard hundreds of thousands of verified publishers on its rewards platform.

Luckily, the effort Brave has been putting into its product hasn't gone unnoticed.

The company's revolutionary browser has been voted the best privacy-focused product of 2019, for which it received a Golden Kitty award. The awards, hosted by Product Hunt, were given to the most popular products across 23 different product categories.

Ryan Hoover, the founder of Product Hunt said:

"Our annual Golden Kitty awards celebrate all the great products that makers have launched throughout the year"

Brave's win is important for the company—with this year seeing the most user votes ever, it's a clear indicator of the browser's rapidly rising popularity.

Privacy and blockchain are the strongest forces in tech right now

If reaching 10 million monthly active users in December was Brave's crown achievement, then the Product Hunt award was the cherry on top.

The recognition Brave got from Product Hunt users shows that a market for privacy-focused apps is thriving. All of the apps and products that got a Golden Kitty award from Product Hunt users focused heavily on data protection. Everything from automatic investment apps and remote collaboration tools to smart home products emphasized their privacy.

AI and machine learning rose as another note-worthy trend, but blockchain seemed to be the most dominating force in app development. Blockchain-based messaging apps and maps were hugely popular with Product Hunt users, who seem to value innovation and security.

For those users, Brave is a perfect platform. The company's research and development team has recently debuted its privacy-preserving distributed VPN, which could potentially bring even more security to the user than its already existing Tor extension.

Brave's effort to revolutionize the advertising industry has also been recognized by some of the biggest names in publishing—major publications such as The Washington Post, The Guardian, NDTV, NPR, and Qz have all joined the platform. Some of the highest-ranking websites in the world, including Wikipedia, WikiHow, Vimeo, Internet Archive, and DuckDuckGo, are also among Brave's 390,000 verified publishers.

Earn Basic Attention Token (BAT) with Brave Web Browser

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Get $5 in free BAT to donate to the websites of your choice.

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