The Real Challenge Is…

…Reading all these awesome blogs. My “To Read” list freaking exploded. I’m going to be weeks behind.

And you know what? I’m totally cool with that.

Week 5 Recap

Sponsor blogs had their marching orders from Syp: post ALL THE LINKS. But I issued a more narrow challenge to those who participated in my NBI Challenges: pick 3 blogs that caught your attention and tell me why you like them.

Get ready to do some reading, ladies and gents:

• Meet Other Newcomers (Kemwer Game Blog) – Kem gives us a thoughtful look at three of the blogs that got his attention, and can’t help but add a few more. (This became a theme, by the way, and I’m not complaining!). Thank you for taking the time to do my challenges and to pay it forward, Kem!
• Let Me Introduce You To… (Shards of Imagination) – I love the consideration Rakuno puts into his choices and descriptions, and the hats-off he gives to all of the participants. Thank you for being so involved in the challenges, Rakuno!
• Share and Share Alike (Bloodthorne) – TJ offers not three, but four blogs for you to check out, with his reasons for each. Thank you for some seriously thoughtful posts (and some entertaining parodies) this month!
• Sponsor This! (Argus or Bust) – I love that the intro to this post is about this sense of freedom Fivequarters gets from posting out of desire instead of out of expectation, not to mention some great blog suggestions! Thank you for taking part!
• Nearing the End (Ravalation) – The image at the top of this post made me grin, and the blogs suggested within it are worth your time. Thank you, Rav!
• That’s a Wrap & The Final Challenge (Flask Half Empty) – Sticking with a WoW theme, Ninevi introduces three bloggers that stood out to her during the NBI. I love that she included a header for each! Thank you so much for particpating, Ninevi!
• Thank You, NBI! (Brazokie’s Blog Space) – Brazokie is grateful to the NBI and to her fellow bloggers–and I’m grateful to her for coming along this crazy journey with us! Thanks, Brazokie!
• The End is Only The Beginning (The Frugal Gamer) – Award for most fitting blog post title: Skron. Also, some great recommendations for blogs you should check out. Thank you, Skron!
• Newbie Blogger Link Love (The Daily Frostwolf) – First of all, if you play WoW, you need to check out the list of what different classes smell like. Yes, do it now, and then keep reading through a 2-part link love extravaganza. Thank you so much for blogging with us, Navi!
• The Final Challenge (Image Heavy) – Someone hand me a tissue. This post is a rule-breaker, but a very thoughtful one. I am so grateful to have been a part of NBI, and it’s I who needs to thank you–and all of the bloggers who participated–for making my May completely awesome. Thank you!!!

Challenge Wrap-Up

May was a fun month, guys; and you were the ones who made it so. Thank you all!

Here are links to all of the challenge posts–please take a sec to glance through them at the great job everyone did!

Challenge 1: Build Your Own Boss - Imaginations were high with this one, and I loved it!

Challenge 2: Why You Do What You Do – Lots of thoughtful commentary and images about why we play the games we play.

Challenge 3: What’s My Main Again? – What do your characters mean to you? Some great thoughts.

Challenge 4: Learning is Fun - An adventure in research!

Challenge 5: The Final Challenge - A swarm of new bloggers, and some old ones, too!

Future Challenges

A few bloggers expressed interest in doing more challenges like this, so I’m looking at posting one a month. Stay tuned in the next week or so for a June challenge!

 

Week 5: The Final Challenge

You’ve done it! You’ve been blogging for a whole month! How does it feel? Was it as scary as you thought? Was it easier or harder than you expected? However you felt about it on May 1st and however you feel about it now, I’m impressed. Great job, everyone!

This will be my final NBI challenge. It has been a blast reading the great things you guys have come up with, and I can assure you that I’ll be keeping up with a lot of you. If you haven’t added me to Twitter yet, please do so!

First things first, though…

Week 4 Recap

This one was a toughie. I know from experience that if you’re a frequent writer, research and fact-checking usually takes longer than actually writing a post. You all knocked it out of the park, though!

• Learning is Fun! (Goetia’s Letters) – I might be biased, but I happen to think the druid class is pretty awesome, which is why this post is great–it lets us in on the process of creating a new character (troll feral cat druid!), setting it up, and learning to play a new class.
• Not smarter than your average bear (The Daily Frostwolf) – I’ve tried bear tanking. I actually enjoyed it, but the stress was too much for me. Navi decides to give it a go, and takes us through her learning process!
• Family History (GnomeGates) – Gnomegates does some digging around to learn about his family and tells us what he’s discovered about Gnomish history.
• Learning is fun (Starshadow) – Vanguard is going free-to-play soon, and this is  a simple stop you can make to get an idea of what you can expect when you log in.
• Tons and Tons of Totems (Flask Half Empty) – Shaman is one of the classes I haven’t played past level 19. That might change one day, and if it does, I’ll know where to come to brush up on my understanding of the way totems work!
• Learning is Fun (Amateur Azerothian) – Working up to level 85 as a prot paladin and then going holy takes some research–this is the process behind a spec change.
• When you can’t be a battlechicken (Brazokie’s Blog Space) – Battle Chicken is a state of mind, my friends–but sometimes you really just need to be a very strong–or smart–chicken. Brazokie tells us about her experience as a chicken in LotRO.
• Video Games Make Me Do Bad Things? (Bloodthorne) – This is an extremely thoughtful post on the idea that playing video games makes us more likely to be violent. My favorite part is the look at the good things gamers do that get overlooked by the mainstream media.
• Lua Plugins and you! (Shards of Imagination) – I would be completely lost if I started playing LotRO right now, but a lot less lost when it comes to Plugins, thanks to Rakuno!

Week 5 Challenge

You’ve survived your first month (or first year or first three months or first what-have-you!) of blogging! NBI started for me with an email from a guy I first met through WoW over a year ago while I was playing a little druid named Roflmeow and have been following ever since. He told me the idea and asked if I would be interested in being a sponsor blog.

Are you kidding? DUH.

Other than having been around for a while, I didn’t feel like I had a lot going for me in terms of being a sponsor blog, but darn it, I was going to do the best I could. You guys made it work (THANK YOU).

It’s your turn! This week, YOU are the sponsor blog.

Your final challenge is this: Find three blogs that participated in NBI, introduce me to each, and give me at least one reason you like each blog. 

You guys are awesome. Pay it forward!

Thank you all for a very fun five weeks. I am going to miss May!

Week 4 Challenge: Learning is Fun

We’re over halfway through the month, ladies and gentlemen! I am beyond impressed with the effort our NBI participants have put forth. New and sponsor blogs alike have lit up our corner of the blogosphere the past 3 weeks, and you should all be proud!

Week 3 Recap

I loved reading about your main character (or, for several of you, characters) this week. The responses ranged from storytelling to class breakdowns, and I enjoyed the different perspectives on what main actually means in our community. Also, several of you completed the bonus challenge and either joined Twitter or made some new friends there–nice job!

And please, if you haven’t already, check out these bloggers who participated!

• Alts?! I have no alts! (Shards of Imagination) – A story of two characters: Goldheart the Dwarf and Rakuno the Ratonga, and how they came to be what they are.
• What’s My Main Again? (Kemwer) – Kem tells us about one character who persists and reinvents himself between games; a reincarnation of sorts.
• Wherein I Fangirl Over My Gnome (Image Heavy) – What’s better than a priest who absolutely loves healing? One who comes in puntabl–I mean, adorable gnome form!
• I can haz main? (Flask Half Empty) – Ninevi and I had some kind of brain link–she had just written bios for all of her characters to put on her blog when I posted this challenge. Anyone else hear Twilight Zone music?
• How Rav came into being (Ravalation) – Rav breaks down the ways in which her characters reflect her personality. I like it, because I see a lot of myself in my characters, too.
• My main characters (Starshadow) – This is a full-circle tale of the evolution of Suzita’s characters. Translating a character name–that is pretty cool, guys.
• See My Main @#$*& (Bloodthorne) – TJ tells us about Gaffa the Dwarf and his awesomeness–just don’t touch his beard.
• The Silly and The Useful (Brazokie’s Blog Space) – Some characters you love for their functionality, but some characters you love just because. Brazokie introduces us to both!
• What’s My Main Again? (The Daily Frostwolf) – Navi handed the blog post over to her druid, a scary proposition, to be sure, but she did a great job telling us her story!
• Battlechicken’s Challenge (Musings of an Altoholic) – Lyrestra likes each of her characters for their classes and shows us what she likes about each.
• How Killington Came to Be (WASD Way) – I’m a sucker for a good story, and this is good storytelling. Find out about how Killington became a fierce fighter (and why you shouldn’t play him in cards).
• A Bit About My Mane–er, Main (Casually Vicious) – Fact: I love troll druid cat form. Fact: Cat durid is 4 fite, and Solajin likes being a cat. And a bear. And a bearcat. And a catbear. I am so confused.

Week 4 Challenge: Learning is Fun

If you haven’t already, you’re going to write a post one day that requires you to look something up. Halfway through a post, you’ll realize you don’t actually remember what that ability is called or when the game you love was launched.

You’ll go scouting around Google for info, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll find tangents that keep you tied up in Search Engine Land for an hour. I learn a lot of things that way.

No one knows every fact about everything, but we usually know a few facts about something. This week’s challenge is to test your research muscle. Pick a topic related to your game (or games, or MMOs in general, etc) and tell us about it. Maybe it’s something you’ve been interested in, but haven’t found a reason to explore. Maybe it’s that class that always looked cool to you or a game you’ve been meaning to try.

Maybe you just want to know what all the fuss is about–why is everyone so crazy about this game/blog/idea/class/mechanic/achievement, anyway?!

Whatever topic or form it takes, this is your challenge: find something you only know a little bit about, learn something new, and tell us what you learned.

If I were doing it, I’d tell you about WoW warriors. They have muscles and swords and they can jump. I’d have to learn more than that.

Three of our guild warriors (with muscles & weapons): Aadrelore, Jonnz, & Frenzie

Learning is fun! What will you learn?

Why You Do What You Do: Week 2 Challenge

The Newbie Blogger Initiative is off to an awesome start! I’m already having a hard time keeping up with all of the awesomeness.

Recap Week 1:

Of course, some awesomeness took place right here last week with some great responses to the Build Your Own Boss Challenge. I highly encourage you to check these out:

• So I Thought of a Cool Boss (My Staff is Bigger Than Yours) – There’s a new Guild Wars 2 boss. I hope you’re ready for some mechanics, because this guy comes with seven runebooks that can be destroyed–at your own risk!
• Shelotunithu the Undead God (Shards of Imagination) – Get ready, this boss is a doozy: framed, imprisoned, and then corrupted, and he has a penchant for apple pie (who could blame him?).
• Create Your Own Adventure (Aunaka Heals) – The first in a series of bosses for a self-built instance, Calvin and Lorna will have you avoiding sawblades and managing unkillable treants!
• Build Your Own Boss (Bloodthorne) – A weapon called the DecapitAx and waves of Reborn Roadies? How could this not be a good fight? And a soundtrack, to boot!
• Building My Own Boss (Brazokie’s Blog Space) – If you like progressive story encounters–you know, the kind where doing the fight uncovers some kind of lore (I love this)–the Forgotten Adventurer is exactly what you’re looking for!
• Wrath of the Eternal Timekeeper (WASDWay) – This boss feels so much like an actual encounter, I’m pretty sure you could stick it on a Wiki and no one would question it.

Week 2 Challenge:

There was a boss for every type of player last week (and you guys did fantastically, by the way). This week we’re going to get a little more introspective and talk about what type of player you actually are.

About a year or so ago (maybe more, now), I discovered a website: Why Do You Do What You Do? The premise is simple: answer the question with a picture. I fell in love with the idea and created a Why We WoW  page on my blog.

I still love the concept, so I’m opening it up again across all genres and games:  Why do you do what you do? Why do you play the way you play, why do you play the game you play? Why are you a healer? Why do you PvP? What keeps you coming back?

This is not limited to pictures–I’d love to see your thoughts on why, exactly, you do what you do in the game(s) that you love. And you can have as many answers as you can come up with. I discover new ones every day!

The Week 2 Challenge is simple. Answer this question: Why do you do what you do?

Make sure you link your blog post to me so I can include it next week!