Events and news

Reading in the ED forum, I come sometimes across descriptions of things which people thought were remarkable and then realized that, while I did encounter them, had not remarked or screenshot it for the blog. Also, looking back at the last entries, they are not as much of a travel description as I would like them to be. Everything is too new, the bugs very distracting. The same pattern is in my reports from beta1. The first ones very scetchy, focusing on my wrestling with the game mechanics, then focused on grinding money, and then, once equipped aquainted, the imo cooler stories started to emerge. I also realize that, already, my blog has become a sort of a lexicon for me, and I am indeed looking up stuff done and been when I plan for my next steps. It all comes nicely together with time. Anyways, I should remind myself more often to take note of nice in-game stuff, and maybe focus a bit less on meta gaming or game mechanic issues. It is all just pixels and all what counts in the end is the experience itself. However, I also have to realize, with time constraints, it is also the quality of writing which suffers. Most blog entries I just type and publish. For some of them, I can take the time to go through them and adapt and edit them, but a good article - no secret here - requires work.

But right now, it is a time of big changes. The news on Beta3 are absolutely thrilling. A huge area of space to roam, mining, fuel scooping, player interdictions, two more ships, and I expect a lot of improvements under the hood.

The forum has received a new design. As usual, it is a bit troublesome to get used to it. The standard setting with the white background seems a bit too glaring. There is an "Elite" and a "blackout" setting with a black background. I chose "blackout" because I think that this setting makes all those beautiful signatures look better (most were masterfully designed by forum member Mobius).

Also, the fanfest, aka permiere event, as been unveiled to take place on 22 November. I was one of those beleagering the website to get a ticket. This is the first event of this kind where I will be attending. Back in my World of Warcraft times, those BlizzCons and EVE Fanfests tempted me, but I always felt they were too big. I was once in Leipig on the GamesCon, and it was just too large and anonymous to find it really enjoyable. In principle, the idea of fanfests by a computer games´s producer is a great one, and it shows how computer games are starting to arrive in the middle society, thus merging from simple forums into party and event based socializing. I rarely go to any party anymore these days, and if I go, I find most of them rather bland; there is music, drinks and, ideally,  well dressed people. A fanfest, on the other hand, can merge this with an actual occasion and topic. A kind of a theme party, establishing a common grounds for all people to attend. As a student, I once organized a Vampire party, and it was great fun for everybody (I even had a real sarcophagus organized, which seemed to shock some guest a little bit). I am very excited and curious how the Elite premiere event will play out.

This weekend, I will have again a little break from playing; it would be just cash grinding or bug hunting anyways, so not much - or boring - to really write a blog entry about.

Also, yesterday "Beyond Earth" from Firaxis Games came out. I am an avid fan of Alpha Centauri (not so much of the more generic Civilisation series), and will play around a bit with this "almost-successor" this weekend. However, I suspect that this game will not be able to rival at the mood and depth which 1999´s Alpha Centauri has to offer. I still have it on my hard drive and all it would need was some polish and graphical update. But I am curious, maybe write a little entry here about my impressions.