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Blog Anniversary Refresher

DaNamesX6 Comments

Break time is over.

One year ago, I started this little blog site to talk and share my stories about gaming. I created it on a whim, and didn’t put much thought into what I really wanted to do with it. Over time, the blog started to take shape, and  A year later and I noticed a problem, I really haven’t been doing that.

When it comes to making unique content, you have to make it fun to write. I enjoy writing stories about gaming, but the last proper story from my past was back in May (I kinda wish I could rewrite that post). Early on I tried reviewing games that I recently finished, but I quickly learned that I hated writing them. My experiences are and will be different from others, so why should I try and convince someone that a game is bad or good? I want to focus on just my experiences and share with others, and in return learn about their experiences.

Then, an idea came to mind. I would like to present something new I want to try.

EXP(erience) Share Post

(Real creative name)

Similar to weekly tags that have been floating around, I want to try something similar, but on a once a month basis. The idea of this came from my wife Kat wanting to write about some of her gaming stories on my blog, but felt it was inappropriate (even though I told her I had no problem with it). My idea with this is that anyone regardless of being a blogger of games can participate and share their stories. Kinda going to the old tagline of my blog, “everyone has a story to tell.” Some might just need the right space and motivation in order to share it.

The idea is each month I will announce the topic for the month. There is no pressure in trying to come up with something for the prompt if you cannot think of anything. If you would like to suggest a topic, please please please let me know! At the end of each month, I will try and compile them all into one post. Just please tag me and the prompt so that I can easily find them!

With that, I would like to go ahead and announce the first prompt for this series! Since we are currently in the middle of October, this prompt will go on until the end of November. So you have until then to share your story! The first prompt is:

The video game that got you into gaming.

I think this is a very interesting topic. It could be the first game you played, a game that you played later in life, or an event that triggered the spark. Whatever your reason for getting into gaming, share it with us! I will make another post at the beginning of November to remind everyone of the topic again, and then on the first of each month I will post the next topic and so one. I’m really excited to give this a try and read everyone’s story!

Along with that announcement, there are a few others that I would like to make.

Monthly Activity Reports

If you noticed, I didn’t post my normal gaming report for September. The reason for this, I am redoing my entire game spreadsheet. It…is not a fun task, but an important one. What started as a hobby back in 2015 turned into a passion project that needed countless updates. What really made me want to redo my spreadsheet was that a lot of information was inaccurate and I was missing some titles here and there. Plus, all of the colors were starting to get confusing and on my nerves. My word of advice to anyone who wants to catalog their collection, do it while your collection is small. I enjoyed doing this, because I am a crazy person who likes to create and work with spreadsheets. If you know anyone looking for a cataloger of sorts, I’m crazy enough to do it. I will write a separate post at the end of the month to go over changes and a new grand total of my collection.

Streaming

(Geez, this is like the fourth time that I’ve had to rewrite this part.)

I have been going back and forth on this one for a long time now. For 5 years, I have been toying with the idea of streaming my gameplay and maybe entertaining people along the way. The problem in the past was that I didn’t have the minimum requirements to do it. Jump forward to this year and free time due to a certain worldwide phenomenon, I took the time to upgrade my computer and played around with my settings. I have done a few streams here and there just to test the waters, but I never really announced that I was going to start streaming or become a streamer.

So here is where the confusing part comes in. I am interested in streaming, but I don’t want to be considered a streamer. I mostly want to do it for fun and motivation. I want to share my gameplay experiences with people who want to watch, but I have no intention of becoming a full-time streamer or earn money from it. Streaming would also give me a chance to start and finish a game since if I start it on stream, I should finish it on stream. So, those are my reasons for wanting to stream. I do have some other ideas to do special streams that Kat helped me come up with like Co-ople (Co-op + couple (it is a dumb, ridiculous name and I love it)) streams, multiplayer with friends, and if we can work it out, a stream with the legend himself, my older brother Super CJ.

I want to avoid sharing a schedule yet until I get comfortable and in the groove of everything. I will always stream on Sunday as that has been a constant so far (didn’t stream last Sunday so record already broken). I normally post on Twitter when the mood is right and the brain is working.

I promise that I’m almost done.

I think that is about it for this super long (update?) post. I want to thank everyone who has enjoyed my silly blog space over the past year. I have met a lot of people during this time, and I’m glad that we are all able to talk and share our passions with others in this format. There are too many people that I want to thank for making my first year doing this a fun experience, and I will never stop being humble and saying thank you all the time. I would still be doing this even if no one was reading, but all the support makes it fun to do so.

Enough rambling. Back to playing more video games and sharing those experiences!

DanamesX

Update #2: New Year, New Goals, More Games To Play!

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Happy New Year everyone! I hope the holidays have treated you fair and the new year treats you even better! I wanted to make an obligatory post about plans this year (the ones that I know of as of now) and what is coming down the pipeline for Tales From the Backlog.

Stories. Where Are They?

Patience young reader. I haven’t run out of stories yet; quite far from that! I started several drafts of stories that I wanted to share, but due to the advent post and me relaxing these past few days, I wanted to de-stress myself and enjoy the little things around me for a while. I also have a problem where my memory has become flaky in some areas, so I have to think hard if I am remembering some things correctly. Expect more stories soon!

2020 Will Be The Year I Get Games Done!

A lot of things prevented me in 2019 from enjoying my favorite pasttime (work, buying a house, grad school, balancing my marriage, my own stress, music, family, housework, etc). This year I plan to take on few tasks just so I do not stress or burn myself out like I did last year. Before writing this post, I spent the past four days doing nothing but waking up and playing video games from morning until midnight (I have not done that since….I don’t remember). Although I feel bad leaving somethings unattended, it felt great to just unwind and not stress about anything for a while before going back to work and starting classes again. I just finished Trails of Cold Steel 1 and the emotions are still flying high.

My wife and I are challenging each other to complete 5 games based on credentials that we came up with. She has expressed that she has missed gaming as well and we hope that this little challenge will get us both back into the habit of playing. We are still finalizing our list, but I am excited to share more time with her.<3 On top of those 5 games, I am challenging myself to finish 10 more games on top of that. 2019 was a bad year to be a game on my backlog, and with more exciting titles coming out in 2020, I don’t know when things will get done. I want to create a post my games of 2019, the past decade, and what I am looking forward in 2020 so expect those next week. After that I have a few games that I did finish that I have not had the time to talk about yet so I will get to those.

Quarterly Backlog Report

While this site is a good way to share my stories in gaming, it is also a good place for me to keep track on my activity and keep record. I have relied on my Google Spreadsheet for the past 5 years now and it will be good to have a different viewpoint of things. I also have access to database that I may try integrating one day. If you are interested in comparing stats when this post come out, keep an eye out for those.

And I think that is everything in this shot update post. I was planning on making a schedule for myself for when to post, but I think my theme for 2020 is to “Go with the Flow.” I need to find ways of eliminating some stress out of my life without giving up the things that I enjoy doing and that is my main goal for this year. So with that I will see everyone on the funny pages!

DanamesX

Who Am I, And Why Am I Doing This?

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Hello. My name is Carlton, but on the online world I go by my screen name DanamesX (da-names-X). I am currently twenty-seven, working a full-time job, pursuing my Master’s degree in Library and Information Science, married with two cats (4 and 13 weeks), play tuba with my local community band, and (as of now I guess) a blogger. My time is pretty much maintained with the occasional surprises happening here and there. When I have the time to spare (or if I am having a real bad day), I like to spend my time playing video games and try to escape my chaotic world for a while. The problem, as of now, is that time I have allocated to my favorite pastime is dwindling and has become a struggle to sit and enjoy. I’m constantly fighting with myself over what I should play or if I should be playing anything at all. The thing that was once my escape now makes me feel a bit guilty for spending time doing it.

That brings me to my next point. Why am I doing these blog post? Why am I taking more time out of my busy schedule to do extra work. The simplest answer I have at the time is that I love playing and talking about video games and I hate seeing myself stop playing them. Some of my fondest memories involves video games one way or another, and I wanted to find a way to express what I love. Doing YouTube or streaming would have made things stressful since I would have to schedule things and commit time to it. With writing, I can pick it up anytime, write for as long as I want, and share my immediate thoughts without having to set things up and try to remember those feelings. Here in this space, I can write my personal thoughts, feelings, and opinions in a medium that I am comfortable with. It gives me a new reason to want to play my games so that it gives me the opportunity to talk about them to whomever wants to take the time to listen and discuss as well.

With that, I plan on writing as much as I can. I will keep a notebook on me to help me remember some key elements or commentary as I am playing. Looking at my backlog, I have enough material to keep me busy for a long time. Within these blog post, you can expect one of these topics from me:

  • Play Session Diary – Post where I just talk about them game(s) that I am currently playing and my current thought I had during my play session.
  • Reviews – Since I have gotten older and my perception of games have changed, I would like to give my personal review on some of the games that I finish on my backlog. I may not do it for every game that I play, but I would like to do them.
  • List – I am a sucker for top number list. Last year on my Twitter I counted down my top 25 favorite games of all time during the month of December, and I plan on doing something similar again this year. I may migrate those to this platform just because I have more space to go deep into my decisions if the need arises.

And that is about it. Unless I am extremely pressed for time I want to try and post at least 3 times a week. I’m interested in hearing any comments or feedback and I hope we can start some discussions along the way. My next post will either be about the game that I am going to finish tonight, or write about exactly how big my collection and backlog is.

I don’t have any kind of sign off yet, but I will come up with one eventually.

DanamesX