Those who know me know my position on Steem Monsters. That game is making me rich AF so i love it to death. hehe.
Today/Yesterday Steem monsters came out with an update which i think is probably the most significant one since the battles were introduced.
Tournaments.
Prior to the release of tournaments, Steem monsters did have tournaments that were organized for most part on off-chain sites (cant remember the name) and discord, but that made the whole experience tedious and annoying. You would have to shout out names in the discord chat, people wouldnt show up, then you would annoy @aggroed or @yabapmatt with questions and then theyd put timers on discord messages and then folks would mistakenly type in the wrong results, etc etc etc..
Can i please call this a win? Can i Aggroed, can i please? I waited for 20 mins already.
It was just supremely annoying and would take way too long. I played a couple tournaments but the waiting and not knowing when the next game will be was just boring and took away from the experience. But now we have a pretty UI.
The look of the Tournaments tab i think is perfect.
Shows all the necessary information.
Looks slick.
its extremely intuitive and you pick up how it works almost instantly.
The strongest part of this update is that you can simply jump in a tournament when ever you feel like when youre browsing your collection or doing your dailies. You just check the tournament list, see a tournament happening in 10-15 minutes, grab a glass of Whiskey (imperative) and just jump in.
I cant even describe how big of an improvement that is over having to jump between 10 screens, discord chat rooms, DMs, etc.
I was intending to try out a tournament today but i literally missed the check-in at 15:00 by less then 1 minute so all you get are a few screenshots this time.
Now that Steem Monsters has competition in the gaming department on the Steem blockchain i have a feeling that we will see a bit more innovation and quicker improvements which is always a good thing for the user base.
Side note: A birdie told me that some whales and investors arent really happy with some of the choices Aggroed and Matt made with Steem Monsters and a lot of them started looking towards DrugWars which could add some more urgency to the work Steem Monsters devs are doing.
Cant wait to see what happens next.
These last few days we are only getting good news. Hopefully Steem and BTS gain some more momentum in the market and my joy-meter will show FuLL. Then ill be able to treat myself with that bottle of Jack ive been eyeing on my neighborhood store shelf these last few days…
These last few days ive been seeing a lot of crypto-analysts talk of upward movement in the market.
I wouldnt call myself some that is well versed in Elliot waves or Fibonacci but i do hold that the market moves in cycles that can be anticipated to a degree in the log run.
I dont believe you can pin-point the exact moment of the shift to a high degree of success, but a general guess as to when it “might” happen, i think is possible.
What i like about the news these last few days is the “feeling” that things might shift. As much as im not someone that will bash something that i dont understand to the highest degree, i still think that when we are talking about long term upward movement happening, “general sentiment” is king here.
All these analysis might be self-fulfilling prophecies (i dont believe they are) since they could very well be acting as the trigger needed to turn the market around.
For those reasons there are only a small number of folks whose analysis i take at least somewhat seriously on STEEM. Most of them are using @timm. (https://mentormarket.io/)
Guys like Haejin give market analysts a bad name so many folks i know avoid them, but i can say that there are some great insight to be found on TIMM. Just a short disclaimer: Not everything is straight forward and some folks do make some generic price predictions, but once they think they are on to something you can tell right away.
Let me know what you think. Is there merit in all this talk?
As the title of post says i just switched to Whaleshares beta Version 2 and for most part i can say that i like the redesign as well as some of the new features.
Separate wallet app.
Im mostly indifferent when it comes to this change. My question being:
Why?
Does it add to wallet security?
Im used to having the wallet integrated and usable by having one password so maybe im questioning this decision because of that.
As i said… I dont mind it but i dont feel it adds much, if anything to my user experience.
New Profile page.
When i saw the separate wallet app i thought they removed my ability to view my Stake, mana, etc. on my blog.. Was happy to see the rewards tab.
The profile page looks very modern and the side bars seem very helpful.
Large improvement in that regard.
Now a few negatives…
Not being able to upvote a post unless i click, open and scroll through it is a big nono. I dont understand why you would add such a thing? Its a annoyance and affects user experience in a negative way.
The post image size on blog front page is WAAAAY too big. When you have images this large then its incredibly tedious finding a post you might be interested in that was written 7-8 days ago..
The complete focus is on the last post.
My suggestion here would be to either keep the newest post image size as is and reduce the size of all others or put a post list on the right sidebar.
For most part i like the change and even though the text dealing with the negatives might seem long, i still find this update to be extremely positive. I would still like to see some more features added. Pending payout/pending curation being one of them, or an upgrade to the text customization.etc.
One interesting thing i read on the VER 2 announcement i would love if someone would share more info on was:
Ready for Monetization/Ads (Future Update)
Im super interested in seeing how exactly this would work?
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Prompt / Theme: Have you played Steem Monsters today? Have you got a collection, or have you been holding off to see how much engagement automated tournaments bring? Share your experience.
Rules:
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Comment a reply directly to this post within 7 days. A genuine (family friendly) comment responding to the theme / prompt is required.
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Lately ive been thinking about the token distribution happening on STEEM and WHALESHARES.
For those that had an opportunity to read my thoughts on the current state of things know my position on what is happening right now on both platforms.
The biggest issue (outside development related things) both platforms are facing at this moment is pure, unchallenged greed or what you can call token accumulation maximization.
If i didnt call this “greed” and use a negative term for what is happening, most folks wouldnt see this as a bad thing. Thats mostly due to the topic being too broad.
The problem of greed we are facing basically means that the reward pool is tilted greatly on the side of maximizing accumulation.
So why is that bad?
Well for one it has a negative impact on the general sentiment on what is supposed to be a social media token redistribution platform, and it destroys what we call “proof of brain”.
Folks that did an analysis as to what percentage of the newly created STEEM goes to bots they came to a number of around 20%. Add to that upvote selling services, add selfvoting and circle jerks and you will get to a number indicative of the relation between accumulation and distribution. How much of the inflation creating potential of SP holders returns right back to the pocket of those same SP holders. I dont have the stats, but i think its fair to assume that its more then 51%.
Not only is this bad for the general sentiment, but its bad because by having poor distribution that also reduces the earning potential for new users which leads to diminished demand for the token.
What does that make of STEEM? @acidyo wrote a post the other day about how great it will be once we have a million accounts with $1 upvotes supporting their creator of choice..
My question to that is:
If the token distribution is happening in the way it is right now, with tokens created going right back to the creators in percentages of 50%,60%,70%, 80%.., the inflation reducing every year, how will there ever exist such a middle class here?
What if with that the STEEM price goes up? Who is going to pay 10$ for a STEEM token to potentially get a fraction of a fraction of the tokens that are not going right back to the pockets of selfvoters, circle jerks, bots, vote sellers?
So really, why have upvotes anyways? Why have content? Why not just get rid of all that and simply pay out 100% of the upvote token amount back to the SP holder?
Theres something about Bitcoin that attracts eccentric millionaires. First we had McAfee, which i would go ahead and say is less of an eccentric and more of a nut hehe, and now Elon is dropping in giving some more legitimacy to crypto.
Lets be honest, regulation is great and it is an important step towards mainstream adoption but without hype and respectable individuals talking about crypto in a positive way cryptocurrencies will never take off. Sure, Elon might be a slightly odd alien like person but there is no denying he is brilliant and respected.
Listening to what he said it seems that he really greatly values Bitcoin. I cant really see him saying anything more potent then this outside literally saying: “Down with fiat!”.
“It [cryptocurrency] bypasses currency controls. … Paper money is going away. And crypto is a far better way to transfer values than a piece of paper, that’s for sure.”
Of course he pointed out a few flaws, one of them being that POW is so energy intensive meaning that a company like Tesla, that is all for sustainable energy, would not want to adopt something like BTC.
I always then ask: “Why not DPOS?”
It boggles my mind that crypto enthusiasts dont realize the limitations such energy consumption creates for crypto.
Anyways… As i said, its good to see this kind of validation coming from folks in the mainstream. This is a guy that made millions from selling damn flamethrowers so when he speaks, people listen.
Getting Elon on our side was easy… When Warren Buffet green-lights Bitcoin, thats when you will know we are going to the moon. hahaha
They seem to be everywhere, watching our backs, waiting.. At the beach, at the park, outside your home when you return from work… What is their agenda?
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Prompt / Theme: Do you feed the gulls? Do you view them as a pest or have a more neutral stance on there gatherings?
Rules:
No Upvote, No Resteem, No Follow – just your responding comment required to enter.
Comment a reply directly to this post within 7 days. A genuine (family friendly) comment responding to the theme / prompt is required.
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In this episode our guest Conrad Freeman, Representative of Spain, discusses:
1) How he went from an email applicant, to hosting President Jedlicka at his flat and becoming the official Representative of Spain 2) Multiple ways to get involved and excited for Liberland in 2019 3) The EP he is working on for the Conrad Freeman Band
For the last couple years i haven’t really played much games. From time to time i would boot up my PC and play a game of League of Legends or do a Europa Universalis 4 run, but that was hardly a regular thing. That was the case even more so this last year, finding STEEM and crypto. Just didn’t have the will or the time.
I have a somewhat specific taste in games which is why i never really jumped from one to the next. Lets say i stay loyal to a small number of them. How strategic is the game? Does it have a good story? Will i feel stupid playing it?… My favorite game being the one i put in hundreds of hours of gameplay over the last 6 years. A game i go back to when ever i feel like relaxing a bit. And that game is almost pure strategy that takes hours to master. EU4…
Since i played that game almost to death with every imaginable nation, i decided to install something different that is similar to the games i played when i was kid. Those over 25 will remember Baldurs gate, Neverwinter nights, Fallout, Icewind dale…
So i picked Tyranny.
Game starting screen
Tyranny:
As i said in the title, the game is a CRPG which basically means it has a isometric view, you control more then one character, the game mechanics resemble that of “classic” (table top) RPGs, and you have a ton of reading to do. (And i do mean a ton).
PLOT: When i was picking a CRPG to try out, there were a few newer games i was choosing between but ultimately went for Tyranny because it had a unique storyline that offered numerous options as to how you will play your character. While many games throw you into the story as some kind of promised savior, Tyranny makes you a villain off the bat.
Area specific loading screen (Spire)
And when i say villain, i mean that youve done some pretty awful things. You are essentially a puppet for the “big bad overlord dude/gal” (no one knows if its a man or a woman which is often a point of discussion in-game) that conquered most of the know world. You have a special job of a “Fatebinder” which means that the overlord “Kyros” sends you around the world to activate some super special magic spells called “Edicts”. When they are activated it more or less destroys the whole region in one way or another.
So you start of as a baddie and you are given numerous options through dialog as to how you will act moving forward in the game. Out of the options i know of:
you can choose to remain a faithful servant of Kyros and continue being a bad guy, doing the overlords will by joining either “Scarlet Chorus” or “Disfavored” factions. You can join the rebels and try being good or you can say screw everything and rule everyone yourself.
I of course picked the best path. (Not saying which one) :p.
The story itself is serviceable and there are some quests that are more impressive then others. Im not going to go into depth about the story since spoiling the storyline in games like this, really takes away from the enjoyment of learning about the world. Another reason is because you are actually the one that makes the decision as to how the story will unfold. Picking one path over the other makes for a completely different outcome.
On top of the Spire, my group
Companions:
The game allows for you to take 3 companions with you and each of them can be developed to your liking.
The interactions with your companions are varied and you clearly see the distinctions in personality which makes each companion unique.
There is no romance option although you can have sexual intercourse with some of the companions during a few triggered events. For you horndogs. hehe.
GRAPHICS: There isnt really much to say about the graphics since the background uses drawn elements for most part. The aesthetics and the look of the game is as expected for a game going for the 90s CRPG feel. I personally would like a more modern look (maybe something similar to Divinity original sin) but i can appreciate the artistic choices here. The game is a throwback and is not trying to amaze you with the graphics.
Inventory screen
COMBAT:
Reviewing combat is a bit tough. For someone that is more into Diablo type action rpgs the combat will feel slow and awkward. But in the context of the CRPG genre i can say its ok, but not amazing. It gets a bit repetitive and boring when dealing with world mobs, the encounters being a bit too easy. Only the occasional boss fights that happen every 2-3 hours of gameplay require strategy and even a few retries. The skills themselves are varied and for most part interesting. There are a few really nice skill animations, some that can actually drop your frame rate a bit when activated. (Something that surprised me)
A nice in-game spell (not my screenshot)
CONCLUSION:
PROS:
Atmosphere
Detail
World-building
Writing for most part
CONS:
Slightly boring combat
Long loading screens
A number of unimpressive quests
I would definitely recommend this game to folks that arent really what you call “gamers”, nowadays. If you are one of those that like to just click “next” during dialog you will miss a large part of the game and this isnt for you… Completing this game feels as if you have read a book. The question is if you find that enjoyable. It does well to immerse you into the world and there are more then a few satisfactory moments that make it worth the price. Just remember that you can easily put in 30-40 hours into the game and not finish it.
Hope you enjoy this little review and ill see you guys around.. 😉
